Chicago Daily Tribune Newspaper, November 18, 1878, Page 5

) RELIGIOUS. image Still Harping on e New York by Gas- light. + The Rev. Dr. Gibson on the First Era in the World's History. A Powerful Sormon on * The Cross” by Prof. SBwing Yesterday Morning. mperance in Politics as Con=- 4 Esdnrad by the Rev. N, F. Ravlin. The Twenty-third Psalm Reviewed by the Bov. W, P MoKay— Other Religious Matters, TALMAGE, 3 WOAT [N BAW IN 1IS MIND'S RYN, RORATIO, Soecial Dispateh to The Triduna, +Naw Yonx, Nov. 17.~Tbe Rev. I\ DeWiit Talmage lo-day agaln spoke on the topleof #Tne Night 8ido of New York.” The Tabernacle wascrowded In cvery part. Mr, Talmags de- gribed & night-Jaunt from- the Bouth Ferry, along Biroadway to Houston street, closing with sofnvisiblo tragedy on tha coroer, which le uippotes bo saw from the carrlage-window. He said: "“As I psssed out of the glare of tho South Ferry, the firat thing that met iy gaze wus oue of tie most abominablo and unsigntly nulsaoces, and oneof tho greatest blessiogs New York has ever had thrust upon her, athing which mixes carpentry and tron- work Jn s manner that would startle the taste of » bumpkio. I heara tho rushiog, and ths scresming, sud the grating, and the roaring mid- it locomotive. The great causo of immorality In New York City {a tho shape of the {alanid,~ » narrow belt of land twelve miles long by a mile and half broad, and jo some places less than that. Thia bas to hold 1,000,000 of people, orelic they must be transported swiftly and oliciently to the fresh air and higher moral tooe of the country. They must be mear thelr work, and this abominable nulsance Is the first solution of the steat tenoment-bouse problem. It fs doing more to reform the population of New York City tuan ull the philanthroplets put together. Drive on,’ 1 sard, and the carriage whirlod past Castle Garden, a spot that was once o beauty- spot of Now York, whero tho mon con- eregated who pald $25 a night to hiear Jenny Lind, tbat divioe singer. God might make such an artlst every woek if Ie liked, but Ho makes one only oncs in s century to show what can be done with humanity, and nobody has any tight to complatu after bo hears such an ortist unce, I he never hicars another bit of masic in this world, untit he hdars, the antbem of the 144,000 in Toaven. As 1 rode by Wall street, that wart of speculation, wild windles, appulling bankruptey, and death, it was deserted. Long rows of strect-lamps. illumiuated it from one end to the other, and 1 thoughit,ns I drove slong Brondway, that it would require little imagination to fancy ons waw the ghosts of the ten thousand broken for- tuneatisat havebeen slaughtered there. Andasl looked up to Trinity, standing at tho head of thls mart of gold und Lankruptey, I fancied [ beard & low volce waving, *Whero's Swartoutd Where's Ketchum? What of Black Fridag? Just then the bell in Trlnlty stecvlo tolled nino Huies,—threa times for the bankrupt, threo tucs for the swindled, nnd threotimes for tho dead, *Driveon,’ I sald, *1 don't wish to sco ouy more ghosts.” A Iew rods further on wero windows ablaze with light, I wnosin tho great datly-newspaper centre uf the city, and up-stairs Twent, up into the edisorial rooms, and lato the lols, Thero the type Is sot and the proof read, Mow the pens scratctied,,, HgW., 4he, . tEpe.| ¢licked, how the presscs clanged - and clattered! How the sclssors snipped item after ftem, I saw very fow robuat men L tho desks. Must were pale from overwork and from lack of sleep at those hours when Goll draws *he curtatn of the nizht for natural slumber! *Drive on to Broadwsy,' I said, ‘1 want to sce the tribu of sin 88 it ponrs out of the theatres and places of amascment, and rollsand eddles down Brondway, Tliere are places enough between the City Hall and Fourteenth street to carry 1,000,000 souls down to damua- tlon!*" QOn the corner of Broadway and Hous- tou strect 3r, Talmags saw the tragedy with which he concluded his discourse: '* A young nag hesitating upon the corner. His good an- cel safd, *Come with me! I will make you sn banor and & Llessiop to avery house you enter. Iwill fold my wing over your plllow In slum- ber. Yoor futher's xnd mother's prayers have prevalled upon God to send me to gulde your footsteps.’ Thon the bad angel spoke. * No, noj 1 will offer you batter inducements. Tho flelds %o which I will guide you are full of daisies and primroscs, ‘The skles “above aro Itallan. The wine in the cups s tuby, Come with me.! The good angel fled, its wingamelted away lo the distant sunlight. A door n Heaven flashea open, and It was acen no more."? Thegradual ruln was traced atep by step, con cluding with & final dramatic Intervlew oetween the young man and his bsd angel “The road leads through barrens, On oue slde & serpont writhed. On the other u 1llon roared. A vultare boterea fn tho alr, The serpent was Rewnorse; the lion, Despair; the vulture, Death. ¢ What 18 this that tlrottles mo fn fts terriblo convolu- Uonel" cried the victim, *It1sthe worm that dleth ooty revlied the bad angel. *Come drink with ma from | ] ey mhll:x his goblet filled with tirel' And GENESIS, TAN VIRST EA OF THE CONFLICT DRTWERN GOOD AND BVIL. The Rev, Dr. J. M. Gibson, of the Becond Pres- terian Churcb, delivered the following legture Jesterday fn the Farwell Hall series: 3 Our subjoct to-day fs the firss era of tho greas conflict that was shadowed forth in the fAeu Prophecy (Gen., Il 15): the conflict be~ ¥een the seed of (he woman and tho seed of the serpeat; betwean good and evil, Tils first &78 covers the whole time of antediluyian bls- :ga‘h Is important for us to keep In our the length of the time,~1,000 years and Hare; over sixtean centuriod at the lowest com- ‘::l‘:‘bl 8o, of course, wo caunot expoct any- % In the shupa of a continyqus. history. A :h':l uplers cover the whole ground, and, g ® exh chapter is undoubtedly historical, e Whole ig not, properly spoaking, history, u 8ot continous, hus fragmentary, The frag- 04, however, are not -miscellaneous frag- ;lfl'l. Which bave beon sccidenially preserved. avibing that is thers fs. thers for Purpore, and a good purpose; sud :0'“ chlef object that we shall keep Iy nu" I looking over these fragments of exr- s tary, is to find out the wse of the record of hlln that we baye here,—what beariog thoy mh'":bon the great subject and object of the Virst, wo bave the story of Caln and Abel, }‘2{ does that conm 1} We tind here a plcture, Wat {h“" exuibiting the nature of the contlict se0 sLoEre 18 L0 bo batween good und evil. We lnhn:'?. the early dovelopment of evil fn s secius 10 belong, L] Book of 1he Geuerstions, of the Neaveus. aud eanb. [f you look ab Bibies you will Obaerve thag l!h chaj ke o pLer comes in ns 8 sort of Aheadix to the Bocund Book of Gencrations, Bt comnenciug 1) th ¢ ffth chapter, to!y“i“' h'hn i3 the groat lusson of Calo’s his- 10 what hob 08 the feartul marareof siul bew = b terrible resuits it leads In the drit geo- “m“nl. e thue which has clapsed since tha Voulste from Edeo, thouzn much longer than helogs PPEAT 10 B superticial reader, fs, nuver- " :Ll;‘ ‘?;:?P“I‘:"fi,’ thq; yet the Ktruul Teady lea on 1o the ot oty worst of sl crim :L:lwl;:m further that religious ubservances 4 t0 nothluy, when “ain leth at the THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18; 1878, door,” ag t I8 rxpressed in the peventh verre, Gain comes with his olfering and presents it to the Lord, and, ns far a8 sopeaiances are con- cerned, eversthing looks well, but * ain lloth at the door " of the “‘man's heart, and ft [s of no avail. Un the other hand, what is tho great les- s0n of Abel's histery( fle comes hefore us, ap- parcotly, as an innocent inan, There s nothin: eald dgainst him, at all events. Yol he fs requircd to bring an_offering. e s accepted, apparentty, not on the simple ground of his goodness, but in eonnectlon with the offerine that he brings. It {s the offering of ¢ the firstlings of bis flock.” Hero we have (he fiest record of gacritice. Perhaos not _quite the firat Indication of ft. We may have had some idication of it In the clothing of Adam and Eve with the skins of beasts that may hava been offered fn sacrifice; but this ls the first direct necount we have, and already in this firat aacri- fles of “the firstlinzs of the flock ' we aro re- minded of the * Lamb of God that takoth away the aln of the world.