The herald., 1893-02-06
Some Of the Doctrines Which
Were Expounded.
Rev. B. w. r. Tayler's Sermon at
st. Johns Church.
The Parable OF the Sower His Subject
Rev. Clark's Discourse at Christ
Church on the Religion
of Character.

|
listened to an exceptionally able sermon
by the pastor, Rev. B. w. R. Tayler
The sermon was from the parable of the
sower. The parable was one OF sub.
lime simplicity, but yet it could not be
properly understood unless the leseone
were applied to the human heart.
There were four kinds of coil in which
the seed was sown, spoken of respec
lively as The Wayside, The Stony
Ground, The Thorpy Ground and The
Good Ground. Each of these foul
kinds of ground was investigated
Referring to the first, the wayside, il
was shown how there are hearts upon
which the good seed of the word OF God
makes no impression whatever. 1t was
fact which we had to recognize, al
though We repelled it, that to some
men a religious atmosphere ia wholly
unwelcome. They never pray, never
enter a house of prayer, they are
utterly devoid of anything approximate
ing to what we call religion. Whether
it is on account of lack of early training
or because they have allowed theil
hearts to be trodden down by business
matters, the fact stood, that like the
hard, unbroken, moistless wayside, the
seed of Gods word finds no chance to
germinate.
Then there was the seed which fell on
q rock, or literally rocky ledge with
but thin super-stratum of soil. 1t was
shallow soil. Just enough to allow
the seed to germinate, throw up its
little blade and throw downward its
little rootlets, but as soon as the warm
sun came up it scorched and shrivelled
it, because it lacked moisture. He had
often met people whose lives correspond
ed to this. They had no positive char
acter no Christian backbone. They are
ready to start up with any new move
ment, any good cause; but in few
months energy flags, interest ceases,
and they drop out. Such people make
Christianity a by-word and reproach.
1t is the same outside of the church az
in the church.
4 young man enters hnsiness with a
high and holy resolve that he will con-
duct that business according to the
eternal principles Of honor and righteous
dealing. But he sees other men sand
ing their sugar, or giving "a inches to
the yard, or selling land to settlers
which he would not take as gift, and
unless there is sufficient depth of char
acter to say: II would rather fail in
business and dig in the streets for q
dollar day than conduct my business
on such principles" unless he can say
this, he gets into the way of the rest
Of them, and eoothes his conscience with
the meaningless phrase, Business is
business"-a phrase which, while it
mo~sN nothing; ;s taken by many to be
inclusive OF every form of rascality and
roguery known to the business world.
"And some fell among thorns." Thorns
of sin, of evil passions, of unrestrained
desires. The soil in this case is all
right. 1t is deep and rich. But the
difficulty lies in this, that the ground
had not been properly weeded out of
brambles and thorns, which should
have been gathered together and
burnt up. root, branch and seed. We
cannot let iniquity flourish side by side
with the good seed in our hearts. 1t is
only matter of time when the coarser
natured thorns will choke the good
seed. We see a man, a regular
church goer, a faithful communicate and
we say there's man in whose heart the
good seed is growing; and suddenly he
does some terrible thing which scan
dalizes society, makes his wife die of a
broken heart and causes society to point
the finger of scorn at his children. The
world calls him a hypocrite, protesting
one life and living another. And the
judgment of the world is wrong; the
man has not been hypocrite. His
record shows that in every transaction
in life, but this, he has done what was
right and manly, but this one tempta-
tion met him and overcame him. Why !?
Because there had been left in his
heart one germ root Of evil desire, or an
evil passion, and side by side were
growing in his life, grain and thorn,
and it was only a matter of time when
the noxious thorn would suddenly spring
up on some terrible temptation, and
choke the seed of the grace of
God, and make blot forever upon the
life of an otherwise good man. The
thorns of ain should be uprooted the
moment they appear. Have care, my
young brother or sister, about toying
with sin, thinking thus far can 60 and
no further. Let the traveller in the Slip
perry Alps beware how near he goes to
the edge of the precipice. 1t is one of
the prime temptations of the devil to
tell us that we can go up to a certain
boundary line and toy with temptation
without falling into eternal sin. He is
sowing thorns, and before you are aware
of it you have ruined your life.
"And there cometh a mist and a weeping rain,
And life is never the same again."
The preacher closed his sermon with
the seed which fell on good ground, and
drew illustrations of his various points
by showing the gradual process by
which the granite peaks OF the Sierras
became disintegrated to form the good
soil OF our fields and valleys. It was a
fitting and eloquent conclusion to a
powerful sermon.
CHRIST CHURCH.
The music Of Christ Episcopal church
has received special attention of late,
and rapid advances in the standard of
church music is apparent. While the
old custom of singing hymns to well
known tunes is still retained, thus per-
mitting the congregation to unite, other
parts Of the service are being brought up
to high standard of artistic excellence.
Yesterday the offertory, one of Dudley
Bucks competitions, was most effective
ly rendered by the following quartette
of voices Miss Metcaf, sopranos Mrs.
Vansant, contralto; Mr. VIM. Stephens,
tenor; MIR. Horton, baritone. The
morning congregations are increasing
ell the while, and the question of fur
ther seating capacity is one which will
soon require solving.
The rector, Rev. A. s. Clark, took for
his text the eleventh verse of the
twenty-second chapter of Revelations.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust
ufill ov,1 ha xubiab io E1fh~ 1of hin, ho