The New York Herald Newspaper, September 16, 1872, Page 4

4 RELIGIOUS. Services and Sermons in the Churches of the City. BLOSSOMS OF HOPE BUDDING IN FANCY. Fashionable Churches” Riddled by Frothing- ham’s Battery—They Are Not Sacred, Neither Are They Sanctuaries. Talmage on Varnished and Veneered Religion. Marriage and Divorce Microscopi- caliy Considered by the Rev. Charles B. Smyth. SUNDAY A GRIM SEVERITY. The Charity of God and Its Power Over Human Hearts Considered by Father Farrelly. A SCOTCH DIVINE ON GLORY. -—_—__e: God Demands an Undivided Heart and Perfect Love. ST, PATRIOK'S OATEEDRAL. Sermon by Reverend John M. Farreclly— Charity the Greatest Commandment— ts Dofinition and Its Obligations—The Charity of Christ, of His Saints and of His Church. The Cathedral yesterday was, a3 usual, well at- tended, and the chill temperature and gloomy aspect of the morning seemed to interfere in no respect with the solemn celebration of the Sun- aay. The vocal and instrumental music of the ‘Mass lacked nothing of its accustomed impressive- mess. The great absorbing feature of the occasion, however, was the eloquent sermon preached by THE REV. JOHN M, FARRELLY. recently appointed Secretary to and by the Most Rev. Archbishop McCloskey. After the singing of the Epistle and reading of the Gospel by the celebrant, ev. Father McNamee, the reverend gentleman proceeded to the pulpit, made the requisite announce- ments and then read the Gospel of the Sunday, from which he chose his text—St. Matthew xxil., 35, 38—-“And one of them (the Pharisces), a doc- tor of the law, asked Him, tempting Him, ‘Master, what is the great commandment of the law?’ Jesus sald to him, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and thy whole soul, and ‘with thy whole mind.’ In reading the Gospel his- tory of our blessed Lord's conversations with man it is worthy of remark that there were TUREE KINDS OF QUESTIONS PROPOSED. <o Him. They were either questions of some utility to salvation or they were questions of mere Adie curiosity, or, finally, questions good or in- different, but prompted by malice or bad faith. To the Orst class of interrogatives Jesus always an- swered directly, to the second never, to the third sometimes openly and directly, sometimes ob- securely. Thus, when the Aposties on one occasion asked fim, “Why cannot we cast out demons ?” Jesus answered directly—because it was a useful question—‘“Because of your incredulity. This species of demon is not cast out save by prayer and fasting,” He said. And again, when Peter put to Him the sete “Lord, how often shall Iny brother offend and I forgive him ?”” “Seven times,” Jesus answered, ‘yea! scventy times seven times.” To questions of mere idle curiosity He never answered. Thus, when theApostivs, curious about the last day, inquired if on that day He would restore the Kingdom of Israel, Jesus said, “It belongs not to you to know y! the signs and times which the Father holds in His own power.” But itis to the third class of inter- Togatives that the Gospel which I have just read to you refers, when the question asked procceds from malice, and is of vit importance to the inquirer, Hence Jesus, full of charity towards all men, answered the doctor of the law promptly and di- rectly, because He knew good would come out of it, which was the case, as St. Mark testifies. For such was the power of the truth spoken by Jesus that he who came to sooff remained to pray, and Jesus said to him, “Thou art not far from the King- dom of God.” WE COME HERE TO QUESTION JESUS and to know from Him the way to salvation, and like the Jews of His day we, perhaps, come with various motives. Some, and the greuter_por- tion, | trust, come in real earnest to make their requests; but some, too, it may be, froin idle curiosity and in the spirit of baa faith; but what- ever our motives, the answer of Jesus to us all ts, “Thoy Bhalt love the Lerd thy God with thy whole heart and thy whole soul, and with ali thy mind, This fs tne first and greatest commandmen.,” But what says the world? “This is the last and least command,” How strange the charity of God contrasted with the charity of the world! And here we come to refiect on charity—the eatest 0! virtues. Charity is an Inclination of the heart to God; and Ba God is the great object of man's Joye, charit, ‘Dinds us to render Him that tribute, for God is grieved when He is offended and rejoiced when He is glorified, and to love God sincerely is to glorify Him in the best possible way. THE OBLIGATION OF OUR LOVING GOD is, therefore, obvious. In the Old Law, the Jews, although the sword of correction hung above their heads, considered the first and greatest command was to love God above all things. And St. Augus tine tells us that as there can be no religion without worship, and no worship without love. The greatest perfection of religion 1s the love of God; therefore a8 much more | Ag holy and perfect our religion is than that of the Jews, 60 much the more strictly are we bound to love God sincerely. Our religion fs the religion of sanctity and perfection, and hence, by excellence, the religion of love. ‘For you have not received the spirit of bondage in fear, See adoption as sons, whereby we cry, Abba, ‘father.’ The condescension of God to win our love was such as man might never have hoped for. He sent upon earth His only Son, not in the fulness of man- hood to dictate to us as a master, but under a ferm which inspires the keenest sympathy and tenderest affection—the form of a little infact. Follow Him from that ie 3 night “4 eer nent to that bitter a on On Calvary and you shal} {ind jils wore snd Re Rothe broathing the tanderes Tots wae nian. His blessings and Ills promises were always most bountiful, and His deportinent to- wards man full of sympathetic considerations. In Gethsemane, when, in the midst of His agony, He found His disciples sleeping, He said, “Sicep’ on, sleep om and take your rest.” On meeting Judas, the traitor, He did not.smite him by an act of His omnipotent will, but kissed hin tenderly, saying, «Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?’ We cannot, as followers of Jesus, smite Lis cvemies, but we still can give Him evidences of our love. We can give him our hearts, all that He requires, “Son, give me thy heart.” We can keep Ris Cone and we can avoid giving scan- dal, the most virulent wound which can pierce the b of Jesus Christ. We can love Him for His sake—inark, for His sake, and not jor our own per- sonal interest. ‘This charity it is which renders worthy of eternal fe the ardent zeal of the apostle, the invincibic court ‘tyr, the profound learning of fray tovrers ua ari if virgin: ne Raiyol er Ciba o y' mupaculat penances of pad ah Christian sanctity, Butif charity be wanting God would not reckon them one instant among his Maithiul nor admit them to one of heaven's ory. The apostle says, “If I Apeak with the ongues of men and angels and have not charity, I mM Nothing but sounding brass; and again, oi I should give ail my re to the poor and have not ony, {t profiteth me nothing.” Where charity, therel , 18, there also is everything, for it is tl preg eo ajl that is holy. In this, then, is all the jaw and the prophets. “LOVE GOD AND DO WMAT YoU WILL’? ays St. Auguatine, for you can never do anything ‘That wilt Him; tor no sooner does the Jove of God enter into the soul than it takes abso- lute possession of it. and directs it where it wills, and, moved by this invincible love of God, man rises superior to all human respect. Thus it is that you bias fed the haunts Of dissipation and ea God in \ Prayer and ip His holy teuple. Thus Davi bowed down his head amid calumutes and derisions and received them as gifts from God, and thus Joseph retained his chastity amid temptations terrible ana perilous. Thus it was that Samuel de- NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1872.