The New York Herald Newspaper, January 20, 1879, Page 2

we 2 FAITH AND LOVE. Sermons Delivered by Prominent Pastors Yesterday. THE EFFICACY OF IDEAIS. Godliness as a Garment---The Mystery of “Existence. CHURCH OF THE DISCIPLES. THE EFFICACY OF IDEALS—SERMON BY REY, GEORGE H, HEPWORTH, It is not alittle surprising at first thought, said Mr, Hepworth, yesterday morning, in the Church of the Disciples, that Christ should have given usa command like that contained in the words of the text—‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is iu heaven is perfect.” It seems remarkable that He should have enjoined the impossible upon us. But it is to be remembered that the noblest effort is only called forth by the highest incentive. That which lies around us within an easy grasp is never clutched. That which is outof reach fills us with aspiration. It is the law of life. The artist, when he sets himself to paint the colors of the sunset, knows that he can never reproduce them. So, when we are told to imitate God, we know that the task is beyond our accomplishment, but it is given to us to strive after the accomplishment, as the artist strives after a work that he cannot do perfectly, If a man leaps for a star he undertakes what he cannot perform, but nothing is more certain than that he leaves the earth behind him for a time. The world is ceaselessly striving after the ideal in society, in civilization and in religion. Five hundred years before Christ was born that gifted servant of God, Plato, had a dream of a government in which all men should be brothers, It was an ideal government, beyond all hope of human nature, but the world has been working under the inspiration ot that idea for the last 2,000 years. The human race is walking forever up a stair- case, Using the centuries as steps of stone on the way to pertection. ‘The first step is laid in the dust of in- fant humanity, the top is hidden by clouds. It is the ideal pertection of the race, not reached, but longed for. We cannot see it yet. We only know our duty and know that the performance of that duty is progress upward. We ail acknowledge gladly that the world is working upward gradually, that it is improving with every age. This is conceded on but the grand impulse which moves it is jearly seen. SOURCES OF POWER, Ihave stood by the brink of the ocean and have seen the tide rise, inch by inch, until the floodtide mark was reached. If ama man who is unable to Jook below the apparent cause of things to find the real I say that the impulse is in the ocean itself. ‘This is what some men say of human progress. ‘Tey claim that this progress is not only natural but necexsary as man is constituted; that the race in the course of ages finds by experience that which is good and chooses it, that which is bad and rejects it. They claim that the attrition of civilization, the intercourse of man with man, brings about this’ im- rovement. It seems 4 plausible theory, but it is fallacious. The ocean if left to itself would become @ stagnant pool, but there is a power in the heavens which moves it’ irresistibly. There is an influence in the silver orb of night which alone accounts for the tides of the ocean. The ovean seems a giant that works its own will in its own way, but it is merely a servant, obedient to a higher will. So the power that moves the world is not in or of the world, but comes rom heaven, We could never find ont the word of truth if God had not spoken it. Christianity gives us the only word that Faises mankind. Without Christianity there is chaos; with Christianity there is aspiration, effort, and at the last accomplishment. God's golden gift to the world is Christ. Christ’s power is that He has touched the blind eyes and the deaf ears of the world with His God-like fingers, We are indebted to Christianity for everything we have of spiritual and intellectual ex- cellence, [his is a bold word, but I stand by it. Christ says that the mark of God’s finger is in the formation of our bodies; science says no. In com- ring the two assertions we can sce the difference Pe their inspirations, If man comes from nothing he will return to nothing at last. There is nothing but darkness and truitlessness in this view. But un- der the inspiration of Christianity a different aspect of lite is obtained. There is no inspiration of any Other philosophy which compares with that of the Philosophy ot revelation. FAITH IN GOD, Christ speaks to us plainly of our duty and glori- fies it. No matter how hard it seems—and duties often seem to be calamities—He gives us the assur- ence of His promise, “Lo I am with you always, even uuto the end of tie world!” What a difference there is between high views of life aud low views—between @ right way and a wrong of looking at it. Let a man be established in business and have a good home and a family; let him say to himself that love is purely 4 matter of natural instinct, that honesty is a thing compelled by society which it is necessary to observe in order to get along in business, and that « home is the result of man’s gregarious instinct, I tell you the man who always looks on the ground will go into the ground at last. It is inevitable. The reacher then compared the effects of the philosophy Qeecribed, on the man whove situation he had exetched, with the effects of Christianity, If you look at life through common philosop!y, he said, you grovel in the dust. It you look at it through Christianity you grow toward perfection. But aside trom this thought there is another which must be kept in mind, All the ability to observe the words of the text must come from God, and cannot be generated in ourselves. We must look always to God and draw all our strength from Him. Without God lite 1s a wretched failure. It is a despair. With God it is a yarden of delights, Better than that, it is the goodly portico of a cathedral the doors of which will by and by open to receive you into all the glory wit He then compared mankind to a garden coy- ered with snow and ice and apparently dead. The secds wo not know that they have the power to grow, and the ice and snow do not know that they prevent growth, any more than the brute knows he is a brute or the bestial man knows his degradation. The be- inning of life ix when God touches the heart. Man’s Gaver nature will surely prevail until God touches it. God in Christ is our helpful friend, our all in all, in whose bosom, if we are faithtul, we shall rest at last forever. Amen ! PLYMOUTH CHURCH. GODLINESS AS A GARMENT — SERMON BY HENRY WARD BEECHER. Mr. Beecher, who has been unwell during the past ‘wook, announced in the morning that he would not preach at the evening service, but that the usual Lour would be spent in song and prayer. His text was Komans, xiii, 14:—But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.” This was one of the instances in the Bible of @ sentiment which in its metaphorical and imaginative form is very powerful, but which, if ac- cepted in its literal sense, would be preposterous, It is so with all the prophetic symbols. There is a long line of figures not unlike this in the New Testa meut, If they are conceived of in sentiment and poetry they aro sublime; but if the conception is car- ried a single step further they turn to ashes in our hands, The garments of s men are the most in- timate of his belongings. He becomes #0 used to them that he is unconsious of them, It wasin this sense that the Apostle spoke, No man while thinking always of himself could be d im any direction. Gar: good only for projection, but as a tification as well, Iti comely i i make his app who looked lulge their taste nations of fashion, howe’ eof these remarks. 