Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1901-08-09

the widow of Sarepta because the cruise /
Of oil is being replenished. 0 woman, |
having in your pantry a nest of boxes |
containing all kinds OF condiments, why |
have you not tried in your heart and life |
the spiceIy Of our holy religion? MAR |
tina, Martha, thou art careful and trou- |
bled about many things, but one thing is !
needfu. and Mary hath chosen that good !
part which shall not be taken away from
her"
l must confess that a great deal of the |
religion OF this day is utterly insipid |
There is nothing piquant or elevating
about it. Men and women 20 around
humming psalms in a minor key and cul- |
tivating melancholy, and their worship
has in it more signs than raptures. We
do not doubt their piety. Oh, no! But
they are sitting at a feast where the cook
has forgotten to season the food. Every
thing is fiat in their experience and in
their conversation. Emancipated from
sin and death and hell and on their way
to Il magnificent heaven, they act as
though they were trudging on toward an
everlasting Botany Bay. Religion does
not seem to agree with them. 1t seems
to catch in the windpipe and become a
tight stranguation instead of an exhila-
ration. All the infidel books that have
been written, from Votaire down to Her
bert Spencer, have not done so much
damage to our Christianity as lugubrious
Christians. Who wants a religion woven
out of the shadows of the night? Why
go growing on your way to celestial en-
tlronement? Come out of that cave and
sit down in the warm light of the Sun of
Righteousness. Away with your odes to
melancholy and Hervey's "Meditations
Among the Tombs."
Then let our songs abound
And every tear be dry;
We're marching through EmmanuePs ground
To iairer worlds on high.
Put In More Spices.
I have to say also that we need to put
more spice and enlivenment in our reli-
giOus teaching, whether it be in the
prayer meeting or in the Sunday school
or in the church. We ministers need
more fresh air and sunshine in our
lungs and our heart and our head. Do
you wonder that the world is so far from
being converted when you find so little
vivacity in the pulpit and in the pew?
We want like the Lord, to plant in our
sermons and eXhortations more lilies of
the field. We want fewer rhetorical
Celebrations and fewer sesquipedalian
words, and when we talk about shadows
we do not want to say adumbration, and
when we mean Queerness we do not want
to talk about idiOsynCrasies, or if a stitch
in the back we do not want to talk about
lumbagO; but, in the plain vernacuar Of
the great masses, preach that gospel
which proposes to make all men happy,
honest, victorious and free. In other
words, we want more cinnamon and less
gristle. Let this be so in all the differ
ent departments of work to which the
Lord calls us. Let us be plain. Let us
be earnest. Let us be common sensical.
| When we talk to the people in n vernac-
| ular they can understand, they will be
very glad to come and receive the truth
we present. Would to God that Queen
| Balkis would drive her spice laden drom-
1 ed0ries into all our sermons and prayer
meeting eXhOrtations!
More than that, we want more life
and spice in our Christian work. The
/ poor do not want SO much to be grOaned
over as sung to. With the bread and
! medicines and garments you give them
! let there be an accompaniment Of smiles
and brisk encouragement. Do not stand
and talk to them about the wretchedness
Of their abode, and the hunger of their
looks, and the hardness of their lot. All,
they know it better than you can tell
them. Show them the bright side Of the
thing, if there be any bright side Tell
them good times will come. Tell them
that for the children of God there is i'm
mortal rescue. Wake them up out Of
their stolidity by an inspiring laugh, and
while you send in help, like the queen of
Sheba, also send in the spices. There are
two ways of meeting the poor. One is to
come into their house with Il nose eleyat-
ed in disgust as much as to say: Il don't
see how you live here in this neighbor-
hood. 1t actually makes me sick. There
is that bundle. Take it, you poor, mis-
cradle wretch, and make the most of it.
Another way is to so into the abode of
the poor in a manner which seems to say
'"Hhe blessed Lord sent me. He was poor
himself. 1t is not more for the good
am going to try to do you than it is fol
the good that you can do me-" Coming
in that spirit, the gift will be as aromati,
as the spikenard on the feet of Christ
and all the novels on that alley will b,
fragrant with the spice.
We need more spice and enlivenmen
in our church music. Churches sit dis
cussing whether they shall have choir
or precentOrs or organs or bass viols o
, comets. l say take that which wi
, bring out the most inspiring music.
l we had half as much zeal and spirit i
, our churches as we have in the songs @
, our Sunday schools, it would not be Ion
I before the whole earth would quake wit
Q the coming God. Why, nine-tenths of tn
+ people in church do not sing, or they sin
{ so feebly that the people at their elbow
O do not know they are singing. Peopl
: mouth and humble the praises Of Go,
e but there is not more than one out of
5 hundred who makes a joyful noise uni
f the Rock of Our Salvation. Sometime
when the congregation forgets itself an
Il is all absorbed in the goodness of God {
Il the glories of heaven, l get an intimate
n Of what church music will be hundrC
+, years from now, when the coming gener
y ton shall wake up to its duty.
d Singing as n Religious Duty.
"A promise a high spiritual blessing
" any one who will sing in church and WI
" viii sing so heartily that the people
81 around cannot help but sing. Wake u
III all the churches from Bangor to S.
s. Francisco and across Christendom! 1t
Sc not a matter of preference. 1t is a m;
e. ter of religious duty Oh, for 80 tim
Oh more the volume of sound than has ey
u yet rolled up from our churches! G.
5; man chorals in German cathedrals 81
90 pass us, and yet Germany has receiy
10 nothing at the hands of God compaI
as with America. And ought the acclaim
ny Germany be louder than that of Am
lea? Soft long drawn out music is
VI propriate for the drawing room and
10 propriate for the concert, but st. JC
81 gives an idea of the sonorous and re
- nant congregational singing appropri
~ for churches when in listening TO
ne temple service Of heaven he says:
~ heard a great voice as the voice OF
~ great multitude, and as the voice of mi
"a waters, and as the voice of mighty tn
80 behring's. Halleluiah, for the Lord {
Is? 0 Ioi ,.;tI, 'e ,, - ~ a. Tin;