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4 RELIGIOUS. Hepworth on Jesus as a Strong Arm for the Help of the Weak. One Hundred and Fourth Anniver- sary of the John Street Methodist Church. THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY GHOST. Frothingham on Ancient and Modern Ideas of Heaven. INFALLIBILITY: Talmage Says a Word for the Poor Horses. BEECHER ON UNBELIEF. PRESIDENTIAL PIETY. CHURCH OF THE DISCIPLES, Coming Near Christ—Jcsus as a Strong Arm Upon Which All the Weak Can Lean-—Sermon by Rev. George H. Hep- worth, The Rev. George H. Hepworth chose as his text yesterday the last verse of the last chapter of Matthew—‘Teaching. them to observe ail things whatsoever I have commande’ you: and, lo, lam with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” It was a very solemn occasion, he began, upon which these words were uttered. In these times men looked through twilight shadows, and the truth did not appear plainly. The grand reality came alterward, THE MIST DISAPPFARED and the sun shone forth, and the earth looked up and saw the blue sky, like a mother’s face, bending over her. This world, continued the preacuer, seems very near and the other faraway. When you think of the vastness of the other world the consciousness of your own littleness makes you feel like an atom ofdust. A loneliness comes over you, The human heart was made to love. Glve me Christ and you give me the greatest desire of my heart; take Him away, and if you give me Aladdin's lamp still my cravings are unsatisfied, Let me commune with him; let me endure with him, 1 can endure anything, veca) when T am weak 1 cau lean upon my Master's stroug arm, There couies @ womentin your lives iu which you are What k Y TEMPTED. lding to the s tle temp. tery Y our love for your family is not enough. It comes in alluring forms aud tells you that the sin shall not be dis- covered, It is the still small voice of conscience that comes and pleads with you, and tells you that there is an eterual right and the thing which you contemplate is an eternal Wrong. A man succeeds in business for a time. This world continues to grow more real and the other more shadowy. In some terrible moment he sees that the patient Jabor of twenty years has taken wings and town away. There is something of irresistible pathos in @ situation like this, How many men in New York dave found out that CHARACTER IS MORE THUAN MONEY ? Open the doors of eighteen centuries and bebold the picture of crucifixion. It was friday alternoon. Cwsar had given his sanction to the death or a rebel. If you look closely into the faces of the spectators you will see a grim smile of satisfaction. They are folowing that man who in two hours will be nailed to that cruel cross, We can see Him in His misery by our mind’s eye—peaceful, quiet, se- rene as heaven itself, We sec Him now, O Christ of our hearts! seated on the rigut hand of the All Supreme, Judge of the world. Guide and protect us, oh, our Saviour! and when we reach the top of life's hil! may we fee! Thy blessed hand supporting and leading us to the cternal realm of life and bles- sedness, JOHN STREET METHODIST CHURCH. The One Handred and Fourth Anni- versary of Its Dedication—The Value and Importance of True Chri: Character—Sermon by Rev. Dr. J. P. Newman. Yesterday was the one hundred and fourth annt- versary of the dedication of the old John street Methodist Episcopal church, which event took place in 1768, A goodly number of Christian Metho- dists assembled within its old granite walls to cele- brate the festival, but principally to listen to the very eloquent discourse preached by REV. DR. J. P. NEWMAN, Chaplain of the United States Senate. The rev- erend gentleman preached on Christian character, and chose a very appropriate text from Revela- tions viii., 15, 4—‘One of the elders asked him, say- ing, What are these who are arrayed in white robes’ and whence came they? And he said, They are they who came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Dr. Newman commenced by saying that the Creator demanded a prescribed character, which must be the source of happiness to ali. Character EPISCOPAL is the aggregation of a man—of his physical and | intellectaal powers—is that which a man is rather than that which @ man possesses. Character is threefold—namely, natural, responsible and evan- gelical. THE NATURAL CHARACTER OF A MAN is that which he bas received from his parents or his progenitors—the physical and intellectual quali- ties he possesses, Therefore whatever you are naturaliy you have inherited from the past. One is born lovely and angelic; another cross and can- not be soothed. One a sceptic; another a natural believer, One is born a lover of the truth; another lies from his mother’s womb. Another is born with more than Roman honesty; another practises stealing from his cradle, Such is natural charac- ter. When does it become responsible? Just as soon as it can understand and appreciate the obli- gations of the law. This may be at five, fifieen or twenty-five; but, whenever it comes, there is the line of demarcation. But can you throw the responsibility on your ancestors?’ Ah no! for it can impart grace to you through the chan- Hels of prayer and the sacraments of His Church to change your natural character. So that the thief, the liar and the sceptic, by their own co-operation with the Divine will, cam become respectively honest, truthful and unfaltering in their faith. It 18 uncer these circumstances that men can attain THE EVANGELICAL CHARACTER, which has for its law the doctrine of regeneration founded be i agreat natural law, which is this— that happiness and purity are inseparable. The elements of this evangelical character are :— First, amoral state or condition; and, secondly, an act of peing or life imitative of Jesus Christ, the only evangelical Teacher who ever held His sub- jects responsible for their frame of mind, Such should be the moral culture of the will that when called into action it should act responsive and responsible to the law. So also should conscience be _made_ responsible to the voice of duty, You cannot be certain of the ted of your character antil after being trans- formed, as it were, from the passive tothe moral state. Some are omy settled, not purified, This the learned Doctor explained by showing the dif- lerence between diluted and clarified water in two Separate vials. The one, if rested, has the sedi- ment at the bottom, which stains the purity of the water at the first shake, The other remains always pire, Such also are the justified and the unjusti- Gicd, But it won't do to SHAKE SOME MEN. This Is also a true representation of the doctrines of justification and sanctification founded by the aposties. The true Christian man js no more pious around the altar than in the counting house, for be makes his duties subservient to the higher duties of religion. Just as the earth, while revolv- ing On its axis, moves in its orbit at the same time around the sun, borrowing light and heat from that rand old luminary of the skies, so the true eatin dapaaae employed in his daily avocationas, spirit of his bosom to move with the bagels around the throne of the Ftern due character of @ man is therefore prescribed | ity for Ae in NEW YORK HEKALD, MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1872.