1 drift of all ought to be ethic @ very ure pt. St. Augustine said ingly thwt Christianity was in the world before Christ came. Jt was not in at the adven were 1 nd truth born eighteen hundred years suo. ail coexistent with the hun AUl nater sions, as they were called, embodied an idea of following after God, if haply they might Gud Him. IMPROVED CONCEPTION What, then, constitutes ti Christianity and the old relig best interpretat ft gy? It is this jod was introdu of His adaptation tot 1. bl . Eb lation of God to the hu st through the Lord yugh Christ addres welt thr love principle to the diseiples, primitive Chureh had just this one Christ the Love when it lives things, n it is stricken re which can nothing i stitute for f eiving what w this idea in the primitive Church b suy that {wished Leould. believe in the se om- rist. It would be «great deal easier to live (be wure of that, If this beso, see what great ynastic arguments among mischiet is done theologians. 1 am autly brought in contact with persons doubting the divinity ot Christ, 1 will not contend with them, Lhe very moment that ® man begins to read the New Testainent in an argumentative spirit it loses tte flavor and its peculiar beauty is destroyed. With mr" Who go into that controversy all of the most NEW YUKK HERALD, MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 1879—TRIPLE SHEET. recious texts are associated with battle. It would onty in the last and extremest necessity that I would use these passages that are stained through with the colors of love for the rude purposes of defence. The conception that a great many men form of a religions life is that it is a conforming to superior system of ethics. But putting on Christ is something different from that. When 1 was a child less than two years of age my mother was accus- tomed to take me into the closet and she would lay her hand on my little roguish head and in her prayer would set me apart to become a missionary. In the beginning of my Christian life, remembering this, I determined I would become a mlevionney, aud for a year { trained myself for the werk. My father, how- ever, Was wiser and overruled my intention, [n ove sense I have never been a missionary, but in another 1 ners and my preaching has resounded around the world, “AN UNDYING PLEASURE.” ‘To know that one is an eminent preacher is not ex- actly painful, but at the same time it is not especially agreeable. But to know that one’s sermons are known to the ends of the earth and are read in the forests of Siberia as in those of the South, that not an English speaking colony or island but is reached by them, is to me a peculiar and an undying pleasure. although my mother’s prayer in one Way may never be auswered, in another it is more than fulfilled in the sense that I was to be set apart for a labor of love which should have some connection with the welfare of the whole human race, and when I think that 4 reater than she had chosen me forall this, what language can express what one should feel of conse- cration and dedication to Him who so loved and will 80 love unto the end ? FIFTH AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH. JESUS GIVING DIGNITY TO TOI,—SERMON BY REV. DR. ARMITAGE, ‘The Rev. Dr. Armitage took for his subject in the morning, “Jesus giving dignity to toil.” His text was from Mark vi.,3—“Is not this the carpenter? This question was put by Christ’s own townsmen us an inquiry of amazement. They were astonished at the high character of his teaching and works, and had no means of accounting for them, They asked, “What wisdom is this which is given to Him? Is not this the carpente: Because they knew him as acarpenter they were both surprised and offended. They were on familiar terms with him as a fellow villager, and having seen nothing spe- cial in him had treated him as an equal, if not an inferior, in social rank. He was not a literary man. Hence when his large knowledge, eloquence and power showed him to be their supe, rior, all their petty jealousies were stirred, for they could not brook divine claims in an uneducated me- ehanic, When we think of the eighteen years which elapsed between Christ's dispute with the doctors in the temple at the age of twelve aud the time when he entered upon his public ministry we are to associate them with the routine life of an honest, hard work- ing artisan, Covered with the rafters of his shop, as many of you are at the work bench, his coarse cloth- ing tragrant with the dust of the cedar and his san- dais perfumed with the pine, his hands then and there subjected the oakgand the ash to a husbandry such as his great ancestor David never knew in gatli- ering the materials fur the great temple. But the toil worn craftsman of Nazareth hewed out to Him- self a far nobler royalty than that of his imperial forefather in the Hebrew dynasty. SOME GREAT LESKONS, Now, what are the great lessons which these eighteen years of simple toil are intended to teach us? On entering the Workshop of the young Naza- reue carpenter and watching Him work’as the mean- est drudge, you find yourselt in the holiest sanctuary, the divinest studio of meek divinity, where are en- forced some of the most refreshing teachings of our faith, The saw is now forever hung up on the beam, and forever the sound of axe and hammer and nail have passed away; but their echoes come down from the Sabbath stillness of the ages and teil us that if the lowly shop has long been shut and “swept” it has also been eternally “garnished.” Sit down, look intently at the vacant bench where this master spirit of all once toiled, and draw new life out of his artisanship. Here the workingman learns that under the Divine ordinance of labor Jesus also was made “like unto His brethren.” As there could be no vice and worthlessness in the young Messiah, so there could be no idleness, which isso closely asso- ciated with the vicious. We have every reason to be- lieve that the possession of material wealth would have detracted from His power with the majority of mankind. At first sight it would seem most likely that His life would be sustained by some superhuman energy, if not by miracle itself. “But no; among all the miracles which He wrought for others He wrought none for His own benefit. His industrial employment brings out the important tact that He recognized labor as God's ordinance for man’s sub- sistence without miraculous interference, je ED AND DIGNIFIED.”” , Dur Lord teaches us in the carpenter's shop that ‘every form of honorable industry is hallowed and dignified. The duties of industry and the common- pluce affairs of every-day life must not throw a veil over the best inward motives, tempers and purposes of true spirituality more than ey didover the holiness of Jesus. The fact is that true holiness is not made up of extraordinary acts. Holiness is always the most holy when it works within the line of common things, and its emphatic strokes need no wider field. Christ did not emancipate man from in- dustry and turn the world into an idle playground; but He sweetened man’s work by exciting new motives for doing it, and transtorming its drudgery into dignified’ occupation. Man could not set his work to music till he heard the song of the axe and hammer from the carpenter's bench in Nazareth. Since then the heart has beaten time beautifully to the toil of the hand, No lands have been so busy for many centuries