The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-09-06
CHRISTIAN LIFE A MARCH
REV. MR. DENT AT PARK METHO-
 DIST CHAPEL, YETSERDAY.

Unique Decorations on the Chapel Walls - Christian Life is an Onward March-Past Experiences in Religious Life Should be Forgotten-"Don't Dig Up Old Passport to the Midst of the Giorified Throng." Interesting services are held every Sunday afternoon at the new Park
 Methodist chapel on Ocean View street,
 Morris Cove. The chapel was recently dedicated, and has been found an airy
 and comfortably pleasant house of worship even in the hottest of weather.
 It has a seating capacity of about
 l50 and is we'll appointed. A variety of
 potted plants and flowers hide the pull
 pit platform behind which are three
 colored windows. Between the win
 dows at the sides MT. John Haeberle,
 the artist of Morris Cove, has done
 some excellent decorating. Part of it
 is certainly unique and all well execut-
 ed. The portraits of the twelve apos-
 ties will be part of the decoration. The
 AlSetuS nave Detll ShGlClGu llilGC
 of them are already finished. Those
 that have been completed are the heads
 of St. John, St. Peter and St. Simon.
 That work and other beautiful paint
 ing in the chapel has been done by MT.
 Halberle voluntarily, and because of his
 interest in the church and the Cove.
 very handsome bible for the pulpit
 desk and several chairs have been do-
 mated by friends, and MT. James Tot
 ham has donated the use of good or
 gan.
 The singing at the service yesterday
 afternoon was led by a quartet of two
 ladies and two gentlemen, and they al
 so rendered two or three beautiful se-
 lections. After the offering had been
 gathered by two little boys, Rev. Elmer
 A. Dent, pastor of St Andrews M E.
 church at Four Corners, delivered a
 powerful and effective sermon Mir Dent took for his text, Exodus IA, 15,
 "Go forward" He said In part: "The
 theme certainly means Christian pro- gress. It involves the necessity of ad- Vancement, and denotes the manner of that progress. Such progress is neces- sary for where we are not growing we are not living. There is no middle po- sltlon-We are either going forward or We are going backward, and Christian progress is the Christian life, and un- less that life is alive there Is no growth. Take for instance the example of the tent. Israel had been in Egyptian slav- cry and the whole nation had been re- duced to 1t. The day of deliverance came, and Moses, the chosen of God, ruled Israel. and the slave population began to stretch out of slavery toward the land of freedom. After a while Pharaoh recanted and sent an army to bring them back The Israeites had arrived close to the Red Sea, into difficult place with mountains on the right and mountains on the left, the sea before and the Egyptians behind. To go back meant captivity, but how should they go forward into the sea? :? Then at Moses command they stood still until God had spoken and said. Go forward From that day to this the church has gone forward, never fal- tering; nor will she halt until command ed by the head of the church But we must have a goal toward which we march Christian perfection nothing more and nothing less. It is not enough to be an honest man; nor a truth-tell- Ing man with any other ideal than per lection. We are not to become relir- uos because it pleases our father or mother, or our friends. and the man who becomes honest because 1t is good policy is still dishonest. The man who | speaks truthfully simply because at | nay prosper his business or may win | 1im the admiration of friends Is stii a | far. The Christian must be perfect, | Or the command is Be ye perfect even | IS I am perfect and Be ye holy even | IS I am holy
 Tn the Christian life there is no stop oage. It is a continuous forward move nent as expressive of God as high as he celestial skies. Take Pauls words: count not myself to have apprehend- d but this one thing I do, f the things which are behind
 press toward the prize of the high allng of God in Christ Jesus By osing ourselves from the past we are 0 forget wasted and lost opportunities nd to press forward We are to for -et our bad deeds, yes, and we would l ave not slept well some nights on ac- ount of them and they have troubled IS in our waking thoughts When the pirit of God comes in convicting power pon a man he recollects the past, but vhen the peace of God follows the rec Election we are cut off from the past nd it troubles us no longer. Many a nan has felt that consciousness of his ast deeds and has beer deterred from estifying his belief in Jesus Christ, put lhen the spirit of God comes those hackles are broken and he is no longer npeded. A man who has looked to 'hrist for salvation should turn his ack on the past. Instead of that many i
 man turns his face toward it and ,oks at his sins until they not only , onsume him, but he consumes them nd becomes of the same stuff, and I reat will be the fall of that man. lr
 But not only are we to forget the z vii deeds of the past, but we are to