The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-09

meeting talk and sermon, Robert South and Rowland Hin and Jeremy Taylor and Dean Swift and Lorenzo LOW and George Whiteffeld used their VII and their humor to gather great audiences and then lead them into the klngdom of God. Frivolity is repulsiye
 in religious discussion, but like the huniur of Job when he said to his in- soient critics: No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. and l like the humor of the prophet Elijah. who told the Baslites 10 pray louder, as their rod was out hunting or on an excursion or in such loud conversation that he coui o hear them. like the sarcasm oi Christ when he told the self-righteous Fnarasees that they were so good they needed no help. "The whole need
 not physician, but they that are sick" or when in nirthful hyperbole
 he arraigns the hypocritical teachers of his day who were so particular about little things and careless about big things. saying; "Ye blind guides that strain at a gnat and swallow a camel" and the Bible is all ablaze with epi- gram. words surprisingly put and phraseology that must have made the audiences of Paul and Christ nudge each other and exchange glances and smile and then appropriate the tremen- dous truths of the gospel. There are some evils you can laugh down easier than you can preach down. The quest
 ton is always being asked, Why do l not more people so to church. prayer
 meeting and other religious meetings? l will tell you. We of the pulpit and
 the CIV are so dull they canno: stand 1t. Hut when we ask why people do not 20 to church we ask a misleading question. More people go now to church than ever in the worlds his-r
 tory. and the reason is in all our de- nominations there is a new race of
 ministers stepping into the pulpits which are not the apostles of hum-
 drum. Sure euogh. we want in the
 Lords army the heavy. artillery, but
 we want also more men who, like
 Burns. a farmer at Gettysburg, took
 a musket and went out on his own &C.,
 count to do little shooting different
 from the other soldiers. The church of
 God Is dying of the proprieties.
 Set Good Example.
 Or is your talent an opportunity to
 set a good example? One person doing right under adverse circumstances will accomplish more than many treaties about what IS right. The census has never been taken of lovely old folks. Most of us. if we have not such a one in our own house, have in our memory such saint. We went q" these old people with all our troubles. They were perpetual evangelists, by their soothing words. by their hopeful ness of spirit, an inexpressible help. l cannot see how heaven could make them any lovelier than they are or were. But there are exceptions. There Is a daughter in that family whose fa- ther Is impatient and the mother querulous. The passage of many years does not. always improve the disposi- tion. and there are a great many dis
 agreeable old folks. Some of them for
 get that they were ever young them selves. and they become untidy in their habits and wonder how. when their asthma or rheumatism is so bad other people can laugh or sing and 20 on as they do. The daughter in that family
 bears all the peevishness and unrea-
 sonable behavior of senility without answering back or making any kind what her five talents are or her one talent is. she would answer that she has no talent at all. Greatly mistaken
 is she. Her one talent is to forhear
 and treat the childIshness of the old as well as she treats the childishness of he young. She is no musician, and
 besides there may not be a piano in
 the house. She cannot skiilful!y swing croquet mallet or golf stick. Indeed. she seems shut up to see what she can do with a ladle and a broom and q
 brush and other household implements. | She is the personification of patience, | and her reward win be as long as heaven. Indeed. much of her reward
 may be given on earth. She Is in rough college, from which she may after while graduate into brightest domesticity. She is a heroine, though
 at present she may receive nothing but
 scolding and depreciation. Her one
 talent of patience under trial will do
 more good than many morocco covered sermons on patience preached today from the tasseled cushion of the pulpit. There Is a man in business life whose
 one talent is honesty. He has not the
 genius or the force to organize a com
 pany or plan what IS called corner
 In wheat" or "a corner in stocks or
 a corner in anything. He goes to
 business at reasonable hour and re-
 turns when it is time to lock up. He never gave a check for $20, 900 in all
 his life. but he is known on the street
 and in the church any in many honor
 able circle as an honest man. His
 word is as good as his bond He has
 for thirty years beeen referred to as a clean! upright, industrious, consistent
 Christian man. Ask him how many
 talents he has. and ne will not claim even one. He cannot make a speech.
 he cannot buy up market, he cannot
 afford an outshining equipage, but
 what an example he is to the young,
 what an honor to his household. what
 a pillar to the church of God, what specimen of truth and integrity and all
 gcCndness of character Is there any
 comparison in usefulness between that man with the one talent of honesty and the dashing opera tors of the money market?
 Genius Unnecessary.
 The chief work of the people with
 many talents is to excite wonderment
 and to startle and electrify the world
 What use is there in all +hat? No use at all. I have not so much interest in the one man out of a million as have in the million. Get the great
 masses of the world right and 1t does not make much difference about what the exceptional people are doing. Have all the people with the one talent en- listed for God and righteousness, and let all those with five or ten talents migrate to the north star or the moon, and this world would get on splendid ly. The hardworking industrious classes of America are all right and would give no trouble, but 1t is the genius who gives up work and on a big salary goes around to excite dissatis- who quits work and steps on the stage or political platform. eats beefsteak and quail on toast and causes the com mon Ia horara cnnopaIIad tn idlaY,ass