The Portland daily press., 1896-12-14
Mr.. Gates LAST SERMON.
Delivered to Large Congregation at the
First Free Baptist Church.


Yesterday morning Rev. Mr.. Gate, who
has for the past six years occupied the
pulpit of the First Free Baptist church,
and who has accepted call to church
in Providence, X. l., preached his last
sermon prior to his de parture. There
was hardly vacant seat in the large
edifice when the services commenced.
Before beginning the sermon Mr.. Cate
said that he intended to spare his par
ishioners and himself discomfort, and
should not preach a goodbye sermon.
The work Of the church. said the speaker,
is going steadily forward, and the work
of the pulpit be rs we'll. This Is
one of the strongest churches in the de-
nomination, power in the faith. The
hand of the Lord is on it for good. 1t is
the part of the Christian to be sure of
the light in the darkness, and COM
mend you to God sure of the result. The
longings of all our hearts will be well
expressed in the STSth hymn, which we
will now sing, "We Would See Jesus. !"
After the singing of the hymn the
preacher took for his text Revelations,
xxi. 8, "And there was no more sea. =
He said that we do not get far in build
ing a world without enoountering great
difficulties. The book of Revelations
has too often been misoonstrued. The
chief value of the book lies in the praoti-
cal use we can make of it's truths. The
great principles of morality and religion
are the same. If the principles OF Jesus
Christ won't apply to us here, they won't
apply anywhere. not even in the world
to come. If there is any part of our Cos
pei that is applicable only to heaven, we
had better drop it out of our creed. Prin-
ciples are eternal; precepts vary. In Reye-
lations we must look through the pict-
uresqueness of Its imagery and get ut
its underlying principles. The true
church can never be ex tinguished.
Christ's kingdom may meet with oppo-
sition, but in the end the mighty one will
triumph in his own way and in his OWN
time. So Revelations predicts in its
own way the same truth.
Il ll6 6bd Va UAO OOAs W az w UAo NASAOAo o
full of imaginary terrors. To them the
world was full of ghosts, gods, goddess
es, nymphs and satyrs, and all imaginary
creatures. There are no such terrors any
where as those created by perverted
Imagination. To these ancients the lana,
the mountains, the clouds, the sters,
were all peopled with the creatures of
their imagination. The psalmist said.
"Thess shall all vanish" and this has
been proved through the glorious work
of Jesus Christ But even IL the New
England Of today a vast amount of super
stition still exists. Many people will do
nothing on Friday; they won't look at
the new moon over the left shoulder If
they can help it, and in many ways show
that with them superstition still abides.
The light of the Gospel must be turned
upon them. We must teach our children
the perfect security Of all who trust in
God = against all these COLLINS of the
Imagination. If we give ourselves to God
all the joys of our childhood will return.
Our lives should be simple and artless.
The sea has its terrors still. The news
papers daily record them. But science in
Its progress has reduced them to q mini
mum compared to the perils the ancients
encountered. No man cap hazard him
self at random on the sea Of life and hope
to safely come to port To the young
baptized in Christ, he would say. never
fail to wrestle with evil to the very
death. Moral integrity is thAApsat of the
Gospel. Be true to yourself sid to God,
and the perils of life like the reefs and
quicksands, and swirling whirlpools of
ocean, will pass swiftly behind you.
You, my friends, can remem Der the
Christian lives that had their beginning
among you; how they struggled and
fought and finally passed away honored
in years. There Ia no exclusiveness built
I'D around any of US. The whole world
is in touch and there will be no milleni-
UNI In New England until there is
worlds millennium. We have sad
thoughts of separation today, but VIZ
are not any of us going out of the king
dom. We are not going to separate from
Jesus Christ. II we remain in Jesus
we cannot be far apart no more than
the fingers can be far separated SO long
as they arc connected with the palm OF
the hand.
Our sorrows belong to those out of
the kingdom, Fhere are those who have
gone from us in the six years of my life
that has been passed among you. Let us
think of them as gone to room above
''In my Fathers house are many man
sions." These we mourn have goue to
IN upper cham Der there, free from all
discords, out of the uncertain twilight
infn the full light of the Creator ont