as Christian lands. Let no man set industry against piety, since Jesus gave to toil the type of manliness and elevated it to the noblest and purest thing of lite. His matter of fact artisanship tells us that God can be served as truly by the ploughman break- ing up the ground, the printer at the case, the weaver at the loom, the merchant in hi the teacher in his class, oo gaye with in the storm and the seamstress singing the “Song of the Shirt.” All these and other devout toilers may serve God as truly in their toil as did Elijah in the grot, or Aaron at the altar or Jesus at the bench. MASONIC TEMPLE. THE PROPER TREATMENT OF THE BODY—SER- MON BY MR. O, B FROTHINGHAM. An unusually large audicnco listened yesterday to Mr. O. B. Frothingham’s sermon on the “Proper Treatment of the Body,” which he delivered in Ma- sonic Temple. In the course of his sermon the elo- quent preacher said that he would not speak as a physician, a physiolologist or a metaphysician; his business was with the spiritual bearing of the ques, tion and its relation to man. The aim was to show by what rules of life the most good could be got out of the body. Before quoting the Apostle Paul on the treatment of the body the preacher said that Paul was the real original free religionist, the first man to make spiritual religion stand on its own ground, supported by its own strength, so that it could persuade by its own fascinations, Paul had the orthodox of his own days after him, as the free religionists of modern times have thé or- thodox after them now. He was charged with coun- tenancing licentiousness, as the preachers of free religion are to-day charged, but he could not waste time to enter into controversies with men who were boys in intellect compared with himself. His first letter to the Corinthians, to the people of a Greek city that was given over to self-indulgence and ex cesses, a people who fostered licentiousness even in their very religious rites, was tor the purpose of breaking up their bad customs. He said to them, “Know ye not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost.” Paul's idea was that the Christian must be passionless. This is the idea oi the preac! ers of jiberalism to-day. To illustrate the necessity of healthfulness and harmony of body and soul let us take, for example, an organ, If the pipes are choked ‘up with dust, though the magic hand of a Beethoven, Mozart, Bache, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Rubenstein or an Essipoft touched the keys, it would produce no music. There inust be a healthy mind in a healthy body to produce an harmonious existence. Therefore, considering that we have no separate existence out of the body, it inas much for the interest of the spiritualist as for the ma- terialist to get the most out of the body, The spirit of life is reason, A man’s weaknesses of mind partake of those of his body. In these days it is not priests but physicians that are most needed. Per- haps, however, a dyspeptic theology is best suited to 8 dyspeptic generation, and when the people know how to live they will know how to act. The proper treatment of the body is connected with that of the mind. SAVING THE SOUL THROUGH THE RODY. In treating the body well we must begin at the top ani commence with the mind. High ambitions and noble thoughts lift men into more elevated and better spheres of action. The drunkard knows that he is killing himself and ruining his family ; it is wnneces- sary to show him a scientific drawing of his struc- ture, colored by the presence of aicohol; he will admire it and go to his cups again; you must give him a noble motive for retorm. This 18 what Fat! Mathew did and what Mr. Murphy is doing. The former, as & Roman Catholic, brought to bear on the work a spiritual and temporal motive that lifted men out of the slough; the latter, as well as John B, Gough, shows the victim that he taust be more worthy of himself and faunily, moro dignified before society. To give men an additional motive for reform the public parks must be thrown open on Sunday; also the galleries, museums, col- lections of art, and everything that is ennobling or elevating in its tendency, This will give men a finer taste for art, literature, architecture and all that is beautiful; they will thus be lifted up out of their miseries ushered into a world of de- 1 yet rid of the mis- men o the whiskey weries welcome or other stupefying drug or drink; in them they see, in imagi visit Paradixe, There are men who make it their business to yetdrunk regularly every Satirday night, and keep in this deplorable state till Monday, so that in the the ook of what seems to jon and forgetfulness of keting care and biting misery in the only way they can command, This abuse of the intellect and waste of means becomes habitual among the masses, and nations are thus or opium eaters. In New York there is ten times as much money spent for tobacco as for bread. For these reasons t is yet much misery, even among mod- ern society. The finer purposes of love, intelligence, justice, truth, a sense of personal dignity and re- sponsibility—these, after all, are the hesvanly angels that lead us to the temple of health, CHURCH OF THE DIVINE PATERNITY. THE MYSTERY OF EXISTENCE—SERMON BY REV. E. H. CHAPIN, D. D, The Rev. E. H. Chapin, D. D., preached in the Church of the Divine Paternity, Fifth avenue and Forty-fifth street, his text being Ecclesiastes viii., 17—'Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further: though a wise mai think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.” For all ages, said the preacher, the human mind has been exercised by the mystery of existence. The as- sertion remains at this time, as of old—“though @ man labor to seck it out, yet he shall not find it.” Any attempt to render o satisfactory account of this mystery must pe futile, If an attempt is made to explain it by final causes everything seems so complicated there is no solution reached. If, then, the plan of creation is taken up and the welfare of man considered, the point docs not express the whole of the absolute scheme. In offering the consideration that man is superior to al things we are rebuked at once. It does not follow because man pousesses mind he is the crowning work of God, Is it not probable that the worlds we see in looking up through the night are to some extent inhabited. by a form of beings different from this earth? Surely, as we explore our sphere of being, the chief object seems to be man’s good; but are wo entitled to say that everything here points to that end? Who can believe this lite, with its countless uses, is the paramount end? Wecannot say the mys- tery of existence is explained in final causes, The doctrine of human progress then presents itself. Suppose we say that man has advanced steadily in 6,000 years, is that any reason that he will continue to do so in the 6,000 years to come? Will the im- provements that are being made all around us enable man to keep the vantage ground ? COMMON PROBLEMS. Civilization suggests many perplexing problems. Some say there has been no progress. It seems to be a law that corruption comes with refinement—that with national greatness comes national decay. There is no lineal descent of good, and these problems of civilization are mysterious. | Poverty, misery, crime and the cry of atheism are still in our midst. Man, however, is made better by the sanctity of his being. Are our own institutions fixed? Have we in this country solved the problem of government? Does the problem of