The New York Herald Newspaper, November 18, 1872, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1872.—TRIPLE SHEET. WME SABBATH SERVICES. | ‘the Perpetual Proclamation and Praise of the Paraclete by the People and Preach- ers, Prosaically and Poctically. A Sunny Sunday in the Sitreeis and a Solemn One in the Sanctuaries. ete a Hepworth On the Ashes of the Hub and the Lessons of Its Horri- ble Visitation. CHAPIN ON THE CONFLAGRATION. Whe Morality of Boston as Compared with f the Mad Wickedness of Chicago. ‘Prothingham Favoring the Mediccre : Place of Worldly Position. pulls bela The Church for the Five Nundredth Time Likened to a Mustard Seed, {Can There Be Anything New ca : a Sunday? POLITICIANS SERMONIZ£D. Miscourses Delivered Yesterday in Brookiyn and Jorsey City by Beecher, Talmege and Father Lory. ‘\ The silvery-voiced bells rang out yesterday morn- Ing to @ clear, sparkling sky and acheertui, glow- Jngearth. The air was cold and the cdge of the pees was keen, but the universal sunshine that ‘as poured down by the generous sun glistened through every atom of atmosphere as if it were a Wreamy sea studded with gems. Nature, of course, ‘Was in mourning in the parks of the city pod on the banks of her skirting rivers, .but her funereal garments were of the brigut avarm tints of Autumn, with russet streaks inter- Bpersed, and by the sligit snow of Saturday even- Ing they were fringed as with Arctic fur, with deli- cate flakes of white, that twinkled and blinked in the sun as did the diamonds that seemed scattered pver the pale carpeting of the earth. The streets Were wet and muddy, but were early filled by the Wuiet stream of church folks, upon whose faces the brightness of the sky was lightly reflected Jn gentle smiles. Briskly they wended their Way toward the solemn portals, while al the air was animate with the carollings of the rich-toned bells; but an hour later the streets were almost silent and deserted, while ‘within the sanctified walls of all the metropolitan temples there were sounds of prayer, praise and preaching. It is thus that New York worships, Dlad in elegant clothing, in pews more finely up- polstered than many of the homes of the occupants, ‘while on the morrow the paths of weary toil and tired thought or selfish pleasure sre trodden by the worshippers of to-day, unmindful of the coming in the future of yet another Sabbath. But still the peace and pensive music of yesterday's throng and of yesterday's church bells is not easily dissl- pated in the memory, and 1s not without its lasting effect of good upon the siu-laden atmosphere of pur great city. The religious services in the various churches yesterday were very well attended, and the scr- mons were mostly of a very interesting character, BS will be seen by the following accounts, CHURCH OF THE DISCIPLES. Whe Boston Fire in its Worldly and Re- ligious Aspects—The Only True Rock of Support—Sermon by Rev. George H. Hepworth. There was the usual large attendance at the Bervices yesterday morning at Steinway Hall, where the nucleus of the Church. of the Disciples Btill meet for their Sunday worship. The eloquent nd popular pastor, Rev. George H. Hepworth, preached, and seizing, as he aimost always does, the topic of the hour, selected as the subject of his discourse “Great Calamities and their Les- Bons,” a subject, of coarse, suggested by the late terrible fire in Boston, His text was Judges, xx., 40:— “THE FLAME OF THE CITY ASCENDED UP TO HEAVEN.”? They had lately, he began, stood in the presence ‘of many and great disasters, Property and life had been destroyed to such an extent that the whole world seemed to be starticd, It was only his prov- Jace to speak of it in the light of religion: he left it ‘to the political economists to study the causes, and fto the committee of investigation to exam- Bne the subject thoroughly, including that pt Mansard roofs; and first, mind, in B religious light, they were taught by THE GREAT BOSTON FIRE, whe great lesson of dependence one on another. No one can climb without dragging others up. No pne can fall without dragging others down. The ld question, “Am I my brother's keeper?” was psked in the fires at Chicago and Boston. The Pusiness of a great city resembled a row of bricks, one of which cannot fali without the others falling too. Business men came incontact. What affects ue affects another. The welfare of a great city depended more than anything else upon the per- sonal honor of its merchants—an honor that should Mave its foundation in the HARDPAN OP CHRISTIAN PAITH. » This honor was everything. All through the busi- mess of the community there rune the silver thread ‘of Christian faith. No one could rise or fail, or rest or lie idie, but he affected the whole. After en- Jarging further on this point he took up the char- acteristic o1 our national powers of recuperation. ‘While the fire fiend burns ail our riches, energy ‘and ambition and hope and faith are leit, and these are the best riches that men can have, These men are specimens of an American product. They were rich on Saturday night, they were poor on Sunday smorning ; on Monday morning they began jie anew. ‘Thank God for our country, where he is no- blest who climbs highest and works hardest; where Dirth is nothing; where character, action is verything. In this connection he drew a graphic Slotere ofthe attempt of aman trying to save a ‘woman’ life at the late Boston fire, and how both perished by @ wallcrushing upon them. No poct fwould sing his name. He traced our national pro- gress to the system of common schools, and then Rhowed the enervating effect of too assidious at- Rention to business. Our youth are traincd in ‘ A HOTBED OF EXCITEMENT. He would have reading rooms and renmaatons avhere now ate rumshops. What was lacking was moral culture. Were they doing their duty to- ward their children? The seeds of Christian faith should be sown now. He looked in alarm on the attempt to interfere with the little religious instruction given from the desk of our public schools. They should lay their hands on ‘heir hearts and swear that the Bible shall not be taken from the public schools, There was no fear of children getting too much religion, They would be thankful if they got any. Finishing this topic of lils discourse he proceeded to show f THE UNCRRVAINTY OF RICHES as another lesson of great calamities. If they were to chose any city thought to be sal from a great Ore it would have been Boston. The fire flend went there; house after house tumbled to the ground; aere alter acre Was burned over, What was granite? what iron? The fire only stopped at the water's . A more elegant portrayal of a great fire can haga ined than that following. From this tmasterly picture of THE WRECK OF MATTER, he turned to cheer his eager spe!l-bound listeners with @ bright and equally eloquent drawn picture of what in this world was real, substantial, per- Wwanent faith in God, Here was safety. There fwas saicty nowhere else. There