Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-01-17

their own experience that goodness Ii
profitable for the life that now IS. There
were times in their business career when
they went here for help, and there for
help, and yonder for help, and got no
help until they knelt before the Lord cry
ing for His deliverance, and the Lord res
cued them.
In a bank not FAR from our great netrop-
olis-a village bank-an officer could not
balance his accounts. He had worked at
them day after day, night after night, and
he was sick nigh unto death as a result.
He knew he had not taken one farthing
from that bank, but somehow, for some
reason inscrutable then, the accounts
wouldn't balance The time rolled on,
and the morning of the day when the
books should pass under the inspection Of
the other officers arrived. and he felt him
self in awful peril. conscious of his own
integrity but unable to prove that in
tegrity. That morning he went to the
bank early, and he knelt down before
God and told the whole story of his
mental anguish, and he said: 80, Lord;
1 have done right; have preserved my
integrity, but here l am about to be over
thrown unless Thou should come to my
rescue. Lord, deliver me-" And for one
hour he continued the prayer before God
and then he rose and went to an old blot
ter that he had forgotten all about. He
opened it and there lay sheet of figures
which he only needed to add to another
line of figures-some line of figures he
had forgotten and knew not where he had
laid them-and the accounts were bal
enced, and the Lord delivered him. You
- 4 II IL, I.ali Tha
Lord delivered him. God answered his
prayer as He will answer your prayer, o
man of business, in every crisis when you
come 10 Him.
Now, if this be so, then am persuaded,
as you are. of the fact that the vast ma
jority of Christians do not fully test the
value of their religion. They are like d
farmer in California with Is, 900 acres OF
good wheat land and culturing only
quarter of an acre. Why do you not go
forth and make the religion of Jesus
Christ a practical affair every day Of
your business life and all this year, be-
ginning now, and tomorrow morning.
putting into practical effect this holy
religion and demonstrating in your life
that godliness is profitable here as well as
hereafter!
How can you get along without this ,e-
ligion? Is your physical health so good
you do not want this divine tonic: Isyour
mind so clear, so vast, so comprehensive
that you do not want this divine inspira-
ton? Is your worldly business so
thoroughly established that you have no
use for that religion which has been the
help and deliverance of tens of thousands
of men in crises of worldly trouble? And
if what 1 have said this morning is
true, then you see what fatal blunder
it is when a man adjourns to
life's expiration the uses of religion.
A man who postpones religion to sixty
years of age gets religion fifty years too
late. He may get into the kingdom of God
by final repentance, but what can compen-
safe him for a whole lifetime unalleviated
and uncontrolled? You want religion to-
day IN this training of that child. You will
want a religion tomorrow in dealing with
that Western customer. You wanted re-
ligion yesterday to curb your temper. Is
your arms strong enough to beat your way
through the floods? Can you without be-
ing encassd in the mail of Gods eternal
help go forth amid the assaults of all HELPS
Can you walk alone across
these crumbling graves and amid these
gaping earthquakes? Can you, water
logged and mast-shivered, outlive the
gale? D, how many there have been who,
the religion of Jesus Christ,
have plunged into mistakes they never
could correct, although they lived eighty
years after, and like serpents crushed
under cart wheels, dragging their
mauled bodies under the rocks to
die. S0 thaSe meu have fallen undsr
the wheel of awful calamity, crushed
here, destroyed forever, while a vast
multitude have taken the religion of Jesus
Christ into everyday life, aud first in prac-
teal business affairs, and secondly on the
throne of heavenly triumph, have illus
trated, while angels looked on and a
universe approved, the glorious truth that
Goodness is profitable unto all things,
having the promise of the life which now
is as well as of that which is to come"