™ Next, what was the difference Letween Cain and Abell Bome are inclined to think it lay en- tlrely In tne olfering, oot In the men at ull, [t yon look at the narrutive you will find thers was a difference In tho men. “* Unto Cain and 1 offering," -the FLord Tad not respec bat the Lord ~ had respect “unto Atel and his offering,"—Abel and his offer- iog, Cain and his' offering, Dut what was the difference in the meni “The great dif- ference in the men, as we arctanghy In the epls- 16 of the Hebrews, was Iaith, ** By faith Abel offered unto God a more acceptable sacrliice than Cain.”’ Bo whatever differcnce there may liave been in the men (and there may have been a preat difference), the fundamental differenco hetween them was that Abel had faith, wiile Cain_had not. Just as In tho Iast lesson we found untelief to be the root of sin, 80 hers we find faith to be the foundation of salvation. It may be that the way in which Ahel's falth shotved {tscll was his ‘bringing the ollering the Lord und preseribed. 1ho offering of Cain acemed approvriate enough; but, inasmuch ns W arc told that Abel cama in faith, there acemns reason to conclude that the offering he bronght was one that tho Lord had preseribed; and, though there is nothivg in the narrative fsell tu sugyest It, there scems to be sutlicient war- rant lo Beripturg for the idea that, while Cain's offering was quito appropriata as u mere act of homage expressed in the sacriflce of property, Abel’s ollering was not only the sacritice of proncrl{, wut of life. fuvolviug not mnerely hom- ago, but fath,—a falth which, however, dimly Tovked forward to the coming seed of the wom- an, who by the sacrifice of his Jife should vpen up the way for sinful man's acceptance with a holy Uod. ‘The next great subject (s the two nues of de- scont from Adam,—through Calu and through 8eth. Remember, however, there nust lave . Leen a grcat many more than two lines, 'Thero are thoss that thought- lessly suppose Adam lad no more sons than Culn, Abel, and Setn, because theso ara tho only onesmentioned; and, of courac, no daughtors nt ali! Hence, of course, certain dif- ficultles, Wnen the Biblo says that “Cain went out from the presence of the Lord," and was ofrald of the veople he might ‘meet, “where,” thoy ask, **could thoe people come fromY" They do notrealize tlio groat spaces of time [n this narrative. ‘Fhey do not realize that Adam was 130 years old when 8eth was born, It would scem, from tho way we are told of the birth of Beth, that it must havetaken place ver: svon atter the death of Abel. From this it fol- lows that Adam must haye been nearly 180 years old at tho date of Cain's cxile, and any one can sce there Is room here for oulte a cun- siderable poputation, Well, why aru these tivo ltnes chasen, aud theso alonel [ think we shiall find the reason whew wo look into it First, look at the Cainito line, Ilerc wo tiud agaln that there Is unly ono line of descent selected Ju the famlly of Cain, anaso In each geueration, till wo come to the nltn. where the line nuruuify ends, ‘o prababiiityis that Cain had a number of sons and daughters, and that s great many ines of de- scent ran out from him, And so with Enos, and Irad, aud all tho reat. Wiy the oarticular sclection? Evidently It is to bring in the dis- tingulshod family of Latnech, that hiad so much to do with the progress of arts and clsilization, What hias that to do fn the Biblo record! In the first place, it teaches us that civilization (s a human dpuvelnmnmn. You will find in tradi- tious of the licathen nations wccounts of vld gods and demigods that tutroduced the varlous urts, and by new and valuable Inventions gave curly fmpulse to cvilization, Now, here weo have tho arts and civilization introduced as a purcly hutuan development, sud discredit is cast on all ‘these old ‘storics and the idolatry counected with them,—the story of Frome- theus, for example, who stols fire fromn Heaven; and of Vulean, s nume which many suppose to be alhied etymologically to * Tubal Cafn.' Buat Is there not anotlier reuson why this family s introduceal It is to teach us that civilization, Fuood as it is, important as It 18, valuable os it docs not mcet tho wants ofman as 8 sinner, It 1s no antidote to ain. v’/Hw'" 4 fake 2l place of Ged's. sway .af sal- tion through Christ Jesus, Tals family of Lamech was a very distinguisbed family. You fing them distinguished fn the arts, fn -mauu- factures, [n poetry aud inusic; but jn that saine famtly you find polygamly. and murder, and genernl godlessness,” It Ib Intoresting, fu con- nection with thls, to romember that these traditlons that we flud in other nations about the oriuinof thy arts,very commonly trace thel origin to peoplo that had not the best of ¢ octers. It I8 worth whilo to pause here a mo- ment and_reflect. Look at ciellization na the great rival of salvation, Thers are & great mauy people {n those days who find their relig- fon 10 civilizatioy, in progress,in the wonders of the ulnctoenth coutury, fu the great develop- meuts of scionce, and art, and in rallronds, and telegraphis, and telephones, and phonographs. Al these things aro good cnough in thelr place, All theso things aro valuable. For all thesothings we ought tu be very thank(ul, but these things do not mect our deepest wants. Civilization bad a falr fleld in the auciont time; In this Catuite line before the fload, and after the flood 1n En}rl. aod it Assyris, 1u Babylon, in Urocee, and Home, It achieved wonders. It reached & wouderful developinent u the his- tury of theee countries, but what was the fssue of it sl Corruption came in, sud tho wholo 1abric of soclety with all its glorics fell lnto de- cay and ruin. 1t would scem from the history of ancient’ clvilization that.the fall had the same effect upon lwlat{ as {t bad upon the fn- dividual man, maklng 1t mortal. What, thea, about modern eivilization? Must {t go the same road! Must it hinve tho samo history as tho old civillzation? Not necessarlly. Taen civilization was wurkln[i out (ta destiny, so to speak, alove, Now {t is going band 1 haud with ~ God's truth. ‘The awvilizod natlons are no longer the heathen nations. Thecivilized uations are the Cnristian uations, and it s because cavilization aud Chnatisnity have boeu olug oo, baod I uand, sud are still goiug on gnmfin hand, that we lave hopes for inodern clvitization. Thoss that sock to separate the two, thuse that seek 1o undermive Christianity, to dustroy Its tnatitutious, or to weaken its (- tluenve, are the enewmies of the country, They are the encmics of modern clvilization,” Coming now to the Bethite Hoe do the fiith chapter, wo have again to ask reason why this one Nne amony 0 wany fs chosen, Evh!mll'ym order to show the development of rellgious fife, (Un- doubtedly the special reason for the tutrodne. tion of this comulete lino descent is because it gives the cenealogy of the coming Messlal, but ‘we spesk HOW of @ more general reason.) We have bad the developmens of worldly life, with {ts arts, sud civilizatlon, aud progress, wus uow we have tho developmeut of rellgious life, Heru it s very Intcresting to notice the ttle of the ffth chapter; ** ‘Thia s the buok of the gen- erntious of Adam.' d uot the lue of Cain beloug 10 the gouerations of Adam! Were nos Caln and wll the others descondauts of Adaw{ To uoderstand this clearly it will bo necessary to go back to that gurminal verse, the fiftesnth verse of the third chapter, Who &ro ‘her seod? Many superficial readers think it fs all mankind. Iu u certsin sense, of