liberty go hand in hand with prog- ress? The preacher thanked God that on both sides of ‘the Atlantic at this time republics seem the more prosperous, Yet this fact does not solve the ques- tion of governinent finally, if we believe in progress. ‘Though Christianity sheds light on all mysteries it does not wholly satisty the curious intellect. This solution of the mystery of existence is not the main point of life. In its very incomprehensibility thero is w.sdom. The most learned are often compelled to exclaim, “I don’t know.” We are bathed in inystery. From infancy until the curtains of death surround us there is little else than mystery. When we at- tempt to solve the great plan of existence we are lost. The moment, however, we cross the line from the speculative to the practical the way is clear, From the fact of this ncomprehensibility therecome many First, there is the development of the human Searching after truth is its sigan sin So joy that there is much known, and far greater joy that there remains much to be found out. Follow after truth. The great question. after all, is, not what is life, but to live. There is a great deal left for us. There are the precepts and the life of Jesus always before “Take my precepts and live up to them” is the mandate. It you do this and are successful and then want something better you will probably find it, but until then the lite and precepts of Jesus are all that are The mystery of life is fringed with divine love, It 18 an inspiring and — mys- tery. Wecannot find out the thin; that are done under the sun, but we can understi Jesus. Behold- ing Him we sec the primal light of heaven. BLEECKER ST. UNIVERSALIST CHURCH THE AMERICAN SABBATH--SERMON BY REV. E. 0. SWEETSER. Rev. E. C. Sweetser, of the Bleecker Street Univer- salist Church, preached on the American Sabbath. His text was from Mark ii., 27—‘The Sabbath was made for man.” There is a proverb, said the rever- end gentleman, which says that there is no great loss without some gain, and with equal truth we may say that there is no great gain without some danger of loss, The American governmental and s0- cial system, with its free institutions and its welcome to strangers from every shore, is unquestionably a great gain in the interest of humanity and civilization, and the American people have reason to be proud of their liberality, ‘They have reason to be proud that there is one nation from which a voice goes forth to all f saying, ‘Ho! every one that thirsteth for civil aud religious freedom, come ye hither and enjoy them without’ money” and — without price.” They have reason to be proud that that nation is their own, But, while they aro justly proud of their free instetutions, they need to be equally watchful of them, for they are not self-sus- taining but are open to many and serious dangers, and in proportion to their value is the necessity of ceaseless vigilance upon the part of those whose duty it is to preserve them from harm. WHERE THE DANGER LIES, Now, continued Mr. Sweetser, one of the chief dan- gers which beset this Republic arises from the tact that the people who are so freely invited to these shores, and who come here in such swarming num- bers, have not been habituated to American ways, but bring with them foreign ideas and customs which are at variance with American ways aud cus- toms, and in nothing is this variance more marked than’ in their notions and habits in regard to the Sabbath. This country was settled by a Sabbath ‘keeping people. Its laws snd its curtoms were framed in accordance with the observance of the first of the week which commemorates the resurrection of Christ as a day of rest from secular labors and secular pleasure, and of devotion to distinctively religious activities. A truly religious observance ot the Sabbuth is one of the tra- ditional features of the national life and is a part of the inheritance, and by no means the least part, trans- mitted from the fathers of the nation. Great num- bers of European people are coming here to live and they bring with them their European ideas of the Sabbath, and already have begun to transtorm the American Sabbath into a simple holiday, in violation ot American laws and of America’s holiest institutions ; and not a tew of the American people have become infected with their views on the subject. 80 MUCH FREEDOM AND NO MORE. It is argued that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, and that each man ought to be allowed to use the Sabbath as he pleases, But the people who come here from other countries have not the same right to their way of keeping the Sab- bath as the people who have been born here and whose fathers were born here, unless their way is such @ way as dors not conflict with the established customs of the country. This is a free country for every one who chooses come here and obey tho laws; it is not a tree country for any one who wishes to defy and destroy the laws. ‘This country belongs, under God, to the descendants of the men who first colonized it and reclaimed it from the wilderness, and who tounded its institutions, and who laid down their lives in defence of its Hber- ties. If other ple come over here to enjoy those liberties both Just ice and honor require that they shall conform to the laws of the land and not violate a customs of the people who so generously receive them. CENTRAL METHODIST CHURCH. SOURCES OF HUMAN OPINION—SERMON BY REV. DR. NEWMAN, The Rev. Dr. Newman preached in the evening on the “Sources of Human Opinion.” Men differ, said the Doctor, in their opinions as to the great first cause, as to the character and mission of Christ, and as to the grounds of moral obligation, So also they entertain a variety of views on human government, on education, on public charity. What are some of the sources of this variety of human opinion? There is manifestly a difference’ in mental strue- ture and in the development of the same. Men dissimilarly constituted do not view @ subject trom a ing standpoint. Some men in their opinions are but the echo of others, thinking, feeling and acting as they are in- fluenced by those with whom they associate. Others from the pride of understanding, the love of oppo- sition, the glory of distinction, never hold views in common with others, Such man will advocate Christianity to-day and to-morrow will defend in- fidelity, He moves by contraries, The source of opinion in others is taste or an unaccountable pret- erence, Such is the amount of the milk of human kindness that flows through the veins ot some that they are Universalists and can only sco the mercittl side of Jehovah, while others are so constituted in their tastes that they can only see the divine justice, And history is in proof that another sourct of human opinion is the power of conscience, Under the force of a guilty conscience combined with proji- dice, passion and selfishness, mon frame excises to relieve themselves from the obligations of divine law and from the claims of Christianity, Now, if hu- man opinion has a souree so di truitful, as thus described, what are some of t ous of the tailure of men to tain the truth as it is in Jesus? is @ retusal to view Christi- wed standpoint, Every man is ity from Christ's standpoint. ident that the failure to agree tonehing Chris- y is from non-compliance with the conditionary “Beck and ye shall + There may be an ap- equacy Letween the means and the end, at leper will preter the sauro, waters ot harpar, whic the lovely gardens to the turbid waters of the Jordan; directions must be