The New York Herald Newspaper, March 3, 1873, Page 8

RMONS AND SERVICES Commencement of the Forty Days’ Devotion in the Catholic and Episcopal Churches. THE SEASON OF SELE-DENIAL. The Venerahte Archbishop's Lenten Discourse. ARRAIGNING THE FAULTS OF THE AGE, Hepworth/and Clarke Telling Why We Ought To Be Geod. The Mandates of God Applied to Murderers. CHRIST IN THE CONSTITUTION. “Sermons on the Scriptures in the Public Schools. The Sins of Statesmen and the Credit Mobilier Muddle. ‘The weather yesterday seems really to have acknowledged the sway of Spring, so fickle, un- settled and variable was it, with @ mixture of mildness and peevishness. The pews in the churches, in consequence of nature’s coquettish encouragement of piety, accerdingly received a full quota of occupants and wor- shippers, The sermons which were preached present a great variety of peculiar and prominent subjects and opportunities, which were ‘well improved by the clergy for the utterance ef original and forcible reflections. Public affairs en- ‘tered largely into their discourses, and what with allusions to murders, Urédit Mobiller offenders, Bis- marck and the Jesuits, reported elsewhere, the forty days’ of devotion and the coming inaugural services at Washington they may be said te em- body a batch of quite fascinating reading. 81, PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL Inauguration of the Forty Hours’ Devo- tion—Sermon by the Most Rev. Arch- bishop McCloskey—Arraigning the Sins of the Age—How the Lenten Season Should Be Spent—Important Words to All—Procession of the Blessed Sacra- ment. An immense congregation filled the seats and aisies of the Cathedral yesterday, and the whole series of ceremonies were of more than usual in- terest. The occasion celebrated was the opening of the “Forty Hours’ Devotion to the Blessed Sacra- ment,” which consists of an exposition and adora- tion of the Holy Eucharist during that length of time. Contrary to the Lenten rules, which pre- seribe an unadorned sanctuary, yet, in accordance with the liturgy of the Church, the high altar was maagnificently arrayed in golden gildings, vases of rich, beautiful and costly appearance, natural and artificial Mowers of every description, and a count- Jess number of burning lights, which ever and anon threw a happy and impressive grandeur over the solemn and sacred scenery of the temple. The Most Rev. Archbishop McCloskey presided in his episcopal capacity. THE GRAND HIGH MASS, ‘The Rev. Father Kearney, pastor pro tem. of the Cathedral, oMciatea as celebrant of the mass, as- Bisted by the Rev. Father McNamee as deacon; Rey. Dr. Schrader, lately arrived from Rome, sub-dea- con; Rev. Father Kane, master of ceremontes; Rev, Father Farrelly, assistant priest to the Most Rey- erend Archbishop, together with about fifty neatiy attired acolytes, who formed by no means the least attractive portion of the sanctuarists, After the “Asperges Mei,’ given precisely at half-past ten o’clock, mass was commenced, as usual, witha fine rendering of the “Kyrie” by the choir, which was followed by the “Gloria” and “Credo,” given in an admirable manner, in solos and quartets at appro. priate imtervals. The mass, as played by the or- ganist, Mr. Gustavus Schmitz, was by Meiners, with a@ chorus of twenty-five voices, AFTER THE CHANTING OF THE GOSPEL by the deacon, the Most Kev. Archbishop McCloskey ascended the pulpit, having on his shoulders his purple fringed pulliam of authority, en his tran- gutiand venerable head his episcopal birettam, aud in bis hand the Holy Bible or Missal, from which he read with becoming modest dignity and sweet articulation the words taken frem the Sun- @ay’s Gospel—St. Matthew iv., 1-11—which in- cluded the texts on which he based his discourse, THR ARCHBISHOP’S SERMON. My beloved children, we are once more per- ‘mitted, in the gracious providence of God, te reach the beginning of another Lent, during which we are to plead before the altar of the divine Son of God for special graces and blessings frem ab: another holy season of fasting and prayer, 0! hamility and self-denial, of mortification and alms-giving—a time ‘which called the acceptable one—days which every one of us should wish to make days of sal- vation, and when the first emotion of our hearts should be an emotion of thanks and gratitude for His love and kindness towards us, And this the more so because we can hardly fail at this moment to think of how many were here with us last Lent Who are now numbered with the dead. You can Dardly fail to remember that your late beloved pas- tor—that faithful priest who ofictated at this altar the first Sunday of last Lent—is now no more, and if not ministering in heaven ts at least bowin, down before the Lamb of God, He is but one o: the many who have passed away. Eight priests, six of them hard-working pastorsin our midst, have died since the last Lenten season, And no doubt you remember, also, that the dear father, the affectionate mother, the good brother er the affec- tionate sister whom you then cherished and fondied at your heart, are all gone. These are the Most befitting feelings which ought to enter into our minds at this holy time, set apart but to re- 4dnind us of death, that we may feel the urgent iy of preparation by penance, fasting, ayer, humble confession and frequenting the ho! oeranent, whereby we may find reconciliation WITH GOD AND HAPPINESS HEREAFTER. y have gone before us, and we have an- or pprrense iven us. Will we profit by it 29 not ‘ill we alow the time of race to ase by ‘without turning it toa mod account? Oh, let me ‘our lives, to cut leose those #ins of passion, in age (Righter ed rance, impurity, pride, malice, avarice and re. Yenge-{n a word,to break all those bonds that have enchained your poor souls, and put on the farments of penance, sackcloth and ashes, that d may avert all chastisement of our sing!” Oh, Drethren, do we not stand aghast when we behold aa beg moral deso! which sweeps over e ea ‘His Christ; that tendency to ‘the strongholds of Satan to crimes of blasphemy, of infidell| ofa violation of social peac DO mervel you should come down from heaven to visit the worl pe TT el om Lebar now, ‘at old, ry priest at the vesti out, “Spare, © Lord, spare the people|? But om this day Rene (x. brighter vena of hope in what ms us. Here in Vatuedral the oly season is inaugurated by peer FORTY HOURS’ DEVOTION, send all are invited to gather round the’ throne of od. | For it is true that Christ, who suffered, died, x.we from the dead and promised to remain with us My td here truly present in the Holy Sacra- meut of the altar—in that wonderful myster; pit. Ha fanaa of Mis goodness and whic! ” of the Chr ‘which nourishes and. preserves ‘te ed re, ask you to amend hat bold rebellion against the Lord and gather together all wo! of Baal in Here, then, He wi resent to be an object t adoration and love. Hence it fs that tt action of joy takes the ace Of sorrow to-day—that ihts and flowers Which enrich and iisminate wa aitars rise above ‘genitential mourning. Come, then, dearly beloved, before your hidden Saviour} present Him your heats in homage, open to Him oor wants, speak to Ulm in the silence of the wanctuary, Where nothin<, Save the whisperings 01 Bis Spirit, shall distur you. Teil Him your temptations, trials, weaknes és and dangers, aud He will help you, He who has’ Said, “Come to Me as 708 who labor and are heayi.