course, il uankind are the sced of the woman; but sup) you include all mankind, where do the scod of tho serpent coine ind s it not aulte obvious that the seed of the woman caunot wmean all mankiud, but sluply those who are not oply literally, but atso splritually, the seed of the woman, those who arcfouud on the sideof the good, tho side of Uod, avd of rightevusnessf ‘Fhose who are of au oppusite spirit src the seed of the serpent, *the cl,fi‘fi.m of the devil,' as they are called in the New Testawent. Ilere, as so often, *‘the lotter killeth, but tha spirit veth llle.” Thus, lu the hizbest scnse, the ino of Caln dld not betong to the goueratious of Adam. It belouged to thoe generatious of tho serpent, but *thiy," lotroduciug the lue of Buth, “this s the book of the geuerativns of Adam,” In the ssme woy, whea in previous pargative we aro told that * Adam calted his wifc's bame Eve, because sho was the mother of sll livioe," wost readers tuke it {o the scuse that sh Was tho mother of all mankind. But why give ber a name to Indicate a fact so obvioust On the other hand, whcn you take the Mving in the spiritual, as well as tho literal scoee, fu s Scriptural acuse, a3 those “alive unto Uod,” thoss who are to bave the *lifa" which God gives through His 8ou, bow beauti- fully all the referouces correspoud: *The seed ol the wuman,” *‘the wother of tho lNving,™ * tho gencrattons of Adam." Let us now take tho iine of Beth and run along it, and though there Is not & great desl o it apart from tho genealogy itself, wiat there fs i3 vory lustructive and suggestive. We sco life—spiritual, oternal life—developed fa all ita main features iu these antediluvian times. We bave the beginuing of it iu Enos. The name of Fuous is suggestve, indicating 1ap i bis weak- o Alay) {n his weakoess looks up to Uod in His streugth, aud calls upon Hu uswe. (Cidv., 20.) This Ia then ss now the heginning of apir- ftaal Mfe: realizing our own heipleesness, and calling on ihe hame of the Lord. Following the line dawn qnito n distance, our atteution is next fixed upon Enoch, He “walked with (iod," A orophecy uf his §a recorded in the Book of Jude.” Perhaps lie uttered other prophecles, of which hie have no record, and undoubtedly he would be widely known as a Christiau teacher lo that early age; but that to which apecial atten- tion i called 18 his pure and hoiy life. * Enoch walked with (od.” ‘There in trac Iife, ‘¢ Enoch walked with (fod, and he was not, for @Good took him."" Herc we see the resnit of true apiritual 1ife, It trinmphs over deatn, May we not have hero a representation of what woull have been the desting of all mankind If Adam had oot fallen! ~ Pertaps the change that passcd over Enoch waa of the same kind that would have passed over Adam, after bls probation swas over, If he had retained his inno- cence, Whatever we may say about that, I think ft Is cvident that Enoch's translatiun waa fulended to be & witness to the people of that early age of the life beyond, the life with God, the life above. There fras been such o witness in each of the great awes. In the first maze, Enoch. Tn the middic nge, Elfjan, In the last oge, the Lord Jesus Christ llimsalfy *‘the Resurrection and the Life,” There Ixn still further development of life along the line of *the gencrations of Adam.” After Enos and Enogh, we como to Noah. Wea find 1t written of hlm also that ho * walked with God." * Waat was tho result in his casel He passed safely through the ereat deluge, We have fn tholife of Noaha witness to the fact Lhat I one walks with God, If one really leads & eoiritual life,Nie will not only be viclorions uver death, a8 Enoch was, but over judginent. Just as Noah passed safely through the judgment ot tha flood, so you and I will pase saicly throush the judgmet ot fire, if, iike h and Enoch, wa Jearn to walk withtiod. You see, then, over against the worldly development, which s good cnoueh In ftaelf, but not at all satisfactory In 1ts tssue, the devclovment of spirftual life. You see how it reaches away f{uto tho beyond, and polnts upward, heaveaward, _homeward, Godward, In this we = find_ the main spiritual teaching_of tho Book of tha Uenerations of Adam, But we c:mnm.sa:- on without sayIng & word about ccrtain slda lssucs to which alto- gether too great {mportance fs somctimes at- tached. Firat, there are questions ot chronol- oy, These are manifestly quito fncidental, It {s evldent that snch passages as this were not intended to be used for the purpose of scttling definitely the chronology of history. In the first place, the record is sometimes qulte vazue in {ts language, as, for examnle, in the tenth chapter, fi(teenth totheelgnteenth verse: “ And Canaan begat Zldon bis firat born, and Heth, and tho Jebusite, and the Girgasite, and tha Hivite, and the Arkite, and Sinite, ete. Itis quite obvious that wholo races ara referred 1o there, and not ludividuals. [n thesecund place, and more particularly, overy one ackuowledges that thers has heen imperfection in the transmission of numbers throtighout the Old ‘Testameat, and espocially away buck here. Thero hus indeed been wonderful” accuracy in the i tranacription and transmission of the Scriptures, even the oldest. God, in is providence, has &0 ordered It, that we have theso Scriptures al- mosat [dentlcally in the form in which they were first given. Btill, remember thero is no infalll- bility or {aspiration clalmed for the copyists, and hience there have sometimes been errors in the transcription, aimost cxclusively, however, in the fgures, for reason which are readily per- celved by scholars. And so there is a decliled difference in the numbers given in the. Hebrew aud the Bamaritan Pentateuchs and the Septua- guint versions. Al jthrea are dlifferent, from which It secmns very clearly to follow that we cannot be absolutely certain asto any chirono- logical system Lascd on these numbers. A third reason why it is obvious that this record was not jatended to be used for the purpose of set- thing the chronology of the world Is that our Bavior did not tuink it worth while to corrcct the Septusgint. There huve been thoss who huve sald **Wo lave nothlng to do with the 8optuagint. It [a the Hebrew Bible we Lave to do with. Its numbers must be takeu as abso- lutely correct.” But if so, why did our Lord continually use the Septuagint, which had so niany wroig figures in ity and never correct b1 ‘Tho reason Is obvious, that e dil npt think it worth while, becauro §3 was not His mission any more than it was the purpose of the written Word to teach cironology. What 18 the conclu- slon to bu druwn frown alf this? It fa that with- in reasonabla limits questions of chronology ouchit to bo considered open questions. A other sida fssue is the longuvity of these po- trlarchs, Home arc staggered because this §sso unlike anything we know of in these days, But, In tho first place, the fact I8 coofirmed by ancient traditfon. In the second place, @ suilicient cause s quite conceivable, even apart from miracle, as dlstinguished physiologlsts bave admitted, considering man's orizinol *constitution nnd the clreumstances in which hu was vlaced lu primeval thmes. And thirdly, there aro ovidently sutliclent "-«gg‘;. why the life of man sbonld have heent prolon) I thoso oarly ages,—to izive upportunity for tho increase of pupulation, for the development of clrilizatlon, and for the transmission of truth before lhel ventfon of any othor writibg theu that which was traced on the tabicts of man's mewmory. ‘The next great subject that we bavo is the in- tennizture of races—the lutermixture of the ced of the woman with theothers, and the con- sequences thoreol, Ilore we get luto the dark. ness again. Wo find, indeed, onc result of this intermixture that ecems satisfactory,—the devel- Wment of streagth and geolus. There wero glants in the carth In thoso days, and men of renown, But what does 1t all smount tof ‘Tho remown of these men las Dbeen brief. Wo