The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-03-20
THE GLORY OF GOD.
Each One Should Work Faithfully
in His Appointed Place.
DR.. Talmage Proclaims the ImpOr-
tance of Religion in the Ordi-
nary Affairs of Life-GOd's
Common Blessings.

LII GulS ulScOuiSc LIZ. 1dluidSC ou
vises US to do our best in the spheres
where we are placed and not to wait
to serve God in resounding position;
text, l Corinthians, 1O:31: "Whether,
therefore, ye eat or drink or whatso-
ever We do, do all to the glory OF
God"
When the apostle in this text sets
forth the idea that so common an ac-
tion as the taking of food and drink
is to be conducted to the glory OF
God, he proclaims the Importance OF
religion in the ordinary affairs OF our
life. In all ages of the world there
has been tendency to set apart GER
tain days, places and occasions for
worship, and to think those were the
chief realms in which religion was to
act. Now, holy days and holy places
have their Importance. They give op-
portunity for special performance OF
Christian duty and for regaling the
religious appetite, but they cannot
take the place of continuous exercise
OF faith and prayer. In other words
man cannot be so much of Chris
tian on Sunday that he can afford to
be worldling all the rest of the
week. If steamer put out for
southampton and goes one day in
that direction and the other six days
in other directions, how long before
the steamer will get to Southampton?
1t will never get there. And though
m fo hn n n
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 to-
ward the devil how long will it take
him to reach the peaceful harbor of
| Heaven? You cannot eat so much at
the Sabbath banquet that you can af-
fod religious abstinence the other
six days. Heroism and princely be-
havior on great occasions are no
apology for lack of right demeanor
in circumstances insignificant and in
conspicuous. The genuine Christian
life is not spasmodic; does not go by
fits and starts. 1t tolls on through
heat and cold, up steep mountains
and along dangerous declivities, its
eye on the everlasting hills crowned
| with the castles of the blessed. 1
propose to plead for an everyday re-
ligion.
In the first place we want to bring
the religion of Christ into our con-
versation. When a dam breaks and
two or three villages are over
whelmed or an earthquake in South
America swallows whole city, then
people begin to talk about the uncer-
tainty of life, and they imagine that
they are engaged in positively reli-
gious conversation. 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 reli-
gion. 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
tion as their Christian experience is
shallow, talk about funerals and
| graveyards and tombstones and
deathbeds. The real, genuine Chris
tian man talks chiefly about this life
and the great eternity beyond and
not so much about the insignificant
pass between these two residences.
And yet how few circles there are
where the religion of Jesus Christ is
welcome. Go into circle even of
Christian people, where they are full
of joy and hilarity, and talk about
Christ or Heaven and everything is
Immediately silenced. AS on a sum-
mer day when the forests are full of
life, chatter, chirrup and Garcia
mighty chorus of bird harmony,
every tree branch an orchestra-if a
hawk appears in the sky, every voice
stops and forests are still. Just so
have seen lively religious circle ST.
fenced on the appearance of anything
like religious conversation. No one
had anything to say save perhaps
some old patriarch 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 a 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
a glad heart. It is brighter than the
waters; it is more cheerful than the
sunshine. Do not go around groanine
about your religion when you ought te
be singing it or talking it in cheerful
tones of voice. How often it is thai
we find men whose lives are utterl,
inconsistent who attempt to talk reli
gion and always make failure of it
My friends, we must live religion, OF
we cannot talk it. If a man is crank,
and cross and uncongenial and hard il
his dealings and then begins to tall
about Christ and heaven, everybody il
repelled by it. Yet l have heard sucl
men say in whining tones: ''We ar,
miserable sinners" "The Lord bles
you "The Lord have mercy on you,
their conversation iDtsrlarded witt