Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-09-14

Religious Spirit should Prevail IN
All Our Doings.
Brooklyn, N. Y, Speeial-Rev. L. De
Witt Talmage, in selecting a topic Tor
Sunday, chose one of practical value to
all classes, viz: Weekday Religion
The text is from Proverbs ill.,, g: In
all thy ways acknowledge him."
There has been a tendency in all lands
and ages to set apart certain days,
places and occasions for especial re-
ligious 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 continuous
exercise Of faith and prayer. In other
words, a man cannot be so good a
Christian on Sabbath that he can af-
ford TO be Il 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 dlrec-
tons, how long before the steamer VIII
get to Southampton? Just as soon as
q 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 Sabbath 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 steadily, up steep hills.
and along dangerous declivities, its eye
ever on the everlasting hills 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 practice
it in common things-yesterday, today
and tomorrow.
And in the first place I remark: We
ought to bring religion into our ordinary
conversation. 4 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 en-
gaging in religious service, when there
may be no religion at all. l have no
ticed that in proportion Of Christian
experience is shallow men talk about
funerals and death-beds, and hcarses,
and tombstOnes, and epitaphs. If a
man have the religion of he 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 religion Of Christ is a welcome
theme! If a man full of the gospel of
Christ goes into a religious circle, and
begins 10 talk about sacred things, all
the conversation is huShed, and things
become exceedingly awkward. AS ON
a summer day, the forests full of song
and chirp and carol, mighty chorus of
bird harmonies, every branch an orches-
tra-if a hawk appears in the sky, all
the voices are hushed, so I have some-
times seen a social circle that profeSsed
TO be Christian, silenccd by the appear
ance 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 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
everlasting happiness before the throne
OF God. And yet, If the theme of relig-
ion be introduced into q circle, every
thing is silenced-silenced unless, per-
haps, an aged Christian man in the
corner of the room, feeling that some
thing ought to be said, puts one foot
over the other and signs heavily and
says: "Oh, yes; that's So" My friends!
the religion of Jesus Christ is not some
thing TO be groaned about, but ONE
thing to talk about and sing about,
your face irradiated. The trouble is
that men processing the faith of 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 WI live the
gospel. You will often find a man
whose entire life is full Of inconsistent
cies filing his conversation with such
expressions as, 1--WE are miserable sin
ners," "the Lord help u.s. the Lord
bless u.s." interlarding their CONVERSE
don with 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 being repulsed by
1t, viii be attracted by it. Do you not
know that when two Christian people
Cilh dS llty OuSul uDOuL tie JulUgS OF
Christ and heaven, God gives special
attention. and he writes it all down.
Malachi ill.,, 16: Then they that feared
the Lord talked one to the other, end
the Lord hearkened and heard, and a
book of remembrance was written
But / remark again. We ought to
bring the religion of Jesus Christ into
our ordinary employmcnts, oh" you
say, that's a very good theory for a
nan who manages Il large business.
who has a great traffic, who holds a
great estate; it Is q grand thing for
bankers and for shippers, but in my
thread and needle store, in my trimming
establishment, in my Insignificant work
Of life you cannot apply those grand
gospel principles" Who told you that:
Do you not Know that a faded leaf on
n brooks surface attracts Gods atten-
ton as certainly as the path of Il blaz-
ing 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 un-