, 1867-09-13

"uas else 70 say, or not daring TO say what they
rsaiiy Know and think-about the misfortunes OF
IRE and the mysteries of Gods providsnce, re-
speetng so many such promising girls and ex>
eellent women. Weassume it TO be very strange
that 90 many families of helpless children are
deprived of the care, and called to mourn the
toss OF most excellent mothers. Il Is religious
can't, the whole oft. There is really no proviS
Genital mystery, nor any other mystery about it.
- All matter Of plain physical laws. The
aS fle truth is, IL W. dare speak II out as we
cAge.,ths great mass Of the females in our COM
Try for the last half century have been del,ber,
afiy numbering themselves by their perverse
wicked habit in dressing. They have defed ma
tnst andtempted God. and the legitimate results
have followed. In their Infatuated purpose 70
follow the flying god of fashion, they have one
after another leaped from successive dizzy
heighths, and have inevitably been badly in
jured, if not killed by their fall, and God has not
prevented it. To follow up some of the preva-
lent fashions in dress, as many of the present
generation of females have doue from childhood
up, and yetexpect to enjoy continued good health
and long life, is simple madness. To pray God
TO grant them these inestimable blessings, while
living in the known violation of the plain laws
on which God has hinged their very physical ex>
isteuce, IS solemn mockery. To complain or
wonder at their misfortunes, or the mysteries of
Gods providence when such evils are thus in
duced, is sheer cant. They have simply tried
to tempt God, who cannot be tempted with evil
They might just as consistently hold their hand
in the FIRE until it was burned to a crisp, and
then pretend to wonder at, complain Of or pray
against the inevitable result of such folly-a
withered member through life il is just as di-
recty umpting God as it would have been for
our Lord to have cast bimself down from the
pinnacle of the temple, and is really done, if
they did but know it, at the instigation of the
same wicked spirit; the devil
AGAIN We TEMPT GOD IN oUR PEcUSIARY INTEREST
To avery great extent, healthy business is
like a. healthy body, the legitimate result of
obedierce to settled laws. An honest, dlligent,
economical man, engaged in a business which
be is Competent and fitted to manage, need never
fail of Iuccess a general rule. If he does ever
fail tits not strictly speaking, matter of fate,
or midortune, or providence, but simply busi-
ness Dissmanagement or business wrong into
which he has allowed himself to be tempted by
the devil, or led by his own avarce or ambi>
tion He has recklessly jumped from some bust
ness height aud been bruised in the fall. Very
likely, if protesting christian, he has been led
on to this act of presumption through unwaran-
ted expectations that somehow God would pre-
vent the legitimate result of his rashness. The
leading conditions of success 10 business are
plain, and as sacredy bidding upon men as the
positive commands of God. To disregard these
conditions of success, these laws of trade, and
still blindly, presumptuously expect God to ward
OF all the legitimate results OF human rsshness
or human folly, or direct transgressions, is to
tempt God iu tie sense OF the text
Let me not here be understood as taking mems
especially christian men's-business entirely
out from under God gracious providence. God
has provideuta haud in all such matters, bat
it is not in nliraculousiy preventing the lrglti
mate result of men recklessness in business into
which they may be ledby their own wicked de-
sires, are tempted by the devil. 1t would be
neither wise nor safe for God to interfere with
these settled laws of success in business, even in
the case of his children. These must be allow
ed to operate steadily. Gods providence here
is not in preventing the legitimate result Of his
chidrens recklessness, but in granting them,
when they honestly ard earnestly seek it, wis
dom and grace to prevent such reckiessness, and
thus secure them against the results. And here
is the folly and the wrong of those business or
professional men who enter upon the business
of life before they christians and therefore,
cannot so seek Gods guidance as to secure it in
times of need. No man has any right to place
himself in such q position. No man has any
right to engage in any business until he has con.
secrated himself to God, and heartily invoked
divine wisdom, both in determining the kind of
business in which he should engage, aud in con-
ductng it. Gods solemn command is upon
every man, prior to all business engagements.
"Seek first the Kingdom of God and his right
eousness" For any man to disregard this SOL
emn command of God, and rush presumptuously
into business, without any regard to Gods will
or Gods guidance, is to Tempt God by the most
fearful leap possible.
In selecting their business, in chosing their
location, as well as in all of their business ar
rangements, men need, and ought SO to seek as
to obtain divine wisdom and grace sufficient to
keep them from presumption, mistakes and reck-
less venturing, into which they may be tempted.
To disregard all this, and through the pervert>
ing Influence of sef-conceit, pride, ambition, av-
arIce, led on by the devil, undertake business,
either in kind or extent, for the successful mani
agement of which, God has given them no ft>
ness or no sufficient capacity, to go presumptu
ousiy on without fully informing themselves of
the resources of the country or the locality where
they are doing business, to act in important bust
ness transactions upon inadequate data, unreli-
able information, to extend their business far be-
yond their capacity to manage, or their capital
to sustain to risk their property out of their
hands on credit, or to other peoples manage
ment without reliable securities. To go on reck-
lessly in any of these or similar ways, led on
simply by avarice, ambition, presumption, and
not by christian prudence and divine wisdom,
clear beyond the settled laws of business safety,
and yet expect to escape the legitimate result of
such conduct through some special Intervention
of providence, is simply to tempt God and in-
sure their own failures. A business man might
just as well throw his money or cast himself
from towering cliff into deep sea and expect
God to prevent the legitimate result of his pre-
sumptuous recklessness. God does not interfere
in such cases; He simply leaves men to the
legitimate result of their own folly.
WE TEMPT GOD ALSO IN OUR DOMESTIC ARRSGEMESTs.
The alarming amount of domestic unhappi-
ness in our day is no secret. The number of
open domestic ruptures and divorces forces it
upon our attention and warrant the conclusion
that there is much more that does not reach
this degree of publicity. In many such cases
there is a kind and an amount offriendly commits
GRAFTON bestowed upon one or the other of the
parties that is wholly unmerited We often in>
dulge in sage reflections upon the vicisitude of
human life, the fckelness OF the god of love
and the mysteries of providence, that really bor-
der on the ludicrous, since all these sad results
are clearly the legitimate and inevitable result
Of the most wretchedly absurd sentiments and
now prevailing and controlling action in
this most sacred and important of all earthly
human interest. Among these is the custom of
parties entering into the sacred and responsible
domaafie ralafion xwhfla in avarv raanect in