The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1902-02-21
THE GLORY OF GOD.
Each One Should Work Faithfully
in His Appointed Place.
DR.. TaImage PrOclaims the ImpOr-
tance of Religion in the Ordi-
nary Affairs of Life-God's
Common blessings.
Copyright, 1902 by Louis KlOpsch. N. VI

copyright. 1902. by Louis klopseh' N. VI
Washington,
In this discourse DIR. Talmage adj
vises us to do our best in the spheres
where we are placed and not to wait
to serve God in resounding position;
text, 1 Corinthians 1881: "Whether,
therefore, ye eat or drink or whatso-
ever ye 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 Tor
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
a man cannot be so much of a Chris
tian on Sunday that he can afford to
be wording all the rest of the
| week. If a 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
man may seem to be voyaglng
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 1T 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. L
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 an earthquake in South
America swallows a 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. 1
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 q 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 si-
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 some thing to talk about with
| a glad heart. 1t is brighter than the
| waters; it is more cheerful than the
| sunshine. Do not go around groaning
about your religion 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 reli-
gion and always make a failure of it!
| My friends, we must live religion. or
| we cannot talk it. If a man is cranky
| and cross and uncongenial and hard in
| his dealings and then begins to talk
about Christ and heaven, everybody is
repelled by it. Yet 1 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 canting is the worst
| form of hypocrisy. If we have really
| felt the religion of Christ in our hearts.
let us talk X, and talk it with an iIlu-
minated countenance, remembering o
| that when two Christian people talk
God gives special attention and writes
down what they say; Malachi 3:16:
''Then they that feared the Lord spake
often one to another, and the Lord
| hearkened and heard it. and book of
/ remembrance was written
| Again, 1 remark. we must bring the
| religion of Christ into our employ