was ati J above them. There was a Christ above them. Let them lose their money and there is manhood left. Let them stand on the grave and their thoughts are among the stars. soul was safe with Goa, He did not feel that he had talked to them as he would like, All he could say in conclusion was to put their trust in Christ Jesus and ali would be well. SEVENTH AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. The Boston Conflagration—Its Great Les= sons—The Public Press and the Fire— The Morality of the Sostonians Not Better than the Wickcdness of the Chi- cagonns, The morning services in the Seventh Avenue Presbyterian church were yesterday conducted by the Rey. 8. H. Graham, ‘The congregation was large, many having attended for the purpose of hearing the pastor discourse on the great confla- gration that has devastated Boston. The reverend gentleman chose as his text Psalms civ.,4. He commenced his ¢ermon by making allusions to the great effects that sometimes spring from very small and insignificant causes. Only a week ago it was seen how, from a comparatively small be- ginning, that fire spread throughout Boston which has devastated some of the grandest structures on the Continent, In one hour they have scen what had taken years of tusbandry to accumulate com- pletely destroyed by the ravages of fire. The les- sons to be derived from that conflagration do not speak simply to the inhabitants of Boston; but it may be contemplated in all the land in which we live, and by the world wherever the news of that great fire has been carried, THE THREE GREAT LESSONS OF THE FIRE, Now, i that fire is a minister of God, what does it teach? What service does it render te the cause of the great Author of the universe? These are the questions wich @ consideration of the great calamity suggests, and it is proper to look at them under three aspects, First, as its natural lessons; second, a3 its providential lessons; and third, as its gracious or merciful lessons. In the natural lessons we learn how much weaker science is than the laws of nature—that is, God's laws of nature, We live ina land which boasts of ingenuity and skill, and much of the boasting has been vain boasting as the fire in Boston attests, All the resources tor the extinction of fire had been procured; all that mechanism and ingenuity could accomplishhad been accomplished, and the people of Boston supposed that they were perfectly safe from any assault that fire might make upon them, And yet God in a single hour proved that the greatest ingenuity and wisdom of man can suggest is but a drop as com- with tho great power of THis The laws of natnre are frequently more powerlul than the laws of science, than the ingenuity and skill, and philosophy and wisdom ofman, Jt has been said by those who Wore capaple of judging that perhaps no city in the land m which we live was so impervious to fire as Loston. And yet what was supposed to be fireproof buildings, containing the possessious of the rich ones of the earth, have passed away in one day. There is no exception made to the gen- eral principle that tie things of this earth do “take to themselves wings and ‘ly away.” Lt teaches the supreme folly of supposing any one rich, and of supposing no one can lose his possessions. People are apt to suppose that they stand in need of nothing; that they are indepeudent of any agency or instrumentality whatever, Why, there is no- thing in this world but what is subject to somo ofthe elements thet God has in store and which have already utterly destroyed the proudest and greatest and most periect works of man, THE PROVIDENTIAL LESSON OF THE FIRE. The absence of suflering in connection with the late fire is something for which we had reason to be thankiul, How different was the case in con- nection With that calamity wilch occurred thirteen months ago in Chicago! ‘Well, then, the people of Boston and the other cities have seen, im the ab- sence Oi that suffering, mercy tempered with jus- tice, and they could see also acure in connection with these fires. Providence teaches in the late fire not only New York aud tle adjacent cities, but the whole civilized world, instruction and warning. The lesson is very instructive. The words which ye read in these fames are not in italics, but In the largest capitals, Every single word and syliable aud letter are made manilest, THE FIRE HUMBLES BOSTON, One good thing in connection with that fire is that it has a tendency to humble Boston. It might be that New York may ve humbled by the same means. The evident interpretation of the t calamity is, in other words, that the foundation of Boston must be laid in the truth ard God's Word beiore it is safe, and the foundations of the city of New York must be built upon the Word of Ged be- fore itis saie. But the fire warns as well as in- structs, and it shows that the very elements which in ordinary circumstances are our slaves may at times become our most destructive enemies, The very air we breathe may become ® tempest, a tor- nado or hurricane, and thus prove One of the most terrible agencies tor our desvruction. It 18 well to recognize that while these elements of God are used for His glory, they are also given to mankind for their benefit, THE DEFICIENCY OF THE PUBLIC PRESS. In viewing the providence of God in its merciful aspect it is seen that it ltits the heart from the creature to the Creator. There was no such con- fession as that in the secular papers which con- tained glowing accounts of the catastrophe, It would have been productive of much good had some allusion been made in the daily press to the spirituai aspect of the great conflagration. The ress talked about architecture being at fault; but { the fire did not lift the hearts of men from the creature to the Creator and the lesson fails of its results, then the calamity must be turned in some other way and perhaps with greater fires than ever. Ii Boston does not profit and every nation does not profit through Boston's examble—that example which has cost her many millious of do!lars—then the lesson of the great tire has tailed, Ifit does not teach a great lesson to the people of New York then it may happen that a siuilar judg- ment may overcome this city, LOSTON’S INDEPENDENCE AND MORALITY. Boston ts proud of itsindependence. It does not depend on New York or Philadelphia, and has little dependence on any other city in the worid. It thought it was an independency; but what is its independency now? It will be providential to the people of that city if they remember that God's onor and God’s truth are far more important than the truth and honor and integrity and intellect- uality of Boston or a thousand cities, Boston, with all its morality, was no better than Chicago, with all its wickedness, Here are two extremes, The one exceedingly wicked, and the other re- markable for morality, but for no genuine, Godlike or Christlike religion. Now, what was the evil? Boston was remarkable as being the birthplace of