have not even tholr names now. On the other hand, the effect of theso intermarelages to which our attention is chiotly directed, was the spread of universal corruption, As long o tho chlldren of Gud, the children of life, the childrenof light, kept toem- aelves sepurate from theothers, thera was a sat- isfactory development of religious lie, as al- ready noticed. But as soon s tho children of od” mizod themsslves with the godlcss and profaue, instead ul ralsing thoso that wero evil 1o their own level, thoy thomiselyes were de graded to the Jeyel of thosu with whoim the! associated themselyes. This {s so alwave, Buch allfances are not bleased of God, When you flnd tha righteous entering nio close slliance with tho wicked, tho elfect is not the elevation of the wicked to the plaue of the righteous, but the degradation of tho righteous to the level of the wicked, Bo it wus theu. Corruption spread among all the lines ustil ft bue cane well-nign universal; and then the dark and terrible ]m‘gmnnl of the Flood came and swept thum all away, Now look at this judginent of the Flood, Jt1s ur{ obvious a3 we read theso thrilling chapters that we bave the account of an gye-witness. Fs- peciatly when it {s read in the orlginal is it mant- Test that the person who wrote it was onu that saw {t all, and was stirred to the depths of his belug with the wonderful things he had seen, ‘The story i3 quite wounderful as o lte production.” We must tere touch a little on the difliculties conuected with thestory of the Flood. ‘These difliculties sre almost all founded upon thes idea that the Deluge was uulversal; that it cavered the lighest tops of tho Himalayas fn Indis, the Rocky Mountoins here, and all the wmountalus over ull tho carth. It is but reason- ablu to ask If there te good reason for Inslaving that It was universal! I kuow ol ouly thres strong reasons that are given for thls position. ‘The first I8 the use of the terun “earth' continually throughout the narrattye, which only provus that thute who translated the Bible into Euglish belloved the flood to bave ¢o universsl, As we hail occasion to prove ast Bundasy, the word *‘eurth’ in llebrew ueans Just us readily o lmited dlitrlct. Why U0 Dot thoss who lasist so urongl‘r on tho wido signification of ‘‘earth here, {nsist on the saino joterpretation in such a passage as Geneals, 12th verse, und make it ag icle of faith that Abraham feft ¢ world sllozether aud went to another when be left Ur of tiio Chialders aund weot Lo Csnasu! ‘The sccond argument for uulversality {2 found ju such expressions as In the Tuh chspter, verso 19: * And the waters pre- vailed excecdiogly upon the earth, ana all the bigh hills that were under the whols heaven werg vovered.” Now, remewber that Lhia le tue aecouns of an eye-wituess vividly describing just what he saw, water on cvery side, water all around,—aotbiogibut water,—even tho wount- uins to the furthest verue ol the horizon covered over with water, Whea io the Book of Job we read of the light- ning tlashing over tiue whole heaven the mean- tog surely cannot be that o Hettning fash atarts at & certadu deeree of latitude aud longitude and niakes 8 journey right rouud the world to he puint wheru it started. *“The whole heavens' {a evidently buunded by the horizon. ‘The third rTeasou which bas led ‘people Lo suppuse the wholeearth was covered with water s found Iu the tradition that the Ark rested oo Mount Ararat. The tradition, we say, for that {5 all tha authority there (s for tho Wea., In Geneals, 8, 4, woare told that tho Ark rested on ths mountaius or hizblands of * Ararut.” The word “ Ararat ? ouly occurs two times fn tho Bible, sud in ueither place does {8 vefer to what was ouly louy afterwards called Mouut Arsrut. 1u0id Testament thucs Ararat was nok s wouut- aln atall, but o dlstrict on some of tho bigh- lands of whichithe Ark restod. But & moment's thought willsbuw that it coulduot beon thetopof Arsrat. it would require une of the lux;ifi-.u wouutwncers to perforuy such & feal uy the climblug of Ararat, It would bo the most tu- couveuient place you could think of for the Ark to rest ou. When you look fulrly at thesa three arguweuts that sre urged lu support of s uul- Veraal deluge, {uu will Ood that uone of them really demaud It O the other haud, there are thinge that scew to pont the other way, Ia the feleventh verse of the seventh chapter we are told thay, *Tn the second twmounth, the scventeenth day of the month, were all the fountaine of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened.” There is no fndication there of the audden creation of such A body of water as would cover the earth to the denth of 10,000 feet above tho okl eea-level. ‘The causea that are sssigned are firat such as could be most readily and naturally used. An attempt has recently been made to cast ridicule tinon the atory of the flood ?l’ representing tho Bible s it it attributed the deluge to nothing clse than & long and heavy raln, whereas the first Impoctance {s glven to an en- tirely different eausc: the fountains *‘of the great deep were broken up.”’ ‘That I8 just what would appesr to one who was describing such a scene ns we Imagine this to he. Buppose there had been some great sub- merging of the land there, a8 has taken place in other parts of the world. Thers was & rushiug ur of water from below, from ‘‘the fountains of the zrest deep.’ Awain, In the first verse of the elglith chapter natural agency is made use of: * tod male a wind to pass over the carth and the waters nssuaged.” Thereis no reason why we should suppose & greater miracle per- formed thau was nccessary, Stlil further, turn to the tenth verso of the ninth chapter, where God sass: “1 establlsh my covenant with you and with every living creature that Is with you * (all ereatures associated with you), *from all that go out of the Ark to every beast of the carth,” What wera those buasis of the earth thus dlnmguuhml frum those L;omg out of the Arkl Probably they were those thar came from thne erca of land wvot covered by the floud. Then agaln, attentlon fs colicd to the purpose of the floud, which was simply to de- stroy the race of mnen, sud It fs not to be sup- posed they had traveled to a great distance by this time from thelr originalplace of abode. Tha cxtent of the flood need not have been any gresater than was nccessary to submerge that area. Finally, when we take this view, not ouly do wenlogical ‘and other difficulties disappear, but there Is decided confirmatlon from modern eclentific research, There ia no evidence in geol- ogy that there was in any petiod of thie carth's listory s flood great cnougl to overtop the Tocky Mountalns, but thero are evidences of floods as great as this one must have becn for the purpose of destroying the race., Ido not know how it {s fn the” tmmediate region where tho flood s supposed to havo been, 1donot know whether geolorista have explored it sufll- clently; but there arc evidences of simiiar floods in other parts of the world: - Bome of our own meologists have discovered gvldences of them In this very nelgnborhood, You huve not to go \'e:’y far from Chicsgo to flnd such traces of sudden, powerful, aud transient dlluvial action, Then, tinally, thia view of tho detuge reimaves of course afl difllculty about the number of ani- mals i the Ark, Lecause ail that was neceesary was that tho species tmore nearly connected with mnan, thuso found {n the region that was submerged, should be represented in the Ark. And now, taking it ns a whole, we have abund- ant confirmation of it from tradition, Wa find legonds of a flood everswhere. Wo find them among the Bemitic, and Ar; and Turanlan races. Wo flud then: east, and weat, and north, and south; in savaye nations and civilized na- tious; on continents and fn Ialanda; i the Old World and in tne New, Aud il Egypt is a soll- tary exception, which is very doubtiul, but, it it 18, the oxception is nccounted for by the aimple