EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS.
The new pastor of the Park Street Church, Boston, Rev. David Gregg, in his first sermon after installation, discussed the duties of the Pulpit and the Pews. One who heard it said at the close, “Well, that was a sermon that would please the secretaries of our benevolent societies as well as the rest of us.” Depend on it, that any sermon of which such testimony can be borne has two things characteristic of it: One is, it must be a gospel sermon, and another is, it must be interesting. It has been our privilege to read the sermon as reported in the Boston daily papers. It fills the bill. It is full of the gospel, and a thrill of interest runs all the way through it. Speaking for the Secretaries of the A. M. A., we can say they are pleased, intensely so. Here are two brief extracts that sufficiently justify their pleasure: “Is it the duty of Park Street pulpit to accept the service and co-operation of the Park Street pews? The pulpit here and now solemnly performs its duty, and declares its acceptance of co-operation and service. I have come among you for this very purpose. I come to beseech you to throw yourself for all you are worth into the work of the church, I come to command you in the name of the Lord that you love, not for yourselves. I greet your locked-up wealth, and ask it to come forth from the vaults of the bank to meet me and to join me in the work of Christ. I promise you to be the most liberal man in the world in dealing out your money from your pocket-books, and in accepting and in giving away your time. I am willing that every righteous and needy cause under the broad heavens shall call upon you for aid. I come among you to tell you that you have the same obligations before God to consecrate yourselves and all you have to the gospel that Jesus Christ had when he lived his sublime and devoted life. I put a gospel mortgage this day upon the pastor and people of this church, and upon all that we have, by way of brain and heart power, and gold and trade, and time and business, and natural endowment and acquired attainment. Park Street pews, you can offer no good thing to the pulpit of this church, in order that you may glorify Christ and build up his cause here, that the pulpit will not take and publicly credit. This pulpit welcomes to the service of Christ every agency filled with the spirit of Christ.” * * * * * * *
“If we are to realize the possibilities open to us as pastor and people, we must keep a constant eye upon the land and age in which we live. Our age and our country speak to us to-day. Because our lot has been cast in them, they have a claim upon us, and their voice should be heard. Our age is an age telling of ages, and it commands us to meet the duties of the hour. No relations in life ought to be more helpful for this than our church relations. There is no place for mediæval fossils outside of a museum. The demand of the hour is for living men and living women. Our age is a pivotal age, a cardinal age, a burning age, a crucial age. Let us not forget that we are living under the westering sun of the 19th century, and that this lays us under obligations to be 19th century Christians.
“While we forget not the age, we must not forget the land in which we live, and which expects an outcome of good from our church relations. America is the land where the battles of the future are destined to be fought. In push of discovery and of civilization there is no land beyond this. The fields of America are the outer rim of the earth, and here the nations of the world, crowded out of the old lands, meet, and here all the great problems and questions of ages must be debated and settled. Our land cries for help, and we can help it. We can give it the gospel of Jesus Christ and that is what it needs above all things. The gospel alone carries in it the principles which can solve with safety and finality the social and political questions which are coming to America to stay.”
By treaty stipulations the Chinese in this country are guaranteed the same rights and privileges as are accorded the most favored nations. One Thomas Baldwin was arrested by a United States Marshal for driving out with force and violence a number of Chinese residents from the town of Nicolaus, California. The circuit court refused to discharge him upon a writ of habeas corpus. An appeal was taken to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court looked the matter through and found that while the United States Government has the power to provide for the punishment of those who deprive the Chinese of their treaty rights, there is no statute law by which it can exercise its power! The decision of the circuit court was therefore reversed. Justices Field and Harlan dissented. In a separate opinion, Justice Field held that if the Chinese could not be protected in their treaty rights, neither could the subjects or citizens of any other nation. This is a beautiful attitude for the great United States to be placed in before the eyes of the world. Making treaties when it has not power to compel its own citizens to observe them! What a farce. Is it to be supposed that if this were understood nations would go to the trouble of making treaties with us? Were the questions at issue about the Chinese raised in regard to subjects of Great Britain or Germany or any of the first or even second-class powers of Europe, is it to be supposed that any such a decision would have been formulated and promulgated by our Supreme Court? We do not question the ability nor the integrity of our justices. The probability is that in the strict construction of the law they are right. But even judges, when put to it, can sometimes find such latitude in the field of interpretation as to warrant them in setting aside mere technicalities rather than to allow justice to be defeated.
That such eminent jurists as Field and Harlan found interpretations that justified them in dissenting; that the circuit court in California found reasons for refusing to release Baldwin from custody, would certainly indicate that the decision is fairly challengeable. It is a national humiliation. It ought to be so felt by the people. It would be so felt if regard for right and justice were supreme in the national heart and conscience. It is to be hoped that this matter will be brought by the proper authority, as soon as practicable, to the attention of Congress, and that the United States Government will speedily be clothed with statutory power to enforce its own treaties. If this decision shall have the effect of getting us out of the painful predicament that it reveals our Government to be in, we may reluctantly accept it as a means of grace. Meanwhile even China is on record as being far more Christian in her treatment of our people than Christian America is in its treatment of hers.