Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-09-04

-SN "ANNbo AAhAs
BROOKLYN, Sept 3.-Rev. T. De Wit
Talmage in selecting topic for toda
chose one of practical value to all classe
viz, "Week Day Religion" The tex
Is from Proverbs iii, GIN all thy way
acknowledge him."
There has been tendency in all land
and ages to set apart certain days, place
and occasions for especiaEreligious serv
ice, and to think that they formed tb,
realm in which religion was chiefly {,
act. Now, while holy days and hol,
places have their use, they can never bt
a substitute for continuous exercise OF
faith and prayer,
other'words, a man cannot be SC
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
your bones ache. Genuine religion
marches on steadily, up steep hills and
along dangerous declivities, its eye ever
on the everlasting hills crowned with
the castles of the blessed.
l propose, so far as God may help me,
to show you how we may bring our re-
ligion 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 a 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-
ligion 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 a 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 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 a 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
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
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 !
s silenced-silenced unless perhaps an
aged Christian man in the corner of the
room, feeling that something ought to be
laid, puts one foot over the other and
,ighs heavily and says, "Oh, yesi that's
Jov'
My friends, the religion of Jesus Christ
s not something to be groaned about,
put something to talk about and sing
Lbout, your face irradiated. The trouble
8 that men protesting the faith Of the
gospel are often SO inconsistent that
hey are afraid their conversation will
lot harmonize with their life. We can
lot talk the gospel unless we live the
gospel. You will often find a man whose
ntire life is full of Inconsistencies fill
ng his conversation with such express
ions as, 1--WE are miserable sinners"
The Lord help u.s." 1.-THE Lord bless
ou," interlarding their conversation
With such phrases, which are mere can't
ng, and canting is the worst kind of
ypocrisy.
If a man have the grace Of God in his
cart dominant, he can talk religion, and
will seem natural, and men, instead
t being repulsed by it, win be attracted
y it. Do you not know that when two 1
christian people talk as they ought about J
he things of Christ and heaven God 1
ives special attention, and he writes it /
II down. Malachi iii, 16, Then they {
nat feared the Lord talked one tothe
ther, and the Lord hearkened and heard, c
nd a book of remembrance was writ I
an"
RELIGION IN EVERYDAY AFFAIRS.
But remark again, we ought to bring '
he religion Of Jesus Christ into our or I
mary employments. ''Oh," you say, 8
that's very good theory for man who i
manages large business, who has great I
raffic, who holds great estate-it Is
rand thing for bankers and for ship /
In NV thread and needle store, I