News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-12-06
RELIGION AND BUSINESS.
SERMON PREACHED BY DIR. TALWAGE
AT THE BR0OKLYN TABERNACLE5
Business Men Must Conduct Their Affairs
ON Christian Principles Original views
on Divine Grace and Other Topics

Business Men Must Conduct Their Affairs
on Christian Original Views
on Divine Grace and Other Topics.
DR.. TaImage, on Sunday, took his
text from Romans xii, Il: "Not sloth-
full in business, fervent III spirit, serving
the Lord" He said: ''Industry, de-
voutness and Christian service all COM
bined in the one text. What, is it pos
slble they should be cOUjOint? Oh,
yes, Never was better combination
than religion and business, the ledger
and Bible, churches and counting
houses. Religion accelerates business,
sharpens mems wits, sweetens the acer-
bites Of business and adds additional
velocity to the wheels of industry. You
cannot i'll all this world show me a man
whose honest business has been de-
spoiled by religion"
The Doctor then said that industry
was divided into three groups-the pro-
Queer, manufacturer and trader-eX-
planning the special provinces Of each
and declaring that no one was independ-
ent of the other, the preacher told how
the Prince Imperial of France was killed
on an African battlefield because the
strap Of his stirruD broke, while all his
comrades escaped. Blame was placed
in various places, but the harnessmaker
was really to blame.
Had the harnessmaker not made
that strap out of shoddy leather the
Prince Imperial might to-day be alive.
No Prince on the earth independent of a
harnessmakpr? One continuity of in
terest running through industry and
business. Business life is not a prison
into which a man is thrust to pine away.
1t was instituted by God for grand and
glorious discipline and instruction. In
the first place" continued the preacher,
''it was intended as a school of energy.
God gives US a certain amount of raw
material, out of which we are to hew
our future. Energy is only wrought out
of the fire. After q man has been in
business for twenty or thirty years you
cannot measure his energy with yard
stick or weigh it with pound weight.
There is no height he cannot scale. no
obstacle he cannot overcome. Why did
God put in the school of energy? That
you might be q yardstick to measure
cloth or a stecIyard to measure wheat !?
No; but that you might fashion your
energy to do good Christian work.
Business life is the school of patience.
In your everyday life how many trying
things have you not to contend with :?
The cash book and money drawer will
sometimes quarrel Persons will go
shopping without any notion of buying,
and have piece after piece Of cloth on
the shelf turned over. Plenty of bad
debts i'll the ledger and cOunterfeIts in
the money drawer. This sort of thing
will either break you down or brighten
you up. Some have experience bright
ching. Where did they get it from :?
Not from hearing a minister preach !;
not from going to church on Sunday,
but in the school of patience into which
God has thrust you.
Speaking of business life as school of
useful Intelligence, the preacher re-
marked that knowledge is a hard mis-
tress. eff the pupil will not learn, she
hits him over the head and heart with
experience. Aud so, although merchants
do not, as a rule, read books, they
come to know everything in the hard
school of experience. God has put you
into this school that you may use your
information for Christ. Can it be that
man will be wise for time and a fool
for eternity ?" Business life also struck
the preacher as a school for integrity.
No man knows what he will do till he
is tempted. Thousands have kept their
integrity because they never had a
chance to give it away. There were
nnvD,. ca ,11oI,yr +a,,,,,+,I &C NOM a
law on the statute book that has not a
back door through which q miscreant
can escape.
Here are several extracts from the
concluding portion of the doctors SER
mon "There are men even now who
can say their prayers without hearing
the chink of dollars dishonesty got, and
men who can read the Bible without re-
calling time when they kissed it IN the
The man who got his riches by fraud
shall leave them i'll the midst of his days
and die fool. We talk OF the martyrs,
ancient and modern. Just as surely as
they lived and died are these martyrs in
Wall street, Fulton street and Broadway
going through heat and fire with their
heads under the TX. The hotter the
fire the better the refinement. There
are men before the throne Of God to-
day who on earth were cheated out of
everything but their coffin. Their last
homes were disturbed by the iingling of
the door-bell, rung by creditors who
thought it al outrage that this man
should die without paying them their
last three shillings and sixpence
ooh, my friends" he exclaimed,
''you need business grace, commercial
ethics, honor in trade. You have every
thing you want now; the time is coming
when you will want God. l know a man
who was so fair in business that people
after they had dealt with him said ::
There is a Christian trader if ever
there was one. Integrity kept his books,
integrity waited on his customers and
the light from Gods eternal throne
flashed through his windows"
The preacher concluded with an ex-
hortation TO business men to base all
their dealings on Christian principles.