Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-12-29
Dr.. T almage's
SernOn<
ON
PRACTICAL
RELIGION.

ventionalides, and spares nothing of
that make-believe religion which is all
talk and no practice. The text chosen
was James, 2: 20: Faith without works
| is dead"
The Roman Catholic church has
been charged with putting too much
stress uron good works and not enough
upon faith. / charge Professionalism
with putting not enough stress upon
| good works as connected with saliva
| ton. Good works will never save a
man, but if man have not good works
he has no real faith and no genuine
| religion. There are those who depend
upon the fact that they are all right
inside, while their conduct is wrong
! outside. Their religion, for the most
| part, is made up of talk-vigorous talk,
fluent talk. boastful talk, perpetual
| talk. They Will entertain you by the
hour in telling you how good you are.
| They come up to such a higher life
| that they have no patience with ordi-
nary Christians in the plain discharge
OF their duty. AS near as / can tell.
| this ocean craft is mostly sail and very
| little tonnage Foretopmast stay-sail
foretopmast studding sail, maintopsail.
observation-disclosures from fly
| ing-jib TO mizzen-spanker, but making
no useful voyage. Now, the world has
| got tired of this, and it wants relig-
| ion that will work into all the cirxum-
stances of life. We do not want a new
religion, but the old religion applied
in all possible directions.
Yonder is a river with steep and
rocky banks. and it roars like young
Niagara as it rolls on over it's rough
bed. 1t does nothing but talk about
itself all the way erom its source in
the mountain TO the place where it
empties into the sea. The banks are
so steep that the cattle cannot come
down to drink. 1t does not run one
fertilizing riil into the adjoining field
| 1t has not one grist mill or factory on
either side. 1t sulks in wet weather
with chilling fogs. No one cares when
| that river is born among the rocks, and
no one cares when it dies into the sea.
But yonder is another river, and it
MOSES it's banks with the warm tides,
! and it rocks with floral lullaby the
water lilies asleep on its bosom. 1t
| invites herds of cattle and flocks of
shee pand coveys OF birds to come
there and drink. 1t has three grist
mills on one side and six cotton fac
tories on the other. 1t is the wealth
Of two hun lred miles of luxuriant
| farms. The birds of heaven chanted
when it was born in the mountains, and
the ocean shipping will press in from
the sea to hail it as 1t comes down
| from the Atlantic coast The one river
is man who lives for himself. The
other river Is a man who lives for
| others.
| Do You know how the site of the
ancient city of Jerusalem was chosen?
There were two brothers who had adj
| joining farms. The one brother had
large family, the other had no family.
The brother with large family said
There is my brother with no family;
he must be lonely, and | will try to
cheer him up, and will take some of
| the sheaves from my field in the night
time and set them over on his farm,
and say nothing about it," The other
brother said my brother has large
family and it is very difficult for him
TO support them, and l will help him
| along, and | will take some of the
| sheaves from my farm in the night
time and set them over on his farm,
and say nothing about it." SO the work
of transference went on night after
night, but every morning things
seemed to be just as they were, for
though sheaves had been subtracted
from each farm, sheaves had also been
added, and the brothers were perplexed
and could not understand But one
night the brothers happened to meet
while making this generous transfer
ence. and the spot where they met was
SO sacred that it was chosen as the
site of the city of Jerusalem. II that
tradition should prove unfounded. 1t
| will nevertheless stand as a beautiful
allegory setting forth the idea that
wherever kindly and generous and
| loving act is performed, that is the
spot fit for some temple of commem-
| grafton.
/ have often spoken to you about
faith, but this morning | speak to YOU
about works, for faith without works
Is dead" / think you will agree with
me in the statement that the great
want OF this world is more practical
religion. We want practical religion
TO go into all merchandise. 1t will
| supervise the labelling of goods. 1t
will not allow man to say that
| thing was made in one factory when
| 1t was made in another. 1t will not
allow the merchant to rly that watch
| was manufactured in Geneva, Switzer-
! land, when it was manufactured in
| Massachusetts. 1t will not allow the
| merchant TO say that wine came from
Madeira when ii came from California.
Practical religion will walk along by
| the store shelves and tear off all the
tags that make misrepresentation. 1t
| will not allow the merchant to say
| that is pure coffee, when dandelion
| root and chiccory and other ingredients
| go into it. 1t will not allow him to say
| that is pure sugar when there are in
| IL sand and ground glass.