foct that in that country they have floods every year. Here ngain, as_In the traditions of the fall, there fs difference enough to sbow which s the otiginal and true. Other traditions of the flood ure polythetstic, whereas here wo have the voe liv- ing aud true God. Theao are full of wytholog- Ical elements, whereas here Is o plain narrative, with the lmyresslve sccuc vividly but quite slply deplcted. ln heathen traditions, too, you tiod many grotesaue items aml exaggera- tions, ns for instance, when the Ark Is described ns throe-fourths of a wmlie long, and drops of ruln the size of a bull’s head; and, generally #peaking, a consplcuous absence of that snorat uur‘»oau which Is so impressive and all-pervaa- ing in the narrative bolore us. Stlll ane thing more before we pass,—the difM- culty that some have on account of the severity of ihe Judgment. Inthe frst place, terrible things aro Lappcuing all the thne. Is there any, difference i principlo betwecn a famine that destroys hundreds of thousands, as recently in Indla and in_Chiva, nod the oid judgment of the lloodl And then, Iu “the see- ond place, are not all encrations awept eway by death? It 1s true that, fo the ordinary course of uature, they are taken nway one by one; but when we consider the hight to which sin had grown and tho necessitv of mark- ing the divine displeasure against it, wo can sec a sufliclent reasou why, instead of taking that generation off one by one according to 1lisusual procedure, [le should visit the earth in judg- ment and take tuem wll away at once, " And herein we have n lesson jor atl time, and one especially needud In theso times. The teudency nuwadoys 18 to inake far too“light of ain, Peo- ‘ple, hate sin sufliclently wheu -it comus in the abapoe of persunal wroug; but, looking at sin ln {taclf, people nowadays are’ disposed to regard it with'a vory great deal of indiiference. Wo want moro of thie Biblo way of looking st slo,~ us infinitely hateful, and deserving of Uod's wrath and curse; wo want to reaime that it Is indeed *'that abomlnuble thing which God hates.” But whilo we scck to learn the solemn lessons of the judgment, let us not overlook the mercy which reiteves fta darkncss, In the firat pluco we sce the 8pirit striving all the whila with man, Then we find that after ft appeare that notwithstanding the striving of tho spirlt man grows worse and worse, there aru 1) yours of reapite; and then after the 120 years have explred, aud the Ark has been bulit bod Noah and hisfamily havo entervd into It, still seven duys siu allowed to {ntervene before the deluge began. You can Imlfluc bow the peo- ple would Jaugh st Nuah and his family during theas soven days of waiting in the Ark, whilo as yet thesky was clear, and no signsof rain apparent. Again, while uoly Noab and his family were saved, there was an open daor for ult, 'fhiey wore all told the deluge was coming, They werc all informed as to the purpose of the Ark. You canvot Imacine any of them coming to the door of the Ark and belog sout away, ‘The reason why they were lost was simply beeause thoy would not be saved. Then when wo comato the judemeut itacll wo ace merey there fu the Ark, which Las been universally recognlzed us an impressive picture of the great salvation, And thea at the closo the sun of mercy shines out bright and clear, After Noah and bls family came out of tho ark God ronewed Ilis covenant, the nlre.nll old covenant of ce. It fs ovidently the ol s, ** 1 will egtablish my cove T “establteh™ it, literally, make [t to stand, 8¢ & **covenant of eternity,” v, 10), where the word uscd is that {uterosting {ebrew word ** Oiam," which significs the pass s well as the future, as {n the ninetieth Paalm: “From everiasting to cverlasting Thou art Goa." It {a verylinportant to bear this in mind. ‘Liere are those who mistake the mere negative aadition: **ncither shall there any mors be & flood,” for the whole—which certaluly redu the covouaut with Noah to very swmall dim sions. Notatall, It is the uld covenant of salyatfon lu all its fullnees, with an appropriate negative additlon, And nnsrourhwly enough, tuo, thiere s & new, ‘I'lio old sign had beeu the cherublm and the Haming swornd **to keep the way of the Tree of Life.” ‘that was sutll- clent for the time In tho bLeginniog of man's history, when thore was com- paratively a amall populstion and where Huna were L any very great distauce from the centre. But now the populatioa is to b scattered all over tho carth; and accord- ingly, instead of the old locsl cheruvlin, there ‘was given the sign of the ralnbow, a sign to bo scen ull over the earth. And then the new algn was. not ouly universal, but perpetual, Lelonging to the ‘Hixed system of nature, it will abide to th very end of the ages us a algn and witness of God's fulthluluess, Bul) fur- ther, It was & nuzuhrly appropriate sign of **thu Covounnt of Olam,"” luasmuch as it poiai- ed backwards to the pass as well us forwands to the future. It was vew as a sign, and yetold as Nature bierself. There ara thuso who not only full to sco this, but muke thelr waut of peue- tration the occuslon of aun objection, They rep- resent the Bible as responsiulo for the uasertion tuat the raiubow was created after the deluge,” whereas, any ong that is acqualuted with the laws of light must belleve tuat, whenaver the couditions wore preseut, as it 1s Lo be supposcd they wust aften have been befure the flood, s ralibow would be seeu. But what docs the Bible way§ 1 do set wy bow o the cloud, and 1t shall” be for a token.” Eveu in English the tenses In the two clauses are different, but ln the uriginal 1t is sthl more marked, for the teuse of the firat s pust, aud of Lbo second fu- Lure, 8o that to “'im‘ the ditfarcuce wo shoutd satber render; 1 have sct my bow o the cloud auu ft shall bo w token.” “The bow was set iu the cloud in past time, and in future t¢ stall be a token of the coveusut. Where is the objection ouw! As usual, it ouly serv briug out the wonderful consisteucy aud racy of tue jospired record. And now that your attention is called to it, do you not scs bow the existency of the ralubow irom the beginning made ft all the more sultable as & sl of that cuvenaut, which bad come dowu 1rowm the old times before the Boodt Let us now look st the sign ftsclf and see bow exceedlugly beautiful aud sporoorist it is. We might sveud an bour b dwelling on ita Leautics: but we bave time only for s fow sug- Kestions, ‘The suitableoeas of the sign ju cou- uectiou with the promise that thore should be 1o more foods i very obvlous. But wotico also ita general b:fpruyrhtcuuu. Clouds are tho natural symbol of surrow. When we see tho buautiful buw spread uon the clouds and arch- lug the beavens, lumedlately the thought ls cited that, Bowever darkly the clouds bave [ gathered in the ’kf' the gan Is shining st and we learn that, however the clouds of sor- tow may gather around us, (iod docs not forget _us, Heaven fs not closed agninat ua. The sun _is shining atill amid Illcrluom. Then how ia the rainbow formedi It 18 formed from drops of rain. It ia “the offspring of the weeping cloud.” = Whence comes its beauty] Out the natural darkness and dreariness of the clond. There can be a cloud without a rainbow, but there can be no ralobow without a cloud. Therein we see the value of sorrow. Without sorrow, we msy lose a great deal of heavenly beauty, and grace, and lovelineas. It fs quite possifile to have our darkest soreows so transfizured that they will shine in heavenly beanty fu the sunlight of God's prace. And thercls not only the trans- figuration of our surrow, but the assurance that very soon it will pass away. \Yhen you sce the rainbow inthe sky, although the rain fs still falling, vou know it will soon be clear, The sun will soon ba shiningali the brighter afterthe rain. Aud so shall it be inthe expericuce of those who have taken hold un that covenant of which the rainhow fs the enduring aign. Thelr