Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-04
Rev. Or. Talmage Says 1t Is Eating
the VitalS of the Church.
TOO MUCH OF 1T IN PEOPLES LIVES.
Here Spice and Ellivenment Needed in
Religious Teaching.
TIE HOME is MADE ENTIRELY TOO SAD

there morning and evening, and the service
In New York have been discontinued. Thi
has caused much regret to MANY people il
that city. A memorial was prepared anc
signed by influential citizens asking DIR
Talmage to continue the services. He coulc
not see his way to comply at the time, but
as he was evidently impressed by the
warmth of the welcome given him in the
metropolis, and deeply moved by the good
that was done, it is not improbable that in
the near future, he will again be found
duplicating his usefulness BY ministerIng tc
two congregations, as he has been doing
the past seven months. His subject this
morning was "Humdrum Abolished" and
his text, II. Chronicles, tx; 9: "Of spices
great abundance; neither was there any
such spice as the Queen of Sheba gave King
Solomon"
Solomon was not like some of the kings of
the present day-crowned imbecility. All the
splendor of his palace and retinue were
eelipsed by his intellectual power. Why, he
seemed to know everything He was the first
great naturalist the world ever saw. Peacocks
from India strutted the basaltio walk, and apes
chartered In the trees, and deer staIked the
parks and there were aquariums with foreign
nsh, ana av1aries with foreign birds; and tradi-
ton says these birds we're SO well tanned, that
solomon might walk clear across the city
under the shadow of their wings as they hoy
cred and fitted about him.
Solomon Type of Christ.
Ny friends, you know that all theologians
agree in making Solomon type of Christ, and
making the Queen of Sheba type of every
truth-seeker; and shall take the responsibility
of saying that all the spikenard, and cassa and
frankircense which the Queen of Sheba
brought to King Solomon are nightly sug-
gestve of the sweet spices of our holy religion.
Christianity is not a collection of sharp tech
nicalities, and angular facts. and chronological
tables and dry statistics. Our religion is CON-
pared to frankincense and to cassa, but never
to nightshade. 1t is a bundle of myrrh. 1t is
dash of holy light. 1t is a sparkle of cool
fountains. It is an opening of opaline gates.
1t is a collection of spices. Would God that
we were as wise in taking spices to
our Divine King as Queen Balkis was
wise in taking the spices to the earthly
solomon! What many of us most need is to
have the humdrum driven out of our life and
the humdrum out of our religion. The Ameri-
can and English and Scottish church will die
editor from San Francisco a few weeks ago
wrote me, saying he was getting up for his
paper symposium from many clergymen, dis
cussing, among other things, why do not
people go to church?' and he wanted my
opinion, and / gave it in one sentence: People
do not go to church because they cannot stand
the humdrum. The fact is that most people
have so much humdrum in their worldly call
ing that they do not want to have added the
humdrum of religion. We need in all our SER
mons and eXhortations and songs and prayers
more of what Queen Balkis brought to Solo
mon-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 inane, and intolerabie. Here are
men who have been bartering, and negotiating,
climbing, pounding, hammering for 20 years. 40
years, 90 years. One great. long drudgery has
their life been. Their faces anxious, their feel
ings benumbed. their days monotonous What
is necessary to brighten up that mans life. and
to sweeten thai acid disposition, and to put
sparkle into the mans spirits? The spicery of
cur holy religion. Why, if between the losses
of life there dashed CLEAN of an eternal gain;
If between the betrayals of life there came the
CLEAN of the undying friendship of Christ; if 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 inspira-
tion, penduluming between calm satisfaction
and high rapture.
The Savior in the Family.
How any woman Keeps house without the
religion of Christ to help her is a 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
same thing day in and day out, and year in and
year out until their hair silvers 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 long monotonyi But
when Christ comes to the drawing ROOM and |
comes to the kitchen, and comes to
the nursery, and comes to the dwell |
ing, then how CHEEKY become all
duties. She is never alone now. |
Martha gets through. fretting and Joins Mary
at the feet of Jesus. All day long Deborah is |
happy because 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 Ssrepta, |
because the cruise of oil is being replenished. |
woman, having IN your pantry nest OF /
boxes containing all kinds of condiments, why /
have you not tried IN your heart and life the |
spiceTy of our hely relig1on? Martha! Mar |
tha! thou art careful and troubled about many /
things, but one thing is needfll, and Mary hath |
chosen that good part which shall not be taken |
away from her"
must confesstthat a great deal of the relig- 1
ion of this day is utterly insipid There is |
nothing plquant or elevating about il. Men and !
women go around humming psalms in a minor /
key, and culturing melancholy, and their wor-
snip has IN 1t more sighs than rapture. We do /
not doubt their niety oh, no. But they are |
sitting at feast where the cook has forgotten
TO season the food. Everything is fat in their |
experience and in their conversation. Enamel
pated from sin,and death, and hell and on their
way to a magnificent heaven, they act as though |
hey were trudging on toward everlasting
Botany Bay. Religion does not seem to agree
with them. II seems to catch in the wind-pipe |
and become tight strangulation instead OF an
All the Intdel books that have
been written, from Voltaire down to Herbert
Spencer have not done so much damage to
bur Christianity as lugubrious Christians Who
wants a religion woven out of the shadows of
,he night? Why go growing on your way to
celestial enthronement7 Come out Of that cave,
md sit down in the warm light of the Sun OF
Away with your odes TO mel
lncholy and Hervey's Meditation Among the
rUmbs."
Spice in Religious Teaching.
have to say. also, that we need to put more
pice and enlivenment in our religious teach
ngs: whether il be in the prayer-meeting, or in
he Sabbath school, or in the church. We min
sters need more fresh air and sunshine In our
ungs and our heart and our head. Do you
Wonder that the world is so far from being con-
Ierted when you find little vivaeity in the
'ulDit and in the pew9 We want, like the Lord,
o plant in our sermons and exhortations more
lilies of the field. We want fewer rhetori-
al Celebrations, and fewer sesouipedallau
Eords; and when we talk about shad.
ws, we do not want to say adum-
ration; and when we mean queer
ess, we do not want to talk about idiosyncra-
les: or IL a stitch in the back we do not want
o talk of lumbagO; but. in the plain vernacular
reach that Gospel which proposes to make all
1en happy, honest, victorious, and free. In
uher words, we want more cinnamon and less |
risrle. Let this be SO in all the different de- |
artments of work to which the Lord calls u.s. |
Iet us be plain. Let US be earnest. Let us be |
When we talk to the people |
D a vernacular they can understand. they will
e very glad to come and receive the truth we |
resent Would to God that Queen Balkis |
'ould drive her spice-laden dromedaries into |
u our sermons and prayer meetings exhorta-
oDs. |
Mere than that. we want more life and spice
our Christian work. The poor do not want |
D much TO be groaned over sung to. With |
le hIead. and medicines and The l