Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-02-05
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "ReIigion in Our Daily Life. ;

TEXT: "Whether therefore, ye eat or
drink. or whatsoever pc do, do all to the
g1ery of God"-I Corinthians X, 81.
when the apostle in his 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 proclains 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 Importance. They give oppor-
tunlty for especial performance OF Christian
duty. and for RECALLING of the religious appe-
tite but they cannot take the place of con-
tinuous exercise Of faith and prayer. In
other words, man cannot be so much of a
Christian Sunday that he can afford to
be a wording all the rest OF the week. If
steamer puts out for Southampton and goes
one day in that direction and the other six
days in other directions, how long before the
steamer will get to Southampton? It will
never get there.
And though man may seem to be voy-
aging heavenward during the holy Sabbath
day, il during the following six days of the
week he is going toward the world, and to-
ward the flesh and toward the devil, he will
never ride up into the peaceful harbor Of
heaven. You cannot eat SO much at the
Sabbath banquet that you can afford re-
ligious abstinence the other six days. Hero
ism and princely behavior on great occasions
are no apology for lack of right demeanor in
circumstances insignificant and inconspicu-
Gus. The genuine Christian life is not spas
modic; does not go by fits and starts. 1t tolls
on through heat and cold up steep mountains
and along dangerous declivities, its eve on
the everlasting hills crowned with the castles
of the blessed.
propose this morning to plead for re-
hgion for to-day.
In the first place. we wan to bring the re-
hgion Of Christ into our conversation. When
a dam breaks and two or three villages are
overwhelmed, an earthquake in South
America swallows whole CITY, then people
begin to talk about the uncertainty OF lite.
and they imagine that they are engaged in
positively 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, anything beautiful
about it, we ought to be continuously dis
cussing it. 1 have noticed that men, just il
proportion their Christian experience Is
shallow, talk about funerals and graveyarls
and tombstones and deathbeds. The real
genuine Christian man talks chiefly about
this life and the great eternity beyond, and
not SO much about the Insignificant pass be-
tween these two residences. And yet how
few circles there are where the religion of
Jesus Christ is welcome.
20 into a circle even OF Christian people,
where they are full of JOY and lWarity and
talk about Christ or heaven and everything
is Immediately silenced. AS on summer
day, when the forests are full of life, chat
ter and chirrup and Garcia mighty chorus
OF bird harmony, every tree branch an
chestra-lf a hawk appear in the sky every
voice stops and the forests are still; just so,
have seen lively religious circle slenced
on the appearance OF anything like religious
conversation No a anvfbinor t0
save, perhaps, some old patriarch in the
corner of the room, who really thinks that
something ought to be said under the cir
cumstances, SO he puts one foot over the
other and heaves long sigh, and says, ooh,
yes; that's SO, that's SOP
My friends, the religion of Jesus Christ
is something to talk about with glad
heart. It is brighter than the waters; it
is more cheerful than the sunshine. Do not
go around grooming about your religion
when you ought to be singing it or talking
it in cheerful tones of voice. How often it
is that we find men whose lives are utterly
inconsistent, who attempt to talk religion,
and always make a failure of it! NV
friends, we must live religion, or we cannot
talk it. If a man is cranky and cross and
uncongenial and hard in his dealings, and
then begins to talk about Christ and heaven,
everybody is repealed by it.
Yet have heard such men say in whining
tones, 1--WE are miserable sinners" ''The
Lord bless you, " THE Lord have mercy on
yOu," their conversation interlarded with
such expressions, which mean nothing but
cantlng, and cantlng 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 illuminated countenance, remember
ing that when two Christian people talk God
gives especial attention and writes down
what they say. Malachi iii, IL, Then they
that feared the Lord spake often one to an
other, and the Lord hardened and heard it,
and book of remembrance was written
Again, I remark, we must bring the re-
Hglon Of Christ into our employments.
''Oh," you gay, that is very well if man
handle large sums of money, or if he have
an extensive traffic, but in my thread and
needle store, in my trimming establish
ment, in the humble work in life that l am
called to, the sphere is too small for the
ACTION of such grand, heavenly principles"
Who told you SO? Do you not know that
God watches the faded leaf on the brooks
surface as certainly as He does the path of
a blazing sun? And the moss that creeps up
the side of the rock makes much impress
sion upon Gods mind as the waving tops Of
oregon pine and Lebanon cedar: and the
alder, cracking under the cows hoof, sounds
as loud in Gods ear as the snap of a worlds
confiagration.
When you have anything to do in life
however humble it may seem to be, God is
always there to help you to do it. If your
help you, as He helped Simon when he
dragged Gennesaret. II your work is draw
ing water, then He will help you as when
He talked at the well curb to the Samaritan
woman. If you are engaged in the custom
house, He will lead you, as He led Matthew
sitting at the receipt of customs. A religion
that is not good in one place is not worth
anything in another place. The man who
has only days wages in his pocket as GER
tainly needs the guidance of religion as he
who rattles the keys OF bank and could
abscond with hundred thousand hard dol