—TRIPLE SHEET. ou mind erest must ‘ore san pouradives itisa sition. itness, for the nnn an be mad the end, But the end of man; consequently man should render himself worthy of so magoifi- cent anend. Until he does eo he cannot reach to discontentment. imhere must exit Sharm ay of S a ony of will and a beautiful paralie: between the creature and the Creator, otherwise the creature cannot be happy. Man's hap) flows out of hia charac- ter, for & man is not happy but from what he is. Hence a man should have the elements of happt- nes# within him. His heart should be his home, where to retire in the hour of miafortune and tribulation, THR BLOOD OF THR LAMB finally sheda an odor of sanctity character, all Indian of the foreat over human men had faith in blood, The has his sacrifice to-day. So had tho pagan of anti nly 80 had the early fathers of the Church, as the Catacombs teatify. The philosophy of it ia this:—There is a conviction in the human mind that suffering is necessary for the atonement of violated law. Hence this atone- ment was made by siaying the lamb and the ox. The Jews sprinkled their doorposts with blood. Christ was meek as @ lamb, He shed his blood upon the ignominious cross not 30 muoh to atone for the sins of mankind ag for the universal viola- tion of the divine law. Hence He was catled tho Lamb of God. Only His blood coula blot out the indeilible stain of sin irom our souls, apd he shed it for us. Without this shedding of blood there would be no remission of sin. We therefore preach blood because it is the proclamation of Christianity and we have felt its saving power—the outs ower which can change your natural character into an Sreperlioa: one, ints Paul and Peter felt tt, So it GRAND OLD POLYCARP when he laughed to scorn the threat of a Roman Consul, and so did Germanious and Ignatius when walking the streets of the meuane City, Moses waited amid the desolation of the wilderness rather than violate the divine command. Job sub- mitted to all ee rather than oifend God, and Abraham crowned his character with the crown of iaith when he went to slay his only gon, Isaac, and @ heavenly whisper sata to him, “Abraham, with- bacyng hand, for mow I know (hat thou fearest od. ST. STEPHEN'S OHOROH. Sermon by the Rev. Father McQuirk— The Infallibility of the Church—Faith Necessary for Salvation, and an Infalli- ble Church Required for Faith, The mass sung by the choir yesterday at this church was Meiner’s, the organ being presided over by Mr. Danforth. The principal solo in the “Gloria” was the “Laudamusa Te," which was sung by Colletti with his usual power. Miss Emma How- son sang the “Et Incarnatus” of the “Credo” with 2 precision and cultivated taste that left nothing to be desired. In the “Agnus Dei” the choruses were very fine. In the afternoon Corini’s vespers were sung. The high mass was celebrated by the Rev. Father Lynch, After the first gospel the Rev. Father McqQuirk ascended the pulpit, and, befors announc- ing the text of his sermon, announced that on next Sunday the mission by the Jesuit Fathers would be opened {n this church. Father MeQuirk then preached from Jolin xiv., 23— “But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father wilt send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring all things to your mind, whatso- ever [shall have said to yon.” Of the many great gilts with which God has endowed His Church un- questionably that of her infallibility, whether we view the gift itself or its absolute necessity for the maintenance of Christian unity and divine farth, is the greatest. Infallibility is an attrionte of iy alone, Yet He is free to confer it upon man if He deems it necessary to carry out the work of salvation, Thus He has conterred it upon His Chureh to enable her to teach with authority and without possibility of error the divine truths, of which he bas made her the depository and guard- ian, and ro afford us a ground of certainty by which we may be able to clicit acts of divine faith, neces- sary for eternal salvation. The infallidility of the Church surpasses all other prerogatives, It is the cornet-stone of the Catholic Charch, Without it the Church would totter and fall into fragments; with it it is drmly compacted ang bound together, No small amount of misapprehension exists in the minds of those outside the Church concerning the meaning of the dogma of infallibility, Infallt- ONY does not mean iunpeccability. Catholics do not believe in the sinlessness of popes, bishops or priests. They believe that the Pope and bishops are human and as liable to sin as other men— their freedom from sin being in proportion to. their amount of virtue, Nor do Catholics claim inerrancy except in matters pertaining to faith and morals. When we say that the Church is iniallible, we mean that she, in her mission of teaching men the truths of revelation je principles of morality, is not liable to any by virtue of the promises made her by Jesus Chris His Divine spirit abides with her and enables her to decide with unerring authority what were the doctrines delivered to the Apostles, to ex- pound their true sense and condemn teachings con- trary thereto, There is no salvation without faith, and without an infallible Church we cannot have ‘the rational faith” of which the papoans speaks. For what is faith? Itis an act of the mind by which we firmly believe something to be true, not on account of intrinsic evidence, but on account of the authority of him who affirms it. It is such faith that God requires of us. To have this faith we must be cer- tain of the true sense of revelation and of the iden- tity of that which is now offered to our belief with that which was originally revealed. How could the meaning of divine revelation be unerringly known if there were no authority competent to determine it? Is its meaning 80 clear as to be obvious to all? Is it expressed in such a manner as to defy misinterpretation? Alas! the continued existence of heresies from the days of the Apostles to our own times clearly Pra tecen the Scriptures were never meant to be Drei preted by private au- thority, The truths of revelation are of so stu- pendous a nature, its be beer ad so bewildering to the mind, their comprehension so far exceeds the capacity.of beings merely rational, that man may well doubt if the intervretation which scems to him just is, indeed, the meaning of the inspired writer. If, then, God has made any revelation to man He has supplied him with the meaus by which it may be known and rightly understood. God does not work by halves. Whatever He does He does fully, and in @ manner worthy of His intinite intelligence. Of what avail would it pe to man that God should reveal to him the truths of religion and Jeave him destitute of the means to ascertain their true meaning and full import? Would the all-gracious and most loving design of God over His creatures have been accomplished if He left them in a laby- rinth of doubt, from waich they could not extricate