¥ burdened, and 1 will reiresh you,” He is all joy Wd benediction. Zio will epeak to your hearts beMgy than the | NEW YORK HERALD, .MONDAY, tongues of the racet then, early beloved. brethren," into the spirit of thid ee area dah cheaee Stes your i ‘and ou On wecurely to the ‘posses: om, ee. ef the remaining portion of QF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT Was of ris the Arch- wea emeaey all the officiating p! jonny ¢ = Eid holding the blessed sacrament cession d around the aisles, during which ir sung and the organist played the Lingea.” The processien consisted ef the five officiating priests, together with the Most Rev- erend Archbishep and the whole number of aco- 8, After its return to the sanctuary the ‘0 alntaris,”? “0 Panis Angelorum,” ‘‘fantam Ergo” and Litany were sung, and the blessed sacrament then exposed in the upper tabernacle. After mass the Rev. Father Kane made the fol- lowing annonucements, viz. :—Solemn high masses will be celebrated in’ the Cathedral at nine o'clock this (Menday) morning and ten o’clock te-morrow merning. A solemn monthly requiem will be said for Very Rev. Father Starrs on Friday atten o’cleck A.M. Rey. Father Spaulding, of the Paulista, will lecture before the Cathelic Union, at the Cooper Institute, on Friday, the 1dth inst, CALVARY CHURCH. The Dangers Besetting Business Mcn— Tho Different Versions of the Tempta- tions of Christ and How They Can Be Reconciled—Sermon by Bishop Oden- heimer, of New Jersey. The morning service at Calvary church, corner of Twenty-first street and Fourth avenue, was well attended yesterday. The music was, as it usually 4s, very good, and the sermon was pregnant with material for pious reflection, It was delivered by Bishop Odenheimer, of New Jersey, who chose for bis text—‘‘And when the tempter came to Him and said, ‘If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread.’ But Jesus an- swered and said, ‘It is written man shall notiive by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God’’—Matthew lv., 38-6. The object of the sermon, the gist of which will be found below, was to disprove the sophistiries which of late years have obtained ground ameng the people of the country, especially the critical and educated. THE SERMON. The words I have just said to you have been so construed by some persons as te mean that Christ was man alone and not God. The persons who propound this doctrine say that if Uhrist was God He could not have been tempted. ‘They seem to forget that Christ. was man as well as God, and that the fact of His having been tempted is sufficient to prove that He was man, and His resisting the temptation sufficient to show His divinity. Then, again, these same critically- wise people seem to have their doubts as to the authenticity of the Word, “for,” say they, “Matthew's and LUKE'S ACOOUNTS OF THE TEMPTATIONS DIFFER in point of order.” Those who speak thus expose their shallowness, because the two men are more in contrast than in comparison. The one was & fisherman and stated things in their chrono- logical order, while the other, who was highly educated, made an ethical classi- fication of the temptations, and im that order has transmitted them to us. I have no dobt but that Matthew’s version of the temptations is in the regular order of their happening, and that that of Luke isin the order of their signifi- cance. In Luke we have, first, the lust of the body, next the lust ot the eyes, and, lastly, the pride of life, This is @ regular gradation, while that of Matthew, the fisherman, is @ plain, unvarnished tale of the events as they happened, None can deny that the facts in each of the versions are the same, consequently the order in which they are iven does not detract from their authenticity. ‘low me hear to state parenthetically that people of little faith and weak minds are carried away by the fine sounding theories of self-styled philoso- nie) who casta slur on the veracity of tne In- sptred Word, and contend that science and religion are incompatible. My friends and brothers, let me warn you that faith alone can in this millennium of infidelity save you. After baptism you enter, Christ-like, into a wilderness of temptation. Men are every day tempted by the LUST OP THR BODY, by the lust of the eye and the pride of life. Of ali these besetting dangers the lust of the eye is the Most dangerous, e are tempted to get what we see ethers possessed of, and are more likely to follow the WILL-O'-THE-WISP OF MATERIAL FORTUNE than we are to fall into any other snare the devil may make for us. Knowing, then. these facts, let me exhort you to begin this, the holy season of Lent, by trying to resist these temptations, and with God’s grace you will succeed, and on the glo- rious morn of Easter, which 1 hope you will live to enjoy in soul and body, be better men aud women. OHRIST OHUROH. Morning, Afternoon and Evening Ser- vices at Christ Church—Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Thompson on Resisting Temptation. The Rev. Dr. Hugh Miller Thompson's church, Thirty-fifth street and Fifth avenue, was attended yesterday morning and afternoon by a large and fashionable and alsoa very devout congregation. The morning services consisted of prayer and the administration of the holy sacrament, it being the monthly communion Sunday. A large number of the congregation approached the noly table of the Lord and partook of the sacred elements, In the afterneon the Rev. Dr. Thompson preached. He chose his text from the Gospel of the day, which will be found in St. Matthew, iv., 1—“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of thedevil, And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights He was afterward hungered. And when THE TEMPTER CAME TO HIM, ‘If Thou be the Som of God command that these stones be made bread.’ The preacher here intro- duced his disceurse by alluding to the sufferings ofour Lord in the wilderness, and how the devil came to Him and premised Him kingdoms and all their possessions if He would fall down and wor- ship him, a! ww He watched, prayed and suf- fered for the weliare of mankind. We keep during these forty days of Lent the memorial of one of the greateas transactions that ever occurred on this Blobe, DURING THESE FORTY DAYS our Lord prepared himself tor whut came after- wards. He knew that He was to olfer up His life to be sacrificed for the salvation of mankind, Dur- ing this holy season we must not give ourselves u| tothe distractions of this life. 