The Portland daily press., 1891-11-02
YESTERDAY IN PORTLAND CHURCHES.
The New Pastors sermon Marked
the Day at the First Baptist.
"rhe unitarIanIsm Of UniversaIisnn,
Or. HIanchard's Subject.
Or. simpson OF New York, at the
Second Parish.

took the text from PHILIPPIANS, 2: 1918,
Wherefore, my beloved, as We have ALWAYS
obeyed, not as In my presence only. but now
much more in my absence, work ont vonr
own salvation with fear and trembling
For 1t Is GOD which worketh in you both to
will and to do of His good pleasure"
1t is one Of the misfortunes of the modern
church that 50 few of us work out our own
salvation, 80 few of us know how Ia N q
Gods forces. III we want TO maka the
church Ia spiritual power in the community
we must work with the church long time
We have too much dependence upon each
other, instead of using the divine forces
which Christ has placed within our reach,
If others are quickened. we are quickened
Ii they are dead. we are dead. Does the
power Of Christ depend upon the emotions
of our neighbors? We ought to get inspira-
tlon at the foot of the cross before we On
into the church. Christ is the bread of life
not the church. The power of divine life
Is Christ The preacher dwelt at some
length upon the yearnings which come to
every one for the reaching out for something
higher. Every time we have felt the holy
impulse stealing like sacred hush over cur
soul 1t is the spiritUf God Stirring within us.
The very desire for God is born Of His
presence: Herhas breathed these impulses
into our lives. Is not the best assurance that
we hunger and thirst for Righteousness the
TACT that He gave us the hunger and
thirst? He wants you to have the blessing
more than you want it. He works In you
the beginning of this yearning. II you
crush the impulse the spirit is grieved. 1t
does not become part OF you Till you take 1t
up and breathe 1t back e God In prayer. A
Ii he brushes the divine warnings, the black
horizon OF sin closes over him, by his refus-
ing to cooperate with God. How often have
many Of us arisen from the communion table
with holy impulses, and had them obliter-
ated by contact wirhsthe world. How often
many of us say, If we could sit at the feet of
the Master as Mary debut He has been
| speaking to us day after day, and we have
closed our ears. He furnishes the desire
and when we make it our own He furnishes
the ability OF divine corporation. We inul-
| lily Gods power by setting our will against
| His. Holiness Is something. that is expected
| from every Christian. -
We are not called holy because we have
reached perfection, but because we are
called holy we must strive after perfection.
IL matters not how sinful our lives have
1 been, we are asked to believe now-to les
| God have His own way. Do not some of US
| today feel a yearnfnp, an impulse within us
which will lead to cry out, Lord save us !?
| There will be rejoicing in heaven over one
sinner that repents. You are still aprodigal
unless the working in your soul has made
you iesolye[I Will arise and go to my
Father" You can do nothing without the
help of God, and God can do nothing unless
you cooperate with Him. ,t,.9
Mr.. Ayres Is young man apparently an
der 30, with good enunication, and his whole
address was characterized by great earnest
ness.
Rev. A. B. Simpson at tho Second
Parish. sFry
At the Second Parish church yesterday
morning. Rev. DR.. A. B. Simpson of New
York, who is here to attend the meetings of
the Christian Alliance preached, taking his
text from the first verse of the 35th chapter of
Genesis "And God said unto Jacob, Arise,
go up to Bethel. and dwell there" etc. At
ter an invocation the speaker, who is rath-
erslender man with a very black beard and
very high. white forehead and has a
pleasing voice and a good delivery
speaking without notes of any kind
began by. thanking God for Jacob. We
are so'much like him in our weakness that
1t is a comfort to find, Jacobs story in the
Old Testament and Simon Peters in the
New. These men seem to have been espec-
tally selected by God as His instruments to
show what he can do. No instrumentality
is so mean or unworthy that He cannot
transform it into one of usefulness. Many
of those who shine the brightest were once
the farthest from God. Let us be cheered
today. God took the crooked, wriggling, dis
trustful Jacob, whose very name signifies
'the supplanter," and made him the head of
the tribes and gave him an immortal, name.
So will He do with US If we will allow Him.
The call to Bethel suggests, first, that 1t is
addressed to the backslider. He Is urged to
go back to where he started from on his
present course. He has lost good deal,
and the evidences of his loss are plain, but
God will go back with him all the way. Some
He Is calling today through tender memories
OF childhood, some through rec0liections OF
time of self-abandonment and conservation.
God can make better things for you perhaps.
even on account of your backsliding. Second.
If you have not backslidden, God calls upon
yoL to come up higher: He has made you
hungry for something better, perhaps you do
not know exactly what. You: may see the
heavenly pattern In the life OF Jesus of MAJ
areth and In the biography of ancient saints
and modern missionaries and then say, this
Is for them but not for me. But it Is for you
and mel as well. God has made but one path
way for all His saints, and Is calling you to
walk in it. Take one step and He will show
you the next. The preacher paid tribute
to former pastor of the church, "the holy
Payson" as he called him and quoted his re-
get at having anticipated and waited for
heaven when he might have been enjoying
tall the time. Third. the call is not only to
the house of God. the place where He lives,
where He Is the life. The call is to some
thing more than walking with God like
Enocb, or being like Him. 1t is to have him
in tTAFD
The struggle Of the ages has been to make
more out of man. to make him wiser richer,
more refined, more moral That Is mans plap,
God tried an experiment with man to see
Under the law and under teaching he went
to ruin. There were prophets, there were
miracles. God Himself was present, But 1t
was desperate failure. God turned away
In despair and gave up trying to make any
thing out Of man and put him aside and sent
Christ to him. God wants us to learn how
weak we are and, then He will use us. This
Is the lesson OF Moses, OF David, of Simon,
OF Peter. The speaker made here profuse
Bible references to show that God wants
be his strength, his life. his love, his stabili-
ty. his all. Mr.. Simpson illustrated his
point by the story of a man who failing to
live as good a life as he thought he ought to.
went down into every kind of sin, and be-
came rich and prosperous stil he was
everything to God. 1t is possible for Him to
be incarnated In your flesh and living in
your soul: He will give you.love and rest.pa-
thence and wisdom. BE can make your least
word strange power. He can give you
strength and health and endur-
ance, He n can prolong your
years and weak constitutions. He can
strengthen. he can protect you from danger
and from poison, from devils and from death
The speaker closed with stirring exhor-
tation to his hearers not to be content with
doing the best they can, but to have the di-
vine life In them and used strikingly perth
nent illustration of the VII, WIS he had set
forth by telling of fleet of vessels he saw
at st. John. The tide had receded and they