themselves? The existence, then, of an infallivie tribunal for the interpretation of the Scriptures naturally follows as an evident corollary from the fact of a revelation. It is but (mas ola great whole. It is but in consonance with the harmony and com- pleteness of all His other works, He wishes that they may all accomplish the end for which He has designed them. Now, without an infallible author- without possibility of error, and for teaching the name of God the truths of revelation, revelation itself! would be in- complete; it would be an anomaly m the midst of the universal order and supreme waimaatine the rest of God's creations. It would be altogether inefiectual for the end for which it was voucn- safed—the redemption of man by faith. It would, therefore, be repugnant to the first principles of the acts ofan intelligent being, the adaptation of the meaus requisite to the end sought. The necessity of an infallible Church becomes even more manifest when we consider that to elicit the divine 1aith which God requires, we need to be certain not only of the ‘ust interpretation of Scripture, but also that what is now proposed to our belief, is the very truth, which was originally revealed—that it has suffered no corruption or perversion since its revelation. What means have we of knowing this in the absence of an infallible Church, which can bear witness that the doctrines, which are now offered to our belief, are identical with those received from heaven. We find in the Holy Scriptures promises as clear and as explicit as human lan; allows, that the Church should enjoy, and ngthened with, this divine prerogative. In St. Matthew we read that ‘Jesus, coming, spoke to them; all power is given to mein Heaven and on earth; go, there- jore; teach ye all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever!I have comanded you; and jo! Iain with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” From this commission given to the Aposties flows the infallibility of the Church. Christ is therefore with His Church, and she can- not err or truth itself would be liable to error. In many texts of Sacred Scripture man is commanded on the pain of his immortal soul to yield anhesitat- ing faith to the Church and to her teachings, an obedience which surely God would not exact for any but an infallible Church. The preacher con- cluded by showing the intimate connection of the infailibility of the Pope with that of the Caurch. ALL SOULS’ CHURCH, Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Schermerhorn— The Inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The Rev, M. K. Schermerhorn occupied yester- day morning the pulpit of the Rey, Dr. Bellows at All Souls’ church, the latter gentleman being ab- sent, in consequence of his necessary attendance at the Unitarian Conference in Boston. Mr. Scher- merhorn took for his text Acts xix., 2, “Have ye received tne Holy Ghost since ye believe He began by describing the condition spiritually of the Ephesians when Paul found them on the occasion referred to in the text. They had been converted; they had repented of their sins, and they were de- voting themselves, with a fair degree of zeal, to building themselves up in hotiness, But this ques- tion of the Apostie astonished them greatly, and they said, “We have not #80 much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” Not only were ence was ive element of genuine Christianity—they had not even heard of it; and how many so-called Christians at the present were there who were in exactly the same oy state! Yet what was Ohristianity without ol the Holy Sptrit? This was its dist ing ditprence from all other religions. ‘Ihe Jew had enjoyed s divine revelation, had been given @ pure and holy law of life anda splendid and im- posing ceremonial; but in the old Jewish religion here was no more mention of the influence of the Holy Ghost tnan in Islamism or Bhuddism, or oar of the other great faiths that had het Sway over the minds of men. If, however, one Were to ask what ts the Holy Ghost, t would be impossible to give # definite reply. ‘We spoke of ® man as having ius for poetry or oratory or pointing, but it was beyond our pore, to exactly lescribe what genius was, though we had a clear idea of what it was and knew perfectly well what it could accomplish. So with the Holy Ghost. We could para) it; we could watch the vivif) ing consequences of its presence; we could recognize 1 it the most holy and divine development of the Christian religion. But we could not do more. The preacher then went on to inculcate upon hia hearers the immense importance ol ob- taining in fuil measure, and deplored the apparent listlessness that character- ized the average Christian. In whatever profession or business a man might be engaged he coald ely pore if he were filled with the spirit of his call- ing. A man was only successful when he hid his work a8 Mozart saidhe composed his music, “be- cause he could not help it.” And it was the same with the Christian. We could not grow in grace and knowledge unless we were filled with the Holy Spirit. And to secure this gift it was only necessary that we should earnestly long for it, and it would be ours, In closing, the reverend gentle- man briefly alluded to the Unitarian Conference as having shown an intensity and earnestness which were very remarkable, and could not fail to have the most gratifying results. PLYMOUTH BAPTIST CHUROH Sermon by Professor Hutchings, the Lightning Calculator, Under the Aus- pices of Rev, Dr, Patterson, The pretty Gothic edifice in Fifty-first street, known asthe Plymouth Baptist church, was filled to overflowing yesterday morning and evening to listen to a sermon by Professor Hutchings, of North Norwalk, Conn. The Professor was formerly well known to the people of New York and stran- gers passing through the city as the “Lightning Calculator” of the old Museum. In a conversation with a representative of the HrnaLp the learned gentleman stated that he “melted his audience"— his sermon was, indeed, a very moving one—by the same animal magnetism he was wont to use in the show business. ‘Talking, he sald, had been his “hold” for the last twelve years, before audiences large and small,and upon ail sorts of subjects, That the Professor “held” his audience yesterday is beyond all aoubt. The text was from the five concluding verses of the tenth chapter of Luke. ‘The first point was Christ's MISSION TO THE VILLAGE. . He said that Christ was drawn there by an unseen power—the magnetism of Mary and Martha Operating upon His own strong personal sensibili- ties. Martha, knowing Him to be the Son ot God, received Him as the prince of a kingdom more the ideat incarnation of purity aud virtue in the breasts of the myriads of the human race to be born, She had a sister called Mary, who sat hum- bly at the leet of Jesus, and, with the prophetic instinct of woman, adored Him without question and without doubt of His divine mission. Others might jar against Him in the market place, or sur- vey Him coldly in THE COURTS OF THE TEMPLE, but this woman, with the intuitive perception of her sex, had a finer conception of His character. i