The New York Herald Newspaper, December 8, 1873, Page 8

SABBATH SERVICES SOLE Sermons lustrated with Lessons from | Public Events. Frothingham in Favor of Free Divorce. —_—_— The Ville du Havre Disaster, the New Re- ligions Movement of Bishop Cummins, the Ring Convicts and Other Sensa- tional Topics Touched Upon. QUAEER PROGRESSION. CHURCH OF THE DISCIPLES. Life and Death—Loss of the Ville du Havre—Sermon by the Kev. George H. Hepworth. The subject of Mr, Hepworth’s discourse yester- day morning was “The Uncertainty of Lifeand the Wertainty of Death.” His text was Mark xili,, 82— “But of that day and tnat hour no man knoweth,” I want—he began—to speak, to you this mornmg upon a subject, serious but not melancholy. I would try to color my statements with hope, Father than fear, hopelessness denotes disease. Shadows will some- times come, but only to the blind is night always Stariess. Never yet did God give medicine to any man the taste of which was en- Urely bitter. Mis aim is not tor our chastisement, but for our cure. God is best glori- fied by strength, and not by weakuess; by hopetul ambition, and not by despair, The whole earth suggests the morning’s theme. Who can look back on the history of his country and not know that life is evanescent. Every wiud that biows has hid- den somewhere in its bosom A REQUIEM OVER THE DEAD, * And yet we do not appreciate this, We see others G0, but we do not think of our own going. That is put far from us. Itis a distant possibility. We do not stop to think as We pass over this bridge Wat connects the cradle and eternity that we must some duy reach the end. Our souls say to themse: “Others may die; but 1 have prophetic Teeling that I shall always live.” We should notal- Ways live as in the presence of death, Why throw an unnecessary sadness over to-dayy Some men ve- come for lengthened periods entirely absorbed in the business of this world; but, on the other hand, there never was & man who had notin some Moments thoughts of a better iaud. These are common expericnces. I do not believe that thoughts of death should crush out the glorious Merriment of youth or the ambition of riper man- hood or Womanhood. Yet no one should live with ut any provision Jor the tutu Any plan that embraces only this world is afauure, This 1s not our abiding place. The other life becomes a part Of the philosophy of this, Thatis the basis of all Jong-sightea thought. No man shouid be unmind- ful of the exigencies that may come to him as they come to others. Men are absorbea in ac quiring rich deata cotes upon them Unawares, They are periectiy astonished. No man has a right to do business prepared to be take! y tim ‘with whom he has lived may ne Station. Every man should be quick sighted Jor to-day and far sighted for to-morrow. So spiritu- ally a man has no rigat to @ happy family, unless he looks through nis wails of brick, to the walls Dot made by human hands, and prepares for death a@t any moment. Now, deatu sometimes comes slowly. A man may ve in constant expectation of Atior haif his itiec. The existence of su seems to be as elastic 43 a piece of india-rabber. They are stretched far beyond their apparent dimensions, Other lives are here, and they are gone—they break at the first trial. Such Instances o! frailty always unnerve us, Tne other day a vessel started from our shores, and if you have geen such asight you know what a pleasure and bustle there is about it. Friends bidding each other “GOOD BY AND GOD-SPEED.” off, and the y. Before Dightiall they are out on tue broad expan: The land has faded away. On board ship Were those that you and I Joved, and many a prayer went up that ‘they shouid cross in saséty. There was the ambitious artist, with his great air castles; there was the Miuister, who had done nis duty in our couctry, hasteuing home again. And go this little village of over 3400 souls sped on its Way across the deep. Who would have thought of danger. And so they pustied on, each one teeling secure, Secure! Every man hoids his life by a toread. Hunadreds siept in their bertus with ap- parent saiety, when suddenly—one cannot describe it—the great prow of another vessel came crush- ing tarough the tron timbers of THE VILLE DU HAVRE. The village began to totter and reel, until oid | Ocean sorrowfully sunk it out of sight. Although ‘this is startling to us, we might have been ou that vessel. They felt as strong as we do, Shail such things as these throw an irrepressible gloom over our lives’ No. We bend down with grief one moment, and stand up the next, with a new hope. And so lask what 1s the relation between life and death? Itis the relation of a friend to a Iriend. am not atraid of death, Belore Christ came men were airaid to die; but Christ bas disarmed death Of ite terrors. O Carist, cpen to-morrow tome! Ii 1 can see the turrets of the New Jerusalem | could not fear to die. We will there be reunited to those whom we have lost. We will mse up from the thrakiom of thus world into liberty. Though we must die, we die not unto the sod, but-unto the otuer ine; not into the sod, but into health and vigor. CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH, “Faith and What Comes of It”’=—How | It Has Purified the Political Atmos- Phere of New York—Scermon by the Rev. Henry Powers. A large congregation greeted the Rev. Henry Powers, paster of the Church of the Messiah, yesterday morning, the subject of his discourse being “Faith and What Comes of It.’ Selecting as his text Matthew ix., 29. “According to your faith be it unto you.” After introducing his subject the pastor said:—If you will caretully examine the New Testament accounts concerning the acqui- Bition by any one of any desired blessing, you wili find that faith is universally assigned as that with- oul which the biessing never occurs, 50 essential has this element oi faith been re- Garded throughout the Christian ages that the Word itself has been tncorporated into the LITERATURE OF THE CHURCH af Synonymous with the Gospel, and to ask a man What ts lus Jaith is equivalent to inquiring of Lim What is lis religion —what is the guiding principic of his lie. Faith is inseparable from the soul— | ‘60 iUCH Jaith, 80 mach soul; aud according to the Measure of our faith—that is, according to tue greatness and the mtegrity of our souls—will ve our belief in the reality and value of unseen things. it is one of the commonest principles in iife. It ls just us necessary and just as generally made Use Of as Sight Itself. Faith is the great educating power of the world. We must distinguish faith irom fancy—irom that nothing which sometimes ‘usuUrps its place, and which is a feeling without fit- hess, au efect without a cause, a» crpuer Without a Unit Again, we must distinguish faith from fatak ism, which 1s a something that stands at the oppo- site extreme irom fancy, and ts a condition into Which thousands are continually druting. They look debind toein, rnity; they took before ther, vod t tuey look about them, and cenclase n the grasp of @ Barc besive which t suey ean do to help them. OUL Us MUCH as a ¥ip can d g GUrve Of the Jali wt Nov, pee age When, with the vouv, can do a worthy thing, a to follow it up, we can co and Moses and Abrabaui, i High, with the perfect ux: ol the energy, intention and accomplish of tue eternal Will, and feel in every Gure of our souls that dn Him we live aud move. Whatis the object of © We aris of the Most this faith? It is the hidden essence of things first, | then persons, and then God, who is the great being and person, the origin and iife of