Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1902-02-21
WORK NEAREST AT HAND
Rev. DR.. Talmage Says Be Grateful for
Gods Common Blessings.
Put Your Religion Into Practice-Revenre
of Spiritual Strength.

WASHINGTON. D. Gin this discourse
DR.. Talmage advises us to DO our pest IN
The spheres where we are placed ana not
wait to serve God in resounding position;
teyf, I Corinthians Y, 81, Whether, there
fore We eat or drink or whatsoever we do,
do all to the glory of God" -,
When the apostle in this text sets torth
the idea that so common an action as the
taking of food and drink is to be conduct
ed to the glory of God, he procaims the
Importance of religion in the ordinary at
fairs of our life. In all ages of the world
there has been a tendency to set apart GER
tain days, places and occasions for wor-
ship. and to think those were the chief
realms in which religion was to act. Now,
holy days and holy places have their i'm
portance. They give opportunity for spe-
cial performance of Christian duty and for
RECALLING OF the religious appetite, but they
cannot take the place of continuous eXer-
else of faith and prayer. In other words,
q man cannot be so much of Christian on
Sunday that he can afford to be world
ling all the rest Of the week. If steamer
put out for Southampton and go one day
in that direction and the other six days in
other directions, how long before the steam
er will get to Southampton? 1t will never
get there. And, though q man may seem
to be voyaging heavenward during the holy
Sabbath day, if during the following six
days of the week he is going. toward the
world and toward the flesh and toward the
devil how long will it take him to reach
the peaceful harbor of heaven. You can
not cat so much at the Sabbath banquet
that you can afford religious abstinence
the other six days. Heroism and princely
behavior on great occasions are no apology
for lack of right demeanor in circumstances
insignificant and inconspicuous. The gen.
uine Christian life is not spasmodic; does
not 90 by fits and starts. 1t tolls on
through heat and cold, up steep mount
aims and along dangerous declivities, its
eye on the everlasting hills crowned with
the castles Of the blessed l propose to
plead for an everyday religion.
In the first place we want to bring the
religion of Christ into our conversation.
When dam breaks and two or three vii.
lagos are overwhelmed or an earthquake
in South America swallows whole city,
then people begin to talk about the uncer-
tainty CT life, and they imagine that they
are engaged in positively religious CONVEX
sation. No. You may talk about these
things and have no grace of God at all in
your heart. We ought every day to be
talking religion. If there is anything glad
about it, anything beautiful about it, any
thing important about it, we ought to be
continuously discussing.
l have noticed that men just in proper.
ton as their Christian experience is shal.
low talk about funerals and graveyards and
uine Christian man talks chiefly about this
life and the great eternity beyond and not
so much about the insignificant pass be-
tween these two residences.
And yet how few circles there are where
the religion of Jesus Christ is welcome.
Go into a circle even of Christian people,
where they are full of JOY and hilarity, and
talk about Christ or heaven and everything
is Immediately s;lenced. As on a summer
day when the forests are full of life, chat
ter, chirrup and Garcia mighty chorus OF
bird harmony, every tree branch an orcheS-
tra-if a hawk appear in the sky, every
voice stops and the forests are still.
Just so ] have seen lively religious Cir
Gle silenced on the appearance of anything
like religious conversation. No one had
anything to say save perhaps some old pa
triarch in the corner of the room, who
really thinks that something ought to be
said under the circumstances; so he puts
one foot over the other and heaves long
sigh and says, "Oh, yes; that's SO, that's
SOL"
My friends, the religion of Jesus Christ
is something to talk about with glad
heart. 1t is brighter than the sunshine.
DO not go around groaning about your re-
ligion when you ought to be singing it or
talking it in cheerful tones of voice. How
often it is that we find men whose lives
are utterly inconsistent who attempt to
talk religion and always make failure OF
it, My friends, we must live religion or
we cannot talk it. If man is cranky and
cross and uncongenial and hard in his deal
ings and then begins to talk about Christ
and heaven, everybody is repealed by 1T.
Yet | have heard such men say in whining
tones, 1--WE are miserable sinners" The
Lord bless you" "The Lord have mercy on
you," their conversation interlarded with
such expressions which mean nothing but
canting, and carting is the worst form OF
hypocrisy If we have really felt the re-
lieion of Christ in our hearts, let us talk
it, and talk it with an illuminated counte-
nance, remembering that when two Chris
tan people talk God gives special atten-
ton and writes down what they say: Ma
lachi iii, l6, Then they that feared tue
Lord spoke often one to another, and the
Lord hearkened and heard it, and book
OF remembrance was written.
Again, remark, we must bring the rell-
Gion of Christ into our employments. Oh,
You say, chat is very well if man handle
large sums Of money or if he have an eX-
tensive traffic, but in the humble work IN
life that | am called to the sphere Is too
small for the action of such grand, heaven
" principles" Who told you so? Do you
not know that God watches the faded Leaf
on the brooks surface as certainly as He
does the path of blazing sun? And the
moss that creeps up the side of the rock
makes as much impression upon Gods
mind as the waving tops of Oregon pine
and Lebanon cedar, and the alder, crack,
ling under the cows hoof, sounds as loud
in Gods ear as the snap OF world S con-
fagration. When you have anything to do
in life, however humble it may seem to be,
God is always there to help you to do it.
If your work is THAI of fisherman, then
God will help you, as He helped Simon
when He dragged Gennesaret. If your
work IS d ,awing water then He will help
you, as when He talked at the well curb
to the Samaritan woman. If you are en-
gagged in the custom house, He will lead
YOU as He led Matthew sitting at the re-
ceipt of customs.
A religion that is not good in one place
is not worth anything in another place.
The man who has only days wages In his
pocket as certainly needs the guidance OF
religion as he who rattles the keys of q
bank and could abScond with q hundred
thousand dollars.
There arc those prominent in the
churches who seem to be on public occa-
sons very devout who do not put the
principles of Christ's religion into practice.
They are the most memorable of creditors.
They are the most grasping of dealers.