followed, As ask and ye parent inad Many @ Abana ani of Damasen but the prophet's means of grace, per se, there may be no power in hed nor in faith, nor in the holy sacrament; but ying behind them is the expression of a lofty faith, of a sublime trust and a childlike dependence in Him who is mightier than the mighty. ST. FRANCIS XAVIER'S. Rev. Father O'Shea, 8. J., preached in St. Francis Xavier's Church, West Srxteenth strect, on ‘The Jesuits and Their Enemies.” He opened with a quotation from Dr. Newman on the attitude of Protestants toward Catholics in England. We haye never, he said, been admired by Protestants, the avowed enemies of the Catholic Church. The Jesuits have been pronounced by eminent Protes, tants to bea dangerous body of men. We have in- curred the special enmity of the Jansenites, a set of pharisaical rigorists who seldom gave absolution, and, when they did give it, imposed a penance so heavy that people were afraid to apply to them. ‘The devil's work was done in the name of purity and the love of God. The Jansenites never loved us because we loved the Church and the Pope and forgave sinners. Theirs was the wealthiest arsenal ayainst the Church. Among the other enemies we have to contend with are the pretended liberals, radicals and reyolution- ists. These so-called liberals are traitors to God, to society and to the Church. It is not strange to find that our accusers are men who oppose all govern- ments and society and seek to lay the Catholic Church in ruins. A leader of the secret societies in Europe wrote to the General of our Order saying that if we gave up the education of youth we would be left in peace and have plenty of money. That is the whole secret. They are atraid of the man who has been educated to love and fear God. The General of our Order is a broken down old man of eighty years. Our Order numbers about ten thousand. We have no politics, and we are probibited, under the severest penalties, from inter- fering in State affairs. No Catholic nation trom which we were expelled has prospered. France is racked by an earthquake politically and morally; Spain, Portugal and Naples have been shorn of their glory and are uo longer consulted in great State affairs, The Bourbons, under whom we were ex- pelled, have lost the sceptre and the crown. It was not Catholics that drove us out, but Free Masons, Jansenites and similar bodies, Clement XIV,, it is true, suppressed us, but only under it preskure and in tear of great troubles that might betall uni- versal Christendom, ST, PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL. THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY—SERMON BY REV. FATHER KANE, At St. Patrick's Cathedrai yesterday morning the congregation was not so large as usual, and the sea- son's cold and damp showed their effects in the contiu- uous coughing which went on during the sermon, ‘The music, under the direction of Mr, White, the organ- ist, was, as usual, ofa high order. The sermon was preached by the Rev. Father Kane, who made the marriage feast at which Christ first appeared in his public career the subject of his instruction. Having referred to this act of the Saviour, he went on to speak of the action of the Council of ‘Trent in regard to marriage, and spoke practically of the divine in- stitution as one of the sacraments of the Church. The presence of Christ at the marriage feast showed in itself the dignity which the Master attached to the ceremony, and how sacred He would make the obli- gations belonging to that estate. Yet we know that nowadays the majority of people look upon marriage not as something intimately belonging to their eternal welfare, but enter that state irom sensual motives, forgettul of the great responsibilities they | incur. The sacrament of marriage was a solemn compact, the bond of which could never bo broken. As lovg us life lasted the vow pledged in marriage should continue to be binding, its force remaining under every trial and every hardship. It was therefore of grave importance that before enter- ing upon such # responsibility serious consideration should precede the ceremony, and that all the consid- erations bearing upon the happiness of both the con- tracting parties should be duly weighed. The char- acter of cach should be well known to themselves, for there was no receding once the step was taken, It was from ‘want of proper knowledge in this regard that we found so much misery aud unhappiness in married life, STANDARD HALL. THE CONSCIENCE OF MANKIND PROTESTS AGAINST SUPERSTITION —LECTURE BY PROFESSOR ADLER. ‘The commandment of truthfulness is, as it were, an epitome of all the duties man owes to himself, was the commencement of Professor Felix Adler's lecture yesterday, and he continued :—aAt first sight it may appear as if essential truthfulness were impossible. It is said no one knows what the truth really is, and therefore no one can claim essential veracity. The philosophers have differed. Ono by one they as- cended the stage of history and delivered their statements, but there is no unani- mity in what they report. Thales says water is the origin of all things; Heraklitos, fire; Pythagoras, number, and Socrates begins to seek the key to the riddle in men’s own souls; Plato follows his footsteps and constructs the empire of ideas, Aristotle builds his mighty system and makes it a fortress and a dungeon for the intellect of men for centuries after. After the long interregnum of the Middle Ages the rejuvenated genius of Europe assails again with new vigor the old, old questions. Locke and Hume, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Kant and the others come to the attack. Standing now at the end of 2,000 years of philosophical discussion, we find that men are as far from an agreement as ever. In re- ligion, also, there is no agreement. Every re- ligion claims to be infallible. If the Christian claims divine authorship for the Bible, the Moham- medan makes the same claim for the Koran and the Hindoo for the laws of Manu. The old supersti- tions upon their pedestals behind their altars have gone to sleep, and the new superstitions also, which the moderns adore, aro already boxinning to riod and grow drowsy. They, too, will pass away, Even in the realm of science ‘what are deemed tacts by one age may be derided as illusions by the next. What fact was ever deemed so certain as the revo- lution of the sun about the earth? And yet this view is partial and unjust. There may be diversity, but certain fundamental ints are established, Elijah did not inveigh against he priests of Baal in vain; Luther did not burn the Pope's bull in vain; Theodore Parker did not de- nounce the moral cowardice of the American churches in vain. The fundamental point, that mo- rality and freedom make the substance of established, So in science there is a residue of cer- tainty that remains after the fermentation ot chang: The rule in science is not to tell the absolute tru but absolutely to tell what to us is true, Is th also the rule in conduct? metimes it seems cruel to tell the truth, when it is o question of breaking jamitous news to o sick person. Or it may even seem immoral to tell the hh, a8 when we discover to a cruel pur- suer the w bouts of hjs innocent victim. Essen- tial truthfulness consist’ in advancing the highest there is a conflict between moral life life. Were there no disease, no passions, 1 conditions to drag us down, were we purely reasonable beings, acting solely on reasonable motives, then might we accomplish the totality of