The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-07-26
TN HIS FORMER PULPIT
REV. Dh. GILLAHER PRE1CHED 1T
 CALVARY BAPTIsr CHURCH.

An Eloquent and Able Sermon-Believes
 in tho Goodness of Humanity-Gives a
 Word, of Advice to Husbands-Greatest
 Thing in the Bible.
 Rev. Dr. H. M. Gallaher preached at Calvary Baptist church yesterday morning, and also in the evening. Dr. Gallaher was for a number of years pastor of this church, and his visit to the city, his we'll known reputation and eloquence, and the announcement that he would occupy Rev. MT. Poteat's pull pit brought back many of the former church members from distant parts of the city. Before the service Dr. Gala her moved about among the congrega- ton geeting his old parishioners.
 Rev. Dr. Gallaher read the morning lesson from the Sermon on the Mount in the fifth chapter of Matthew, and commented briefly. In commenting on the passage, "Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shah be in danger of the council; but whatsoever shall say Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire,' Dr. Gallaher said: That is in ded hard saying, seemingly difficult of interpretation, and many stumble over It. The explanation, 1t seems to me, however, lies In this that whosoever reaches that point in life where he comes to hate his neighbor, or where he considers himself so much above him that he cruelty despises him. that man sets up a little hell within him. self. The very worst punishment that God can permit to come upon man is to let that man become base"
 For the text of his eloquent sermon Rev. Dr. Gallaher chose Malachi 3, 16 and IT: Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and book of remembrance. was written be- fore Him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name"
 Rev. Dr. Gallaher spoke in part as follows:
 In your church prayer meeting of last Friday the friends spoke together of meditating upon Gods word. They spoke of the blessing there is in Chris tians coming together and talking of the Lord. 1 propose this morning to carry that thought out and make as clear as l can what is meant by this meditating upon the Lords word. You will notice that whenever Christ speaks to men He has a very high opinion of them. Indeed, He gives so high a character to men that we sometimes | q ct ha icfa alya J11sf iY,1y of His standing here this morning and looking down upon you and saying Be ye perfect even as your father in heav- en is perfect What, such people as we are perfect Yet that Is what He said, but our modern preachers have got so far that they wont allow men to think they are anything but miserable stuff. But Christ's method was different Go, and sin no more,' He says to one. You have power to refrain if you but want to- That Is a wonderful thing for Him to say, but nobody in the world ever had so high an opinion of men as Christ, and yet the only way to make a bad man good is to take him for better than he is. Let me ask you why do we love another person? The real foundation for all love is that we think we discover that the other per son loves us. We love God because He first loved us To me it is blessed sight to see two young lovers. because the young man finds his highest and ideal joy in devoted service and atten- tion to his love. And just so we get to love Christ with an unspeakable love because He thinks so highly of us That, too, is why we tell God in pray er things that We dare not tell anyone else He not only knows the life We are living, it's troubles and the temp tations that beset us, but he knows our long descent of good and evil, and bending down he lovingly listens to our prayer.
 'The Lord never yet made a man better by threatening him. You hus- bands never made your wives better or more devoted by domineering over them. and you never can. But how did the saints of our text come to do God s service? They feared Him. I wish that word feared might be changed, for it should be 'reverenced' A good man does not stand before God in the sense of a slave before his master, nor as a soldier before his officer. No. nor even as child before it's father. Nav, Christ says that henceforth He calls us not servants, but friends for the servant knows not what his master does. Now, if you should ask your self why you shrink from doing any thing that hurts your friends I think you would find that you would never say, If l did he might sometime pay me back But you would say some thing like this: T cannot bear to in- jure him for to strike him I must strike through my own heart Hence, the highest happiness in this world is to go and make another man happier than he is; then alone do we experience the highest good. and to be afraid to make our God feel bad is to fear Him.
 "The Psalmist said: I mediate upon thee in the night watches There are many times in which man must be alone to mediate and ponder the word of God Sit down and fix your thought upon some little word of the Bible and see how wonderfully it will be illumin- ated really believe there Is not much good in this world that has not come ont of some mans quietly thinking up- i on until 1t dawned upon his vision and he put 1t into execution and fulfill ment. Thought has made languages, has composed music, contrived marvel | ous inventions. discovered fabulous 1 mines. and enters into the secrets of