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DISCOURSE

DELIVERED AT

THE DEDICATION

OF THE

CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH,

IN BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

BY

THE REV. ORVILLE DEWEY,

PASTOR OF SAID CHURCH.

LONDON:

CHARLES FOX, 67, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1839.

Palmer and Clayton, Printers, 9, Crane-court, Fleet-street.

OTHE

DISCOURSE.

Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever.
Psalm xciii, 5,

"HOLINESS!" No place, however sacred-no occasion, however interesting, can be so great, as the principle which consecrates it. Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever.

When I think of this spiritual consecration, all outward adornments, decent rights, visible prosperitythe thronged gates and the gathering of a multitude, sink to nothing before me, and I feel that the great and sacred intent for which we have built this structure, could make any place sacred and sublime. Nay, my brethren, I can well conceive of circumstances in which loneliness, and desertion, and danger, would ennoble and endear to us a scene like this. If this, instead of being a temple of prosperous worship, were the altar of a forlorn hope; if we were met here to-day, to pledge a lofty and solemn fidelity to a rejected and scorned faith; if this were the cave or the catacomb, to which the early Christians stole in silence and darkness; greater and dearer might it be to us, than this fair sanctuary. Better than cushioned seats and painted walls, might be the ragged stone or the cold sarcophagus on which they leaned; and sweeter than chant or anthem, the stern and deep-toned voice of their great resolve.

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