Connecticut western news., 1902-02-20
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" "ASh1NSION, \ eD- 1O-lu tAlS uIS- course Dr. Talmage advises us to do our best in the spheres where we are placed and not wait to serve God in resounding position; text, I Corinthi- ans X. 31, Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do. do all to the glory of God"
 When the apostle in this text sets forth the idea that so common an ac- ton as the taking of food and drink is to be conducted to the glory of God, he procla1ms the importance of religion in the ordinary affairs of our life. In all ages of the world there has been a tendency to set apart certain 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 opportunity for special performance of Christian duty and for regaling of the religious appe- tite, but they cannot take the place of continuous exercise of faith and pray CT. In other words, a man cannot be so much of Christian on Sunday that he can afford to be a worldling all the rest of the week If a steamer put out for Southampton and go one day in that direction and the other six days in other directions. how long before the steamer will get to Southampton? It will never get there. And, though a man may seem to be voyag1ng heaven ward 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 cannot eat so much at the Sabbath banquet that you can afford religious abstinence the other six days. Hero ism and princely behavior on great oc- casions are no apology for lack of right demeanor in circumstances ins1gnii- cant and inconspicuous. The genuine Christian life is not spasmodic; does not go by fits and starts. It tolls on through heat and cold, up steep noun tains and along dangerous declivities, it's eye on the everlasting hills crowned with the castles of the blessed. pro- pose to plead for an everyday religion.
 In the first place we want to bring the religion of Christ into our conver- sation. When a dam breaks and two or three villages are overwhelmed or an earthquake in South America swal- lows a whole city, then people begin to talk about the uncertainty of life, and they imagine that they are engag- ed in positively religious 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 religion. If there Is any thing glad about it, anything beautiful about it, anything important about it, we ought to be continuously discuss- ing. I have noticed that men just in proportion as their Christian expe- rience 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 30 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 a circle even of Christian peo- pie, where they are full of joy and hi- larity, and talk about Christ or heaven and everything is immediately silenced. As on a summer day when the forests are full of life, chatter, chirrup and carol-a mighty chorus of bird harmo- ny, every tree branch an orchestra-if hn~v fv, elyx stops and the forests are still. Just so I have seen a lively religious circle silenced 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 prts one foot over the other and heaves a long sigh and says. "Oh, yes; that's so, that's sor'
 1t Makes the Heart Glad.
 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 grooming about your religion when you ought to be singing it or talking 1t in cheerful tones of voice. How often 1t is that we find men whose lives are utterly inconsistent who attempt to talk. reli- gion and always make failure of it.! My friends, we must live religion or we cannot talk 1t. 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 1t. Yet I have heard such men say in whining tones, we are miserable sinners" HThe Lord bless you," '1The 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 it, and talk 1t with an nlu- minated countenance, remembering that when two Christian people talk God gives special attention and writes down what they say; Malachi iii, 16, "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard 1t, and book of remembrance was written.'
 Again, l remark, we must bring the religion of Christ into our employ ments- "Oh." you say, that is very well if a man handle large sums of money or if he have an extensive traf- nc, but in the humble work in life that I am called to the sphere Is too small for the action of such grand, heavenly 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. cracking under the cows hoof, sounds as loud in Gods ear as the snap of a worlds conflagration.