Year: 1873

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Another weekly cycle of time has brought


to us again the Sabbath's services and ser
mons, and as we present them to-day to our
readers they will find some good and some
better with perhaps some that are not so good.
But as truth is large and many-sided we pre-
sumo that some minds who to-day may read
the pulpit products of yesterday will be
benefited, as it is to be hoped those who
heard them delivered in the sanctuaries were
encouraged and comforted At such
time as this the incubation of principles of
| charity is and should be considered an abso
lutte and imperative duty for churches and
ministers. Sorrow and distress brood over
many cities and communities of our land,
and, while there are some streaks of sunlight
in the financial and commercial horizons, there
may yet be much suffering and many disap-
pointments ere the day dawns and the shadows
flee away. Bishop Bowman, of the Methodist
Church, yesterday presented the bright, the
blessed side of charity. Man, he declared is
bundle of wants, and experience shows that
this statement is not exaggerated. II, there
fore, we desire enlargement of heart and de-
velopment of our moral faculties and
nature, we must give largely and literally.
The Bishops view OF life in the better land is
far less sentimental but We think, therefore,
the more scripturally and nationally true than
that commonly held by ministers and Chris
tian people. We ore not likely to spend our
days there merely in psalm singing, but We
shall doubtless find there active mental en-
ployment; and, for aught the Bishop knows,
he may there bear again the messages of love
and sympathy to men out Of the flesh, as he
has borne them here to men in the body.
Some reasons why we should exercise charity
in its broader and truer sense as well as in its
more limited meaning, will be found in the
Bishops discourse.


Rev. Mr.. Hepworth took the incident Of tho
restoration of Eight to Bartimeus as an Illus
trafion of the moral condition of mankind by
nature. We are all born blind. and we cannot
discern spiritual things until our eyes are
opened by the same power that gave sight to
the darkened eyeballs of this Judean wayzids
beggar We should therefore, as Mr. Hep
worth thinks, grope our way to Christ But
in our blindness we need guide, and that
guide is at hand-the Bible and the holy
Spirit


"Any truth, TO be perfect, must become in
carnate," said Mr.. rockingham yesterday.
And he cited Carlyle, Mazzini, Abraham Lin
coin and James Fisk, Jr., as illustrations of the
incarnation of truth. To the vision Of great
many persons something else than truth was
incarnate in these men. We dare say Jesus
Christ, who Is classed in the same list as an
incarnation of truth, will feel Himself COM
phmented by even the mild recognition
by this modern prophet that He (Jesus)
may have been o perfect specimen
Of man" But what OF the possibility the
other way?" There have been men," says Mr..
rockingham, 'who as far as personal quail
ties are concerned, were as good as Christ"
It is very evident that when Mr. rockingham
tries to get on the roadway where Jesus has to
pass he is spiritually in the condition of old
Bartimeus, and his first care should be to have
his eyes opened that he may discern spiritual
truths. He accounts for the popularity Of
Jesus Christ when earth on the ground Of
His sincerity. But by parity Of reasoning the
popularity Of the other incarnatons named
should depend on the same element, whereas
it is too palpable that other, if not
entirely opposite elements, actuated them.
The popularity of Christ as a preacher
and teacher, we take it, lay in the perfect SYM
pathy of His mind and thought with the mind
and thought of His audiences. He never
broke in abruptly upon the thoughts of the
people as other teachers, ancient and modern,
have done and are doing When he saw men
fishing and wanted disciples He tells them
He will make them fishers of men. When He
met a woman at well He talked about water,
and thus led her mind along in its natural
train of thought to the higher and the spiritual
object which He had ever in view. And if some
of our modern preachers would initiate Christ
more fully in this aspect Of his ministry we
have no doubt their success would measurably
increase.


DR.. McGlynn applied the parable of the
wasted seed to o mission" about to be
opened next week in his church, and very
faithfully urged his congregation to
set their homes and their hearts in
order to attend the ministratons Of the
missionaries. When we pray, even the
Lords Prayer, our hearts, he said, should
be in unison with the will Of God, that we
may be ready and able to do His will on earth
as it is done in heaven. And if the seed truths
of the Gospel in our hearts are SO tender that
the Saviour likened them to grain of mus
tard seed we ought to be very careful of the
beginnings of grace in our souls.


Christian liberty was Mr.. Beecher's theme
yesterday, and in its treatment he gave the
congregational committees, who are said to be
examining the discipline OF their church, some
points to start with. Rules and regulations,
he thinks, are good for q man when he is low
down at the bottom, but after men have put