Loyalist Day: Appropriate Discourses in the Churches

Year
1884
Month
5
Day
19
Article Title
Loyalist Day: Appropriate Discourses in the Churches
Author
-----
Page Number
3
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
LOYALIST DAY. Appropriate Discourses in the Churches. Yesterday was the 101st anniversary of the landing of the Loyalists in St. John, which event occurred on Sunday, May 18th, 1783. In several churches sermons appropriate to the anniversary were preached. TRINITY CHURCH. Rev. Mr. Brigstocke preached from Acts viii, 8: "And there was joy in the city." The general scope of his discourse can be gathered from the conclusion, which was as follows:— Having now sufficiently, I trust, vindicated the power of Christianity to give joy in the city, it only remains that I should speak of it in relation to our own immediate responsibilities and wants. I trust that say that no city can be really Christian but by each citizen becoming a personal believer in Jesus Christ. There cannot be truth, and fidelity, and honesty, and sympathy, and kindness, and love, except by the grace of the Holy Ghost. The character of the city depends on its individual inhabitants. Each one is making it a better place or a worse by the life he is living. And if men care not for themselves, I say, for the welfare of those around them, they ought to lead Christian lives, everyone, therefore, is doing best for himself, for his family, for his city, who lives a life of devotion and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And speaking here, my brethren, to you who are engaged in the business or this city, let me press on you the importance of putting a Christian character on all your business transactions. A Christian man should carry the truth of Christ and the morality of Christ into all he does; let him engage in no undertaking that will not bear the light of the Gospel. And to you, on whom the social character of the city chiefly depends, see that it be Christ-like, charitable, generous and pure, less sensual, less extravagant and less trifling. Let it not be your ambition to spend your husband’s income before he has earned it, to outdo a neighbor or make a display. And let the young men and young women remember that the future character of the city will rest on them, and that the habits they contract now will bear their fruit in the years to come. If youth is spent in frivolity and sin, more mature years will be marked by weakness and failure. In all ages life is real and earnest, and demands at the hands of all sobriety of conduct and the guidance of Christian principles. If you fail or disdain to be Christian men and Christian women what chance is there for the city of your fathers? It will become worse than it is, lets of joy in it and more of misery. Let each one then recognize the fact that the Christian character of the city is a matter of personal concern, and that each one is doing something to make it better or worse. There is much that needs to be taken into account with this fact. Recent disclosures have revealed a state of society which is most unchristian. What can be thought of the reported fact that while the Church of Christ is ever crippled, and sometimes thought to be extravagant in particulars; while philanthropic and benevolent institutions, as the Protestant Orphan Asylum and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, receive scant support, $7,000 are spent in twelve months in the maintenance of vice and wickedness? What condemnation can be visited on those who thus stain the Christian character of our city and promote such an element of danger and misery? You will readily know why I have spoken to day relatively to our city life. To-day it saw its birth; it has grown to goodly proportions, but if it is yet to flourish and develops we must take care that we adhere to the principles on which it was founded. To no purpose are these goodly structures if we are not doors of the Word which is preached. See to it that your personal life be more and more a life of faith in a crucified Savior, so shall you promote the joy which Christianity brings to our city. Let the Christian character of the city be your law, and let it be your ambition, and so give your hearty co-operation to make this church of the Loyalists a center of ever-expanding usefulness, and the most important factor in promoting the city’s highest welfare. Beautiful as it is for situation, let us all strive to make it a city of the living God. CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. The Rev. Irving L. Beman, the pastor, having returned to the United States, the pulpit of this church was occupied yesterday by Rev. D. D. Currie. In the morning Mr. Currie preached from the text: "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord."—Psalm xxxvii, 23. He referred to the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth, New England, over 260 years ago, followed by the Puritan Fathers, and the great influences thereof upon this continent for good. He further drew attention to the fact that on a Sunday, one hundred and one years ago, the Loyalist Fathers landed at St. John and laid the foundations of this City. Whatever had grown out of their landing here, we who live at the present time could not take the credit to ourselves. We enjoyed the blessings and the comforts, and God had ordered that we should live at this particular period. We ought to be thankful that our lot was not cast in the stormy times of two or three hundred years ago, when the stake and the prison fell to the lot of those who advocated the truths of the Gospel even in the most favored country in the world. We, who live in this province, have great reason to rejoice in out liberties, the healthfulness of our climate, the freedom of our government, for the comforts within our reach, and for our educational and religions privileges, God has bestowed upon ns a goodly heritage, and if we would be true to Him we must perform the work that lies within our reach and at our very doors. While God orders our steps, and while he is doing his part. We should be co-workers with Him. God throws responsibilities upon men, each one in his own particular time, and it is for our action and course, when the emergencies and opportunities arise, that we will be held responsible. Paul would gladly have gone to Rome in the earlier part of his Christian life, but God had other work for him at first; Phillip would have remained where there were multitudes of people, but God had work for him, in the desert; and obeying the voice of the Lord they carried out God’s plans instead of their own, and were blessed in their work. Others had turned aside from doing the good they had set out to perform and had sought their own devices or their own aggrandisement, and God had left them to themselves, so that their work had come to naught. He urged upon his hearers to be faithful to God and lay bold of all opportunities of doing good which God permitted to come within their reach. The sermon was specially adapted to the anniversary. The announcement was made that Rev. J. B. Saer, B. D., of Wingham, Ont., would occupy the pulpit on Sunday next.