Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1897 — PRACTICAL WISDOM. [ARTICLE]

PRACTICAL WISDOM.

OR. TALMAGE CALLS FOR MORE OF IT IN DOING GOOD. Wants More Common Sense in Matters of Religion—Absurdities of Church Architecture and Management—The Great Need of the World. Onr Washington Pulpit. Dr. Talmage in this discourse advocates more practical wisdom in efforts at doing good and assails some of the absudities in church architecture and' management. The text is Luke xvi., 8, “The Children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” That is another way of saying that Christians are not so skillful in the manipulation of spiritual affairs as worldlings are skillful in the management of temporalities. I see all around me people who are alert, earnest, concentrated and skillful in monetary matters, who in the affairs of the soul are laggards, inane, inert. The great want of the world is more common sense in matters of religion. If one-half of the skill and forcefulness employed in financial affairs was employed in disseminating the truths of Christ and trying to make the world better, within ten years the last Juggernaut would fall, the last throne of oppression upset, the last iniquity tumble, and the anthem that was chanted over Bethlehem on Christmas night would be echoed and re-echoed from all nations and kindred and people, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to men.” Some years ago, on a train going toward the southwest, as the porter of the sleeping car was making up the berths at the evening tide, I saw a man kneel down to pray. Worldly people looked on as much as to say, “What does this mean?” I suppose the most of the people in the car thought that the man was either insane or that he was a fanatic, but he disturbed no one when he knelt, and he disturbed no one when he arose. In after conversation with him I found out that he was a member of a church in a Northern city, that he was a seafaring man and that he Avas on his way to NeAV Orleans to take command of a vessel. I thought then, as I think now, that ten such men —men with such courage for God as that man had —ten such men would bring the whole city to Christ; 1,000 such men would bring this whole land to God; 10,000 such men, in a short time, would bring the whole earth into the kingdom of Jesus. That he was successful in worldly affairs I found out. That he was skillful in spiritual affairs you are well persuaded. If men had the courage, the pluck, the alertness, the acumen, the industry, the common sense in matters of the soul that they have in matters of the AA'orld, this would be a very different kind of earth in Avhich to live.

Common Sense Lacking in Churches. In the first place, my friends, we want more common sense in the building and conduct of churches. The idea of adaptiveness is always paramount in any other kind of structure. If meet together, nnd they resolve upon putting up a bank, the bank is especially adapted to banking purposes; if a manufacturing company puts up a building, it is to be adapted to manufacturing purposes, but adaptiveness is not always the question in the rearing of churches. In many of our churches we want more light, more room, more ventilation, more comfort. Vast sums of money are expended on ecclesiastical structures, and men sit down in them, and you ask a man how he likes the church. He says, “I like it very well, but I can’t hear.” As though a shawl factory ■were good for everything but making shawls! The voice of the preacher dashes against the pillars. Men sit down under the shadows of the Gothic arches and ehiver and feel they must be getting religion or something else, they feel so uncomfortable. Oh, my friends, we want more common sense in the rearing of churches. There is no excuse for lack of light when the heavens are full of it, no excuse for lack of fresh air when the world swims in it. It ought to be an expression not only of our spiritual happiness, but of our physical comfort when we say: “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord God of hosts! A day in thy courts is better than a thousand.”

Again, I remark we want more common sense in the obtaining of religious hope. All men understand that in order to succeed in worldly directions they must concentrate. They think on that one object, .on that one subject, until their mind takes fire with the velocity of their own thoughts. All their acumen, all their strategy, all their wisdom, all their common sense, they put in that one direction, and they succeed. But how seldom it is true in the matter of seeking after God. While no man expects to accomplish anything for this world without concentration and enthusiasm, how many there are expecting after awhile to get into the kingdom of God without the use of any such means! f. Wisdom in Soul Saving. A miller in California many years ago picked up a sparkle of gold from the bed of a stream which turned his mill. He held up that sparkle of gold until it bewitched nations. Tens of thousands of people left their homes. They took their blankets, and their pickaxes, and their pistols and went to the wilds of California. Cities sprang up suddenly on the Pacific coast. Merchants put aside their elegant apparel and put on the miner’s garb. All the land was full of the talk about gold. Gold in the eyes, gold in the ears, gold in the wake of ships, gold in the streets—gold, gold, gold! Word comes to us that the mountain of God's love is full of gold; that men have been digging there and have brought up gold, and amethyst, and earbuncle, and jasper, and sardonyx, and chrysoprasus, and all the precious stones out of which the walls of heaven were builded. Word comes of a man who, digging in that mine for one hour, has brought up treasures worth more than all the stars that keep vigil over our sick and dying world. Is it a bogus company that is formed? Is it undeveloped territory? Oh, no; the story is true. There are hundreds and thousands at people who would be willing to rise and testify that they have discovered that gold and have it in their possession. Notwithstanding ail this, what is the circumstance? One would suppose that the announcement would send people in great excitement up and down our streets, that at midnight men would knock at your door asking how they may get those treasures. Instead of that m%ny •f us put our hands behind our back and

