The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-09-18
WEEK DAY RELIGION.
The Practical Theme Of DR.. Tai
IMAGES Sunday Sermon.

BROOKLYN, Sept 3.-Rev. T. De Witt
Talnage in selecting topic for today
chose one of PRACTICAL value to all classes
VIZ, 'sWeek Day Religion" The text
il 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
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 a wording 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? Juat as soon as the man
will get to heaven who sails on the Sab
bath day toward thatwhichis 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 I'M
til your teeth chatter, now hot until
your bones ache. Genuine religion
marches ON steadily, up steep hills and
along dangerous decivities, its eye ever
ON the everlasting hills crowned with
the castles Of the blessed.
I 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, I remark, we
ought to bring religion into our ordinary
conversation. A dam breaks, and two
or three villages are submerged, South
American earthquake swallows city,
and people begin to talk about the I'M
certainty of human life, and in that con-
versation think they are engaging in re-
1igious service when there may be no re-
igion at all. Ihave 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 a man have the religion Of the gos-
pei in its full power in his soul, he will
talk chiefly about this world and the
eternal world and very little compare
lively about the Insignificant pass be-
tween this end that. Yet how seldom
it Is that the religion of Christ is a well
como themel If man full of the gospel
of Christ goes into 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 a hawk appears in the sky, all the
voices are hushed, SO have sometimes
seen a 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
gion of Christ in our soul, we will talk
about it in an exhilarant mood. 1t 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 a 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
signs heavily and says, "Oh, yes; that's
sol"
My friends, the religion of Jesus Christ
10 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 harmonic with their life. We can
R9t 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 express
sions as, eve are miserable Sinners"
''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 a man have the grace of God in his
heart dominant, he can talk religion, and
it 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 it
all down. Malachi iii, 16, "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 I remark again, we ought to bring
the religion of Jesus Christ into our or
binary emploAnents. "Oh." you say,
that's 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
I H.