The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1892-01-27
RELIGION In DAILY LIFE.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Pleads for q Re-
lgion for To-Day.
A Genuine Christian Life is not spasmodio
Sunday Christians and Week Day
Sinners not Fit Models for Anxious
souls-An Eloquent Discourse.

tired of insisting and which, more than
any other, constitutes his message to
this generation-the application of re-
ligion to the affairs of daily life.
His text was taken from ]. Corinthians,
xS 81; whether, therefore, ye eat or
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to
the glory of God" He said:
Wien the apostle in this text sets
forth the idea that so common an action
as the taking of food and drink is to be
conducted to the glory of God, he pro-
claims the Importance of religion in the
ordinary affairs of life. In all ages of
the world there has been tendency to
set apart certain days, places and occa-
sions for worship, nd to think those
were the chief realms in which religion
was to act Now, holy days and holy
places have their Importance. They
give opportunity for especial perform
ance of Christian duty, and for regaling
of the religious appetite; but they can
not take the place of continuous exer-
else Of faith and prayer. In other
NOAaob a Cdl uOb bC OO HULL VI ~
Christian on Sunday that he can afford
to be worldling all the rest of the
week. II steamer put out for South
ampton, and go one day in that direc-
tion and the other six days in other di-
rections, how long before the steamer
will get to Southampton? 1t will
never get there. And though n man
may seem to be voyaging heavenward
during the holy Sabbath day, if, during
the following six days of the week he
is going toward the world, and toward
the flesh, and toward the devil, he will
never ride up into the peaceful harbor
Of Heaven. You can not eat so much
at the Sabbath banquet that you can
afford religious abstinence the other six
days. Heroism and princely behavior
on great occasions are no apology for
lack Of right demeanor in circumstances
insignificant and inconspicuous. The
genuine Christian life is not spasmodic,
does not go by fits and starts. 1t tolls
on through heat and cold, up steep
mountains, and along dangerous de.
clivities, its eyes on rhe everlasting
hills crowned with the castles of the
blessed
l Ipropose, this morning, to plead for
religion for to-day.
In the first place we want to bring
the religion of Christ into our converse.
tion. When dam breaks and two or
three villages are overwhelmed, or an
earthquake in South America swallows
whole city, then people begin to talk
about the uncertainty of life, and they
imagine that they are engaged in posi-
lively religious conversation. No. You
may talk about these things and have
no grace of God at all in your heart We
ought every day to be talking religion.
II there is anything glad about it, any
thing beautiful about it, anything i'm.
portant about it. we ought to l'e con-
tinuously discussing IL have noticed
that men, just in proportion as their
Christian experience Is shallow, talk
about funerals, and graveyards, and
tombstones, and deathbeds The real,
genuine Christian man talks chiefly
about this life and the great eternity be-
yond, and not so much about the insig-
niioant pass between these two resi-
dences And yet how few circles there
are where the religion of Jesus Christ is
welcome Go into a circle, even of
Christian people, where they are full Of
Joy and hils-ity, and talk about Christ
or heaven, and everything is immediate
lysilenced. As on summer day, when
the forests are full OF life, chatter, and
chirrup, and Garcia mighty chorus 0i
bird harmony, every tree branch an Or
chestra-if hawk appears in the sky,
every voice stops, and the forests are
still; just so have seen lively religi-
GUS circle silenced on the appearance OF
anything like religious conversation
No one had anything to say, save, per-
haps, some old patriarch in the corner
of the room, who really thinks that
something ought to be said, under the
circumstances; so he puts Que foot over
the other, and heaves a long sigh, and
says, 40, yes; that's so; that's SOP
Myfriends the religion of Jesus Christ
is something to talk about with glad
heart 1t is brighter than the waters !;
II is more cheerful than the sunshine.
Do not go around groaning about your
religion, when you ought TO be singing
or talking IL in cheerful tones of voice.
How often it is that we find men whose
lives are utterly iBo0usistent, who at
tempttO talk religion. and always make
a failure of i'll My friends we must live
religion or we cannot talk it If man
is cranky, and cross, and uncongenial.
and hard in his dealings, and then be-
gins 70 talk about Christ and heaven,
everybody is repeled by it Yet have
heard suck men say, in whining tones,
1--WE are miserable sinuers;' 1.-THE
Lord bless Jeu;" THE Lord have mercy
on you;7 their conversation interlarded
with such expressions, which mean no
thing but canting; and canting Is the
worst form of hypocrisy. II we have
really felt the religion of Christ In our
hearts, let us talk II, and talk It with an
illuminated couRtenance ,rememb bering
that when two Christian people talk, God
gives especial attention, and writes down
what they say Malachi Iii, 10: "Then
they that feared the Lord spake often
one to another; ana the Lord hearkened
and heard it. and book OF remem,
brance was written"
again ] remark: we must bring the
religion Of Christ into our employmentA
TO-" you say, that Is very well II n
man can handle large sums of money,
or II he have an extensive traffic; but
in my thread-and-needle store. in my
trimming establishment, in the humble