The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-01-07

poesy, weeping in DR.. Young's Might
Thoughts teaching in Cowper's Task
flaming in Charles Wesley's hymns, and
rushing with archangelic splendor through
Millions Paradise Lost The religion of
Jesus Christ has hung in studio and
in gallery of art and in Vatican, the best
pictures-Titian's Assumption, ~ Raphael's
TRANSPORTATION, Ruben's Descent from
the Cross" Claudes Burning Bush" and
Angeles last Judgment" Religion has
made the best music Of the world-Haydn'
Creation" Handel's Messiah Mozart's
Requiem" Is it possible that a religion
which builds such indestructible monu-
ments, aud which lifts its ensign on the
highest promontorieS of worldly power,
can have any effect upon a mans intellect
but elevation and enlargement Now. /
commend Goodness as the best mental dis
cipline-better than belles-lettres to purify
the taste, better than mathematics TO har-
ness the mind to all lntricacY and elabOra-
ton, better than logic TO marshal the intel
lectual force for onset and victory. 1t will
go with Hugh Miller and show him the
footprints OF the Creator in the red sand
stone. 1t will go with the botanist and
show him celestial glories encamped under
the curtain of a water-hly. 1t will 20
with the astronomer on the great heights
where God shepards the great flock of
worlds, that wander on the hills of heaven
answering his voice as he calls them all by
their names.
Again, l remark that godliness is profita-
BILE for ones disposition. Lord Ashley be-
fore he went into great battle, was heard
to offer this prayer: 40, Lord, | shall be
very busy to-day; if forget Thee, forget
me not" With such a christian disposition
as that man is independent of all circum-
stances. Our piety will have a tinge of our
natural temperament. If a man be eros
and sour and fretful naturally, after he be-
comes a christian he viii always have to he
armed against the rebellion of those evil in
clinations; but religion has tanned the wild
est nature; it has turned fretfuluess into
gratitude. dependency into good cheer,
and those who were hard and ungoverna-
bic and incorporating have been made
pliable and conciliatory. Good reso-
luton, reformatory effort, will not
effect the change. 1t takes a mightier
arm and mightier hand to
bend evil habits than the hand that bent
the bow of Ulysses and it take5 ronger
lasso than ever held the buffalo on the
prairie. A man cannot go forth with any
human weapons and contend successfully
against these Titans armed with uptorn
mountain. But you have known men into
whose spirit the influence of the gospel of
Christ came until their disposition was en-
tirely changed. So it was with two mer-
chants in New York. They were very an
tagonistic. They had done all they could
to injure each other. They were in the same
line OF bushes. One of the merchants was
converted to God. Having been converted he
asked the Lord to teach him how to bear him
self toward that business antagonist, and he
was impressed with the fact that it was his
duty when a customer asked for certain
kinds of goods which he had not. but which
he knew his opponent had, to recommend
him to 60 to that store. | suppose that is
about the hardest thing man could do;
but being thoroughly converted to God, he
resolved to do that very thing, aud being
asked for certain kind of goods which he
had not, he said: "You go to such and
such store, and you viii get it.n After
awhile merchant number two found these
customers coming so sent, and he found
also that merchant number one had been
brought to God, and he sought the same re-
iGion. Now they are good friends and
good neighbors. the grace of God entirely
changing their disposition.
oh" says somes one, II have a rough,
Jagged, impetuous nature, and religion
can't do anything for me-" DO you know
that Martin Luther and Robert Newton and
Richard Baxter were impetuous, all-cOn-
Stunning natures, yet the grace of God
turned them into the mightiest usefulness
A manufacturer cares but very little for a
stream that slowly runs through the
meadow, but a strong torrent that leaps
from rock to rock, and PUSHES with mad
energy through tia valley and out toward
the sea. Along that river you will find fiut-
teriDg shuttles and grinding mill and flash
ing water wheel. And nature, the
swifteSt, the most rugged and the most
tremendous, that is the nature God turns
into greatest usefulness. Oh, how many
who have been pugnaclous, and bard to
please, and irascible, and more bothered
about the mote in their neighbours eve than
about the beam-like ship timber in their
own eye, who have been entirely changed
by the grace of God, and have found out
that Goodness is profitable for the life
that now is as well as for the life which is
to come"
Again | remark that religion is good for
a mans worldly business. | know the gen
eral theory is, the more business the less re-
Ggion, the more religion the less business.
Not so, thought DIR. Hans in his Biography
of a Christian Merchant" when lie says:
'He grew in grace the last six years of his
life more than any time in his life; during
those six years he had more business crowd
ing him than at any other time" In other
words, the more worldly business man
has, the more opportunity to serve God.
Does religion exhilarate or retard worldly
businessi is the practical question for
you to discuss Does it hang like
mortgage over the farms Is it a bad
de on the ledgeri Is it lien against the
eSJaUef Does IL crowd the door Through
which customers come for broadcloths and
silksl Now, religion will hinder your bust
ness if it be a bad business, or il it be a
good business wrongly conducted. If you
tell lies behind the counter, II you use false
weights and measures, if you put sand in
sugar, and beet juice in vinegar, and lard
in butter, and sell for one thing that which
is another thing, then religion will interfere
with that business; but a lawful business
lawfully conducted, will find the religion of
the Lord Jesus Christ its mightiest aux
ilary.
Religion will give an equipoise of spirit,
it will keep you from ebullitions of temper
and you know great many fine bust
nesses have been blown to atoms by bad
temper-it will keep you from worriment
about frequent loss, it will keep you indus
trious and prompt, it will keep back from
squandering and from ipation, it will
give you a kindness of spirit which will be
easily distinguished from that mere
store courtesy which shakes hand VIC
lently with you, asking about the
health of your family when there is no
anxiety to know whether your child is well
or sick but the anxiety is to know how
many dozen cambria pocket handkerchiefs
you will take and pay cash down. 1t will
prepare you for the practical duties of
every day life. | do not mean TO say that
religion will make us financially rich, but
do say that it will give us, il will assure US
of a comfortable sustenance at the start. a
comfortable subsistence all the way
through. ard II will helm rs TO direct the