The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-05-13

exhortations and songs and prayers more
OF what Queen Balkis brought TO Solomon,
namely, more spice
The fact is that the duties and cares of
this life, coming to us from time to time,
are stupid often, and insane and intolera-
BILE. Here are men who have been bar
tering and negotiating, climbing, pound
ing, hammering for twenty years, forty
years, fifty years. One great, long drudg-
cry has their life been. Their face anx-
ious their feelings..ss benumbed, their days
mOnotonous. What is necessary to
brighten up that mans lie, and to
sweeten that acid disposition, and to put
sparkle into the mans spirits? The
spicery Of our holy re iRiOn. Why, If be-
tween the losses of life there dashed
CLEAN of eternal gain; ii between the be-
travals of life there came the CLEAN of the
undying friendship of Christ; ii in dull
times in business we found ministering
spirits flying To and fro in our office, and
store, and shop, everyday life. instead OF
being a stupid monotone, would be
glorious inspiration, penduluming be-
tween calm satisfaction and high rapture.
How any woman keeps house without
the religion OF Christ 10 help her is a mys-
terry TO me. To have to spend the great
er 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 subOrdina,es. and driving off dust
that soon again will settle, and doing the
same thing day in and day out, aud year
in and year out, until their hair sivers,
and the back stoops, and the spectacles
/ crawl to the eyes, and the grave breaks
open under the thin soc OF the shoe
| oh 1t is a long mOnotony! But when
Christ comes to the drawing-room, and
comes TO the kitchen, and comes to the
! nursery, and comes 10 the dwelling,
then how CHEEKY become all womaniy
duties. She is never alone now. Mar
tina gets through lretling and Joins Mary
at the feet OF Jesus. All day long De-
| bOrah is happy because she can help Lap
! idoth; 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 Serepta. because the
cruise of oil is being rep,enished O
woman, having in your pantry nest of
/ boxes containing all kinds of condiments.
why have you not tried in your heart and
| life the spicerv of our holy reigion2
Martha! Martha thou art careful and
| troubled about many things; but one
thing is needtul, and Mary hath chosen
| that good part which shall not be taken
| away from her.
| must confess that great deal of the
religion oil this day is utterly insipid.
! There Is nothing piquant or elevating
about il. Men and women go around
! humming psalms in minor key, and cult
uring melancholy, and their worship has
in it more signs than rapture. We do not
/ doubt their piety On, no. But they are
| sitting at a least where the cook has for
| gotten 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
a magnificent heaven. they act "a though
/ they were trudgIng on toward an everlast-
ing Botany Bay. Religion does not seem
TO agree with them. Ii seems to catch in
/ the winlpipe and become tight strangu-
lation instead OF an exhilaratiOn. All the
infdel books that have been written. from
/ Noltaire down to Herbert Spencer, have
not done so much damage to our Christ
ianity as lugubrious Christians. Who
wants religion woven out OF the shadows
OF the night? Why go growing on your
way to celestial enforcement? 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 "Medi.ations Among the
| TOmbs."
Then let our songs abound,
| And every tear be dry;
We're marching through Emanueps ground
| To fairer worlds on high.
! have to say. also, that we need TO put
more spice and enlivenment in our re-
ligiOus teaching; whether it be in the
prayer meeting, or in the Sabbath school,
or in the church. We ministers need
more fresh air and sunshine in our lungs,
and our heart and our head. Do YOU
wonder that the world is so far from be-
ing converted when you find so little
vivacity in the pulpit and in the pew ?
We want, like the Lord, TO plant in our
sermons and celebrations more lilies of
! the field. We want fewer rhetorical elab-
orations and fewer sesquipedaan words
and when we talk about shadows we do
| not want to say adumbratiOn; and when
| we mean Queerness we do not want to
talk about idiosyncrasies; or if stitch in
the back, we do not want to talk OF lum-
bago; but, in the plain vernacuIar preach
that gospel which proposes to make all
men happy, honest victorious and free.
| In other words, we want more cinnamon
and less griste. Let this be Sd in all the
different departments of work to which
the Lord calls US. Let US be plain. Let
| US 10 tdIntsl. Leu us De CODlnOn-SeDsl-
cal. When we talk to the people in a
vernacular they can understand, thew will
be very glad TO come and receive the
truth we present Would to God that
Queen Balkis would d i've her spice-laden
dromedaries into all our sermons and
prayer-meeting exhortatiOns.
More than that, we want more life and
spice in our Christian work. The poor do
not want so much to be groaned over as
sung TO. With the bread and medicines
and the garments you give them let there
be an accompaniment of smiles and brisk
encouragement. 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
it better than you can tell them. Tell
them good times will come. Tell them
that for the children of God there is i'm
mortal rescue. Wake them up out of their
stoli0ity by an inspiring laugh, and while
you send in help, like 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 to say: 81 don't see
how you live here in this neghborhood.
1t actually makes me sick. There is that
bundle-take ii, you poor, miserable
wretch, and make the most of it. y
Another way is to GO into the abode
OF the poor in a manner which seems
TO say "The blessed Lord sent me.