Morning journal and courier., 1893-04-03

The Easter services at Christ church
yesterday were attended by large congre-
cations. The music at the early morning
service aud at the 1890 o'clock service was
exceedingly beautiful and ably rendered
by an enlarged choir. At the latter service
the rector, Rev. G.. Brinley Morgan preach
ed a very able and eloquent sermon on the
lessons of Easter day, which was at
tentively listened to by all present. The
chancei of the church was beautifully and
artistically decorated with cut flowers and
ported plants, Easter lilies and callas
forming the especially prominent portion
of the floral decorations. The evening
service was also we'll attended.
y1RsT BAPTIST CHURCH.
At the First Baptist church the pastor,
Rev. John NJ. Mason, preached two very
eloquent and able sermons to large congre
cations yesterday. The church was beau
tifully decorated, in keeping with Easter
tide. The evening service was in the ma
ture of a service of praise, at which the
following musical program was rendered:
The Earth is His Possession Redemption
God God Has a Appointed pay ::.::::...B Toures
onertory.Honof and GLORY Naaman
Hymn-Jerusalem7 the Golden. james
fosIiuoe. ................ organ
AT UNITED CHURCH DIR. HUNGER DIS
COURSES ON IMMORTALITY. -.zsz
At the United church the celored quar-
tette Of students from Tuskegee. (Ala.)
college, sung. The pulpit was handsomely
decorated with Easter lilies. Rev. DR..
Munger preached an excellent Easter GER
mon from the text, "And God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes; and there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any
more pain; for the former things have
passed away"-Revelation xxi: 4. The
theme he drew from this text was 'Tm-
mortality the explanation of ife," and he
spoke in part as follows:
There is but one question as to the in
depreciation of the world namely, whether
1t shall have material explanation or q
spiritual one.
The materislists by simply teaching us
| to look at things and to ask certain ques-
tons: Whencea Why's Howl For WHAT It
forces us to turn away from its teachings
moro perplexed, more hardened with mys-
terry than before. If we turn to the spir-
itual explanation of the world, we find one
that satisfies us to such a degree that we
can rest in 1t. The difficulty is that we
cannot easily get at facts to sustain 1t. It
has immense probability but it lacks or
seems to lack proof.
As between tho two-if we are searching
for an explanation-the latter is the better,
| and 1t Is wiser to assume that the world
has spiritual origin and is undergoing a
spiritual process, and is moving to spir-
| itual destiny, than to try to satisfy our
selves with a series of finite processes that
| are without meaning because they are
| finite. The finite can explain nothing-not
even itself. 1t is wiser to accept the spir-
itual explanation, because it is conRenial
and favorable to us; it cults our nature;
and being such, we should strive to fnd
| the facts to prove 1t, or, if not facts,
grounds for resting in 1t.
It Is true that spiritual facts are not &C.
eessible like material proofs. They must
be worked. We must get other eyes to see
| with; other ears to hear with. It Is only
as we take the spiritual view that we can
have any hope or belief In future life.
in immortality that once existed, and We
| have ceased from definite expectation and
| exact description, but we need not cease
from confident hope that If we die we shall
live again. Any other hope than this
| seems to me to wrong our nature and to be
ignoble. There is certain lack of self
respect in thinking so meanly of life as that
1t IL to end In such a crisis as death. It
| would indeed be presumptous for one who
has wasted and misused life to 60 into the
| next world and ask for more; but one who
has striven to increase his life would be
false to himself If he should not claim at
| the hands of the God the life which he has
honestly striven to perfect. There are
| great principles of justice and desert in
| volved in the life of man, which II thew
are not recognized and adjusted turn life
| into mockery.
There is disposition on the part of
some to diacredit all intellectual discussion
of this subject, and to take it simply as a
| matter of faith and revelation. It is only
| few minds who can take truth in the lat
ter way, and their number is lesseninc: IL
| Is not the divine way of knowing. Reyel-
alton is simply an aid to belief. It ia trus
that In the new Testament future life Ia as
ISOLATED with believers; hence there ia pre-.
vailing at the present time the idea that
only believers live hereafter-an idea that
doctrine of the survival of the fittest. As
to the Scriptures, we must not expect to
find the whole of any truth in
1t, but only Its germ and princi-
its range and relations are
matters of fuller knowledge and develop
ment. There are great social ideas and
principles started in scripture which have
not yet been even clearly perceived. So
immortality was first made the comfort
and inspiration of the believer. Christ
achieved q sense of 1t and gave 1t to his
followers; but Christ could not have won
sense of Immortality had 1t not been a part
OF existence, fundamental reality.
He brought 1t out because IL ex-
isted-as the sun burns away the
mist that coneeals mountain
Christ stood in the fact of the eternal az.
istence of humanity. That he imported
humanity into the race, and gave Il
retroactive force 30 as to embrace the
Old Testament saints. and mystical
force 50 AZ to extend to the righteous
heathen-this is too artificial to command
respectful thought. His very existence in
humanity with an inwrought sense Of fu-
ture life, depended upon and grew out of
the endlessness Of life. He did not bring
immortality into humanity, but he sprano
out of an immortal humanity; and It was
because It was immortal that he could in
carnate divinity into il.
Ds. Munger further proceeded In his dis