American libcrty; but even though that was the case, had they aright to com- plain of their sufferings in view of the absence of religion. God would teach nations and States and individuals and the world that He is all-powertul and that all things, whether gold or silver, whether bonds, mortgages, real estate or stone, belonged to Him alter all, and they should learn that His glory is of more importance than their conceit. It will be @ valuable lesson to those who have wit- nessed the great event if it will change their reli- gion of inteectuality and morality into a religion of Jesus Christ. Itis weil.known that in Boston there have sprung up a gréat many {ECCLESIASTICAL —ISMS, and we are told that these isms are not Inspired by the spirit and religion of Jesus Christ ‘There- jore that contagration will be valuable to them if it produces a change in this very respect. Morality is no better than wickedness, and will save a soul no more than blasphemy can. It is @ currency that passes atita true value with some men; but nevertheless there is nothing that can wash away sip but the blood of Christ, and every doctrine which excludes the person and work of Christ—the eg atonement—incurs the highest penalties. The peopie of Boston never recognized Jesus Christ in a great measure, and if they do not recognize His power now another thunderbolt may be thrown at them. CHUROH OF THE DIVINE PATERNITY. Dr. Chapin on the Boston Fire—The Les- son To Be Learned from the Great Catastrophe. Dr. Chapin preached at his church, corner o¢ Forty-fiith street and Fifth avenue, yesterday morning, on the subject of the Luston fire and other disasters which have recently visited our country, taking for his text Job v., 6:—‘‘Although aMiction cometh not forth of the dust, nor doth trouble spring out of the ground.” The book of Job, said the reverend gentleman, Is a cry from the heart, @ story that comes to the business and the bosoms of mankind, a narrative of troubles and sorrows that came trooping toward bim and his household thicker than they could be told. In studying it one sits down to ponder over THE MYSTERY OF EVIL, There have been many troubles and disasters since the day of Job, but from each and all of them has sprung this question of the mystery of evil. Of one thing only we are certain. In all the great calamities that befall us, as in the daily recurring changes of nature, there is no chance work, There is no chance incident anywhere. The opposite conclusion, if accepted, must imply an atheistical belief. Then there must be intention; ana tn the intention of the Providence that produces our calamities lies the mystery of evil. Afiction cometh not forth from the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground, These words of old are the words of to-day, They are the asser- tion of a universal law of Providence, the religious world accepting Providence as a being whose ex- pressed will is the meaning of the law. “While this universal law is true of the material world, it fe equally true concerning the moral world, the world of mind, of man; and as the mightiest forces of nature are invisible, 80 an invisible purpose ac- rer the decds of @man’s life, What is it that makes WHAT WE CALL HISTORY? This invisible pu: running through the lives of men and of nations, The heroism of one man, the meanness, the tyranny of another, the imbe- pid ® third, are smelted by grand historical mechanism into results, and what saves tho product, but this invisible purpose, toward whioh ‘he universal law of the moral world is guided * No great public occurrence can be called either accl- det or inscrutable, It is one of @ series that hi come in their turn for six thousand or six milion years, and it means that Providence is untiringly carrying out its great purposes, It seems that misfortunes gather to- peace like birds swooping to their prey. The homely sayings, “Misforbunes never come sity a ru “dt never rains but it pours,” illustrate @ it ‘The that has been oxemplified through all ages. present time seems 40 be A CYCLE OF CATASTROPHE. The volcano, the Sarspquaxe, the tempest, the flood, have ail scourged tie world in their various Ways, and within a year the astern and the We: ern horizons of our own country have been lighted by the blaze of disastrous fires. There is one trenchant lesson all tiese teach us atonce. ‘They teach that there is a Power above and beyond us against whom we can do nothing; that we stand upon ground which #3 insecure; that we own treasures which will fade, and that our granite mausions will melt if that something above 30 Wills, and that we are as naught before it, As to those who are FLIPPANT WITH THE WORD JUDGMENT, let the lesson be taught them as the counsellors of Job were taught from @ midst of tue terrivie earthquake, But these great calamities teach us also gue on of the necessity of human care and watohfuineks, Is it a mystery that the plague should seek the impure places and the foul spots, andis human responsibility clear when it has pitched its tent where there were ranks of living ducn, and the night cometh and the ground is strewn with human carcases, and the ships at sea are dritting charnels ’ Sciouce has been gain- ing the mastery over the plague tiat comes from ths Hast, but does that show that its divad visits are any the less the work of Providen or that its dreadful devastation is less ® witness to our own carelessness? Oficers are neglectiul, the ship unseaworthy, the machinery defective, and a storm at sea adds another to our list of dire disasters, There is no calamity that does not have its humen side and present these LESSONS OF WARNING AND OF CAUTION to the human intellect, But there is one great good always subserved by these great catastrophes, ‘The individual man is advanced to a higher grandeur by each recurring calamity, The busy chase after material good is suddenly checked, and man com- prehends that there isa higher good, ‘ihe life that has-been narrowed down by avarice to the acquisi- tion of material wealth alone oer craten as how frail and delusive has been his atm when his granite blocks melt away like snow beiore the fire and the Jeleased forces of Nature break from their flery womb, But another great good that is bern of the Boston tire is the sympathy that is engendered in ‘4he hearts of all men by her inisfortune, and THE STERLING MANiLOOD that is called into being by the demands of the occasion, I am not myself of Boston or of New England, but 1 love and Lonor Boston, not for her materia! avquisitions, not for her granite blocks, but for hcr institutions of learning, her colleges, her progress in ideas, her intellect, her men. 1 can see in the demeanor of her sons to-day the reilex of their fathers, I see the fathers in that ancient December snow, amid that ancient wilder- ness, building an empire on their Western rock, and Isee the sons, with their fathers’ spirit, mantulty fighting the Names and nobly confronting the dis- aster that threatens