all. are jooking constantly for & city which lath foun. dations whose builder and maker is God, Their trust is in Weas, in justice and mercy, love anu truth, When they put their hands to any enter- prise it ig because they behold the SPIRITUAL AND BEAUTEOUS form of the ideal of their soul enshrimed in that outward and visible tabernacle of the material World. Among the illustrations which the preacher UACG Of the power of faith he said we have seen ‘within one day that tremendous power, the Ameri- )€an slave system, overturown by the faith which (f handful of men had in the prineiples of eternal justice, They believed and they spoke, and their speech went in silent but invincible power through+ ‘ut the civilized World, Against them was luterest aud wealth and law and prestige, and a great Ree party, with the President and Congress of he United States, the army and navy and Chareh also of tha nation; while with them was only Taith—taith in the powers of the unseen world, in Justice, Urugh and the final v t na ae Prevalence of the right. THAT FAITH THEY Conquers! trumpbing over the world, the iiesirand the devil, and breaking every bondman’s chain. Take now a Mbore recent case. ln this city of New York, buta ew short niontie ago, thet and villany, violence Shy corruption bad ‘entrenched thetaselyes so Sipongiy that the bearts of wood men faiied them Sb) Wouily Was rampant ou every sides, A Despondency is natural, but | T\ Men of saity | NEW YORK HERALD, Wickeu ana UNScrUpulous Ting nad possession OF the ballot box and the jury box, of millions of | money and all the forms of law, and it seemed as | though frugality and common houesty and moral- | ity, to say Gothing of liberty and publ. h gone trom us lorever, Then a mor | having some faith still in the | or 1@ people, assailed this ring. Day the facts were printed and the true char the men in power made known. Others Joined im the assault, gnd soon there was a grand upristug of the people, who proclaimed in thunder | Combe their purpose to purge and free the city rom THESE GREAT FRAUDS. What do our gladeyes behold? Already this great and impudent ring is broken and most of its tres Mendous power tor evil destroyed through the mighty and unseen power of conviction and loy- alty to truth, Said its leader and organizer in the days of his seeming success, with proud insolence | in his soul and defiance of just opposition to whose | who would question and restst his acts, “What are you going to doabout it?” Let the answer come | to-day irom that bailed, broken-down man, who | sits in bis felon’s cell on Blackwell's Island, sick and shorn ofall his ormer greatness, Without power | or irieuds or peace of soul, without God aud with: | out hope iu the World, We taik of justice, and la- | ment sometimes that the age of romance i8 over; | there 18 nothing in the “Arabian » entertainment tat surpasses for strange- | | THE CAREER OF WILLIAM M. TWEED, Let us pity the mis.ortunes of 2 poor old inan, and | pray the good God to have mercy upon him, Mr. | Powers tien eloquenuy discussed two poiats—that | Christian faith is not radically different trom the | common sentiment of trust, and that faith 1s the inward substance, of which worth is the outward manilestation, closing With a direct and earnest ; application of the sermon to the aifairs of the church over wiich he presides, SEVENTH STREET METHODIST CHURCH. The Lessons of the Loss of the Ville du Havre=—Sermon by the Kev. John Parker. ‘The Rey, John Parker preached last night in the Seventh street Methodist church, hear Third ave- nue, on “The Lessons of the Loss of the Ville da Havre.” He first sought to demonstrate the insecurity of lite and the necessity for im- mediate repentance, He had urged a certain young man to join the Church of Christ, but the answer had beeu, “Wait a few weeks til I shall be | more at leisure,” just as though he had made a contract with the agencies of death to wait upon his convenience. When they neard of this great dis- aster they must all have asked themselves, “What uw it bad been I? Am I ready? What a terrible thing i( it had been myself?’ Therefore | 1t was his (the preacher's) duty to inquire whether they always kept themselves in this state of prepa- ration. In regard to the Divine Providence, which had permitted all such disasters, there were gen- | erally three theories, Tue first theory was tuat God had established certain FIXED, UNIFORM AND UNALTERABLE LAWS, and that these laws always sufficed jor the gov- erument and happiness or the human race, This was the theory of radical infidelity. It deuied the doctrine of a beneficent Divine agency, of evan- gelical ministration, oi the special care of God over His saints, It simply recoguized God as a great | machinist who had buiit up a house and then left it to itself, this beliel in a frigid and exact Providence was certainly the belief of intdelity, Tnere was not much stheism | in the land, but unfortunately there was a great | deal of miudelity, ibis doctrine set physical above moral ends and claimed that God uever was touched by prayer or by the most heartrending supplications of the suierer. ‘The second theory of God’s laws was, that they merely provided punishment for sins ou (his earth, and that this was the end of it, If there was a | great calamity it had occurred because the vic- las had ueserved the punisument which they had | sudfered, Within this circle oi ideas were the Universalists, and others. Dr. Chapin, he thought, | | believed that sinners were partly punished bere | and partly im the next worlu; but most believers | the theory of religious Deism and Universalism were adnerents of chis sp clal creed, ‘The truta of THE REVELATIONS OF THE GOSPEL. If it were true that the bad mau Was always cer- to be unhappy in this world, then the good | man ought always to be corcespondingly nappy, and see, the babe that went down on that night of | horrors on the broad Atlantic Ocean was so inno- cent that the angels might have kissed it and been innocent stil, Pne third theory was that of the true Clrisuiau, It recognized taat God bud inter- Jered 1,000 times In the atairs of this word, all His other rules notwithstanding. It taught tem that God was so near them that prayer could reach Him aud cause Him sometimes to change His laws, Ittaught them that the physical gov- ernment was subordinate to moral ends. Accord. ing Lo certain Scientists all physical laws were ab- | solute and oeyond all power oO: interiereuce, aud | God was swinging around this world | just | | to achieve certam physical ends. Jesus sum- | moued His people to repent in view of their e iain punisument as sinners aiter death, Ali the puuisiment of these sinners would not end with their mortal existence. The Jews had thought that the sins of parents were visited on their chil- | | dreu, 1a cuila were leprous or biind tis was a | | proof of THE SINFULNESS OF ITS PARENTS. But this was not the judgment throne. The pun- | isument Of broken morai laws Was iniinitely wore | | tain than that of brokea physical laws, ‘Lrue, if some one threw himsel! trom a six story window, praying that some angel might save tim, his mad- | ness WOuld LOt preveut Dis death, Wuy?t Because | he had Violated a physical iaw. When it was nec- | essary to annihilate @ race of sinners Jesus did it not. He bared bis brow for the bloody thorus 80 that he (the preacher) and they moght be saved. ixvept ye repeut ye shail perish.’ These were { words of Jesus. Some thought that sorrow | er punisument Was repentance, but the drunkard, even alter beimg sorry tor bav- | ing got druok, would urink again, God | would not be’ cheated by such a parody | of repentance. On the Villedu Havre there was | @ Catholic pry and when he saw seme agonized thougit Ol death, tas Catholic priest said, re you a Catholic”? The said epent,” the priest demanded, ‘wad | stall jor- give you.” This | WAS NOT TRUE REPENTANC! and eyerybouy’s common sense revolted against an idea.” To pay so much im prayers or in | and then to be forgiven, tis was a | doctrine of the Papacy and jostered the love oi sin which couid be atcned fur so easily. To perish | Meant to suffer everlasting death, ‘The last j disaster warned every Cliristian against delay, a t them ail repens this very night and come to Jesus. LYkIO HALL Marriage as One of the Sacraments— Free Divorecs an Insurance of Happi- ness—-Our Modern HRomes=The Loss of the Ville da Havre=sermon by the Rev. U. B, Frothingham Mr. Frothingham’s subject yesterday morning was the “Sacraments of H 7 Sacrament isa technical term—he began—und it is well to uader- Stand it, It is not a symbol, but a channel of | divine influence, In some of the Protestant | churches it is a mere symbol and has no ellicacy in | itself, Its significance les in its power to awa @ tender sentiment. In the Catholic Cuurch the | bread and wine are supposed to incarnate a living God, The wine is the very blood and the bread the veritable body of Christ. In the High Church of England it 18 @ symbol, and in the Low Church, a sacrament. Only believers ap- popriate the divine life. In the Episcopal Uburch those who humbly confess their sins and who live in charity aud love with their neighbors are in- | vited tocome and participate in the bread and | wine, Inthe Catholic Chureh, among the seven | sacraments, marriage is one, In the Church of Enginud marriage 18 not considered a sacrament, | yet those Why enter into THE MARRIED STATE are warned that it is sober and holy. The two persons are adjured under soiemu vows that if | ei ber know of any reason why they should not be united it must be confessed, On this ground the | 0 Catholic Church has forbidden divorces. You take | each other for better or for worse, until | death do you part. In the Catholic | Church there are no grounds for al vorce. How far this ruie and practice of the Catholic Church has availed to make homes happy 1s useless to inquire, To say that Catholic homes are happier than a P other would be very rash indeed, Calvin and Luther said that mar- riage Was uo holier @ state than any other agree- | Ment. We live in @ sentimental, passionate age The process of secularizing marriage has been going on. People are drawn together by that sub- ie magnetism called love. Feeling is the attrac- ton, the bond, the pledge. They wre all in ali to each other. The elders are only consnited to ratily the contrect. The engagement is generally Spent lo an ecstasy of feelin, Then, when the tune comes, the Cuurch is called upon to accept a bond. The Church ts not necessary, but is used as @ decoration of pomp. Sometumes there is the ceremony of MARRIAGE REHEARSED PEFOREHAN 0 that when the real marriage takes ph there | may be no blunders, und everything may go on | sincothly aud in the most approved style. Indie lerence, neglect, unhappiness and oiten misery that the Engtish language cannot express, resuits | from secular marriages. The contract did no: hold hearts together, aud there Was a restiess longing for liberty and a beating against the doors of exit. Uf the door of admission is as wide as humanity, the door of departure should be as wiue as neces. sity. Our wish is to make Marriage more periect. People who would love to live together rebe} when they are told they cannot get away. There is a natural rebellion against all prohibition, So long as divorce is opossibie, 80 Jong 4s the thing Is done and there is no door Of escape, te persons | thus tied will take no pains to make each other any beter than they were, The wile belongs to | the husband aod the husband belongs to the wife, | These two people who have been doing 80 much to | they were the Lord’ | and | Worthy of the divine nature, | and through them he spake unto us, MONDAY, DECEMBER &, 1873—TRIPLE SHEET. please cach other in the engaged period do notning now. MAKER DIVORCES FREER, so that people will make life a long courtship from beginning to end. It may be possibie that under & perieet system these benefits might acerue. Had not we better begim at the other end, and put angels with faming swords at the door by which we go in, instead of wt the door of exitt Let us see if We Cannot make others regard marriage as asolema thing. Engagement should be made a period of probation, and if the bonds are not close enough they’should be severed, Ll would not & back to any old jaw of divorce. I plead jor hberty 5 not for a simple pastoral melody, but a gtaud symphony of Beethoven; I wouid weave ® network of golden cords instead of having all tive upon @ single thread, and make marriage such a sacrament that no thought of separation would enter. Mar- riage Is only One of the sacraments of home, It is simply umpossivle that peopie should understand each otuer during Wie short period of engagement. When they step over the threshold of marriage they enter into auother world, Everytuing 1s ab- sovitely new. What preparation could they wake? All marriages are iractional, Some are married with heads, some with hearts, some with rings, some with fortunes and some for convenience, bul very few are married from top to bottom, Peope should marry each other as much as they can. It 18 the routive of tie that is hard to bear, the long, cern highway hard to waverse. People talk about LVI DIVIDED LIVES IN MATRIMONY, The coldness is bitterness unspeakable, and if one has the capacity to live a divided ine the ot has a heart hungry for what it cannot obtain. To make themselves one alter marriage should be dove by carelul study. They should compare notes and respect each other's minds; then, if tnere are any points of affinity, they should be cultivated oy inding oat what es correspond, Let them play simple games—chess, backgammon and cards; anything that will bring them closer together anc make home hap Auother sacrament is the sa- c ence. Home 18 jounded upon mutual respect. It must be admitted that those people wio live in the same house and eat at te same table have rights and privileges that must } mot be violated or iniringed upon, The eciild in the cradle nas rights as well as any one else, There must be the heartiest agreement in all pursuits and @ great deal of letting aloue under the principle of liberty. The jather used to Lave absolute control of lis lamily, ldren were kept down, Now tt is dif The old law says, “tusbands, love your s, And Wives, submit to your nusbands."’ The new law says, “Wives, love your husbands; hus- bands, respect your wives.”