not miracles to convince nor persua- btle parables to convert her, and she “heard His | word.” The Professor then spoke of tho beaut, of diction anda the indescribable tenderness and purity of thought flowing through all that Jesus said. With His words he compared those of the greatest | masters the world has ever known—the pocts and philosophers—and fouad that they were in comparison only “stale, fat and unprotitable.” “But Martha was cumbered about much serv- ing.” The speaker here, with impassioned voice and gesture, drew vivid pictures from real lie as he had seen it, He recited the difficulties the | toilers among Men have to contend witn, whether they are artists, authors, mechanics or merchants. ‘Then he showed how Martha had much to contend with even in her distant day and in her pastoral country, and, like the moderns, she was drawn by too great an absorption in the details of hey cvery- day life from a contemplation of the power and beneficence of the good God. “BUT ONE THING IS NEEDFUL, and Mary hath chosen that good part that shall not be taken away from her.” Allelse is, ndeed, vanity, Nature ever 1s singing a requiem over ner works, and writes upon all her grandest monuments, as she gives them the finishing touch, ‘‘passing away.” The rill to the rivulet, the rivulet to the river and river to the ocean; and so the child of man comes forth to mingle with his generation aud go down in the depths of forgotten ages. Only Goa remains, and in His bosom we all find rest, and shall, having faith, find a place at the feet of Jesus, The Professor became converted through the death of his child, and, having entered the minis- try, is looking about fora place to preach, Judg- ing from the tears in the eves of his listeners yes- terday he 1s in his new vocation as decided @ suc- cess as he was in the old one. 8T, PATRICK'S OATHEDRAL, The Spirit of Indifferentism—Sermon by the Rev. Father McNamee. The Cathedral was crowded yesterday with the regular members of the congregation at the high mass services. The music was very fine, in marked contrast to that of the Sunday previous. The mass was celebrated by the Rev. Father Kearney, and the sermon was preached by the Rev. Father McNamee, who took for his text the Gospel of the day according to St. Matthew, in which mention is made of the daughter of “a cer- tain ruler,” who came to the Saviour anda said, “Lord, my daughter is even now dead; but come, lay Thy hand upon her and she shall tive.” Taking as the basis of his discourse this portion of the Gospel and that relating to the Saviour’s meeting the woman who had been ailing for twelve years and who touched the hem of His garment and was healed, the reverend gen- tleman argued to show that without faith it was Impossible to please God; in fact, that it was im- possible to please Goa if we had only faith and prac- ticed not good works. The lesson given us by the Ruler and the woman mentioned in the Gospel, he said, ought to be taken to heart by every Christian. They nad faith in THE POWER OF THE SAVIOUR, and it nad not failed them in the hour of their tribulations, In this age of indifferentism in which we live the lesson is fullof meaning. Nowadays men went about their business utterly regardless of anything that was not of the world. They seldom or ever gave a thought to what was in store for them in the world to come, and eternity, for them to all appearances Was a something only to be mentioned in @ whis- per—a something which nobody ought to bother their heads about. It was one thing for @ man to Stickle about this or that SET OF RELIGIOUS TENETS; quite bad enough for him to believe that one re- ligion was just as good as another, and that so long as he did no positive wrong it was not in- cumbent upon him to do good works, to work for the good, the salvation of others. But aman who retended to be a Christian and yet was lukewarm in the performance of his religious duties, totalty indifferent as to what God expects of him, was tenfold worse. What would be — sar of those Catholics who only attended mass when the her was fine or it suited their own convenience, and who never went to confession at ally With them the world was everything. It noiaaees all their thoughts, They worked and toiled ail day to gain its applause, to harvest amply of its perishable possessions, an they dreamed of it by night. In their conversations politics, money, profit and accumulation of weaith were always welcome subjects; but let anybody in- troduce the subject of religion and it would be tabooed immediately. The fact is that there was a Pesala indigerence among nominal Christians to everything supernatural. ae believed, and yet by their acts aifected not to believe in many of those things which in the Catholic Church are artl- cles of faith. hey would throw all their energy into AN UNDERTAKING OF LIFE that promised a good return in the shape of wealth or promotion in the political field; but when it came to serving God well, of doing their duty a oe to Him who gave them life and that they had, they were listless and un- willing to go a singie step forward. Their reason, which was given them to exercise in @ Way that would draw them nearer to God, they abused, and allowed themselves at times to de- scend to the level of the brute creation by simply refusing to follow the dictates of that reason which bade them love and honor God Almighty as the source of all good. God was just in all things, and between Him and man there was a law of equity which was absolute, It often happened that wher indifferentism in religion once grew strong in a man's nature God allowed it to become his master finally, and this deprived him of that grace by which alone he could HOPE FOR SALVATION; for, alone, man could do nothing to gain heaven. Once deprived of God's grace, he was alone bat- tling with an enemy of his eternal hap iness that Was certain to conquer, The reverend father then closed by exhorting his hearers to be on their guard against indifference in matters of religion, $0 that they might not be cut of in their sins, but ou the coutrary be always prevared to meet the they not aware that this sacred influ. | call the distincti glorious than the earth had yet seen, and one who shovid reign not only - in the bosom of His Father, but as | of the Angel of Death with the response “Roady.” . LYBIO HALL, Ancient and Modern Ideas of Heaven— Activity Not Necessary for Our Hap- Piness—Heaven « More Vision Always the Future=Sermon by Rev. 0. B. Frothingham. The congregation assembled yesterday morning at Lyric Hall was one of unusual size and fashion, Upon the completion of the introductory exercises of prayer, singing and the reading of the Scrip- tures, the last of which was from the last two chapters of Revelations, Rey. 0. B. Frothingham commenced his discourse. His subject was “Visions of Heaven," and was based upon the two chapters which he had just read. They contained, he began, a vision of heaven, for heaven can be nothing more than a vision, It is not a thing we have. We have not all we can con- ceive of happiness, goodness and joy. It is in the far-off future; and whether mankind will