Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-04-04

They think they could do Gods work better
II their lot had been different. They think,
perhaps, that an occupation 30 menial as
theirs cannot possibly be the work Of God.
How can the loom, they say, be connected
with religion How can man by break
ing stones on the roadside be promoting the
glory Of God The poor man wishes he
were rich, just that he might employ his
wealth in the promotion Of piety. My dear
friend, let me ask you If liberality be the
virtue of wealth, are there no virtues pecu-
liar to poverty And were It not better for
you to cultivate the virtue Of the station
which God has assigned to you than vainly
to pine after another station, which never
can be yours The pieus layman, perhaps,
laments that his lips are sealed in silence,
and that he cannot as from the house-top
proclaim the praises of God and accord
ingly he wishes he were missionary,
that he might publish TO darkened idol.
aters the glad tidings Of salvation or, at
least, that he were minister of the gos
pei, that from the pulpit he might illuminate
the thunders of Sinai, or speak in the
softly persuasive whispers that come from
Calvary. My good friend, you err, not
knowing the gospel. Your work is as d.
vinely appointed as mine, and your duty is
to do it, to do it religiously and well,
know that some people foolishly think that
clergymen alone are the servants Of God,
that they only, and such as they, promote
the glory of God. My friends, tell you
that believe that many a poor artisan who
industriously and ungrumblingy plies his
trade, that be may honestly support wife
and family, or that he may keep an aged
parent from the parish, is more effectuslly
prppntip0 Coda o1ort, tha,,
GUS preacher of the Word. There is an
eloquence in the pious resignation, the con-
tented looks, the busy fingers OF the one,
which is not to be found in all the bombast
of the other; and no man of this kind can
calculate the in Dfiuence for goodness and for
God which he may exercise on society.
know nothing which has exercised more
pernicious influence on religion than that
unhappy divorce which has been effected
between religious duty and the everyday
duties of life. When a mother is faithfully
tending her children, and making her
hearthstone clean and her fire burn bright,
that everything may smile welcome
| to her weary husband when he returns
| from his work, it is never dreamed that
she is religiously employed. When man
works hard during the day and returns to
his family in the evening to make them all
happy by his placid temper and quiet Jokes
and dandlings on his knee, the world does
not think-perhaps he does not think him
| self-that there is religion in anything so
common as this. Religion is supposed to
stand aloof from such familiar scenes But
to attend the church, to take the sacrament,
to sing psalm, to say prayer, is religion.
| Now God help this poor sinful world if re-
| igion consists only in these things and not
also in the other. We have devotional feel
ings, and by all means let us give them ex-
ercise and utterance; but have we not other
feelings and other duties as certainly as these
assigned us by heaven? Why should we
count the one religious and not the other ?
Is religion to be shut up in the church, and
not allowed to visit the house2 Is she to
attend us only when we sit at the COM
munion table, and not also when we stand
at our counter or sit at our desk ? Why
should we not think that everything we do
is done religiously if it be done well ?-Reu.
John Cunningham, d. D., in Christian Union.