The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1894-09-28
The "Old South" and Other Boston
Congregational Churches.
BOSTON, Sept. 10Th. 1904

The "Old South" and Other Boston
Congregational Churches.
BosToN, Sept. 10th, 1894.
Last Sunday afternoon l had the privl-
lege of worshipping with the congregation of
the "Old South" in the new "Old South"
meeting house. 1t is located in the Back
Bay region. and outside it bears a tablet
which tells how it was Preserved and blest
of God for more than two hundred years in
the former building, and removed here in
1875" The appointments of the church are
magni6cent-the stained glass which favors
the ''dim religious light" the arcade below
the organ loft, one of the finest organs in
the city, etc. A list of the pastors from the
founding of the church down to the present
time, are carved on ornamental tablets on
the inside. The present pastor is now in
Europe for vacation, and l went there eX-
pecting to hear the Rev. L. L. Munger, of
New Haven, author of SAT The Thresh-
hold" and other practical religious works
for young Christians. For some reason he
was detained, and Dr. Isaac j. Lansing, of
the Park street Congregational church,
preached in his stead. DR.. Lansing is a
fearless man of great spirituality and ability,
and might be called the DR.. Parkhurst, of
Boston, as he has been arraignipg the po-
lice for not doing their duty, pitching into
the gambling dens and other sinks of iniQ-
uity. His discourse on this occasion was on
the great facts of spiritual life, the power Of
oneness with God. In his closing prayer he
petitioned that we might be good through
and through, so that what shows shall be
what is, and that the fruits of the Spirit,
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness and temperance,
should be manifest in all our lives; that we
might live with God and thus be ready to
dwell with him when we cast off flesh and
sense.
In the. morning of the same day DR.. j . III.
Ecob, of Albany, n. Y, occupied the pull
pit of the Harvard church, Brooklne, and
preached a mastery sermon on the Life
which is the Light of men, in which he paid
the fullest recognition to the indwelling
presence of Christ in the hearts of men, often
called the Inner Light, which unquestion-
ably was from the beginning and has been
since, appearing to all men in varying de-
grees. Among other things, he said:
Don't give way to the most deadly of all
heresies, that of saying that God and Christ
are different in kind from US. Jesus Christ
was the manifestation of the conscience, of
the moral sense, of the God consciousness
of the human soul. That is why He was
the Son of Man, because He embodies the
life OF men. If great artist were to paint
a wonderful picture and assign it to pupil
to copy, and if he said to him, 81 painted
that by my genius" then the pupil would
say, ut is no use to try; cannot do it,"
But if the artist says instead, 81 did that by
patient toll, and what l have done you can
do" it would fill the pupil with life and
hope and courage. So it is with Christ lie
was the essential man and the essential God,
in the flesh-the Son OF God and
the Son of Man, and He says to his dsci-
pies, 81 and my Father are one, and We are
one In U.s." The Inner Light is the Christ
in us, the GOd-consciousness, the, symbol
and characteristic of our divinity. What is
prayer? Prayer is the Christ ia US, talking
with the Father, asking advice and taking
counsel with Him, and in prayer may ask
what | will, being Gods son, in this. His
Christ is challenge to Us to count
nothing as essentially impossible Our
great mistake is that we do not realize tire
divinity of human life. We treat
our fellow men OH the scale of the earthly
instead of the heavenly We do not see in
our brother the Christ image hence the
heartessness and cruelty of mankind.
DR.. Ecob will be remembered as one who
left the Presbyterian church after the con-
clusion of the trial of DR.. Briggs for heresy.
The Union Congregational church on Col
umbus avenue, is conveniently near, and its
pastor, the Rev. Nehemiah Boynton, is a
intensely earnest preacher of
live themes. Both he and his people have
a cordial greeting for strangers, and indeed
the general friendliness of Boston people is
Its large gothic edifice is COW
cred with the luxuriant Japanese ivy. adding
much to its beauty. Unlike the English |
ivy, it is decduous, and hardy and the won
der is that it is not more widely grown in
other cities and in the country as well. 1t
that it has come to be known abroad as the
"Boston ivy" The sight of 1t brings fresh
pleasure continually. 1t grows so rapidly
that it has been known to carpet roof
in a single summer.
HELEN l.. MANNING.