The Portland daily press., 1895-05-06
NOTHING LIKE 1T
Was Ever Seen Before in the City OF
Portland.


Rev. Matt S. Hughes-City Hall Was
Filled to Overlooking Yesterday-The
Subject of His Sermon Was "The Uni
versal Religion
| At City hall yesterday afternoon occurred
one of the most splendid demonstrations of
| popular favor that was ever accorded to a
resident OF Portland by his fellow citizens.
| 1t had been announced that Rev. Matt 5.
Hughes, the eloquent young pastor of
| Chestnut street church, was to deliver his
| farewell. sermon, previous to his departure
for wider fields of labor in great city of
the West. 1t was suggested that since
most of the Methodist clergymen We're in
attendance at the conference in Saco. it
would be well for their parishioners to
make it a union service.
| But it was really a union service of men,
| bers oe all the evangelical churches of the
city.
The exercises were begun at p. n., and
| Dy 2 o'clock there were over one thousand
people in the hall. good many people
| were deferred at first from entering the
| hall, because of a considerable volume of
smoke. At about 1.30 p. NJ, Deputy Hart
| nett, while passing through the corridor,
| smelt smoke, and discovered that it came
| from the rec orders room, where the desk
| that stands against the wall. opposite the
| fireplace, was found to be ablaze. 1t was
thrown out of the window. There was little
or no damage. The smoke finally cleared
| in the corridor, but at one time the hall it
self was rendered by it. quite dark a nd dis
agreeable.
| Between two and three o'clock the people
came in two long professions up and down
Congress street, and poured into our
greatest auditorium till. by 2.45 it was filed
to over1owing, and by three O'Clock, the
two first aisles from the door were crowded
with standing people, and all the other
| aisles were thus occupied to greater or
| less extent. The great throng filed every
| stairway. flowed upon the stage in dense
mass. and surged up against it in front.
| In the small space that was left in the
centre of the front of the stage were Rev.
Matt S. Hughes, DR.. Asa Dalton of ST.
| Stephens Episcopal church and DR.. Henry
| Blanchard of the Congress Square Univer-
| salist church.
| This splendid assemblage of peop1e-this
great tribute to his eloquence as preacher
and his popularity as a fellow citizen. must
| have been an affecting qualification to any
man.
EWhen he arose to speak, his slight erect
| figure. his pale intellectualaaface, and his
strong. clear voice seemed the same as ever,
yet they were all eloquent of his conscious
ness of his unusual position, and his deep
sense of its significance.
1t was a few minutes after three O'Clock
when Mr.. Hughes arose and announced that
they would follow as nearly as possible the
| order of exercises of the Chestnut street
church. At the beginning the audience rose
and sang the Doxology. This was followed
by the saying OF the Lords Prayer. Both
were very impressive. because of the vast
ness of the audience, and the volume of the
sound.
The choir was made up of Mr.. Will Stock
bridge. tenor; Hiss Ida Tarbox, soprano;
Miss Henrietta Rice, contralto. and Mr.. J,
F. Macy, baritone. Mr.. Walter Smith was
the organist. M
After the singing the usual collection was
tken.
Rev. Henry Blanchard. D. D.. read
passage from the Scripture, and Rev. Asa
Dalton. d. D.. made n eloquent prayer.
After another selection by the chCir, Mr..
Hughes arose to speak, and the great crowd
Mr.. Hughes said that he had no farewell
sermon to preach in the sense of a sermonic
farewell. His heart had been greatly moved
as he looked out upon his great audience.
Next to the approval of God a man needs
Inost the con nfdence of his fellow people.
This conf1dence is more essential to
preacher than any of his qualiio ations. He
felt deep sense of humility, and wished to
For fbo
he had received from Portland peopie.
Whatever he had done here had been, in a
large part. the result of the confidence of
| the people.
He would not at this time say good bye
to his church. He could sny that be never
expected to find another such church. At
all times his people had stood by him stead
fastly, and he was glad to say word of
praise thus publicly. One Of lis deep re-
grets at leaving Portland was the loss of
the companionship of his fellow clergyrnen
| here.
He should aways remember gratefully his
stay in Portland, and hoped TO meet us all
again: # not here, then hereafter
| He had chosen for his text the 18th verse
of the llth chapter of Revelations. which
reads as follows: "And the Seventh Ange
| eouuueu anu Gnero were great voices in
Heaven saying, the Kingdoms of this world
are become the Kingdoms Of our Lord and
| of His Christ. and he shall reign forever
and ever
He began his sermon by referring to the
closing hours of the Worlds Congress of
Religions, and the hope expressed at that
tine by the closing speeches that the time
would come when there would bo unity of
religion.
In all this harmony there was one discord-
ant note. when the Hindoo representative
| from India declared that this hope was i'm
| possible of fuldlment.
| This statement of that Hindoo showed
one thing certain. end that was hat he did
| not have entire faith in his own religion.
| l believe, said Mr.. Hughes. despite what
that Hindoo said that that there are now
| signs that there will be such thing as a
| universal religion.
| There is q desire for universally mall de-
| partrnents of human knowledge. Men are
| looking to the time when this round world
over, men will have common astronomy,
| a common geology. and so on through all
Il, 1o1, ,x,;11