? The old law says, “Chidren, honor your parents; the new law says, “Parents, respect your children.” See how tuis law of duty and fidelity holds at home. He helps most who bas most; he stoops the lowest who stands the Mat tees The mother works au- | complainingly jor her children, aud the jather slaves tor the family. Here is a man whose wile has been for many years an in- valid and a cripple He 18 a man of talent aud capable of shining in the highest society. It is not what he dreamed of When a youth, and it is not what he would choose if he had the power to altes his destiny, When he ges Out into the gayeties of the world itis to pluck a flower to put upon her table, Sometimes the reverse of this is the case, and the woman’s heart is full of bitter memories and regrets, ‘The unshed tears, Instead of roiling down the saddened checks, drop silently into the recesses of the heart, Au+ other sacrament is the sacrament of birth. It is Mahomet who says, “Paradise is at tae feet of mother.” When life becomes autumnal and the winds sigh and howl, when the leaves that hav been so bright decay and Mutter to the earth, thea, as we stand surrounded and see the friends of our youth droping away, how we cling to those that remain, When the news came to us of the LOSS OF THE VILLE DU HAVRE we were horror-strnck to think that so many peo- ple should be called from their berths to lace death Im Ove O1 its most feariul forms, The slumbers that were broken so suddeniy by the collision aud the turmoil of the sea are continued in tae chambers of the everlasting deep. ‘Think of tne homes destituted of their dearest ones, and the orphaned ones wandering over the earth witt nothing but memories, It shows us how feeble is our tenure upon lie, Remembering this, we will try to be grateful for our happy homes and help others to make theirs what they shouid be, BROOKLYN CHURCHES. PLYMOUTH CHURCH Sermon by Mr. Beecher on the Human Side of Christ’s Character—A Glowing Tribute to Woman and Her Benetie cence. Mr. Beecher preacned yesterday morning a ser- mon on “The Human Side of Christ’s Character” and selected for his text the seventeenth and eigh- teenth verses of the second chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, and also the sixteenth verse of the fourth chapter, as follows:—“Where- fore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be @ merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he 1s able to succor them that are tempted.” “Let | us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to uelp in time of need.” Mr. Beecher commenced with a short and sum- mary reierence to the character of Christ, as re- presented in the Scriptures, in the aspect of judge, mediator and torerunner, and said that it Was not in these oe ie of human law that Christ drew ail men unto Him, but as companion, teacher, guide, brother and shepherd. He was sometimes repre- sented as a judge, a Vindicator, but the force oi the representation im the Gospel was in those phases of Christ's character that sought the highest ends of man’s lie, that sought the noblest development of man's character, So that if a man were de- | graded and overcome ot evil, it Was that very man that should feel that in Christ there was fils se- curity and bis remedy for that ruin, It was tais confidence in Him that enabled men to feel that, LIVING OR DYING, In the light of this trath, then, said Mr. Beecher, let us cousider, first, that | the identification of the Lord with the human race has n the fertile theme of comment, ertticism pticism. Men have objected to this as un- What, after all, was the vest for the human race? Was tt not this manitestation-of beneficence, and would not tnis manilestation have the effect of winning men back to God? Let me illustrate it in another way, What is nore lovely in woman than tue separation of herself from her kindred, from the refinements and Kindnesses that blossomed over herr When we | think oF her and ask ourselves, Whatis her spbere? | everybody instinctively ys that those ; Inorat elements, that culture and that re- finement were born to make home bright and | beautiful. When 1,000,000 men were marching trom the North to go southward, when another 1,000,000 were Inarching Irom the South to go northward, where was a place more repulsive than the hospitals on the edges of the battles (and yet | Woman waiked there as an angel of light, aad ean fs poor soldier, the son of Christian parents, went Into the heavenly light, through the birth of Christ, by the ministration of these noble women. Yes, Women left there a glory that will never pass away (rom the annals of the world. That heroine, FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, has lefta mark on the land that will never fade away. (Applause.) ‘Tnis representation of Christ's character iuifiie the idea of the Scriptures of “Em- | manuel” (God with us). The storm and the fire Tay make men «raid of the evil batit can never make men ve God. This aspect of Christ’s character, the going out to a sympathy | with man’s pature, 1s one that neither the benever or the unbetiever will let die. Tne mtracies of Christ looked at from the same point of view had | been very inuch perverted by disquisitions, and by not being looked at along the line on wich they were meant to play. They were simply charities. As moral evidence they were certainly meant to have their inflaence ationg the superstitious and unlearned people. Christ underrated them, for he said, “If you don’t believe in iwe, believe in me for my work's He heid that the divine radiance in Him ought to be the best eviaence, But if they were so blind that they could not see it, he said, e@ on me for ti ake of the | miracles,” se miracles Were always wrought jor beneficence and never in an STENTATIOUS SPIRIT, Mr. Beecher then commented on the apparent ex- ceptions—nameiy, the baptism and the tansfigara- tion, Then tue relation of Curist to the deyelop- ment Of man, to commerce and sympathy with God, will, 1p the death of Carist, receive new light. When you ask why did Christ suffer’—and you say that He might redeem man from death, you have said all that can be satd. The moment you ask how it was done; how did It redeem man from death? are wandering right away from the heart of rist, Mr. Be closed with @ reference to the urrection of Chr Its comfort as an evidence to man Of his immortality, and an appeal to those of His congregation Who fad not yet eit this influence Of Corist's character to “Oome to Jesus.” SEVENTH AVENUE MBTHODIST CHURCH. Dr. Wild, on the Mission of Evil, the Ville du Havre, Dr. Cummins’ Reform | and Methodist Bishops. The Rev. Dr, Wild preached a sympathetic discourse yesterday morning, to a large audience, Jn is opening prayer Divine blessings were peti- tioned for the President, Senate and Congress, that they might, in their legisiation, be equal to tne demand of the nation’s real interest, His text was Jeremiah tt., 19:—“Thine own wickedness shall correct thee; and from it the reverend divine deduced the following :— Jn these words Jehovah addressed Israel of 014, In the estab- lished Jaws of nature, and by the unvarying ny of the same, progress 18 made education @ juct and perfec. & reasouabie ain, in the wreck or the Ville du Havre we are reproved and admonished, nay, condemned, sor allowing Hevligence agarn to bear troits anto death, The easing travel upon the hign seas and repeated aCcideAty Summon the marine powers to Coupsel for | ! | i | | | deck. | has not yet been persuaded of | unscientific and useless, but they were not per- | suaded, They all prayed, and if Tyndall and the | vania ratiroads is the hurling of men and women Togetner, KVen upon this hignway corporations should be heid accountable, Not that upon jand or sea dangers and accidents can be avoided altogether; still, much might be done to evade the first and mitigate the latter, Both corporations and individuals should be made to conduct their business In such a Way as to insure, a8 jar ag possi- ble, Ile and property entrusted to them, An east- ern and a Western Ocean pathway lor the several steam lines, sometting like that Lieutenant Maury recommended; a suficient number of life preserv- ers, In & good state and