Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1901-08-15

I tations 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
| admiration, and when we mean queer
ness we do not want to talk about idiosyn-
| crasies, or if 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 GIN
| namon and less grlstle. Let this be 50 IN
| all the different departments of work to
| which the Lord calls Us.
| promise a high spiritual blessing TO
any one who viii sing IN church and who
Will sing so heartily that the people al
around cannot help but sing. Wake up,
! all the churches from Bangor to San
is not matter OF preference; 1t Is mat
| ter OF religious duty. On, for nifty times
more volume of sound than has yet rolled
up from our churches. German chorais
in German cathedra]s surpass us, and yet
Germany has received nothing at the hands
Of God compared with America. And ought
the acclaim in Germany be louder than
that of America? Soft. long drawn out
music Ia appropriate for the drawing
room and appropriate for the concert,
but st. John gives an idea OF the sOnOrous
and resonant congregational singing APP
propriate for churches when IN listening
to the temple service of heaven he says:
| Il heard a great voice, as the voice OF d
great multitude and as the voice of many
waters and as the voice OF mighty thun-
! behring's. HalleluJah, for the Lord God
omnipotent Teigneth.
Join with me III a crusade. giving me not
only your hearts, but the mighty uplifting
of your voices. and | believe We can,
through ChrisJ's grace, sing 5000 sous
iT,tr, ha L of \ N
they can laugh at, a sermon they may talk
down, but a 5000 voiced utter2nce or praise
to God is resistible. Would that Queen
Balkis would drive all her spice laden
dromedaries into our church music. "Nel-
ther was any such spice as the Queen OF
Sheba gave King Solomon"
Now, | want to impress You with the
fact that religion Is sweetness and per-
fume and spikenard and saffron and GIN
namon and cassia and franklncense and all
sweet spices together. Oh, you say, II
have not looked at it as such. | thought
it was nuisance. 1t had for me re-
puision. ! held my breath as though 1t
were a malodor. | have been appalled, at
its advance. | have said, ii L have any re-
ligi0n at all, l want to have just IS httic
OF it as is possible to get through with.
Oh, what a mistake you have made, my
brother! The religion OF Christ Is pres
ent and everlasting redoience. 1t coan-
stand beside the pillow Of sickness. 1t
catches in the curtains and perfumes the
sitting air. 1t sweetens the cup OF bitter
medicine and throws a glow on the gloom
of the turned lattice. 1t is a balm for the
aching side and a soft bandage Tor the
temple stung with pain. 1t lifted Samuel
Rutherford into a revelry of spiritual de
light while he was in physical agonies. 1t
helped Richard Baxter until, in the midst
of such complication of diseases as per
haps no other man ever suffered. he wrote
The Saints Everlasting Rest" And it
poured light upon ohm Bunyan dungeon,
the light of the shining gate OF the snln-
ing city. And it Is good for rheumatlsm
and for neuralgia and for low spirits and
for consumption. 1t is the cathOhcon tor
all disorders. Yes, it viii heal all your
sorrows.
Why did you look so sad this morning
when you came in? Alas, for the loneh-
ness and the heartbreak and the load that
is never lifted from your soul! Some OF
you go about feeling like Macaulay when
he wrote, IF [ had another month of
such days as ] have been spending, l
would be impatient to get down INTO my
little narrow crib in the ground, like a
been times in your life when You wished
you could get out of this life. You have
said, oh how sweet to my lips would be
the dust of the valiey' and wished you
could pull over you IN your last sumber
the coverlet of green grass and daisies.
You have said: oh, how beautifully quiet
it must be in the tomb. l wish | was
there"
L see all around about me widowhood
and orphanage and chiIdessneSs, sadness,
disappointment, perpleXity. Ii l could
ask all those III any audience who have
felt no sorrow and been bufeted by no
disappointment-if [ could ask all such
80 Not
A widowed mother, with her little child,
went West, hoping to get better wages
there and she was taken sick and died.
The overseer of the poor got her body and
put it in box and put it In d wagon and
started down IL : street toward the GENE.
tefy at full trot The little child, the only
child, ran afteI it through the streets,
hareheaded. cryln Bring me back my
mother! Bring me back my mother!
And it was said that as the people looked
OF and saw her crying alter that which
lay in the box III the wagon, all she loved
on earth-it IS said the whole village was
in tears. And that is what great many
Of YOU are doing chasing the dead. Dear
Lord, is there no appeasement for ali this
sorrow that [ see about me? Yes, the
thought of resurrection and reunion lar
beyond this scene of struggle and tears.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst
any more, neither shall the sun light on
them nor any heat, for the Lamb which
is in the midst Of the throne shall lead
them to living fountains of water, and
God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes" Across the couches of your sick
and across the graves of your dead I fling
this shower of sweet spices. Queen Balkis,
driving up to the pillared portico of the
house of cedar, carried no such pungency
Of perfume as exhales to-day from the
Lords garden. 1t is peace. 1t is sweet
ness 1t is comfort. 1t is infinite satisfac-
ton, this gospel [ commend to you.
May God grant that through Your own
practical experience YOU may find that re-
ligon's ways are ways OF pleasantness and
that all her paths are paths of peace; that
it is perfume now and perfume forever.
And there was. an abundance of spice;
neither was there any such spice rs tht
Queen Of Sheba gave to King Solomon"