St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-08
THE MoDERN CHURCH.
Instructive Sermon by Rev. w. S
Vail, of the UniVersaliSts.

Instructive Sermon by Rev. w. s.
Vail, of the Universalists.
The Universalist church held its first
service yesterday morning in the Grand
opera house. The service was attended
by very large number of people, and
an especially attractive musical pro-
gramme was rendered by Prof. Brooke's
cornet quartette. The pieces were:
''Hear Us While We Pray" prayer from
der Freischutz'' and response, s'Sweet
Hour of Prayer" Solos were also sung
by Mrs. Harry S. Ash and Miss Mae
Murphy. with piano accompaniment by
Miss Ella Richards. Rev. w. s. Vail,
pastor. delivered an eloquent sermon,
the subject of which was: "Our Church
and Its Relations to Modern Life" The
reverend gentleman reviewed shortly
the history of the ancient church.
When the modern church arose it found
belonged to ages and nations capable OF
throttling liberty, smothering educa-
ton and using under the most ordinary
provocation the rack and the thumb
screw. Mr.. Vail concluded:
This brings me to the church prob
lem of the present day and our mission
III the work to be done. DR.. Card, pro-
nounced by Dean Stanley the greatest
living preacher of the century, has said
in plain terms: ''God does not dwell in
some far-off point of space; He is not
more present anywhere else than on
this earth Of ours" Dow fully realize
this? / think not. But once make it
vital fact and you will try to find God,
not by dreaming that in some future
you will see him in human form on
throne. and will spend all your time in
signing hymns of gratitude; nor will
you be trying to locate him in some dis
tant planet, and fret, as bird frets
against the bars of the cage, that You
may soar away to that star for an end
less life. Wordsworth, now in the land
of the blessed. will never come nearer
God than on the day he sang: ''And l
have felt presence that pervades me
with JOY Of elevated thoughts; ''nor will
Garrison ever be more conscious OF God
than on that day when he made up his
mind to give himself for the black man
without reserve and without compro-
mise; nor will Mrs. Stowe ever feel the
certainty of God more than on that day,
when at the communion table, He
called her to tell the world the story of
uncle Tom-no, these and thousands of
others have found i'll duties the hum
'blest and largest, and in the sustaining
spirit that lifts our burdens, and car
rieS our sorrows to present indwelling
God.
This is the lesson I would have my
church make plain. 1t is the practical
need of this age. But not less import
ant is another fact clearly expressed by
DR.. Card: 1.-THE eternal world is not
world beyond time and the grave. 1t
embraces time; it is ready to realize it.
oil 6ar oil I'm of 10,
things" We believe that to be rellg-
ious is to realize now and here the
humanity of Christ, his temper, his
hope, his inner connection with God.
Therefore to live in the life of
other people, and in the larger stream of
the great worlds life; to become i'm
bued with the living spirit of God. Be-
You'd all it is the religion of hope. 1t
maintains that men should be encour-
aged in the good work of fighting evil
by the conviction that good will finally
triumph. When men point out the sad
der side of life, it says, But see, the
world has made progress in twenty CEN
turtles under this power: give twenty
thousand, or a million, or ten millions
of years in which to fight the battle,
and with only what we have to-day
hope and the indwelling spirit of Cod
we will VIM" If YOU claim that sci
ence, the antagonist most feared at the
present. is ready to read the death war
rant to the hope of Immortality. I an
swer that the premise to-day is that the
I Society of Psychical Research" which
embraces the coming scientists of Eng
land and America, has opened new
channels in the study Of mind that will
certainly result in establishing on sci
entific evidence the belief in immor-
tality, and to all l say there never was
a stronger hope than on this very day
that there is a divine intent to which
the whole creation mOveS''