Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-05-22

SaLlSIacLOn ana nlgn rapture.
How any woman keeps house without the
religion of Christ to help her is a mystery &c
me. TO have TO spend the greater Fart OF
ones life, &s many women do in planning
for the meals, in stitching garments that viii
soon be rent again and deOloriug { reaka2es
and supervising tardy subordinates and
driving OF dust that soon again will SETTLE
and doing the same thing day in and day
out, and year In and year out, until their
hair sllVers, and the back Stops and the
spectacles crawl to the eyes and the grave
breaks open under the thin sole of the shoe
oh, 1t Is a long monotony! Bot when Christ
comes TO the drawing room, and comes &c
the kitchen, and comes to the nursery and
comes In the dwelling, then how cherry be
comes all womanly duties. She is never
alone now; Martha gets through frettine
and joins Mary at the feet of Jesus
All day long Deborah is happy because
SIZE can help Lapidoth, Hannah, because she
can make a coat for young Samuel Miriam,
because she can watch her infant brother:
Rachel, because she can help her father
water the stock; the widow of Sarepta, be
cause the cruise Of oil is being replenished
y woman! having in your pantry a nest of
boxes containing all kinds Of condiments
why have you not tried in your heart and
|. life the spicery Of our holy religions
Martha! Martha. thou art careful AMI
troubled about many things; but one thin
is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good
part which shall not be taken away from
her"
I must confess that great deal of the re-
hgion Of this day is utterly insipid. There
is nothing piquant or eevating about it
Men and women go around humming psalmi
In a minor key, and culturing melancholy,
and their W Orship has in it more signs than
rapture. We do not doubt their piety. Oh,
no. But they are sitting at a feast where
the cook has forgotten to season the food
Everything is fiat 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 everlasting
Botany Bay. Religion does not seem TO
agree with them. 1t seems to cath III the
windpipe and become tight stranguiation
instead of exhilaratiOn.
All the infidel books that have been writ
ten, from VOltaire down to Herbert Spen-
Ger, have not done so much damage to our
Christianity as lugubrious Christians. Who
wants religion woven out OF the shadows
of the night? Why go growing on your way
to celestial enforcement? Come ont Of
that cave and sit down in the warm light of
the Sun Of righteousness. Away with Your
odes to melancholy and Hervey's ''Medita-
lions Among the Tombs"
Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We're marching through Emmanuers ground
To fairer worlds on high.
I 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
so far from being con inverted when you find
so little vivacity in the pulpit and in the
pew? We want, like the Lord, to plant in
our sermons ana exnorJaU1ons more lilies or
the field. We want fewer rhetorical elabora-
tions and fewer sesquipedallan words; and
when we talk about shadows, we do not want
to say adumbration; and when we mean
queerness, do not want to talk about
idiosyncracies: or if a stitch in the back, 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 US be
earnest. Let us be common sensical. When
we talk to the people in vernacular they
can understand they will be very glad tc
come and receive the truth we present.
Would to God that Queen Balkis would
drive her spice laden dromedaries into
all our sermons and prayer-meeting exhor-
tatlOnS.
More than that, we want more life and
spice in our Christian work. The poor dc
not want SO much to be groaned over as sung
to. With the bread and medicines and the
>
compartment Of smiles and brisk encourage
ment Do not stand and talk to them about
the v,retchedness of their abode, and the
hungSf 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, if 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 like 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 much as to say: II
don't see how you live here in this neighbor-
hood. It 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 a
manner which seems to say: The blessed
Lord sent me- He was poor himself. It is
not more for the good am going to try to dc
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 OF Christ,
and all the novels 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.
say, take that which will bring out the most
inspiring music. If we had half as much
zeal and spirit in our churches as we have in
the songs of our Sabbath schools it would
not be long before the whole earth would
quake with the coming God. Why, In most
churches nne-tenths of the people do not
slng or they sing so feebly that the people
at their elbows DO not know they are sing
ing. People mouth and humble the praises