The Monitor-register., 1897-12-10
DOING GOOD WISELY.

DOlNU UUUD NISEL1 L.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON ON
COMMON SENSE IN RELIGION.
Alert Business Men Who Are Laggards
In Affairs of the Soul-More Common
Sense Needed In Church Building and
In Building Up the Christian Character.
copyright, 1897, by American Press Asso-
c~iation.]
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5.-Dr. Talmage
In this adiscourse advocates more prac-
tical wisdom in efforts at doing good
and assails some of the absurdities in
church architecture and management.
The text is Luke xvi, s, 1.-The children
of this world are in their generation
wiser than the children of light"
That is another way of saying that
Christians are not SO skillful in the
manipulation of spiritual affairs as
worldlings are skillful in the manage
ment of temporalities. I see all around
me people who are alert, earnest, con-
centrated and skillful in monetary mat
tiers, who in the affairs of the soul are
laggards, inane, inert. The great want
of the world is more common sense in
matters of religion. If one-half of the
skill and forcefulness employed in fnan-
cial affairs was employed in disseminat-
ing the truths of Christ and trying to
make the world better, within ten years
the last Juggernaut would fall, the last
throne of oppression upset, the last in
iquity tumble and the anthem that was
chanted over Bethlehem on Christmas
night would be echoed and re-echoed
from all nations and kindred and peo-
pie, "Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace, good will to men,"
Some years ago., on a train going to-
ward the southwest, as the porter of the
sleeping car was making up the berths
at the evening tide, I saw a man kneel
down to pray. Worldly people looked
on as much as to say, "What does this
mean?" I suppose the most of the peo-
pie in the car thought that the man was
either insane or that he was a fanatic,
but he disturbed no Il when he knelt
and he disturbed no one when he arose.
In after conversation with him l found
out that he was a member of a church
in a northern city, that he was a seafar-
ing man, and that he was on his way to
New Orleans to take command of a YES
sci. I thought, then, as 1 think now,
that ten such men-men with such cour-
age for God as that man had-ten such
men would bring the whole city to
Christ. A thousand such men would
bring this whole land to God. Ten thou
sand such men, in a short time, would
bring the whole earth into the kingdom
of Jesus. That he was successful in
worldly affairs, I found out. That he
was skillful in spiritual affairs, you are
we'll persuaded. If men had the courage,
the pluck, the alertness, the acumen,
the industry, the common sense in mat
tiers of the soul, that they have in mat
tiers of the world, this would be a very
different kind of earth in which to live.
More Common Sense In Church Building.
In the first place, my friends, we
want more common sense in the build
ing and conduct of churches. The idea
Of adaptiveness is always paramount in
any other kind of structure. If bankers
meet together and they resolve upon
putting up q bank, the bank is especial
ly adapted to banking purposes. If a
manufacturing company puts up a build
+ ing, it is to be adapted to manufacturing
purposes. But adaptiveness is not always
the question in the rearing of churches.
In many of our churches we want more
light, more room, more ventilation,
more comfort. Vast sums of money are
expended on ecclesiastical structures,
and men sit down in them, and you ask
a man how he likes the church. He says,
81 like it very well, but 1 can't hear"
AS though a shawl factory were good
for everything but making shawlsl The
voice of the preacher dashes against the
pillars. Men sit down under the shadows
of the Gothic arches and shiver and feel
they must be getting religion or some
thing else they feel so uncomfortable.
Oh, my friends, we want more COM
mon sense in the rearing of churches !
There is no excuse for lack of light
when the heavens are full of it, no ex-
cuse for lack of fresh air when the
WOIlu SN1ulS Ill III. LII OuSuU w w an
expression not only of our spiritual hap
piness, but of our physical comfort,
when we say: Chow amiable are thy
tabernacles, . Lord God of hosts! A
day in thy courts is better than a thou
sand"
Again, l remark we want more com
mon sense in the obtaining of religious
hope. All men understand that in order
to succeed in worldly directions they
must concentrate. They think on that
one object, on that one subject, until
their mind takes fire with the velocity
of their own thoughts. All their acu-
men, all their strategy, all their wis
dom, all their common sense they put
in that one direction, and they succeed.
But how seldom it is true in the matter
of seeking after God. While no man
expects to accomplish anything for this
world without concentration and enthu-
siasm how many there are expecting
after awhile to get into the kingdom OF
God without the use of any such means.
The Mountain of Gods Love.
A miller in California many years
ago picked up a sparkle of gold from
the bed of a stream which turned his
mill. He held up that sparkle of gold
until it bewitched nations. Tens of
thousands of people left their homes.
They took their blankets and their pick
axes and their pistols and went to the
wilds of California. Cities sprang up
suddenly on the Pacific coast. Mer-
chants put aside their elegant apparel
and put on the miners garb. All the
land was full of the talk about gold.
Gold in the eyes, gold in the ears, gold
in the wake of ships, gold in the streets
gold, gold, gold!
: Word comes to US that the mountain
of Gods love is full of gold; that men
have been digging there and have
brought up gold, and amethyst, and
carbuncle, and Jasper, and sardonyx,
and ~chrysoprasus, and all the precious
stones out of which the walls of heaven
we're builded. Word comes of a man
who, digging in that mine for n hour,
mas brought up treasures worth more
than all the stars that keep vigil over
our sick and dying world.
Is it a bogus company that is formed?
Is it undeveloped territory? Oh, 40, the
story is truel There are hundreds and
thousands Of people who would be will
ing to rise and testify that they have