Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-02-20

All things must be watched and inspected.
1mperfections in the wood covered with
putty. Garments warranted to last until
you put them ON the third time. Shoddy In
all kinds Of clothing. Chromos. Pinchbeck.
Diamonds for a dollar and half Book
bindery that holds on until you read the
third chapter. Spawned horses by skillful
dose of Jockeys for several days made TO
look spry Wagon tires poorly put on.
Horses poorly shod. Plastering that cracks
without any provocation and falls of.
Plumbing that needs to be plumbed. I'm
perfect car wheel Chat halts the whole train
with a hot box. So little practical religion
in the mechanism of the world. tell you,
nv friends, the law Of man will never
rectify these things. 1t will be the all per.
vading influence Of the practical religion OF
Jesus Christ that will make the change for
the better.
Yes this practical religion will also go into
agriculture which is proverbially honest but
needs to be rectified, and it will keep the
farmer from sending to the New York mar
ket veal that is too young to kill, and when
the farmer farms ON shares it will keep the
man who does the work from making his
half three-foIrths, and it will keep the farmer
from building his posts and rail fence on his
neighbor's premises and it will make him
shelter his cattle in the winter storm, aud 1t
will keep the old elder from working on Sun
dag afternoon in the new ground when no
body sees him. And this practical religion
will hover over the house, and over the barn,
AMI over the field, and over the orchard
Yes this practical religion Of which speak
will come into the learned professions. The
lawyer will feel his responsibility in dofend-
ing Innocence and arraiguing evil, and ex-
pounding the law, and it will keep him from
charging for briefs he never wrote, and for
pleas he never made, AMI for percentages he
neve~ earned, and from robbing widow and
orphan because they are defenseless. Yes,
this practical religion will come into tho
physicians life, and he will feel the respons;-
bility as the cOnservator of the public health,
a profession honored by the fact that Christ
Himself was a physician. and 1t Will make
him honest. and when he does not understand
a case he will say 50, not trying to cover up
lack of dia ,nosis with ponderous technicall-
ties, or send the patient to reckless drug
store because the apothecary happens to pay
q percentage on prescriptions sent.
And this practical religion will come to
the school teacher, making her feel her re-
sponsibiity in preparing our youth for use
fulness, and for happiness and Tor honor,
and will keep her from giving sly box to a
dull hetd, chastising him for what he cannot
help. and sending discOurgement all through
the after years of lifetime, This practical
religion will also come to the newspaper
men, and Il will help them il the gathering
of the news, and it will help them in setting
forth the best interests of society, and It VIII
keep them from putting the sins OF the
world In larger type than its virtues ana
its mistakes than its achievements.
Yes this religion, this practical religion,
will come and put its hand on what is calle1
good society, elevated society. successful So
cletv. SO that people WI have their expendi-
lures within their income, and they will ex-
change the hypocritical mot at home for
the honest explanation too tired or TOO
busy to see you" and will keep innocent re-
eepton from becoming Intoxicating convivi-
atty.
Yes, there is great opportunity for mis-
sionary work in what are called the success
full classes of society. 1t is no rare thing
now 10 see fashionable woman intoxicated
in the street, or the rail car, or the restau-
rant. The number of fine ladies who drink
too much is increasing. Perhaps you may
find her at the reception in most exalted
company, but she has made too many visits
to the wine room, and now her eye is CLASSY
and after a while her cheek is unnaturally
flushed, and then she falls into fits Of
excruciating laughter about nothing, and
then she offers sickeniug batteries telling
some homely man how well he looks, and
then she is helped into the carriage, and by
the time the carriage get to her home IL
takes the husband and coachman to get her
up the stairs. The report is, She was taken
suddenly i'll at a german All. no. she
took too much champagne, and mixed
liquors, and got drunk. That was all.
Yes this practical religion will have to
come in and fix up the marriage relation in
America. There are members OF churches
who have too many wives and too many nus
bands Society needs to be expurgated and
washed aud fumigated AMI Christianized.
We have missionary societies TO reform Elm
street, in New York, Be1fori street, Phlla-
delphia. and Shoreditch London, and the
Brooklyn docks; but there is need OF an Or
ganization to reform much that is going on
in Beacon street and Madison square and
Rittenhouse square and West End and
Brooklyn Heights and Brooklyn Hill. We
want this practical religion not only to take
hold of what are called the lower classes,
but to take hold of what are called the
higher classes. The trouble is that people
have an idea they can do all their religion on
Sunday with hymn book and prayer book
and liturgy, and some of them sit in church
rolling up their eyes as though they were
ready for translation, when their Sabbath is
bounded on all sides by an inconsistent life,
and while you are expecting to come out from
under their arms the wings Of an angel, there
come out from their forehead the horns OF
beast
There has got to be a new departure in
religion. l do not say q new religion.
Oh, no; but the old brought to new
appliances. In our time we have had the
daguerreotype, and the ambrotype, and the
photograph but it is the same old sun, and
these arts are only new appliances OF the old
sunlight. So this glorious Gospel Is just
what we want to photograph the image OF
God on one soul, daguerreOtype 1t on another
soul Not a new Gospel, but the old Gospel
put to new work. In our time we have had
the teegraphic invention, and the telephone
invention, and the electric light invention,
but they are all the children Of old cleo
tricity an element that the philosophers
have long while known much about. 80
this electric Gospel needs to fash its light
on the eyes and ears and souls Of men, and
became a telephone medium to make the
deaf hear, Geographic medium to dart in
vitation and warning to all nations; an cleo
trio light to illuminate the eastern and west
ern hemispheres Not new Gospel, but the
old Gospel doing a new work.
Now you say. That is very beautiful
theory, but is it possible to take ones relig-
ion into all the avocations and business of
life" Yes, and will give you few sDeci-
mems. Medical doctors who took their re-
iigion into everyday life: DR.. John Aber-
crombie. of Aberdeen, the gresteSt Scottish
physician of the day his book ON Diseases
Of the Brain and Spinal Cord, " 10 more won
derful than his book on The Philosophy Of
the Moral Feelings" and often kneeling at
the BEDSIDE of his patients to commend them
to God in prayer. DR.. John Brown, OF Ed
inburgh, immortal as an author, diving under
the bsneiiction of the sick of Edinburgh,
myself remembering him as he sat in his
study in Edinburgh talking to me about
Christ and his hope of heaven. And a score
Of Christian family physicians in Brooklyn
Just as good as they were.
Lawyers who carrie their religion into
{ cir profession: The late Lord Cairns, the
Queens adviser for many years, the highest I,
legal authority in Great Britaiu-Iord
Cairns, every summer in his vacation, preach
ing as an Evangelist among the poor of his