The age-herald., 1902-02-23

l ticed in the last six years; that ne can look through the iron wall of thelr hre- proof safe that he has counted every dishonest dollar they have In their DOCK ct, and that day of judgment will come. These inconsistent Christian men will sit on the Sabbath night in the house Of God singing at the close of the service
 Rock of ages cleft for me- and then when the benediction is pronounced shut the pew door and say as they go out: "Goodby, religion. I'll be back next Sun day"
 l think that the church of God and the Sabbath are only armory where we are to get weapons. When war comes if a man wants to fight for his country.
 he does not go to Troy or Springfield to do battling. but he goes there for swords and muskets. 1 look upon the church of | Christ and the sabbath day as only the | place and time where and when we are | to get armed for Christian conflict, but
 the battlefield Is on Monday, Tuesday, | Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sat
 urday. "St. Martins and "Lenox' and | "Old Hundredth' do not amount to any | thing unless they sing all the week. A
 sermon is useless unless we can take it with us behind the blow and the counter. | The Sabbath day Is worthless if 1t last
 only twenty-four hours.
 
 There are many Christians who say: | 'We are willing to serve God. but we l do not want to do 1t in these spheres about which we are talking and il seems | so insipid and monotonous. If we had | some great occasion, if we had lived in | the time of Luther, if we had been | Paurs travelling companion, if we could
 serve God on a great scale, we would do
 it. but we cant in this everyday life" l 1 admit that a great deal of the romance l and knight errantry of life have dis l appeared before the advance of this prac- l tical age. The ancient temples of Rouen
 have been changed into storehouses and
 smithies. The residences of poets and | princes have been turned into brokers | shops. The classic mansion of Ashland
 has been cut up into walking sticks. The | groves where the poets said the gods
 dwelt have been carted out for firewood | The muses that we used to read about | have disappeared before the immigrants 8
 axe and the trapper's gun, and the man | who 1t waiting for a life bewitched with
 wonders will never find it. There is, how | ever, a field of endurance and great
 acievement, but it Is in everyday life. | There are Alps to scale, there are Helle- | sponts to swim, there are fires to brave 1 but they are all around us now. This | Is the hardest kind of martyrdom to bear. It took grace to lead Latimer and Rid | ley through the fire triumphantly when | their armed enemies and their friends 1 were looking on. but it requires more
 grace now to bring men through perse- | cution when nobody is looking on. I
 could show you in this city a woman | who has had rheumatism for twenty | years who has endured more suffering | and exhausted more grace than would
 have made twenty martyrs pass trium- l phantly through the fire. If you are not l faithful in an insignificant position in | life. you would not be faithful in a grand | mission. If you cannot stand the bite
 of midge, how could you endure the | breath of a basilsk?
 Do not think that any work God gives
 you to do in the world is on too small
 a scale for you to do. The whole uni | verse is not ashamed to take care of one | little flower. Plato had a fable which
 have now nearly forgotten, but it ran | something like this: He said spirits of | the other world came back to this world | to find body and find a sphere of work.
 One spirit came and took the body of | a King and did his work; another spirit | came and took the body of a poet and
 did his work; after awhile Ulysses came,
 and he said: Why. all the fine bodies
 are taken, and all the grand work is
 taken. There Is nothing left for me" | And some one replied, "Ah, the best one | has been left for you" Ulysses said,
 Whats that?" And the reply was, "The | body of a common man, doing a common | work and for a common reward" good 1 fable for the world and just as good a | fable for the church. Whether we eat or | drink or whatsoever we do, let us do | 1t to the glory of God.
 1 Religion of Everyday Life. l Again we need to bring the religion of l Christ into our commonest trials. For severe losses, for bereavement for trouble that shocks like an earthquake | and that blasts like a. storm, we pre- | scribe religious consolation; but, busi- | ness man, for the small annoyances of | last week how much of the grace of God did you apply? Oh" you say, these trials are too small for such application" My brother, they are shaping your char acter they are souring your temper they are wearing out your patience and they are making you less and less of a man. l go into a sculptor's studio and see him shaping a statue. He has a chisel in one hand and a mallet in the other. and he gives very gentle stroke-click click click. l say, Why don't you strike harder?" "Oh." he replies. that would shatter the statue. I can't do it that way I must do it this way" So he works on and after while the features come out and everybody that enters the studio is charmed and fascinated. Well, God has your soul under process of development and 1t is the little annoyances and vex- ations of life that are chIseling out your immortal nature. It is click, click, click! I wonder why some great providence does not come and with one stroke pre- pare you for heaven. An. no. God says that is not the way. And so he keeps on by strokes of little annoyances lt- tie sorrows, little VeXations, until at last you shall be a glad spectacle for angels and for men, You know that a large fortune may be spent in small change and a vast amount of moral character may go away in small deple- tions. It is the little troubles of life that are having more effect upon you than the great ones. A swarm of locusts will kill grainfield sooner than the incursion of three or four cattle. You say Since lost my child, since l lost my property. l have been different man." But you do not recognize the architecture of lit- tie annoyances that are hewing digging. cutting shaping. splitting and interjoin- ing your moral qualities. Rats may sink a ship One lucifer match may send de- struction through block of storehouses Catherine de Medici got her death from smelling a poisonous rose. Columbus by stopping and asking for a piece of bread and a drink of water at a Franciscan convent was led to the discovery of the new world And there is an intimate con- nection between trifies and immensities. hetwee rofbinpks and eyarVthipUS