The Penn's Grove record., 1891-02-27
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
The Brooklyn Divine's sun.
daV Sermon
Subject =: "Faith Without Works."

Subject !: Faith Without WorKs. .
TEXT: Faith without works is dead.,-
Jas. H., 20.
The Roman Catholic Church has been
charged with putting too much stress upon
good works n not enough upon faith. ]
Charge Professionalism with putting not
enough stress upon good works as connected
with salvation. Good works will never save
a man, but if a man nave not good works he
has no real faith and no genuine religion,
they are all right inside, while their
is wrong outside. Their religion fol
the most part is pade up of ta~lk-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 a 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-
zentoIsail-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 a new
religion, but the old religion applied in all
possible directions.
thlt 10 llftI Wlbu FbcCp anu IOtkf
banks, and it roars like a young Niagara as
1t rolls on over its rough bed. It does moth
ing but talk o 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 u one fertilizing rill into the
adjoining field. 1t has not me 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,
INT 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 floral lullaby the water lilies asleep on
its bosom. 1t mites herds of cattle, and
locks OF sheep, and coveys of birds to come
there n 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 1t as it comes down to
the Atlantic coast. The one river is a man
who lives for himself, the other river is q
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 l will try to
cheer him UP, and l will take some of the
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, and 1t is very diff
dcult for him to support them, and I will
help III 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 it." 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 n 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 ID
was chosen Is 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 a kindly and generous and loving
act is performed that is the spot fit for some
temple Of commemoratioBx
/ have often spoken t cyou 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 the
great want Of this world Is more practical
religion. We want practical religion to go
INTO all merchandise. 1t viii supervise the
labelling OF goods. It will not allow a man
TO say a thing was made in one factory when
It was made in another. 1t will not allow
the merchant to say that watch was manu-
iactured 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 ths
store shelves and tear off all the tags that
- Ill -~N n1Orn
the merchant to say that Is pure coffee when
landelion root and chicory u other in
gradients 60 int it. 1t will not allow him to
ay that Is pure sugar when there are in II
and and ground glass.
When practical religion gets Its full swing
N the world it will go down the streets, and
it win come to that shoe store and rip of
the fictitious soles OF many a fine looking
pair of shoes, and show that it is pasteboard
andwiched between the sound leather. And
this practical religion will 60 right into a
grocery store, and 1t will pull out the plug Of
all the adulterated sirups, n 1t will dump
into the ash barrel in front of the store the
cassia bark that il 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 1t will sift
from the -four plaster Of Paris and 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 80 much adulteration Of
articles Of food that it il an amazement to
me that there is a healthy man or woman in
America. Heaven only knows what they
put into the spices, and Into the sugars, and
drugs. But chemical Analysis and the
microscope have made wonderful revela.
tions. The board Of health in Massachusetts,
analyzed q great amount Of what was called
pure coffee and found In 10 not one particle
81 coffee. In England there Is . law that
torbids the putting Of alum in bread Tit
public authorities examined fifty-one pack.
The honest physician, writing q 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
med by a cheaper article, n another drug
may be in full force, and so the prescription
may have just the opposite effect intended.
Oh of NORWOOD, warranted pure, from
Boston, was found to have forty-one pei
cent. Of resin and alcohol and chloroform
Scammony is one Of the most valuable medt
cinal drugs. 1t is very rare, very precious.
1t is the sap or the gum of a tree or bush in
Syria The root Of the tree is exposed, an
incision ismade into the root, and then shelli
are placed at this incision to catch the saF
or the gum as it exudes.
II is very precious, this scammony. But
the peasant mixes it with cheaper material;
then it is taken to Aleppo, and the merchant
there mixes it with a cheaper material; then
1t comes on to the wholesale druggist in Lon
don or New York, and he mixes it with q
cheaper material; then it comes to the re-
tail druggist, and he mixesit with a cheaper
material, and by the time the poor sick man
Gets it into his bottle 1t 10 ashes and chalk
and sand, and some of what has been called
pure scammony after analysis has been
found to be no scammony at all.
Now, practical religion will yet rectify all
this. 1t win go to those hypocritical profes
sors of religion who got q corner" in corn
and wheat in Chicago and New York, send
ing prices up and up until they were beyond
the reach 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 to sell. and
they sold out making themselves ~millionairea
in one or two years-trying to fix the mat.
ter up with the Lord by building q church,
or a university. or q hospital-deluding them
serves with the Idea that the Lord woul1 De
so pleased with the gift He would forget the
swindle. Now, as such a man mas not have
any liturgy in which to say his prayers, !
will compose for him one which he practi-
cally is making: 20 Lord, we, by getting o
corner in breadstuffs, swindled the people
Of the United States out OF ten million dol
lars, and made suffering all up aud down the
land, n we would like to compromise this
matter with Thee. Thou knowest it was a
scaly job, but then 1t was smart. Now, here