Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-10-24

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The tenth anniversary of st. Mathews
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80 wac
{ ceie Dfateu WIN special services IN St.
Mathews p. 3. Church, yesterday
morning. Many members of other Cir
cles in the city were present, and the
congregation was unusually large. The
offering was for the benefit of the Day
Nursery, which is conducted under the
auspices of the city union of the Daugh-
tiers. II amounted to about $500. The
music was very pleasing feature. The
vested choir, under the direction of
Paris r. Myers. excellently rendered the
following programme:
Venite Hays.
TIE Deum, in C,.... Baker.
J1bilate Dec Parker.
Inflammatus Rossini.
(Master Eddie Schell, soloist)
The sermon was preached by the rec
tor of the Church, the Rev. N. S.
Thomas.
He took his text from Acts 3-16:
"And his name, through faith in His
name hath made this man strong"
ssFrom the earliest ages" he said,
"the giving of a name has been to all
primitive people. of the greatest con-
Germ. This is true of the Jewish peo-
ple. In, the short account of the crea-
ton in the Bible, eleven verses are taken
up with the naming of things. God
named the works of His hand. Later
He named Abraham and Isaac and ia
cob, John the Baptist, and Peter. By
Jewish law, man married his brothers
wife to perpetuate his name. In the
time of Joshua, NOT only was Gods
name not spoken, but the gods of the
heather as we'll.
But why such stress upon a bare
name? There is no question: as to the
fact For answer turn to first
chapter of Genesis: God made man in
his own image, and let him have domin-
ion over every living thing upon the
earth" And again: God brought them
to Adam to see what he would call
them. and whatsoever Adam called
every living creature, that was the
name thereof" The kernel of the mat
ter lies in the word dominion. To give
name was the symbol of power of
authority. There is pathetic thought
here. in a man striving century after
century to establish his petty dominion
by naming things. What did Newton
accomplish? He took a thought of God
and gave it a name gravitation. Did
ever scientist or discoverer do more?
The speaker then referred to the
many unsuccessful attempts to name
the unapproachable One, until Jesus
called Him "Father" One of the
reasons for the importance attributed
to a name, is that it carries the idea
of authority Primitive peoples have
COMPOUNDED the symbol and the thing.
are but the relics of the
ancient belief I'M the power of a name
to work miracles. Jesus was thought
to work miracles through the name of
Beelzebub, and Shakespeare's imbecile
iabbering of the witches is but the
WEEK. >rcock of medieval faith in mean
bn "C0f1ft~ but pronounce that
extraordinary name" thought Merlin,
the British wizard, II too could rival
these Deeds Superstition has had
much to do with this but if we peer
into the cause for the superstition, we
shall find it reaching into the idea of
authority and power seen u the first
chapter of Genesis.
Another thought suggested by the i'm
portance given name, is identity.
Through names we gain clear ideas. 1t
is a question whether we should be able
to distinguish the colors of the spec
trum, were it not for names. DR..
Asher, in his learned treatise on color
sense, gives paucity of words as the
reason for the inexact vision of the
ancients. In the classics no word for
pure blue, the Latin paerulus, is of an
elasticity which has at times driven
pnilologists to despair, running as it
does, from black to gray and again to
blue. This is no mere matter of words,
but of vision. The Greek make this
manifest, when Homer likens the hair
of Odysseus to hyacinth, and Pindar
speaks frequently of violet locks and of
yellow leaves, when all was clad in the
green of spring.
So the Importance of a name lies not
only in the fact that it is symbolic of
authority, but that it establishes iden-
THY. The name is not the thing, but it
is the agent by which the thing is
known.
Applying this to God, Gods name
symbolizes His power and establishes
His identity, standing for absolute per-
fiction When we utter it in prayer or
praise, the mind with one comprehen-
sive sweep, freely grasps at Omnipo-
tence, omniscience, omnipresence, good
ness, justice, love and mercy. But
when We utter it fOOlishiy or yainly the