Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-05-14

DC q Cnhuko-
An editor from San Francisco a few weeks
ago wrote me saying he was getting up
for his paper a symposium from many
clergYmen, discussing among other things
"Why do not people 60 to ehurchP
and he wanted my opinion, and gave II
In one sentence, People do not go toehurch
because they cannot stand the humdrum-"
The fact Is that most people have so much
humdrum in their worldly calling that they
do not want to have added the humdrum
Of religion. We need in all our sermons
and exhortations and songs and prayers
more Of what Queen Balkis brought TO
Solomon-namely, more spice.
LIFE IS HUMDRUM.
The fact is that the duties and cares OF
this life, coming to us from time to time,
are stupid often and inane and intoler-
able. Here are men who have been barter
ing and negotiating, climbing, pounding, |
hammering for twenty years, forty years,
fifty years. One great long drudgery has
their life been. Their face anxious, their
feelings benumbed, their days monotonous.
What is necessary to brighten up that
mans life, and to sweeten that acid dispo-
sition, and to put sparkle into the mans
spiritsS The spicery of our holy religion.
Why, If between the losses OF life there
dashed CLEAN of an eternal gain; II be-
tween the betrayals Of life there came the
CLEAN of the undying friendship of Christ;
If In dull times in business we found min
istering spirits flying to and fro in our
Office and store and shop, everyday life,
instead of being stupid monotone, would
be glorious inspiration, penduluming be-
tween calm satisfaction and high rapture.
How any woman keeps house without
| the religion of Christ to help her is mys-
| terry to me. To have to spend the greater
part of ones life, as many women do, In
| planning for the meals, in stitching gar
ments that will soon be rent again, and de-
ploring breakages and supervising tardy
subordinates and driving off 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 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. it is long mon
otony! But when Christ comes to the
drawing room, and comes to the kitchen,
and comes to the nursery, and comes in
the dwelling, then how CHEEKY becomes all
womanly duties. She snever 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;
Miriam, because she can watch her infant
brother; Rachel, because she can help her
father water the stock; the widow of Sa-
repta, because the cruise of oil is being re-
plenished. o womanl 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
religion? martha! Martial thou art care
full 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."
SOME RELIGION IS INSIPID.
Imust confess that great deal OF the
religion of this day is utterly insipid
There is nothing piquant or elevatinl
about it. Men and women go around
, humming psalms in minor key, ant
!. culturing melancholy, and their worship
has in it more sighs than rapture. We dt
, not doubt their piety. Oh, no. But the!
. are sitting at a feast where the cook ha
forgotten to season the food. Everything
is flat in their experience and in their con
yersation. Emancipated from sin an
= death aad hell, and on their way to mag
' nificent heaven, they act as though the
were trudging on toward an everlastin
! Botany bay. Religion does not seem
J agree with them. It seems to catch in tn
= windpipe and become tight strangulatio
:, instead of m exhilaration.
. All the infidel books that have been wri
. ten. from Voltaire down to Herbert SpeI
Ger. have not done SO much damage
, our Christianity as lugubrious Christian
Who wants q religion woven out OF tn
. shadows of the night? Why go growlin
. | on your way to celestial enthronemen'
u Come out of that cave and sit down in tt
:. y warm light of the Sun of Righteousness
~ Away with your odes to melancholy ar
= Hervey's "Meditations Among the Tombs
= Then let our songs abound.
u And every tear be dry;
"a We're marching through Emmanue
B. ground
To fairer worlds on high.
n. have to say, also, that we need to p
ID more spice and enlivenment in our reli
ot ious teaching, whether 1t be in the pray
ly meeting, or in the Sabbath school, or
fl the church. We ministers need more fre
i'd air and sunshine In our lungs and o
IT. heart and our head Do you wonder th
SO the world is SO far from being convert
,g when you find so little vivacity in the p
IS, pit and in the pew? We want, like the Lol
n to plant in our sermons and exhortatlo
nd more lilies of the field. We want few
n, rhetorical elaborations and fewer sesq
wv pedalian words; and when we talk abe
at shadows, we do not want to say adumb
tion: and when we mean queerness, we
not want to talk about idiosyncracles; o.
he a stitch in the back, we do not want
III talk of lumbago, but in the plain verna'
Ter lar preach that gospel which proposes
M make all men happy, honest, victorit
ng and free.
ng In other words. we want more cinnan
ng and less gristle. Let this be SO in all
he different departments of work to which
af- Lord calls us. Let us be plain. Let us
nd earnest. Let us be common sensis
IT. When we talk to the people in verna
ed lar they can understand they will be
,he glad to come and receive the truth we I
vel sent. Would to God that Queen Bal
,g. would drive her spice laden dromedal
be- into all our sermons and prayer meet
ne exhortati0ns H.
re. LIFE AND SPICE IN CHRISTIAN WORK
are More than that, we want more ille
nd spice in our Christian Work. Inc poor
ey- not want so much to be groaned over
ext sung to- With the bread and medicl
zee: and the garments you give them, let I'll
the be an accompaniment of smiles and bl
" encouragement Do not stand and tall
he them about the wretchedness of Il
ype abode, and the hunger of their looks,
aba the hardness of their lot. Ahi they kl