The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-11-15


fast, and high days of one sort or another.
kept for display, as families keep heir
looms, to certify their responsibility,
rather than for constant use. We hear
much about the ceramic art these DAYS.
Many or our young ladies, and older
ones, too, and here and there a nervous
old gentleman, who has outlived his time
OF hard work, are going crazy over pot
terry and old china. They write books
about it, spend fortunes in making col
lections Of all the old bits of earthen-
ware they can hear of. They set apart
one room III the house for the display
OF such treasures And the use of il
Is to certify to the world the eminent
artistic respectabiliiy of the happy pos
SCISSORS.
There is great deal of ceramic reli-
gion, fine earthenware Christianity, old
China church membership. Lay it gently
on the shelf, cracked and faded and use
less thing, It certifies to a certain spir-
itual respectability of the happy possess
sor, but it is of no use on the tables of
the Church. Religion in that sense needs
to come down. Let us melt over and
grind our porcelain parlor ornaments.
The world is hungry and needs bread
plates loaded with loayes carried to it.
We want less display and more plain,
wholesome CnTistian living. Just as the
nat on cSme Tr tty near going 10 ruin
because OF bomoass and iEstian and
feathers iostered by the war, so the
Church. living on high pressure, and
s.orning OF. ntimes the lowly path which
| Christ trod, must reform her ways If she
would be most useful to man.
There are three questions that have
successfully led the Christian world.
/ The FIRST is: What do you think %
| Out OF that question grew our logical,
ponderous but grand systems Of doctrine.
Those great creeds, forged IN the fires of
the We rid's awakening thought, will ever
stand as monuments Of great crises
| They mark the great battles; the turns
ing points of human thought. Along
those wonderful statements of divine
truth, rs on great roads, we have marched
to our religious heritage and freedom.
The next question of great emphasis
Was this How do you feel p A very
important question, but matter OF
religion, easily exagge rated. Under that
test in revival fines the Church was
| Hooded with emotional people, VINO cry
at & meeting like el s.int>. ard act sll
/ the rest OF the time siae 90 sinners
/ was Isot what the thernlumtger % daily
/ ii g indicated, bus how III Ga fever Of
/ ie,-iibg cnu % 81 SCI times e w0t ed up.
That was lii, sentimental age, when
emotion, with trem bling rod ruled it
/ alike over truth and conduct. Let US
/ not undertake. it. Let us pity the man
| who does not always reverence genuine
tear. But the emphasis has now gone
/ further
The present leading question Is this
How do you act ?" And it indicates
| progress, because right action is the
I cTystallizsd result of intense thought
and intense feeling. When q mans
! thoughts are kindled by the truth IS IT
/ is in. Jesus, when his feelings are the
/ CLEANS OF this internal conviction, then
/ his life viii walk along a sunlit and de-
/ lightful path.
Is that religion of morality2 Well,
no other is good tor anything. What is
| the use of brilliant thoughts and strong
emotion if there is no upright life behind
them? Brilliant thinking has been the
shaft for criticism ever since men began
| to write criticism, and bubbling feeling
has been pierced by satire, but nobody
can write satire on pure, straight, grand
| living. That is one of the literary feats
that never can be performed. And
whether it can be profound life or an
emotional life matters very little. Men
do not ask the heroes who in Memphis
are going down in their battle of duty
how much they know or how much they
feel. Their works do praise them They
are the shafts over every grave. How
IN the last month the roll OF heroes has
grown And every one attests tho SUI
( nm IA Il
live great life-great, not in the pomp
which men call grealness-not even in
the demonstration OF The heart, but in
the single path OF daily duty or i daily
sacrifice.
. How do you act ~ has come to be
the tombstone of religious character aud
condition, net because 1t Is philosoph-
ically at the foundation. but because We,
shut mp TO the Inost superficial methods
OF judging, can measure the heart ouly
by the conduct! Conduct is the fruit OF
/ life, and behind the fruit is the tree, and
under the tree is the world. There may
| be something the matter with the wheels
/ OF watch, so that the hands do not in
| dicate properly the pressure of the spring
and the movement of the wheels; still,
| by The disl alone we note the hour of the
/ day. 1t is oflen true that conduct does
not faithfully and exactly measure the
state of the heart. We are better or
worse than our deeds. III there bs such
| comm@tion within that the measure OF
/ spiritual life is not fairly written on the
dial of the days work that is to be re-
GREETED. It is our mis- fortune, but the
world has no power to uncap the inner
wheels 1t must Judge alone by what it
sees So we need religion that knows
how to translate its finest thought and
feeling into the commenest of all our
living.-Interior (Chicago.)