The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-04-22
UNITED CHURCH SERVICE
VERT FINE SERMON PREACHED
 BY REV. MR. PRENTISS.

At Union Congregational Services Yes- : terday Mornlng-Theme, the sleeping
 sentineIs, at OIiTet and in Everyday
 Life.
 At the United church on the Green yesterday morning was held a union service of Congregational churches. On the platform, besides the preacher,
 were Rev. MT. Haynes and Rev. Mr.
 Luckey. In the audience were most of the pastors and deacons of the Congre- gational churches of the city. The church was well filled. The sermon was preached by Rev. George Foster Prem
 tiss of Davenport church. The sermon
 was very effective one, of vital in terest at the present time, and taken from Matt. 26:4o: "What, could ye not
 watch with me one hour?"
 Rev. Mir Prentiss took for his theme The Sleeping Sentinel" Taking the example of the soldier falling asleep at his post and exposing the army to
 boundless danger, he compared it to the failure at the crucial moment of the dis olples to stand at their posts. When he returned and found them sleeping the passion -burdened Master said, f"What, could ye not watch with me one hour?" i,
 "Our threatening danger is not so
 much from the foreigners who flock to our shores as from the silk stockinged
 aristocracy, who, in it's luxury of ease, lives on the Fifth avenues, Beacon hills and Euclid avenues of the land, and never votes and never does any service for the safety of the state or church. t'I wonder if we, (who are not of the :silk-stockinged ardstocracy exactly, but good substantial and successful Atner- sican citizens) are entirely free from the charge, that we. are holding ourselves too much aloof, so that we are losing sour touch with the things about which we ought to know better than any one selse A man told me not long ago, with sout a blush of shame, that he had never voted since he came to this common
 wealth years ago, and he was living in sa city which needs the influence and .baffots of every true man, And then he EWdS SlIllpI6 lO spcW dltl lilc SlolS sof affairs, concerning the fighting and
 preserving of which he had never so ;rnuch as raised Ia finger. What, could Eye not watch with me one hour?" The Man of Sorrows speaks again with persuasive eloquence to us, who, with ripe experience, are veterans; to eus, strong in robust life, to us hot with the fire of youth-that we shall watch Sin these latter days, when to watch means even as much as it did that 9nightion Olivet. He appeals to us with all the pati1os of a soul that is exceed- ing heavy and sorrowful, sorrowful be- cause of our slowness of service, our suncertain loyalty, our drowsy powers: What, could ye not watch with me one hour?' For all the neglect and scarelessness of the past, we mourn and spray to be forgiven. Open our eyes sand make discerning our spirit so that
 rye may be. ready to discover new oc- gcasions which teach new duties, and
 give us wisdom to know when ancient good becomes uncouth, | when 1t is our gduty Ito strive upward and onward, ]" that we may "keep abreast of truth" :" And before 1t is too late, we desire to declare anew our purpose to watch with sthee and for thee, even all the night athrough, if it be thy blessed will.