345 

 THE STATE FAIR. 



A DISCOCRSE PREACHED AT DETROIT, BY REV. THOS. M0MFORD, ON THE SABBATH 

 EVENING AFTER THE ANNUAL FAIR OF THE MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY, 1853. 



Dedterosomy ! : 25. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it 

 down unto us, and said, it is a good land which the Lord our God doth gire us. 



The great event of the past week was our Annual State Fair. By 

 its unusual demand upon the means of transportation and the ways of 

 accommodation, by its agency in increasing the picturesqueness of our 

 streets, and gratifying our tastes for the useful and the beautiful, it mo- 

 nopolizec the attention of the people, and became the chief occasion of 

 labor and delight. Why should not its lessons be presented from a 

 Christian pulpit? Everything in life has its moral and religious aspects; 

 Christianity needs to be adapted to the varying wants and circumstan- 

 ces of mankind. Sermons utterly barren of allusions to present times 

 and real hfe — fit to have been preached to the congregation in the ark, 

 may be very free from heresy, and perfectly incapable of turning the 

 world upside down with excessive zeal, but they hardly contain the Gos- 

 pel for the noon of the nineteenth century. 



Addicted to moralizing, both from natural disposition and from week- 

 ly vocation, as I walked through the Fair grounds with their centre of 

 fruits, flowers and handiwork, and their suburbs of sheep and oxen, I 

 saw much to suggest serious thoughts and devout thanksgivings. 



At first I did not heed the scene as a whole. Its parts absorbed my 

 attention. Many were their lessons. The ox taught me patience, and 

 the cow generosity ; every domestic animal preached on the beauty of 

 faith. I then realized how successfully the Bible has interwoven its sa- 

 cred teachings with common duties and household scenes. Certain 

 herbs and flowers started a train of thought, swifter than any " light- 

 ning express" of modern times. In an instant, it carried me back to 

 Adam — the first gardener — and his early home in Paradise ; to the 

 agony of the Savior in Gethsemane, and to his grave in the new tomb 

 in the garden. A few sheep hinted of righteous Abel, and his ac- 

 cepted offering of the firstlings of his flock; of the pastoral life of the 

 sweet singer of Israel, with his most moving psalm — " The Lord is my 

 Shepherd ; I shall not want ;" and of that Anointed One, who said : 

 ^I am the Good Shepherd, and I lay down my life for the sheep." A 



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