Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-02-21

the better.
Yes, this practical religion will also go into
agriculture, which is proverbiallY honest but
needs to be rectified, and it Will keep the
farmer from sending to the New York mar
ket veal that is too young to kill. and when
the farmer farms on shares it will keep the
man who does the work from making his
half three-foarths and it will keep the farmer
from building his posts and rail fence on his
neigabors premises and it will make him
shelter his cattle in the winter storm, and it
will keep the old elder from workingoa Suu-
day afternoon in the new ground when no
body sees him. And this practical religion
will hover over the hous,. AMI over the barn,
and over the field, and over the orchard.
Y es this practical religion OF which speak
will come into the learned professions. The
lawyer will feel his responsibility in defend
ing innocence, and arraigning evil, and ex-
pounding the law, and it will keep him from
charging for briefs he never wrote and for
pleas he never made, ami for percentages he
never earned, and from robbing widow and
orphan because they are detenseless. Yes,
this practical religion will come into the
physicians life and he will feel the respons:-
bility as the conservator of the public health,
a profession honored by the fact that Christ
Himself was physician And it viii make
him honest. and when he does not understand
a case he will say So not trying to cover up,
lack of dia 9nosis with pon1erous technicali-
ties, or send the patient to reckless drug
store because the apothecary happens to pay!
percentage on the prescriptions sent.
And this practical religion will come to
the school teacher, making her feel her re-
sponsibihty in preparing our youth for use
fulness, and for happiness, and for honor,
and will keep her from giving sly box to a
dull heLd chastlsing him for what he cannot
help, and sending disbursement all through
the after years OF lifetime. This practical
religion will also come to the newspaper
men, and it will help them il the gathering
of the news, and it will help them in setting
forth the best interests of society, and it viii
keep them from putting the sins of the
world in larger type than its virtues, and;
its mistakes than its achievements.
Yes, this religion, this practical religion, ,
will come and put its hand on what is callel
good society, elevated society. successful So ,
ciety, so that people VIII have their expsndi-
lures within their income, and they will ex
change the hypocritical mot at home" for
the honest explanation 'too tired or ''too
busy to see you,n and will keep innocent re-
ception from becoming intoxicating convivi-
ality.
Yes, there is a great opportunity for mis-
sionary work in what are called the success
full classes of society. Il is no rare thing
now to see a fashionable woman intoxicated
in the street, or the rail car, or the restau-
rant. The number of fine ladies who drink
too much is increasing. Perhaps you may
find her at the reception in most exalted
company, but she has made too many visits
to the wine room, and now her eye is CLASSY
and after while her cheek is unnaturally
flushed, and then she falls into fits of
excruciating laughter about nothing, and
then she offers sickening batteries, telling
some homely man how well he looks, and
then she is helpei into the carriage, and by
the time the carriage get to her home it
takes the husband and coachman to get her
up the stairs. The report is, She was taken
suddenly i'll at a german. All! no. She
took too much champagne, and mixed
liquors, and got drunk. That was all.
es, this practical religion will have to
come in and fix up the marriage relation in
America. There are members of churches
who have too many wives and too many hus-
bands. Society needs to be expurgated and
washed and fumigate1 AMI Christianized-
Wehave missionary societies to reform Elm
street in New YORK, Bedford street, Phila-
delphia. and Snoreditcl, London, and the
Brooklyn docks; but there is need OF an Or
ganization to reform much that is going on
in Beacon street and Madison square and
Rittenhouse square and West End and
Brooklyn Heights and Brooklyn Hill. We
want this practical religion not only to take
hold of what are called the lower classes,
but to take hold Of what are called the
higher classes The trouble is that people
have an idea they can do all their religion on
Sunday with hymn book and prayer book
and liturgy, and some OF them sitin church
rolling up their eyes as though they were
ready for translation, when their Sabbath is
bounded on all sides by an inconsistent life,
and while You are expecting to come out from
under their arms the wings of an angel there
come out from their forehead the horns Of
beast
There has got to be new departure in
religion. l do not say a new religion.
