The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-03
AT THE Y. M. C. A. MEETING
DE. LOUIS E. STE REETER, THE NEW
 PASTOR
or East Pearl Street Methodist Church Very Practical and Helpful Ad- Are9a.

A Very Practical and Helpful Ad-
 dress.
 The Rev. Louis R. Streeter D. D., the new pastor of the East Pearl street Methodist church, Fair Haven, gave very practical and helpful address at the mems meeting of the Young Men 5 Christian association yesterday after noon. His subject was Lessons from the Corner Stone" and the address was in part as follows:
 "The other day the corner stone or the new building for this association was laid with becoming ceremonies and if was suggested to me by the as- sistant secretary that that corner store might suggest a suitable theme TOT our meditation this afternoon.
 If we turn to the 20th verse or the second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians we read these Words: Anu are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Chrlst Himself being the chief corner stone. < Tn this passage the thought IS that what the foundation and the corner stone are to any material building Jesus Christ is to his church in splfltual sense The church is built upon Jesus Christ; upon His authority; upon ELS doctrine, and as the apostle thinks or the church in process of erection rising upon Christ it's foundation he con ceives of each member of the church X under the metaphor of stone, set ln- flo the walls and into the pillars, each < stone fitted to the other, till at last these shall stand forth a completed structure, a perfect temple or the Lord, and the members of the church as thus thought of, the apostle calls living stones It is a most beautlrul figure of speech, most naturally ana easily setting before our spiritual Vls- ion the divine mission of the church Ill the world, a mission in unity and holy virtues and fellowships, which we pe- 1ieye will some day have actual reall2a- lion. But it is in my thought to speak particularly this afternoon regardlns .Tesus Christ as the corner store, ana with this view of the question natural 1v arises What are the ofhces or uses If a corner stone?' We reply first, one A nffice of the corner stone is that or support. This use of the corner stone appears to have filled large ana more important place in the large buildings Sa nf ancient times than in modern times. Rnbinson speaks of the corner stones in ancient temples as measuring nine +een feet in length and seven and one half feet in thickness.
 "Annther office is a metrical one. In an important sense the corner stone IS IA ,,ni+ of measurement for the whole huilding. the starting point of meas urenent. all other angles being deter 2 mined thereby. From a point at the nther edge of the corner stone the ' huilder starts his line horizontally and along that line he begins layng tile stones. And as the builder proceeds can imagine myself standing py anu watching him, and I observe he places the first stone against the corner stone Ire stone does not perfectly line up' < and then by a hammer or other lnstru- 1nent he subjects the stone to trlm- ming process, that he may make US proportions what is desired The stone must yield to the trimming process u must be made to line up with the corner stone or it cannot go into the building. And this is the office of Jesus Christ in the building of His church. in the building of the temple of Christianity, the temple of righteousness, morality, character, manhood. All lines that de- termine perfect angles and proportions begin in Him. By this building l stand watching the builder placing the stones against Jesus Christ, the corner stone AS I watch I observe he seeks to place a stone that will not line up with the ccrner store. I ask What is the mat ter?' and the reply is The difficulty is a protuberance a. bulge in the shape or dishonesty which the builders instru- rnent must exscind, for dishonesty Will not line up with Jesus Christ AS the builder goes on with his work I observe other malformed stones coming into < his hands that has need to be treated in the same manner. There is the stone deformed by unbelief. The stone that fs deforned by pride, another by sen- suality another by avarice another by selfshness and the, stone that Is de- formed by hatred and lot of other stones which must needs be exscinded before they can be made to line up with the corner stone-Jes Christ. My brothers, as you from time to time stand against the corner stone of the new building and observe how perfectly all the stones line up with it you shall be reminded that it is only as you in your principles and tempers and habits and deeds line up with Jesus Christ that you can have a place in the tenn ple of truth and righteousness.
 "A third office of the corner stone unites in itself these two particular ideas, viz: The commemorative and the s honorable. The former idea is carried out in the placing of historic articles, names, symbols, etc., within 1t. The 4 other idea is that of honorableness, and that not a secondary position of honor, but the chief.
 .This is the position which Jesus Christ holds in the temple of all that is worthy and good in this world, He whom the builders of old rejected has become the head, the chief, or the cor ner stone.
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 .'As in the days to come we shall look upon the corner store of the new Y. M C3 A. building we shall act wisely if we pause and permit that stone and all other stones that line up with it to remind IS that if we would become lively stones in the temple of virtue, truth and honor our lives must line up with Jesus Christ. who is to that tenn r,le the chief corner stQre."