The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-07-27

room or in the solemn chamber of death, yet are the general manifesto
 tions of God granted to us where many are gathered together praying, or when Gods holy word Is being so read to us as to pierce our inmost hearts, or in the
 humble faithful teachings of the minis
 ter of Christ, or even through the pow CT of divine music turning delight into a sacrifice of praise. It is in these ways that we are commonly aroused to that which the patriarch experienced, Surely the Lord is in His place and know it not know 1t not how often man has to say I knew it not, for I
 was sitting when I ought to have been
 kneeling-I was looking about me in-
 stead of closing up both mine eyes and sending them to my heart. I took no
 interest In the service, did not join in
 the responses, gave only my voice not my soul in the singing, made no act of reverence to the holy name or before
 the altar, listened hardly at all to the precious word of God, and then the still small voice, or one of it's many echoes wake me from slumber, and showed me in whose presence am, a sinful child of man, close to the lord of
 the whole earth. Is there not some one
 here to-day who needs this serious re-
 minder?'
 Make myself reverence and fear;
 God is more here than thou, for thou
 art here only by His permission, but He is in a house peculiarly His own.
 Oh, dear people, the gospel has not al- | tered the promise of God. In every l ,N1o I come unto thee and I will bless thee. 1 It hes but made us feel that if we are awake to His presence we may find special comfort in the fulfillment of His promise since it is God our Saviour | who comes among us. Where two or
 three are gathered together in my
 name there I am in the midst of them l And when we leave the sacred limits and that holy altar, whereat He gives us in a peculiar way His real though l still spiritual presence, is not our com | fort like unto Jacobs? For the Lord of our salvation is also the strength of
 our life. He says to us every day of 1 the week when we have on the first day
 revereneed His sanctuary and received 1 His blessing, Behold, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places wither
 thou goest, for will not leave thee tin- til have done that which I have spok
 en to thee of Then how prosperously
 goes the business. how bright is the
 home, how lght the work, how sweet the rest! Then, if changes come, they l do not utterly deject us, for our lord is night, and he changes not. if because of 1 the sins of offences of our youth, the deceitfulness or passion of our man. hood, we have to undergo for years, as l Jacob did, the heavy chastisement of ! God. we know that He will answer us | in the day of our distress, and grant | us His pardon and His peace. If 1 trouble befall us and those we love are | hidden from us for while and we lose l Rebecca's care and Isaac's blessing or l RachaePs tenderness or Joseph's duti- full affection, we are not alone, because l our Lord is with us and though sor- | rowful we can be always rejoicing.
 "Only, dear people, with this purpose l this good and right purpose of sancti- flying all our trials and tribulations, there must be, too, other steadfast res olutions formed and kept if we would | honestly follow Him who became a prince with God and learn like Him to be the true Israel and to hear our praise not of men but of God If we bare real Christian men and women we
 shall never forget these two great du-
 ties-the caring for Gods house and the l bringing of Gods offerings This house
 which I have set for pillar shall be
 Gods house, and of all that thou shalt
 give me I will surely give the tenth
 until thee.
 These are thoughts whichit is espec-
 ially we'll to bring to mind on this Sun
 day when our new church is so far
 complete that we have formally opened
 it for divine service. A Christian
 church brings especially before the
 mind the ideas of stability and perma-
 nence It represents indeed the beauty.
 the loftiness, the calmness, the mys-
 tery and the sanctity of religion. But
 still more than these, it represents to
 us it's eternity. It is the witness of
 Him who is the beginning and the end-
 ing, the first and the last It Is the
 token and emblem of Jesus Christ, the
 same yesterday, tot day and forever. It
 is our rare privilege then, dear people.
 in the building of this beautiful church
 to Gods house and glory to have been
 admitted to the present symbol of His
 eternity. We have reared upon this site
 what may be destined to have no end
 but in Christ's coming. Those who
 know, even in some small measure, the
 story of this building know that it
 stands as the glorious result of many
 earnest prayers offered in faith that
 God would answer them in his own
 good time and way. And hard work
 has accompanied prayer and much gen.
 erous giving, involving in many in
 stances real and touching self denial
 We have been most munificently remem- | bered, but after all these bricks and I stones have been bounded together in a
 large degree through the aggregate of many little offerings from those who
 were either poor or moderately well off
 in this worlds goods you, dear people,
 like David, have not offered until the
 Lord that which cost you nothing. Like | the widow with the offering of her two
 mites, you have done what you could.
 And God has answered your prayers and rewarded your efforts and your 1 gifts in enabling you to erect a church
 which for beauty and dignity of pro-
 portions is rarely equalled in this part l of the world. We have the bare fabric
 It is to be our great privilege now, as 1 God shall give us the ability to deco
 rate and enrich it. A certain baroness l reveals even to superficial eyes inc