— Clared before all his love fora whole nation, and that the good Samaritan spared neither money nor ass'stance to @ fellow stranger, It was charity overpowered the heart of Magdalene when she watered the feet 8 r Soa ud gb- tained fi mare Brie Ay iit eeetess, BS cling ta charity and fear hot, The will oppose POse a and as it Bow 0) Joes His ho ly Church, and as it has opposed it ebm the beginning—from the days | of Dioclesian down to the present time. But the Church, like her Divine Founder, nas been always the exemplification of charity—the point of attack for all heresies and infldelity—but always at home her responses arc meek and ino‘ensive., Infidelity has no life, for the sced of life is not inher. In vain 1g it looked ior there. 1¢ is a8 sceking the living among the dead, as when students of anatomy chop up the human body te find the soul. The life of the Church is charity—the life ef heresy and infidelity, hatred, which will be their ultimate destruction; for charity alone begets love avd union and strength and final rhe ‘This charity, being the life of the Church, will keep it alive forever, for charity never faileth, Fear not, then, the opposition your charity will meet—you will be triumphant, ve God and love Him “with your whole sowl and your whole mind,” and you may truly say vou have be- gun to enjoy the gior: ich God has prepared for those only who love flim, WESTMINSTER OMUROH. Sermon by the Rev. John Kay—The Fi- ture Glory of the Righteous, The Rev. John Kay, of Paisley, Scotland, preached yesterday morning in the Westminster Presbyterian church, in Twenty-second street. The congregation was a very slim one, owing, of course, to the absence of many of its members from the city; but the discourse was as carnest aud as im- pressive as if every seat had been occupied, Mr, Kay took for his text the passage trom Matthew :— “Then shail the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” He sald that all we know about the future world was derived from the Bible. Some of the ancient philosophers, drawing hope from the evidence in man of noble faculties, which were apparently nipped in the bud by death, had entertaincd a faint expectation that there was @ life beyond the grave. But such a hope was 2 faint one, and was confined to a few very enlightened men. To the mass of men, for thou- sands of years, all was doubt and darkness, The Bible tells us that there were two cxtreme states in the future world—heaven and hell—and though this disclosure was specifically made only in the word of God, yet atill it was atrongthened by what Wa saw taking place around us in this world. Virtue and vice were progresaive—the bad man was gradually growing worse, while the good mun was constantly growing better. And, 80 far as we could see, there was no limit to man’s possibilities of either good or evil, and in the future world we might indeed either become as God or as the devils, Enough was told usin the Bible to show us tbat no words could paint the torments of the damned or the joys of the righteous. In the text the glory of the righteous in heaven was compared to the shining of the sun. Nothjug was more fitted to impress us with taajesty ana grandeur even of the Almighty than the beaven lit up by the great light that was made to rule the day. Mr. Kay then at length enlarged upon the beauty and sublimity aud glory of the sun, and showed that it was as necessary a spring of iffe in the material world as God himseir was in the spiritual world. Remembering this, we could form some idea of the exceeding glory of the righteous when disencumbered of sin and perfect in holiness, they should enter upon an eternity of bless- edness and happiness, And might we not, therefore, say to ourselves, ‘Take courage; let us think of the glory ol our reward; though our humble piety may be unknown to all but afew immodiately around us, yet still we shall shine forth as the sun in our Father's kingdom." Again, this statement that the righteous should shine as the sun not only showed the great giory, but also the excessive light that would irradiate their minds in heaven. Light was always used in the Scriptures as the symbol of knowledge. Our knowledge now was but feeblo, flickering and Irregular, but in the world to come we should become, as it were, scl{- luminous bodies, filled with light. Cast the sun where you might through the universe it would send fortn light, because it was itself the source of light and heat. And while now our light was but borrowed and faint, obscured by sinful passions and desires, we should in heaven as suns, shin- ing by virtue of our being oursclves, like the sun, a spring of light and heat. Sometimes it was, even while on earth, the privilege of the Christian to have seasons of specially holy and sacred inspiration, and to enjoy in a peculiar incasure the senseof communion with God. Yet ow speedily did such seasons become dimmed and clouded over! Bat in the future this enlightenment would be un- interrupted and we should see God face to face. Mr. Kay went on to say that in his opinion heaven Was a progressive state. Many Christians seemed to think that as soon as they had attained their final reward they would at once reach the highest {0y, of which their nature could be capable. This, jowever, Was @ fallacious view. The soul wonld undoubtedly be constantly receiving through eter. nity new revelations of the glory, and goodness and wisdom of God. Mr. Kay concluded by pointing out the strong encouragement the Christian ought to find in keeping in the narrow path that led to sal- vation by the exceeding great glory of his reward. 8T, STEPHEN'S CHUROH. Sermon by the Rev. Father McCready— The Love of God and Onc'’s Neighbor. The high mass at St. Stephen's church yesterday morning was said by the Rev. Father Flynn. The mass sung by the choir was Machi's. Mr. Denforth, the organist, played a few brilliant pieces during the service. The sermon waswpreached by the Rev. Father McCready, who took his text from Matthew xxil., 87-39, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, thy whole soul, and thy whole mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.” In these few words we have an epitome of the Christian religion, of the whole law ofGod. On these two command- ments depend the entire law and the prophets. Man’s dutics and relations in this world are two- fold towards God and towards his neighbor. Man cannot neglect those duties or violate his obliga- tions toward elther without injury to the other. If he be guilty of INJUSTICE TOWARD HIS FELLOW MEN he offends God, who commands him to love his neighbor as himself. Again, he cannot sin against God without marring and violating the harmony of that perpetual thanksgiving and praise which all created nature, and especially man, is called upon to offer to God, the Creator, the Sovereign of the Universe. Man's duties and the requirements which God demand are contained in the decaloguo, or table of the Ten Commandments, which are epitomized and substantially reduced to the two ven by our Lord om this occasion. Un these two commandments depends the entire law; for if we examine the decalogue we shall find that the three first have God immediately for their object, the re- maining seven having reference to our neighbor. Thus St. Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, says:— “Owe no man anything; but that you love an- other; for he that loveth nis neighbor hath ful- filled the law. For, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thon shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and ifthere be any other commandment it is comprised in this word—thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” When Christ called these commandments the greatest, he insinuated that we should have those precepts ever in our minds and hearts, that they should be ever before our eyes, that they should be the rule and guide of our conduct through life. How, then, are those precepts observed in the world to-day? bo we dnd them reduced to practice by Christians in their re- lations with God and thelr neighbor? We have but to read the Re IS te eee REGARDS OF oun crve. ENp crfarvaL threcwars to be convinced of the sad ey wid that the observ- ance of the precept, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” 13 only the exception. What are those records but histories of crimes which shock the feelings to think off They tellus that men seem banded Ai, Mor 9 in society as iffor no other pur- og than ble. ‘ender each other misera- tling forms everywhere itself. Injustic id circumvention of mark all relations of society. Whether e regard individual relations or those of bodies litic, everywhere the demon of in- onesty seems to have set bis seal, man has become the mark for scorn, while the unjust man is honored in propor- tion to the magnitude and extent of his peculations, Again, In the social relations, who can enumerate the countless violations of this precept? Is it not too notorious that when men assemble for the most ordinary purposes of social Ile they can never separate without wounding . ATERNAL CHARITY, without destroying their neighbor's reputation. No person, no avocation of ilfe, no. good name, however fair, is free from their attacks, and repu- tations which but an hour before were unblem- ished are after one of those conferences between Christians left blackened beyond redemption. Those who 0 wilfully violate this second precept can scarcely be expected to observe the first—nay, as we have said, its observance under such circum- stances is impossible. It is neediess to inquire how she prey of the love of God is observed in the worl je et test of love is the observance of the commands and wishes of the person who is the object of our love. “If you love me keep my commandments,” saya viour. How does our conduct stand beside this test? How have we ob- iments? Oni science will ere is now-a- a ee oe against even discoursing of the love of God, ‘The Murder in its most S10NS THE OLDEN when holy men and women retired to live only for God, dedicating their lives and prop- erty to His service. It is, however, a sad mistake to suppose that our secular affairs conscientiously very mente of it brings up “sn, 1 from the world attended to in whatever position {t may have pleased God to place us are incompatible with this precept. On the contrary, they may be made the means and helps toward its fulfilment. But it is sadder still to suppose that this doctrine 0° the love of God o e mere speculative one. So practical, indeed, is it that no person has ever attained or shall ever attain to eternal happiness without the observance of this precept, It is the formal mo- tive of all religion; it is the foundation of all merit; without it, whatever apparent virtues wo might We would be but tho “sounding brass and etinkling symbol;"’ without it this world, that came forth so bright and beautiful from the hands of God, has been rendered tho land of sorrow and sadness and misery that it is, With it helt itself ‘would become a paradise; without it even heaven would Cease to be worth striv.ng for. AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN CHUROH. Sermon by the Rev. Charles B. Smyth om the ject of Marriage and Di- vorce=The Question as it Affects the Priesthood—Hyacintho’s Christian Alll- ance. Yesterday morning the Rev. Charles B. Smyth preached on the text, “God So Loved the Worid,"’ &o., John iii., 16,17; andin the evening Gcliverod the leeture announced, entitled “Lessons for the Clergy on Marriage and Divorce.” In his preface to the 1atter ne took occasion to refer to the edi- toriai remarks in last Monday's HERALD upon his lecture delivered last Sunday evening. ‘In look- ing over,” said he, “the editortals of that very able and = distinguished journal, in which my lecture was reported on last Monday morning, I perceived that its critique thereon called in ques- tion, by implication, the wisdom of my delivering lectures for the clergy, assigning a8 a reason that they “never hear them, and do not very often see them.” We must beg leave to differ with the re- spected critic, because our audiences are not al- ways destitute of a clerical hearer, and if they were the bare announcement of the theme in & leading and widely-circulating paper must have, at least, the effect of calling the clergy's attention and setting their minds thinking on the subject, and probably evolving something from themselves of a beneficial nature, and so far be of use, especially if, aa the same journal says truly, “among professors of religion there are too many theorists and too few prac- tical illustrations of the life and power of godliness in us) soul.” . As to the latter part of the critic's assertion, we think it is a little toomodest. We do not even know with certainty, it is true, that a ser- mon or lecture will be reported the noxt day, but if, perchance, in the exercise of a 4 WISH EDITORIAL DISORETION, one is reported, whe does not know that {ts con- tents are spread far and wide among all classes ? Thus the echoes of last Sunday evening's “lessons’! have not yet died away, nor will they till editions of that journal shall have reached the utmost limits of the globe; and the reverberation of those “les- sons’’ thus have been felt in every nook and cor- ner, from the right reverend’s sanctum in this metropolis to the humble tent of the reverend explorer of the bentghted land of the sons of Ham. As to preaching “salvation full and free to dying men and women,” let those men and women come and hear and judge for themselves, We cordially invite them to tree seats to receive the glad tidings, “without money and without price.’ He then announced as the text Matthew xix., 6., “What God hath joined together let no man put asunder.” Jo ning and separating, or marriage and divorce, constitute, said he, the double su! ject of our text, as they do also of our lecture this evening. There are may applications of the term marriage, a8 when it refers to the ceremony, or to the act of one party in taking the other, or ‘to the State of both being joined. The ceremony or act of joing the two might, in some instances, if we are to judge from consequences, be styled very truly an uncivil contract, but it ts never properly termed a civil contract, except by way of accommodation in law for sake of ‘classification in the nomenclature of legal subjects, Itis not for any practical pur- Pose, jure devino, & mere civil contract. The Cath- olic doctrine that it is a sacrament is even nearer the truth than that. THE BEST DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE is the junction of a woman to a man, whom God has made for him. Thus was Eve married to Adam; thus is the adage true that “marriages are made inheaven.’’ Any other thing called marriage, though it may pass in curiae, and have the stamp of le- ality, procures nothing but urious results. lay that very respectable class of the community commonly styled old maids get married? Cer- tainly, if they choose, provided they are not too old. May old bachelors get married? Yes; but such men ought to be treated like a letter received too late when they presume to present their with- ered attentions to budding, blooming belles of fourteen, Nobody doubts the propriety of young men and young maidens getting married.” Who will say it {8 not their duty to do so after reading in the distinguished journal alluded to the doctrine laid down there by the celebrated, and now rejuvenated Pére Hyacinthe, or the original decla- ration of the eonitae, that it is ‘not good for man to be alone,” or the divine command given to the first made bride and bridegroom in Genesis 1., 28. But may a CATHOLIC PRIEST GET MARRIED ? is a question now claiming public attention. “Ay, that is the question—there’s the rub.” It seems that one has got married lately and that itis pro- past for him to attack the citadel of the priest- ood and take it by storm at the head of an army of a thousand loving maidens. Bo itso. We fear that such maidens would meet with the fateofmany @ forlorn hope. We are not in favor of the doctrine of clerical celibacy any more than God, who said it was not good for man to be alone; but when a man has taken a solemn oath never to I alll 8 Protestant or Catholic—wherein lies the propriety of his violating the same under any pretext, after proving by experience of many years his abliity tokeep the same? Iam not clear upon that point; but! think that if f were a weil- reserved old bachelor of forty-five I should think wwice before I would marry a widow of forty, after wee: such an oath. Can it be said of two such persons that “God hath joined them together?’ For the present let us leave ‘that to their own consciences to determine, and proceed to the sevond branch of our subject—divorce. All honor to this State, that, let other States do as they may, the State of New York does not allow a divorce a vincwlo matri- monti except for that one gross cause for which it is permitted by the Saviour in Matthew v., 32, and xix., 3-9. The passage to which the Pharisees alluded in verse seven refers, not to a woman who had settled down for any length of time in the marriage state, but only to one just married. What they interpreted as a command in Deu- teronomy, xXiv., 1, Christ explained to be Cele} a permission, 08 we say an offence is tolerated when THERE 13 NO JUDICIAL LAW. to punish therefor, yet it is not any the less an offence according to the moral law. He proved the indistructibility of the marriage tie from the original institution of marriage; the agreement of Moses and Christ; the positive doctrine of Christ on the subject, and the fact that marriage is men- tioned by Paul, in Eph. v., as a type of the relation of Christ to his Church; depicted{ the evils that ‘would result to the family, to society and to the State from a disregard of the Christian doctrine on the subject; urged the inviolability of the mar riage tie from the unceasing love of Christ to his bride, the Church, as shown in Rom. vili, 33-39, and concluded with an appeal to the clergy to ex- ert their influence everywere throughout the land in favor of the conservative Christian doctrine upon this momentous subject. FOURTH UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. Dr. E. H. Chapin on the Pharisce and the Publican—The Effieacy of Prayer. The Fourth Universalist church, on the corner of Fifth avenue and Forty-fifth strect, was peopened for the Winter yesterday by the pastor, Rev. E. H. Chapin, who addressed a large and quite fash- fonable congregation, taking his text from Luke xvill., 10—“Two men went up into the Temple tg pray, the ong, g Ph e 1d Be gther AY publican,” Jt ig essential to note three things in this verse, said the reverend gentieman—the men, the place and the purpose. Radical difverences among men are few. It is @ most palpable truism, although a most suggestive one, that every man is full of human nature, Every phase of human characteristic from the barbarous savage to the cultured Christian is represented in this city, and we may with equal truth say these varled character- istics exist in each human breast, and that in a gonse each man is also every other man. But eg sentially every man is A PHARISER OR PUBLICAN, The Phariace is not to be exclusively identified ‘with the sect that flourished in the time of Christ, There are Pharisces to-day—formal and ostenta. tious Worshippers, men. val ad to the letter, stickiers for creed, dogmatic Im definition, deter- mined as to the orthedoxy of their own creed rather than Zealous for their own salvation, and hot and intolerant as to the views of Christ rather than imbued with His tender sympathy. May not, indeed, this term cover a wider definition and include the men whose mo- rality is legal; whose virtues are rather oxcres- cences of custom than outgrowth of character; who pet hag and sternly all the formal duties jemanded by the Church; who are chaste, upright, and, as the world goes, honest; who sit down satis- fled with themselves, feeling no pet id for any- thing higher, no need to be any better and no con- ception that they are not just what they ought pt to be, THE MOST PITIABLE CONDITION for a man to be in is to be completely satisfied with Limself, It were well that we should stop and ask ourselves, “Why am I not as miserable as these 7’ The unhappy slave who remorsel 8CO) sd ‘by the passions that hi astered him, the di! v- elled woman who has cast the crown of her womanhood in the mire and trampled upon it, the reckless man who hag deliberately 3 burat the ligatares that bound him to society and become an outcast—are we not, as they, Fgh od po ly? Would we have mm better if ‘iala and temptations had assailed ua? ‘THE PUBLICAN who enters the Tommie to pray is of quite a differ- ent