Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-09-08
SLAP AT HYPOCRITES'
TALMACE SAILS INTO THE
SEVENTH DAY FOLK.
II a Person Does Not Practice Through
the Week That Which He Processes
on Sunday, lie Is No Good ON
Earth.

bhOOkL1N, sept. 6-heNs l. LOW lAb III
mage in selec ing TOPIC for to-day chose one
of practical value TO all classes, VIZ: Week
Day Religion" The text is from Proverbs $50,
"In all thy ways acknowledge him
There has been tendency in oil
lands and ages to set apart certain
days, places and occasions for especial
religious service, and to think that
they formed the realm in which re-
ligiou was chiefly to act. Now, while
holy days and holy places have their
use, they can never be substitute for
continuous exercise of faith and
prayer In other words, a man cannot
be so good a Christian on sabbath that
he can afford to be wording all the
week. If steamer start for South
ampton, and SAL one day in that di-
rection, and The other six days sail in
other directio S. how long before the
steamer will get to Southampton?
Just as soon as man will get to
heaven who sails on the Sabbath day
toward that which is good, and the
other six days of the week sails toward
the world, the flesh and the devil.
You cannot eat so much at the Sab
bath bauqueC that you can afford re-
ligious abs tinence all the rest of the
week.
Genuine religion is not spasmodic,
does not go by fits and starts, is not
an attack of chills and fever-now
cold until your teeth chatter, now hot
until YOUR bones ache. Genuine re-
ligion marches on steadily, up steep
hills, and along dangerous declivities,
its eve ever on the everlasting h lis
crowned with the castles of the blessed
propose, so far as God may help
me, to show You how we may bring
our religion into ordinary life, and
prac tice in common things-yesterday
to-day, tomorrow.
And in the first place, | remark: We
ought 20 bring religion into our ordi-
nary co versaJion. A dam breaks and
two or three villages are submerged.
South American earthquake swallows
a city and people beg n o talk about
the uncertainty of hu lie, and in
that conversation think they are en-
gaging in religious service, when there
may be no religion at all. | have no.
ticed that in proportion as Christian
experience is shallow, men talk about
funerals and deathbeds and hearses
and tumbstones and epitaphs. If
man have the religion OF the gospel in
its full power in his soul, he will talk
chiefly about this world and the eter-
nal world and very little compare
lively about the insignificant pass be
tween this and that Yet how seldom
it is that the religion of Christ is well
come theme? If man full of the
gospel of Christ goes into a religious
circle, and begins to talk about sacre
things, all the conversation is hushed,
and things become exceedingly awk-
ward. AS on summer day, the for
ests full of song and chirp and carol,
mighty chorus of bird harmonies,
every branch an orchestra-if n hawk
appears in the sky, all the voices are
h. shed, so have sometimes seen n
social circle that professed to be
Chri star, silenced by the appearance
of tn great theme of God and re igion.
Now, my friends, if we have the relig
ion of Christ in our soul, we will talk
about il in an eXhilarant mo ID. 1t is
more refreshing than the waters, it is
brighter than the sunshine, it gives a
man JOY here, and prepares him for
everlasting happiness before the
throne of God. And yet, if
the theme of religion be in
PRODUCED into circle. everything is
sile accustomed. unless, perhaps,
an ased Christian man in the corner
ought TO be said, puts one foot over
the other and signs heavily, and says,
sob, yes:that's so" My friends. the
religion OF Jesus Christ is not some
thing to be groaned about, but some
thing to talk about and sing about,
your face irradiated. The trouble is
tnat men protesting the faith IF the
gospel are often so inconsistent that
they are afraid their conversation will
not harmonic with their life We
can not talk the gospel unless we live
by the gospel. You will often find a
man whose entire life is full of incon-
sistencies filing his coSyersation with
such expressions as, I'VE are miSer-
able sinners, 1.-The Lord help u.s."
''the Lord bless YOU" interlard
ing their conversation with such
phrases, which are mere caGlting, and
canting is the worst kind of hypo-
risy. If man have the grace of God
in h heart dominant he can talk re-
ligi0n nd it will seem natural, and
men. instead of being repulsed b. it,
will be attracted by it. Do you know
that when two Christian people talk as
they ought about the things of Christ
and heaven God gives special attention,
and he writes it all down. Malachi
3:16: Then they that feared the Lord
talked one to the other, and the Lord
hearkened and heard, and a book of
remembrance was written"
But remark again: We ought to
bri, the religion of Jesus Christ into
our ordinary cmplOyments. OH you
say, that's a very good theory for a
man who manages large business,
who has great traffic, who holds
great estate; it is a grand thing
for bankers and for shippers,
but in my thread and needle
store, in my trimming establishments,
in my insignificant wortS of life, you
cannot apply those grand gospel prin-
ciples." Who told you that? DO you
know that faded leaf on brooks
surface attracts Gods attention as GER
tainly as the path OF blazing sun,
and that the moss that creeps up the
side of the rock attracts Gods atten-
ton as certainly as the tops of Oregon
pine and Lebanon cedar, and that the
cracking of an alder under a cows
hoof sounds just as loudly in Gods ear
as the snap of a worlds conhagration,
and that the most insignificant thing
in your life is of enough Importance to
attract the attention of the Lord God
Almighty?