affie- tions, however heavy and Intcrminable thev may scem, are rcnllyl!':m and “ for & moment " when broueht into” comparison with '‘the far more excecding and eternal weight of glory,” FThis has been a dark, sad chapter. Bat, thank (io), atevening timeacain it is light, Judg- ment passes; mercy remains, No mors flood s but the rainbow forever. Tuarn tothe Iast book of the Bible, so full of the dsrkest prophecies of Juidgment, and tha jovely sln of never falling mercy still s therc. * Thore was a rainbow round about the throne.” Blessed be God for the euduring sign of the old sud everiasting covenaut of merey, THE CROSS, BERMON BY FitOF. SWING, Prof. Swiog presched yesterday mornlng at the Central Church, taking as bis text: But God forbid that T should giory save In tho Crune of our Lord Jesus Chiwst, Oy whom the world is cruclfed unto mo snd [ nnto the world. — Galalians, ol., 14, That cmblem which has been o eacred to Christianity since the cruel death of its Fonnder loses mone of its significance from the fact that It was sn emblem religious and political before the birth of our Lord, Tho Rev, Thomas Maurice in bis work on the antiquities of old Indis says: “Lot the plety of the Catholic Chrristian be ot offeaded ot the asseridon that the cross was ono of the most usual symbols of Ecypt and India. « . . In the cave of Ete- phanta, over the head of the principal figure, wan the form of a cross.” In onc ol the frescoes of Pompell Is found the fizure of a c Crosses with a rosary attached were objects of sacred association In times long preceding the Christian era. It would seem from Plsto that the form of @ cross stood for the whole uni- verse, its four arms reachlog out toward the four compass polints. Instead of Lelng offended by the facts of his- tory, Chirlstian ploty pladly accopts of the long religlons, and soclal, and political sssociation of the cross, for what Christisnity holds precious s not the mere idea of cruclform wood, or netal, or temple, but a cross with Christ upon it. It was not 1n the abstract cross Paul gloried, but in the cross of Christ. What afected him and changed his life, work, and passion was the symnbol of the ages with his own beloved Master fustened to it by cruel nails. At what tima this ploce of wood became m most disgracelul instrument of punlshment cannot uow be learned, but it became an tostru- sment of torture long before that greatest of all sulferers wos fastened to ts arms. This wood represented well the human form, for a man atanding upright with outstretched arms mokes tho formi of across. Il cruelty was seeking bow tu expose & victim to a slow death in the bot sun with alt parts of the frame under ten- sioh, uo part of 1t being.at rest, it would scem that this supreme crucity would soon_find that fu this sliape of instrument there could be found the most of physical angulsh. It offered no rest for head, or hand, or foot, but for every nerve and membrae of the body an un- rest which tortured lonz without bring- fng death. This Is true, thst crucil fon bad, long before Christ, become wods of torturiog to death the crimninals or the accused Ecnum whom the tyrants of the period hated the most. This mode of death was not reserved for those who bad committed the worst crimes, but for those who had awnkened tha jeslonsy or the fear of those in power, \When ‘n slave committed a crime wgalust his master e twight be crucifled, not because his sin was so fimense, but because the toster was so vast in importauce. \When Verres was GovernonUencral of Blelly, a half century before the birth of Christ, he had so plundered even the private houses o his avarice and had so rulned homes by his foul toueh, whick no onc dared resist, that at last oue humble man sont up a complaint tu the Scnate ot Rome. Verres hastened to arrest the ey, and, having ordered him whivped in- Lumanty, ho took bim to the summit of o hizh hill, and having Iastened bim to 8 cross ralsed D up with his face to the great elty and sald to him, ** Now gaze toward tno Rome from which you expect help.’” It must have been tiwelve bours before death cama to deliver that voor cltizen from his agony, Astudy of this pre-Christlan history of the cross, instead of tendiug to fovolye our symbol 1o fable and superstitious associations, will only add to fts prescnt signlficance by showing uas through w hours of ignominy and suffering or i d, ‘Tha hilltap where the rob- bed, snd insulted, and scourged Cavius, ot Hlufy, et hus death only muakes more real thut Calrary where the Nazareve dled. The mockery of the foruwer helps us realize the scarlet robes d crown of thorus of tho lalter, ul had resolved to glory in nothing thence- forth but the Cross of his Lord. A wonderful resolution this, whether you look at what F'aul thus cast aside or what he now scized with mind aud heart. “There were just within his reach wauy other objects of -ngxnen. and wealtk, and " fame. s family “belooged to tho Rowan fresmen, ocujoyed the rights of such citizenship; he “was himsel{ edu- cated in the high llterature aud oratory uf tho day, and wascvidently on the bigh road of that era to the famo and fortune which theu, aa greatly now, were tho oud of man. The {fact that he was dashing around with a band of horse and was arrresting and placlog in prison the followers ot & so-called disturber of Roman rule, Indicutes that hic was it the mititury path, and would soon have been mssigued Lo oflice in sowme Jewlsh province of the Roman Empire. Rome bad two great professlons which zave gen- erally the bighest honors and ricties,—ths pro- fessiong of the soldler and the orator. Men passod to houor either by the sword or by speech. Paul was o both” these paths, for be wis aashing about with & troop of woldiers do- g his K business, and ho was educated tobe a scholar er orator. Just bofore this youog man lay a palace at for a home, slaves for serviug hlin, and the fame of the pe- riod, And fo all periods fame has beea just as alluriog as It was when it inflamed the hears of Napoleon /in war, or Pitt and Webster in elo- quence. Il you will recall the possible carecr which thus lay befare Puul you will bohold the deep signiticauce of his words when be sald he should uo longer glory fn shythiug except in that pleco of crossed wood oo which Christ bad died. On that woud he, too, had died to the great world of weslth nad fame, and ou that wood the world had dicd to him. Thus grand was this lungusge when you look at what forms of human gicatuess it Hung aside. ‘Vho lan- Kuage was uo less great when we look into the watter and flod whbat 8 world the young heart recefved fu exchanze. 1tis downg ustics to L'aul to say that be fuug away riches and fame as a Rowan, sud accepted of blows sud fnsults a8 u despised Christiau. He m tudeed, lave surmised that persecution wouid come; but these can hanlly bgestimated as parta 6f the Jurge exchsoge. Hla sorrows vame, for tho most part, suddeuly, aud may bave come uncxpectedly. They” may have formed bo part (o his first espousafof the Cross, He was spicitually converted at Damascus, and from thst hour "began to view the world and huwan life and destivy In & new lgot. ‘The weetiog with Clirtst bad msdo a world sprin, up larger than the Howan Ewpire; fa thal world wien were to be brotliers, cruelty was to be done away, love was to Hll ull souls, Gientile aud Jew were to be oue, thu master was to be as the scrvant, and, lustead of Ruome, licaven was Lo be the capital city; Jerusalew was ta be as nothiog compared with the maguificent lind beyond the grave. ‘To this new pbilosophy aua uew tesule Christ was tue way; them the tause, of this Cirist the Cross was tho ewblem aud In that wood, with the d’"‘f fgure uoon it, he should heucoforeh glory. Hatiog lcarued tho ment of that Jesus, it “would be vain for the soldives of Roww, or the urstors of Lhe classic world, or its literature, or its riches, cver Lo temot him agalu uto their less novle service. The glory of his remaloing years «aliould be in Christ. Let us attempt to estimate this Cross, that, 1t possible, wo mav Hud that worth which so chaoged the careerof hinn wbow Clirlstian afluctiva jung 8go blaced suwone the Saluts. 