spirit from the Pharisee. While the Pharisee in his prayer refers mainly to himself, the publican looks away from himself; while a self-consciousness ia necessary to the true Seas sheath mye wae Lard prodigal vely, a8 in ape: Pi son we are ‘old arhen he came to man oan bear to be continually own heart. We must look to Sureatl, thor not mor- bidly ; but itis more necessary that we look away from ourself. He who would argue that AN BNCOURAGEMENT TO SIN is found in the fact that God's is so broad does not understand human nature. The first 80 readily I will go sin children, receiving the forgivences of our nt for some childish sin, feit thus while enfolded in the b shelterli arms of our parents? No. rt The first thought that risea within, the thought that remains present with us longest while the remem- brance of that kiadly forbearance lasts, is the thought, HOW MBAN 13 SIN! They went up into the Temple to pray. The in- junction, “Enter into thy closet,” is a precept against exciusiveneas in prayer as well as against ostentation. The man who studiously avoids the fellowship of man in commu: with God is as self-righteous as the Pharisee, ere are associa- tions connected with worship in our church or tem- ple which are holy, and which man cannot afford to do without, The Temple now is no one place. It is no Moriah, no mountain, no Judea, but that place where each man finds the most nourishment for his soul, the place where he fsels that he can touch God with the closest. touch. Ihave no sympathy with that religion which would make BUNDAY A DAY OF GhIM SEVERITY, but I have jess with that spirit that, under tho name of anti-Puritanism, would make it merely 9 day of license or remand it tothe chaos ef the work-day world. Let us come up to-day, reopen- ing the liar house of God in which we worship, remembering, whether we have been across the seas Or sojourning among our Own mountains and on our own set ies, in the disastrous season of Summer juat past—a season of unusual heat, filled with storms and tornadoes and checkered with Rasansropnes-— set above all ig@ God of sublime order, of infinite wiadom, of unlimitca mercy, who doeth all things well. Mr. Greeley was present during tho service. PORTY-THIBD STREET METHODIST EPISOOPAL, OHUROE, ees Lat ‘Woman’s Mission in the Church—Her Right to Teach, Preach and Exhort Proved from Scripture and Church Usage—Sermon by Rev. Dr. L. H. King. A couple of weeks ago, during the vacation of Dr. King, the trustees of the Forty-third street Methodist Spiscopal church invited Mra, Van Cott, the Now England evangelist, to preach for them. She did ao, and almost literally, like Paul at Troas, “continued her speech until midnight,” without, however, tiring or setting any one to sicep, as the Apostie did, Upon Dr. King's return to the olty he heard what had taken place, and thereupon de- clared that he would let the Church know what he thought about such innovations upon his own craft and upon the usages of the Church. This he did yesterday to a large congregation, basing his remarks upon Acts il., 1%—“Your daughters shall prophesy.” For ten days, he said, the infant Christian Church waited in Jerusalem for the promise of the Saviour that He would send the Comforter to abide with thom for ever. But the days passed and there was no answer. Still they prayed and waited. That was real, naked faith. But it came at last from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where the little band of Christians was sit- ting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and were now ready for work, and God had the work pre- pared for them. Jerusalem was filled with people from all lands, to whom the disciples went forth and preached in divers tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. But the old Pharisees came along and said the excitement was caused by too much wine. But Peter replied it was not so—that it was too early in the day, for one reason, to find so many persons drunk in the streets. But, said the old saint, this is the fulfl- ment of a prophecy delivered by Joel a long time ago, in which it was declared that a time would come when sons and daughters, old and young, ser- vants and handmaids alike, should prophesy. And now, said the Doctor, much depends upon the true INTERPRETATION OF THIS WORD “ PROPHESY.” It does not mean, said he, to sing twice, pray once and read a portion of Scripture, as I have done here this morning. Jilustrations of prophesying or preaching were then given. Philip, a deacon, ence Ohrist unto the people of Samaria and started on the road toward Gaza, when e met an Ethiopinn eunuch reading a por- tion of the rophecy of Isaiah, and at the cunuch’s invitation Philip t into his carriage “and preached unto him Jesus.’ What was this preaching but simply expoundin; the passage that the colored man had just read? But it was a good sermon. It converted the au- dience, and that is always a good sermon that con- verts souls. What part, then, ne asked should women take in preaching? The Bible has done much for man, but it has done more for women. True, there are some women who meet in this city to celebrate the birthday of Tom Paine; but the greatest harm he (the Doctor) could wish them would be that they should live in some country where Tom Paine’s ppuinclpite prevail. A converted Indian chief had told him (the Doctor) that he had seen mothers dash their children’s brains out against tye trees of the forest, and regret that their own mothers had not served them so, rather than have them grow up in such misery and degi dation. The early Jewish Church was democratic in its organization, It had three orders—namely, PRIESTS, JUDGES AND PROPHETS. Women never entered the first, but the other two were opened to them and were occupied by them. Deborah dispensed justice and led an army to glorious victory, and afterwards delivered a dis- course which 1s matched only by Him who spake as never man spake. Huldah was a prophetess also, And what is a prophetess but a female prophet—a teacher of the law and the testimony? And Anna, the prophetess, an old lady of eighty-four years of age, Who was one of the first to welcome the infant Redeemer, went from house to house telling the good news that Jesus, the Messiah, had come. With Christ's coming the order of prophets and prophetesses was done away with, but they were replaced by deacons and deaconesses, And the late Aibert Barnes, one of the best and most impartial commentators, says that the apostolic constitution rovides for the qualifications and ordination of jeaconesses as Well as of deacons. Their work was similar. If the deacon was to be the husband of one wife the deaconess was to be the wife of one husband. If he i 80 might she. Did the deacons preach? Most certainly. Philip and Stephen are bright examples. The Doctor then ex- amined the prohibitory passages to women’s preaching by Paul so frequently quoted against women, and remarked that if the Apostle meant tq exclude women from preaching, when he said he suffered them not to teach, he contradicted both his own words and his example at other times and in other places. In his letter to Titua Paul speaks of