The Bossier banner., 1892-03-31
EVERY DAY A SABBATH.
DR.. Talmage Talks to the Sunday
Christian and Weekday Sinner.
True Religion will Not Act that Wav, But
will Govern Ones Actions at All
Times and Under All
circumstances.

The following discourse by Rev. L.
Dewitt Talmage applies to large
class of those who imagine, or profess
themselves Christians. 1t is based on
the text:
Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or what
suever ye Go. do all to the glory of God.-L Co
tin thians, K, 81,
When the apostle, in this text, sets
forth the idea that so common an ac-
ton as the taxing of food and drink is
to be conducted to the glory of God,
he proclaims the Importance of religion
in the ordinary affairs of our life. In
all ages of the world there has been
tendency to set apart certain days,
places and occasions for worship, and
to think those were the chief realms in
which religion was to act. Now, holy
days and holy places have their inn
portance. They give opportunity for
especial performance of Christian duty,
and for regaling of the religious appe-
tite; but they can not take the place of
continuous exercise of faith and pray
er. In other words, man can not be
much of Christian on Sunday that he
can afford to be wording all the rest
of the week. If steamer put out
for Southampton and GO one day in
that direction and the other six
days in other directions, how long be-
fore the steamer will get to Southamp-
ton? 1t will never get there And
though man may seem to be voyag-
ing Heavenward during the holy Sab
bath 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 Sab
bath banquet that you can afford re-
ligious abstinence the other six days.
Heroism and princely behavior on
great occasions are no apology for lack
of right demeanor in circumstances in
significant and inconspicuous. The gen.
uine 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 declivi-
ties, its eye on the everlasting hills
crowned with the castles of the blessed.
a religion for to-day.
In the first place we want to bring
the religion of Christ into our conversa-
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 re-
ligion. If there is anything glad about
it, anything beautiful about it, any
thing important about it, we ought to
continuously discussing it. l have
Z noticed that men, just in proportion as
their Christian experience is shallow,
i talk about funerals, and grave-yards.
and tomb-stones and death beds. The
real, genuine Christian man talks
chiefly about this life, and the great
eternity beyond, and not So much about
the insignificant pass between these
two residences. And yet how few cir
cles there are where the religion of
Jesus Christ is welcome. Go into cir
Gle, even of Christian people, where
they are full of joy and hilarity, and
talk about Christ or Heaven, and every
thing is Immediately silenced. AS on a
summer day, when the forests are full
of life, chatter, and chirrup, and carol
"a mighty chorus of bird-harmony,
every tree-branch an orchestra-if a
hawk appear in the sky, every voice
stops, and the forests are still; lust so
have seen lively religious circle
silenced on the appearance of anything
like religious conversation. No one
had anything to say. save, perhaps,
some old patriarch in the corner of the
room, who really thinks that some
thing ought to be said under the CIR
cumstances; so he puts one foot over
the other. and heaves a long sigh, and
says: 'Oh, yes; that's so, that's So"
My friends, the religion of Jesus
Christ is something to talk about with
glad heart. 1t is brighter than the
waters; it is more cheerful than the
sunshine. Do not go around groaning
about your religion, when you ought
to be singing it or talking it in cheer
full tones of voice How often it is that
we find men whose lives are utterly in
consistent who attempt to talk re-
ligiop, and always make failure of
it! My friends. we must live religion,
or we can not talk it. If man is
cranky, and cross, and uncongenial.
and hard in his dealings, and then be-
gins to talk about Christ and Heaven,
everybody is repeled by it. Yet |
have heard such men say in whining
tone: "We are miserable sinners;"
1.-The Lord bless you;" "The Lord
have mercy on you;" their conversa-
tion interlarded with such expressions,
which mean nothing but canting, and
canting is the worst form of hypocrisy.
If we have really felt the religion of
Christ in our hearts, let us talk it, and
talk it with an illuminated eouute-
nance, remem bering that when two
Christian people talk God gives espe-
cial attention and writes down what
they say Malachi, iii, 16: ''Then thew
that feared the Lord spake often to
one another; and the Lord hearkened
opd heard IL and a hOolx of ,,o.,o..