St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-01-23
TALMAGE's SERMON.
The Need OF the Hour is More Prao-
tical Reugion.
sFalth Without Works y Dead"-Thsrs
Must He New Departure In the
Application Of lssligioa to
Everyday Affairs.

OsSON1 AA0sSOs
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmoge talked or
practical Religion" in recent ser
mon before his Washington congrega
tion. His sermon was based on the
text:
Faith without voeks is dead."-James IL.
%
The Roman Catholic church has beer
charged with putting too much stress
upon good works and not enough upon
faith. / charge Professionalism with
putting not enough stress upon good
works ~ connected with salvation.
Good works will never save y man
but il . man have not good works hs
has no real faith and no genuine re
ligion. There are those who depend
upon the fact that they are all righ,
inside, while their conduct is wrong
outside. Their religion. for the mos,
part, is made up Of talk-vigorous
talk, fluent talk. boastful talk. per-
petual talk. They will entertain you
by the hour in telling you how good
they are. They come up to such q
higher life that they have no patience
with ordinary Christians In the plain
discharge OF their duty. As near rs
can tell, this ocean craft Is mostly sail
and very little tonnage. Foretopmast
staysail, foretopmast studding sail,
maintopsail, mixzentopsail - every.
thing from flying jib to mizzen spanker,
but making 10 useful voyage. Now,
the world has got tired Of this and il
wants . religion that will work into
al the circumstances Of life. We do
not want = new religion, but the old
religion applied in all possible direc-
Uons.
Yonder r. . river with steep and
rocky banks, and It roars like . young
Niagara - 1t rolls on over its rough
bed. It does nothing bnt talk about
itself all tho way from its source in
the mountain to the place where it
empties into the sea. The banks are
so steep that the cattle can not come
down to drink. It does not run one
fertilixing rill into the adjoining field.
It has not one grist mill or factory on
either side. II aulks In wet weather
with chilling fogs. No one cares when
that river i born among the rocks.
and no ono cares when it dies into the
Bes. But yonder il sanother river, and
it mosses it, banks with the warm
tides, and It rocks with floral lulluby
the water lilies asleep on its bosom.
1t invites herds Of cattle and hocks Of
sheep and conveys Of birds to come
there and drink It has three grist-
mills on one side and six cotton fac
tories on tho other. It is the wealth
Of 800 miles Of luxurisnt farms. The
birds Of heaven chanted when it was
born In tho mountains. and the ocean
shipping will press in from the sea to
hail 1t - 1t comes down from the At
lantic coast. The one river Is = man
who lives for himself. The other river
Is = man who lives for others.
Do you know how the site Of the an
cient City Of Jerusalem was chosen2
There were two brothers who had ad-
joining farms. The one brother had
: large family, the other had no fam
lily. The brother with tho large fam
lily said: There il my. brother with
no family; he must b lonely. and l
will try to cheer him up. and viii
take some Of the sheaves from my field
In the night time and. set them over
Dn his farm, and say nothing about
It." The other brother ssid: my
brother has : large family, and it Is
very difficult for him TO support them,
and will help him along. and l will
take some Of the sheaves from my
tarm in tho night time, and
vt them over on his farm. and
say nothing about it. So the work OF
transference went on night after
night, and night after night; but
svery morning things seemed to be
just - they were, for, though sheavcs
had been subtracted from each farm,
sheavss had also been added, and the
brothers were perplexed and could not
understand. But ono night the
brothers happened TO meet while max.
lng this generous transference, and
the spot where they met was 20 sacred
that II was chosen ~ the site of the
city OF Jerusalem. II that tradition
should prove unfounded, it will never
theless stand - . beautiful allegory,
setting forth tho Idea that wherever =
kindly and generous and loving act il
performed, that il the spot at for some
temple Of commemoration.
have often spoken to you about
faith, but this morning speak to you
about works, for ''faith without works
u dead" think you will agree with
me in the statement that the great
want Of this world 10 more practical
religion. We want practical religion
70 70 into al merchandise. It will su-
pervise the labelling Of goods. It will
not allow . man to say that . thing
was made In one factory when it was
made In smother. It will not allow
the merchant 70 say that watch was
In Geneva, Switzerland,
when it was manufactured in Massa-
chusetts. Il will not allow tho mer-
chant to cay that wine came from Ma
deira when Il came from California.
Practical religion will walk along by
the store shelves and tear on AL the
tags that make misrepresentation. It
will not allow tho nsrchant to say
that is purs coffee when dandelion
root and chickory and other ingredi-
ents 70 into il II will not allow him
70 say that + pure Augar when there
ars N Il sand and ground glass-
When practical religion gets tt full
swing ip the world Il viii godown the
street, and II viii come 70 that shoe