'e@ must try an follow eur Lord through all His afflictions and suf- ferings, that we may know more fully how to imitate Bim, We are tempted as oar Lord was, The devil, if we are poor and hungry, whispers into our ears that if we will fall down and worshi him he will give us all that we desire in th world, Let us not listen to the tempter, bat, like our blessed Saviour, say, “Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” Thousands of men who cali themselves Christians fall down every day and WORSHIP THE DEVIL. Beware, my brethren, of the tempter. Aman may go en lying, cheating and scheming, robbing the widow and orphan; he may mount the pimnacie of Wealth and fame, but let God place His hand upon him and he will fall te the ground crushed. Look he men who have gone on day after day iting and lying, bringing @ nation into grace, all for their own selfish purposes. Is net this the work of the tempter? There is something more than the getting of bread to be sought after in this life. If you mark one man’s life ou will see that he bas mounted the pinnacle of fame by chi 1g and lying. He may hold his til- gotten possessions for one, ten or twenty years, jut one day God will put His d on him, and in His omnipotence he will crush out this creatu whe has yielded to the tempter. The reverend doctor closed his remarks by telling his hearers to Spend the season of Lent in doing good, imitating a8 near as possible the life of our Saviour. Services of prayer and singing were held in the evening, which ended the religious exercises of the first Sunday of Lent at this church. OHURCH OF THE DISCIPLES, “Why We Ought to Be Christians.”—Ser- by th Rev. George H. Hep- worth. Spring’s brightly warm and pleasant opening Sabbath attracted a large congregation at the services yesterday morning at Steinway Hall, The Rev. George H. Hepwerth, who occupied the pulpit, preached the first of @ sertes of sermons, whose subject is, “Why we ought to be Christians.” His text was Peaims, xiv., 1—‘‘The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.” This was a very strong expression, David meant # man of folly, a man whose life had been foolishly spent in dissipation; whose self and goul bed been wasted, Sucha man would not be ifely to say in his heart there was no God. THE STINGS OF MEMORY would give the lie to his statement, and 80 David Meant “the fool hath sald in his heart I hope there is no God.” A bad iffe tries to shield itseif under scepticiam, and it is not’ wonderful that he should seek to paralyze his \ponscience. He can thenceforward go on unrestrained. He felt assured that in the community phere is no deep conviction, It was one thing to reéeiva faith from Your mother and another thing to hammer js into ‘deliberately taken away, steel for oneself, The first might be shaken, the second was 28 and firm asadamant. In scepticism there was nothing but weakness. One might dive into your business and over- flow oneself with its @xcitement, but the time ‘would come when he would stand on the edge of bankruptey and with an irresistible destiny push- ing bim over. Then the only possession on earth of value would be faith; faith which tells as certain as there Js @ sun aoove and an earth beneath that there is & God whose hand is beneath and whose sympatay is closer to than can be told, 4 faith was worth more than millions; than love of life. It 1s well for them to begin at the foun and build a temple of faith. How many associa- tions sweet and pleasant were connected with thé idea of God! SCIENCE WAS A COLOSSUS. It stretched its right arm to the moon; it had gone through the world, looking for mistakes; and yet it had found no mistakes, And the devout scientific man bowed before that power as the child befere the cathedral steps, This was the first argument. The second was somewhat similar to it. How curious it was that every one in all climes and ages had believed in God! What was more ten- der than the wild, brutal Indian thinking of God? And all through tie world, not only in Christendom, but In the lands ef barbarism, there was this same belief in a governing Deity. In the third place the seul believed in , because it could not help EVEN THE SCEPTIC believed behind his scepticism. As the flower un- consciously turned te the sun, ¢o man lifted ap his hands and cried out God. The sympathy of friends w weet, but in the lonely hour the soul craved something more, The tendrils of the soul reached out; they touched something—it was God. Was that an’ argument? Yes, When we prayed our prayers were garried oP, te this Being by the angels, and the Father noted the [pray down an angel with an armful of blessings; and when this pilgrimage was over, when ail we nceded was a pilgrim’s robe, sta and. suficient foed for our nature, if we had proved eurselves trne we should lic down under a. friendly tree, and the pil- grim’s bedy should die, but his soul should be car- ried aloft on angels’ wings. The speaker concluded with an earnest invitation for all to seek and pre- serve communion with God, WASHINGTON HEIGHTS PRESBYTERIAN OHUROE. The Law of God Applied to Murderers— An Enemy of Humanity—Justice, Not Vengeance, Demanded—The Killing of Putnam end Fisk. The Rev. Charles A. Stoddard, D. D., preached at the Washington Heights Presbyterian church yesterday to @ large congregation from the book of Genesis, ix., 5.—“At the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.’ He said the text occurs in @ part of the Bible which has always been regarded as the high- est inspired authority for punishing a murderer with death; and although I intend to apply tle truth which it contains in a spiritual sense, I should think myself negligent in duty if I passed by this word of God to all mankind without teaching you that & murderer does by his act forfeit his right in human soclety and incur the doom of death; that this is a law universal as the race, unchanging as the character of God, unconditional in its state- ment and imperative in itsdemand, It is a law in harmony with tae constitution of human nature and the sentiment of all antiquity. It is the Justice of God imposed upon human society, and is so truly fundamental that the death penalty for mur- der cannot be abolished without weakening the sanctions of all governments, human and divine, It has been truly and forcibly said that “the State may disobey this ordinance of God; it may con- temn other social ordinances having @ like divine institution; but in doing so it discards its owm Nighest idea and rejects the only foundation upon which it can _per- manently rest. It builds alone on human wills, and that is building on the sand.” It is needful to quicken the public conscience upon this subject, to teach the awful reer na ty which rests upon the whole community when life has been The murderer is the enemy of mankind; he has attacked humanity; he has struck a blow at the whole human race, and all human beings owe it to themselves and to the Supreme Being, whose image they bear, to arise and with united voice demand, not vengeance, but the solemn and speedy execution of Fastice. When Putnam was slain, when Fisk (wicked man though