ever attain to itis doubtful, But the dream is always the same—rich and enchanting; and tue power of it isin the dream. It 1s like the pictures that adorn our walls, Be they of some dear friends or of some charming landscape, some bold mountain scenery, or taolated spot in @ lonely desert, how- ever inaccessible and undesirable the scene of the picture, the picture itself delights us. It may be what artists call a composition picture; it still en- chants us, The Arab in the desert, exposed to thirst and the flerce sun’s rays, dreams of a time when the sun shall be shaded, and of some delight- ful oasis where there shall be bubbling fountains and dates within reach and beautitul girls to dance for him, Mahomet took advantage of this in the construction of his alluring, gorgeous paradise. So yhe North American Indian dreams of his happy hunting grounds; 80 the primitive Christians dreamed of a celestiml Jerusalem, HE WAS A JEW, and when he dreamed of Heven he dreamed of a city, not built up, but descended from Heaven, Its walls were of jasper, its gates were of single pearls, its streets were of gold, and in the midst of it ran Pipe river, on whose banks grew the tree of life. We call such a vision puerile; and so it is, It would be very hard to imagine a celestial Paris or London or A HEAVENLY NEW YORK, But they dreamed of Jerusalem as the grand oasis, a8 the city of love, as the city of the Lord Hi if, and looked upon its completion as the triumph of their race, But Jerusalem fell, and with it the vision, But a new one soon dawned upon them. It was not a city; it was the vision of a holy Church, ‘The Sunday was to theim the Lord's day, and the church was the Lord's house, There He loved to meet His people. They came up tired and pensive and were refreshed, They Jistened to the strains of the great organs, to the sweet notes of the choir of boys dressed in white. There they met their fellow beings on equal terms, The rich and the poor, the wise and the foolish, were children of one God and were brothers. No one could feel lonely. ‘there the believer met his Redeemer. 1t was a periect and simple dream. The picture of this heaven is discerned in the old hymns. It was holiness and reposo for the tortured conscience. The condition that entered their heaven was simple purity. But the world changes, and as the dream of the city passed away 80 the dream of the Church passed away. The cathedral is & monument. Sunday is hardly more holy than other daya, Personal life is no longer in danger, civilization has stepped in and the affections that before dared not go out of doors basked in the sunshine, and A NEW VISION OF HEAVEN COMES UP. It is not a vision of a cityorachurch. It is a yision of a heavenly home and a united family. ‘This vision was drawn out in a charming little book about thre ars ago. It met the want of poplar, ‘To the authoress the oid visions were nothing, She eri es them severely and even unjustly. She goes to church and hears A PIOUS PASTOR expatiate on heaven and it makes her shudder. She wonders what kind of people it must be who live on prayer and the pratsing of God. The vision that before seemed so heavenly now savors of the opposite place. She wants personal love. She has lost a brother, and she wants there to live and to study with him. There those separated on the way shall be united, God is there; but in the most tender aspect. Jesus, too, is there, not as Jesus the saint, but as Jesus tic brother, It is a vision of perfect sweetness. Itisa heaven of those who live in love —a wedded love, the. innocent love of the child. It would have no attraction ior the dis- solute and lawless, Yet this vision is not perfectly satisfactory. The heart is not everything, and there are but comparatively few in the world who wish for complete pertection. We must have more conscience and aspiration. The primal element ot all felicity is activity. Noone can have too much joy without wishing it to come to an end. But for activity there must be something to overcome. If the artist thought that by taking up his pencil he could paint like Michael Angelo he would sicken ot painting in an hour, It is THE PROCESS OF GETTING TO HFAVEN, not the heaven, that is the aim. It is the battle, not the victory, that isdear. You say that strife is incompatible With heaven; there is no heaven without it, What kind of a conscience is that that is perfectly satistied? No conscience at all. Love, adoration, everything but activity tires. The artist always thinksof the better picture he is going to paint. Heaven and earth both have their work; but in heaven the enue always conquers. This is the complete vision. In it all the others are swallowed up—swallowed up as day drowns the morning star. Heaven is always beyond, and the only pledge for heaven is the yearnings of heaven. BROOKLYN CHURCHES. PLYMOUTH CHURCH. Sermon by Mr. Beecher on the Unbelief of the Disciple Thomas—The Answer to the Popular Desire that God Should Ee Revealed to the Senses. The subject of Mr. Beecher’s sermon was, “The Unbelief of Thomas,” and the text selected was from the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of St. John:—“Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.” This subject of believing in things we do not see isone of the greatest trials with which humanity has to deal. Men say, “Is it possible that there can be a God, who could show Himself to our senses once in a lifetime?” Unbellef sometimes makes this very piaus- ible, and sorrow often makes it more powerful. It is probable, I judge, that the Divine nature cannot be subject to matter, and therefore cannot be subject to the laws of evidence that mat- ter requires. Now, then, it may be said, Was God revealed in Christ? You did not see God in Christ. The glory was laid aside. Christ is a manifestation of the fuliness of the divinity God. Christ met this popular desire that God should be revealed to the senses in the EARLY DAYS OF HIS MINISTRY, When His own people refused to acknowledge His divinity, he told them that they had not the spir- itual afiinity by which the Divine could be per- ceived. He then turned and went down a lower plane of evidence, and said, “Believe me for my work's suke,’”’ for the miracles and the wonders. There is a necessity of adapting evidence to our nature, For example, ice can impart certain evidence to a lower creation of beings, Take a dog, lor instance, You can introduce certain mat- ters that will come within the range of the dog’s understanding, but try to introduce to the dog Lord Bacon or Shakspeare and you cannot do it. Compare the capability of the fly and the bird with the man, There is just as wide a difference be- tween the man trying to find out God by searching or by reasoning. Christ condemned people tor not having the kind of belief that came from emotive capability, for not having heart belief and not intellectual bellef, What do we know about God? About as much as a child knows of its mother, ‘Then you say, What is the use of fe cae God to us? Well, don’t you jove your mothers? Mr. Beecher related an incident of his childhood, when he was two years old, when he found himself, as