ruin, ‘There are great Jessons and great good in all calainities, for “atliction cometi not iorth trom the dust, neither doth trouble spring out o/ the ground."” §8T, FRANOIS XAVIER'S CHURCH. Sermon by the Rev. Father Merrick, 8. J—What Constitutes a CatholicteIs there Salvation Outside the Catholic Ohureh? The sermon at this church yesterday was preached by the Rev. Father Merrick, who took for ‘uis text that portion of the Gospel of the day which reads, “The kingdom of heaven is like toa grain ofmustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; which is the least, indeed, of all seed; but when it is grown up it is greater than all seeds, and becometh a tree so that the birds of the air come and dwell in the branches thereof.” The Saviour, said the reverend gentleman, spoke in parables, as was the custom of the people of the East. It was by means of parables that the people were taught in everything, and in speaking to them in the parable of the mustard seed the Saviour did that which would have the most cer- tain effect upon His hearers. The mustard seed spoken of was the Word of God, the great tree which sprang from it the Church of Christ, and the birds that flocked to its branches were the true Christian members oi that Church—the children of God, THE ELECT OV HEAVEN, The reverend Fathec then went onat considerable length, arguing to show that the Romaa Catholic Church was the only trae Church. Ii it was not the true Church then there was no God. Outside of the Catholic Church there was no salvation. This was an article of faith in the Church, and every Catholic was bound to believe it, But it should be borne in mind that the Church had, so to speak, a soul and body, and that Catholics might belong to the body without belonging to the soul, and that non-Catholics might in reality belong to the soul and yet not belong to the body, In other words, it did not follow that because a man was a Catholic and outwardly practised ail that his re- ligion exacted of him he was any surer of his sal- vution than @ non-Catholic, If he sinned in secret, although he might have faith of that Kind that moved mountains, and to all appearances was A GOOD CHRISTIAN, he was certain, if he died in that state, to be doomed to eternal punishment. This kind of a. Catholic belonged to the body of the Church and not to the soul, He had faith, itis true, but faith alone cannot secure our eternal salvation, GOOD WORKS must accompany faith, and without good works and faith combined it was impossible to please God. Now as to the non-Catholics who belonged in reality to the soul of the Catholic Church, There were undoubtedly many persons who were not Catholics as far as attending the services in a Catholic church were concerned, and who of course did not partake of the sacraments, who were in reality Catholics, The teaching of the Church that outside of the Catholic Church nobody could be saved did not mean that everybody who was not a Catholic would be damned; that because a man was a Presbyterian, a Methodist, an Episcopalian or because he belonged to any Protestant sect, he was necessarily doomed to go to hell. Such was not the teaching of tne Catholic Church, As he had said before there were those who belonged to ‘the soul of the Church and not to the body, These were in reality Catholics. True they might not “belong” to the Catholic Church as the term is generally understood, but they were for all that Catholic in the true sense the Church means it to be understood. And who were these Catholics who did not “belong” to the Church and yet were Cath- olics ? They were those who led good lives, who believed in Christ and were ignorant of the fact that the Catholic Church was the only true Chur who, tn other words, were anxious to be right and who prayed to God and strove to find out whether the religion they followed was really the right one, and,who, if they became convinced that the Cath- olic Church was THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH, would join her communion. These were really in the eyes of the Church Catholics, Still this is no reason why those outside of the pale of the Church should think that they were all right and that they couid secure their salvation as easily out of it as in it; for those only who did not deceive themselves into the bellef that they could jog along through life on any road aud yet reach heaven were Catlio- lies belonging to the soul of the Church, though not to the body. And it was easy to deceive ourselves into this kind of belief, We were living in an age of infidelity, of materialism, of anti-religion, We could easily deceive ourselves by our self-love by our ambition, by our vanity, by our love of the ap- plause of the world, into the belief that because we did no great wrong to anybody, WENT TO CHURCH REGULARLY, and to all outward appearances were good Chris- tians, had faith in all that the Church teaches and yet inwardly were guilty of some mortal sin, we Would be saved. A inan of that stamp, even though he was a member of the Catholic Church asiar as outward signs went, Was not a Cathoiic, Better far that a man were a wild Indian, born in the tg- norance of the wilderness and ignorant of the Word of God, than to be a Catholic only in name in @ great city where his mode of life would scandal- ize other souls that God desired to save. To be ple to God, to make our salvation sure, we should have charity in our hearts—the love of God above all things. He who had this must be a be- lever in God and would do good works, and live a life outwardly and inwardly that God would re- ward by @ Ilie of eternal happiness, We might by being Catholics outwardiy only deceive ourselves; but we could not deceive God. He alone knew our inmost thoughts—our most secret actions, By them as well as by our actions that our neighbors could bear witness to we should be judged. The reverend Father then closed by exorting his hear- ers to 80 live that they would receive the recom- pense which God reserved for those only who served Him faithfully here on earth, LYRIC HALL, Neither Poverty Nor Wealth Desirable for Mankind=—The Advantages of the Poor Over the Rich=The Poor Women of America—Sermon by the Rev. O. B. Frothingham. The hall looked very well yesterday, having, since last Sabbath, received a new frescoing; and, contrary to what might have been expected from the sudden change of weather, contained an un- usually large congregation, Mr. Frothingham Preached on ‘j THE PERILS OF FORTUNE AND having for his text Proverbs, xxx., 8, 9—‘Give me neither poverty nor riches,” &c. These words are ascribed to Agur; but who he was nobody knows. ‘The remarkable thing about this prayer is its mo- tive, It is acommon thing to depreoate poverty, and @ fow deprecate wealth; but it is not a common thing for one to think as Agur did. He prefers the temperate zone : he would have each season in its turn; he would not be eternally Pinched with cold nor parched with heat. And Agur