The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-11
REV. MIR. EIDRIDGE'S
PREdCHED AT FIRST METHODIST CHURCH YESTERDAY MORNING.

His First Sermon in His New Pastorate
 Heard by Large Congregation--Cordi-
 ally Welcomed by His Parishioners-
 Spoke from the Text John 1O:1O.
 A large congregation assembled at the First Methodist church yesterday morning to hear the new pastor, Rev. G. F. Eldridge. He delivered strong sermon and fully justified the reputa- ton which had preceded him. After the service the congregation crowded to the front to welcome MT. Eldridge. He spoke from the text John 10, 10: q am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abun- dantly."
 The substance of the sermon was as follows: We are seekers of life, the vaster life. For our physical we till the soil and herd the cattle. For it, industry, commerce and competition conspire together For our intellectual life, driven out by our primary ideas, we dig and delve, and question and explore till we come back with a larger idea. Thus the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns."
 Then we come to the higher life involving the physical and intellectual and something more, taking in this world and another world, when we not only ask when and how life is made, but why it is made. With this ques- ton we push through all the bustling courts of life, through all the avenues of knowledge till we enter the holy place and stand in the presence of God and take our commission and equip ment from His hand. Into this world of life-seekers Jesus comes saying T am come that they might have life and have 1t more abundantly." But our methods of seeking life are so at variance with the divine method of giv- ing 1t. Our thoughts are not His thoughts. Once we thought God made the universe as a carpenter would make a house, and it was quite a shock when we learned that God moved along the lines of development. And our first idea of the larger life is that 1t should come through larger houses, better conditions. Our life giv- CT would be a scientist and philan- thropist, one who knows the laws and would use them for benevolent ends.
 Instead of this God sends the Man of sorrows" a mystery to us till we learn that He comes to set the soul free and awaken it to it's high destiny. Then it goes forth in the name of it's redeemer and asks for room to live, to live out the full or best life of the soul. Thought must be free to grow heavenward. The asthetic nature must be free to grow away from the mire of realism till it catches glimpses of the King in His beauty The whole soul must have room to grow out and up into the likeness of God.
 And this is the meaning of the com motion of the social world to-day. It issimply our humanity awakened by the Son of God to grasp the great fact that we are sons of God too, and going forth and claiming our heritage in the name of God. But life passes beyond the boundaries of this world. All the worlds great literatures take this for granted, but are unable to carry it be- yond a dream or a speculation. When Jesus lived, died and rose again, inn mortality became no longer dream nor a speculation, but fact. In this resurrection the full meaning of life is reached Life and immortality have come to light