Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-05-15

water the stock; the widow Of Sarepta, be-
cause the cruise OF oil is being replenished
/ o woman! having in your pantry a nest of
boxes containing all kinds OF condiments,
why have you not tried in your heart and
life the spicery OF our holy religioni
Martial Martial thou art careful and
troubled about many things; but one thing
is needful and Mary bath chosen that good
part which shall not be taken away from
her"
/ must confess that great deal of the re-
ligion OF this day is utterly ipsipid. There
ls nothing piquant or elevating about IL,
Men and women 60 around humming psalms
in a minor key and culturing melancholy,
and their worship has In Il more sighs 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 fiat 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 truiSng on toward au everlasting
Botany Bay. Religion does not seem to
agree with them. II seems 10 catch in the
wipdpipe and become a tight strangulatiou
instead of an exhiaration.
All the intidel books that have been writ
ten, from Notaire down to Herbert Spen.
| GER, have not done 30 much damage TO our
Christianity as lugubrious Christians Who
wants a religion woven out OF the shadows
Of the night! Why go growing on your way
! to celestial enthronement' Come out OF
that cave and sit down in the warm light Of
the Sun Of Righteousness. Away with your
odes to melancholy AMI Hervey's "Medita-
ucns Among the Tcmbs"
Then let our songs abound,
Aud every i-af Sv STy;
We're marching through Emmanue's ground
To fairer worlds on high.
| have to say. also, that we need to put
more spice and enlvenment in our religious
teaching, whether 1t be in the prayer meet
Ing, or in the Sabbath school, or in the
church. We ministers need more fresh air
and sunshine in our lungs aud our heart and
our head. Do you wonder that the world is
80 far from being con verted when you find
50 little vivacity in the pulpit and in the
pewf We want, like th4 Lord to plant in
our sermons and exhortations more lilies Of
the field. We want fewer rhetorical elabora-
tions and fewer seSquipedaian words; and
when we talk about shadows we do not want
to say adumbration; and when We mean
queerneSS, we do not want 20 talk about
idlosynCracies or II a stitch in the back, We
do not want TO talk about lumbago, but in
the plain vernacular preach that gospel
which proposes TO make all men happy, hon
est, victorious and free.
In other words, we want more cinnamon
aud less gristle. Let this be so in all the
different departments Of work TO wnich the
Lord calls us Lst US be plain. Let uS he
earnest. Let US be common sensical. When
we talk to the people in vernacular they
can understand they will be very glad TO
come AMI receive the truth we present.
Would TO God that Queen Balkis would
drive her spice laden dromedaries into
all our sermons and prayer meeting exhor
tatlons.
More than that we want more life and
spice in our Christian work. The poor do
not want so much to lie groaned over as sung
10. With the bread and medicines and the
garments you give them, let there be an ac-
Compartment OF smiles and brisk encourage.
ment Do not stand and talk TO them about
the wretchedness OF their abode, and the
hunger of their looks and the hardness OF
their lot. All, they know II better than you
can tell them. Show them the bright side
Of the thing, II there be any bright side.
Tell them gooi times will come. Tell them
that for the children OF God there is i'm
mortal rescue Wake them up out OF their
stoid!ty by an inspiring laugh, and while
you send i'll help. ike the Queen OF Sheba,
also send in the spices.
There are two ways OF meeting the poor,
One is to come into their house with a nose
elevated in disgust, as much as 10 say: Il
don't see how you live here in this neighbor-
hood. 1t actually makes me sick. There is
that bundle; take it, you poor, miserable
wretch, aud make the most OF it." Another
way Is to 90 into the abode Of the poor i'll a
manner which seems TO say: The blessed
Lord sent me. He was poor himself. II is
not more for the good am going to try to dc
YOU than IL Is for the good you can do me.
Coming in that spirit the gift will be as aro-
matte as the spikenard on the feet OF Christ
aud all the novels in that alley will be fra.
grant with the spice.
We need more spice and enlivenment in
our church music. Churches sit discussing
whether they shall have choirs, or precen-
tors or organs or bass viols, or cornets.
say, take that r'hiCh will bring out the most
inspiring music IL we had half as much
zeal and spirit in our churches as we have in
the songs OF our Sabbath schools it would
not be long before the whole earth would
quake with the coming God. Why, in most
churches nine tenths OF the people do not
sing, or they sing 50 feebly that the people
at their elbows do not know they are sing
ing. People mouth ami humble the praises
OF God; but there is not more than one out
Of hundred who makes "a joyful noise
unto the Rock Of Our Salvation. Some
times when the congregation forgets itself,
and Is all absorbed in the goodness OF God OF
the glories OF heaven, get an intimation OF
what church music will be a hundred year.
from now, when the coming generation shall
wake up to its duty.
promisea high spiritual blessing to any
one who will sing in church, and who viii
sing so heartily that the people all around
cannot help but sing. Wake upl all tht
churches from Bangor to San Francisco and
across Christendom. IL - not matter oi
preference it is a matter OF religious duty
Oh for fifty times more volume OF sound
German chorals in German cathedrals sur
pass us, and yet Germany has received
nothing at the hands OF God compared with
America; and ought the acclaim in Berlin b.
louder than that in Brooklynl Soft, Ions
drawn out music is appropriate for the draw
ing room and appropriate for the concert
but st. John gives an idea of the sonorou
and resonant congregational singing appro
, pirate for churches when, in listening to thu
temple service of heaven, he says: 81 heart
great voice, as the voice OF a great multi
, tude, and as the voice of many waters, AM
as the voice Of mighty thunderings. Halle
, lujah for the Lord God omnipotent reign
, eth.n
, Join with me In a crusade, giving me no
only your hearts but the mighty uplifting
, OF your voices and believe we can, througl
Christ's grace, sing fifty thousand souls int
the kingdom Of Christ. An argument thel
can laugh at, a sermon they eau talk down
, but vast audience joining in one anthem !
, irresistible Would that Queen Balkis woult
, drive all her spice eaden domedaries int
, our church music. Neither was there an.
} such spice as the Queen Of Sheba gave KIN
Solomon"
) Now, l want to impress this audience wit
; the fact that religion is sweetness and per
/. fume aud spkennrd and saffron and CHINA
e mon and cassia and frankincense, and a
sweet spices together. oh" you say, 4"
/. have not looked at it as such thought
] was nuisance; it had for me repulsion;
held my breath as though 1t were malodor
9 have been appalled, at its advance. l hav
0 said, IL | have any religion at all, want t
1 have Just as little Of it as is possible to ge
2 through with" Oh, what mistake you
i have made, my brother. The religion G
8 Christ is present and everlasting redolenct
4 1t counteracts all trouble. just put it o
!. the stand beside the pillow of sickness.