The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-03-11
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Faith Without Works."

| - ~S~~SS'
Jas. H., 20.
The Roman Catholic Church has beer
charged with putting too much stress upon
good works aud not enough upon faith.
charge Professionalism with putting moi
enough stress upon good works as connected
with salvation. Good works will never save
q man, but if man have not good works he
has no real faith and no genuine religion
| There are those who depend upon the fact
that they are all right inside, while their
conduct is wrong outside. Their religion fol
talk, fluent talk, boastful talk, perpetual
talk. They will entertain you by the hour
in telling you how good they are. They
come up to such higher life that we have
no patience with ordinary Christians in the
| plain discharge Of their duty. As near as
can tell, this ocean craft is mostly sail and
very little tonnage. Foretopmast staysails,
foretopmast studding sail, maintopsail miz-
zentopsail-everything from flying jib to
! mizzen spanker, but making no useful voy.
age. Now the world has got tired Of this, and
1t wants a religion that will work into all th.
circumstances Of life. We do not want a new
religion, but the old religion applied in all
| possible directions.
| Yonder is river with steep and rocky
banks, and it roars like young Niagara .:
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.
It does not run one fertilizing rill into the
| adjoining field. 1t has not one grist mill OF
weather with chilling fogs. No one cares
when that river is born among the rocks
and no one cares when 1t dies into the sea.
But yonder is another river, and it MOSES
| Its banks with the warm tides, and it rocks
with floral lullaby the water lilies asleep on
its bosom. It invites herds of cattle, and
! docks Of sheep, and coveys of birds to come
there and drink. 1t has three grist mills on
one side and six cotton factories on the
other. 1t is the wealth Of two hundred
miles of lu1uriant farms. The birds OF
! heaven chanted when it was born in ths
mountains, and the ocean shipping will press
in from the sea to hail it as it comes down to
/ the Atlantic coast The one river is a man
who lives for himself, the other river is
man who lives for others.
Do you know how the site Of the ancient
I city Of Jerusalem was chosen? There were
| two brothers who had adjoining farms. The
| one brother had large family, the other
had no family. The brother with large
! family said, ''There is my brother with nc
family;he must be lonely, and will try t
cheer him up and will take some ofthe
| sheaves from my field in the night time and
set them over on his farm and say nothing
about it." Tho other brother said, my
brother has large family, andit is very diff.
| fcult for him to support them, and viii
help him along. and I will take some OF the
sheaves from my oTn 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
night, but every morning things seemed te
be just as they were, for though sheaves hat
been subtracted from each farm, sheaves hac
also been added, and the brothers were per-
picked and could not understand. But one
night the brothers happened to meet while
making this generous transference, and tn,
spot where they met was so sacred that II
was caosen as the site of the city of Jerusa.
lem. II that tradition should prove un.
founded it will nevertheless stand as beau.
tiful allegory setting forth the idea that
wherever kindly and 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 you
will agree with me in the statement that tho
great want of this world is more practical
religion. We want practical religion to go
into all merchandise. 1t will supervise the
labelling o! goods. 1t will not allow a man
to say thing was made in one factory when
1t was made i'll another. 1t will not allow
the merchant to say that watch was manu-
factured in Geneva, Switzerland, when it was
manufactured in Massachusetts. 1t 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 Instrumentation. 1t will not allow
tie merchant to say that is pure coffee when
danGciion root and chicory and other in.
gredients 90 into it. 1t will rot 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, and
it will come to that shoe store and rip off
the fictitious soles Of many fine looking
pair of shoes, and show that it is pasteboard
sandwlched between the sound leather. And
this practical religion will 60 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
cassa bark that is sold for cinnamon and
the brick dust that is sold for cayenne
blues from the tea leaves, and it 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 drops Of
cows milk, and it will throw out the live
animalcules from the brown sugar.
There has been so much adulteration OF
articles Of food that it Is an amazement to
me that there is healthy man or woman IN
America. Heaven only knows what they
pue4nto the spices, and into the sugars, and
into the butter, and into the apothecary
drugs. But chemical analysis and the
l1 Inr<Prf ~ n.
tions. The board of health in Massachusetts
analyzed a great amount Of what was called
pure coffee and found in it not one particle
Of coffee. In England there IS law that
forbids the putting Of alum In bread Inc
public authorities examined fifty-one pack
ages Of bread and found them all guilty.
The honest physician, writing prescrip-
tion, does not know but that it may bring
death instead of health to his patient, be-
cause there may be one Of the drugs weak
ened by cheaper article, and another drug
may be In full force, and so the prescrlptio ion
may have just the opposite effect lntehied.
Oif of wormwood, warranted pure, from
Boston, was found to have forty-one per
cent. of resin and alcohol and chloroform.
Scammouy is one of the most valuable medl-
cinal drugs 1t is very rare, very precious.
1t is the sap or the gum of o tree or bush III
Syria. The root Of the tree is exposed, an
incision is made into the root and then shells
are placed at this inciSion to catch the sap
or tho gum as it exldes.
1t is very precious this scammony. Hut
the peasant mixes it with cheaper material;
then it IS taken to Aeppo, and the merchant
there mixes it with cheaper material; then
it comes on to the wholesale druggist in Lon
don or New York and he mixes it with
cheaper material; then it comes to the re-
III ol,a aaS1nvN
material. and by the time tho poor sick man
gets it into his bottle it is ashes and chalk
and sand, and some Of what has been called
pure scammony after analysis has been