'l'oo wsny ceuturies dave lutervenca to perwit as to leara shl that Puul kuew or felt about this syw- bol. Cpuld we zetura Lo bis prescuce, or could Lie coms new to us, that in the wost full and most simple words ho could unfold uil that In which be so &l:rled. we should then be empow- ered tospes’s; but 80 tmany geuerations Lave passcd, with their changes of lsuguage uud style, changes of figures, of taste, of forws ot lozie, with wierations of mau frow the glowlng Orfent to the colder North and West, with changes from the poetie to the ratlonal, that st Inst many of the worda of F'anl lie hefore us as unmeasurable as the rhapsodies of 8¢, John. As we do not know fnto what third heaven our Saint was caught up, do not sce the wonder of that paradise which Paul saw,nor hear the unspeakabie things he beard, ro musg we sit down by the Cross in which fie zlorfed and feel that we can no longrer sound with our line the sen which lay beneath him so clear and deep. It {3 all 8 mintake to affirm that because the Disciples undrratood Christ that, tuerefore, ol #aheequent Christlans may fully understand the Dircioles, It i3 evident 'ttt 8t. John knew what meaning he attached to the Apocalypse; but It Is equally evideot that modern clerzymen who make Scriptural study a life work do not know the mind of Bt. John; but they meet, from generatlon to generation, to re-cxamino the texts about & Millennium or about the Baby- lon and the Antl-Christ. And thus, too, the words of Bt. I'aul about woman, sod slavery, and marrjage, and the Habbatl have lost their exact rignificance fo their lang journey amid languaces, aud styles, and races, d ucalitles. It Issald that a'vrain of wmusk nt a room for a thousand years: but even if this were true, then, at least, the second thousand vears would show the falling off of the perfume, snd he who should enter the chamber in the nineteenth century, after some ouo hiad piaced [n the wall tha Hitle sromatic dust, would decjare that faint were the traces of that breath from Araby. Thus some utter- ances of the old and divine hearts have exhaled much of their fragrance, and the aroma which delighted St. Panl and St. John hias become faint to us, and we who tread the sacred halls nipe- teen hurared years later, cannot eatch sl the old swectuess, aud do not ¥now whotber those alabaster boxes of IsnRuage contained spike- or {rankincense, or myrrh. hero men who will bs swilt to reject h @ statement, but as long as the Cross lies before the Christlan thinkers. to be read by some as the emblem of & commer- clal transaction between the Father and Hon, to be read by others as setting forth a simole dy- Ing of one for many, to be read by others asn dylog of one for all to be read by others as an einblem of 8 moral influence, it Is all vain to say that no part of the Paullne theory las be- come obscured by the mental viclssitudes of two thousand years. But while some parts of Paul's thought have becen Tost, all the essentisl cases of his glorging remaln, and we can find In them reason endugh why he abandoned the military carser snd the clikrms of a Roman Empire for the career of 80 Apostle and the unrivaled charms of the Kingdom of God. The Cross stood for a new harmony between the soul and fts Maker, A God-appointed Mediator had como to carth to terminate a spiritual war. At some point, or rather At all poluts, between Chrlst's eradie aud grave a redemption of man had been taking place. The soul, ruined In some former representative, bad been by this new representative placed upon a footlng of friendsbip toward the Creator whom it had sloned ogainst snd despiscd. The Bible so ahoands in the afiirmation that Christ lived and died 03 a representative of the humaa race that, witliout to any degree underatanding this sub- stitution of ove for man, [ acceptof it and make it a part of the meaning of tha Cross, In this Paul scems to have glorfcd. As throuch 1ila sinful ancestors man had fallen, so lhrmxfih this sinlees Bavior the human soul could be mado white, The method Is tnknown; the fact 1s plainly announced In that word which war- tapta the exletence of the Christian Church, But fnterwoven with this value of the Cross we sce the moral-influence theory, Mauy-sided was the worth of Christ. Paul did not extract Lils rupture fromna siugle moment of s Master’s life. That enthuslusm which pushed aside the Roinan and Hebrew splendor, and which gave op all thiogs for Christ, did not fced upon the manger alone nor upon the death, but it drew its frupulse trom all tho deeds, and words, and scencs {n that life which had begun fu humility and bad passed above In n resurrcction, The Cross was the symbol which stood for all: It recailed all the sympathy, the love; it helped the memory aud touchied tie heart; [t glorifled the whole ‘bistory of the absent Jesus, and as the word * throue" stauds for the power of (iod and the power of inun, and at it mentlon recalls the mighty crpires of earit, or makes us sce the universe all obey- log one Allwise volce, =0 the word * Cross 't came to Luul's lips as un aflectiouate symbol of ol he koew, and loved, and hoped “of Jesus Christ. In the imwuediate context the moral- fufluence thoory streams forth in the thougit that Paul must fotluw his Master and be cruci- tied to the world as was his Lord; that no form or vutward rite would avail; that he must him- relf become a *‘new creature,” For the bour the substitutional theory is absent; it 1y repu- diated, and Paul must himself die to sin and become transflicured into o new “creation.” He says vmnull‘y. *You Gallatlans aro nlldn;i hiope {n external forme, are keeping the law o circumelsion, but God forbid that I sbould even dory io au vutward forin. 1 shall glory onl n {bat Cross which puts to death all sln an brings to life all Inmost purity.” At other llmfis. verhaps, Paul would have mung thu words: Nothing in my bands I bring, but at this moment the mural Influence of the {’ross was Biling his inind, and he desired to bring to his God & religion in the soul rather than a rellicion of the ralment or of the budy, Christ Lad lived Il)u‘lL‘lll{' had shown' uo such narrownces as that which had stosed a Stephien, or bad dragged doubting persons to rrlwn' Ho led loved allko Jew and Gentilo; 1o hiad lved in tondern not io the cruclty of o military chieftain; Ho had depressed thv cxternal to enlarze the spiritual; He hod for- Fvun cnemics; He had by day and by night been & oral hero: He had been a nedintor for man; He had not shrunk from g fearful death; 1o had revealed a sccond Iife by ristog from the doad, and o the midat of theso sweet and altogether amaziug facts aul sa 1lebrew sud lluman alms all turu to dust, and & Cross to rtse up out of ths wide cxpanse of the future. The plece of wood polnting four ways, with the body of the divinest bejug of sll his- tory imsged upon it, loving aud dying, did not spcak to Paul only one truth; it did not pro- clatm the theory of a “*commercial transactlon " nor the theory of a *‘moral fotluence,” but that wood prefigured a new world. The four arins puinted out the four cotnpass polnts from which il the four winds should blow all human love, and wisdon, and virtue, and humortal 1ife. 1t ever there has neen 8 buman boast Justified by history, Paul's boast over the Crosa must be declared now to be windicated iu the actual carour of mau. For when the saceed emblem passed futo Rome, the Imperial City, it broke up slowly the cblages which met to sce wild” beasts flzht with men and meg trunslix each other. A vernal alr of charity passed over cven cruel Rume, and softenied thst lron heart. As Impassioned Nps epoke sud saug of this Cross tn later agus, slaves wero sct froe, despotism changed into & mild