Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-05-06
A.BRAWNY RELIGION.
Or. TALMAee HERALps IMPENDING
CHRISTIAN REVOLUTIONS.

New Conditions Needed In Our Churches
and In Our Homes - Pride and Exclu-
sivsness Must Come Down-Weicome the
Day OF Great Revivsls.
copyright, 1898, by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, May This discourse
Of DR.. Talmage is revolutionary for
good in families and churches and ma
tionH and especially appropriate for
these times; text. Acts xvii, 6, "These
that have turned the world upside down
are come hither also"
There Is wild, believing mob
around the house Of Jason in Thessa-
lonioa. What has the man done so
greatly to offend the peoplei He has been
entertaining Paul and his comrades
The mob surround the house and cry:
Bring out those turbulent preachers.
They are interfering with our business.
They are running our religion. They are
actually turning the world upside
down"
The charge was true, for there is
nothing that so interferes with sin,
there is nothing so ruinous to every
form of established iniquity, there Is
nothing that has such tendency to turn
the world upside down, as our glorious
Christianity. The fact is that the world
now is wrong side up, and it needs to
be turned upside down in order that 1t
may be right side up. The time was
when men wrote books emitting them
Apologies For Christianity" hope
that day has passed. We want no more
apologies for Christianity. Let the apol-
oeies be on the part Of those who do
not believe in our religion. We do not
mean to make any compromise IN the
matter. We do not wish to hide the
fact that Christianity is revolutionary,
and that its tendency is to turn the
world upside down.
Our religion has often been misrep-
resented as a principle OF tears and
mildness and fastidiousness; afraid OF
crossing peoples prejudioes; afraid OF
making somebody mad; with silken
gloves lifting the people up from the
church pew into glory, as though they
we're Bohemian glass, so very delicate
that with one touch it may be demolish-
ed forever. Men speak Of religion as
though it were a refined imbecility; az
though it were a spiritual chloroform
that the people were to take until the
sharp cutting Of life were over. The
Bible. SO far from this, represents the
religion of Christ as robust and brawny
-ransacking and upsetting lO,OOI
things that now seem to be settled on
nrm foundations. hear some man IL
the house say, ~ thought religion wal
peace" That is the final result a
mans arm ia out Of place. Two meI
come and with great effort put is baci
20 the socket. Il goes back with grea
pain. Then it gets we'll. Our world !
horribly disordered and out OF joint. L
must come under an omnipotent surgery
beneath which there will be pain ant
anguish before there can come perfec
health and quiet. l proclaim, there
fore. in the name Of my Lord Jesu
Christ-revolution
Christian Revolutions.
. The religion of the Bible will make
revolution in the family. Those thing
that are wrong in the family circle VII
D be oyerthrown by it, while justice an
harmony will take the place. The hu'
band will be the head OF the housenol
only when he is fit TO be- l know ma
7 who spends all the money he makes !
rink as we'll as all the money that hl
wife makes and sometimes sells th
ehildren's clothes for rum. Do you te
D., me that he is to be the head OF Una
u household? II the wife have more NJ
bility. more courage, more consistency
more Of all that is right, she shall hay
B the supremacy. You say that the BIB
saws that the wife is to be subject 10 u
husband. | know it. But that IS hu
10 band, not masculine caricature. Ihei
e is no human or divine law that max
r. woman subordinate to a man III
worthy of her. When Christlanll
All 81.
- comes into a domestic circle, 1t WI
give the dominancy to that one VINO
the most worthy Of it.
As religion comes in at the 1ro
* door, mirth and laughter Will not
out Of the back door. 1t will not hopp
the children's feet John will laut
inst as loud, and George will Jun
higher than be ever did before. 1t w
i, steal from the little ones neither oi
ID nor bat, nor hoop, nor kite. IL VIII
~ ~ tablisb a family altar Angels will no
n or over it, Ladders of light will rea
nd down to it. The glory OF heaven W
q, stream upon it. The books OF remel
,es brance will record it, and tides OF ev'
4. lasting blessedness will pour from
Not such family altar as you M
'iss have seen, where the prayer is long a
"A ~ . long chapter is read, with tedious
mt plsnation, and the exercise keeps
a until ths ohildren's knees are sore a
% their backs ache and their patience
lost and for the seventh time they ma
counted ali the rungs in the chair,
a. mean family altar such as may ns m
been seen in your fathers house. I
~ NAV have wandered far off in the pa
of sin and darkness, but you have ne
of forgotten that family altar where fatl
and mother knelt, importuning God
vour soul. That is memory that II
never gets over There will be hear
,on. ioyful family altar in every dome'
ras- circle. You will not have to go iai
itly find Hannah rearing her Samuel for
IDS, IDS temple, or grandmother Lois instrr
lion ing her young Timothy in the kno
boz edge Of Christ. or Mary and Mar
A"O and Lazarus gathered in fraternai
,isterly affection, or table at wn
the Jesus sta, as at that OF Iaccheus'
home in which Jesus dwells' as IN
house of Simon the tanner. The reile
e's Of Jesus Christ, coming into the don
nv tic circle, will overthrow all jealous
all janglings, and peace and order
holiness will take possession Oh
home. -.
Again, Christianity will produc
ser revolution in commercial circles. L