The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-05-14

mans life, and to sweeten that acid dis
position, and to put sparkle into the
mans spirits? The spicery of our holy
religion. Why, if between the losses
Of life there dashed a CLEAN of an eter-
nal gain; if between the betrayals of
life there came the CLEAN of the INDY
ing friendship of Christ; if in dull times
in business we found minstering spirits
flying to and fro in our Office and store
and shop, everyday life, instead of be-
ing stupid monotone, would be a
glorious Inspiration, penduluming be-
tween calm satisfaction and high rapt-
ure.
AN INExpLICABLE MYSTERY.
How any woman keeps house with
out the religion of Christ to help her is
q mystery to me. To have to spend
the greater part of ones life, as many
women do, in planning for the meals,
in stitching garments that will soon be
rent again, and deploring breakages,
and supervising tardy subordinates,
and driving off dust that soon again
will settle, and doing the same thing
day in and day out, and year in and
year out, until their hair slvers, and
the back stoops, and the spectacles
crawl to the eyes, and the grave breaks
| open under the thin sole of the shoe
oh, it is a long monotonyl But when
| Christ comes to the drawing room, and
| comes to the kitchen, and comes to the
nursery, and comes to the dwelling,
| then how CHEEKY become all womanly
duties She is never alone now. Mar
tina gets through fretting and joins
Mary at the feet of Jesus.
All day long Deborah is happy be-
cause she can help Lapidoth; Hannah,
because she can make a coat for young
Samuel; Miriam, because she can watch
her infant brother; Rachel, because she
can help her father water the stock
the widow of Sarepta, because the
cruise of oil is being -replenished. O
woman! having in your pantry nest of
boxes containing all kinds of condi-
ments why have you not tried in your
heart and life the spicery of our holy
religion? Martha! Martial thou art
careful and troubled about many things
but one thing is needful, and Mary hath
chosen that good part which shall not
be taken away from her."
| must confess that a great deal of
the religion of this day is utterly in
sipid. There is nothing piquant or ele-
| waiting about it. Men and women go
around humming psalms in minor
key, and culturing melancholy and
their worship has in it more signs than
rapture We do not doubt their piety
Oh, no. But they are sitting at a feast
where the cook has forgotten to season
the food Everything is flat in their
experience and in their conversation.
Emancipated from sin and death and
hell and ON their way to magnificent
heaven, they act as though they were
trudeing on toward an everlasting
Botany bay Religion does not seem
to agree with them. 1t seems to catch
in the windpipe and become tight
strangulation instead of an exhilara-
ton.
All the infidel books that have been
written from Voltaire down to Herbert
Spencer, have not done so much dam
age to our Christianity as lugubrious
Christians Who wants religion
woven out of the shadows of the night
Why go growing on your way to celes.
tial enthronement2 Come out of that
cave, and sit down in the warm light
of the Sun of Righteousness. Away
with your odes to melancholy and
Hervey's "Meditations Among the
Tombs"
Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We're marching through Emmanuel'
ground
| To fairer worlds on high.
have to say, also, that we need tt
put more spice and enlivenment in oul
religious teaching, whether it be in the
prayer meeting or in the Sabbath
school or in the church We minister
|
lungs and our hearts and our head
Do you wonder that the world is so fa
from being converted when you find 81
little vivacity in the pulpit and in tn
pew2 We want, like the Lord, to plan
in our sermons and exhortations NOR
, lilies Of the field. We want fewe
, rhetorical Celebrations and fewer ses
, quipedalian words; and when we tall
, about shadows we do not want to sa
adumbration; and when we meal
, queerness, we do not want to talk abou
. idiosyncrasies; or if a stitch in the back
! we do not want to talk of lumbago
5 but in the plain vernacular preach tina
{ gospel which proposes to make all mel
happy, honest, victorious and free.
In other words, we want more CHINA
mon and less gristle Let this be SO il
all the different departments of worl
to which the Lord calls u.s. Let us b
plain. Let us be earnest Let us b
/, common sensical. When we talk to til
people in vernacular they can under
stand they viii be very glad to com
and receive the truth we present
: Would to God that Queen Balkis woul
drive her spice laden dromedaries int
all our sermons and prayer meeting e.
hortations
More than that we want more iii