Milford chronicle., 1893-09-08
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAeE ON THE COMMON
PLACES OF LIFE.

Everyday Religion Is the True Test o
Piety-God Does Not Overlook the LittI,
Things-we should Be Thankful Fol
Small blessings.
BRooEyN, Sept. s.-Rev. 7. De Wit
Talmage in selecting a topic for today chos,
one Of practical value to all classes-viz
"Week day Religion The text is from
Proverbs iii, @, in all thy ways acknowl
edge him."
There has been tendency in all 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 religion was chiefly to act Now,
while holy days and holy places have their
use, they can never be a substitute for con
tinuous exercise Of faith and prayer.
In other words, a man cannot be so good a
; 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? 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 cat so much at the Sab
bath banquet that you can afford religious
abstinence 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 religion marches on stead
lily, up steep hills and along dangerous de
clivities, its eye ever on the everlasting
hills crowned with the castles of the blessed.
propose, 50 far as God may help me, to
show you how we may bring our religion
into ordinary life and practice it in COM
mon things-yesterday, today, tomorrow
RELIGION IN COMMON THINGS.
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; a South
/ American earthquake swallows a city, and
/ people begin to talk about the uncertainty
/ of human life and in that conversation
think they are engaging in religious serv-
| ice, when there may be no religion at ALL
have noticed that in proportion as Christian
experience isshallow men talk about funer
ais and deathbeds and hearses and tomb
stones 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 eternal
world and very little comparatively about
the insignificant pass between this and
that. Yet how seldom it is that the reli-
gion of Christ is welcome theme? If a
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 exceeding awkward
As on a summer day, the forests full Of
song and chirp and carol, mighty chorus of
bird harmonies, every branch an orchestra,
il hawk appears in the sky, all the voices
are hushed So / have sometimes seen a 4
social circle that professed to be Christian
sileneed by the appearance Of the great
theme of God and religion.
Now, my friends if we have the religion |
of Christ in our soul, we will talk about it /
in an eXhilerant mood. It is more refresh /
ing than the waters, it is brighter than the |
sunshine, it gives a man joy here and pre-. !
pares him for everlasting happiness before /
tue throne Of God. And yet, if the theme /
of religion be introduced into n circle, ev- |
erything is silenced-silenced unless per-
haps 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
is not something to be groaned about, but
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 cannot talk the gospel un-
less we live the gospel. You will often
find man whose entire life is full of in
filling his conversation with
such expressions as ''we are miserable sin
ners, !" ''the Lord help us, " 'the Lord bless
you" interlmding their conversation with
such phrases, which are mere canting, and
eanting is the worst kind of hypocrisy.
If man have the grace of God in his
heart dominant, he can talk religion, and it
will seem natural and men instead of be-
ing repulsed by it will beattracted by it. Do
7ou not know that when two Christian peo-
pie talk as they ought about the things of
Christ and heaven God gives special atten-
ion, and be writes it all down Malachi
ii, 1G "Then they that feared the Lord
alked one to the other, and the Lord
and heard, and book of remem
lrance was written"
But, remark again, we ought to bring
he religion of Jesus Christ into our ordi-
lary employments. "Oh, you say, that's
very good theory for man who manages
large business, who has great traffic, who
lolds great estate. 1t is a grand thing fol
,ankers and for shippers but in my thread
md needle store, in my trimming establish
nent, in my insignificant work of life, you
annot apply those grand gospel princi-
les" Who told you thaty Do you not
now that q faded leaf ON a brooks sur
ace attracts Gods attention as certainly
s the path of blazing sun, and that
he moss that creeps up the side Of the rock
ttracts Gods attention as certainly as the
raving tops of Oregon pine and Lebanon
edar, and that the cracking Of an alder
nder a cows hOof sounds as loudly in :
iod's ear as the snap of Il world S confagra-
ion, and that the most Insignificant thing
. your life is of enough importance to at
ract the attention of the Lord God AL
nightly?
My brother, you cannot be called to do !
nything so insignificant but God will help !
on in it. If you are fisherman, Christ
ill stand by you as he did by Simon when
e dragged Gennesaret. Are you drawer =
water? He will be with you at the well :
1rb when talking with the Samaritan
-oman. Are you custom house ofiicer2 :
hrist will call you as he did Matthew at =
he receipt of custom. The man who has =
ally days wages in his pocket as certain Il
needs religion as he who rattles the keys 4
a bank and could abscond with a hum :,
red thousand bard dollars. And yet there :,
re men who profess the religion Of Jesus g
hrist who do not bring the religion Of the II
ospel into their ordinary occupations and N
nployments. 4
There are in the churches Of this day men l.
ho seem very devout on the sabbath who :,
&c far from that during the week. A !.
,untry merchant arrives in this city, and u,
e goes into a store to buy goods Of man Il
no processes religion, but has no grace in -
is heart. The country merchant is swim =,
led. He is too exhausted to 60 home that y,
eek he tarries in town. On Sabbath he 6
pes to some church for consolation, and A
hat is his amazement to fil.. e.-..- s..s .-.- s,
ho carries around the poor haA 2 i.-2 yei5 %,