The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-21
FAITH DEAD WITHOUT WORKS.
TALMAGE SAILS INTO RELIGION
WHICH Is ALL TALK.

nine Religion Can Not Exist with
ont showing Themselves in Good
NVorIxs-The Old Religion Applied
in Every Direction and Not n New
Religion the Need Of the Hour.
Washington. Dec. 2O-This subject of
DIR. Taimage cuts through the conven-
tionalities and spares nothing OF that
nake-believe religion which is all talk and
no practice. The text chosen was James
e.9o. Faith without works is dead"
The Roman Catholic church has been
charged with putting too much stress
upon good works and not enough upon
faith. 1 charge Professionalism with put
ting not enough stress upon good works
as connected with salvation. Good works
will never save man, but If a 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 tell
ing you how good they are. They come
up TO such a higher life thai they have
no patience with ordinary Christians in
the plain discharge of their duty. AS near
as / can tell, this ocean craft is mostly
sail and very little tonnage. Foretop-
mast stay-sail foretopmast studding sail,
mantopsail. neutrality-suspicious. thing
from flying-jib to mizzen- spanker, but
making no useful voyage. Now, the
world has got tired of this, and it wants
a religion that will work into ali the cir
Cumstances 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
hanks, and it roars like a young Niagara
as ii rolls on over its rough bed. 1t does
nothing but talk about Itself all the way
from 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 rill 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 its banks with
the warm tides, and it rocks with floral
lullaby the water lilies asleep on its bosom.
1t invites herds of cattle and fiocks of
sheep and coveys of birds to come there
and drink. 1t has three grist mills on one
side and six cotton factories on the other.
1t is the wealth of two hundred miles of
luxuriant farms. The birds of heaven
chanted when it was born in the noun
tains, and the ocean shipping will press
in from the sea to hail it as it comes down
from the Atlantic coast. The one river
is a man who lives for himself. The
other river is 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 adjoining farms.
The one brother had a large family, the
other had no family. The brother with a
large family said: There is my brother
with no family; he must be lonely, and
will try to cheer him up, and l will take
some of the sheaves from my field in the
nighttime and set them over on his farm,
and say nothing about it. The other
brother said: MY brother has a large
family and it is very difficult for him to
support them, and l will help him along,
and l will take some of the sheaves from
my farm in the nighttime and set them
over on his farm, and sax nothing about
it," So the work of transference went on
night after night, and 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 or
the city of Jerusalem. II that tradition
should prove unfounded, 1t will neverthe-
less stand as a beautiful allegory setting
forth the idea that wherever a kindly and
generous and loving act is performed, that
is the spot fit for some temple OF COM
memoration.
have often spoken to you about faith,
but this morning l speak to you about
works, for faith without works is dead"
I 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 so into all merchan-
disc. 1t will supervise the labelling of
goods. 1t will not allow a man to say
that a thing was made in one factory
when 1t was made in another. 1t will
not allow the merchant to say that watch
was manufactured i'm Geneva, Switzer-
land, when it was manufactured in Mas
sachusetts. 1t will not allow the merchant
10 say that wine came from Madeira,
when it came from California. Practical
religion will walk along by the store
shelves and tear off all the tags that
make Misrepresentation 1t will not al
low the merchant to say that it is pure
coffee, when dandelion root and chiccory
and other ingredients go into IL. Ii will
not allow him to say that is pure sugar
when there are In it sand and ground
glass.
When practical religion gets its full
swing in the world it will go down the
street. and it will come to that shoe store
and rip off the fictitious soles of many
a fne-lookng pair of shoes. and show
that II is pasteboard sandwiched between
the sound leather And this practical re-
ligion will go right into a grocery store
and it will pull out the plug of all the
adulterated syrups, and IL will dump into
the ash-barrel in front of the store the
cassia bark that is sold for cinnamon
and the brckdust that is sold for cayenne
pepper; and it will shake out the Prus.
sian blue from the tea leaves, and il will
sift from the -four plaster of paris and
bonedust and soapstone, and il will by
chemical analysis separate the one quart
OF water from the few honest drops OF
cows milk, and IL will throw ont The
1--we animalcules from the brown sugar
There has been so much adulteration OF
articles Of food that 1t is an amazement tt
me that there is a healthy man or woman
In America. Heaven only knows what the,
put into the spices and into the sugars anc
into the butter and into the apothecarN
drug. But chemical analysis and the micro
scope nave made wonderful revelations