he was) was shot, when the victims of those twenty-six who are now confihed in the Tombs upon the charge of murder were hurried into eternity then “you and I and all of us fell down,” and the law of God and man was abolished until the penalty is. paid, A pitiful humanttarianism, the child of atheism or low morality, endeavors to excite sympathy for the criminal at the expense of the victim; represents law, which in ita nature is passioniess and just, as revengeful and malignant, and charges a devilish spirit Cale society, Which demands the only sacri- fice which can cleanse its own skirts from the pol- lution of blood and free it from the charge of being accessory to crime. Let all good men jut away this spurious tenderness, this false estimate of the character of justice, this arrogance against God, which ignores the unalterable relation between divine and human law, and insist upon the punish- ment of convicted criminals as a debt to society and a duty to God. Until this is done we need not be sanguine Feapeceits any reform; for a community that will tolerate its own destroyer, and se¢k to peaeetcaes his presence and influence, cannot rid itself of lesser cvila, It has not the moral force necessary to frown upon the aduiterer or to imprison the thief; much less has it the vigor and virtue needful to redress minor wrongs and to hold in check the thousands of evil doers whom {ts leniency to greater criminals in- vites to wicked ways, The speaker then proceeded to show the re- sponsibility of every man for the use of his influ- ence upon all with whom he was connected, illus- trating and enforcing the subject with a variety of arguments and facts, and closed with an earnest appeal to the congregation to live so that they ley be able to render their final account without fear. CHURCH OF THE PURITANS. The Light that is Necded in Our Public Schools—Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Cheever. The sermon preached Jast night in the chapel of the University in Washington square, by Rev. Dr. Cheever, attracted a numerous congregation. He said it would seem impossible that any nation could forbid the entrance of God into the schools, His standpoint of view was, 1n the first place, that of the scientist. All the forms of ancient .work, said a celebrated scholar, were simply the results of some oxygen, water, &c, Diet became a work of sacred science. A State anda race to sustain it might have been raised with as much mathematical certainty as a school building. If these principles held good in regard to this simple form of life, how much truer they were when applied to the spiritual light of reason! It being admitted that a high state of intelligence was necessary to create a state of tne purest morality, it became apparent how inconsistent it would be to exclude the Bible from the schools. If science aMrmed this, then their welfare required the presence of thia spirit in all their nurseries and all their schools, It would be a different sort of child- murder. The arte of culture, refinement and morality required that all the children should have “pHIS PURE LIGHT OF HEAVEN, Even from the point of the welfare of the state this seemed to be imperative. The school buildings mast be fire-proof. Unwholesome buildings were marked and reprobated, and all the resources of science and safety were applied. Now whether science were true and religion false, or the co: trary, they needed a well for the mind they meeded it for the body. But the childre! re deprived of both. They were crowded to- gether without sufficient light and ventila- still mere appalling to they were deprived of moral and light. A few generations of legislators who had never been educated in the Word of God would lead the nation to a certain verge of ruin. The educatien of their children in science only without a knowledge of religion would certainly have this effect. This would be a system of adulteration of the essences of lite, ont half- truths which carried ww consumption. Their was of principles ef moral arciitecture, 60 that they should be able to keep their roofs from tailing and their walis from crumbling in, Sctence did not teach more absolutely sewage than the Gospel taught a perfectly moral state. The of gravitation was met more abso- than the science of the soul. They nee true science in building up their moral and ‘itu If the soul were but @ jewsharp they still needed the science ef ing upon it. No madness out of bediam wor be 0 rent as that which would attempt to bulid up society WITHOUT THIS GREAT SPIRITUAL AID, Spiritual causes might be phyrical—that’s what the scientists say—but then It became still more ab- surd to remove these causes from their children. If they were not physical they were spiritual, but whatever they were their infueaces were knewn to be all-controlling. The habitual recognition of God and the Bible was an incaleulable boop, What weuld life be without oxygen’ The exclusion of this one ele it of religious life would be certain, absolute th. There was @ working decease in moral darkness, ‘There wa powerful impression on the popular mind of the necessity of a pyre conscience, The Christian statesmen were expected to stand firm, Why should they be faithful if there was no God? What was religion good for, the newspapers asked. They had to coniess the efficacy of this reugious ele- Ment when they saw such men fall, They said that if these men had had ee ee they would not have fallen, Aud what would they and their Senators aud Representatives be Ofty years hence without MAROH 3, 1873.—TRIPLE SHEBT, this element? The exclusion of the Bible from the sh'was being done to pander to the prejar wrong. was being done to pans ju. di of @ certain class, it was making eas conscience a Lord over the good and true con- science. If anybody deubted the Scriptures the; were at once determined to exclude the Seri; tures! This moral light was THE BIRTHRIGHT O! EVERY CITIZEN. It was not a gift of the State, but the entire school system grew out of the spirit of this higher intel. ligence. It was by celestial observation alone that terrestrial charts ceuld be constructed, It would unsettle society to exclude the Bible from the schools, uot Mr. Tremain’s speech in the Btokes case, fu which he called attention to the sacredness of human life and appealed to the con- sciences of the jurors, What could this appeal have meant if the jurors had not been educated in the Scriptures? A conscience acting always with Teference to God’s teaching—this was what was necessary, The first preliminary was the pos- session “of the record of God's teachings, Good legislation in pretccting men from one another's frenzies mast be founded en the Word ofGod. AStatein which the claim of the Bible to be read in schools was described as a sectarian attack, and Go@ Himself was described as the rent sectarian, could only be saved by God’s Word, jothing could be well done in this world without the perspective ef another. ‘The soul should never lose sight of the sea that