The San Francisco call., 1896-01-01
MIDNIGHT At ST. LUKE'S
Solemn Service Held in the
Episcopal Church on Van
Ness Avenue.
Rev. William H. Moreland, the Pastor,
Addresses the Congregation on
~. 80
Timely Themes.

A midnight service of solemn character
was held last night at st. Luke's Episcopal
Church on Van Ness avenue and Clay
street, which, as the Rev. William II.
Moreland, the pastor, explained, was in
tended to accentuate the significance of
the passing of time. The church was
comfortably filled, and it was evident that
all present entered into the spirit of the
occasion with just understanding of its
solemnity and Importance.
At about II 20 the service began with a
full vested choir of boys and men singing
hymns as "a Few More Years Shall Roll, :"
"Alive With Me" and "Fast Falls the
Eventide'' were given. Mr.. Moreland de-
livered an address a few minutes before
midnight, and at five minutes to that hour
bade the congregation to kneel in silent
prayer, urging penitence for failures and
shortcomings of the past year, and re-
newed conservation to the service of God
He said:
We are assembled, my friends, to watch the
dying OF the old year and the birth OF the new
1t is q solemn hour. The passage from one
year to the next is in some sense like the
entrance of the soul OF man from this world to
the next. The book of 1885 crowded with the
experiences OF the past, is about to close for
ever, ana It's record Is before GOd, hnlShed now
and never to be recalled. Not one of you
present before me but received from the new
year, which you welcomed twelve months ago
opportunities of improvement and of happi-
ness. To every one OF you God has offered dav
by day gilt after gift; on each he has again
and again pressed his forgiying love, his
abounding grace, inspiring you to higher
nobler living; to each he mas sought to reveal
himself in numberless ways Think of the
voices that have spoken to you-the voices of
children calling you TO life of purity and
love, the dear voices in your own family the
tender warnings OF mother or wife or husband
or friend, voices that perhaps tonight whisper
to you from q grave or from loved ones far
aWay-all have been the voices of God to your
conscience, drawing you to.a life of goodness
holiness and love.
Do you not feel guilty as you look back upon
what you might have been? Have we not ell
more or less neglected these opportunitie OF
walking close TO God? Oh, il there be one
among you who has altogether scorned his
prOffered love, has rejected his continual reye-
Iatlon of himself or has been blinded to all his
mercies, let him now, in these last moments OF
the year, while we are gathered to seize
blessing from its departing sands, let him fall
on his knees before God and among his people
penitent for opportunities never to return
and confess his failure. 1t is not too late even
now, before the old year is dead, to gather
from it the rich blessing with which God
charged il generously when he sent it on its
mission twelyenonth ago. Penitent for past
failures let US all even now consecrate our
souls 10 God for the past and for the future
When we kneel III silent PRAYER, as we shall do
IN a few moments, before midnight strikes let
each OF you spend these departing moments in
deep repentance and earnest faith, saying TO
the old year, 81 will not let thee go except thou
bless me-" So will you gain even at the elev-
enth hour the blessing God is bending over you
and waits TO give.
Standing now between the old year and the
new, can not hear them as they are crying
aloud to one another? Listen to their voices
The old year is saying to the new, Take this
child OF God and give him more of life. Show
him greater things than could show him. He
has weak and humble spirit and bewails the
mistakes and losses of the past Now you open
TO him the richer, fuller life OF the year to
come"
And the hew year answers to the old: 81
will take him and lead him into new expert
enceS such as he expects not, he sits here
dreaming, l may lead him into valleys of sor-
row or to shining peaks of joy. But every dis
pensation will be full OF Jesus Christ coming TO
enrich his life. Every experience may be to
him blessing and glory, however sorrowful,
if he receives it as gift from the hand OF
Cod"
| us. We cannot stay in it if we would. Let US
so out of it nobly, acknowledge our failure,
| redeeming the past by going forth TO greater
deeds, more consecrated life
Think of Jesus Christ waiting to receive you
on the steps of the new year. Go forth with
| bravery and hope and give yourself to him.
After u P. NJ. the preacher said:
1 extend to you, beloved, the greetings of the
new year, welcoming you to it's new expert
ences and responsibilities. Whether vour feet
are to be led into the furnaces of af1iction
or into the feasting rooms of life, it viii be
happy year if you carry in your souls the abid-
ing presence of the Almighty Helper Every
moment of this new year may be precious
every incident bring fresh revelation OF God if
ouly the loving conservation is genuine if the
sacred dedication of the soul to God in these
first moments of the new year is carried into
it's most trivial moments. God be with you
and bless you il 1896.
After the discourse the choir sang as
recessional hymn, Awake, My Soul,
Stretch Every Nerve" and the service was
at al end.