The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-08-06

AhC spiIcfJ VI QUIZ uotg EtuS1u. why,
II between the losses OF life there dashed
the CLEAN Of an eternal gain, il between
the ~betrayals of life there came the
CLEAN Of the undying friendship of Christ,
il in dull times in business we found
ministering spirits flying to and fro in
our Office and store and shop, everyday
life instead OF being a stupid monotone
would be a glorious inspiration, pendu-
luming between calm satisfaction and
high rapture.
Christ Brings Cheerfulness-
How any woman keeps house without
the religion Of Christ to help her is a
mystery to me. To have to spend the
greater part Of ones life, as many wo-
men do, in planning for the meals and
stitching garments that will soon be rent
again and deploring breakages and SUI
pervising tardy subordinates and driving
off dust that soon again will settle and
doing the same thing day in and day
out and year in and year out until the
hair siIvers and the back stoops and the
spectacles crawl TO the eyes and the
grave breaks open under the thin sole of
the shoe-oh, it is a long monotony! But
when Christ comes to the drawing room
and comes to the kitchen and m to
the nursery and comes to the dwelling,
then how CHEEKY become all womanly du-
tiesi She is never alone now. Martha
gets through fretting and joins Mary at
the feet Of Jesus. All day long Deborah
is happy because she can help Lapidoth,
Hannah because she can make a coat for
young Samuel, Miriam because she can
watch her infant brother, Rachel because
she can help her father water the stock.
the widow Of Sarepta because b cruise
of oil is being r~eplenished. o 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 spicery of our holy religion? Mar
tina, Martha, thou art careful and trou-
bled about many things, but one thing Is
needful, and Mary hath chosen that good
part which shall not be taken away from
her"
/ 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 go around
humming psalms in a minor key and cul-
t~ivating 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
tullS Is Hdl III lnelI eApSElSHCe duu III
their conversation. Emancipated from
sin and death and hell and on their way
to a 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 w~indpipe and become a
tight st%rangulatior instead of an exhila-
ration. All the inidel books that have
been written, from Voltaire down to Her
bert Spencer, have not done so much
damage to our Christianity as lugubrious
Christians. Who wants q religion woven
out of the shadows of the night? Why
go growing on your way to celestial en-
thronement? 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 fairer 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
v~ivacity in the pulpit and in the pew?
We want, like the Lord, to plant in our
sermons and exhortatfons more lilies Of
the field. We want fewer rhetorical
Celebrations and fewer sesquipedalian
words, and when we talk about shadows
MO 10 pn u-o nr 20 rnr lrn,brofs 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 vernacular 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 q vernac-
Mar 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-
edaries 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 van 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 1t 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 inn
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 a nose elevat-
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-.
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