Centennial services of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of the city of New York . Historical Sermon BY THE REV. JOSEPH R. Kerr, d. d, pastor. Rememiier tbt liaj^ of otti, coniSilier tbt pearjS of cenerationanb 0cnetation.—deut. xxxu. ?. HESE words are found in the famoussong of Moses, a song which sweepsI through his Farewell to Israel like agrand national epic strewn with suchhigh thoughts and sublime conceptions as entitleit to be ranked amongst the noblest specimens ofpoetry in ancient or modern literature. It is as full of trust for the future as of grati-tude for the past, but the impassion
Centennial services of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of the city of New York . Historical Sermon BY THE REV. JOSEPH R. Kerr, d. d, pastor. Rememiier tbt liaj^ of otti, coniSilier tbt pearjS of cenerationanb 0cnetation.—deut. xxxu. ?. HESE words are found in the famoussong of Moses, a song which sweepsI through his Farewell to Israel like agrand national epic strewn with suchhigh thoughts and sublime conceptions as entitleit to be ranked amongst the noblest specimens ofpoetry in ancient or modern literature. It is as full of trust for the future as of grati-tude for the past, but the impassioned part of itseems to have been inspired largely by the daysand the years that were 32 And this is reasonable; for who can view to-morrow as he views yesterday ? We seekers afterrevelation may be looking too long in the wrongdirection when we keep our eyes only in vision of new things is ever hazy, while thevision of old things may be clear and cheering asthey are reviewed in the light of retrospect andamid the gracious dealings of a covenant God. It is therefore not so much the hereafter asthe hitherto which prompts our psalm to-day,and moves us to build with wayside stones thememorial of a vanished century. When this church-century began, the Revolu-tionary war was closed. The independence of thecolonies was a recognized fact, but there remainedyet to be accomplished the organization and de-velopment of the Republic. As the enthusiasmof success began to subside, the exhaustion andsacrifice of the struggle became known and felt,so that between 1783 and 1789 was one of themost trying periods of our early national history. The city of New-York was then in it
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