walk up and down in front of the mine of eternal riches and say, “Well, if I am to be saved, I will be saved, and if I nm to be lost I will be lost, and there is nothing to do about it.” Why, my brother, do you not do that way in business matters? Why do you not to-morrow go to your store and sit down and fold your arms and say: “If these goods are to be sold, they will be sold, and if they are not to be sold, they will not be sold. There is nothing for me to do about it.” No, you dispatch your agents, you print your advertisements, you adorn your show' windows, you push those goods, you use the instrumentality. Oh, that men were as wise in the matter of the soul as they are wise in the matter of dollars and cents! God’s Sovereignty. This doctrine of God’s sovereignty, how it is misquoted and spoken of as though it were an iron chain which bound us hand and foot for time and for eternity, when, so far from that, in every fiber of your body, in every faculty of your mind, in every passion of your soul, you are a free man—a free man—and it will- no more to-morrow be a matter of choice whether you shall go to business through Pennsylvania avenue or some other street, it will be no more a matter of choice with you to-morrow whether you shall go to Philadelphia or New York or stay at home, than it is this hour a matter of free choice Avhether you will accept Christ or reject him. In all the army of banners there is not one conscript. Men are not to be dragooned into heaA’en. Among all the tens of thousands of the Lord’s soldiery there is not one man but will tell you, “I chose Christ; I Avanted him; I desired to be in his service; I am not a conscript—l am a volunteer.” Oh, that men had the same common sense in the matters of religion that they have in the matters of the world —the same concentration, the same push, the same enthusiasm! In the one case, a secular enthusiasm; in the other, a consecrated enthusiasm. Again, I remark we want more common sense in the building up and enlarging of our Christian character. There are men who have for forty years been running the Christian race, and they have not run a quarter of a mile. No business man Would be Avilling to have his investments unaccumulative. If you invest a dollar, you expect that dollar to come home bringing another dollar on its back. What Avould you think of a man who should invest SIO,OOO in a monetary institution, then go off for five years, make no inquiry in regard to the investment, then come back, step up to the cashier of the institution and say, “Have you kept that SIO,OOO safely that I lodged Avith you?” but asking no question about interest or about dividend? Why, you say, “That is not common sense.” Neither is it, but that is the Avay we act in matters of the soul. We make a far more important investment than SIO,OOO. We invest our soul. Is it accumulative? Are we growing in grace? Are we getting better? Are Ave getting Avorse? God declares many dividends, but we do not collect them. We do not ask about them. We do not Avant them. Oh, that in this matter of accumulation we were as wise in the matters of the soul as we are in the matters of the world! Eternity in the Bible.

How little common sense in the reading of the Scriptures! We get any other book and we open it, and we say: “Now what does this book mean to teach me? It is a book on astronomy. It will teach me astronomy. It is a book on political economy. It will teach me political economy.” Taking up this Bible, do we ask ourselves what it means to teach? It means to do just one thing. Get the world" converted and get us all to heaven. That is what it proposes to do. But instead of that we go into the Bible as botanists to pick flowers, or we go as pugilists to get something to fight other Christians with, or we go as logicians trying to sharpen our mental faculties for a better argument, and we do not like this about the Bible, and we do not like that, and we do not like the other thing. What would you think of a man lost on the mountains? Night has come down. He cannot find his way home, and he sees a light in a mountain cabin. He goes to it; he knocks at the door. The mountaineer comes out nnd finds the traveler and says: “Well, here I have a lantern. You can take it, and it will guide you on the way home.” And suppose that traveler should say: “I don’t like that lantern. I <jon’t like the handle of it. There are ten or fifteen things about it I don’t like. If you can’t give me a better lantern than that, I won’t have any?” Now, God says this Bible is to be a lamp to and a lantern to our path, to guide us through the midnight of this world to the gates of the celestial city. We stop and say we do not like this about it, and we do not like that, arid we do not like the other thing. Oh, how much wiser we would be if by its holy light we found our way to our everlasting home! Then, we do not read the Bible as we read other books. We read it perhaps four or five minutes just before we retire at night. We are weary and sleepy, so somnolent we hardly know which end of the book is up. We drop our eye perhaps on the story of Samson and the foxes or upon some genealogical table, important in its place, but stirring no more religious emotion than the announcement that somebody begat somebody else and he begat somebody else, instead of opening the book and saying, “Now I must read for my immortal life; my eternity is involved in this book.”

