The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-11-18
pR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
SCHOOL OF HARD keJl AS.

spirit, serving the Lord. "-Romans xii, 3
Industry, devoutness and Christian service
all recommended in that short text. What,
do you really think they oaa be conioinedi
Oh, yes. There is no war between religion
and business, between bibles and leigers be-
tween churches and counting houses. On
tho contrary, religion accelerates bus
mess, sharpens mems wits, sweetens
acerhity of disposition, filiips the slow blood
OF phlegmatics and throws mora velocity
into all the wheels of hard work. 1t gives
better balancing to tho Judgment, it gives
strength to the wealth, it gives muscle to in
dustry, it gives consecrated fire to enthu-
siasm and in all the world and in all tn he ages
you cannot show mo man whose honest
business has been despoiled or hurt by his re-
hgion, Anything that religion will
not help You do ought never to
be done The industrial classes are
divided into three groups-producers, manu-
1acturers, traders. Producers, such as far
mers and miners Manufacturers, such as
those who take tho corn and turn it into
food, or the silk or the fax and turn it into
clothing. Traders, those who profit by the
transfer or exchange Of that which is pro-
duced or manufactured. Now, business
man may belong to any one of these classes,
or to all of them. Whatever be your
avocation-if you have to plan and
calculate and bargain into your life there
come annoyances, veXations, exasperations,
disappointments, as well as gains, percent
ages and dividends--if you are harassed with
multiplicity of occupation in other words
II from Monday morning until Saturday
night, aud from January to January you
are driven by relentless duty and oblga-
ton, then you are business man or
business woman, and my subject this
morning Is especially appropriated to your
case There is an idea abroad that business
life is sort of prison in which man is in
carcerated, or it is q strife into which he goes
sometimes half armed. But shall show you
this morning, ii God will help me, toat busi-
ness life is glorious education, and if | shall
be divinely aided | will rub some of the
wrinkles from your brow and unstrap some
OF the burdens from your back.
Do you know that the time is coming
when the religion of Jesus Christ is going to
take entire pos seSsion of the business worldl
Two rivals in busines did each other as much
harm as they could for many years. They
were in the same line of busnes and on the
same street. Aft a while one of them was
convert ted to God, and he Immediately asked
himself: Now how shall l treat my rival2
Wen,n he said to himself, ~ will
treat him in this way: When man comes to
my store aud wants a style of goods that l
have not, LII send him over to my rivaLn A
very hard thing to do. But the grace OF
God will help a man do anything that is
right. So the plan was carried out, and this
rival in business found customers coming
from the other store and asked about it, and
found that they were recommended by his
old rival So he called on him, and
said: "How's this? We warred against
each other for many years, and now hear
you are sending me customers. Those who
cannot get certain styles of goods in your
store you are sending to mine Then the
rival told him how he had been converted by
the grace Of God, and he had lea ned the
law of kindness and love and generosity, and
then they shook hands, and it was not many
weeks before the other man came into the
Kingdom Of God, and for many years
they did business in quietule and
prosperity and Christian kindness on
the same street. And that principle is going
to sabmerge the whole earth, perhaps not in
your day nor mine, but it will come as certain
ly as there is q God in Haven, and the Cos
pei of Jesus Christ is to triumph over all
nations. II we do not see it perhaps our
children will sseit. But, taking things as they
are, l want to show you, in the first
place, that business life is school
Tor Christia an energy. God starts us in tn.
world with certain amount of raw mate
rial out of which we are to hew our charac-
ter Every faculty needs to be reset,
rounded, sharpenad up. After our young
folks have graduated from schools and col
lege5 and universities they hsve to have a
higher education, which they can only get
by the col. l.isons and the raspings o. every day
life. Energy of character is swrought out only
in the fire. After bus ness men have been in
these adversities ten, twenty or thirty years,
they have an energy which cannot be meas
ured by weights CT ladders or pummets. 1t
can scale any height. 1t can plummet any
depth. 1t can thrash any obstacle. Now, oh
business man. you have in this school of
active life gained a great deal of energy.
Why has God put you in that school, and
l., =, Il
Merely that you may gain more dol
lars and build large fortunes and spend
your days higgling and chatfngl
All, no. God intended you to bring atl that
energy into his service. What would occur
in these cities if all the business talent were
brought into the Kingdom of God? Do you
not know that in many of our churches the
vast ma ;ority of work Is being done by those
who have not had any pe,ially opportunity,
while in all our churches there is vast amount
OF energy settling into comparative idieness.
The deepest streams do not seem to be turning
the mill wheel or hauling on factory bands.
Do you not know that God demands the best
! lamb oat of every flock; the richest sheaf
out of every harvest; the best men OF every
generation, and surely, in calse in which
Locke and Mansfield and Newton were proud
to be engaged. you and Ineed not be aSham d
to invest our interest. Oh for fewer idlers
and for moro workers. Oh, that the i'm
mense, the almost infinite business energy of
shese cities might be consecrated to God.
I remarli further that business = IS .
school for Christian patience During one
| days engagement how many things to per-
turb and annoy and perpls1. Bargains will
rub. Men will break their engagements.
| Collecting agents will come back empty
| handed Tricksters in business will take ad-
vantage CT the hard times when they do not
pay in coed times Goods put on the
wrong shelf Cash book AMI money
| drawer in quarrel Peorle intending ne
harm going shopping, having no idea of
making purchases, or after Il while trying to
break the dozen. Goods ordered for an espe-
cial emergency and not coming, or coming
| damaged in the transportation. More
| counterfeit bills in the d aver. Another
ridiculous panic. Other mems nosea
and under the pressure hundre =
and Thousands of men go down. They be-
| come cross and cranky aud pugnacious, ard
after while people leave their store and
their name becomes positive dete .tation.
On the other hand, l could mention the
| name of a score of merchants, business men
in all departme1 ts, who have been frightened
up by the process. They can looi back
to the time when they gave retor6 for
| retort, sarcasm for sarCas. s.n, wrong for
wrong, but not now. They rememter when
! they had to bite their lip. They remember
| Wnen they thought OF the StlnSlnS answer
| they would like to have sent. They remem-
| ber Just how they could have overthrown
their antagonists in business. But they have
conquered themselves and when man has
conquered himself he has conquered the
| greatest obsta les in human lie He
has suppressed all this. 1t has heen a
school of patience to him. Christ cams
through all the annoyances of his life anC
| said to him: "Let patience have her perfe 4
work; in patience possess yolr soul. There
are men here to-day who under all this per
turbation aud annoyance of life have beel
Inellowed, have been ripened for more use
fulness and rirened for Heaven. 1t has bee1
school for patience all these wears. Arch;
| Bald Sloane was one of the chef business m II
of Philadelphia. When resided IN that city,
though he had been gons many years, the
\ story Of his integity and of his kindne s ami
of his nobility of character was in the air.
He had lost all his property. He had been
| in a firm who had not done right, and to
meet their wrong Archibald Sloane hal sa =
rificed the last dollar Of his private forture e,
| paying everything that th,Y Dwell In
PHILADELPHIA he rose in prosperity, and the
story of his goodness, of his integrity, of bis
! kindness, was everywhere told. Once he
welt to collect debt, and he came back
without the money. Some one said; Did
yo1 get the money! He replied: NO,
didn't get it. went to the mans house and