Year: 1879


tobacco and rum. Well. if the Lord took away the
'hankering," as it called, then. of course. the
man not praiseworthy for breaking bad habit.
1t is credit to you not to do what you have no
temptation to do. If this stuff true then the
text, "sand fast in the faih would lose Its mean
ing. All you would have to do would be to ask the
Lord to do for what He is constantly telling
to do for yourself. The religion OF some people Is
as limp as wet cloth. and about useful.


There are two sorts Of religious people with whom
we don't to have any business transactions.
How many others there may be with whom it Is
equally unsafe to trade, cannot say, but when
are in the company OF either of these two kinds we
Keep our eyes open lest an accident occur and we
chance to lose our pocketbook. which. though not
especially plethorc, still has its value. First.
shun the man who is everlastingly saying at every
religious gathering that he is the greatest sinner
in the world. If he Is able to tell the
truth at any time. he certainly ought to
be credited with telling it when engaged
in the solemn services of public worship.
If he does tell the truth. we certainly wish to
as little possible to do in the direction OF finances.
with the worst sinner in the world If he does not
tell the TRUTH then have certain feeling that it
is unsafe to do business with who will delib-
erately tell lie in religious meeting. Second, We
are equally shy with those who have so much re-
ligion that they can't possibly commit sin If they
are perfect that they have done wrong for
enteen years, that they can't keep
that thing up always that we don't want the gre t
collapse to happen when our particular note comes
due. Satan might just as well give up doing busi-
ness with the human race if he can be as easily
checkmated that. He has either lost his shrewd-
ness. else these very are in his pay. and
component part of his machinery for making the
oil x,;t1, lx;nr Ua
trust the poor fellow who confessed that he had got
80 far in the religious life that he had broken the
bad habit of stealing elephants and now confined
himself to stealing sheep, thar the man who asserts
that he is SO good that he never stole pin.
Extremes always bad. Average human nature
can be most depended after all. If we put
wings they generally manufactured out of our
own conceit. and we use them SO clumsily that
everybody sees how unprepared we are for them.
man is man wherever You and him, and the best
proof Of the divinity of religion is to be found in
the fact that your life though not square,
is about it as the circumstances will permit.


There is a vast deal Of common sense in the song
of the old negro cook. She little befogged
to the theological aspect of the case. and didn't
know any more than some white people do what
certain events in her life meant but she expressed
very general opinion when she said


My 'sperence be dat hits berry well


hadn't de power to choose;


Ole Masser above He knows Use got


More ligion dan can


And when the last day comes she believed that the
Lord would only ask her il she had done well the
few and humble things which He gave her to do,
and not tease her concerning host Of other things
which she knew anything about. >she sang:-


He'll call me up from my kitchen fire,


Some day wen I'm through wild sin.


An He'll say, poor Lizzie, she do her bes'


Co. Gabriel, an tote her in"


People who thoroughly sectarian in spirit
that they can see no good in those who disagree
with them in certain nice theological distinctions
will do well to ponder the saying OF the colorod
thusiast, who declared in . heated debate that he
..might be mighty poor Christian but he was fus'
rate Baptist. anyhow"


The Bible OF the advanced man Of science will be
q very curious document to read. For the grand old
sentence-"And God said Let there be light; and
there was light" we shall have "And molecule
evolved protoplasm and rhythmic thrills arose, and
there was light" And ut the end Of that verso,
which tells US that one monkey after another lost
his tail and became q man. and that. according to
tho doctrine OF the survival of the fttest. tho
strongest monkeys got to the top Of the trees and
picked the biggest cocoanuts and killed the
smaller monkeys by dropping the shells on their
unprotected heads, we shall read. ''And then the
biggest monkey OF ALL wishing to prove an aibi in
court. assumed the name of Darwin and the dis
guise was so perfect that all his former companions
thought he q man and crowned him king. And
after while the Lord that the creation
had been discovered. and then retired. leaving the
management Of the world in King Darwin's hands" I"


1t might do no harm If some of ministers
would read this little anecdote at two of their
prayer meetings:-When colored converG in
the midst of incoherent harangue. and was wildly
throwing his arms about and shouting at the top
of his voice because he had nothing to say the pre-
siding elder raped his eavel on the desk and re-
marked. "Brudder Brown. won't you subside and
let some one speak dat is better 'Quainted wild do
LordY'