The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-04-29
POWERS DENOUNCED.
A Man Who Says "We Should Not
be too GOOd'::is Not Safe.
BE YE PERFECT" SAFER MOTT
Sermon Delivered by Rev. ]. Brainard ThraIl
at the First Congregational
Church.

intelligent audience that assemblies on Sabbath
mornings to hear the word of truth as ex-
! pounded by Rev. Thrall.
Text, Lev. 1890: Thou shalt keep my Sab
Lord
Subject: Tae religious significance of the
Sabbath.
am speaking to-day to those who believe in
religion as the highest exercise of the highest
faculties OF mans nature-a lifting of the whole
be1ng-lifting the bucket of mans nature by its
bale and by means of rope The words of the
text are raised-stand out so that a blind man
can l Id them. You can tou Oh and feel them.
These words are % Sabbaths. (2) sanctuary.
70, heep, " reverence, (5) my. (6) thou, "a
snalt- IneSe words come in pairs. Sabbaths
ana sanctuary represent time and place and
connect the Ideas of time and place with the
idea of SacTedneSS
The two other words in pairs are my and tbou
IheSe express personally and personalities
should stand IN relation of Saeredness. Moth.
ing Is so sacred as personality in pure and
hopeful relationship.
Another pair OF words: Keep and reverence re-
present the attitude of man S personality toward
and action OF mans personality upon time and
place Why not keep and reverence eternity
anu anu space: NO reason whatever, except that
the command that would be too general. This is
something specific, something requiring an act
Religion (true SacrednesS) consists in tbourht
ana action; in the attitude of mans mind
the specific something around him. Another
word stands forth alone, shalt 1t expresses
authority, obligation, solemn Injunction and
command. 1t hides in its breast rewards and
puniShments
Put together again the separate ideas dis
Jointeu Dy the analysis and we have the one
sublime thought OF God speaking to man and
laying before him the the solemn obIipatious
Tor rather comforting upon him the pIorions
prlVllege) OF keeping His worshipful dav Wor-
snlplul ana reyerencing His holy day as holy
personality In relatlons-that is what all this
Is Tor. God and man in relations That is re-
ligion.
You may get the ideas of God and man
separte-Dut you must put them Immediately
together again. or obligation has no place in
life, the Il, thee and thou lose all their sacred
meaning. obedience and love disappear or wear
the cap and bells in the comedy of existence.
WINE. WINE se1,wlil caprice and anarchy assume the
throne ana Weld the septre. / cannot better
express this truth than by transcribing the
words OF another, Rev. DR.. Bartal for more
man Inwe,, mt nfty :, ny, years as was Charles
before him, pastor of an ancient church i'm Bos-
| ton, the old West church sanctuary now cor
demned TO give way to other and less sacred
structures. He said in 1850:
| 1.-THE demand upon the churches to make men
religious must be met. The KEY that opens the
door OF the Kingdom must not be mistaken II
IS not criticism or science, or genius or human
IVY or Seu-culture out the consciousness of God
| In the human soul whose tests and signs Shall
be In our value for the great Bible and all good
words and worshipful days and holy rites Till ali
speech became love. all expression aspiration
| ana lie sacrament Let the sense of Deity in
US so appear and grow as to lift and santify All
| other exercises of orr nature
All times and places are sacred because Of the
opportunity they afford for establishing sacred
| personal relations between God and man They
| are sacred because of their relations to God and
man. Separate from this idea of the unity of
Goa aud man, time and place have
no snd ness 1t is this holy union
vi Iou Win man. man with God,
which throws the shadow of its sacredness upon
] al ages and all countries, no less upon this
land and this country than upon Palestine the
/ first century of this era
We localiZe this idea of universal sacredraes
universal relationship
rounded by Cod w -
N ascend into heaven. thou art there. If
descend INTO the deep behold thou art there
II take the wings of the morning and descend
| to the uttermoSt depths of the sea. even there
thy hand shall lead me and thy mighty hand
shall hold me. The soul thai lives in that
sense is religious
II Is a good thing-this sense good however
gained and preserved
The groves were Gods first temples
InoSe VINO 1--we most in nature have not al
ways Deen the most religious in the sense of
Keeling. This sense of relation that is to saw.
savages The Israelites in the wilderness
the tabernacle erected
Inc Hebrews had a genius for religion-for
sacred relations. Hence their sacred times and
places.
10 lose the sense OF this constant and universal
relatlon-constant in time, universal in place.
Inc tendency was great with them to use
place and time as broad field on which the re-
| latlon should be dissolved. They got far away
from God. Hence god separated out particu-
lar days and times, and set them apart to a
pecuilar sacredness. These were intended to
bring God and man close together again.
Iney were to stand for that SlcredneSS which
should belong to all places and times-that
sacredneSs which comes solely frem
I'M lne sense OF personal relationship. Hence the
thou, and the my and the .'Sabbaths, = and
the sanctuary, and the keep and the rev
eFence and above them all the solemn
Shalt, with Its dreadful sanctions. 1t is be-
cause God loves that He commands
1t Is because the Sabbath is precious that il is
protected.
1t is because the relationship is threatened
that the Sabbathis instituted and the sanctuary
built
1t is because the Sabbath has a RELIGIOUS
value that it is to be protected
But this was command to the Israelftes not
to US. we say. True But is the underlying re2-
son for that command any less powerful to-day
than then! Is it not fundamental-existing in
the human and divine naturer Is the relation
between God and man less desirable than them
Is TINS relauon-So preciouS-lesS threatened
to-day than then? Is it any less true to-day
than then that il We would preserve the
threatened whole we must doubly secure the
the care with which we guard certain domestic
relations, certain national WatchwOrds and
symbols, c. g. the marriage ring, Plymouth
Rock, the flag, piece OF gold, a fiuttering rag
you say: There are plenty more when these are
gone.
That is the talk of the alien, perhaps the
traitor.
These are sacred because of something infin-
ltely larger and more precious of which these
are the representatives
1t is because of what they mean
so with the Sabbath of the sanctuary They
mean far more than in themselves they really
are. They stand for something
Then experiences and history have much to do
with 1t. reverence of the flag and of the Sab
bath are matters of education
1t is not enough for the protection of threat
ened morality and patriotism and purity that We
should not be too good but just good enough; not
TOO loyal but Just loyal enough. man who
would say tnat might be good leaderin polit-
lcal campaign, bringing victory but, he is not a
safe leader in morals. Let US accept that higher
watchword: Be We therefore perfect. because
your Father in Heaven is perfect.
recognize that society changes and that
these changes in society require reimbursement
In religious forms and ceremonies e o the
modern Christian church is not the counternart
OF the ancient Israelite tabernacle but it means
the same.
The Christian worship of to-day is not model
led after the ritual Of the old Jewish temple. but
the underlying idea is unaltered
The Christian Sunday Of to-day is not identi-
cal with the Hebrew Sabbath, nor is it identi-
cal with the Puritan Sabbath but that which
1t represents is unchanged
1t means now as then the sense in the indiyi-
dual and society of relationship with Cod
| spiritual and mental relations, resulting in
| reverence, truthfulness, obedience trust and
| q great many other humane and ennobling quail
| ties.
| Whatever will best keep ard preserve that
sense OF God in the individual or society that
| IL is our bounden duty to guard. If the sanctu-
airy VIII do this. 1t is our duty and our privilege