The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-12
HELD VESPER SERVICES
REV. MIX. MILBURN's SERMON AT SEC
OND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
a Little "Liturgy''-Rcv. MIR. LitteII at
the First United Pres
byterian.

The Vesper service conducted by Rev. j.
a. Milburn at the Second Presbyterian
Church at o'clock yesterday afternoon was
well attended. These services are intended
to take the place Of the usual Sunday night
sermon, which will hereafter be abandoned.
The exercises yesterday were of a most
pleasing character. The chanting of the
Lords prayer by the choir came at the end
of the invocation Then the Gloria Patria"
was sung in response to the alternate read
ing of the psalms by pastor and congrega-
ton After the sermon there was an organ
solo, "The Pilgrims Chorus played by
Charles Hansen. This was followed by the
anthem Now the Day is Over" During
the service the choir sang the anthem
Peace, be Still to words written by Mrs.
j. A. Milburn.
The pastor took for his text the scriptural
passage, To-day if you will hear His
voice." Mr. Milburn spoke of the oppor-
tunities of to-day-of the privileges of doing
good and righteous things that may never
come again. He said there is only one mo-
ment we can call our own-only one time
that men may call themselves absolutely
free. Men have no power over the past;
they cannot unseal the past. All that has
been done is eternally done. Neither have
We power over the future. No one can tell
what tomorrow may bring. THE only mo-
ment you and have" said the pastor, lis
the now. That is what Paul meant when
he said. Now is the day of salvation See
what the day may bring us. 1t may mean
a new birth of the spirit. We may have
been living a life of spiritual Indifference.
People live for themselves too much and
never think of God. To-day we may come
out of that indifference, that lethargy and
come TO God. You and may to-day come
to realize our obligation to the church If
we have been cold and neglectful."
Mr.. Milburn urged his hearers to live
larger lives. Too many people live narrow
lives They love themselves and what is
their own. There is too much me and my
wife, and my son John and his wife" sort
of living, the pastor said. Let your love
be universal, he continued What we
want is a love not for the saint alone but
for the sinner. Gods message has come to
every heart. How good and kind ana
lenient He has been. Again and again we
have been perVerse and hayward. How
patient He has been to restore us and 6ulld
us up when we come back. The first thing
TO do is to live. There is not man in this
city who is living a full rich and generous
life. You are existing and / am existing.
But who lives? To live is not to merely
exist here on this earth, but it Is to live
within the power of God, to feel that His
is to love. Love those who need your help.
Love the world as you love your own
daughter Oh, if we only knew how to love
what a paradise this world would be. There
would be no wanderer no Magdalen out
there in the street this afternoon il we knew
how to love. Jesus of Nazareth said, Love
one another even as L have loved you FIRST
let US live, then love and minister to those
who need US lifting this earth with It's HUI
manity nearer the throne"
Mr.. Miburn, at his morning service,
gracefully dismissed the intimation that he
was showing tendency to carry his con-
gregation into a liturgical form or wor-
ship by saying that he would not plunge it
very deeply into this form. Whatever views
he might have, he did not expect to force
them upon his congregation people, and he
would certainly not carry them away from
their Presbyterian faith. Mr. Milburn naive
ly admitted that perhaps he entertained
quite number of views different from those
of his church friends, but he did not think
they would ever cause any difrerenceS IN
the congregation. we shall have little
liturgy to begin with said he, with
smile. The reading Of the Psalm with re-
a while. Perhaps his congregation might
take kindly to hearing the litany read. 1t
quiet smiles on the faces in front of him
il was apparent that his people are willing
to put their faith in him to any extent, and
thus ended the first brush with liturgy in
the Second Presbyterian Church.
Mr.. MilburnS morning sermon was very
thoughtful and conclusive discourse, in
which he undertook to show that while all
the great forces of the present age are posi-
tive and creative, that the negative forces
are really those which tend to the best
progress of the world. Celebrating upon
this he contrasted a number of great prin-
cipleS and conditions. To illustrate, he
showed that while heat is a positive force
and cold, the absence of heat, a negative
quality yet all the greatest activities of the
world principally have been conducted away
from the tropical lands. 1t was the absence
of heat which forced man to be self-reliant
and strive for comfort, bringing him to
hearthstone and giving him an opportunity
to come under the influence of the intel
lectual and moral fecundity of solitude"
The negative note in literature, the sad the
one to hold the worlds attention. In con-
GLIDING, Mr. Milburn said that God was not
truth, and love, and beneficence. but was
the infinite truth, the infinite love and in
finite benefcence-the infinite. not known,
the unending. the negative Of the known
and of the ending.