of easy Access; boats, sound and plenty, and suitable apparatus for ex- tinguishing fires. Companies should also be made responsible for remuneration and compensation, which would forbid undue haste or carelessness, Evil is designed to be both a curative anda penal mission, The incarceration of such men as Tweed and ingersoil cannot fail to impart lessons of honesty to those in places of trust and power, ‘The Keformed Episcopal Couren is an- other effort to enlarge the domain of religious treedom. Dr. Cumiuins begins well, for ne begins much hike a Methodist, both in doctrine and dis. cipline. Whatever qiflerence there was Dr. Wild admitted to be in favor of Dr. Cummins, He sympathized with this reform movement, and Wished 1b Would abate the ritualism in the Epis- copal Church, both in America and kngland; tor he had & warm heart towards the Episcopalians, He believed the movemeut would have a Kind in- fluence upon the Methodist Church in restraining the bishops from an undue exercise of power in the stationtug of eet The Doctor finished his discourse by alluding to the Cuban atrocities, and thought they were a sufficient provocation ior chastisement, and he hoped that whatever might be the decree of governmental authority We, as a people, might be true to our country’s interests, TALMAGE AT THE ACADEMY, The Tragedy of the Ville du Havre and its Lessons—Appaliing Guilt Some= where—The Kesponsibility of Those Who Have Human Life in Their Keeping. The tragedy of the Ville du Havre was the theme of Mr, Talimage’s morning discourse. The Academy was crowded from orchestra to amphitheatre, and many persons who arrived after the services had opened were unable to obtain even standing room, After briefly commenting upon the perils of the sea in olden times and at the present day, the preacher launched forth upon his subject as fol- lows:— Only a few days ago the Loch Earn, a vessel of 1,200 tons, with bowsprit steel plated, weighed an- chor in English waters, Only afew days ago the Ville du Havre was ready to sail from New York. ‘The usual warning was given on deck, ‘All ashore whoare not going!’ Then the gangways were cleared and the planks hauled in, and there was the usual farewell wavings, and, as though fore- boding evil, a young man stood on deck and waved to his friends ashore, crying, **Gcodby; you will never see me again on this side of the water!” It seemed almost impossible that two vesseis starting from such distant ports should even hati each other on the sea, Nevertheless, they came on through day and night, and darkness and storm, and fog and sunshine, approximating, as though they had appointed A PLACE AND A TIME FOR MEETING. The Loch Earn sometimes took a dilferent tack, and the Ville du Havre cianged sometimes its course, but nevertheless approximating all the while the hour for their meeting coming very soon, It is twelve o'clock at night. ‘The bells have rung. It is one o'clock in the morning. It is two o'clock in the morning. Lights hung in tke rigging, the -helmsman is at the wheel, the firemen down at the furnaces, the watch passing the lookout, the passengers asleep in the berths and cabins, when crash came the Loch Earn amid- ship the Ville du Havre, and they who were around the staircases ran to to the decks, and mariners and passengers ran wild and some stark mad; and there was a rush for the lifeboats and a cry to Gud and man for help. No time to put on iife pre- servers, No time to sound the minute gun of dis- tress across the sea, There they kneel in prayer; yonder leap into the wave. lere stand in wild horror, The thought of home and loved ones far away comes over them, and they ieel as il they cannot, must not die. But already THE STEAMER HAS BEGUN TO SINK, Pull away there in the lifeboats, lest you be sucked down in the awful euguifment, and go down and be lost. Pull away there in the lifeboats! The mizzenmast crashes over upon some of the life- boats and they are gone, and the steamer sinks, As tt goes down toward the botvom of the sea— down lower until the deck is even with the waves—the combined, the unearthly, the stupen- dous shriek of 212 passengers reads the air of earth and heaven with the catastrophe, Icannot, a8 a minister of Christ and as a lover of humanity, let this solemn occurrence pass with- out learning for myself and learning for you three or four lessons, And, first, | learn the responsi- bility of those who hoid tne lives or the property or tie souls of men in their keeping. I will leave to the marine authorities to say who were to blame; but itis certain that there is wickedue: somewhere. No fog, no storm—ciear starlight; and yet 500, perhaps 1,000, families in this country and in Europe are whelmed in vereavement to- day. I will not say who 1s to blame. Ido not know who is to blame; but the two continents have been empanelied as a coroner’s jury and have rendered the verdict— “APPALLING GUILT SOMEWHERE.’ The commanders of steamers, the engineers of locomotives, the conductors of rail trains, the architects of buildings, the pilots of steamboats | have in thetr hands and on their shyulders very great responsibility. God will hold them to ac- count for what they do with the hves and with the souis of men. It may have seemed a very insig- Dificant thing connected with this disaster that there Were 34,u00 bushels of wheat that went to the bottom of the sea; but | do not think it was at all insignificant when there are so meny starving lor bread. The world could not afford to waste 34,000 bushels ef wheat. I learn also irom this digaster that when we part from our friends reunion is uncertain. My counsel to you is that if you have any ye? to periorm towards your friends, in regard to their eternal interests, you had better periorm that duty before they take Steamer or rail train, If there were any impenitent ones who perished in this wreck how do you suppose their unfaithful iriends feel to-day ? I believe there are hundreds of thousands now away from Christ simply because tiacir triends do not do their duty. Another lesson is that elegant surroundings are no security trom the jast foe. Iceberg, storm and collision can see no difference between magniii- cent steamship and Nautucket whaler with rusty bolts and greasy dec it those passengers on the Ville du Havre could have exchanged their money for life, would not they have given it? Oh, yes; but DEATH CANNOT BE BRIBED. He comes with muddy Jeet from walking amid the upturned earth of new made graves, and biunders over the finest carpet aud scts his spade against the headboard of rosewood bedstead, ‘Lins disaster also showed that some Christians are nearer glory than they think. Many of these passengers When they went to sleep that night did not know they were so near the jasper sea and a reunion with friends gone before, UH they did they would not have slept a wink. Some of them were ministers of tne Gospel, and the same Jesus they had preached stood by them on the parting 1 suppose when the Loch Earn crashed in onone side, the Lord Jesus Corist walked the water on the other side, Those men of God did not know t) were going from one Evangelical Alliance to another; but the one here is nothing compared with that beyond, iis is so with some of you; you are nearer heaven than you think. There is @ Loch Earn somewhere that is making towards you and ere you are aware you will open your eyes on raptures eternal. [ con- gratulate you tat it 18 80, Again, Clearn trom this disaster that the world THE NONSENSE OF PRAYER, The Shut comes to us from this ship that they all prayed. “Tuey had probably read that prayer was skeptics of vhe world had been there they would have prayed too, though I fear not with the calm ness of the woman who prayed aloud on the deck, for their hope would not have been so good, In conclusion Mr. Talmage said that this catastrophe showed the tmportauce of always being ready for transition, Tie longest time spoken of between the cullision and the piunge is I2 minutes, Alas, for the impenitent people aboard that vessel, only 12 minutes in which to do the work of @ lifetime and prepare for countless ages of eternity, 1 think they took 10 of themin hoping they could escape. Only two minutes left! but those two minutes must be split up—one minute to look over their wasted lie and the otuer to jook forward to the great eternity. What a short time, you say; but do not you realize that you may not be so fortunatey Much of the histor: of the Hudson River, the Erie and the Pennsyi- unprepared intu an unknown eternity. “in such a day and in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.’”