is right. The extremes of poverty are no more to be dreaded than the extremes of wealth. Look at the Esquimaux. His Summer is too short for the ripening of fruit and vegetables. Their being has no development, They have no time to cultivate their mind, their civilization, their re- ligion, So with the other extreme. ‘The South Sea Islander has nothing to think of. His iood is the iruit; his covering is the leaves. What induce- mont has he for work? They have no religion, but overwhelming superstition, They have no litera- ture, no science, no art and civilization, Men speak of the virtue of the poor, THE EXIREML OF THE 1OOR HAVE NO VIRTUR, They cannotaitord it. Conscience is too expen- sive. They must siruggie for life. All their iacul- tiog are tuned to instruments for gain. Among the rich is character any riper? Do you find the rch leading the great re.orms? No, they lave not time. God is merely the grand maker of ail, and they merely TAKE CHRIST INTO A PARTNERSHIP with their joys. It is oily in temperature that things are evenly balanced for the development of mankind, With the extremes of wealth und poverty we have nothing, What ure tiv poor— what are the rich? Ave the poor dependent and the independent? Nobody is taken up in arms. and carried through the world, and if A fails Bis ruined, Another definition is that the poor man’s struggle is hard and desperate, while the rich man's labor is ight and nis profits large, What happened in Chicage # year ago, and in BOSTON SEVEN DAYS AGO ? oor man is he who struggles for life; the n ishe who lives without a stroke of labor. man with little means but with tew wants is a rich man, and tie man with a iolilion but who has to work is a poor man. ‘Ihe question is which State is more felicitous, those who have small labor and large profits and those who have great labor and small profits? Happiness is the feeling we have ol things about us. It is the titillation ol .or- tune. Happiness depends much upon health, and wiio shall say that the poor have not “8 much heaith asthe rich? Happiness depends upon tempera- ment, the habit of rejoic! when joyous things come on and of hopefully facing @ darkened future, and who shall say that the poor have not as good temperaments as the rich? But they are most in the way of overcoming infeélicity who are busy. Even men of melan- choly temperaments rise above it all in stringont emergencies, And I believe that there is more real sadness among the rich than among the oor, The rich can rub their wounds; the poor have no time for such an indulgence. And this is a reason why the women of America are so affected with MELANCHOLY AND ENNUT, They are so dependent. Give them employment, and this vacuity quickly vanishes. And 1 there- fore believe that the poor have the advantage of the rich in point of temperament. ‘They have still another advantage. Happiness depends upon the faculty of being surprised, The rich man, who al- Ways has what he 8, ChOyS but @ monoto- nous existence, Everything tuat a poor man adds to his store is a goal attained, And the poor have the greatest chances for the highest human devel- opment. Christ's disciples were fishermen and taxgatherers; Christ himself was a carpenter's son, 8T, STEPHEN'S CHURCH. Sermon by the Rev. Father Glackmoyer— Progress of the Mission--The Parable of the Mustard Seed Again—An Appeal to Sinners, At St. Stephen's church, Twenty-eighth street, large congregations attended each of the masses yesterday morning, The numbers in attendance at the high mass, which was celebrated at half-past ten o'clock by the Rey. Father Flynn, filled the church in every part, galleries, aisles and transept being crowded, These extraordinary audiences were due to the mission now being given in this church by the Jesuit Fathers, under the leadership of the cloquent and learned Father Glackmeyer. But not only at the services yesterday has the mis~ sion attracted thousands to the religious exercis:s and sermons, but every day for the past two weeks the church and basement chapel have been over- filled with persons approaching the sacrament of Penance and participating in the various duties prescribed by the missionaries. During the past two weeks the mission was conducied exclusively for women, and THE FAIR SEX came hither from all parts of the city to unburden themselves of tneir manifold peccadilloes and ac- quire that strength of heart and patient for- bearance which, it is sald, eventually lead back from wayward ways the very unruly lords of crea- tion. For the ensuing two weeks the Fathers will devote themselves entirely to the instruction of men, and the confessionals and services of the Fathers will therefore be given to men exclusively. A mass will be celebrated each morning at five o'clock, without any instruction, so that working- men can attend and be able after the mass to get to work at the same hours as heretofore. Con* fessions will be heard every day from tour o'clock in the morning until midnight. The enthusiasm maniiested by the peers attending the mission is something wondertul, OLD ABSENTEES from church people, who had begun to think that religion was all a humbug, have been brought back to penitence and grace by the almost magic infu- ence of the mission exercises, There is a some- thing in the missionary's preaching unlike the or- dinary discourse on the ordinary Sunday. ‘The mission and all its surroundings seem to possess most peculiar influences; but the missionary preaching in itself is a teature that is almost in- Spiring in the sudden eflicacy of its appeals and the sincere response it meets in thousands and thou- sands of hardened consciences. The sermon yes- terday morning was preached by the Rev. Father Glackmeyer, who took his text from the Gospel of the day, which narrates THE PARABLE OF THE MUSTARD SEED. This familiar parable was eloquently explained by the eminent Jesuit. The subject, so well suited to the mission in which the parish 13 engaged, was made use of to teach how the Saviour, from His first moments in Bethlehem to His death on Cal- vary, Was the seed that, being putin the earth, ew to a spreading tree, and how in the glorious eaven above as Well as In the Christian Church on earth Christ dwelleth, infinite in His amiability, and still showing how the tree has grown from the little seed. Tne preacher's exposition of the Trinity, of the glory of God in the heavens, of THE ETERNAL ECSTACY of the hosts around them, was a powerful yanks in the discourse, but not more eloquent than the contrast he drew between the Son of God seated on the right hand of the Father and the Divine Child in the manger, warmed only by the breath of an ox. In speaking of the vanity of the world and how flecting are its honors and its glory, he al- luded to a traveller's visit a few years since to Paris, where the amiable and beautitul Empress reigned in the most imperial dignity, full of loveli- ness of mind and face, and then took the traveller to the little English village