Year: 1873

| The course of Time has brought us again
into the season of Lent, and we are called
once more from revelry and mirth to sober
meditation and religious thoughtfulness. 1t
is well for us occasionally to relieve the ton
sion OF our lives and to look facts in the face,
and ask ourselves, Does not Christianity offer
something better than the cold creed of the
world, which says, 'sEat and drink for to-
morrow we die2" This. as the Archbishop
said yesterday, is, of all other seasons, the ac-
ceptable time and the day of salvation. It is
the time peculiarly set apart for fasting and
prayer and humiliation and reconciliation with
God. Impassionedly the Archbishop called
upon his people to 'cut loose those sins of
passion, Indifference, covetousness, intemper-
ance impurity, pride, malice avarce, re-
venge, and all those bonds that have enchaincd
their souls" hitherto. He mourned the moral
desolations Of the land and the spread of
blasphemy immortality and rank infideiity,
and called urgently to his flock to turn now
and seek the Lord if haply He may have
mercy upon us and spare us. "


Bishop Odenheimer, of New Jersey, ex-
planning the Saviour temptation In The wilder
ness, and drawing lessons therefrom for the
daily life of business men and others, warned
Calvary church and congregation that faith
alone can save them in this millennium of
inidelity. Men are tempted every day by the
lust OF the body, the lust of the eye and the
pride of life, as Jesus was they are tempted
to get what they see others possessed of, and
are more likely to be caught in this snare of
the devil than in any other. Hence they
should begin this holy season of Lent by
trying to resist temptation and seeking Gods
| grace to enable them to succeed.


DR.. H. M. Thompson looked upon these
forty days of Lent as the memorial of one of
the greatest events that ever occurred on this
globe. During these days the Lord prepared
Himself to offer up His life for the salvation of
mankind, and we should try to follow in his
men who call themselves Christian do-fall
down every day and worship the devil" So,
then, devil worship is not confined to the
heather nations Of Asia or Africa, as our mis-
sionary writer's are so apt to tell us. "a man.
says Dr. Thompson, may 60 on lying cheat
ing and schenling, robbing the widow and
orphan" just as those men in Washington
shave gone on day after day, bringing the
nation into disgrace, all for their own selfish
purposes" This is temptation that should
be guarded against


Most Of us admire goodness in others and
are trying TO be good ourselves, but how fre-
quently and how sadly we fail! DR.. Clarke, of
Brooklyn, tells us where to look for strength
and how we may be good. He lamented the
tendency of the teachings both of the pulpit
and the pen in tAe digsetiee q irgsyszence,
and compared vows and resolves made in OUT
own strength with those made after COM
munion with God.


Mr.. Hepworth gave his hearers a few rea-
sons why they and we all, ought to be Chris
tians First, because this faith is the only
possession of value on earth. 1t tells us of q
God ''whose hand is beneath us and whose
sympathy is closer than can be told.
This faith is worth more than millions yea,
even than love of life" Secondly, be-
cause science like q colossus, has gone
through the world looking for mistakes, and
yet has found none. Thirdly, faith in o
governing Deity is universal among men.
The soul believes in God because it cannot
help it. AS the flower unconsciously turns
toward the sun, SO man lifts up his hands and
cries out after God These are good reasons
but the personal enjoyments of Christianity,
communion with God here and the hope Of
the better life to come, with its joys that are
unfading and its pleasures for evermore, are
inducements that ought to draw men by thou
sands to the Saviour, and they would do so
were the Gospel preached instead Of the tradi-
tions and PHILOSOPHERS Of men.


Communion with God is holy experience.
1t has in past ages made heroes Of human
worms, and has enabled men to snatch victory
from defeat. Dr.. Edward Beecher endeavored
to explain philosophically in what this COM
munion consists. The grand prerequisite for
it is conviction of sin, repentance and pardon
through faith in Christ. Its effects are pc
culiar sympathetic joy in the human soul;
strength Of will and divine courage, unity
and quickening of thought and plan among oil
who thus commune; transformation into the
divine image and q reflex influence on the
world and finally it controls the future.
Through God only can these things be done.


Mr.. rockingham reviewed the proceedings
of the Christian constitutional amenders
who met here last week. He could not
despise them when he remembered what had
been done by the handful of anti-slavery
agitators, the Sabbath-observance committee,
the temperance reformers and other apparently
feeble associations. But he despised their
work, and believed that the separation between
Church and State should be more thorough
than It Is, and The. ss7eiy Implied recognition
of God should be weeded out of our funda-
mental charters. He did not fear this move
ment however, for he believed that when the