the aged women as “teachers of good things,” and encourages them to teach the young women.” He also stnds an affectionate greeting to thusé women that labore with i) m the Gospel. So that Paul could not have meant to prohibit women Presse ing or teaching in the Church. What he did pro- hibit—according to Dr. Adam Clarke ana other com- mentators—was that style of discussion which pre- vailed in the Synagogue, and which tended to de- bates and strifes rather than to godly edifying. But in proving that women should not teach in the big rt Nas said the Doctor, altogether too much for thé Methodist Church, which owes its ex- istence and very much of its power and present proportions to THE TEACHINGS AND THE INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. We have now in this country twelve beng 9,000 itinerants, 10,000 local preachers and 1,600,000 Church members, and all because a woman—Bar- vara Heck—burned up Philip Embury’s pack of and kee to him _abvut Jesus and the resur- And Fr Bai nce Mot usannah Wesley than to her sons. She talked to and taught the people, both pub- licly and privately, before they did. Mary Fletcher ig represented as preaching ith words of fire. For thirty years she preached to congregations with unnagging interest, so that the desire to hear was as great at the end as at the beginning. Sarah pisces! travelled in circuit one year 9,000 miles, preaching and teach- ing the things concerning the kingdom of God. Hester Ann gers, Dinah Evans and Grace Mur- ray preached the Gospel. ‘rhe latter was sent forth by Wesley as an itinerant, and travelled on horse- back, and it is said that her horse knew o great deal more than some of our Methodist children know, for it knelt to let her mount. Mary Barrett, who afterwards became Mrs. Taft, was {@ Icensed local preacher, and in one place Bugiand in nine months she could count 8,000 converts—ni iy 1,000 a month, Sarah Mailet also went forth as a preacher, licensed by Wesley himself. The Doctor then re- ferred to women entering the learned professions } in these days, and contended that they had an equal right to be teachers of Christian trath, But women Were the first to greet the Redeemer; they were His most constant companions through life: they followed Him to the cross and to thesepnichre, rey @ of them, Mary, by the Saviour’s command, pre the fret } sermon that was ever reached—Jesus an resurrection—the day that le But while he (Dr. King) did not think women called to be ministers in the same sense and to the same extent that mea metnodisht Owes The Oklst- + SUE SHH, F are, yet me hoped thatthe Methodist Unurch weuld mcourage Wo'nen preache: until, Rover conse». was led toeat Une forbidden {ult as the first fi + shall be led to eat of tie t aa Ie, eel, ie tree LYRIO Har **s Prothixngham— What Constitutes a Church—Ovr Re- ligious Edifices, Built by the Fow #nd for the Comselence of the Few, Are Not Sacred, Nor Are They Sanctuaries. ‘The second service following the Summer vace- tion of the Independent Society, Rev. 0. B. Froth- ingham, paster, was held in the audience room of Lyric Hail, on Broadway, near Forty-second street, yesterday morning. A large and appreciative gudience was in attendance, the female element predominating. The services were opened by a voluntary on the organ and an anthem by the admirable quartet choir, under the leadership of D. W. J. Hil, Foltowing the usual religious exer- Cises, the reverend gentleman announced ‘for his text Psalm ixxxiv., 1—“How amiable are Thy tabernacics, O Lord of Hosts.” He sala:— It is impossible to enter freely into the sentiment of the ancient Hebrew towards his place of worship. To him it was the house of God, the home of his traditions, the Holy of Holies, where was kept the Ark of the Covenant, representing the visible pres- ence of the Deity. His temple was the work of ages, and the great—the mighty from all lands, had contributed to ita construction. Here perpetual worship was offered, incense was-always burning and sacrifices always made. Its physical oharacter was an index to its spiritual, and the two were so intimately blended in his mind as to be scarce dis- tinguishable. For tim to enter it once in a lifetime was a necessity, no mattor how great the effort. It was a place of meditation; the priest was always in waiting and the weary laborer could at any bour steal aside from the heavy cares which beset him and pass a time in communion with the Deity. Such a church was in itself a faith. Tae speaker then proceeded to show how this feeling became reduced in contemplation of the church edifices of the present aay. They are built by the wealta of the few, for the convenience of the few; no reverence attaches to them; as o¢- casion demands they ate torn down and others ereeted in other localities. In no way do they con- atitute an expression of faith; they are opened but one day in the week and clesed for the balance of the time. There is no sacredness attached to them, and they one titute 0 SANCTUARY where needy men can forget their trials and tribu- lations in the exercise of prayer. Still further is this feeling reduced omg) instead of a church building, refugo is taken in such @ hall as this, devoted to secular pursuits during the week. The speaker then enlarged upon the identification of religion with its home, so general in the human mind as to roma the tle Why do we keep up the form of service and an inclination to apologize for doing so? The Roman asks no such questions; to him the Church is an eternai—a perpetu: institution, not made PE or amenable to civiliza- tion; the Church is ef God; a special condition apart from society; always the same, founded on an eternal rock. He argues God’s thought never grows old, and tronea all changes his Church re- Mains, Object that he isin the way of progress, an enemy to civilization, and he responds:—“I am not answerable to civilization.” The priest offers no apology, no excuse. ‘The Protestant, too, never asks the questions, for his faith is based on Revela- tion; prophets originated it, apostles confirmed it, and it has been tested for 2,000 years, Talk of plulosonhy, and he responds of the faith once de- livered to the saints, never to be altered, and so he repeats the same story every year amia every variety of time and circumstances. But suppose the Church a human institution, needing to change in order to adapt itself to the condition of man- kind, perhaps to GIVE WAY TO SOMETHING BRTTER; @ formal creed devised by man and doomed to modification. In order to answer the questions we must go back of the form to the idea. The Church is not a cathedral, not a great sanctuary of marble, but a boas; of people, no matter how age or small, bound together by common ties, he same hopes and aspirations. e speaker then proceeded to consider two things necessary to con- stitute a Church, brotherhood and faith, a feeling and an idea, a sentiment and belief, The former is a vital fpecire t of every Church. Its existence among the primitive Christians, amid every suffer- ing and persecution, was eloquently portrayed. ‘They need no churches, no lofty temples, like those at seed and Ephesus; ae yet, wit none