The Portland daily press., 1898-12-05

MIN. We cannot fail to see that difncul6
as IL is sometimes to believe in Gods
| goodness it is far more difficult to disbe-
heVe. We understand enough OF Gods
ways of blessing to make US trust in
those ways we cannot understand. We
| Will have Abraham's faith We will be-
lieve that there is one Infinite in power
and wisdom and love who rules over all.
We will believe that he speaks to us and
bids us put away fear.
| The speaker then tenderly spoke Of some
OF those who had been lost ON the Port
land and who had been connected with
his church.
| And so as we think of all the awful
scenes of that dreadful Sunday. and, in
imagination behold the scenes of desc
lated Cape Cod, two mighty convictions
come, of Immortality and of final blessed
| ness for MI. There is no reasonableness
| TO this life If there is no other life be-
You'd. And who shall dare to say that
in that life this irreligious who went
down into the depths of the sea shall
| have noS chance to come to themselves
and be at one with God? Q tumultuous
wayesl 0 agony of breaking hearts!
Above all these is the faith of Abraham
and with this we can go further forward
to meet whatever may come. We'too will
believe in God.
CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL
| At the cathedral of the Immaculate Con-
ception yesterday morning Rt. Rev. Bis
hop Healey, before the sermon spoke
overtaken SO many in our midst and the
prayers of the congregation for their
souls.
Today at o'clock solemn requiem mass
will be celebrated for the victims of the
| wreck.
FIRST PARISH.
At the First Parish church before the
prayer MI. Perkins spoke as follows:
The worship and the praise in all our
churches today is dominated by one
deep note of sorrow. Gods wind and sea
which day by day furnish so abundantly
the blessings of transportation and trade
have in one short night wrought desola-
ton and destruction.
1t is not death itself we fear. There
is no sorrow in mere dying. 1t is of all
things the most natural. May we know
it to be but another of the blessings that
in the mercy Of God pursues and impor-
tunes our spirits. Death itself is not
destruction nor desolation. But the death
of fear; Of nervous. anxious pain; Of
bitter separation; of lonely vigil; of wild
suffering and turmoil of futile tragic
strife with the mighty elements of nature,
sweeping across our path in fury-these
are the deaths that rend our minds and
crush our hearts; that stop our ears and
blind our eyes; that make the senses
cease; that throw us back into the arms
of God, where we must simply commune
with him and be still.
AS we meet here i'll our place we must
be aware of the mighty meaning of sor-
row, for it leads SO many to the same
great knowledge. We with the multitude
are stungss with the vision of sudden
thought Not alone our church, but all
the churches in our city, in our state and
in how many other states we know not
are brought to the one common altar of
sadness. Perchance as never before we
ara worshippers together are all brought
to the steps of Gods Infinite temple. We
know each others hearts and needs as we
so rarely can know them in life's custom
ary path. If there is individual loss it is
consecrated by the universal loss. II
special pain it is made divine by the COM
mon pain. II peculiar grief it Is seen as
Gods hand shaping general grief. And
while we estimate this calamity by each
several broken home and each particular
scene of anguish, much more truly should
we estimate it as a universal calamity.
And in this strange consciousness that It
belongs to us all the common ties OF life
ara found more firm IN the sense OF
sympathy gro rs to giant strength in an
instant; the common fatherhood of God
and the brotherhood of man ara revealed
to our spirits in far greater power than
we hith erto could dream Of. Ii it be
true as we are told that from one church
in our midst, the A byssinian, score were
suddenly snatched away, then their grief
is our grief, their loss is our loss. Thus
in one greatest moment when our life
stops with the sense of weakness, we in
fact become more strong. because in our
deep sincere communion with each other
we are all upheld in the same everlasting
arms
Our particular loss is of young life
and young voice that ministered here
to our worship and our song. We share
this loss with widowed mother, whose
greatest stay and strength she was. They
say who know her best that hers was
life of simplicity and earnest serious wo-
manhood; modest gentle character;
q genial helpful nature. Her gift OF song
became the object Of her ambition. IL
shaped her life to higher thinking, to
more devoted effort, to wider outlook
into the future, to new endeayor, to
broader sense Of service in the world.
There was promise of great joy and
worth in such a nature and with such
gift.