The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-06-19

Rev. j. r. Ellis, of Elakely, occupied
the pulpit of the Jackson Street Bap-
tist church yesterday morning and
preached an eloquent sermon on
Measuring jerusalem" taking his
text from Techarah, ii:2-4, "Whlther
goest thou? And he said unto me, TO
measure Jerusalem, to see what is the
breadth thereof, and what is the length
thereof Run, speak to this
young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be
inhabited as towns without walls for
the multitude of man and cattle there
in"
Rev. Ellis spoke, in part, as follows:
"Zechariah is the most uniformly hope
full of the ancient secrs. A contempor-
airy of Haggal, he encouraged the Jews
to rebuild their temple. His mission
was successful. The prophecies, en-
bodied in the book bearing his name,
bear the stamp of splendid imagination
and indicate a mind endowed with rare
poetic gifts. Like those of Daniel.
Zechariah's prophecies forecast the
horoscope of history, from his own to
the times Of Gentle supremacy, but
are concerned chiefly with the fortunes
of Israel. The Book is an apocalypse.
The prophet saw things invested with
the glory of morning, and wreathed
about with the flush Of summer. One
after another he draws pictures Of
what God is about to do.
Various prophets refer to the same
mystic measurer Zechariah saw. The
vision is an allegory, it carries n great
gospel truth. The material is a type
of the spiritual, the Jerusalem of the
prophets vision is not the earthly, but
heavenly Jerusalem. Looked at thus,
it is full of significance, effulgent with
light, and vocal with a great evangel
of hope. Two things worth considering
are suggested: First, a faith that real
ICES things unseen to mortal vision;
second. the impossibility of measuring
by human standard the things faith
sees.
The proposal of the measurer in the
text, to the worldly man would seem
an absurdty. Great faith is often
sneered at as great folly. Many prov
erbs have become concurrent, in the
language of the day, that pour con-
tempt upon the lofty idealism of heroic
souls. The gospel of the world has for
its text, Seeing is believing. Religious
people are sneered at for "Otherworld-
liness.' But the one great divine need
of this materialistic age is a fresh in
fusion into mems souls of this Spirit
Of the other world. that they may feel
the powers of the age to come.
"Earth's greatest men have been
idealists. The whole vast galaxy of
Immortals.' who live in lives made bet
ter by their presence, have had their
inspiration in the vision of things to
come. men who have flung their
thoughts far into the future. Derided
as fanatic while they lived, they are
now the acknowledged kings of human
thought. The dead, but sceptered SOW
ereigns.' whose spirits rule us from
their urns.
only as we catch the spirit of such
men can we, the workers of today, do
our work bravely and patiently. APP
piled to Christian service. many illus
trations were given of the power Of
faith transfiguring life with a new pur-
pose. Let us look at ourselves in the
light of Divine promise and infinite
purpose and we shall see towering
above the ruins of old Jerusalem the
city of God, which is eternal.
The things visible to the eye OF
faith are immeasureable. To the Pat
mos seer the dimensions of the city
were given, men taking their cue from
the figures given. have speculated as
to the size of the city of God. What |
folly! There is an unknown quantity |
entering into all God does, a divine |
equation which defies measurement. |
Men cannot gauge moral influences, nor |
tabulate spiritual forces; h church |
cannot be measured. 1t is easy to find |
out the number Of it's membership, |
quite easy to take a census, but the |
church of Christ in it's self-forgctting |
generosity, enthusiasm and patience |
cannot be measured.
"A large church-yet it may be n can |
desticll, the candle removed: salt that |
has lost its SAVIOR. The 500 or 1000 |
may be as smoke, the handful like the |
burning Seraphim before the Al |
mighty's throne. Tables of statistics |
are like Noah'S ark, they include the |
clean and unclean. The church is |
smaller than measuring tables. The |
church also is larger and broaderfor ii |
is a multitude no man can number. |
There is power in the church none can
measure; some not yet converted, ,mu2 2h
but half converted.
Let the breath Of God from the four
winds but breathe upon us and we
shall live. With buOyant faith regard |
life in its vast OutTeaCh of worth and |
upreach Of wealth: know that we are
all a part of Gods great plan for time
and eternity, thus inspired there will
be no failure, no encouragement God |
opens our eyes to see. and seeing Gods |
vision we shall so on from strength to
The pastor, Rev. Thomas de Gruchy,
preached in Blakely church i'm the |
and Mrs. William Scott, a
missionary, spoke in the afternoon.
INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS.
The recently elected officers of |
Branch 10. Ancient Order of Hibern-
ians, were installed al the regular
meeting in Masonic hall yesterday af-
ternoon. They are as follows:
President, Anthony McAndrew; vice
president, John Granahan; recording
secretary, William McAndrew; finan-
cial secretary, Peter Cosgrove; treas
urer, NJ. F. Wymbs; standing commit
tee, John O'Connor, Patrick Hayes,
Patrick Shovlin, Henry McDermott,
Patrick Whisted; sergeant at arms,
Peter Merrick; doorkeeper, James
Murphy.
4 70 ~ 4 nv