The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1886-11-11
BUSINESS LIFE.
Sermon by Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage, D. D.
What God Intended to BE School of Chris
tian Energy, of Patience, for the At
tainment OF knowledge, and
of Christian Integrity.

slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serv-
ing the Lord.n He said:
Industry, devOtedness, Christian service,
are all recommended in this one short text
What, is it possible to conjoin themf o,
yes; there is no war between religion and
business, between Bibles and ledgers, be-
tween churches and contingencies. On
the contrary, religion accelerates business,
sbarpens mems wits, sweetens acerbity of
disposition, tillips the blood Of phlegmat-
les, and throws more velocity into the
wheels Of hard work To the Judgment it
gives more skillful balancing-to the will
more strength-to industry more muscle
30 enthusiasm a more concentrated fire.
You can not show me man whose business
prospects have in any wise been despoiled
by his religion.
The industrial classes are divided into
three groups-producers, manufacturers,
traders. Producers, such as farmers and
miners; manufacturers, such as take the
corn and change it into food, or the wool
and flax and change them into apparel;
traders, who make profit out Of the trans
fer and exchange of that which is produced
or manufactured. Now, a business man
may belong to one of these classes, or he
may belong to all of them. Whatever be
yUuT dVOCduOl, IL yOu pldllI CdlCulaJO, JAR
gain; if into your life there come annoy
ances, vexations and disappointments as
well as gains, dividends and percentages;
if you are harrassed with multiplicity Of
engagements-in word, if you are driven
from Monday morning to Saturday night,
and from January to January, with relent-
less obligations and duty, then you are
business man or business woman, and my
a11hiapt ie aOOrOOriata IN VOur
We are apt to speak Of the moil and tug
Of business life as though it were an inqui-
sition or prison into which a man is
thrown, or an unequal strife where, half
armed, he goes to contend. Hear me this
morning, while try to show you that God
intended business life to be glorious edu-
cation and discipline, and if shall be sue
cessful in what say shall rub the wrin-
kles out of your brow and unstrap some Of
the burdens from your back,
have first to remark to you that God in
tended business life to be to you a school of
Christian energy. God started us in the
world, giving us a certain amount of raw
material out of which we were to hew our
own character. Every faculty needs to be
reset, rounded, sharpened up. After our
young people have graduated from the
schools and colleges and universities, they
need higher education, that which the
collision and rasping of everyday life alone
can effect. Energy of soul is wrought cut
only in the fire, and when a man for ten,
fifteen, or twenty or thirty years has been
going through business activities, his er-
ergy can no longer be measured by
weights, or plummets, or ladders 1t can
scale any height. 1t can plummet any
depth. 1t can thrash any obstacle. Now,
do you suppose that God has spent all this
education on you for the purpose of MAX
ing you more successful worldling, of
enabling you to more rapidly accumulate
dollars, making you sharp in trader Did
God make you merely to be a yardstick to
measure cloths, or a steelyard to weigh
fourl And did He intend you to spend
your life in dong nothing but chatter and
higClel
Ny friend, He has put you in this school
TO develop your energy for His cause and
kingdom. There is enough unemployed
talent in the churches and in the world,
to-day to reform all empires, and all king
doms, and all people, in three weeks. o,
how much idleness and strong muscle and
stout hearts-how many deep streams that
turn no mill-wheels and haul on the bands
Of no factory! God demands that He have
sheaf in every harvest, the best men of
every generation; and in cause where
the Newtons and the Lockes and the Mans
fields of the earth were proud to enlist, you
and l need not be ashamed to toll. o, for
fewer idlers and fer more consecrated
Christian workers
Again; God intended business life to be
TO you a school Of patience. How many
little things there are in one days engage
ments to perturb, and annoy, and disquiet
you. Bargains will rub, and men will
break their engagements; collecting
agents will come back empty-handed;
tricksters in business will play upon what
they call the hard times" when in any
times they never pay; goods placed on the
wrong shelf; cash book and money
drawer in quarrel; goods ordered for an
especial emergency failing to come, or, if
coming, damaged in the transportation;
people who intend no harm going about
shopping, unrolhng goods they do not
mean to buy, and trying to break the
dozen; men obliged to take up other peo-
ple's notes; more counterfeit bills in the
drawer; more bad debts; another ridlcu-
lous panic.
Under all this friction men break down,
or they are secured up into additional
brightness. How many you and l have
known who, in the past few years, have
gone down under the pressure, and have
become petulant, and choleric, and Grabbed,
and sour, and pugnacious, until customers
forsook their stores, and these merchants
have become insolvent, and their names
were pronounced with detestation. But
other men have found in this school for
patience. They toughened under the ex-
posure. They were like rocks, more serv-
iceable for the blasting There was
time when they had to choke down their
wrath; there was time when they had to
bite their lip; there was time when they
thought of singing retort they would like
TO utter. But now they have conquered
their impatience; they have kind words for
sarcastic filings; they have polite be-
havior for discourteous customers; they
have forbearanee for unfortunate debtors;
they have moral reflections for the sudden
reverses of fortune
How are you going to get that grace Of
patiencel Not through hearing ministers
preach about it. o, mol II you get it at all
you will get it in the world, where you sell
hats, and plead causes, and tin roofs, and
make shoes, and turn banisters, and plow
corn. l pray God that through the turmoil
and sweat and evaporation of your every
day life you may hear the voice Of Christ
saying to you: "f patience possess your
soul, let patience have perfect work
Again: God intended business life to be
10 you a school for the attainment Of
knowledge. Merchants do not read many
books, nor study many lexicons, nor dive
Into great profounds, vet through the force
Of circumstances they get intelligent on
questions of politics, and finance, and.geog.
raphy, and Jurisprudence, and ethics.
Business is hard school-mistress; If her
pupils will not learn in any other way, with,
unmerciful hand she smites them on the
head and on the heart with inexorable loss.
You went into some business enterprise,
and five thousand dollars got out of your
grasp. YOu say the five Thousand dollars