The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-07-29
REV. Mr.. BILLMAN'S SERMON
DILITFRED 1T DW7GHT PLACE
CHURCH YESTERDAY MORNING.
''Thc MI. Zion Type of All That is Good"
Was the Subject of the Discourse,
Which Was an Interesting One.

Was the Subject of the Discourse
Which Was an Interesting One.
Rev. Howard Billman, of Keene, N
H., occupied the pulpit at Dwight
Place church yesterday morning and
subject of which was 1.-THE Mt. Zion
Type of All That is Good"
The text was taken from Hebrews ~,
is and %: Eye are not come unto a
mount that might be touched. Ye are
come unto Mount Zion
The preacher spoke in part as fol-
lows: Eye are not come unto such a
mount as Sinai grand though it was
and necessary to the good of the people.
There it was clear against the sky
anyone could look upon it. There it
was, too a type of law, definite and dis
tinct in all it's meaning, as unbending
ad unsympathetic as law must always
be. 1t could make nothing perfect. Ye
are not come to such mount. Ye
come to Mt Zion, there was manifested
the presence Of God; thither the tribes
came up and were bathed in His
truth. Zion was not great in itself but
God was great ann He revealed Him
self more and more to the minds of His
people SO that all accidents of time
| must vanish from the worship. The
people did not need to touch Zion; 1t
touched them. 1t was not their part to
work anything into Zion, but Zion, He
who dwelt on Zion, was to work His
health into them. Now a mountain to
be touched is a mountain to be used,
but mountain which touches us trans
forms our natures. 1t deals with us
gently and patiently, correcting our
faults and renewing our spirits until
all the grace for which the mountain
stands shall have passed into u.s. So
let us be glad that we have not come
to mountain that may be touched
We do not need to go by the sense Of
touch in our religion. Touch is well
enough in some things. 1t is the grace
of God but it has its limitations. 1t
will tell us the size of a thing, its hard
ness or softness, something perhaps
about the quality, and there it stays. If
we would know anything more we must
seek information in other ways. Yet
there are people who would have re-
ligion give itself to them In such man
ner that they could take it and put
their hands upon it, measure it as they
would an article of merchandise, deter
mine its substance as they would a
product out Of the mills. Religion, the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ does not
lend itself to us in that way You can
not go UP to it to work your genius
into it as you can many things. We
are growing into the habit of thinking
that every mountain is mountain to
be touched, What cannot the genius
of man do? It can weave net works
of rails binding the remotest of places
together; it can lift up a slender thread
of wire and through it hold commune
cation with whom it will: 1t can make
oceans to be it's highways. The prob
lens which genius has to solve are not
such as come to isolated bodies of men.
We do not thinks as fragments of man
kind, there is nothing local for us. All
is for humanity. Everything has a
world wide significance. The world Is
smaller than it used to be because we
know it's bounds. 1T is UNNECESSARILY I
larger for we are entering into it's quail
tiles. Into this larger world the genius
of man has come. This world of quail |
ity is here and Carnegie, Pierpont Nor
gan and Rockefeller are showing us
what man can do Why, give us any |
kind of a mountain and we can reduce |
it to it's elements in short time. A
that may be touched Is en-
tirely 1t our mercy; men may put 1t in .
their pockets and walk off with 1t. 1t |
is the spirit of self assertion that is
abroad: this sense of conquest, this
feeling that we can reduce anything to
our purposes that has got into us and
which are pressed upon by innumera
BILE cares, so that we do not have a
great deal of time for God 1t has
come to this, that God is not quite so
big as be used to be. Our forefathers
here in New England planted their
feet upon a little tract of land along
the Atlantic and beyond them there
was tractess waste of forest. There
were impossibilities for them they
knew that there were. 1t did not great
ly trouble them that this was so, but
they believed in God. Their idea of
bigness was the bigness of God. The
bigness was enough for them to know.
1t filled their minds, their lives, their
sous They could afford to have Ger
ain contempt for other things. They
had not gotten into the habit of touch
ne mountains to see them dissolve into
plains. They did believe in God to such
4 degree that their belief mastered
hon, body and soul
1t put certain quality in their lives
hat we are sadly missing to-day. To
1ut mountain into your pocket isn't
anything if you have lost character:
sn't anything ie you have lost out OF
your character that which tables you
o work your genius. We are not ma
erialists, we have not come to a noun
ain that might be touched Nor is our
eligion q religion of fear Fire did
omething for the ancient Israeites.
When before Sinai they would have
,een Irreverent and passed into the
mount God interposed by fire. FIRE
nay be used to work wholesome fear
n natures at certain time. The
hid needs to be afraid to it, but such
ear is not religion. 1t is not majesty
ressed I'D in such way to awaken
we. That Is not the mountain to
which we must come. There are some
eople who seem to think that when