tho moral commaudments. Sometimes, then, wo must sacrifice the verbal trath to a deeper truth; but that never without trouble or trembling of heart. As ® confined in @ narrow room, where the atmosphere is foul, longs to fresh air, xo shall we ever long to escape from the atmosphere, even ot necessary falsehood, into the fresh breezes of pertect truth, in which alone we can enjoy the fulness of spiritual health. I come now to & question of truth in religion. It would be a terri- bie misunderstanding to suppose that moral good can be sacrificed to the interests of a church, of a creed; in short, to anything but a greater moral good, Men pit happiness against truth; they exclaim, “Do escape into the not take us beliefs which m: happy.” w if their belief rests on conviction, then not | 10,000 sceptics, though they had angels’ tongues to plead and demons’ energies to de- stroy, ought to be able to shake their belief. But if they only cling to a belief, lackin conviction, because it makes them “so happy,” will beg them to go to the nursery and sing Mother Goose rhymes, for they are children, and, if old, then gray-haired children. Your little child'peoples the wir with fairies and feels their presence near, but because the belief in fairies makes it happy does that make the fairies tru No one need prove to us that certain belieis are beatific—the point to prove is that they are true. If prayer could be answered, what a boon were that! ‘The point to prove is that it is an- swered, collating the evidence, demonstrating the fact. No one need show that the belief in the hereafter may be beautiful and tender point to prove is that it is as- « Bit we scout with indignation the attempt to satisfy our infinite longings with a fe- tion in proportion as our desires are deep. We re volt from the practice of self-deception with regard to them, and we scorn the baby babblings of immo- rality guaranteed by revelation and by Scripture. REVELATION TELLS NOTHING. Revelation can rey Feveal nothing; the Scripture tells us nothing which we do not ino cerning the infinite, man can never know aught. We ask the sea, but it has no reply, Wo ask the wind; it sweeps across heaven's tace, it moans and sighs, but it hae no reply. We question the and they answer, “Through the i” we have been faithful sentinels at our post, fulfil- ling the law that is placed upon #0, man, do thou — re ® faithful sentinel at thy post and fulfil the law which is laid on thee, Yo full the law, then, is our wisdom, In view of ead, amid all that is un- re is one thing certain—our Gut. Larger duties, says the new religion, @ higher truth, a deeper good are its sacraments, ONTHODOX SLANDER, Professor Adler, in closing, reterred to the grievous misrepresentations which have been made of free re- ligion, which, if anything at all, is a moral religion, during the past week. Every army, ie Adler said, has its camp followers; every advance that is made is attended with some disorder when- ever mankind have endeavored to reach a higher lane; some, who are weak in the attempt to leap, ve fallen back and sunk below their former level. There are some men of this stamp who follow the liberal ranks, who mistake liberty for license, whom we push trom us, loathing them. But alecturer trom Boston points to these as if they were representatives of liberalism, and seeks to make the Free Religious Association of the United States responsible for a class of persons whom he calls ‘moral cancer planters,” though what that means—cancer planting—it would be well if some physiologist would explain. To enable those who are not acquainted with the Free Religious As- sociation, which has thus been vilified, to under- stand its true character, it will only be necessary to mention afew of the men who are at its head, I mention in the first place Octavius B. Frothingham, @ man whose noble character is above even the breath of suspicion, who has so long stood out alone fearlessly doing the pigneer work of religious emancipation, and to whom every liberal in New York feels ‘and acknowledges a debt of gratitude, I mention asecond of our Vice Presi- dents, George William Curtis, whose name is asso- ciated with all that is best and purest in politics of the land and the State, Professor Youmans, the emi- nent editor of the Popular Science Monthly, wud lastly, the reyered name of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who has given to the present and the rising generation of Americans some of their wisest, truest and holiest aspirations. It is against a society having such rep- resentatives as these that this new champion of or- thodoxy turns his poisoned sword of slauder. It augurs ill for acause that tolerates such methods of defence or attack, and assuredly they will not avail. Above all mists of misconception and all clouds of malice will rise to view ever more bright and clear the true aim of free religion, which is light and love, liberty and purity in indissoluble union, ~ TEMPERANCE. LIVELY MEETING OF THE NATIONAL TEMPERANCE INSTITUTE—REY. DR. ESRAY ATTACKS THE LADIES AND IS ROUGHLY HANDLED BY MRS. CONKLIN, ‘The large hall of Cooper Union was fairly filled yesterday afternoon by temperance people who had come to enjoy the bill of fare provided for them by the National Temperance Institute. Mr. J. B. Gibbs presided, and after the usual preliminary exer- cites of a religious character he addressed the audience in explanation of the ab- sence of Captain Paul Boyton and the Juvenile Life Saving Corps. Mr. Gibbs stated that Captain Boyton had promised to be present at the meeting, with the members of the Volunteer: Life Saving Corps. On Saturday, however, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, Captain Boyton announced to him that he could not be present and said he would have it so stated in the newspapers. SEVERE ON THE LADIES. Rev. Mr. Esray, of Brooklyn, then addressed the audience. Ho said that women were the greatest sufferers from the results of intemperance; but it was true that some of them deserved it. "Women were like angels—fallen angels—who got into bad scrapes. A scolding, mean, tretting wife was enough to drive a man to rum or to water. Where home was not made pleasant there was an incentive to seek false pleasures elsewhere. When a man had a home in which he was happy he had the anchor down for his safety trom strong drink. Men often drank to drown trouble, though the worst thing to pour on trouble was whiskey, The speaker then went on to discuss the right of the State to legislate for the suppression of intemperance, It was especially necessary, he said, to protect society here by legislation against intem- perance, because moro’ than in any other country in the world our society depended on the individual, MRS. CONKLIN BECOMES EXCITED, At the conclusion of Mr. Esray’s address Mrs. Conk- lin rose in her seat to defeud her sex against the im- putations thrown upon it by the reverend gentleman who had just concluded, She at once proceeded to say that the men were the worse; that women were not to be blamed as Mr, Esray had blamed them, and that some men were altogether too mean to have wives, Why was it, she asked, that women did not drink as men did? Mrs. Conklin was getting excited and many in the audience, with groat want of fair play, hissed her. The chairman stepped forward and cried “Shame.” Some gentleman then moved a resolution con- doling with Mrs. Conklin for her unfortunate ex- rience, but this only made matters worse, and the dere rose indignantly and said that her home