Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-12-26

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SERVICES AT TRINITY.
\ Large eongreeasion at thess MORN
ting Service-Ans Excellent Musical
Program Finely Rendered-Rev.j
DIR. Harvsodss Christmas sermon.
The usual large Christmas congregation
attended the morning service at Trinity
Yesterday. One of the features of the ser
vices was the music, which was. superbly |
and rendered. The program has
been published by the COURIER.
Dr.. HARDWOOD chose the text Of his |
Christmas discourse from Psalms Xvii, 4: |
o let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for
thou shalt judge the people righteously and gov
ern the nations upon EARTH
Once more we have assembled in the
house of God to celebrate the nativity of
our blessed Lord, said he. Once more the
churches are decked with hemlock and
pine and holly, and the houses of rich and
poor wear holiday aspect, and even
many mourners forget their griefs in the
general joy. The worlds traffic ceases and
they only are busy who are ministering to
the tastes and pleasures of the community.
They must be wretched indeed whom no
one remembers kindly to-day. Plenty
stretches forth friendly hand to poverty,
and finer spirit is abroad to-day than
in any one day in all the year. Even the
sailor on the broad sea has better dinner
Is Ia1v he ho1 fho
soldier in the far off frontier, though the
cold be sharp and the barrack rude, or the
tent slight, has some little luxury or privi-
lege, because it is Christmas.
know indeed that there are some peo-
pie who never laugh. know, too, that
there are brothers and sisters-many of
them-whose hearts cannot respond to the
sound Of nirth and gladness Their
wounds are deep, they lie bleeding or they
stand by fresh graves, where like the
Mary Of the gospel, they weep for those
whom they cannot call back again to the
land Of the living. Yet even they have
sweet memories of this fair festival and
its bright colors remain imprinted upon
the heart like the celors which adofn the
walls that have been buried beneath dust
and ashes for thousands of years
In our text the pslamist calls upon the
nations to be glad and sing for joy and the
reason given because God shall judge the
people righteously and govern the nations
upon the earth.
A call upon the nations-upon great
masses of men to give way to
gladness and joy can come only
from a full and overfowing heart.
It comes from sort of ecstasy of pious
enthusiasm. The Psalmist's neighbors and
kinsmen were not sufficient for him. No,
ha 10 Il he
yond them to the nations of the earth The
heart under the impulse of an inspired
love for God stretches forth the hands, land
| with uplifted voice calls men everywhere
| to acknowledge his goodness and to join
| in praise and alteration. Nations are glad,
and they sing for JOY when the crops are
/ are good, when commerce expands, when
all trades flourish, when there is freedom
from the deadly pestilence, when social
and public orders are maintained, and the
years are prosperous. Everyone acknowl-
edges these good ground or reason for pub
lie thanksgiving and joy There lisa natural
ness, or at least Observation-Disclosures When,
on the other hand, there are idle hands
because no man hath hired them,
| when trade and common contract, and
/ their is crying for bread in the streets,
then follow anxieties, dependency, fail
ures, distresses. The fortunes of nation
fuctuate just like the fortunes of individ
uals, and there are certain moral dangers
which attend upon both prosperity and
adversely. In either case too, men arr
called upon to be glad and to sing for joy
because God judges the world in right
eousness, and is the true governor of tn.
nations.
The appearance of this fact is of the ut
I NM OF To ho frT1n +,
of mankind. Every man sufficiently in
telligent to reflect upon the origin ant
cause of things or to understand the re
fections of others is perfectly well awar
that this world and its inhabitants are un
der a government which human pcwe
can neither modify nor destroy. Life
the product of an absolute power
All orders of creatures, from the highes
to the lowest, are begotten, born, live thei
allotted tme and die in obedience to tn
fat of this power. None of us, by takinl
thought, can add one cubit unto our stat
ure. Seed-time and harvest, summer an,
winter, here upon this earth, come and g
under some superhuman control. TIL
J heavenly bodies, in their courses and il
their wonderful order and harmony, prove
: the admiration of the human mind, ODE
: the laws of the creative and SUSTAINING
force which no man can adequately repre-
sent to himself.
What is this force, or law, or superhu
man power within whose field of opera
: ton we live and learn and diea Suppos
it were fate-resistless power withou
will. It is conceivable, indeed, that th
universe should he driven onward; n
whittier, without aim, beyond the produe
tions of successive generations, eac
living in the main like its pr,
decessors, slowly emerging, nevertheless
after the lapse of many ages into some
| by the awful power to which we apply th
a | word Fate. This is, say, conceivable
but there is no religion, no worship, n
| uprising of the heart, mo service of thanks
giving, are conceivable at the same time
Nor is moral progress, and the advance 9
nations in great life, conceivable at tn
: same time.
To be assured, then, of something els.
| to be assured of something very diferer
from this; to be assured that he who is til
| omnipotent sovereign, the infinite, eter
. nal force, is the eternal, compassionate
father, who judges the nations Tin righ
, eousness," is to know what has the promis
| and the possibility of all spiritual Joy, as G
moral and religious progression
. ment; movement onward and upward.
; Why should nations rejoice and be gla
| because God judges them in righteousness,
Nothing is more fatal, more disastrou
to society and to men personally than til
belief that this world is not under til
government of an all righteous judge an
ruler. Everything that gives stability
human affairs, a stability resting upon tn
intelligence and moral sense of the CON
! munity, is founded in the idea of right
| eousness, that is, of the right relations 9
things and persons. But human right
, eousness is the reflex of the divine RICH,
: eousness, and is meant to be in harmon
? with its indeed its product Now th
denial of this, as have said, leads direct
: | ly to public anarchy and to the utter cor
fusion of our moral conceptions Henc
| when we know or are assured that Go
shall judge the people righteously, we ar
delivered from the dangerous heresy tha
fate rules over all and that luck or goo
fortune is the thing to be sought supreme
, ly in life. What greater difference ca
there be than the difference betwee
a belief in fate without will and withou
holiness, and belief in just, wise, CON
passionate God? What greater differenc
/ than the difference between life withou
any sense of O divine government and
? life of pious, devout recognition of thi
| facta This is the pivot upon which th
| destiny both men and of nations turns
| We can understand therefore well enoug
why the nations should rejoice and b
: glad because God shall judge the peopl
( | rghteously. Because in this fact we hav
the sole guarantee for the worth of ind
vidua1 lifo and for tho aduopcax,a,t rs ~,