? SCHERMERHORN STREET FRIENDS’ MEET- I The New Order of Things—Sermons on Divect Inspiration from God, The Schermertorn street Friends’ meeting house in Brooklyn was yesterday morning unusually crowded, The audience was very earnest and solemn in its aspect when the mantle of silence had fallen upon it, and the thoughts of each par. Ucular worshipper seemed to dwell ancompromis- ingly within the “inner self,” Yesterday was tne first Sabbath upon which the Innovation of the sitting together of the sexes, in- stead of discreet separation, a8 has hitherto been the custom of the Church, was put into prac- tice, The meek-garbed Friends did not seem altogether {rece from embarrassment at first entering and taking their seats in this unusnal manner, The young ladies and gentiemen smiled visibly, the dear little boys and girls, who al. ry enjoy themselves during service by thamping audibly on the Ovor and kicking the shins of peopie sitting Next them, giggied at eacn other unt tne worthy Friend upon the joitiest seat near the middie aisle arose out of the common inanity and raised lus Voice to the utterance of two words, Then he took off his coat, and when this was done, completed his opening sentence. The speaker was David HU. Barnes, of Portchester, Westches- ter county, a wlinister somewhat noted in | the Soceiy of Friends, but never heard of | outside of its sover circles, The subject ot his out- pouring on this occasion was the old one of the direct inspiration of the heart of man by Jesus Christ, which he thoroughly believed in as the source of true religion, It spoke through a voice which was audible only when waited upon in the most humble and holy silence, and then it showed to us our faults und foibles, and pointed out to us the spiritual way in which we should go. Jt was this power that was the instrument of the wiping out of the sins of the world. It spoke en- conragelent, oumiors, peace, admonition, re- proach to us, and ail for the good of our souls, for whose keeping we must give an account at the gates of that beautiful city which was promised us as our last abiding place and baven of rest, uf we did the work given us to do, weil and truly, He said that this same inspiration vouchsaled us at the present day was that which in former tines had prompted the autiors of the Holy Scriptures in the utterance of divine truths, He urged the cultivation o1 a deeper reverence of and belief in the bible to counteract the growing tendency of the age to- wards scepticism, Brother Sdward Browa followed in a@ similar vein of thought, A kindly-faced lady in one of the ministerial seats then knelt, and offered a prayer for the whole muititude, Alter an interval ol silence the meeting separated with shaking of hands, SECOND UNITARIAN CHAFEL Jacob’s Dream—The Nature of Law—The Last Terrible Ocean Catastrophe, Dr, Chadwick’s church was very well attended yesterday morning. He preached a sermon on the late terrible ocean disaster. He chose his text from the twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis, sixteenth verse—“And Jacob awaked out of his sleep and he said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.’ "? We know next to nothing about Rebecca’s house- keeping, what kind of a bed Jacob’s mother could furnish; but, as he was the favorite son, it is likely it was softer than the bed of stones he slept on when he had the dream of the ladder, It 1s not likeiy his dream would ever have come to him un- der his mother’s roof, It is true that God deals with us as the Bible tells us. He sends us trials to discipline us, und then He will give us joy. Have we not found that, in our personal experience, people tind themselves cramped and hampered? Then they tinda POWER OF RESISTANCE. It summons new energies. Things are sugges- tive of opposites, just as a starving man dreams of plenty 5 so it i8 in the material plain where the ream points to.some tulfiineut. So long as the ocean by which you wander has a smooth beach to wash itself on 1t is tranquil, but when the jutting crags present themselves to the tide it shows re- sistance, and 80 itis with men and women, It was Charlotte Bronuté’s pillow of stones that made her dream as she did; it was the lonely lite, her hard surroundings, that were tbe waking of her, and so it was with Burns and Sir Waite? Scott, and when they looked back at the hard places, they must have said, “Surely, the Lord was there and I knew it not.”” Has it not been so twice in the history of our own nation? Ic was when british tyranny became too hard, that our dream of liverty came, and later ie our civil struggle came our dream of emancipa- jon, Many persons fear that the tendency of science is towards atheism; that THE TRNDENCY OF SCIENCE is to expel God from the universe, William Hamil- ton states it that every natural phenomenon was Tegarded a8 & miracle, and the movement of the celestial bodies was resoived into a few mathe- matical laws by Kepler, Ali contingen heavens find explanation in the law of g If the idea of law excludes the idea of God, then is the world in a fair way to exclude God, Law 18 every day making new conquests, But these ideas include each other atevery step. ‘The omnipresent Pee of law hints at the omni- resence of God. It only enables us to say, with Kepile: “I think thy thoughts alter thee, 0 Lord.” Iguorance eliminates God, and science restor God and enabies us to say, ‘surely the Lord was in this place and I knew it not.” very new revela- tion of science makes us bow our heads reverenily. But if these laws jurnisn us wita the joys 0! Iie let us look how stern they are; how unre- Jenting. God’s love is central. I do not say God works by general laws, that he consults the greatest good at the sacrifice of the lesser. The antithesis of general providence ts universal pro- Viaence. Law is @ schoolmaster, sometimes @& sadly stern and unreienting one, but it is the salvation of mankind, What would become of our calculations if law was an unstadle commodity? We see there is no reason why our ciaim shouid be heard betore others; the law that seems so cruel is liberty, born of God, and shall be able to say, God 1s good to all; Mercy 18 no aiterthought, We do not intend to say that ignorance is THE OAUSE OF DISASTERS like the last one we have had, but seldom do they happen without carelessness. Is not law here the schoolmaster? Is there no special providence— none, iu the sense of law suspended, much in the sense of law revealed? [tis law thats the educator. Reilection 18 the corrective of imagination. This reminds us that, sooner or later, ali on board that vesscl would have gone. There is @ time to die, but how tew live to reach that time, The Bible puts it at three score and ten, Whatis the reason, but ignorance. We are like soldiers in the inidst of battle; we know ol nothing except our imme- diate surroundings; and L ain sure of this, that some of the souls on that ship entered the unknown land without rebellion, Are we '80 Wise that we would choose a longer death? A quick death seems best Referring to the death of a member of the con- gregation, who was on board the Ville du Havre when she went down, he said:— Our dear friend will always dwell in our memory a8 we saw her lastin heaith and vigor. She was jull of hope and joy, guing abroad; and sie has gone abroad. 