Oh no; but thu old brought to new
appliances. In our time wa have had the
daguerreotype, and the am5rotyp9, aud tho
photograph, but it is the same old sun, and
these arts are only new appliances OF the old
sunlight. So this glorious Gospel is just
what we want TO photograph the image OF
God on one soul, daguerreotype it on another
soul Not new Gospel, but the old Gospel
put to new work. In our time we have haul
phe telegraphic invention, and the telephone
invention, and the electric light invention,
but they are all the children of old cleo
tr.ciby, an element that the philosophers
have long while known much about, SO
this electric Gospel needs to fash its light
on the eyes and ears and souls of men, and
became a telephone medium to make the
Geaf hear. a Geographic medium to dart in
vitation and warning to all nations; an cleo
trio light to illuminate the eastern and west
ern Esmispheres. Not new Gospel but th,
old Gospel doing a new work.
Now Won say, THAT is very beautiful
theory but is it possible to take ones reiig-
ion into all the avocations AMI business OF
life" Yes, AMI / will give You few soeci-
mems. Medical doctors who too,z their re-
hgion into every lay. life: Dr. Joan Absr-
crombie, of Aberdeen, tda greatest Scottish
physician Of taa day, his book on Diseases
of the Brain and Spinal Cord, no more Won
derful than his bool on The Philosophy OF
the Moral Feelings ana often iueeling at
the be 1side of his patients to comment than
to God ia prayer. Dl, John Brown, OF Ed
ilburgh, immortal as an author diving under
the ben9dictioa OF the sie.i of Edinburgh,
myself remembering him as be SIT in his
study in E1iahuPgh talking to me about
Christ an his hope OF heeyel. And score
Of Christian family physicians i'll Brooklyn
gust as good as thsy were.
Lawyers who carrie their religion into
tleir profession; The la: Lord Cairns the
Queens adviser for many years, the highest
leEal authority in Great Britan-Lo.d
Cairns, every summer in his vacation, preach
ing as an Evangelist among The poor of his
country. John Mclean, Judge of the Su-
prene Court Of the United States AMI Pres:-
dent of the American Sunday School Union,
feeling more satisfaction in the latter office
taan in the former Aud scores OF Christian
lawyers as eminent in the church OF Gol as
they are eminent at the bar
Merchants who to0I ta9r religion Into
everyday life: Arthur Tappan, derided in
his day because he established that system
by which we come to find out the CONNER
cial staining OF business mau, starting that
entire system, dsride1 for it then, himself,
as knew him we'll, III moral character Al.
Monday mornings inviting to a room in the
TOP of his storehouSe the clerks of his estab-
lsament, asking them about their worldly
interests AMI tIsir spiritual interests then
giving out hymn. leading in prayer, Civ
ing them a few words of good advice, asking
them what church they asten1e on the Sab
bath, what tde text was, whether they had
any especial troubles their Own. Arthur
Tapoan, l never heard his eulOgy pro-
nouncei. | pronounce it now. And other
merchants just as g0oi. William &. Dodge,
in the iron business; Noses H. Grinnell. in
the shipping business; Petsr Cooper, in the
glus business. Scoras o. mal just as god
as they were.
Farmers who take thar religion into their
occupation: Why, this minute their horses
and wagons stand around all the meeting
houses in America. They began this day by
prayer to GOD, AMI when tdey get home at
noo1, after they have pa their h9rses up,
will Offer prayer to God at the table seeking
a blessing. and this sumner there will be in
their felds not one dishonest b sad of rye.
not one dishonest ear OF corn, not one dis
honest apple. Worshioing Col today away
uo among the Bark hire Hills, or away down
amid the lagoous OF Florida, or away out
amid the nnes o. Coloralo 10, or along the
banks os the Passaic and the R1ritau, where
! knew the II better because went to school
with thsln
Mechanics WHO took their religion into
their occupations: James Briaiiev, the IA
nous millwright: Nathaniel Bowditch, the
famous shin chandler: Etihu Burritt the ia