Connecticut western news., 1893-09-07
WEEK DAY RELIGION.
THespMcflcALgTHgMt OF PR. TAL- ! 1 MAeE,s SUNDAY SERMON.


 place Affairs of Lifeline Aggregate Inn portanoe of Small Things-"In All Thy Ways Acknowledge Him."
 BROOKLYN, Sept. 3.-Rev. T. De Witt Talmage in selecting a topic for today chose one of practical value to all classes wiz, 'Week Day Religion The text is from Proverbs iii. 6, 'In all thy ways acknowledge him."
 There has been tendency in all lands and ages to set apart certain days, places and occasions for especial religious serv- ice, and to think that they formed the realm in which religion was chiefly to act. Now, while holy days and holy places have their use, they can never be 8 substitute for continuous exercise of faith and prayer.
 In other words, a man cannot be so good Christian on Sabbath that he can afford to be worldling all the week. If a steamer start for Southampton and sail one day in that direction and the other six days sail in other directions, how long before the steamer will get to Southampton Just as soon as the man will get to heaven who sails on the Sab bath day toward that which is good, and the other six days of the week sails to- ward the world, the flesh and the devil. You cannot eat so much at the Sabbath banquet that you can afford religious abstinence all the rest of the week.
 GENUINE RELIGION NOT SPASMODIC.
 Genuine religion is not spasmodic, does not go by fits and starts, is not an attack of chills and fever-now cold un- til your teeth chatter, now hot until marches on steadily, up steep hills and along dangerous declivities, it's eye ever on the everlasting hills crowned with the castles of the blessed.
 propose, so far as God may help me, to show you how we may bring our re- hgion into ordinary life and practice it in common things-yesterday today, tomorrow.
 And, in the first place, remark, we ought to bring religion into our ordinary conversation. A dam breaks, and two or three villages are submerged, South American earthquake swallows 8 city, and people begin to talk about the un- certainty of human life, and in that con- versation think they are engaging in re- hgious service when there may be no re- hgion at all. have noticed that in pro- portion as Christian experience is shall low men talk about about funerals and deathbeds and hearses and tombstones and epitaphs.
 If @ man have the religion of the gos- pei in it's full power in his soul, he will talk chiefly about this world and the eternal world and very little compara- lively about the insignificant pass be- tween this and that. Yet how seldom it is that the religion of Christ is a vel come themel If 0 man full of the gospel of Christ goes into a religious circle and begins to talk about sacred things, all the conversation is hushed, and things become exceedingly awkward. AS on summer day, the forests full of song and chirp and carol, mighty chorus of bird harmonies. every branch an orchestra. if hawk appears in the sky, all the voices are hushed, so I have sometimes seen social circle that professed to be Christian silenced by the appearance of the great theme of God and religion.
 Now, my friends, If we have the reli zion of Christ in our soul, we will talk about it in an exhilarant mood. It is more refreshing than the waters, it is brighter than the sunshine, it gives a man joy here and prepares him for ever lasting happiness before the throne of God. And yet, if the theme of religion be introduced into @ circle, everything is silenced-silenced unless perhaps an aged Christian man in the corner of the room, feeling that something ought to be said, puts one foot over the other and sighs heavily and says, "Oh, yes; that's sor'
 My friends, the religion of Jesus Christ is not something to be groaned about, but something to talk about and sing about, your face irradiated. The trouble is that men protesting the faith of the gospel are often so inconsistent that they are afraid their conversation will not harmonize with their life. We can- not talk the gospel unless we live the gospel. You will often find man whose entire life is full of inconsistencies fill ing his conversation with such expres- sions as, "We are miserable sinners" 1.-The Lord help us," '"The Lord bless you," interlarding their conversation with such phrases, which are mere can't ing, and canting is the worst kind of hypocrisy.
 If man have the grace of God in his heart dominant, he can talk religion, and 1t will seem natural, and men, instead of being repulsed by it, will be attracted by it. Do you not know that when two Christian people talk as they ought about the things of Christ and heaven God gives special attention, and he writes ii all down. Malachi iii, 18, 'Then they ~ that feared the Lord talked one to the other, and the Lord hearkened and heard and book of remembrance was writ ten."
 RELIGION IN EVERYDAY AFFAIRs.
 But remark again, we ought to bring the religion of Jesus Christ into our or dinary employments. "Oh," you say ''that's a very good theory for man who manages large business, who has great traffic, who holds great estate-it is { grand thing for bankers and for ship pers-but in my thread and needle store in my trimming establishment, in my in significant work of life, you cannot ap ply those grand gospel principles" Wht told you thatr Do you not know that [ faded leaf on a brooks surface attract Gods attention as certainly as the patl of blazing sun, and that the moss tha creeps up the side of the rock attract Gods attention as certainly as the way ing tops of Oregon pine and Lebanon cedar, and that the cracking of an aide under cows hoof sounds as loudly il Gods ear as the snap of a worlds con aaoration. and that the most insignih cant thing in your life is of enough in portance to attract the attention of tf Lord God Almighty?
 My brother, you cannot be called do anything so insignificant but Gc will help you in it. If you are fishe man, Christ will stand by you as he d
 by Simon when he dragged Gennesare