The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-01-01
PRACTICAL RELIGION.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Talks Upon the
Need of tho Hour.
Religion. to be Properly Practical, Must
Tear Away the Mask of tho Hypo-
critic and Expose the shams
OF the World.

The Roman Catholic church has been
charged with putting too much stress
upon good works and not enough upon
faith. i charge Professionalism with
putting not enough stress upon good
works as connected with salvation.
Good works will never save a man,
but if a man have not good works he
has no real faith and no genuine re-
| Hgion. 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, per-
petual talk. They will entertain you
by the hour in telling you how good
they are. They come up to such a
| higher life that they have no patience
with ordinary Christians in the plain
discharge of their duty. As near as l
can tell, this ocean craft is mostly sail
and very little tonnage. Foretopmast
staysail, foretopmast studding sail,
maintopsail, mizzentopsail - every
thing from flying lib 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
all the circumstances of life. We do
not want a new religion, but the old
religion applied in all possible direc-
tons.
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 from its source in
4 10 1fnIV 80 1,n Ill
| empties into the sea. The banks are
SO steep that the cattle can not 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. Noone 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 mosSes its banks with the warm
tides, and it rocks with floral lulluby
the water lilies asleep on its bosom.
1t invites herds of cattle and f1ocks of
sheep and conveys 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 200 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 it comes down from the At
lantic coast. The one river is a man
who lives for himself. The other river
is a man who lives for others.
Do you know how the site of the an
cient City of Jerusalem was chosen?
hrn hC h-1 Il
| joining farms. The one brother had
large family, the other had no fam
| lily. The brother with the large fam
lily said: There is my brother with
no family; he must be lonely, and l
will try to cheer him up, and 1 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 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 night time, and
set 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
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 per7lexed and could not
understand. But one night the
brothers happened to meet while max
ing this generous transference, and
the spot where they met was SO sacred
that it was chosen as the site of the
city of Jerusalem. If that tradition
should prove unfounded, it will never
theless 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 Tor some
temple of commemoration.
have often spoken to you about
faith, but this morning speak to you
about works, for faith without works
is dead" 1 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 su-
pervise the labelling of goods. 1t will
not allow man to say that a thing
was made in one factory when it was
made in another. 1t will not allow
the merchant to say that watch was
manufactured in Geneva, Switzerland,
when it was manufactured in Massa-
chusetts. 1t will not allow the mer-
chant to say that wine came from Ma
deira 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 allow the merchant to say
that is pure coffee when dandelion
root and chickOry and other ingredi-
ents go into it. 1t 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 godown the
street, and it will come to that shoe
store and rip off the fictitious soles of
many tine-looking pair of shoes, and
show that IT, is pasteboard sandwiched
between the sound leather. And this
practical religion will go right into
a goocery htore and will pull out the
plug of the adulterated sirups, and
it will dump into the ash barrel in
front of the store the cassia bark that
is sold for cinnamon, and the brickdust
that is sold for cayenne pepper; anu
il will shake out the Prussian blue
from the tea leaves, and it will sift
from the -four plaster of Paris and
bonedust and soapstone, and it will, by |
chemical analysis, separate the one
quart of water from the few honest |
drops of cows milk, and it viii throw |
out the live animalcules from the |
brown sugar.
There has been so much adulteration |
of articles of food that it is an amaze
ment to me that thee is a healthy |