Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-05-08

To fairer worlds % high.
l have TO say. also, that we need TO put
more spice and enlivenment in our religious
teaching, whether it be in the prayer meet
ing, or in the Sabbath school, or in the
church. We ministers need more fresh air
and sunshine in our lungs and our heart and
our head. Do you wonder that the world Is
50 far from being converted when you find
so 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 elabora-
tons and fewer sasquipedalian words; and
when we talk about shadows, we do not want
to say adumbration and when we mean
queerncss, we do not want to talk about
idiosyncracies: or If a stitch in the bacS, we
do not want TO talk about lumbago, but in
the plain vernacular preach that gospel
which proposes to make all men happy, hon
est, victorious and free.
In other words we want more cinnamon
and less gristle. Let this be so in all the
different departments of work to which the
Lord calls us. Let us be plain. Let u' be
earnest Let us be common sensical. When
we talk to the people in vernacular they
can understand they will be very glad to
come AMI receive the truth we present.
Would to God that Queen Balkis would
Grive her spice laden dromedaries into
all our sermons and praYer-meeting eShor-
tations.
More than that, we want more life AMI
spice in our Christian work. The poor do
not want so much to be groaned over as sung
to. With the bread aud medicines aud the
garments you give them, let there be an ac-
compartment of smiles and brisk encourage
ment. Do not stand and talk to them about
the wretchedness of their abode and thu
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 thing, il there be any bright side.
Tell them good times will come. Tell them
that for the children OF God there is i'm
mortal rescue. Wake them up out OF their
stolidity by an inspiring laugh, and while
you send in help, ike the Queen of Sheba,
also send in the spices.
There are two ways OF meeting the poor.
One is to come into their house with nose
elevated in disgust, as much as to say; 81
don't see how you live here in this ne;ghbor-
hood 1t actually makes me sick. There is
that bundle; take it, you poor, miserable
wretch, and make the most of it," Another
way is to go into the abode of the poor in
manner which seems TO say: The blessed
Lord sent me. He was poor himself 1t IS
not more for the good am going to try to do
you than it is for the good you can do me-
Coming in that spirit the gift will be as aro-
matte as the spikenard on the feet o. Christ
and all the hove,s in that alley will be fra
grant with the spice.
We need more spice and enlivenment in
our church music. Churches sit discussing
whether they shall have choirs, or precen-
tors. or organs or bass viols, or comets. l
say. take that which will bring out the most
inspiring music. IL we had half as much
zeal and spirit in our churches as we have in
the songs of our Sabbath schools 1t would
not be long before the whole earth would
quake with the coming God. Why, in most
churches nine-tenths of the people do not
sing, or they sing so feebly that the people
at their elbows do not know they are sing
ing. People mouth and humble the praises
of God; but there is not more than one out
of a hundred who makes "a joyful noise
unto the Rock of Our Salvation. Some
times, when the congregation forgets itself,
and is all absorbed in the goodness of God or
the glories of heaven, get an intimation of
what church music will be hundred years
from now, when the coming generation shall
wake up to its duty.
/ promisea high spiritual blessing to any
one who will sing in church, and who viii
sing so heartily that the people all around
cannot help bat sing. Wake up all the
churches from Bangor to San Francisco and
across Christendom II is not a matter OF
preference, it is matter OF religious duty.
Oh. for fifty times more volume OF sound.
German chOrals in German cathedralS sur
2ass US, and yet Germany has received
nothing at the hands Of God compared with
America; and ought the acclaim in Berlin be
loudeiS nan that in Brooklyn; Soft, long
sg 70 for fhn ORA "
ing room and appropriate for the concert,
but st. John gives an idea Of the sonorous
and resonant congregational singing appro-
pirate for churches when, i'll listening TO the
temple service of heaven. he says: Il heard
a great voice as the voice of great multi
tude, and as the voice of many waters, and
as the voice of mighty thunderings. Halle
uiah for the Lord Col omnipotent reign
eth
Join with me in 4 crusade, giving ne not
only your hearts. but the mighty uplifting
Of YOUR voices, and believe we can, through
Chrlsts grace, sing fifty thousand souls into F,
the kingdom OF Christ. An argument they /
Fan laugh at, a sermon they can talk down,
but a vast audience joining in one anthem IS /
irresistible. Would that Queen Balkis would /
drive all her spice leaden boundaries into |
our church music. Neither was there any 4
SUCH spice as the Queen OF Sheba gave King |
Solomon" 81,
Now, ! want to impress this audience with /
The fact that religion is sweetness aud per
tune and spikenard and saffron and emma
mon and cassla ami frankincense, and all /
sweet spices together ON you say. Il .
have not looked at it as sucI. l thought 1t |
was a nuisance; it had for me repulslon; |
held my breath as though it were malodor |
have been appalled, at its advance. ! have
aid. if have any religion at all | want to /
nave lust as little of it as is possible TO get 1
through with On, what a mistake your /
rave made. my brother. The religion OF /
Christ is a present and everlasting redolence.
IL counteracts all trouble. Just put It on /
he stand beside the pillow Of sickness. 1t /
.atches in the curtains and perfumes the
fitting air. 1t sweetens the cup OF bitter
Medicine, and throws a glow on the gloom
# the turned lattice. 1t is balm for tho
lching side, and a soft bandage for the TEN
pie stung with pain.
. Why did you look so sad to-day when You
,ame ini Alas for the loneliness and the
1eartbreak, and the load that is never lifted
rom your soul. Some of you go about feel
1g like Macaulay when he wrote: ''If had
mother month Of such days as | have been
pending. | would lie impatient 10 get down
lto my little narrow crib in the ground like
weary factory child" And there have
cen tim, in your life when YOU wished you
onld get out of this life You have said
Oh. how SWEET 10 my lips would BE- the dust
the valley" and wish you could pull over
on in your last s,umber the cover.et of
reen grass and daisies. You have sad;
Oh, how beautifully quiet it must be 10 the
)mb. | wish / was there ] see all around
bout me widowhood and orphanage and
sadness, disappointment. per
lexity. If | could ask all those to rise in
his audience who have felt no sorrow and
cen buffetel by no disappointment-if |
)ud ask al such to rise, how many would
Sc? Not one
A widowed mother with her little child
ent West, hoping to get better wages there,
nd she was taken sick and died. The over
,er of the poor got her body an1 put it in
OK, and put it in q wagon. AMI started down
Ne street toward the cemetery at full trot
he little child-the only chil1-ran after it
trough the streets, bareheaded. crying,
Bring me back my mother bring me back
" motherw And it was said that rs the
eopIe looked on aud saw her crying after
lat which lay in the box in the wagon--1ll
le loved on eartb-it is said the whole viii
ge was in tears And that is what a great
ANY of you are doing-chasng the dead.
ear Lord, Is there no appeasement for all
lis sorrow that see about me? Yes, the
fought of resurrection and reunion far be-
ond this scene of struggle and tears. They
lall hunger no more, neither thirst any