1 can't think her dead, LOVE IS STRONGER THAN DEATH. Water cannot quench it. I rejoice that I was privileged to know that passenger, I shall always see her with her hand held close in the strong hand of one she loved. My neighbor is gone before. Shail we not meet her agaiu? LEE AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH, The Triumph of Justice in New York— Conviction of Tweed, Ingersoll & Co.— “The Way of the Transgressor is Hard”—Sermon by the Rev. J. Hyatt Smith. The Lee avenue Baptist church was crowded last night with an audience numbering from 1,500 to 2,000 persons, standing room in the aisles could not be obtained and they went away. The princi- pal attraction was a discourse by the pastor, the Rev, J. Hyatt Smith, on “The Triumph of Justice in New York.” His text was Proverbs xiii, 15, “The way of transgressors is hard.’ This was not only written in the Bible, but it was also carved, he said, on stone, over the entrance to tire Penitentiary on Blackweil’s Isiand, Mr. Smith very naively asked his audience if they had not seen it there, which query created sensation throughout the house, For many years, he re- Marked, justice was fallen in the streets of New York and equity could not enter. But there has 5, , been and there now is a revival in New York, and | § that was nis only excuse tor thus temporarily tu a ing aside from the revivalin hisown church. Mr. Smith referred without at any time naming the man who, irom being ioreman of au engine con pany 1 New York became toreman of the city and State of New York, and in whose hands the Mayor of the city was but a popinjay and the Governor of the State a mere puppet, who carried out his will for the promise of reward with the Presidency or some otner honor. Turn in your minds, he said to his hearers, to 1870, while [ read to you a sketch written 2,000 years ago. Mr. Smith then read from Psalms where David says -he saw the wicked im great prosperity and he was envious of them; but when he went to look ror therm in a little whiie he could not find their place, ‘They had stood on slippery places and had disa peared, And this, he remarked, is an exact pi tare of the ‘ring’? of York to-day. He also Pol uke passages from Isaiah, He gave illustra O18 01 THE ROLDNESS OF THE RING and the shamelessness with which the city was plundered, He was in a store in Broadway one day when aman entered who seemed as i! he gad justlanded from an emigrant vessel and had put on @ new suit of clothes, in a familiar manner he bade the proprietor to make Out @ bill for $2,000 Jor clocks tor the Court House. It was done, and 4 jew hours later the saine mun re-entered the store, Tegretting thathe had not made the bill out for $5,000, and countermanding the order for clocks and taking diamonds instead. Another time Tweed himself went to the store, and, without asking the price or quality, ordered the most mag- a silver set in the store sent to his home, ut the PLUNDERING OF THE CITY in this Way was not the worst ieature. It-was the School of vice that they opened heres so that in every considerable village and town in the land “rings” were formed, and ® committee came on here from Philadelphia to inquire into the secret of the “King’s” success here. Mr, smith gave il lustrations of the infuence of this bold syscem of robbery upon the young men of our land, bank cierks and others. | ‘The pulpit was silent then; the press,was subsidized or feared the power of tie King.. Judges were bought, juries were packed or bribed, truth and justice were fallen in the streete, The Legislatures were like so many dro’ ot cattle bought and sold in the shambles. But look at the turn of afaires now. With a* kind of retributive Justice in the same Court House under cover of which #0 many Of their theits were made, these men have been brought to judgment ana sent to $$ er ——— prison. one Jnage mea proken neurven, another resigned the Bench, another was disgraced there~ from aud some of the King are in prison, others in the way of going there, and a few are in Europe “on business.” He thanked the press for the ald 16 gave to justice in the prosecutioh of these men, and applauded Judge Dayis as an incorruptible and upright Judge. The discourse Was repeatedly applauded and was patiently listened to for ap hour, HANSON PLAGE BAPTIST OXUROH, A Sermon on a Creed, by the Rev. J. Dy Pulton—What It Is and Who is Bound by It—Beecher, Sailing Under False Colors—Lessons from the Ville du Havro Disaster and Bishop Cummins’ New Church Movement. ‘The Hanson Place Baptist church was crowded yesterday morning, and the Rey, Justin D, Fulton preached upon “4 Creed—what is 1t and who ts: bound by it,” taking his text from I, Corinthians, iv., 13—“We having the same spirit of faith accord- ing as itis written, [ believed, and therefore have 1 spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.’” He said:— , The skies brighten. The clouds of error and the mists of prejudice begin to disappear before the: noontide radiance of the Sun of Righteousness, Let us thank God and wkxe courage. The words of Paul are lifted by the providences of the hour into new meaning. It begins to appear that truth has binding power; it produces conviction: and leads to resuits, No matter how this result is reached or by whom tt comes, there is hope, because it be- gins to appear that floating without chart, com- pass or commander is perilous, It has been well said “that a man’s religion is the chief fact in re- gard to him.” The thing that a man does practi- cally lay to heart and knows for certain concern-- ing his relations to God, to men, to the present and to the future, is in all cases the primary thing for him and creatively determines all the rest. A creed ts not, then, a sign of the lack of thought or the loss of brains. but it is rather an evidence of both, The fool hath said, ‘There is no God.” Ho is without a creed because he is destitute of the faculties which enable him to perceive truth, ac- cept it, and to be ruled by it The talk against creeds is a sad commentary on the inanity of tho times. A creediess man is a faithless man, He 18 cut loose from truth, and he drifts whither the cur- rent bears him. Those who believe and think, and are influenced by thougiit, have a creed, and are bound by it and wiil stand by it, A Chrisnan’s creed 1s a declaration of principles derived trom the Word of God. A man without a creed is @ man without thought, He 1s destitute of chart and compass. Whoever claims to have studied God’s Word and is witnout a creed proves that he lacks brain or logic or honesty, TUE REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER isin trouble not because he contends Jor the in- dependence of the church, but because he did not