was happier, she knew, than that of the most of them in the audience. She then made a few more remarks and sat down and the chairman asked the choir to sing “Blessed River.”” Mr. Charles E. Gildersleeve spoke next, and said some severe thi about the rumeellers as a class. Ho waid that for the most part native Americans were alone engaging in the rum traffic. He characterized the liquor rs who ee tor trial in the Court of Sessions for excise violations as having ‘bull’ heads and “bullet heads;” as exhibiting ‘“‘pugilistic countenances,” and as having “‘brutality stamped on their visages.”” The President announced that $46 had been col- lected at tho meeting. AMERICAN TEMPERANCE UNION—INTERESTING LECLURE BY MR. WILLIAM MASON EVANS. After prayer by the Rev. Mr. Kellar, William Mason Evans last evening delivered @ lecture before tho old American Temperance Union, of which he is president, entitled “Almost a Life.” It was descriptive of the wretched life of the confirmed inebriate, and the goodness of a life of teniperance. He believed with the poot that we live in deeds, not in years, and he was here to show how true that sentiment was. Ho gave a vivid description of the stranding of a ship on the coast of England, the perilous position of the crew who wore clinging to the rigging and every moment expecting to be submerged beneath the surging waves, when the lifeboat appeared and every man was saved. It was so with mankind. Intemperance was the stranded ship and temperance the lifeboat which always was in readiness to rescue the sinking drunkard from a death worse than natural one, He regarded Hepes selling as not a legiti- mate business, like the shoemaker, dry goods dealer, butcher or baker. What you purchase of them is to enable you to live comfortably and respectably, but when you go to asaloon and pour down your throats thé liquid that you find there, what do you get? (A voice in the audienc “Poison.” Laughter and applause.) The speaker said that no man @ right to take the, life which God had given him, and instanced the heroic actions of the youths of the Volunteer Life Saving Corps, who saved the lives of drowning people whether they wanted to be saved or not. It was not the life alone but the soul that was rescued, He believed that a prohibi- tory law could be enforced, even in the city of New York, if the voice of the ple deman it. He prayed that laws would would make this country # happy_ ho: who came from a life of misery aud want abroad as well as for those who are already here, and proper in the cause of tem- perance could effect that object. He showed the State na} in = reeeived ‘where van’ $60,000 for Heenses to sell liquor, but paid out $2,000,000 to support almshouses, penitentiaries. and insane asylums, which were mostly occupica by the victims of alcoholiem. A touching description of a dying scene in an aristocratic mansion, where a be- Jo son ees through “almost a life’ ina state of delirium tremens, was then given. The speaker had found that he had only reached whole and true life since he became a temperance man. At the close of Dr, Evans’ address the work of sign- ing the pledge was commenced, one enthusiastic Jerseyman standing near the table waving his hat and calling out to all to “Como up ” ‘The speaker was formerly an actor of con- i Ie note in England and the West, and has quite adramatic and effective delivery, Other addresses were made. The meeting was essentially a successful one. GOSPEL TEMPERANCE, New York, Jan. 18, 1879, To Tax Eprron or Tae Henaty:— The letter of Ingersoll Lockwood to President J. B. Gibbs, which appeared in the Henatp of to-day, op- posing the recognition of the Bible at the Sunday afternoon meetings of the National Temperance In- stitute, has created no little surprise among the members of that society. 1am astonished that even an avowed infidel could make such an objection, knowing that the platform of that society is non- sectarian, broad and liberal, and that to their mect- ings all are invited to come and labor in the great cause of remap OF no matter what may be the religious belief of one or auothor, To discard the Bible aud ignore the labors of those who do believe in the Gospel would indeed be too narrow minded for # society like that of the N. T, 1, What would Ingersoll Lockwood think of the tem. rance society which would discard the labors of one use, forsvoth, he was an infidel? The cause of temperance is one in which the aid of every intelli- gent man and woman is needed, and it is of too great moment for us to cavil about whether an saved by Gospel temperance or otherwise, accept every means which presents itself, is saved through Gospel teachii vt tie thank God; if saved through the labors of those who do not believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, let us thank Him all the more that He does bless the labors of those who deny His love and power. While I do accept Christ before he yet 1 believe that many have been kept stoadfust by their honest conviction of the need of His grace; while 1 have also known many to be thoroughly reformed who would not listen to religious teachings. Do not lot us stop to argue about the manner of saving the fallen, When We rescue a man from the sea of intemperance he will scarcely ask w! ur temperance ship » the Pro' it or it saves him trom Nor will he stop to inqnire whether we are incited ta the good Samaritan work by the ten commandments of the Jew, the PEAyer,book of the Catholic of by. the, “faith of the wetant Christian, EMMA GATES CONKLIN. r z SENSATIONALISM. Dr. Talmage Declares There is Nothing So Much Needed. AND PROMISES MORE OF IT. The Army of Critics Disarmed at the Second Fire. Mr. Talmage preached yesterday morning in the Brooklyn Tabernacle on “Sensation vs. Stagna- tion,” concluding thereby his answer to his critics which was begun on the previous Sunday. After the doxology and the prayer the pastor read the lesson from Paul's appearance at Ephesus, Next Sunday Mr, Talmage will resume his series of sermons on the moral condition of the country as inferred from the condition of the cities, The Tabernacle was crowded, as usual, yesterday, and the preacher's promise that for the future he would be more sensa- tional than ever was received with satisfaction by his hearers. On the table near his chair was a beautiful cross of flowers, presented by a member of the con- gregation, the transverse arms bearing the words, “Help for All!” The text was taken from Acts, xix,, 23—«There arose no small stir about that way. THE SERMON. ‘What was the matter? asked Mr. Talmage, Why, Paul had been preaching sermons that seemed to up- set everything. People wondered what he would do next. Such a sensation was never heard of before or since, The fact was he was the great disturber of his age. He weut to Iconium and made a sensation, went to Corinth and made a sensation, went to Jeru- salem and made a sensation, Wherever he went, in the words of my text, “there arose no small stir about that way.”” What do you mean by sensation? Noah Webster says it is a state of excited interest or feeling. Nothing good for Church or State has ever been done without exciting sensation. Sensation is life. Stagnation is death, Before becoming a minister I found that religion was associated in the minds of many with dulness, I thought then what I think now, aud every layman thinks that there is something radically wrong about pulpits and churches. To keep aWake wo used to cat carraway seed—(laughter)—or cloves, or hold up one foot—(laughter)—or