where Eugénie more recently resided, and where she might be seen ‘with a face pale irom sorrow, HER BEAUTY FADED and nothing left to her but the calm and sweet re- flections of her holy religion. In concluding Father Glackmeyer besought his hearers not to neglect availing themselves of the opportunity the mission afforded them to approach the sacraments, The music of the mass was Haydn's No, 2, This mass, of course, was solemn and stately, not offer. ing to the singers any chance to revel im some of the brilliant solos which are to be found in modern compositions. Miss Howson and Miss Munier both sang with their usual fidelity, and Coletti and Bern- hard were equally up to the mark, Danforth’s performance on the organ showed his customary care and boa and altogether the mass went along admirably. CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH. Sermon by the Rev. W. H. Cudworth— The Power of Faith in Christ. The Rev. W. H. Cudworth, of Boston, preached yesterday morning in the Church of the Messiah, taking for his text the exclamation of Peter, when, for want of faith, he was on the point of sinking beneath the waves of the Sea of Galilee, “He Ip, Lord, orl perish.” He began by telling the story of this incident of Peter's life. Peter had sprung overboard from the little vessel, filled with faith in Jesus. 1% was true that he had received an invita- tion to do so from the Master, but so strong and exalted was his faith that he would probably have thus displayed his confidence in the SAVING INFLUENC! of Christ even without any special encouragement ; but after he had touched the water his faitn evan- ished, and he Ss way to the natural terrors of his situation, Probably he could not swim, and, overcome with alarm, he cried out, in the ex tremity of his need, “Help, Lord, or I perish.’ Mr. Cudworth proceeded to apply this narrative to the Christian life with muct force and eloquence, Many of us, he said, labored and groaned and fretted under @ load of TROUBLES AND EMBARRASSMENTS and sorrows, nine-tenths of which, if we were wise enough to have faith, we should throw overboard as Peter did his vody, trusting in the Lord for help- and assistance, The proper course for us to pur- sue was to do all in our power tu ald ourselves and then confide the rest to Christ, assured that He would do all things for the best. In Christian enterp! inday schoo's and missions and other similar undertakings, how frequently we fainted for fear of iancied troubles, mstead of (rusting in the Lord. Unbelief was indeed the PALSY OF THE SOUL, inst which we should unceasing}: struggle and oT egal fight. With faith we might do all it we should sink, as dic the Apostle Pete! praying for help we could not do better than imt- ate the prayer in the text, We should not senti- mentalize too much; we should simply ask for what we wanted most urgently at tle present time, and leave the rest to Jesus, Mr. Cudworth algo alluded to the ‘MIRACULOUS PART of this Gospel narrative, and said that it did not frighten or pe-plex him at all, He had coufidence in the integrity and truthfulncss and common Sense of the Evangelists, and he believed simply that what they said had occurred had really hap- pened, and that Peter by a miracle had been en- abled to walk a the sca. He closed by n car- nest sayent to his hearers to cultivate the Christian duty of unbounded faith in Christ. % Next Sunday evening this church will be the Scene of an interesting ceremony in the installa- tion of its new pastor, the Rey. H. Powers. ‘hese services among the Unitarians, though simple, are very solemn and impressive, aud there will doubt- less be a large attendance. The Key. Dr. Bellows will conduct the rites of ordination. 8T. PATRIOK’S CATHEDRAL, The Progress of Catho}icism—Sormon by Father Starrs—Imposing Ceremonics and Exquisite Music. The ceremonies of high mass at the Cathedral yesterday were grand and imposing, rendered more so by the brilliant music which the choir dis- coursed, Gustav Schmitz's Mass No. 5, which is noted for its simplicity and beauty, was rendered by @ full choir and a large chorus. Madame Chomé's interpretation of Mercadante's “Ave Marla,” which she sang at the offertory was re- markably fine, a8 was also the quartet in the “Credo” by Mme. Chomé, Mme. Unger, Mr. Riedel and Mr. Urchs, Rev. Father Starrs preached the sermon, which was founded on the text of the Gospel for the day, Matthew, xiil, 31 and 35, THE GIST OF THE SERMON will be found in the following summary:—In this Parable our Lord Jesus Christ spoke of the Caurch Te was about to found. He said that at first it Would be like unto the mustara seed, but that in time it would grow to ponderous dimensions, and that all the nations of the earth, which are pre- sented to usas the birds of the air, would come and seck shelter under it, In the history of the Catholic Church we have the realization of the parable, At first it was small and insignificant; it was trampled upon by the pagan world; notwith- standing which it has strode on to its glorious munifest destiny, and is to-day the greatest power in the civilized world, CHRIST WAS THE MUSTARD SRED of which He himself speaks, and the grand tree which shelters the birds of the air is the Church which He built upon a rock, The Churett, like the plant which generated from the mustard seed, has been time and again trampled upon, but still to-day she stands forth the same solid old edifice, against which the gates ofhell cannot prevail, and who does not feel the adverse workings of men, which are but mmpotent hexd winds, which do not impede the progress of the noble ship ef Church! ‘The parable has again been realized in this Re- public, Thoge of you who have been in this country for the last twenty or twenty-five years have witnessed THE PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH HERE. At first insignificant and small, it has gradually grown until now it extends its arms to the most remote corners of the land. Those of you who are listening to me to-day have but an intimation of of what the Church will be in a century from now. You are the blocks in the edifice or the Church, Stand firm and you will receive the meed of the just—a blessing which I wish you all. TRINITY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Mecting in Behalt of the Church Exten- sion and Mission Work—Addresses by Bishop Foster and General Fisk, of St. Louis. sf A meeting in behalf of the New York City Church Extension and Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which John 8, Cornell is President, was held in the Trinity Methodist church, on T! fourth street, last evening. The large edifice was filléd to overflowing, indicating the interest of the Church in the labors of the Society, which are for the purpose of carrying the Gospel to those in our city who, from one cause and another, never attend upon the ministry of the word at any of the various churches, The meeting was conducted by Bishop Janes, one of the oldest superintendents of that persua- sion. After the usual religious exercises, consist- ing of singing and prayer, the Bishop arose and said:—“We are assembled here as worshippers in TUE SPIRIT OF WORSHIP, - and though there is something of specialty in our meeting, it is purely religious in its character, We represent here the aggressive agency of our Church; our object is the propagation of the Gospel among muititudes who are per- ishing for the want thereof.’ He then intro- duced Bishop Foster, a former pastor and now one of the superintendents of the church. In open- ing he said he agreed with Bishop Janes that the meeting was projoundly religious in its character. He then referred to the spirit of selfishness as the besetting sin of humanity. It is, he said, the very essence and root of all sin, and is the last form of it from which the heart is purged. it is a seeming anomaly that even those Christians which have the highest work of grace within them are tinc- tured with it, and this leads Christians to fail to realize what their real duty is, though when once thouroughly convinced wherein it lies they are swift and energetic in its accomplishment. He then referred to the OBJECT OF THE SOCIETY and proceeded to demonstrate the need of its labors. He showed how the churches of the cit; were inadequate to the accommodation of all, and, if they were, there were thousands who could not be prevailed upon to attend them and who must, therefore, be reached in another way. The nee once being admitted the question arose, By whom must the society be sustained in its labors? Mani- festly by the Church, and by its members who con- stituted that Church. The responsibility is upon us and we cannot shirk it; the mandate to preach the Gospel to all nations is obligatory upon all. To carry out the labors of the society money is required—not simply thousands, but hundreds of thousands—and these expenses must be paid by the Church. Those to whom we go will not pay; Christ does not expect it of them, but of his chil- dren. He represented the wealth of the member- ship of the Church in the city as from twenty mil- lion of dollars down to absolute poverty, and ar- ek that in the proper performance of their du- ies every one should contribute according to his means. He closed with a fervent appeal to God to open the hearts of Lis people. wd Janes then announced General Fisk, of St. Louis. This gentleman has long been inte- rested in THE WORK OF EVANGELIZATION in the larger cities, and his appeals for help to carry on the labors of the society were earnest and eloquent. He said the census showed that nearly one-fourth of our population was in the large cities. In 134 of these cities there were 8,000,000 of inhabitants, In New York there were 200,000 Irish and 150,000 Germans, who brought with them the ideas and traditions of the Old World, He urged the necessity of carrying the Gospel to those who would not attend the churches, and of contributing of our means for the accomplishment of this end. The presiding oficer then announced that a col- ection would be taken up, and those who were not prepared to contribute as much as they desired would find slips of paper in their pews upon which they could subscribe. SECOND STREET CHURCH. Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Aston=Elec- tions, their Purity a Mcaning”—A Lesson for Politicians. Last evening the pastor of the Methodist Episco- palchurch in Second street, the Rev. Henry Aston, delivered an address upon “The Election, its Re- sults and Lessons.” The learned and fluent speaker commenced his oration by commenting upon the uncertainty of all things mundane. He elucidated in @ manner worthy of the highest commendation the mysteries and science of ‘voting,’ and then drew a clear deduction by which all men may learn and become wise, It was one thing, said the preacher, to have sympathies, doubts and tenets; it was another to believe implicitly. We may have faith and confl- dence in a man, may be fully halal! Way him, even in our honesty, yet, in the midst of this, our absolute ignorance, we forget God and pay A PASSING TRIBUTE to Baal, while adoration of the Diety 1s altogether neglected. uring the last few weeks, remarked Mr. Aston, there has been a fierce conflict waging in this city. It has not been, as many may deem it, amere wordy warfare; it has been a signal victory for those who have contended against slavery and upheid the freedom of nations; it has been @ death-blow toanarchy and tyranny. Now, in the pleasant time of peace, when the ploughshare supplies the place of the sword and the song of the woodlark drowns THE ECHO OF CANNON, let us join hands in peaceful ee and, gaz ing towards the ever azure skies, thank our Pastor ‘Master that the evit da; haicyon era has at last arvea” Banned 8: ae SUNDAY IN BROOKLYN. The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher’s Weekly Instal- ment of Eloquence—The Ascetic and the Prac- tical—Talmage On the Commercial R:1a- tions of the Soul with God—The Moral Markete—The Lost Stock Exchange, PLYMOUTH CHURGH. Mr. Beecher Preaches on the Usvs of the Ideal—A Consideration of the Troubies and Difficultios Arising from Its Um wise Uso. The first srow of Winter fringing the sidewalt and the roofs of the houses with its mantlo of um~- sullied whiteness, and the cold biast of the north wind, did not prevent the streets being lined yea terduy morning witha long procession of chureh- goers, all wending their way, with gleesome faces and their best clothing, to their respective houses of worship, Plymouth church had its usual crowd, filling every nook and corner, Mr. Beecher preached the second ofa course of Sunday morning sermons “on tho use of the ideal.” His text was selected frora the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, the first chapter, the twenty- seventh and twenty-eighth verses:—“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound tie things which are mighty, , and base things of the world and things which ate despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to might things which are,"’ Mr. Beecher set out with a reference to the criticisms of commentators on the things seen and unseen, a8 hinted at in the sbove passage. He then defined faith as that FAR-SIGHTEDNESB which lies outside the things that are. The work+ ing force of faith was the intellect quickened by imagination, He then devoted himself to-the more immediate subject of h.s discourse, which was the consideration of some of the dificuiLies and trou- bles that arise from the unwise use of the ideal. There was, first, the unwise and ruthless dismem- berment of the real from the ideal. Any form that our ideal took must, to be useful to us, take into its conception the fact of the real. No man-in the portrayal of passion, for example, could afford to leave out the fact of anger and certain phases of passion, The ideal apple must nevcr become & wapkin, The ideal palace must always have for its root