The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-01-23
The Right Sort of Religion.

AS quite number of clergymen have
undertaken to carry religion and religious
sentiment into the counting-room, the
workshop, the office and the family circle,
we commend to their consideration the fol-
lowing schedule of a very desirable charac-
ter of religion advertised for some years
since by The Congregatioaatist 1--WE
want religion that goes into the family
and keeps the husband from being spteful
when the dinner is late, and keeps the dim
ner from being late-keeps the wife from
fretting when the husband tracks the new
ly washed floor with his muddy boots, and
makes the husband mindful of the scraper
and the floor mat; keeps the mother patient
when the baby is cross, and keeps the
baby pleasant; amuses the children as well
as instructs them; wins as well as governs;
projects the honeymoon into the harvest
moon, and makes the happy hours like the
Eastern fig tree, bearing in its bosom at
once the beauty of the tender bios
SON and the glory of the ripening fruit.
| We want religion that bears heavily, not
on the Exceeding sinfulness Of SIM but on
the exceeding rascalityiof lying and stealing;
a religion that banishes small measures
from the counters, small baskets from the
stalls, pebbles from the cotton bags, clay
from paper, sand from sugar, chicory from
coffee, otter from butter, beet juice from
vinegar, alum from bread, strychnne from
wine. water from milk cans and buttons
from the contribution box. The religion
that is to save the world will not put all
the big strawberries at the top and all the
bad ones at the bottom. 1t will not offer
more baskets of foreign wine than the Vine
yards ever produced bottles, and more bar
rels of Genesee flour than all the wheat
fields of New York grow and all her mills
grind. 1t will not make one-half pair OF
Shoes of good leather and the other of poor
leather, so that the first shall rebound to
the makers credit and the second to his
cash. x
at will not put Jouvin's stamp on Jen-
kins' kid gloves, nor make Paris bonncts
| in the back room of Boston milliner'S
shop, nor let piece Of velvet that probes
SEES to measure twelve yards come to an UNI
timely end in the tenth, or spool Of sew
inc silk that vouches for twenty yards be
: nipped in the bud at fourteen and a-half
I nor the cotton thread spool break to thu
yard-stick fifty of the two hundred yards
of promise that was given to the eye, no
l yard-wide cloth measure less than thirty
six inches from selvedge to selYedge, no
: all-wool delaines and all-linen handkerchief
be amalgamized with clandestine cotton
nor coats made of wooden rags pressed to
. gether be sold to the unsuspecting pub
{ lie for legal broadcloth. 1t does no
put bricks at five dollars a thousan
c into chimneys it contracted to bull
: of seyen.dollar materials, nor SNUG
gle white pine floors that have pal
!. for hard pine, nor leave yawning cracks
closets where boards ought to join, nc
e daub ceilings that ought to be smooth
: plastered, nor make window blinds of sla'
9, that cannot stand the wind, and paint ths
4 cannot stand the sun, and fastenings thu
le NAV be looked at but are on no account
&c be touched. The religion that is to sanct
fly the world pays its debts. 1t does NJ
% consider that forty cents returned for OF
W hundred cents given is according to Il
as gospel, though it may be according to Ia,
+; 1t looks upon a man who has failed
90 trade and who continues to live in luxu
ed as a thief. 1t looks upon a man w
promises to pay fifty dollars on demal
with interest, and who neglects to pay
on demand with or without interest, as
liarO