faith, our sympathy, our prospect,.no priest or praestor Coul teat them asunder. ‘The Homan Charch owes much of its vitality to this conception of brother- hood. Members of all degrees—rulers and serfs, all races and tongues—kneel on the same stone floor equals before God. The Roman Church is a pure democracy, and every member can aspire to be Pope, as the American citizen to be President. The benefit of this sentiment was illustrated by refer- ence to other sects, and the necessity of its cultiva- tion enforced in this, an independent Church, and also the necessity for providing A SPIRITUAL HOMB, one of the strongest needs of our nature, for the immense numbers gathered here, who from the ro character of the cy Temain strangers. ie styled New York a social wilderness—a spiritual desert. It has no genius of its own, no controlling spirit—a vastcaravanserai, True, but few have our views and purposes, but that few should be looked after. Though small, a Church is a Church, and brotherhood brotherhood, and should fill the first principle of its character. Spiritual homes should e furnished for those who have leit old creeds, doubters, skeptics, atheists if you will, for all have human sympathies, and are welcome here if they be homeless, The reverend gentleman in commenting upon the second idea, that of faith, announced it as in the supremacy of man above all modes of faith, form or institution. The SUPREMACY OF THE HUMAN MIND, the dignity of the human character, the suprom- acy of reason. He referred to the history of man as laid down in the Scriptures; the sayings of Jesus and Paul as illustrative of his importance. He recognized supreme merit in man, whatever his origin and his destiny. Whether his history is to be 1ound in Genesis or the writings of Darwin, it matters not, He is at the top of Chae d and must judge everything. Ho referred to the fact that man’s supremany had been cloaked by the doctrines o1 total depravity, but it has been alw: recognized; he denied that it is their mission to jot down all that the world holds in reverence. ey say yes! a thousand times louder than they say no! It might be admitted that image breaking was their province, destroying those idols of the heart, which have been held up to represent Deity, but it was also to preserve everything sacred, rev- erential and of good report. HARLEM UNITY OHAPEL, The Principle of Health and Peace— Society at the Present Day—Sermon by the Rev. William T. Clarke. Most of the congregation belonging to Harlem Unity Chapel, in 128th street, west of Fourth ave- nue, not having returned from their summer vaca- tion, the reopening service yesterday morning was not as well attended as its scholarly pastor, Rev. William T. Clarke, deserves. His text was Matthew xvil., 1—‘And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart.” He commenced, re- ferring to the separation of the Summer, I rejoice that no seriong illnesg or gecldent hag visited you, and that death has snatched no mem- ber from our little flock into the great upper fold. You come from the hills, the mountains, and from the places where Old Ocean rolls in mystic majesty. You come bringing the fruits of the Summer in strengthene’ limbs and invigorated minds. The cool air and bracing bath have left their deposit in lungs and blood. The flowers that smiled and seemed as they blossomed BLESSINGS OF HEAVEN have been taken up into fancy. The splendid land- scapes and gorgeous sunsets have been absorbed in imagination. What have you to show for your va. cation but the blush upon your cheek, the stouter tivacle, thé mmyigorated facutties, the added honor of work and Ny Pa rbot anda whole gallery fall of choice and splendid recollections? And so it will be when this iif season closes, and Autumn drops his frost upon our heads and sends his shiver through our limbs and we are summoned home empty-handed, All OUR GATHERINGS AND SITTINGS will fall like empty shelis and witherea leaves, Nothing shall we carry up but the vigor and dis. cipline of minds, the honor of usefulness and a brain full of DEATHLESS MEMORIES to inspire. The text which I lave chosen for this morning suggests a principle and @ method of the reatest practical moment. That Nitin relatos the highest hea!th, and that method to the truest peace of the human race. Christ's experience was not exceptional. He illustrates the general fact; He indicates the universal law. It is only as men ae up their trailing garments out of e@ tangle of tho street and wrap them- selves about with & mantic of great thoughts and holy impulses and go apart into the mountain tops for meditation, where, in the silence and the serenity, the carth fades out of sight and out of mind, and their spirits commune with the spirits of Heaven and God, that they feel spiritual. 1 know ail the pleasures, all the profits of society. The superturity of the modern over tho ancient world is owing to the sounder principles of SOCIAL LIFR and the harmonizing interests. The individual is ever balfa man unt he Ws cnticed tuto the frame- work Of society and serves as post or plllar in that caltoe, Shall we ever know ‘what God's blessing is Goa ind iis heaven? Yes, in my soul I believe cares more for utility than beauty or bliss, and to pay the self-lorgetting toil of earth. but clean fingers and fauitiess beautiful to took at, push them welcome the smutted nants ant solled One who hs snatched your child from useful, necessary and grand as socie | at the present day is tyrannical end destructive to the interests of life ana to the finest faculties of the mind. Here, within which the eye can smnen, two are crowded together. it HUMAN and flows every da: the bill parison to this surging mass confusion, the Pind the Sestgh excites in which we all have to i us prematurely old and abnormally. selfian, Nota Gay passes: pee y, the paralysis, the poisen steals from eut these utterly sensual, selish, neu- tralized souls beating inst my own, and se mighty and insidious is the influence that we are all of us affected by it than we know. Our hace 3 safety is in laces of thought, on the mountains, eir bracing temperature and int ig scenery. Conversation has become but another name for endless chatter and seems to require nothing but a ire are aside to ments oF forever without iy of the hard- est tl to histor’ to ig ‘the mo tual rattle of tongue in an empty head. Entertainment in socie' consists of being talked to and being pumped un’ you are dry and being squeezed for information and is @ vast tree, of which each individual is. sprout, He is only a drop in an infinite sea. BROOKLYN CHURCHES. TALMAGE’S TABERNACLE, The Lord Our Shepherd’s Care for His Children—The Disasters of Lite Gaining Cur’ Greatest Glories—A Hit at Puri- tantcal Dogmas—A Grim Religion That Smolls of a Funeral Casket. Mr, Talmage’s sermon yesterday morning was founded on the text “Tho Lord is my shepherd” — portion of the firat verge of tne twenty-third Psalm, Jt was an earnest, practical discourse, fiiustrative of God's care for Hischilaren, In opem- ing the preacher sald that, what with post-and-radg. fence and our pride in Southdown, Astrachan and Flemish variety of sheep, there