he thought, alone, in his father’s great house, and the blessedness aud gee y that came to him when his mother came and took him up in her arms. He did not understand the feeling then; but he felt it, Some of you pays if I could have eyesight of God, just once. Well, I think you had; you have an eye that opens out upon God whenever you like itout, Can aman see a sound? Apply to the ear a picture; can he see the picture by the ear? God 18 not amenablesto the evidence of the eye and the ear, 1 doubt not that every day there are CHORAL PRAISES unto God over our heads, and who hears them? 4 believe that there are near to us that which would be equal to the Mount of Trans- figuration, but who sees them? God is present in His beneficence. He is not far from any one of us, wherever the thought otf man can go, there is God. The reason you don't see him {8 that to see him by the fleshy eye you cannot live, whatever that may mean. Is it true tiat we are able to see him thew? Itisthe higher nature that responds to the touch of God, and with evi- dence, too, that is overwhelming. Itis quite within the power of man to know ol the Hpi! ot God. We transfer our knowledge and feeling about God unto Himself, We know what the attributes of God are called, but we don't know what the quality of those attributes is, In purity, sweet- ness, Magnitude and volume we can form a con- ception of God no more than we can jucge of light from the light of the candice, L don't desire to make a fanciful use of that phrase, “Christ in you the hope of glory,’ But this is true; on know just ag much of God as Go sinyou. The fault of heathenism is that their con. ceptions of God are from without. Ifyou would , heaven. | in this world ceptions of con of your m that we shoutd MORAL QUALITIES. What man, after a debauch, would bring his eyes @ microscope to make some dificult investigaatio: Time and opportunity must be devoted to peenennics: of God. How do men draw lim? Men reverse their natures and put basest nature to learn of God, instead of taking their best moments, their highest hours for com- munion with Him. When love has learned its way it only requires a glance of the eye, a pressure of the hand for there to be more vocal than much speech, {commend you, then, not to doubt and not to Qpply spiritual thi modes of test and laws of lence that are enly ay aie, So the bad, Re- member that while you are striving God is helping you. You pi and yet you know not what you pray Tor, God will make wa ripe and ready for seein} them as it ia, = y! TALMAGE'S TABERNACLE The World's Ingratitude—God Unable To Please Some Men if He Tried=A Word for the Poor Horses—The Nation Wait- ing tor News from the Sick Stables An Appeal for Repentance, The Tapernacle was crowded to excess yesterday morning. The pastor preached from Romans ti., 4— “The goodness of Goa leadeth thee to repentance.” + Tho great lesson that this world needs to learn is the goodness of God, Everything proclaims it and man and forests hum it, and the echo is “God.” God hag sat at the head of the universé for six thousand years doing nothing but give—give. Amid all the solitude of eternity He sat for ages ail alqne; but there came atime when He could no longer contain His joy in silence and must express it, and forthwith the worlds began to fly out, the aurora to dame and the angels to sing, 1 think GOD LAVGHED wird Joy, qndT hear the goho of the heavenly mirth in water's dash and birds’ mlastrelay, and tempest's diapason and thunder's roll, Jupiter is a larger world than the one we live in; the sun is a more brilliant world than the one we live in; Uranus is &@ more newly-discovered world than this; but I think this is avery good stopping place. Oh! I have no curiosity to see anyother planet. The glories of this have spoiled me for any other world, save the throne room of the universe, which is God might have put usina world not haifso bright. Plainer curtains would have done ; for the windows of the morning; stair carpets of tamer figure would have done for the steps of the hills; but God, it seems, has exercised no economy in making our world residence, and He has put enough beauty in it for fifty worlds. Oh! you star-lighted, sun-warmed, tree-shaded, rock-sheltered sons and daughters of men, how do you feel towards Him who kindled the light and oured the streams and thrummed the music and heaved up the arches of your beautiful world residence? Have you dwelt all this time with no gratitude and no ‘thanksgiving? How hard it is for God to please men! Where yon find one satis- fled and contented you find fifty discontented, The Lord God Almighty, with His inilnite resources, can’t make some men happy. He tries, We dwell eur after year, not realizing what God has done for us, in putting our burdens on the brute creation, This morning, when many people are hindered from coming to the house of God, for the first, thank God for the horse, Nobody thanks God for them, though they have been carrying our burdens these long years, To-day, the merchan- dise and the amMuence and the luxury of this whole nation stand waiting to hear what's the NEWS FROM THE SICK STABLES; but who has ever thanked God for the horse? You may notice the goodness of God to you in your domestic surroundings. You think that the pro- Visioning of your family depends entirely upon . You bought the bread, but who made the grow from which the bread was made? You purchased the meat, but who grew the cattle? You bought the clothing, but who made the fleece on the sheep's back and the flax that was brought to the farmer’s hatchel, and the furs of the Arctic animals that you have robbed for your comfort? Who was it it gave you a good home to go to last night afte ‘our week's labor? God has crowded your house with blessings from cellar to garret, and He has wound you all around with kindness, Have you dwelt amid all these with no thanksgiving? Look at the goodness of God to you personally. Have you thought what it is tohave arms? Have you thought what God gave you when He gave you eyes? Through them march, without jarring ‘the most detteate nerve, all the giories of the sunrise and sunset. Think of those who have gone A LIFETIME WITHOUT SEEING a cloud ora blossom or the blood on the slain autumual leaf, Oh, how God must have looked after you! Go to the hospitals festering with pain, go to the madhouse howling with terror and learn God’s goodness in giving you health of body and of mind, Have you ever surrendered yourself to Him ? What has been the effect of all the mercy? Why, if God had let your case slip from Him just for a moment Be would have perished, What'a home you have had given an It may not be a very costly one, with splendid surroundings, but it ts the warmest place on earth that you know of, Job had his life pestered out of him by a bad wife, Dionysius did not dare to let his daughter beard him lest she put the razor to his throat instead of his beard; but your home has been a place of quict and love and peace. Don't you feel this morning as if your heart would burst with gratitude and as if you must say, “God, I love Thee! I can't fight against so generous a heart any