Year: 1871




The names herewith given represent men
who stand at the head of what may be called
the extremes and the medium line of Chris
tianity in this age and in this city: And in
our Office of minister to the churches and to
the people we seek to present, from week to
week, not only the best thoughts of the best
theologians among us, but also the leading
characteristics of the men who utter them, and
as nearly as we can the school of the prophets
to which they belong. The pastor Of the Church
of the Divine Paternity is too familiar to
New York people to require any elaborate or
extended notice. AS preacher and lecturer
and writer his logic and his eloquence are we'll
known. The sympathetic nature and the
theology of the man are expressed in the title
of his church and congregation-Divine
Paternity. In name DR.. Chapin is Univsr-
salist; in fact he is broad-souled, large
hearted Christian minister. 1t would be quite
possible for Methodist, Presbyterian or
Baptist to worship in his church for year
without hearing doctrine broached or duty
enforced which he could not say Amen to with
all his heart. 1t is not because men believe
less in Christ and Christianity that they divide
off into sects and denominations, but rather
because they have been brought up under one
or another set of influences, and can work
better in this or that association. David could
fight his first great battle better with sling
of Saul. Nevertheless he afterward used
the sword of Goliath. So it is with many
Christian minister and layman. The sym
pathetic nature of DR.. Chaplin is as
great q barrier to him becoming
Calvinist as the stern, unyielding spirit
and foreordained faith of the latter would be
to his becoming a Unversalst Hence the
Calvinist may pity, though he cannot save the
predoomsd sinner, against whom the gates of
glory have been long ago shut. But the
school of the prophets to which DR.. Chaplin
belongs sees in God the Great Father, the
loving Saviour, the loving Spirit. 'sThe
popular theology of the day." to use his own
words, uttered yesterday, sis that the wrath
of God to man could only be appeased by the
sacrifice of Christ on the cross. This is not
Christianity. The gift of Christ is the gift Of
Gods love, and this love is the basis Of true
religion" This is theology to which Jew and
Greek can subscribe-God's love to man and
mans love to God and to his fellow men-this
is the sum and substance Of true religion, and
this is the basis of DR.. Chapin's theology.


The new pastor Of the Reformed Collegiate
church in Fifth avenue, Rev. DR.. Ormiston,
is man of plain and practical words in the
pulpit. A fne, commanding presence and q
peculiarly nervous temperament greatly assist
and give him power with an audience. The
direct utterances of the man show him to
be in his inmost soul hater Of sham and
Hypocrisy. He could not preach what he did
not believe, and, with q firm conviction that
''the word Of the Lord giveth light and under
standing to the simple" his sermons are not
labored essays on a few words Of the Sacred
Book, but plain, practical expositous Of por-
tions of Scripture from which, almost in their
statement, the audience can perceive and ur-
derstand the bearing Of the discourse and the
lessons to be drawn thcrefrom. Such was his
sermon yesterday morning, which our readers
will find in another column, and may perusc
with profit.


Rev. DR.. Ever, rector Of Christ church
protestant Episcopa), may be said to stand
at one extreme Of modern Professionalism as his
brethren in this connection do at the other.
The author of the lectures professionalism q
Failure" he has since doubtless learned that
| ritualsn Is not quite synonymous with Pro-