Page:Pulpit and Press.djvu/27

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DEDICATORY SERMON
7

from the chariot-paths of justice, speaking of my work, said: “Had I young blood in my veins, I would help that woman.”

I love Boston, and especially the laws of the State whereof this city is the capital. To-day, as of yore, her laws have befriended progress.

Yet when I recall the past, — how the gospel of healing was simultaneously praised and persecuted in Boston, — and remember also that God is just, I wonder whether, were our dear Master in our New England metropolis at this hour, he would not weep over it, as he wept over Jerusalem! O ye tears! Not in vain did ye flow. Those sacred drops were but enshrined for future use, and God has now unsealed their receptacle with His outstretched arm. Those crystal globes made morals for mankind. They will rise with joy, and with power to wash away, in floods of forgiveness, every crime, even when mistakenly committed in the name of religion.

An unjust, unmerciful, and oppressive priesthood must perish, for false prophets in the present as in the past stumble onward to their doom; while their tabernacles crumble with dry rot. “God is not mocked,” and “the word of the Lord endureth forever.”

I have ordained the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” as pastor of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, — so long as this church is satisfied with this pastor. This is my first ordination. “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.”