contend for it before. He has sailed for years under a flag that has not represented him, Thig- eminent preacher has been for years in belief a Baptist. He confesses that there is no infant sprinkling taught in the Scriptures, and that im- mersion is baptism. May God grant him strength to come out and stand with us, in contending for the faith once delivered to the Saints, Ifhe hasa creed let him enuuciate it. Let him take the Word ol God and tollow its teachings and become asafe leader. A creed is to faith what @ road is to civilization, It is the outline for thought, the waymark in the wilderness of error leat = 4 to the open Canaan ol truth. Itis the outgrowth of belief as an oak is the outgrowth of an acorn. Hence it is not strange that the numbers increaso who believe alike and work in harmony. True, the Church of to-day ts split into fragments, But whose fault is it? Surely not of those who believe the truth and teach it, but of those who professedly believe the truth and betray it, The objections to a creed arise very largely from the fact that men seek to please the world, seek to SERVE GOD AND MAMMON and refuse to be heid and bound by the require- ments of the gospel. We have seen men com- manded to “Goto alt the world and preach the guspel to every creature,” and to say, ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not siallbe damned,” reject the commission, trample on its requirements, ignore the need of the atonement, of repentance of sin, of faith in Christ and of obedience to these positive commands, Others again object to a creed because there are some things taught in the Wora of God which they cannot compre- hend, therefore cannot believe, In this they make a terrible mistake. There may be truths which our childish inteilects cannot grasp, and which our littio lives are too short to 1athom and measure—truths irom waich we get no nutriment or help, and it may be our misfortune, but it is notan argument against the existence of the truth, As arule the most bitter oppouent of a creed is the man whose lile and whose teachings are most manifestly re- buked by the teachings of the Gospel The truth is distasteful to him and he abhors it. BISHOP CUMMINS furnishes an {llustration of tuis truth. The late assistant Bishop of Kentucky frankly declares that he rejected certain forms and ceremonies deemed to be important tn the church of which he was amember. He did not conceal his opiniona nor attempt to distract the church by contending for them among those who might regard him ag untrue; but, lollowing his convictions, he came out, has formed a new organization in harmony with Ins views and purposes, determining to sail the sea of hfe in another ship and with another crew and in accordance with an older and better chart. We have for hima word. Go back beyond the prayer book to the Bible, me out from amon; those who would fetter the trarh with lorms an¢ ceremonies; make God's Word the rule of faith and justice and we shall start together. To-day more than ever do I rejoice in having been brought re} | into the Baptist Church where the Word of God rules without let or iundrance. “Therefore seeing Wwe have this ministry, 4s We lave received mercy we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handing the Word of God deceitrully, but oy mant- festation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscicnce in the sight of God, we are troubled on every side yet not distressed; we are perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not Jorsakeo; cast down but not destroyed.” The substitutes prescribed to take the place of creeds deserve attention. Some contend it would be wise to cut loose irom God, destroy the Bible and make a new one which should embody the best things believed by ali; embody them in a creed woich should be accept- able to all, So reason those who claim to have outgrown what is written and to be able to produce something better in the vent than was ever produced in the past. But the idea of a creed implies faith in God rather than faith in man, Eclecticism in saith is @ so-called remedy. Men select this and that from creeds, em| them in a given form and fight for them. In this way they drop out eternal punishment, the divinity of Jesus Christ, the authority of the Bible, and bring tt down to so low a plain that the vilest and worst see nothing objectionable in it, and then claim that men who believe in God as revealed in Clirist, and as set forth in the Serip- tures, must give up that which honors aud glork fies God for that which pleases poor fallen men, Their efforts are a failure. They may destroy faith, but they uproot the foundations of nope and leave the soul shelteriess, ‘The true remedy, and the only remedy, is found in believing, There is a mighty faith that is uke an anchor to the soul, and that holds a man, A man’s creed is oftentimes very short and very weak, because he knows 80 ee about God that he refuses to accept His Word as law. It is not honorable or praiseworthy to be with- nut a creed, and so to declare, Faith tnakes or de- roys men, Faith in God saves, Let your taith FR, until you can take the entire bivle and say, believe it. Avall yourself Of the attainments o} others, Beileve that knowledge did not begin with you and will not end with you. Remember that there 18 nothing which can be compared with the information Which endures for time and eternity. Knowledge is toa Christian what armor 18 to a seve ave in the midst of are in the midst of DKIFTING CURRENTS OF HUMAN THOUGHT. We need settled principles to govern us, or wa Shull be swept aside or driven back. How impor- tant that these fundamental facts of religion, em- boaied in a creed, be produced and read, that they may enter into’ the staple of thought, so that we may be able to give toevery one @ reason ot the hope that is in us with meekness and jear) The worid is to take on more and more the charac. teristics of the Christian Chureh, What you be- lieve and think and say are to determine tie char- acteristics of the age In which you live, In conclusion the reverend preacher said :-- THE WRECK OF THE VILLE DU HAVRE, which has sent a thrill of horror along tue qatver= ing nerves of millions in this and other lands, oc~ curred either because the wrong command was given or the right command was misunderstood. We see the result. ‘There 1s acoliision, The alr is peopled with the wails of despairing men and women. They go down into the tides of death be- cause some One Made a mistake, There are more terrible wrecks continually occurring. there are multons and millions rushing into the Tides of an. endless eternity, because the edicts of God are trampled on and the commands o1 Jesus Christ are unheeded, Take God's Word; study it, believe it and act it, and after sailing liie’s sea in salety you shall Gud anchorage in the haven of eternal rest and peace, THE DIOVESE OF BROOKLYN, Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To-day being the Feast of the Immaculate Con. ception of the Blessed Virgin, and being specially * set apart by the Kiskop of the diocese of Brooklyn for the consecration of the churches, schovls, asye jums and all {institutions under control of the cio cose, Will be observed with greatcereinony, Tha solemn act of Consecration to the Most Sacred Heart of 9 Will be read alter the principal mast wt haif-past ten o’ciock in all the churches, The edifices will be thronged by the faithful, who will jortify themselves for the event by approaching the sacraments of penance apd the Eucharist, EEE EEE EE EEE OOOO EEE Eo