The Portland daily press., 1892-11-14
REV. II. p. DEWEY.
The New Pastor of State Street Congre-
gational Church breaches on the Uses
of sutfering-A Large Audience Greet
Hin,

State Street Congregational church
greeted its new pastor, Rev. III. T. Dew
ey, yesterday forenoon. The renovation
of the church edifice is not yet COM
pleted, the elegant new brownstone front
being not yet completely finished, and
the interior repairs, including the cree
ton of the new $500 organ, being not
yet begun. Consequently the services
YESTERDAY were held in the church chap
ell. commodious room, but entirely too
small for the large audiences which gath
cred at the services.
Much satisfaction was expressed with
the new pastor and his first sermon. He
is young man, of cultured manner,
good voice, and a pleasing style OF pull
pit oratory. His sermon yesterday fore
noon showed evidences of high scholar
ship, and good Judgment, as well as
promise of some of that reserve force SO
desirable in one whose lot it is to speak
SO many times to the same audiences.
Mr.. Dewey is a young man, about
thirty years of age. He is graduate of
Williams college, and has just completed
very successfully his first pastorate, over
Congregational church at Concord, N.
III.
The text of his sermon yesterday fore
noon was three words of the tenth verse
of the third chapter of Hebrews: Per
feet through suffering" He said that
the problem of pain sooner or later con-
fronts us all. No life is stranger to it.
The infant, who lives in this world only
long enough to claim immortality; the
aged one who looks with anxiety into
deepening twilight, all experience it.
Tennyson says:
Never morning wears to evening
But some heart does break.
Kings. queens and presidents know its
presence.
A completely satisfactory explanation
of pain is not given when we lay it to sin.
We must seek some answer more reason
able than that it comes entirely as pun
ishment for sin. Men and women should
not be punished for that for " hich they
are not responsible. God has another
use for pain.
Suffering breaks down the barriers
which separate men in the conflict of
this world. The SORROWS of exile made
the Great Napoleon the sympathetic COM
panion of negro slave. In recent in
Stance it has obliterated party lines, and
made Republicans and Democrats one IN
sentiment when the rustic of the dreaded
angels wings was heard in the Presiden-
tial Mansion.
Men without suffering cannot correctly
estimate the true relations of life. Only
when they are stretched upon beds OF
sickness, when some cherished object OF
their affection or ambition has been re-
moved, do they feel their dependence on
the Almighty. Then are the asperities of
their natures Modified, they become
gentler, more thoughtful, more sympa-
thetic. BY the hand of suffering God
strengthens and develops character.
In this way God prepares us for that
future life, which is to be the consum-
nation of this. Perfect through suffer
ing, that is the outlook through this
state.
Civilization does not remove suffering.
In some ways it seems to increase it. He
that increases knowledge increases suf-
fering. The ear of the trained musician
is offended by discords that the unframed
ear does not know.
Sin is probably at the bottom of two
thirds of this pain. 1t may indirectly,
through the sin of the first parents, be
responsible for the whole of it, For
many ages pain must be the lot OF man,
and it will continue one of the great IN
struments of the Christian religion.
Flight to Christ is not necessarily an es-
cape from pain. He knows that no chas-
tening is for the present time joyous.
We may cry out when the pain is too SCI
we're, and in this we are ouly doing what
was true of the Perfect Man. We are
experiencing the fellowship of the snf-
fo,.;,,,rc Of (il,,,ct