The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1908-07-03
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a SERMON &SSS&
pY ThE REV Mx@HF
'lAMtENDESoNWS
Subject: Bethel.

/ duONe lueue at tne lENlnS square
Presbyterian Church, Hamburg ave-
nue. and Wierfeld street, the Rev. Ira
| Wemmell Henderson, pastor, took as
his text Gen. 2S:l9, And Jacob
| awaked out of his sleep, and he said,
! Surely the Lord is in this place;
this is none other but the
the house of God, and this is the gate
| of heaven And he
called the name of that place Beth
| ell"
The scene is as grand as the lam
| 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 ct
J this time and under the conditions
! that are described Jacob enjoyed a
| special and glorious spiritual expert
ence.
Jacob was journeying from Beer
sheba TO Haran. He stopped on the
way, took stones for pillow and lay
| down to rest, the day being spent,
| for the night. And he dreamed,
| and behold a ladder set up on the
I earth, and the top Of i reached to
heaven! and behold the angels OF God
ascending and descending on il. And
behold! the Lord stood above it"
Is il any wonder that Jacob ven
| Grated the place? Here he found
! blessing. Here was inspiration. Here
was 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.
/ 10 1faI -, sv,,o oryiV, ~,
. 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 or
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 tC
/ 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 man 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 man have
/ done? The event was not common
| place. The vision was beatific. The
! covenant was tremendous both as to
! its authorship and its duration. Con-
| sidered from any point of view the
! occasion was to be commemorated
/ and the locality was forever invested
with subduing and soul warming at
mosphere that would be effective
/ with us to-day were we within the
scope Of its influence. Jacob would
! have been neither courteous nor hu-
! 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-
vah with an oil soaked stone? If we
are conscious of thrill as with barred
! heads and reminiscent minds 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
/
or it is nothing better than a club
house A church is not simply 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 benefi-
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, | should say we
should enter our churches, because
in a real way they stand for an eyper-
ience, they TEEN with reminiscence,
they commemorate individual and So
cial blessings and visions Of the SOW
ereign God.
Jacob called the place Bethel be-
| cause be 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 deep spirit
ual conviction, that commentaries
no visions and that is ineloquent OF
mighty spiritual eXaltations, is not a
church II is a fraud.
church is a Bethel. And as such
Il should be revered. Within II
should be found blessing and inspira-
tion. out OF IL should flow the infu-
ences that tend toward God and that
initiate for the veal OF men.
Bethel was notable as the COM
memoration Of a blessing And what
blessings have we not had within the
confines Of our churches. Where
such holy reyeries. such glorious in
spirations. 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 we been inspired. filled with
laruar hpuoe urged on 10 uOblpr and