The Newtown bee., 1901-05-10

clearer vision, the book which takes
the dimming mist of earthly thoughts
from our eyes and gives us vistas of
the Christ-life and the growing revela-
ton, which inspires us to lift up our
eyes unto the hills from whence
cometh our help, to the heights of
God whittier day by day upborne by
the Spirit of God we are mounting to
nobler ideals of love and service.
With singular appropriateness ap-
plies to this church to-day the words
which Bishop Coke wrote of old Trim
ity in the metropolis:
Not this Gothic gazing-stocls,
Where naught is meant or told;
Translated into solid rock,
The prayer books self behold!
Sermons in stones, yes, more beside,
Alanguage and a voice,
Much uttered-but far more implied
That makes the heart rejoice.
For like the mother church,
From porch to top-most tower.
1t telleth of the Trinity,
And preacheth Christ with power"
But for what does this outward beauty
and symbolism stand? What does it
predicate and imply? Does it not
speak of the moral order and beauty
that should compose the spiritual
temples wherein dwelleth the spirit of
God?- For after all these temples
made with hands are far less import
ant than those we pray God to raise
up at the last day and which we pray
by his spirit he will from day to day
raise to higher ideals of duty and de-
votion. A glorious church like this
speaks of the holiness which should
mark it's members, of the symmetry of
life, the graces symbolic of the divine
life which should reign within us. AS
interest in the cause of Christ prompts
the ornamentation Of the material
edifice so that interest is thrown back
and reflected in the worshippers, the
outward acts upon the inward. Even
as Christ in material human body
appealed to the eyes of men, even as
He himself was living sacrament
and means of grace to those who saw
and believed, so in lower but a true
sense the outward dwelling place of
Christ may be an instrument of Gods
glory, may promote the inward moral
ha rmony, the gracious correspondence
of our character to the character of
Christ. Who shall say that these
dainty tinted walls do not promote
worshi p better than bare, plain plas-
tered walls, and
IF THEY PROMOTE WORSHIP
does that not affect the will, the
thoughts, the actions, and so
finally the character. That does not
mean that some poor but faithful
flock on the frontiers, in the sparsely
settled parts of the nation may not in
their plain little church built of adobe
or hewn logs, grow more successfully
than we in Christian graces, if they
give of their best while we withhold
from Christ our choicest and best.
God looketh on the heart, he judgeth
not as man oftimes judgeth, he accepts
not according to the amount bestowed
but according to the ability, willing
ness of the giver and the proportion
ateneSs.
But we, because our church does
correspond in large degree to our
material environment, because the out
ward adornment is in some sense evil
the finest of all things layished on
Christ is not waste but honor to the
Lord Of All, so this very giving and en-
| richment must teach the beauty OF
| sacrifice, must uplift and stimulate us
to make these earthly temples of the
body the temples Of God must con-
strain us to adorn our lives with ''holy
| offerings, rich and rare, offerings of
love and prayer" SO that the spirital
Kingdom of Christ shall be built up in
the world and men constrained to ac-
knowledge andfollow the King.
And how again ought this lovely
church to conduce to the fineness and
exquisite finish of character. AS we
| adorned His house with fair colors,
with handiwork of cloth of gold, with
whitest linen, with richest tracery of
art exhibited in the work of the paint
| er and carver, in tinted window and
| choicely craven metal, so ought it's
antitype to appear in us living tenn
| pies of the Holy Ghost. How these
moving, breathing, real, eternal tenn
pies Of God ought to reflect the beauty
| of holiness, the whiteness of moral
purity, thoughts made crystalline by
the pure breath of God breathing
| through them, words refined, wrought
out by that Word who in Tennyson's
glowing language, chad breath and
| wrought with human hands the creed
Of creeds," deeds rejecting Him "who
went about doing good" and finally,
character, enriched with those fine
| diversified shades of spirituality, of
moral worth, in which we all differ
from one another and yet each in div
ers parts and fashions reflect Him
| who is the Fulness of us all and filleth
all in all. So under the loving hand of
| the great builder and finisher of our
Faith shall we come, ourselves consti-
| tuting the very temple of God, not
craven by art or mans device, to the
Heavenly Jerusalem, the House not
made with hands eternal in the
| Heavens.
Brethren and fellow helpers, in the