The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1856-04-12
Gbt Wetklg MinneButlau.
From the London Times.
Ut -------7. From the L0nu0n T1nfeke
The queens sermon---Religion in Common
Life.

From the London Times.
III. Queens STANDARDIZATION in Common
Life.
Operas ssby royal command" tragedies,
comedies and farces 'sby royal command"
and multifarious kinds of exhibitions "by
royal command" are common enough; but
the publication of sermon, 'by royal COM
mand," is phenomenon of such rare occur
renee, that some curiosity may naturally be
felt to know something about the man whom
the Queen "delighted to honor" 1t is nei-
Their archbishop nor bishop, neither arch
deacon nor any Of the great ecclesiastical
hierarchy, who is thus highly distinguished,
but simple country clergyman, who preach
ed before Her Majesty and her slender court,
as the usual congregations in Crathio parish
church, on Her ,Majesty's visit to Balmoral,
in the course of the autumn. And the SER
mon itself. Is it doctrinal or practical? Is
it High Church, Low Church, Broad Church,
or Latitudinarian What manner of doc
trine is it that is SO acceptable to royal ears
as to induce the Queen to depart from usual
custom? The story goes that Prince AL
bert alleged the sermon to be the best he
had ever heard, or expected ever to hear
again. A perusal of Mr.. Cards sermon will
lead to a general concurrence with the judg-
ment passed upon it by Her Majesty and
Prince Albert. 1t is neither vsSy learned,
very brilliant, nor very poetical it deals not
all with doctrinal points, and settles none of
those vexed questions of Theology with which
wakeful congregations are puzzled, and SOM
nolent ones composed. Mr.. Card is one of
those preachers who condescend to be plain
and practical-we had nearly said, inteligi-
BILE. Romans, MI. H., "Not slothful in bus
mess fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, "
supplies him with text, and his aim is to
prove what is more vital than creeds and
more difficult of incubation than the incest
point of doctrine-viZ., that religion may be
blended with the work Of common life
that, as God has made us dependent on work
for our daily bread, so He has rendered it
possible for us to live life of fervent piety
amidst the most engrossing worldly pur-
suits. The doctrine is by no means unfami-
the subject of religion. In weighing such a
be out of place the matter and the manner
will best be shown by few extracts. The
preacher here introduces his subject
To combine business with religion, to
keep up a spirit of serious piety amid the
stir and distractions of busy and active
life-this is one of the most difficult parts
of Christians trials in this world. 1t is
comparatively easy to be religious in the
church-to collect our thoughts and COM
pose our feelings, and enter, with an appear
ance of propriety and decorum, into the
offices of religious worship, amidst the quie-
tude of the Sabbath and within the still and
sacred precincts of the house of prayer.
But to be religious in the world-to be pious
and holy and earnest-mindedi in the counting
house, the mandatory, the market-place,
the field, the farnl-to carry out our good
and solemn thoughts and feelings into the
tlrong and thoroughfare of daily life-this is
the great difficulty Of our Christian calling.
No man not lost to all moral influence can
help feeling his worldly passions Gained and
some measure of seriousness stealing over
his mind when engaged in the performance
of the more awful and sacred rites of reli-
gion; but the atmosphere of the domestic
circle, the exchange, the street, the city's
throng, amid coarse work and cankering
cares and tolls, is a very different atmos-
phere from that of a communion table. Pass
ing from the one to the other has often SEEM
ed as if the sudden transition from a tropical
to polar climate, from balmy warmth and
sunshine to murky mist and freezing cold.
And it appears sometimes as difficult to
maintain the strength and steadfastness of
religious principle and feeling when we 90
forth from the church into the world, as it
would be to preserve an exotic alive in the
open air in winter, or to keep the lamp that
burns steadily within doors from being
blown out if you take it abroad unsheltered
from the wind.
$50 great, so all but insuperable, has this
difficulty ever appeared to men, that it is but
few who set themselves earnestly and reso-
lutely to the effort to overcome it. The great
majority, by various shifts and expedients,
eyade the real tax of being good and holy,
at once in the church and in the world.
In ancient times, for instance, it was, as
we all know, the not uncommon expedent
among devoted persons-men deeply i'm
pressed with the thought of an eternal world
and the necessity of preparing for it, but
distracted by the effort to attend to the du-
ties of religion amid the business and temp
tations of secular life-to fly the world alto
gether, and, abandoning society and all social
claims, to betake themselves to some hermit
solitude, some quiet and clustered retreat,
where, as they fondly deemed, the world
forgetting, by the world forgot their work
became worship, and life be uninteruptedly
devoted to the cultivation Of religion in the
soul. In our own day the more common
device, where religion and the world conflict,
is not of that superstitious recluse, but even
one much less safe and venial. Keen for
this world, yet not willing to lose all hold
on the next-eagcr for the advantages of
time, yet not prepared to abandon all reli-
gion and stand by the consequences, there is
a very numerous class who attempt to COM
promise the matter-to treat religion and
the world like two creditors whose claims
cannot both be iquidated, by compromising
with each for share, though in this case a
most disproportionate share, of their time
and thought. Every thing in its own
place. is the tacit reflection of such men.
Prayers, sermons, holy reading they will
scarcely venture to add 'God'-'are for Sun
days; but week days are for the sober bus
mess, the real practical affairs of life. Enough
FIVE give the Sunday to our religious duties;
we cannot be always praying and reading
the Bible. Well enough for clergymen and
good persons who haye nothing else to do, to
attend to reEgiol thfough Tie Eesk; bat
for US, we have pther and. .nnYfe praciisa1
matters to mind So the result is that reli-
gion IS matls altogether Sunday tlnItg:.. "a a
robe too fire for sQthtpen wear; but. fakesi:6,,
solemnly on state occasions. and soiemnnly
put past when the state occasion is over
Like an idler in a crowded thorouchfare. re-
ligion is jostled aside in the daily tbrono of
life, as ii 1T had no business there. Like a
needful yet disagreeable medicine. men will
be content to take it now and then for their
SOUPS health, but they cannot, and will not.
make it their daily fare-tba c,,be+.,4;1