the idea of a house. In ideal music a@ man must never lose sight of the elements of mu- sical correct sounds. The world has for 6,000 yeara been in labor pains in trying to periect from its con- sciousness the ideal man, or a perfect manhood. In working this out the passions and the appetites oi men, which are Goa’s piesence ia man ior the complete accomplishment o: His work in him, have not been so fully considered as they should be. The important specialty of this idea is found in the history of the individual. Men seemed at one time to be afraid of supposing tat Christian char- acter had any naturalness init. In my day it was deemad presumptuous to apply the principles of natural philosophy to a portrayal of a solution of this character. Thus it was that IDEALS OF CHARACTER, or the men whose seraphic spirit, whose wondrous natural capacity, united with the action of divine ener had left their mark upon the ages, were eld up to the halting, striving, erring Chistian as the character he must attain to if he would realize all the blessings of a better lite, All that was just as reasonable &3 though he were to go into a public Schooland tell all the children who could sing that they must be young Beethovens and young Mo- varia. A greater misiake even than this was made in Hal ¢ this ideal of Christian ciaracter before people. There was not only the spectalty insisted upon, as in THE IDEAL MUSICIAN, but a character with all the virtues, all the grace: were put beiore you, and it was insisted that thi character must be realized. It was leaving out of the requirement the fact that some men are not born for the creating or embodiment of moral ideas that resuited in much mischief, There are just as many gradations in moral creationsas there are in intellectual If any man had the idea that to be a religious man he must be a man who is to walk in a high loftiness above his tellows, and that he was the inan who was to receive angels, if they came, then he had an ideal that was a very tor- menting one, and no scorpion from the pit could produce more torture. Now, I respect Cal- vanism, but its tendency has been very rejudicial, Ofthe one hundred men tt has beea influential in turning toward @ consideration of re- ligion it has turned seventy-five of them away from it. Far be itfrom me to say that you should not have an ideal. But the man should really know what itis. Ifyou could have a bill of items of this ideal you would see that the stock lay very largely in FLESH AND BLOOD. , *4 Leek treat every man as though he had ‘orinna brow and a soul-lit eye. Tuat would be as thoagh you were to put the clothing of a tall man on to @ small man; or that which would be still more perceptible, the clothing of a small man upon a very tall man. The Bible is human of alt books. Where is there a higher ideal than that which Christ lifts upY but what tenderness there is in it to humanity. What significance there is in the saying that the “publican and the harlot shalt enter into the kingdom of heaven bejore ti Pharisee and the rich man.” It 1s 4 foolish use of ideals when it tends to throw discontent upon our lives. Neither must we have an ideal that 1s fas- tidious and refuses to have anything but the nigh- est. Asceticism has its weak side; the time is coming when the Church can afford to be rich. The time will come when men can afford to live in large bo perio of beauty, of leisure, of fullness of being, of the complete enjoyment of all that is in the world, TALMAGE'S TABERNACLE, The Wise Spiritual Merchant — Start- ling Spiritual Insolvency—Guarding Against the Burglars of the Soui—Ne- cessity of Watching the Moral Mare kets—The Government and the Gold Gamblers of Wall Strect=—The Last Stock Exchange. Mr. Talmage discoursed yesterday morning on the wise spiritual merchant. The Tabernacle was crowded. The overture to “William Tell” was Mr. Morgan's opening performance on the great organ, and the services began as usual, with the singing of the doxology. Mr. Talmage’s text was from Proverbs xxiii. 22— “Buy the trath and sell it not.” In the first place, he said, the wise spiritual merchant would not neg- lect to take an account of stock. Once a year all the goods must be handied, and once @® year the business man wants to Know how much capital he has. He reviewed the books, wrote them up, and drew out on a Jair balance sheet all his worldly circumstances. In other words, he looked over all the affairs of the year to see how he stood. Ought we not to be just as scrutinizing in matters of the soul? Why, the Rothschilds or the Stewarts never did business of such infinite importance as that going on in the heart ofevery man and woman in that audience. There were the goods—the faculties and energies and passions of your soul. There were the liabil- ities to temptation, to danger and death. Could it be that we had not taken AN ACCOUNT OF STOCK and had been running this tremendous business for eternity without drawing out our affairs on @ balance sheet? True such a review was not pleas- ant, neither did any mendicant find it pleasant to take account of stock. It was just as unpleasant to review our spiritual condition. The fact was we were insolvent! We had been running this busi- ness of the soul So poorly that we had to be wound up. We could not pay one cent ona dollar, We could nov answer for one of ten thousand of our ee There was never in worldly affairs sucl A MISERABLE FAILURE IN WALL STREET Nor State street as we had made inspirituai affairs. We owed God everything. Sometimes, when a man was thoroughly cornered in business and sat dis- couraged, there came a rap at the door and an old friend entered who got him out of his embarrass- ment. Just so while we sat down disheartened on account of our sin, feeling there was no hope, Christ rapped at the door and asked what we wanted to bring us out of these disasters, We answered, “We want pardon, and the eter- nal salvation of the Gospel.” Jesus sald, “There it is,” and now we did business on an infinite capita’. Now all the banks of eternity were ready with their toans, and we had on the paper the name of the King. The wise spiritual merchant, continued the preacher, would be on his GUARD AGAINST BURGLARS! Would to God that we were as wise in regard to spiritual burglaries! There were a thousand tem tations and influences around about our soul's safety, tag to blow it MP or blast it; ready to shove the bolt and steal the infinite and immortal treasure. Look out for burglars, Here was a thief stealing our Christian faith, and it was very easy to lose It, but not so easy to get it back again. Here was another temptation trying to steal our patience, putting something explosive tn our tem- per and trying to blow it up; temptation to pride and self-indulgence and neglect of the great thing@ of eternity, made up a gang of desperadoes that had broken out of THE JAIL OF HELL and were prowling around our souls, trying ta take us captive aud steal its treasure, aud in the