The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1891-05-14

l. IL,
English, and S ottish church will die of |
'tmdrum unless there be- change. An
'ditor from San Francisco wrote me saw
n% he was getting up for his paper a
symposium from many clergymcn, DIS
'usslng among other things, "Wry do
not people so 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 hum
dram in their worldly calling that they
do not we ut to have added the humdrum
of religion. We need in all our sermons
and eNhortatlons 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
iutolcrablc. Here are men who have
been bartering, and negotiating, climb
ing, pounding, hammcring for twenty
years, forty years, fifty years. One
great long drudgery has their life been.
Their lace anxious. their feeling be-
numbcd, their days monOtonOus. What
is necessary to brighten up that mans
life, and to swectcn that mans acid dis
position, and to put sparkles into the
mans spirits? The splcery Of our holy
religion. Why, if between the losses O!
life there dashed a CLEAN of eternal gain;
II between the betrayals Cf life there
came the gleam of the undying friend
ship of Christ; If in dull time in busi-
ness 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 a glorious
inspn alton, pcnduluming between calm
satisfaction and high rapture.
How any woman keeps house without
tho religion of Christ to help her, is a
mystery to me. TO have to spend the
greater part of ones life, as many wO-
men do, in planning for the meals, in
stitching garments that will soon be rent
again, and dcploring brcakages, aud
supervising tardy subordinatcs, and
driving off dust that soon again will set
tic, and doing the same thing day in and
day out, and year in and year out, until
their hair silvCrs, and the back stoops,
and the spcctaclcs crawl to the eyes, and
the grave breaks open under the thin
sole OF the sh0c-oh, it Is a long mono
tony! But when Christ comes to the
drawing-room, and comes To the kitchen,
and comes to the nursery, and comes to
the dwelling, then how CHEEKY become
all womanly duties. She is never alone
now. Martha gets through frcttng and
joins Mary at the feet Of Jesus. All
day long Deborah is happy because she
can help Lapdoth; Hannah, because she
can make coat for young Samuel; Mir
lam, because she can watch her infant
brother; Rachel, because she can help
her lathcr water the stock; the widow of
Sarcpta, because the cruise of oil is being
rcplcnlshcd. o woman, having in your
pantry nest Of boxes Containing all
kinds OF condiments, why have YOU not
tried III your heart and life the splcerv
Of our holy religion? "Martha! Martha!
thou art careful and troubled about
many things, but one thing is needlul,
and Mary hath chosen that good part
which shall not be taken away from
hcr.D
must confess that great deal Of the
religion Of this day is uttctly inslpid.
There Is nothing piquaut or elcvating
about 1t. Men and women 90 around
hummlng psalms in minor key; and
culturluS melancholy, and their worship
has III 1t more signs than rapture. We
90 not doubt their Dicty. Oh, no. But
they are sitting at feast where the cook
haS forgotten to season the food. Every
thing Is flat in their experience and IN
their conversation. Emancipatcd from
sin, and death, and hell, and on their
way to magnificent heaven, they act
as though they were trudging on towar,
an everlasting Botany Bay. Religion
does not seem to agree with them. 1t
seems 10 catch IN the wind-pipc and be-
come tight strangulatlon instead of an
All the infdcl books that
have been written from Voltaire down
to Herbert Spencer, have not done 80
much damage to our Christianity as lu-
Iubrlous Christians. Who wants re-
llgion woven out Of the shadows Of the
night? Why go growing on your way
TO celestial cnthrOncment? Come out
Of that cave, and sit down in the warm
hight OF the Sun of righteousness. AWAY
with your odes to melancholy and Her
Vcy's "Mcditations among the Tombs.n
Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
were marching through Emanucrs
ground
TO fairer worlds on high.
! have to say, also, that we need to
put more spice and cnlvcnment IN our
religious teaching; whether it be in the
or in the Sabbath
school, or in the church. We ministers
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 converted when you find so little
ilvaclty in the pulpit and in the pew?
We want, like The Lord, to plant in our
sermons and cXhortations more lilies of
he field. We want fewer rhetorical
'laboratlons, and fewer scsQuipcdalian
words; and when we talk about shadows.
sc do not want to sap adumbration: and |
when we mean quccrncss, we do not
want to talk about idiosyncrasics; or if
stitch III the back, We do not want TO
ak OF lumbaSo; but, in plain vcrnacu-
ar preach that Gospel which proposes
% make all men happy, honest, victori-
pus, and Tree. In other words. we want
more cinnamon and less gristlc, Let
his be 80 in all the diili rent dcpart-
nentS OF work TO which thc I orJ c,lis