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

gospel and the spirit of love in our business
enterprisesl How many young men have
found in the religion of Jesus Christ a prac
tical helpl How many there are in this
house to-day who could testify out of their
own experience that goodness is profitable
for the life that now is There were times
in their business career when they went
der for help, and got no help until they
knelt before the Lord crying tor his deliv-
erance and the Lord rescued them.
In bank not far from our great me-
tropolis-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 result.
He knew he had not taken one farthing from
that bank, and somehow, from some reason
iuscrutable then, the accounts wouldn't
balance The time rolled on, and the morn
ing of the day when the books should pass
under the inspection of the other officers
arrived, and he felt himself in awful peril,
conscious of bis own integrity, but unable
to prove that integrity. That morning he
went to the bank early, and be knelt down
before God and told the whole story
of his mental anguish, and he said: 80, Lord,
/ have done right: | have preserved
my integrity, but here | am about to be
overthrow 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 blotter
that be 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 tho
accounts were balanced, and the Lord de-
livered him. You are an iufidel if
you do not believe It, The Lord
delivered him. God answered his pra yer
as he will answer your prayer, o man of
business, in everv crisis when You come to
him. Now, II this be so, then / am per
suaded, as you are, of the fact that the vast
majority OF christians do not fully test the
value of their religion. They are like a
ia mer in California, with fifteen thousand
acres of good wheat land and culturing
only a quarter of an acre. Why do you
not 60 forth and make the religion Of Jesus
Christ practical affair every day Of your
business life and all this year, beginning
now, and tomorrow morning putting into
practical effect this holy religion and demon
st ating in your life that goilness is profit
able hare as well as hereafter9
How can you get along without this re-
ligiona Is your physical health so good you
do not want this divine tonicl is your
mind so clear, 50 vast, so comprehensive
that YOU do not want this divine inspira-
toni Is your worldly business so thor
oughly established that you have no use for
that religion which has been the help and
delverance of tens of thousands of men in
crises of worldly troublel And If what |
have said this morning is true, then yoI see
what q fatal blunder it is When man ad-
journs to life's expir tion the uses of relg-
lou. A man who postpones religion to sixty
years OF age gets religion fifty years too
late. lie may get into the kingdom Of God
by final repentance but what can compen-
sate him for a whole lifetime unalleviated
and uncontrolled! You want religion to-
day in the training of that child. You will
want religion tomorrow in dealing with
that western customer. You wanted reig-
Z ion yesterday to curb your temper. Is your
arm strong enough to beat your way
through the hoods9 Cen Won without
being encased in the mail If Gods eternal
help go forth amid the assault Of all hellS
sharpshooters3 Can you walk alone across
these crumbling graves aud amid these
gaping earthquakes! Can you, waterogged
and mast-shivered, outllve the gale Oh,
how many there have been who, poStponng
the religion of Jesus Christ, have plunged
into mistakes they never could correct
although they lived eighty years after, aud
like sarpents crushed under cart wheels,
dragging their mauled bodies under the
rocks to die: so these mon have fallen under
the wheel of awful calamity, crushed here,
destroyed forever, while a vast multitude
of others bave taken the religion of Jesus
Christ into everyday life, and first, in prac-
tical business affairs, and secondly, on the
throne of heavenly triumph, have illus
trated, while angels looked on and uni
verse approved, the glorious truth that
"Godilness is profitable unto all things,
having the promise of the life which now is
as we'll as of that which is to come"