The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-11-11


Things-we should He Thankful For
small blessings.
BROOKLYN, Sept. 3.-Rev. Il. DE Witt
Talmage in selecting topic for today chose
one of practical value to all classes-viz,
week day Religion" The text is from
Proverbs iii, 6, I'm all thy ways acknowl-
edge him"
There has been a 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 worldling all the week. IL 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 a 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 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, so far as God may help me- to
into ordinary life and practice it in com
mon things-yesterday today, tomorrow.
RELIGION IN COMMON THINGS.
And, in the first place, l 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. l
have noticed that in proportion as Christian
experience is shallow men talk about funer-
ais and deathbeds and hearses and tomb
stones and epitaphs.
If a man have the religion of the gospel
in its full power in his soul, he will talk
chiefly about this world aud 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 a welcome theme2 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 n summer day, the forests full of
song and chirp and carol, mighty chorus of
bird harmonies, every branch an orchestra
81,
are hushed. So / 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 religion
of Christ in our soul, we will talk about it
in an exhilerant mood. 1t is more refresh
ing than the waters, it is brighter than the
sunshine, it gives man Joy here and pre-.
pares him for everlasting happiness before
the throne of God. And yet, if the theme
of religion be introduced into 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 SOP
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 harmonic with
their life. We cannot talk the gospel I'M
less we live the gospel. You will often
find a man whose entire life is full of in
consistencies filling his conversation with
such expressions as 1--WE are miserable sin
ners, 1.-THE Lord help us, " "the Lord bless
inf 1a rJi bait tiop ,,-ft IA
such phrases, which are mere canting, 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 be.
ing repulsed by it will be attracted by it. Do
you not know that when two Christian peo-
pie talk as they ought about the things of
Christ and heaven God gives special atten-
ton, 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 remem
brance was written"
But, remark again, we ought to bring
the religion of Jesus Christ into our ordi-
nary emplOyments. "Oh, you say, that IS
a very good theory for man who manages
a large business, who has great traffic, who
holds great estate. 1t is grand thing FOR
bankers and for shippers, but in my thread
and needle store in my trimming establish
ment, in my insignificant work of life, you
cannot apply those grand gospel princi-
pies" Who told you that' Do You not
know that a faded leaf on IA brooks sur
face attracts Gods attention as certainly
as the path of blazing sun, and that
the moss that creeps up the side of the rock
attracts Gods attention as certainly as the
waving tops of Oregon pine and Lebanon
cedar, and that the cracking of an alder
under a cows hoof sounds as loudly in
Gods ear as the snap of world's confagra-
ton, and that the most Insignificant thing
in your life is Of enough Importance to at
tract the attention of the Lord God Al
mighty
My brother, you cannot be called to do
anything so insignificant but God will help
you in it, If you are IA fisherman, Christ
will stand by you as he did by Simon when
he dragged Gennesaret. Are you a drawer
of water He will be with you at the well
curb when talking with the Samaritan
woman. Are you custom house officerg
Christ will call you as he did Matthew at
the receipt of custom. The man who has
only days wages in his pocket as certain
ly needs religion as he who rattles the keys
of bank and could abscond with a hun.
dred thousand hard dollars And yet there
are men who profess the religion of Jesus
Christ who do not bring the religion of the
gospel into their ordinary occupations and
emplOyments.
There are in the churches of this day men
who seem very devout on the Sabbath who
are far from that during the week A