The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-28
DELIVERED HIS FAREWELL
REV. NJ. u. CHAPMAN PREACHED AZ
FIRST NJ. E. CHURCH..

terday Morning Listened to by a Large
Audience-Special Music Rendered by
the Church Choir.
The Rev. M. B. Chapman preached
his farewell sermon at the First Meth
odist church yesterday morning.
There was a large attendance and the
discourse was of unusual interest.
Some special music was rendered by
the church choir. The text was the
9th verse of the 3fd chapter of list Co.
rinthians, which reads 1--WE are labor
ers together with God"
He spoke as follows:
When Sir Isaac Newton lay undei
his apple tree at Woolsthorpe one sum-
mer day he cought a vision of that
great law of gravitation whose discov-
cry revolutionized astronomy and
changed our whole conception of that
visible universe through which our
small world rolls and swings Gravita-
ton links us with the stars-couples us
with considerations.
There is another majestic vision that
is slowly unfolding to the eyes and
rising upon the thought of this nine
tenth century AS yet it is scarcely
outlined, is dim and misty and uncer-
tain in many of its details, but we see
so much that there seems no longer
faint room for doubt that we have at
last discovered the clue that explains
and unifies the processes of creation
Science has been busy for centuries in
study of nature, each worker investi-
eating in his own department. The ge-
ologist in his quarry, the botanist in
his garden, the alchemist in his cruel
BILE, the biologist in his laboratory, the
philologist in his library and the arch
aeologist in his museum. Suddenly all
these solitary workers saw a vision;
behold, a great light discovered law
and spoke it's name with one accord
It is evolution. From the earliest and
remotest cell that began to stir with
life under the touch of God to the high
est organism on the summit of nature,
we can begin to trace a trend of conti-
nuity, a continuance and hereditary
ascent of life along line of persistent
development-one steadfast creative
process never varying, never hating,
never uncertain in it's purpose, and the
name Of that line of heredity that pro-
cess of creation, that ascent of life is
evolution.
Looking upon this vision of evolution
we are beginning to get glimpses of
another and higher vision. Amid all
this mysterious manifold age, long
working, we begin to perceive the pres
ence of the worker. Amid the unfold
ing and evolution of nature we begin
to apprehend the unfolder and the
-evolver.
In the long ascent Of life we begin t
feel the pulses of Him who always
was and always must be the life of all
life God is no longer outside His
world, an august spectator of the blind
laws and forces he has set in motion
He is no longer the engineer outside
the engine; He is the energy within it,
the worker in all it's working, the la
borer in all its labor, the life of all it's
life. This new and higher vision of
nature, it's unity of method, its persist
ence of purpose, it's continuity of life,
has given us new and higher vision
of God-as immanent in His world,
by Whom all things are made and in
Whom all things consist
This new and higher vision of God
has given us new and higher concep-
ton of man. Instead of dishonoring
man it UNNECESSARILY exalts him. All
this majestic process of evolution does
not eliminate in mountain and valley,
sky and sea, of moon and star; it does
not eliminate in things: it eliminates
in soul. All this long and painful as
cent of life has led up to one browning
contamination, and standing on the
summit of development as it's final
consummate masterpiece, being is
at last evolved into whom is breathed
the breath of spiritual and divine life;
a being conformed to the image of his
Creator, a child partaking in the ma
ture and sharing in the Immortality of
his Father and his God. What has po-
etry ever pictured, or theology ever
conceived concerning human dignity
and glory compared with this latest
revelation of science, the evolution of
man. All these long creative processes
eliminate at last in man, that one
devined far off event toward which the
whole creation moves" With man
standing on his feet and with his face
to the sky, there begins new and
higher evolution new labor of God
the development of mind, the growth
of character, the organization of soci-
ETY., the advance of civilization, the
conquest of the whole earth, by the
kingdom of heaven. He Who has been
working with atoms and forces and
physical organisms now begins to work
with souls. He Who has been pouring
the tides of His life into the veins of
nature now begins to touch and quick
en- and kindle the brain, the conscience
and the heart, and carry on and carry
UP the evolution of character, and reli-
gion of society and the state, of civili-
cation and the church, of the world
wide kingdom of God. Here as ever
God works from within, not from with
out. He works along the line of hui
man agency. He supplies unbound
ed recourees, but man must discover
and utilize them and so make them his
own Whatever He does for man He
does by man and with man. He does
nothing for man that man can do for
himself Steam electricity eraVita-