Gifts from Heaven. How little we use common'sense in prayer! We say, “O Lord, give me this,” and “O Lord, give me that,” and "O Lord, give me something else,” and we do not expect to get it, or, getting it, we do not know we have it. We have no anxiety about it. We do not watch and wait for its coming. As a merchant, you telegraph or you write to some other city for a bill of goods. You say, “Send me by such express or by such a steamer or by such a rail train.” The day arrives. You send your wagon to the depot or to the wharf. The goods do not come. You immediately telegraph: “What is the matter with those goods? We haven’t received them. Send them right away. We want them now or we don’t want them at all.” And you keep writing and you keep telegraphing and keep sending your wagon to the depot or to the express office or to the wharf until you get the goods. In matters of religion we are not so wise as that. We ask certain things to be sent from heaven. We do not know whether they come or not. We have not any special anxiety as to whether they come or not. We may get them and may not get them. Instead of at 7 o’clock in the morning saying, “Have I got that blessing?” at 12 o’clock, noon-

day, asking, “Have I got that blessing?’* at 7 o’clock in the evening saying, ‘‘Have I received that blessing?” and not getting it, pleading, pleading—begging, begging—asking, asking until you get it. Now, my brethren, is not that common sense? If we ask a thing from God, who has sworn by his eternal throne that he will do that which we ask, is it not common sense that we should watch and wait until we get it? But I remark, again, we want more common sense in doing good. Oh, how many people there are Avho want to do good and they are dead failures! Why is it? They do not exercise the same tact, the same ingenuity, the same strategem, the same common sense in the work of Christ that they do in worldly things. Otherwise they would succeed in this direction as well as they succeed in the other. There are many men Avho have an arrogant way with them, although they may not feel arrogant in their soul. Or they have a patronizing way. They talk to a man of the world in a manner which seems to say: “Don’t you wish you were as good as I am? Why, I have to look clear doAvn before I can see you, you are so far beneath me.” That manner always disgusts, always drives men away from the kingdom of Jesus Christ instead of bringing them in. Imitate Jesus Christ. When I was a lad,. I was one day in a village store and there was a large group of young men there full of rollicking and fun, and a Christian man came in, a very good Christian man, and without any introduction of the subject and while they were in great hilarity said to one of them, “George, what is the first step of wisdom?” George looked up and said, “Every man to mind his otvn business.” Well, it Avas a very rough nnsAver, but it Was provoked. Religion had been hurled in there as though.it AA-ere a bombshell. We must be natural in the presentation of religion to n the world. Do you suppose that Mary in her conversations with Christ lost her simplicity, or that Paul, thundering from Mars hill, took the pulpit tone? Why is it people cannot talk as naturally in prayer meetings and on religious subjects as they do in worldly circles? For no one ever succeeds in any kind of Christian work unless he works naturally. We want to imitate the Lord Jesus Christ, who plucked a poem from the grass of the field. We all want to imitate him who talked with farmers about the man who went forth to soav, and talked with the fishermen about the drawn net that brought in fish of all sorts, and talked with the vine dresser about the idler in the vineyard, and talked Avith those newly affianced about the marriage supper, and talked with the man cramped in money matters about the two debtors, and talked with the AA-oman about the yeast that leavened the whole lump, and talked with the shepherd about the lost sheep. Oh, we might gather even the stars of the sky and twist them like forget-me-nots in the garland of Jesus! We must bring everything to him—the wealth of language, the tenderness of sentiment, the delicacy of morning dew, the saffron of floating cloud, the tangled surf of the tossing sea, the bursting thunder guns of the storm’s bombardment. Yes, every star must point doAvn to him, every heliotrope must breathe his praise, every drop in the summer shower must flash his glory, all the tree branches of the forest must thrum their music in the grand march which shall celebrate a world redeemed.

Blasted by Fin. Now, all this being so, what is the common sense thing for you and for me to do? What we do I think will depend upon three facts —three great facts: The first fact, that sin has ruined us. It has blasted body, mind and soul. We want no Bible to prove that we are sinners. Any man who is not willing to acknowledge himself an imperfect hnd a sinful being is simply a foot and not to beargued with. We all feel that sin has disorganized our entire nature. That is one fact. Another fact is that Christ came to reconstruct, to restore, to revise, to correct, to redeem. That is a second fact. The third fact is that the only time we are sure Christ will pardon us is the present. Now, what is the common sense thing for us to do in view of these three facts? You will all agree with me —to quit sin, take Christ, and take him now. Copyright. 1807.