brought it hither. But how long could the Rothschilds go on—how long could such principles prevail? Patriota could not be made to order; they must grow. ‘There was @ duty on the part. of the State to teach children the groundwork of all law and morality. If the State enacted capital penimens, for murder it iad to refer to an au- hority higher than its own. This country would crumble mto disintegration if this foundation of all human knowledge were exciuded, The Stato was bound to te: its citizens whatever was necessary fora permanent morality, As well cx- clude the sunlight a8 sectarian as to exelude the Bible from the public sehools. LYRIO HALL, Christ in the Constitation—The Bible in the Public Schools—A Scathing Rebuke to Intolerance by the Rev. O. B. Froth- ingham. ‘There was the customary large and fashionable attendance at Lyric Hall, opposite Reservoir square, yesterday morning. The subject upon which Mr. Frothingham spoke was “Christ in the Constitution.” This subject was suggested, he be- gan, by aconvention that met last week in this city, under the auspices of an association formed to introduce an amendment into the constitution of the United States, The convention was not suc- cessful—for such conventions in New York are sel- dom successful. The attendance was at no time large. The speakers were dull, the arguments feeble; the appeals cold; the responses incordial, The daily press thought it not worth a notice and did not deign to send 4 PEEBLE REPORTER to write it up. Many of the great in the commu- nity Jelt interested in it, During the times ef the old prophets there was a great drought. The peo- ple prayed for rain, Finally the intercessions of the prophet prevatied ; clouds appeared in the sky, and the rain descended in good, plentifal showers. There seems to be 4 similar tempest in this small cloud no bigger than @ man’s hand, Several years ago there was a proposition offered to make this country a Christian nation. It was laughed at, Some of the most powerful men in the United States belonged to this convention, yet at the meetings iu New York none of these men appeared, ‘This is the most foolish ana irrational movement that has ever been thought of Americans have great confidence in their stars and belteve their rinciple of liberty will carry them through. We have un the one hand the TERRORS OF ROMANISM, or the other the dread of raticnalism and anbelief, A Nigar ago who supposed that anything could diaturb the moral repose of the United States on the question of slavery? It was protected by the constitution and Church. There was not aper- son of any eminence, no man of great literary ability, who ventured to question fle institution of slavery. Atlast one man lifted up his voice, He came irom a garret in Boston. This man, with a havdfui of men like himself, without repute, with- out social rank, with nothing but courage and the consciousness that God was with the right cause, taking his life and his reputation in his hand, divided the nation and awoke its soul. It is worth while to take notice of this movement that is going forward, Who are these ycople that call for the CHRISTIANITY OF AMERICA? Do they represent the literary ability, the commercial strength or the financial ability of the States? tat have the old theological spirit. ‘The movement cannot be tolerated. Who are dis- franchised ? Not the Romanists and none of the Protestants, for both of these sects are repre- gented in the association. There are some three hundred thousand Jews who will be disiranchised, if this amendment were adopted they cou!d not take an oath of office or testify in any court of law. Besides the Jews there is a vast mass of peopic, among whom are the SPIRITUALISTS AND INFIDELS, who would be been disiranchised, speaker, he continued, last Thursday, say it wes doubtful whether an artist would be a good citizen,. We will allow him to live, but he shail dweil in the community as the lunatic does. Accord- ing to this amendment George Washington could not have taken the oath oF oftice, because he was a deist; Thomas Jefferson, because he was a disciple of Voltaire, ad Abraham Lincoln, because he was not au evangelical belicver. ‘Inere are two Sena- tors who could not hold office—Carl Schurz and Charies Sumner. Disfranchisement means perse- cution. Not ef i ‘THE AXE OR THE GIBBRT, nor chains, imprisonment and blood, Not such ersecution and drove the Ruguenots from France. it is persecution nevertheless to compel a man to take an oath ke docs net believe; stopping cars and shutting up libraries on the Sabbath. People must be deprived of going out on Sunday, the only holiday they have; cervain people cannot testify in the courts oi Apatlons the eee of ic schools insult T heard o the Bibie in publ ig an to all Roman Catholics. It not the Bible of the Hebrews but ofthe Christians, We should be in a delightful state of perplexity if the Bible made our laws. An eminent Boston preacher espoused the ‘“‘weman’s suffrage” cause at first, but he searched. through the Bible, but could fnd nothing to justify it, In heroic ages such thin; a8 these would ruin the community and keep mil- lions from coming to our shores, The Germans would witahold from us their skill, integrity and high soctal organization. The ingenious French would be careful ia coming to a country where there was so little freedom. The mellow-voiced italian would net be heard. Itis seldom that you jnd @ mak or woman Willing to sacrifice anything for their faith in these degenerate times. They listen to sermons they do net believe and hear ministers they do not love, because it is convenient, Their wives go there or they LIVE AROUND THE CORNER, They would not walk a block for their faith, Be- Hef would be a stench in the nostrils of elvilization ff all were compelied to believe in the orthodox faith, Let us prepare by kia everyt like religion from the constitution. Religion and the State should be divorced forever. There should be no more oaths in the name of the orthodox Deity; no Bibles in the schools, no fasts and penances by the government. Asecular gevernment must be secular all thron A democratic government must be just to each man. In the name of decency and justice men should not be compelled to listen to prayers to which they cannot respond, There is not a great PUBLIC SCANDAL Dut it involves professors of the evangelical re- ion. We all know that the plunders of the mu- cipal ring in New York were committed by Roman Catholics, The frauds of the Methodist Book Concern and the scandal of the Crédit Mo- biller are before our CO sed It is an old beesige 4 that | Acer and practice are very different things. ho ig it that says, ‘Many will come to me and Bay, Lord, have we not Prophecies, io Thy id in Thy name cast out devils?" It was the answer was, “I know ye not; depart from me ye that work iniquity.”’ If you would seek wisdom outside the Bible, look into Mohammed's Koran, It says in that beok that 100 horses were put into the scale with one true word, BROOKLYN CHURCHES. TALMAGE AT THE ACADEMY, A Sermon for the Times—I; nee, In. temperance and Corruption in Public Office—Vice Presidents, Governors and Jadges and School Commissioners Who Cannot ad Their Own Names=—The Credit Mobilier Frauds. Mr. Talmage made the Crédit Mobilter disgrace, and incompetency, intemperance and corruption in public office, the subject of his sermon yesterday morning, and he treated them with a vigor and in ® manner which met with the approval of his im- mense audience, judging by the frequent applause during his remarks. In the opening part of his sermon he said he did not believe ‘hat our legisiative and political councils were any more corrupt now than they were in olden time, and would not, so long as he read,in history of such men as Aaron Burr, stuffed with corruption, and with body, mind and soul soaked in abomination, the aebauchee of the de- bauched. There had been a tendency to contrast the past with the present to the advantage of the former, and he supposed that political writers sixty years from now would make angels out of us, although the material now seemed so very un- promising. (Laughter.) Mr. Talmage continued :— Istand this mornii in the presence of men who hold in their hands the suffrages of the nation, and by whose vote aug by whose printing press and by Whose social infuence and by whoee prayers the fature character of this country is to be decided; and it is to be determmed whether we shall have righteous rulers in public places or those who are acknowledged to be iniquitous, In unroliing, then, THIS SCROLL OF WICKEDNESS in high places, the first thing that is especially to be found now is incompetency for office. If a man secks for @ place and wins it when he is incom- petent, he has committed a crime against God and man. What shall we Bay. then, of men who at- tempt to conduct our State and national affairs without the frst qualification—men not Knowing enough to vote yea or nay until they have looke for the wink of others of noir party? So we have had legislative and Congressional committees to make tariffs and homestead bilis and arrange about the first—men whose incompetency has been THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE WORLD. You know as well as Ido that in this country to- day qualification for oMce 1s not the question, but how much has the man done for the party. ‘And so we had a Congressional committee that made one tariff for flaxseed oll and another for linaced oil—not knowing in their stupidity that faxseed and linseed of] are the same thing. en hter.) ‘The polished civilian of integrity, 10 4 pro- foundly acquainted with the spirit of our institu- tions, is rua oyer by the great stampede of men who rush out from their ignorance and take the positions of trust in this country. So we had in some parts of the coantry school commissioners nominated in a grogshop, hurrahed for by the rabble, and hardly abie to read their own commis- sions ‘when they were handed to them; and jadges of courts giving the charge with so much innecuracy of phraseology that the thief in the prisoners’ box is more amused at THE STUPIDITY OF THE BENCH than alarmed at his own prospective punishment. LT unroll the soroll a little further and I see intem- rance and the co-ordinate crimes, I admit there as been an vie id hana in this thing, The grog- shop that used to flourish in the basement of the Capitel at Waakington, where Dantel Webster and Stephen A. Douglas used to go to get inspiration for their speeches, has been abolished, and yet there is drunkenness hovering around our coun- cils. There is one weapon that has slain more Sen- ators and Opn, men and Common Councilmen than any other, and that is the bottle. I unroll tue acroll of wickedness in high places still further and 1 see the crime of bribery. You know as well as I that in the past few years it has been almost im- possible to get a law passed, by State or national ogalatare, unless there was some financial con- sideration, When a bili has appeared at the door the question among your Representatives has been, “HOW MUOH MONEY Is IN THIS)? Mr, Talmage then referred to bribery in legisla- tive bodies to secure the passage of acts depleting the public treasury, and continued :— THE CREDIT MOBILIER AND OAKES AMES, We sit to-day, this whele nation, under the shadow of Congressional dishonor, The “Capitol,” the white marble of that beautiful building, has become the vast mausoleum of the slain. Both political parties are implicated, The stables of Au- geus uncleaned, after three thousand oxen had stood there for thirty years, was @ small job for Hercules compared with what the Poland cemmit- tee found of national dirt in the Congressional halls, On that Union Pacific Railroad many of your Representatives took A THROUGH TIOKET TO HELL! ‘They paid their fare in eighty per cent. dividend. They sold out political influence and honor and Christian principle and their immortal souig to Oakes Ames and the devil. (Laughter and prppuse,) But be careful, my friends, lest you smite the innocent with the guilty. I think the nation is on the track of some men who have not been proved guilty. Ican’t believe that men, after thirty years of mtegrity amid temptations where they might have made a million of dollars, would now sell Heaven for $1, A soltd column of Oakes Ameses reaching from Brooklyn to Washington, with up- Hfted hands in solemn oath, couid not make me believe that SCHUYLER GOLFAX IS A VILLAIN. (Loud applause and a few hisses.) Oh, m; when I took up the papers and saw that that pure, holy, pious, immaculate man Fernando Wood— (iaughter)—moved for the impeachment of bag ler Colfax, 1 said to my wife, ‘The millenzium is here.” (Kenewed laughter.) But, my friends, we must admit that this nation sits down to-day in the shadow of national dishonor and Congressional disgrace. The crimes found in public places are only the index of political abandonment—the blotches on the surface only show the disease friends, within. PLYMOUTH CHURCH. Communion with God—Sermon by Dr. Edward Beecher. ‘There was only asmall congregation assembled in Plymouth church yesterday morning compared with the usual throng. Dr. Edward Beecher de- livered & sermon on communion with God, taking for his text, Genesis xviil, 88—‘And the Lord went His way a8 soon as He had left communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned unto his place.” These words refer to a scene of communion between God and Abraham, of which a full account is given. Itisa grand peculiarity of the Scriptures that they give full and worthy views of COMMUNION WITH GOD and of its tmportance as a moral power. The ef- ficient cause of heavenly joy and perfection is represented as consisting in fully-developed com- munion with God. Nothing can be more practical and demanded by the times than to set forth and vindicate the Scriptural doctrine of communion with God, its effects and its approaching development as the great organizing and ruling power of human society. The Scriptures