The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-08-02
''PLAIN PEOPLE" !"
Rev. Or. Talmage Defines the
Worlds Need of a Religion.
" Must be such as Not TO be beyond
the Reach Comprehension of
the Ordinary People In
Everyday Life.

Dewitt Talmage, who is still on his
summer tour, is selected for publica-
tiOn this week. Its subject is plain
People" being based on the text:
Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon. Hermas, Petro-
bus. Hermes. Philologus and Julius.-Ronans
xVt-, 14-15.
Matthew Henry, Albert Barnes,
Adam Clark, Thomas Scott, and all
the commeutat pass by these verses
without any especial remark. The
other twenty people mentioned in the
chapter were distinguished for some
thing, and were, therefore, discussed
by the illustrious expositors; but
nothing is said about Asyncritus,
Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hcrmes.
Philclogus and Julia. Where were
they born? No one knows. Where
did they Gic2 There is no record of
their dece3se. For what were they
distinguished? Absolutely for nothing,
or the trait of character would have
been brought out by the apostle. If
they had been very intrepid or opulent
or hirsute or musical of cadence, or
Grass of style or in any wise anoma-
lous, that feature would have been
caught by the apostolic camera. But
they were good people, because Paul
sent to them his high Christian re-
CARDS. They were ordinary people,
moving in ordinary sphere, attending
TO ordinary duty, and meeting ordin-
airy responsibilities.
What the world wants is a religion
for ordinary people. If there be in
the United States sixty-five million
people, there are certainly not more
than one million extraordinary; and
then there are sixty-fOur million ordi-
nary. and we do well to turn our
backs for little while upon the dis
tinguished and conspicuous people of
the Bible end consider in our text the
seven ordinary. We spend too much
of our time in twisting garlands for
remarkables and building thrones for
magnates, and sculpturing warriors
and aPotbeosizing philanthropists.
The rank and the file of the Lords
soldiery need especial help.
The vast majority of people to whom
this sermon comes will never lead an
army, will never write state consti-
tuition, will never electrify a Senate,
will never make an important inven-
tion, will never introduce a new phi
lOsophy, will never decide the fate of
nation. You do not expect to; you do
not want to. You will not be Moses
to lead a nation out of bondage. You
will not be a Joshua to prOlong the
daylight until you can shut five kings
in a cavern. You will not be n st.
John to unroll the Apocalypse. You
nf ha nj 70 10
apostolic college. You will not be a
Mary TO mother a Christ. You will
more probably be Asyncritus, or Phle-
gOn, or HCrmas, or Patrobas, or
Hermes, or Philologus, or Julia.
Many of yOu are women at the head
of households. This morning you
launched the family for Sabbath OBJ
servance. Your brain decided the ap-
parel, and yOur judgment was final on
all questions of personal attire. Every
morning you plan for the day. The
culinary department of your house
hold is your dominion. You decide all
questions of diet All the sanitary
regulations of your house are under
your supervision. TO regulate the
food, and the apparel, and the habits,
and decide the thousand questions of
home life is a tax upon brain and
nerve and general health absolutely
if there be no divine allevia-
tion.
1t does not help you much to be told
that Elizabeth Fry did wonderful
things amid the criminals of Newgate.
1t does not help you much to be told
that Mrs. Judson was very brave
among the Bornesian cannibals. 1t
does not help you much to be told
that Florence Nightingale was very
kind to the wounded in the Crimea. 1t
would be better for me to tell you that |
the divine friend of Mary and Martha !
is your friend, and that he sees all the |
annoyances and disappointments and |
abrasions and exasperatious of an or
dinary housekeeper from morn till !
night, and from the first day of the |
year to the last day of the year, and at |
your call he is ready with help and re-
They who provide the food of the |
world decide the health of the world. |
One of the greatest battles of this
century was lost because the COM
mander that morning had a fit of in
digestion. You have only to go on |
some errand amid the taverns and the |
hotels of the United States and Great /
Britain to appreciate the fact that a /
vast multitude of the human race are /
by incompetent cookery. |
a young woman may have /
taken lessons in music, and may have |
taken lessons in painting, and lessons |
in astronomy, she is not well educated /
unless she has taken lessons in dough! |
They who decide the apparel of the
world and the food of the world decide /
the endurance of the world.
An unthinlxing man may consider it |
a matter of little importance-the /
cares of the household and the econo-
mics of domestic life-but l tell you
the earth is strewn with the martyrs |
Of kitchen and nursery. The health
shattered womanhood of America cries
out for God who can help ordinary
women in the ordinary duties of house
keeping. The wearing, grinding, un-
work goes on, but the /
same Christ who stood on the bank of /
Galilee in the early morning and
kindled the fire and had the fish al
ready cleaned and broiling when the /
sportsmen stepped ashore chilled and 4
hungry will help every woman TO pre-
pare breakfast, whether by her own
hand or by the hand of her hired help J.
The God who made indestructible eu- (
logy Of Hannah. who made a coat for 1
samuel, her son. AMI carried ii to the |
temple every year, win help every wo-
nan IN preparing the family wardrobe |