The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-11-05
BUSINESS LIFE.
Sermon by Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage, D. D.
What God Intended 70 Ne . School Of Chris.
tian Energy. q Patience, for the At.
talnment Of knowledge, and
Of Christian Integrity.

eA1Su EuSkKys u 18th0uCOS IOr um0 At
tainment Of knowledge, and
Of Christian Integrity.
BROOKLYN, N. T., Oct. S1.-Dr Talmage
IN his services at the Tabernacle this morn.
ing, took for his text Romans 12:l1: 'Not
slothful in business; fcrvent in spirit; serv.
ing the Lord" He said:
Industry, devotedness, Christian service
are all recommended in this one short text
What, is it possible to conjoin them, O,
yes; there u no war between religion and
business, between Bibles and ledgers, be-
tween churches and counting houses. On
the contrary, religion accelerates business,
sharpens mems wits, sweetens acerbity OF
disposition, fllips the blood Of phiegmat-
les, and throws more velocity into the
wheels Of hard work. To the judgment ii
gives more sl1fllful balancing-tO the will
more strength-to industry more muscle
to enthusiasm q 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 fax and change them into apparel;
traders, who make profit out of the trans
fer and exchange of that which is produced
or manufactured. Now, business man
may belong to one of these classes, or he
may belong to all of them. Whatever be
your avocation, if you plan. calculate, bar
gain; if into your life there come annoy
ances, vexations and disappointments. as
well as gains, dividends and percentages:
if you are harrassed with 4 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 q
business man or a business woman, and my
subject is appropriate to your case.
We are apt to speak of the MOL and tug
Of business life as though it We're an inqui-
sition or prison into which a man is
thrown, ee 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 l say shall rub the wrin-
klcs ont 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 q 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 q 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 en-
ergy can no longer be measured by
weights or plurnmcts, or ladders. 1t can
scale any height. 1t can plummet any
depth. It 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 wOrlGling. of
entbling you to more rapidly accumulate
dollars, making you sharp in tr:ple! Did
God make you merely to be yardstick to
measure cloths, or a stcelyard to weigh
flour! And did He intend ycu to spend
your life in dong nothing but chatter and
Ligglcl
Ny friend. He has pat you in this school
70 develop your energy for His cause and
kingdom. There is enough unemployed
talent in the churches. and in the world,
to-day to rcfo,m all empires, and all king
dems, and sll people, in three weeks. o,
how much iGlencsS and strong muscle and
stout hearts-how Elany deep streams that
t,Tn no mill-whcels and haul on the bands
of no factory! God demands that He have
the best lamb Qua of every flock, the richest
sheaf in every harvest, the best men Of
every generation; and in a cause where
the Newtons and the Lockcs and the Mans
fields of the earth were proud to enlist, you
and / need not be ashamed to toll. o, for
fewer idicrs and for more consccratcd
Christian workers.
Again; God intended business life to be
to you school of patience. How many
little things there are in one days engage
ments to rerturb, and annoy. and disiuiet
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 u 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, unrOlling goods they do not
mean to bug, and trying to break the
dozen; men obliged to take up other peo-
p.e's notes; more counterfeit bills in tho
drawer; more bad deDts; 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
,,nAac lao.
become petulant, and chO leric, and Grabbed,
and sour, and pugnacious, until customers
forsook their stores, ant these merchants
have become insOivent, and their nalEc5
were pronounced with Getestation. But
other men have found in this school for
patience. They toughencd under the ex-
posure. They were like rocks, more serv-
iceablc 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
filings; they have a polite be- |
havlor fer discOurtcous customers; they |
nave forbcarance for unfortunate debtors; |
hey have moral reflections for the sudden |
'everseS OF fortune. |
How are you going to get that grace Of |
,atience. Not through hearing ministers |
preach about it. y, no! II you get it at all |
'ou will get it in the world, where you sell /
,ats, and plead causes, and tin roofs, and /
make shoes, and turn banistcrs, and pillow
orn. pray God that through the turmoil |
md sweat and evaporation OF your every |
lay life you may hear the voice Of Christ
aging to you: IF patience possess your
Oul, let patience have perfect work"
Again: God intended business life to be /
o you school for the attainment Of
Merchants do not read many
looks, nor study many lexicons, nor dive
nto great profounds, vet through the force
f circumstances they get intelligent on
uestions Of politics, and finance, and.geog-
Apply, and Jurisprudence, and ethics.
BUSINESS is hard schoOl-mistress; if her
uDils will not learn in anv other WAY with