exalt the greatness, majesty and glory of God, as in a proper sense, the great first cause and last end of all things, as infinite and as absolute, and yet they do not define these ideas so ‘as to include the knowledge of God, bt 80 as to in- volve no absurdity and no contradiction in the idea of KNOWING GOD and communing with Him, because they do not measure God, aa we do matter, by space, but re- ard Him a8 a apirit—a person with tutellect, em ions, Will, and infinite in these elements of spir- itual personality in their purest.and noblest forms, No yk presents God so ag to diffuse reverence and awe at His infinite greatness, majesty, purity and power as does the Bible, yet no book 80 clearly declares that God may be known and that there 1s a rational foundation for communion between Him and finite and CO ae minds, and that itis eter- im. nal life thus to eee and 0 ‘The Bible teaches us that there are ideas and capacities that are common GOD AND MAN; that they nave a similar moral nature, simflar power of reagon and Of systematic compre! mn. Though thege in God are infinite, yet a correlation between the finite and infinite exists, making each a neces- sity and complement of the other, This ts action and reaction in thoughts, plans and emotions. This iscommunion. But asthe system of is one including matter and mind, a8 the material system is analogical to the spiritual, and is subordinate to it, and ts uged for the moral results, so the thoughts and feelings of God must and do pervade the whole system, and communiom with Him may have an equal extent. God’s range of communion is infinite. He can go down in sympathy and love to an undeveloped mind, incapable of @ wide range of thought, or He can rise to the highest and widest range of thought. God is large minded and many sided, and can adapt Himself to the temperament of the person with whom He communes. The grand prerequisite of communion is purification by conviction of sin, re- pententance and pardon THROUGH FAITH IN CBRIST. To commune with God produces a pecultar, divine, sympatheticjey. Sympathy is a pewerful principle of our nature, and In this world of trial we need a sympathetic joy, above circumstances and change. Itis 1M man or society, but in God, where you can mar ta There is but one thatcan give it and that is |. God is always happy. The joy ofthe Lord is your strength ; there is am unfailing fountain of joy which communion with God gives, RECIPROCATED LOVE ig one of the highest earthly joys; but there is a higher sphere of love, and we need a higher love than oy, human being can give us. Communion strengthens the will and gives @ divine courage eee = roduces ee of thought a jans and sympathy among all who commune Goa. it translorms into the divine and re- fects God e world. If this isa reality at it is not only a great power, but the greatest of all owers in the Intellectual and moral world, and is 0 control the future. When people are brought into communion with God then the great prebiem of the future is solved. How simple and how might thea is communion with God! It develops t! it and enlarges its range for the Le. of arent} A ion God, quickens the moral perceptions, are involved fm am infimte and eternal plan. In God is infinite, exhaust! eternal thought; and he who communes with Him can have and must have eternal intellectual and moral growth and caret at the development of a familiar law. To think with @ Uerlgalapd enlarges us. How more to ro comune Wiel SEU onda commune pares and vitalizes the ™ td ines, Sereartan A owen It el ea, oves, impels, Thought without it becomes cold and dead. There ts need of a vitalizing power. Nothing in education is more important than to cuitivate true, living, bealthy, emotion. This cannet be done through men; they are diseased. Through God only can it be done. God never thinks without emotion, He ie Iie. “Because live ye shall live,” is His word. TOMPKINS AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN OHUROH, Sermon by Dr. Clarke«How to Be Good, Mliastrated by the Vision of Jacob’s r—Modern Christia: Catholies—Five Thousand Dollars More Wanted for the New Church—Another Subscription, ‘There was a large congregation yesterday morn- ing @t the Tompkins ayeuue Presbyterian church, ‘The thirty thousand dollars nearly realised last Sunday for the building of a new church did not’ quite satisfy the desires of the Subscription Com-' mittee, and yesterday morning Dr. Clarke asked for $5,000 more. Subscription cards in the pews were filled up after the sermon, and there seemed 8 confident expectation that the request was com- plied with. Dr, Clarke preached from Genesis xxviil., 12—~ “And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: ana behold the angels of God ascending and descena- ing on it.’ The introduction to the discourse was’ a sketch in a few sentences of the deceit practised by Jacob, and the motives that prompted Reheeca- to ask Isaac that Jacob should be sent away. The subject of the sermon was “OW TO BE GooD,”” 4 and the incident in Jacob’s journey, the sleep, the” vision that accompanied the sleep, what God sala and what Javob did, were made subservient | toa practical development of this theme, Jt was clear, said the docior, that what was done for Jacob through the instrumentality of the vision was done: by God. The ladder that was spoken of was not a fireman’s ladder ; it was doubtless a successive range of hills rising higher and higher until they. were lest in the clouds. Upon these were ascen and descending, in the sleeper’s mind, angels, an ink who this Jacob was that Goa aid this for. How he had TRICKED, CHEATED AND WRONGED Esan, and then think that this, great blessing: vouchsafed to Jacob was enttrel of ine, ‘ace of . God. This new creation in the lite of Jacob began ! then with God, and there it was that all goodness ; inust begin. Not in oursetves, but in Him our truc sti ch was found. The promise to Jacob—how * large it was! How overflow and boundless was Md not only to be with Jacob, him: whereseever the grace of God!’ God Bots Se he went. was the firat feeling of Jacob at this marvellous interview with God? It was that of reverence. “How dread- lulis this place. Thisis none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ ‘This feel- ing of reverence was fast fading away among modern Christians. The tendency ot the Serie both of the pulpit and the Rew Was in that di- rection. It was greatly to be lamented. The poor Catholic woman who bowed herself on the floor of @ cathedral, counting her beads, it. mig! she prayed to a God she believed to be present, showed more faith in Hin thanthe hi leged Christian, surrounded andjether nie light of Gospel privileges, who rose from the service of the communion and conducted herseli at the close as though she were at a 7 NEW YORK THEATRE MATINER, Jacob did not conten’ himself with reverence, but he vowed a vow—a vow made re talk with - God. There was an essential difference between our resolves that were made with intentions and vows that were made after an actual commu- nion with God. We knew in this latter instance * that we Bad us certainly communed with Ged as we had talked to our friends. Such vows were seldom broken. Part o! the vow ol Jacob was the aera Oe of the stone for a pillar—and of giving a tenth of all that he possessed unto God. 80 obvious an illustration as this Dr, Clarke did not, of course, fail to point in the direction of the bulld- iug of the new church, and to use in the support of a suggestion that if this tithing princtple of Jacob’s- was adopted the new building for the church would be very easiiy raised, ‘rhis concluded the sermon and formed the pre- lude to the collection of the subscription cards. WORSHIP AT WASHINGTON. Services at the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church=—Sermon by Dr. 0. H. Tiffany—Before Inauguration— Things of Cresar and Things of God. The Metropolitan was more profusely decorated with flowers than usual, and the presence of ap unusual number of strangers added to the effec- tiveness of the service. Many were curious to hear what the preacher at the President’s church might have to say on the occasion of his inaugu- ration, while there was some doubt entertained as to whether Dr. Tiffany, who eschews politics ip the pulpit, would make any but the most general allu- sion to the fact, and the result justified this ex- pectation; for, though the relations of Charch and State were thoroughly discussed, it was gone from a@scholarly and Christian, and not from a parti- san point of view. Very few persons have ever had opportunity to address so large and go influentiala congregation, for the chiefs of the nation and men prominent in the church were there. After the introductory services the Doctor announced as his text Matthew xxii., 21—“Render therefore unto Cwsar the things which are Omar's, and to God the things which are God’s.” He said plety and patri- otism were the foundations upon which THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY rested. In early times these interests were iden- tical, but as society advanced this combination of powers hardened into despotism. Inthe Jewish Commonwealth an attempt was made to rectify this evil, but Judaism was a national religien. When Christ came he comprehended the possiblity of a spiritual life which should vitalize politi forces aud be independent of them. So long as the Church was a mere sect this idea~ pre-e vailed ; bat when a Roman Emperor was converted Christianity became a domi- nant religion by sacvificing the political reform which Christ had introduced. The Reformation m Germany and England only partially restored the idea, and in America alone was the experiment of separation fairly tested. Here Christianity is des- tined to furnish a perfect Commonwealth by the elevation of the national mind through the influ. ence of revealed truth, Its mission is to realize a perfect conformity between the laws of the State and the will of God. Its design is to bring all things of Cesar to God. In accomplishing this it enlightens the sense of justice upon which law depends for its force by revelation of God—the influ- ence of religious ideas being beyond estimate— by revelation of human brotherhood and mutual inter-dependence, and brings the sense ef duty and the sensé of Goa into their just relations, showing its relation to law and government te be that of AN INVISIBLE FOROB working upon and through the moral sentiments ofmen. Duty to our feilow men reguires the ren- dering to Cesar the things which are his, which, in @ Repuolic, are time, service, means. But as gilts to us from God, are to be used in subordina- tion to Him, and the aim of Christianity is to de- stroy any existing antagonism. It acts as the frees forces of nature do, imperceptibly ; semetimes ing long delayed in accom} ends, Bul i Bi as God works init and by 1. ultimate triumph R assured, in the delay we sometimes become court dis- but the achievements ef the past forbid de: . Two hundred years ago lous liberty was but an enthusiastic speculation; now it is a self-evident principle of justice, of our vernment is that the will of the Rroperly expressed, is the voice . If controlled by party leaders the voice is that of @ machine, an automa- ton, and not the voice of God. The masses must, therefore, be taught to think for themselves and to speak their own thoughts. Partisanship demoral- izes and unfits men for broad investigation, leads to corruption in morals and authorizes defamation ofcharacter. The people must be educated to act independently of pastisan leadership. Some doubt the possibility of this, but POLITICAL AGITATION, the press, the school and the church are educat the masses as no other people ever were educated, and that too with a rapidity indicative of wonder- ful and speedy results. Let us then be cheered by the conviction that the hopes we cherish are well founded, and as we see a State founded en the political ciples «of Christianity and controlled y . mel of Christian nurture and of Christian fait! ing the view, behold the Christian ‘img the State while untrammelled by laws and edicts, we may believe that the blood and tears of bd tay 3 ave Not been shed without urpose; that sages have not thi it, nor philan- labored, nor martyrs bled im vain; but stitutions of the ir their pa re tage of this peopl hating an povtnts and panes ee what ‘op! as men vain desired to see. in a A FREE STATE AND A FRER CHURCH. Church and State mat co-operati independent. Christ's kingdom, net of tte Work it, building men up toa realization of the Lone truth, that “made free by the Son they are ‘ee indeed.”’ ALLUSION TO THE PRESIDENT. We are entering on a new quadrennium of our na- tional life. The voice of the has again heard, with singular as their Prestdent— p Our chief of men who thi acl Sahay ian To peace Hart ‘Glorlove way has p! thed. ‘This is not the time, nor is it the rear discuss the wisdom of aaministrative ; but it is per- tinent here and now to note that the great events of the past four years, the events that are to live in history, including as they do the rehabilitating of home governments, the arbitration of vexed tn’ national questions, and the humane treatment of the abused and friendiess jadians, ate im accord with the spirit of Christianity. “Peace hath her victories no less renowned war,” And the ae eat gratis gicndcpenment ah apr al. most font ere eeotnid time, to bs wide over the it nation, makin, Poe Mwy ment of C tian freedom, let him that eu sustained by the sympathy of prayerful lives, t him take hold on God, who alone is at, ‘aah whom kings reign and princes decree Justice, jet us be true to our high trust, Then the future of our country will realize our fondest hopes, and the hour will come when the angry passion of partisan- ship shall be stilled, the hoarse croaking of calumny be silenced, and the longing, waiting eyes of the race be gladdened as they see’ Christ’s promises o peace Pp ey in the calm agcnes of the Sabbath of the world,