The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1891-05-30
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLN DIVINE'S SUNDAY
SERMON.

4
Jas H., 90
The Roman Catholic Church has been
charged with putting too much stress upon
good works and not enough upon faith.
charge Professionalism with putting not
enough stress upon good works as connected
with salvation. Good works will never save
man, but if a man have not good works ne
has no real faith and no genuine religion
There are those who depend upon the fact
! that they arc all right inside while their
conduct is wrong outside. Their religion for
he most part is made up OF talk-vigorous
.alk, fluent talk, boastful tails perpetual
! ak. They will entertain you by the hour
N telling you how good they are. They
! .omc up to such higher life that we have
! 10 patience with ordinary Christians in tn,
| plain discharge of their duty As near as l
IAN tell, this ocean craft is mostly sail and
| very little tonnage. Foretopmast staysails,
| foretopmast studding sail, maintopSail, nliz.
! entopsail-everything from flying jib to
mizzen spanker, but making no useful voy-
age. Now the world mas got tired of this. and
1t wants 4 religion that will work into all the
circumstances of life. We do not want new
religion, but the old religion applied in all
possible directions.
Yonder is a river with steep and rocky
banks, and 1t roars like young Niagara as
It rolls on over Its rough bed. 1t does moth
ing but talk about itself all the way from its
source IN the mountain to the place where it
empties into the sea. The banks are so
steep the cattle cannot come down to drink
1t does not run one fertilzing rill into the
adjoining field. 1t has not one grist mill or
factory on either side. IL sull:s III we.
weather with chilling fogs No one cares
When that river is born among the rocks,
md no ono cares when it dies into the sea.
But yonder is another river, and it moses
ITS banks with the warm tides, and il rocks
with floral lullaby the water lilies asleep on
=, its bosom. 1t invites herds of cattle, and
locks of sheep. AMI coveys of birds TO come
there and drink. 1t has three grist mills on
enc side and six cotton factories on the
other. 1t is the wealth of two hundred
niles OF luxuriant farms. The birds of
aeaven chanted when it was born in the
mountains, and the ocean shipping will press
n from the sea to hail it Us it comes down to
the Atlantic coast. The one river is man
who lives for himself, the other river is
nan who lives for Others.
DO you know how the site of the ancient
.ity of Jerusalem was chosen? There were
;wo brothers who had adjoining farms The
,ne brother had a large family, tine other
lad no family. The brother with a large
amily said, There is my brother with no
!amIiy; he must be lonely, and | will try to
cheer him up, and / will take some of the
'heaves from my field in the night time and
set them over on his farm and say nothing
about II" The other brother said My
brother has large family. and it is very diff
ncuit Tor him to support them, and | will
help him along, and l will take some of the
sheavcS from my Own farm in the night time
and set them over on his farm and say moth
ing about it," So the work of transference
went on night after night. and night after
olght, bat every morning things seemed to
be just as they were, for though sheaveS had
been subtracted from each farm, sheaves had
also been added. ard the brothers were per-
plexed and could not understand. But one
night the brothers happened to meet while
making this generous trausference, and the
spot where they met was SO sacred that it
was chosen as the site of the CITY OF JeruSa-
lem. Ii that tradition should prove I'M
founded it will nevertheless stand as a beau.
hiul allegory setting forth the idea that
wherever a kindly aud generous and loving
act is performed that is the spot fit for some
temple of commemoration
have often spoken to you about faith,
but now speak to you about works for
Faith without works is dead" think Won
will agree with me i'll the statement that the
great want of this world is more practical
religion. We want practical religion to go
into all merchandise. 1t will supervise til,
labelling o. goods. 1t will not allow man
to say thing was made in one factory when
it was made In another. 1t will not allow
the merchant to say that watch was manu-.
featured in Geneva, Switzerland, when it as
manufactured in Massachusetts,. IL will not
allow the merchant to say that wine came
from Madeira when it came from California.
Practical religion will walk along by the
store shelves and tear off all the tags that
make Misrepresentation. 1t will not allow
the merchant to say that is pure coffee when
dandelion root and chicory and other in.
gradients go into it. 1t will not allow him To
say that is pure sugar when there are in it
sand and ground glass.
When practical religion gets its full swing
in the world it will go down the streets. ami
1t will come to that shoe store and rip of
the fictitious So,es of many a fine looking
pair Of shoes. and show that it is pasteboard
sandwlched between the sound leather And
this practical religion will go right into
grocery store, and it will pull out the plug Of
all the adulterated sirups, and it will dump
into the ash barrel in front of the store the
cassia bark that is sold for cinnamon and
the brick dust that is sold for cayenne
pepper, and it will shake out the Prussian
blues from tho tea leayes, and il will sift
from the -four plaster of Paris ard bone dust
and soapstone. and it will by chemical
analysis separate the one quart of Ridge.
wood water from the few honest drous Of
cows milk, and it will throw out the iv,
anina!cules from the brown sugar.
There has been so much adulteration OF
articles of food that it is an amazement ia
rue that there is healthy man or woman in
America. Heaven only knows what they
put into the spices, and into the sugars, and
into the butter. and into the apothecary
drugs. But chemical analysis and the
microscope have made wonderful revela
tions. The board of health in Massachusetts,
Analysed great amount Of what was called
pure coffs &c and found in it not one particle
of coffee. In England there is law that
forbids the putting of alum in bread. The
public authorities examined tifty-one pack.
ages of bread and found them all guilty.
fhe honest physician, writing a prescrip-
ton, does not know but that it may bring
death instead of health to his patient, be-