was no use now ef the old time shepherd. Such aone has an abund- ance of opportunity of becoming a poet, being out oF doors twelve hours of the day, and ofttimes waking in the night on the hills, and if the stars or the tor- rents or the sun or the flowers had anything te say he was very apt to hear it, The Ettrick Shep- herd of Scotland, who afterwards took his seat im the brilliant circle with Wilson, Lockhardt an@ Maginn, got his wonderful poetic inspiration in the ten years in which he was watching the flocks of Mr. Laidiaw. There was often a sweet poetry in THR RUGGED PROSE of the Scotch shepherd, Qne of these Scotch shep- herds lost his only son, and he knelt down is prayer and was overieard to say:—‘Oh, Lord, it has seemed good in Thy Providence to take from me the staf of my right hand at the time when to us sand-blind mortals I seemed to be most in need of it; and how I shall climb up the hill of sorrow and old age without it Thou mayest ken, but I dinna.” David, the shepherd boy, was watching his father’s sheep. They were pasturing on the very hills where afterwards a lamb was bors of which you have heard much—‘‘ the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” David, the shepherd boy, was beautiful, brave, musical and poetic. There in the solitude he struck the heart’s string that Je thrilling through all the ages. Mr. Talmage said that if God would help him he would speak to his congregation of the shepherd's plaid, the shepherd’s crook, the shepherd’s dogs, the shepherd’s pasture grounds and the shepherd’s folds. It would be preposterous, he continued, for @ man going out to rough and besoiling work to put on splendid apparel. The potter did not work 1m velvet, nor did the SERVANT MAID PUT ON SATIN while toiling at herlabor. The shepherd did not put on a splendid robe in which tele) out amid the storms and the rocks and the nettles, but he put on rough Ne ete: appropriate to his ex; work. The Lord, our Shepherd, coming out to hunt the lost sheep, put on no regal apparel, but the lain garment of our humanity. The preacher new that the old painters represented a halo around the babe Jesus, but he did not sup) that there was any more halo about that child than about the head of any other babe that was borm that Christmas eve in Judea. The Lord put on the besoiled and tattered raiment of our humanity. The work of saving the world was ror work, rugged work, hard work, and Jesus put on the plain raiment of our fiesh, and wore our woes; and, while earth, heaven and HELL STOOD AMAZED at the abnegation, He wrapped around Him the shepherd's plaid. Cold mountains and the mid- night air witnessed the fervor of His prayer. The Perper cee tli Nhe rod witha curve at e end, which, when @ sheep was going astray, was thrown over the neck of the thesh an in that way it was pulled back. All we, like sheep, have gone astray, and had it not been for the Shepherd's: crook we would Imve fallen long cipice. Here was a man who had becn making too much money. He was getting very vain, and said, “after a while I shall independent of all the world.” By and by disasters came to him. What ‘was God going to do with him? God threw over hin the shepherd's crook and pulled nim back into better pasture. Here was aman who had always been well, and who never had any sympathy with invalids. He called them COUGHING, WHEEZING NUISANCES. After a while sickness came to him and he dia not understand what Gol was going to do with him. With the shepherd's crook he was pulled back into better ures, What would become of us were it not for the Shepherd’s crook? Mr. mage related a circumstance which occurred while he was crossing the ocean from his summer trip to England. He had got a cinder in one of his eyes and went for relief to the engineer of the steamer, who put his large, sooty hand upon him, took a knife, and, wrapping the lid of the eye around it, removed the cinder. He expected to be hurt, but was not. There come times in our Christian hfe when our spiritual vision is being spoiled and all appliances fail; then there comes some giant trouble and, black-handed, lays hold of us and re- moves tiat which would have ruined our vision for- ever. At the time of the war, they might remember, at the North and South the question was whether THE BLACK TROOPS WOULD FIGHT; but when they were put into the st raggle bet J did fight. In the t day of eternity it would be found out that it was not the white regiment of joy that gained your greatest glori but the bia troops of trouble, misfortune and disaster. Where you have gained one spiritual success from your prosperity rid have gained ten from hed adversity. ‘The shepherd’s dog—they watched the st La and drove them back again. Every shep! had his dog from the nomads of Bible times down to the Scotch herdsman watching his flocks on the Grampian Hills. Our Shepherd employed the criticisms and persecutions of the world as His dogs. There were those whose whole work it was to watch the inconsistencies of Christians and bark at them, and if one of God’s sheep went astray, the whole world howled with more Sank than & stray sheep when @ shepherd's dog caught it by the flank. It ought to put ua on our guard. ‘They vould not bite us if we kept near the Shep- herd. y gat, faeerid eure oF SroRLpty ASSAULT would only trim the vines un ley produced bet. 8, We had noticed that different flocks of ad diferent marks on thom—sometimes red, sometimes blue, bs hae eg @ straight and sontetines & crooked inark. The Lord, our Shep- herd, had a mark for all His uit It was a red mark—the mark of the cross. ‘Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Re- ferring to the shepherd’s pasture biti | Mr. Talmage said that the Lord our ephet had @ large pasture ground and took usin the Summer to the mountains and in the Winter to the valleys. Oh, the comfort and joy of this pasture fax for all of God's children! And, then, the rd had a fold for all of them, where they were protected from the storms and the jackals of temptation and trouble, In his concluding passage the preacher sald:—It is time we got over the morbid ideas of how we shal) get out of this world, You make your relig- nex A undertaker, planing coffins and driving earse from the pre- ter sheep YOUR RELIGION SMBLLS of the varnish of a funeral casket. Rather let your religion come out to-day and show you the sheepfold God has provided for you. Alas for those who are finally tound outside the enclosure! * * * To- day the Heavenly Shepherd calls you with the music of Heaven, bidding i leave your sin and accept His pardon. 2, that all this flock would hear the piping of the Good Shepherd!” EXILED TO A WEW OHUROH. Rev. F. G, Clark, D. Di, commenced his labor a® pastor elect of the Tompkins avenue Presbyterian church, Brooklyn, yesterday morning. The church presented a beautiful appearance, with its organ just erected behind the pulpit, tte floral decora tions and its crowded assembly of worshippers. Dr. Clark read the names of fifty-two persons who had been received as new mem @ colony. which had come with him from the Gates church. He preached eloquently upon the of responsibility in pearjog the "ed UNCRSREM EEE