pinch ourselves, or count the window panes, or a mischievous brother would stim- ulate us by the stick of « pin—(laughter)—or an older sister give us a reproving look, which would fill us with self-abnegation, until, gazing at the pew where the seven elders sat in the old Dutch church, we saw the seven sloepers—(great laughter)—these good men having lost their hold at the second head of the dis- course, and then we felt that after all there might be hope for us when such good men were imperfect, HOW MR. TALMAGE SLEPT IN CHURCH, All sorts of stratagems people ply in church to ap- pear wakeful; sometimes during the sermon putting down their heads to give you the idea that they are overcome with emotion, when they are merely over- come with drowsiness. (Laughter.) If an audience sleep it is the fault of the minister. When a Scotch pastor cried out to one of his slumbering hearers, “Donald, take a pinch of snuff if you can’t keep awake,” Donald replied, “You had better put the pinch of snuff in the sermon.” (Laughter and ap- plause.) If with all the artillery of eternity at his hand the preacher cannot keep an audience awake, he has missed his profession. People have no pa- tience with an entertainment which is all napkin ring and finger bowl. All this complaint against people because they do not come to church should be put where it belongs. It is not so much the fault of the people as of us, the clergy. I judga others by myself. I cannot keep awake under @ sermon that lacks’ practicality. Some two years agoI went into one of the most aristocratic churches in New York for Sabbath service, Everything was beautiful—the church beautiful, the song beautiful, the preaching beautitul, the minister beautiful. But I got drowsy, and after making mantul resistance id to my companion, ‘‘There is no use; Ican hold out no longer,” and, putting my head on the back of. the pew, 1 went into one of the most slumbers of my life. (Great lsughter.) SENRATION FOREVER. As I told you in the tormer part of my anniversary ‘erapply antold religion to tbe’ prowens, "My sooond to apply an old religion presen’ secon reaglation was, if God would help me, I never would be dull, To say athingin church merely to make people laugh is reprenensible. To say a thing so Biikiogly true that it makes people laugh is another thing. I do not care whether they laugh or cry or hiss or or condemn or get up and go out, if they only quit sin and start with fleet fect for heaven. | In vain our expensive come and theological education of seven or ten years if we are buriea wp hopciessly in our own armor. In the day of eternity it may bs found out that some backwoods Methodist minister who had only three months’ schooling in his life, but with s zeal tor God that set all the prairies on fire with religious awakening, and preaching in hie shirt sleeves, has done more good than some of us who had all the titles of the schools and who were wrapped in gowns and surplices which were not thick enough to keep us from freezing to death in ecclesiasticisias twenty degrees below zero, (Laugh- ter.) A DECLARATION OF FAITH. The third result that I have been trying to carry out in this decade of my ministry here is never to explain to the people doctrines that I do not understand myself. I believe in God's sovereignty and man’s free agency, but to harmonize the doctrines I cannot. I believe the God is one in three persons; explain it I cannot, 1 believe that Christ was God and man at the same time; explain it cannot. tried for some years to do so, but found it the greatest undertaking in my life to make people understand what was beyond my own compreuension. After I hoped that I had made the subject plainer to others than it was to me, and had pronounced the benediction at the foot or the pulpit, some plain man would ask me a question on the sub- ject discussed that I could not answer, and 1 was obliged to tell him that I would see him some other time. (Great agg But there are some things I do know. is wrong; that I know, Christ came to get us out of it; that I know. That He is so sympsthetic that tatherly and mother! compassion are cruelty compared with it; that know. There are so many things that I do know be- yond controversy and mistake thut I shuil take heither your precious time nor my own to tell what 1do not know. I hada large fire at my house the other night. I burned up about five hundred manu- scripts of sermons, for at the beginning of ny minis+ try I wrote all my sermons out word tor word, ‘These sermons explain all the mysteries of religion, and the doctrine of election they made clear as a Scotch mist or San Francisco fog. As we put those manuscripts into the kitchen fire I felt that they gave out more warmth than at any time in their existence. The best thing that we can do with Chris tian work with no warmth in it is to burn it. Aen, my dap Sa Sd In whch in, my People, wi has been my happiness ‘to administer to you it has been my resolution to smite Say. whenever I saw it, reckless of the consequences, What has made the national excitement of these sermons? The fact that they were awfully true. If a yroup of dogs be fight- ing on the common and you a stone at the: which one howis? The one that is hit. The wors! sign of the times is that the public make so many ministers hush up, You mightas well expect to cure yellow fever or Asiatic cholera by caving nothing about it. In order that I might ht home at theve iniquities I went to see them w! etn oA The Ne ep sense of bal = boom = = world approved my course, poople who though? that instead of thatI ought to ave gone up on Brooklyn Heights, loaded my gun with — blank aimed = over at the Fourth New York, turned iy head the other way and shut may oven, then pulled the trigger. (Laughter.) Because not do it that way there were some ministers who became frantic in regard to my plan of exploration. They approved of Stanley's explorations to Central Africa and of Fro- mont's exploration of ee interior of North Americ but were afraid heatheniasm and cruolty and horror within five min- utes’ walk of Broadway, New York, You would havd thought that I had been the first who had ever un- dertaken this work, I cen call the names of promi- nent ministers and Evangelists in all our great cities who have made the same underground tour, Some of the police who had accompanied mo had accom. panied them. (Laughter and applause.) Yes, Lcould make 6 big disturbance in @ great many churches in New York and Brooklyn if 1 wished it, but I never make any disturbances. (Laughter.) The differ. ence between thom and myself was that th said nothing about it, except among minis friends, and Iinede public use of it warn the young men of this country against what I had seeu, which I was enabled to do through these journalists (turning to the reporters) whom I shall, to the ay of my death, thank tor their kindness, In all my lief nevor about anything felt so sure that 1 was right. Some years ago I preached on the average Ameri- can theatre, Lwas told that 1 knew nothing about it. Ishall spend no more time looking through other people's spectacles. (Laughter) God haa given me two first rate eyes and I mean to use them. — (Laughs ter.) But whether I depict sin or commend Christ, [ will hereafter take the most startling and arousing things Tecan find, and the most starting and arousing pon perweer | wae & Ergetes ad moet boy and arousing results; wiiling, if 1 ean save men, ee call me sain In the poo suit, ion vs. Stagnation, Lappeat as for the plaintiff, (Applause.) ney