The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1891-05-12

The fact is that the duties, and cares
OF this life, coming to us from time to
time, are stupid often, and insane, and
intolerable. Here are mon who have
been barteriDg, and negotiating, climb
ing, pounding, hammering for twenty
years, forty years, fifty years. One
great long drudgery has their life been.
Their face anxious. their feeling be-
numbed, their days monotonous. What
is necessary b brighten upthat mans
life, and to sweeten that mans acid dis
position, and to put sparkles into the
mans spirits? The spicery of our holy
religion. Why, II between the losses of
life there dashed a CLEAN o feternal gain;
If between the %betrayals CT life there
came the CLEAN of the undying friend
ship of Christ; If in dull time. in busi-
ness VIC found ministering spirits flying
to and fro in our Office, and store, and
shop, everyday life, instead of being q
stupid monotone, would be q glorious
inspiration, penduluming between calm
satisfaction and high rapture.
How any woman keeps house without
the religion of Christ to help her, is q
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 deDloring breakages, aud
supervising tardy subordinates, and
driving off dust that soon again will set
tie, and doing the 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, 1t ID a long mono
tonyl 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 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; Mir
lam, because she can watch her infant
brother; Rachel, because she can help
her father water the stock; the widow of
Sarepta, because the cruise of oil is being
replenished. o woman, having in your
pantry q nest Of boxes cantainlng all
kinds of condiments, why have you not
tried in your heart and life the splcery
of holy religion martha! Martha!
thou art careful and troubled about
many things, but one thing is needful.
and Mary hath chosen that good part
which shall not be taken away from
her."-
I must confess that a great deal of the
religion of this day is uttetly insipid.
There Is nothing piquant or ~elevating
about 1t. Men and women 60 around
hummlng psalms In o minor key; and
culturiug melancholy, and their worship
has / n 1t more signs than rapture. We
90 not doubt their piety. Oh, NO. But
they are sitting at a feast where the cook
has forgotten to season the food. Every
thing 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
as though they were trudging on toward
an everlasting Botany Bay. Religion
does not seem to agree with them. 1t
seems to catch IN the wind-pipe and be-
come a tight strangulatlon instead of an
cXhilaration. All the infidel books that
have been written from Voltaire down
to Herbert Spencer, have not done so
much damage to our Christianity as lu-
gubrious Christians. Who wants q re-
ligion woven out of the shadows of the
night? Why go growing on your way
to celestial e%nthronement? Come out
OF cave, and sit down in The warm
light of the Sun of righteousness. Away
with your odes to melancholy and Her
vey's "Meditations among the Tombs."
Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We're marching through Emanuels
To fairer worlds on high.
I have 70 say, also, that we need to
put more spice and enlivenment In our
religious 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 u heart, and our head. Do
you wonder that the world Is so far from
being converted when you find 80 little
vivacitY in the pulpit and in the pew?
We want, like The Lord, to plant in our
sermons and eXhortations more lilies of
the field. We want fewer rhetorical
Celebrations, and fewer sesquipedalian
words; and when we talk about shadows,
VIZ do not want to sap admiration; and
when we mean queerness, we do not
want to talk about idiosyncrasies; or If
a stitch IN the back, we do not want to
talk of lumbago; but, in aplain vernacu-
lar preach that Gospel which proposes
to make all men happy, honest, victori-
GUS, and free. In other words, we want
more cinnamon and less gristle. Let
this be so in all the different depart
n.ents of work to which the Lord calls
us. Let us be plain. Let us be earnest.
Let us be commoG-sensical. When we
talk to tho people in q vernacular they
can understand, they will be very glad
to come and receive the truth we pre-
sent. Would to God that Queen Balkls
would drive her spice-laden dromedaries
into all our sermon and prayer-meeting
exhortations.
More than that, we want more lie
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. Show them the
bright side Of the thins,, if there be any
bright side. Tell them good times will
GENE. Tell them that for the children
ofGod there Is immortal rescue. Wake
them up out of their stolidity by an in
spring laugh, and while you send In help
like the Queen of Sheba also send In the