The Penn's Grove record., 1908-07-03
NUMBER 81.
| Toe 2uIEN/ 4
A SERMON AEGA
pY ThE REV AnH
IAMfENDEeSoNW
Subject: Bethel.
Subject: Bethel.

NA1 a III dfC-
lue and Wierfield street, the Rev. Ira
Wemmell Henderson, pastor, took as
text Gen. 28:19, "And Jacob
awaked out of his sleep, and he said,
Surely the Lord is in this place; :
: = this is non other but the
the house of God, and this is the gate
of heaven. = And he
the name of that place Beth
ell"
The scene is as grand as the Ian
guage is inspiring. And the sublim-
ity of the picture and the elevation
of the language are only to be ex-
planned upon the assumption that at
time and under the conditions
that are described Jacob enjoyed a
and glorious spiritual expert
ence.
Jacob was journeying from Beer
sheba to Haran. He stopped on the
way, took stones for a pillow and lay
down to rest, the day being spent,
for the night. And he dreamed,
and behold q ladder set up on the
earth, and the top of 1t reached to
heaven: and behold the angels of God
ascending and descending on it. And
behold! the Lord stood above it."
Is it any wonder that Jacob ven
Grated the place? Here he found
blessing. Here was inspiration. Here
the manifestation of the ever
lasting God. 1t was but a stone in
the open, rooted with the arching
heavens, walled by the horizon be-
yond which his vision could not pen
citrate; but here he had seen God.
And he called the place Bethel.
No one is so foolish as to imagine
that the stone and the surrounding
locality were any more sacred in and
of themselves than were a thousand
similar stones upon which Jacob
might have rested his tired head OF
were a hundred other places in the
quietude of which he might have
found repose. But upon that stone
his head had rested when the God of
Abraham and of Isaac reiterated to
him the covenant He had made with
the fathers. In that spot he had been
the recipient of the richest joy that
the heart of man may experience in
this life or the mind of mar desire: a
vision of the living God. And SO he
poured oil on the stone and conse
Grated the place where he had tarried
through a memorable night.
What else would any a. have
done? The event was not common
place. The vision was beatifc. The
covenant was tremendous both as to
its authorship and it's duration. Con-
sidered from any point of view the
occasion was to be commemorated
and the locality was forever invested
with a subduing and soul warming at
mosphere that would be effective
with us to-day were we within the
scope of its influence. Jacob would
man if he had not set the place as in
a sense apart. If we may remember
heroes with monuments and good
men with statuary, shall not Jacob
commemorate the revelation of Jeho-
yah with an oil soaked stone? If we
are conscious of a thrill as with barred
heads and reminiscentminds we stand
in independence Hall or about the
graves of the martyr dead shall we
not admit the sacredness of the spot
where God showed Himself to the
leader of His people?
All of which is not to push sense
over the border line of reason, or to
make the logical become illogical.
Jacob called the place Bethel, the
house of God. And so we call our
churches. Every church is a Bethel
or it is nothing better than a club
house. A church Is not simply a COL
lection of stone and brick and plaster
and wood and glass and iron and
nails bound into a building, any more
than the stone was the sanctuary or
the place where Jacob heard the
voice of God the shrine. A church Is
more than an edifce as the shrine
was something more than a geogra-
phical or geological entity. We con-
secrate our churches to the benef-
cent uses of the religious life of the
people not because we consider that
God abides simply and solely within
them or that a blessed brick is holier
than an unblessed stone. We enter
our churches, rather, I should say we
should enter our churches, because
in a real way they stand for an, exper-
fence, they TEEN with Renaissance,
they commemorate individual and So
cial blessings and visions of the SOW
ereign God.
Jacob called the place Bethel be-
cause he had a compelling religious
experience. And so we should ven
crate our churches. A church that
lacks the spiritual atmosphere, that
is not the expression of a deep spirit
ual conviction, that commentaries
no visions and that is ineloquent of
mighty spiritual exaltations, is not a
church. 1t is a fraud.
A church is a Bethel. And as such
it should be revered. Within it
should be found blessing and inspira-
ton, out of it should flow the infu-
ences that tend toward God and that
initiate for the veal of men.
Bethel a notable al the com
memoration of a blessing. And what
blessings have we not had within the
confines of our churches. Where
such holy reveries, such glorious in
s~pirations, such lasting joys, such
revelations through the abiding of a
common spirit? Here we have seen
the glory of the Lord, here we have
known the power of His love, here
we have fed upon His promises and
been augmented in the riches of His
grace. Here, as was Jacob at Bethel.
have w been inspired, filled with
larger hopes, urged on to nobler and
to holier achievements, filled with the
energy that no man may describe, in
effable, intensive and divine. Here
we have felt the warmth of the spir-
itual atmosphere and have clasped
hands with God.
The influences that rolled with pre-
dicted vigor from the simple shrine
at Bethel ought to flow and will,
from any we'll appointed church. The
church is not a pool, 1t is a stream.
1t is rather a dynamic than a static.
From the church should we'll forth
the influential streams of righteous
ness and of truth and the healing of
the nations. The world owes an in
debt, as do we, to the
and the church should by her
lnceasing and compromising influence
for good and for God, and unremit-
ting service for men, place the world
ever more largely in her due.
The churches must be Beth-els or
many of them never could withstand
he abuses to which they are lent.
Only upon the assumption that the
spiritual influences that move within
hem are born of God can we under
stand how many of them survive the
Reservations to which they are sub
The average fair is enough
o kill any church. The average