monarchy or {nto liberty, children were born into au unususl care and education, and nations were drawn Juto & claser brother- hood, aud the tomb of man began to bo decked with the tlowers of a nuw hope. When ta those vast public changes which lave followed that cruciform word you add all the private virtue and private happluess which have fssued from 1t like perfume fromthe sandsl tree, what hymus have been sung wround it, what prayers offered in its memory, you will feel that, cumpared with this synibol, all other emblotns of rlchcs, or power, or p‘msuu fade. The Protestants hava removed from the wuod the dyiug form, because their hearts cannot endure the remem- brance of such agouy, They profer the sinple Cruss ulong with the reflection thay He who ance suffercd there hus goue away to 1i1s paradise; but {f the Roman Catholic pre- fers the cracitiz, we complain not, tor It will re- call to them, as the simple cross to us, the Ereatost mcmorfi earth pussci History pro- l"lllllll It to be the wost powerful symbol of ull times. Iu presence of tho broad use which Paul made of this word, {u the wemory of the fact that he meant by the word not ooly Christ's sacrifice, but all the charms of Christ’s charas- ter and all the pureat ph of human viriue, in presenve of the fact that the Christian world bLas atisched o It all forws of woral excelleuce, wa cugnot but conclude that the mnuluf- u the words Bavior and Redeemer are equally fa- detoite and equally clastic. They are mutiv- slued, lke 8 crys! or many-voiced, like the sea, or ptar-bedocked, Jiko tho sky, The Cross never stuod for the slmple death of the Lord, uiuch Jess did it ever stand for sowe phase ol that geath, but it stood i the letters of Paul und has over sinco stood for all the luve, wul words, aua work of Him who dicd at last lifted up by its timber and ualls. Unuble to evumer- ate all this multifurm merit, the Leart passes by tho dotalls, 3nd gatbers up the whole nx ual rickies of Clriatlznity in oue word. a uation whose climate, aod soil, and laws, and peujles, aud arts, aud customs are too luge fur crfect cuumeration, groups all these qualitles mu; one term—the Eazle, or Lbe Bhamrock, or the Lion, or tha Pioy, or the Pulny, so the holy religion of vur temple, ubable to tell the world ut unce all tho wortl of its Founder, 1ilts up the cross, aud wakes the cwblem of {te greatest event stand sa the cblem of a whole ewpire of faith, und love, and life. As under thy symbol of two wild plants, two islaud vations live, and each nation, by its own leaves, suts furth or calls to wemory its past and vresent, itssolt, lauguage, its political triuwphs sud defeats, its loves, and sungs, sud gricts, 30 under one ulnu uf croased wood group tha ropentance, the chanty, the faith, the love, the hopuofl u relys- lon—by the word Cross it iucaus alluf the soul's holy states, aud memorics, aud cxpectations. 1t tharefore cowes b0 pasa Lhat wany denoml- nativns, aud wany iudividuals differing fu be- Let do all repeat one word sud wear upoa thclr hesrtd one symbol. ‘The meaning of the word I8 80 rich that justead of ita béing exhausted by the virtus dmemn from ft By sou orme, it lies almost untouched for him who Is neitner you nor I, but who comes to It with trust and affection. In that pictare scen in so many windows of the etrents, where a woman’s form reaches up out of a stormy ses, aud theows the arms ground a rock, cut by pature into s cruciform shape, the spectators percelve ng one significance In_thet cross. While the ald- and the madern echool waze at ' the scend with dlfering thouehts, all agree tn this, that the dying woman has found at last & power reater xhnu' t‘rm r;i e ocean llmufll ar‘{‘act.l ‘Ahu speetators of many miods bicud fogether in the | words—S8he ts pnvgll The emblem is not one which |n¥ ane sect may cxhaust, but s rather one which all sects combined cannot measure. \Yhen you see the old saints sll looking to It with hope, aud then in more recent times behold that varied thonght which has sprung up out of lverty re- ! peating thisone word, all that multitude of Christlans between Calvin and Channing. - nouncing the term Cross, do you not stand wonder-atricken that two pleces’of wood could gather such differing iniilions under thetr shadow? But such waslHe whio died upon thoso crossing beams. If, ns an anclent sald. the cross stood for the universe by its polnting fotir ways, ruz):fl. and left and up and down, or . toward the four compass points, thus sweeping the whole horizon, it was equaled by its victim on (‘Alvnr{, for Ilis wisdom, and Virtue, and love, and intercession looked fn all dlreutions, —up toward Reaven, down toward the depthsof suffering, richt and left; they swept the whols horizdn of human life. My young Iricnds, the earthis old. It may have seen on its surface six, or ten, or fifty thousand years of that human existence which ;ou sca to-day. Io all that Jong period the eart has knelt by sume nltar, and has come to the grave {n somne kiod of a hope and trust. Many religione have come, bringipg what of virtue and joy they knew ; but no mortal in the long-gone centuries has prayed, or scted, or died, and no Deist of the thoughtful present acts, or prays, or dles, in the name of any spirit- nal philosophy which can surpass or equal that worship, out of the broad busom of which rises the Cross of Jesus Chriat. TEMPERANCE IN POLITICS. . SERMON DY THN REY, N. F. BAVLIN, ‘The Rev. N, F. Ravlin, of the Free Baptist Church, preached yesterday morning at No, 887 ‘West Madison strect, on “Tbe Poliey of Run- ning Temperance Reform into Politics,” The reverend gentleman was very 111, and had to preach ju a sitting position. He took his text {rom tho fifth chapter of Corinthians, eleventh verse: “We persuade men” flo sald that Christ while on earth ucver tried a prohibition- ary law In order to reform man, but gave all a chance to choose between good and evil, vice and virtoe, e never favored the compulsory keeping of the Sabbath by legal enactment. ‘The only way to reform men was by truth and perauasion. Christ's own life was an example fn its purity. The Apostles of the Savior cairied out Hlis cxamples, using moral and persuasive powers, John the Baptist lost his head by trylng' ta coforce the law of marriazo to Herod. John's mistake was in that he tried to force [lernd to obey a faw. Ile never sald anv- thing to bim In regard to the right or the wrong of thelife he was feading, Modern reformers might study Christ’s life as an example in this respect, The speaker did not thigk that a law could be enacted whict would compel mien to pray or o go to church on Hund-{. t was the same with liguor drinkiog and selllng. No law could be enforced ip advance of public senti- . meut. Men could not Le made virluous by low, nor could vice be orevented by legal enactment. But tmen could ba porsuaded by morn? reason. Infi_nnd adevelopment of their better faculties. hie reason of the success of the Reynolds snd Murphy movements was beeause they sought to reforin mien by moral suasion. Not one i ten of the returmed men who were wear- fuyr the blue or red ribbon to-sy would have signed the pledze had they pellesed that thels Led-Ribbon Clubs were to be turned into polit- fcal organizations in order to obtain prohibitory laws, It was impoliticto break fatth with thest reformed men, and It was o confession of weak- ness in moral suasion to attetut to have men made temperate by law. If force was employed to maku inen good It would only result in making them niore wicked, And {f forco was used to compel s keeping of thy Sabbath-day, it would moro likely be deccrated by men upon the least provocation. ‘I'hie spraker believed In Continued on Ealih 1ags, el bl A Stitch In Timo Saves Nine is true of old coats, and mouths, When the for. mer showe the first defect take a **atitch, ™ and always Keop the month right by naing Sozodont.. 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