The Portland daily press., 1891-07-27
AGAIN OCCUPIED PORTLAND PUlpIIS.
Sermo ons by Former Pastors In TWO
of the Churches Yesterday.
Rev. Mr.. .hincks speaks to Old
Friends and ParIshIoners.
Rev. Or. Bashford's Sermon at the
Chestnut street Methodist.

At the Chestnut street church yesterday.
Rev. DR.. j. w. Bashford, former pastor,
now president Of the Ohio State Wesleyan
University, filled the pulpit. In the after
noon DIR. Bashford preached powerful ser
mon from Psalms viii, 4. He first spoke in a
pleasant conversational tone of the institu-
tion of which he Is the head. The institu-
tiOn is located at Delaware, Ohio. and last
year had enrolled 1882 pupils, the majority
of whom were in the college. There were
125 students in the theological seminary.
The scholars represented thirty states and
nine foreign countries, fact which DIR.
Bashford said, was due to the large number
Of the alumni Of the university, $50 In all.
who are missionaries in the foreign field.
Although, said he, the number of students
is so large, we are by no means up to our ca
pacity, and should be glad to welcome any
young people from Maine whose parents are
disposed to send them there. Then reading
his text, "What Is man that Thou art mind
full Of him and the son of man that thou
visited him; Thou madest him little lower
than the angels. and hast crowned him with
glory and honor" DR.. Bashford sketched
the divisions Of the animal kingdom d,
continuing said; Let us pause at this point
and look back. First we have mere mass,
then species, then species and individuality,
then individuality and species. SO far we
have gone. May we not 60 further and con-
clude that there Is one step more, pure indi-
viduality to which the angels, freed from
their earthly bodies and from the inheritance
OF instinct have come, and to which we may
come at some time or otherP Surely the
course of upbuilding would seem to justify
such belief, and l believe the text points to
1t. Man is surely linked as animals are to
those who have gone before. The ancestors
of an animal teach him no v to find food and
how to build himself home. A mans in
heritance is various. 1t may be tendencies
for evil and 1t may be for good. The theory
of sin Is one of the proofs OF the Inheritance
from our ancestors.
Doctor Bashfcrd pictured the sphynx of
the Egyptian desert as the true type OF a
man. The head has something more than
human grandeur, but the body almost im-
perceptibly melts back into the form Of a
beast IL is universally so, and mans duty
should be to press on toward the more than
human head, leaving the body of the beast
behind. In doing this duty man cannot, of
his own strength, succeed. This Is recogniz-
ed In the world of business. Time was
when Sampson was the highest type of
man. True, there are Sullivans now whose
only claim to eminence Is the prowess OF
their mighty arms; but they are merely
stranded hulks OF a fleet that Is sailing rath-
or rapidly beyond the horizon. In ages long
gone, the greatest test of power Of the
Greeks was the ability to swim the Helles-
pont. Now the greatest man is the man who
uses most economically the power Of steam,
the winds or electricity for propelling ves-
sci across the water from continent to conti-
nent We are Just beginning to realize the
power that is In our hands If we use rightly
the forces that are below us. We shall soon
realize thas there is equal power In the forces
round about u.s. How many are there before
me who owe their present position to their
marriage, to their business, or church, or
Sunday school, or society associates? This
nineteenth century Is the age Of the develop
ment Of the forces that are beneath US. The
twentieth century will be the age Of the de-
velopment Of the forces that are round about
us, the substitution of cooperation for COM
petition, and in the twenty-irst century we
may see man raised up above his
present place on the hill of the universe and
cut off from the lower passions that
bind him to the animal kingdom now.
The speaker next pointed out the danger r
OF cutting OFF both defences, above and
below and attempting to stand alone, saying
that 1t was as possible to reform drunkard
thoroughly honey -combed with intempeI-
ance and other vices simply by getting him
to sign the p'edge, as it was to expect
man to cut loose from evil and from G cd
and to try to keep by his own power from
falling down hill again. The jews told
Jesus they could do it and he told them tn
story of man who had a devil cast out and
whose soul. was clean swept and empty. He
failed to realize that he could not of himself
keep it empty and soon there were in posses
sion seven devils every one as bad as the
first. DIR. Bashford reminded his congrega-
tion that there was a powerful aid for man
in this struggle, that this aid was God and
life II the man would only receive him. and
closed his sermon with an impassiOned ap-
peal to those who had not yet accepted Him
to do so without longer delay.
At the close Of the service DIR. Bashford
held an informal reception in front Of the
pulpit when many of the congregation
nrpeS Spd forward Tn enaak m him