longer. Good God, I can’t help but love Thee!” But I have not told you the best thing that God has done for you, He sent his only begotten Son to save the world, Let down on LADDERS OF GLORY, the world received Him on the point of the gleam- ing spear. For Herod a crown, for Nero a palace, for Jeffries a judicial bench, for Hildebrand a Pon- tifical hat, but for Christ pauperism and cruci- fixion! The ploughers who ploughed upon His back ploughed to the spinal chord, and that Jesus wounded calls this morning on the door step of your soul. Do you not feel like throwing yourself at his feet? I gather a troop this morning with which I mean to assault your soul. Oh! you shining troops of God's mercy, fall into line! Rush upon that hearer’s soul! rush all together! Great pe Ea of loving kindnesses, fall on him! Bat- talons of Divine love, attack him! and, artillery of God's mercy, besiege that soul and capture its in- gratitude and pride! Forward, charge! until the flags of death come down and the banners of grace go up and the gate shall open and Christ come in. h! that the goodness of God, the goodness to you personally, to your families, the goodness all your lives, might this morning lead you to repentance. Agrcat many people look upon repentance as something only sad. Ah! there is a joy in right kind of repentance. Repentance is ‘ord made up of ten letters and they are all tears; but when THE SUNLIGHT OF GOD'S PARDON strikes on them they are all crystal. The word re- pentance is a word of ten letters, and they are ail —_—- but God changes them into og ned and jor ten groans ten doxologies, 1 think that God’s ieee is making its last appeal to some of you. ‘here is a great mortality among your blessings. Your opportunities are dying off by hundreds and thousands, It is almost sundown, and tee the d: 01 grace, the work of a lifetime, has not begun wit! some of you. You keep putting it off, and are no nearer Christ and heaven than you were twenty- tive years ago. You say, “To-morrow, to-morrow }"? but I fear that death will break in before you have begun. Oh, that God would this day, by His mercy, bring us to repentance! The benediction was pronounced by the pastor's brother, Rev. Dr. John Image, who has just re- turned from China, where he has been engaged in missionary work for a numper of years. THE OHURCH OP THE REDEEMER, A Memorial Service. There was a large congregation yesterday morn- ing at the Church of the Redeemer, Episcopal, at the corner of Pacific street and Fourth avenue, when the Rev. Dr. Burgess, of the diocese of Massa- chusetts, preached a memorial sermon to the mem- ory of the late rector of the parish, the Rev. Ed- ward Jessup. A handsome wiite stone tablet, erected for the late rector, was presented to the parish. The Rev. Dr. Burgess took for his text the following :—"Verily, verily, I say unto you, ifaman keep my sayings he shall never see death’—St. John, vill., 51. After referring to tue words of the text, which was a strong promise of the Redeemer that we should never see death i we ke; ings, the reverend gentleman proce of the jate rector and his labors among pastor and priest. “He that believeth in me shall never die ;" and their beloved rector was in every thought of these words. For almost a quarter of & century these Savings had filled his heart. ‘The parish had erected this tablet,and this was amon, the excellent giits made by his congregation to his reverence. UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE HILLS of Western Massachusetts he had spent his youth, and when, at the age of twenty, he uated at Yale College, he was one of the first priests or- dained by Kishop Williams, He then entered the ministry at Grace church, Bath, Me. From his selt- sacrifice and kind heart, his prompt attention to every manifestation of distress, his people wore drawn towards him. He was from the first a faith- ful man. To walk with him was to admire him, and to enjoy his company was to love him. He had been with them for the past twelve years. He had some infirmities, but they should cast them into the sea of his past success and remember his pure example. There was nothing which his hands touched that did not seem sanctified, His purpose was the building of the true Church, They would remember his tall, commanding form, and how it was bent even to the pavement belore the Lord, and they had listened to his words of advice. The reverend Father and Bishop and the ctl men present held him in high esteem, During past fiiteen years he had not heard him preach move than five times, pat ) had talked with him of Jesas and in opposition to THE SINFUL WORLD, fle had faithfully fulfilled his mission; but even kuow more of God thiak much of whatever things { at last did not care to rest, He wanted to be ia —————— ee ina Selorae im tho sayings St chs toed, asd. baa the golden gate and found the counselled the you: d Leonard, to gird an the ar The cross was but ot been borne from the time he aposties Leonard read wetter which ne had or Potter, of New York, wh aig fF ths invitation to'bs present service. He had late sal dhe was son ally Seqununte with “whom be Pere) tu idea brant at the y Leong service and was cele! comuninion. — NEW JERSEY CHURCH. A ST. PATRIOR’S OHUROH, ELIZABETHPORT. Father Burke’s Jersey Crusade—Sermon by Rev. Patrick Cody—Administering the Pledge to a Congregation. A novel scene was witnessed in St. Patrick's church, ilizabethport, last cvening at veapers, At the morning masses the pastor, Father Cody, preached on intemperance, referring to Father Burke's recent utterances in hia lectures before the New Jersey Catholic Temperance Union. “These are excitable times,” said the pastor; “one of our ople getting drunk brings trouble upon many. When efforts are being made to excite il wili i to injure our hi on the occasion esteem for the pt 0 religion, it behooves us in the words of holy writ to cep sober and watch. I have caused copies of the great temperance lecture of Father Burke to be dia- you at all the masses to-day. I it in your families thia afte hen come to es egal when I will enforce upon your minds Father Burke's teaching, and ve you an Sp poreauny to carry out his advice by ‘aking the pledge against all intoxicating drink.” The temperance»pamphieta were distributed, and the congroga: reassembled at hall-past seven. Pasuer Cody dellye: n carnest uotin from Father Burke's lectu! abd ‘Olit Tecen! eches of Dr. Manning before the’ Abstinence lation. “Dr, Manning,” said the preacher, “ig an ornament tothe Church~in England—he is one of the most distinguished ecclesiastics living. He is @ teetotaler, and says ho ‘will go to his grave without tasting liquor.’ Father Burke, the glory of the Irish race and of the Church, says to Fete for God’s sake keep out of the saloon; do not look at it; keep away from it; don’t smell it. With Father Buyxe and Archbishop Manning and Arch- bishop Bayley let us, dear brethren, unite ourselves in Sp rit this day, and take the pledge of totar abstinence as a good and holy resolution to avoia the occasion of sin.” He then called upon them to repeat the words with him. The response from the congregation was at once solemn and striking. In deep and earnest intonations the words of the pledge resounded through the large church, The priest blessed his people and gaye to each one a medal of the Blessed Virgin, telling them to pray to the mother of God to assist them to keep their pledge. ¢ SERVICES IN WASHINGTON. Sermon in the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Churches—Rev. Dr. Tiitany’s Pulpit Effort, in Presence of President Grant and a Crowded Congregation. Wastinaton, Oct. 27, 1872. The Rev. Dr. Tifuny, recently appointed pastor of the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal church, preached this morning from Isaiah, xiv., 25—“ There is no God else beside me, a just God and a Saviour.” God here, said the reverend speaker, reveals Him- selfin a twoiold character—a just Ged and a Saviour. How these conflicting characteristics can coexist im one being is a human difticulty solved by the revela- tion of the Trinity of personalities ia the Godhead. We cannot conceive of absolute justice tothe guilty, and of offered, unmerited pardon as tne consistent acts of one individual, But the union ot persons in the Godhead is a possible conception, as is also the union of one of these persons with humanity. These are possible conceivings, and we understand the Scriptures to assert them to be actual facts. The mystery about them is only such as.attaches to all the conceptions of finite minds concerning the infinite. Even Christ, though He was the ab- solute God, had his divinity so veiled and shrouded by His humanity as to feel the need of prayer and superhaman aid. If it were otherwise God woutd be less tous thansome men are, whose thoughts, actions, affections; we cannot compass. The reasons for God’s plans we may not comprehend, but the fact of the incarnation is paralleled in every cradle. The text declares a fact in God's history whichin fulness of time became a fact ia the history of the race. It asserts God's supreme sovereignty and its universai recognition, and, at the same time, unfolds the Senora pian by which this recognition will be achieved. As @ Saviour He chooses to win recognition from those who will accord it; asa just God He will compel recognition from those who refuse it. Compulsion will be used only upon those who refuse to bow the knee at the name of Jesus and toconfess that Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. These, when probation is ended, shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and say to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; thus, even de! making acknowledgment of the great day of His wrath. The punishment of a criminal is but one way of magnifying the law; the prevention of crime and the necessity for punishment is the greater mnt tributed mong of an administrator. God's plan for the rect tion of His wad op contemplates compul: and punishment only as the final act when a lo! series of wise and persistent effort has fail His plan of winning includes pledge on His part and encouragement on ours. He provides a sufficient Saviour, His Only Son, thereby atfoi ing us the strongest assurance that He could give of His thorough earnestness in the work proposed. This Divine Son, whose relation to the Father im- parts confidence that He may elicit our sympathy, comes to us with the Divine approval in the like- ness of sinful flesh, able to save, and the only name ven among men whereby we may be saved. ‘to ‘his Saviour He invites us by the assurance of His Word; His righteous promises, recorded in all the ages; His oath, of which Paul speaks as “an end of all strife, that we might have a strong consolation.” When we accept this Saviour, by contidence in God's Word and oath, God wins our acknowledgement of his sov- ereignty. The terms and methods are such as dis- play God’s intent of universal acceptance. The Saviour is realized by our looking to Him. Though our fears may be excited by a conviction of sinful- ness, our minds exercised on acts of repentance or schemes for reformation, these are not to engross our attention from Him as a personal Saviour—able, willing to save, and, more important still, saving, now even as we trust him. THE OLD TESTAMENT IN EVIDENCE. The illustration is doubtless from the history of the brazen serpent, by vinhag on which the smitten Israelites “were healed; and the preacher brought this scene very vivid, before his congregation and held their closest at tention as he transferred the scene from the desert to Jerusalem and transmuted the rod with the brazen serpent into the cross with its dying Christ. The fulness of salvation, as for the saving of alt men, and its completeness in saving each one pe fectly, were discussed with animation and vigor, bringing the immense bee gad imto full sym- pathy with the speaker and awaking audible res- ponses from some of the more demonstrative hearers. CONGRATULATIONS FROM DISTINGUISHED MEMBERS. At the close of the service many crowded around the chancel to welcome the preacher, among whom were President Grant and his family. . A SHOOTING CASE. A Man Shot by a Friend in a Bond Street Boarding House. About half-past seven o’clock Saturday evening man named John W. Norton, boarding at 47 Bond street, went home in a state of intoxication, and entering the parlor began acting in a very dis- orderly manner. The landlady remonstrated with him and requested Robert J. Henry, who wus also a boarder in the house, to try and induce tim to go to his room. Henry did as de- sired, and finally succeeded in getting Norton Rl stairs and on his own bed. Henry then lefe him for a few minutes, when Norton got up and started to down to the parlor again. Henry took hold of him and Pap led him to go back to his room, and as he ( lenry) was turning to go out Norton drew @ revolver and shot him in tue lets breast, inflicting a serious wound. Henry ran out in the street, where he was und _ by Captain Burns, of the Fifteenth a agi who had him removed to the station house. Going around to the house the Captain found Nor- ton standing in the hallway surrounded by a num- ber of ladies, who were frying to prevent his es- cape, He had in his hand the revolver with which he had done the shooting, but did not offer any re- sistance when being arrested. Mr. Henry was sub- sequently removed to Bellevue Hospital. SALE OF THE “INDIOBS OF BEOORDS." There assembled at Leavitt's salesrooms, Clinton Hall, Saturday afternoon, quite a number of the members of the Icgal profession, the occasion being, a8 previously announced in the HERALD, the sale of twenty sets of the “Indices of Records,” which Comptrolier Green ordered ‘to be dis posed of at auction, Each set in the twen! contained eighty-six volumes, some of whic were larger than others, but all of which were sold at @ very low figure, ‘The first set was ‘knocked down" for $1 11, but the prices gradually rose to- wards the end of the sale and the last set brought $2 30, Most of the first seta were given away, 4 will be seen from the fact that they sold from $! to $98. The bidding waa very lively, but not at att steep, the highest raises being five cents, AAT ae ANNO SIRES ce. a ee ORT FS re RRR eo