Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-02-20
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
Subject. "Faith Without Works."

good works and not enough upon faith. L
charge Professionalism with putting not
enough stress upon good works as connected
with salvation. Good works will never save
man. but if a 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 for
the most part is made up of talk-vigorouS
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 l
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 the
circumstances of life. We do not want new
religion, but the old religion applied in all
possible directions.
Yonder is a river with steep and rocky
banks, and il rOarS like young Niagara as
il 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 il
empties into the sea. The banks are so
steep the cattle cannot come down TO drink.
1t does not run one fertilzing rill into the
adjoining field. 1t has not one grist mill or
factory on either side. 1t sulks in wet
weather with chilling fogs No one cares
when that river is born among the rocks
and no one cares when it dies into the sea,
But yonder is another river, and it moses
its banks with the warm tides, and it rocks
with foral lullaby the water lilies asleep on
its bosom. IL invites herds of cattle and
iocks 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 luxuriant farms. The birds of
heaven chanted when it was born in the
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 man
who lives for himself, the other river is a
man who lives for others.
Do you know how the site Of the ancient
city of Jerusalem was chOsenf There were
two brothers who had adjoining farms. The
one brother had a large family, the other
had no family. The brother with a large
family said, There is my brother with no
family; he must be lonely, and | will try TO
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, The other brother said, MY
brother has a large family, anditiS very diff
hcult for him to support them, and will
help him along and | will take some of the
sheaves from my own farm in the night time
and set them over on his farm and say moth
ing about itn So the work of transference
went on night after night and night after
night, but every morning things seemed to
be Just as they were, for though Sheaves had
been subtracted from each farm sheaveS had
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 the
spot where they met was SO sacred that 1t
was chosen as the site Of the city of Jerusa-
lem. II that tradition should prove I'M
founded it will nevertheless stand as a 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 l speak to you about works for
faith without works is dead" ] think you
will agree with me in the statement that the
great want of this world is more practical
religion. We want practical religion TO 60
into all merchandise. 1t will supervise the
labelling OF goods. 1t will not allow man
20 say a thing was made in one factory when
1t was made in another. II will not allow
the merchant TO say that watch was manu-
featured 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 Misrepresentation. 1t will not allow
the merchant to say that is pure coffee when
dandelion root and chicory and other In
gradients go into It, 1t will not allow him 70
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 of
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 a
grocery store, and it will pull out the plug OF
all the adulterated sirups, and 1t viii dump
into the ash barrel in front Of the store the
cassia bark that is sold for cinnamon and
the brick dust that is sold for cayenne
pepper, and it will shake out the PruSsian
blues from the tea leaves, and it will sift
from the -four plaster of Paris ard bone dust
and soapstone, and 1t will by chemical
analysis separate the one quart of Ridge
wood water from the few honest drops Of
cows milk, and it sill throw out the live
enimalcules 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
put into the spices, and into the sugars and
into the butter, and into tins apothecary
drugs. But chemical analysis and the
microscope have made wonderful reveal
tons The board Of health in Massachusetts,
analysed 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 a prescrip-
ton, does not know but that it may bring
death instead Of health 10 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 50 the prescription
may have Just the opposite effect intended.
Oil of NORWOOD, warranted pure, from
Boston, vas found TO have forty-One per
cent. Of resin and alcohol and chlorofOrm.
Scammony is one of the most valuable medi-
cinal drugA II is very rare, very precious.
1t is the cap o. the gum of a tree or bush in
Syria. The root Of the tree is exposed an
incision is msdo into the root, and then shells
are placed at this incision to catch the sap
or the gum as il exudes
1t is very precious, this scammOny. But
the peasant mixes it with cheaper material;
then it is taken to Aleppo, and the merchant
there mixes 10 with cheaper material then
it comes on 10 the wholesale druggist in Lon
don or New York, and he mixes it with
cheaper material; then it comes 70 the re-
tail druggist and he mixesit with cheaper
material, AMI by the time the poor sick man
gets it into his bottle it is ashes and chalk
and sand, and some of what has been calle.s
pure scamlnony after analysis has been
found to be no scammony at all.
Now, practical religion will yet rectify all
this. 1t will go to those hypocritical profess
sors Of religion who got corner IN corn
and wheat in Chicago and New York, send
ing prices up and up until they were beyond
thereach of the poor, keeping these bread
stuffs in their own hands, or controlling them
until, the prices going up and up and up,
they were after awhile ready 10 sell, and
they sold out, making themselves nillionaires
IN one or two years trying TO fix the mat
ter up with the Lord by building a chiHTil
or university, or hospital-deluding them
elves with the idea that the Lord woald be
70 pleased with the gift He would forget the
swindle. Now, as such man may not have
any liturgy in which to say his prayers, |
gill compose for him one which he practi-
L. =. IN