The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1889-01-17

IL
OF the world-Haydn's aCreation,n Han.
dePs messiah" Mozart's Requiem" Is
II possible that q religion which builds
such understandable monument aud which
lists its ensign on the highest promon.
tories Of worldly power, can have any eff
fecs c?nn q mans intellect but elevation
and enlargement, =,
Now, commenfs Goodness as the best
mental discipline better .lsaa bellies let.
tiers to purify tIHk taste, better than
mathematics TO HARNESS. the mind TO sll
intricacy and elaboration, better than
logic to marshal the intellectual forces
for onset and victory. II will 60 with
Hugh Miller and show him the footprints
of the Creator in the red sandstone. II
will 60 with the botanist and show him
celestial glories encamped under the cur.
tain Of a water-lily. II will go with the
astronomer on the great heights whore
God shepherds the great focks Of worlds,
that wander on the hills of Heaven an
swearing His voice as He calls them all by
their names.
Again remark, that Goodness is profit.
able for ones disposition. Lord Ashley,
before he went into a great battle, was
heard to offer this prayer: 80 Lord,
shall be very busy to-day; II I forget
Thee, forget me not" With such Chris.
tan disposition as that, man is inde-
pendent Of all circumstances. Our piety
will have a tinge of our natural tempera-
ment. IL a man be cross and sour and
fretful naturally, after he becomes a
Christian he will always have to be armed
against the rebellion of these evil inclina-
tons; but religion has toned the widest
nature; it has turned fretfulness into
gratitude, dependency into good cheer,
and those who were hard and ungoverna.
BILE and uncompromising have been made
pliable and conciliatory. Good resolution,
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 takes a stronger lasso than ever
held the buffalo on the prairies, A man
can not go forth with any human weapons
and contend successfully against these
Titans armed with uptorn mountain. But
you have known into whose spirit the in
fluence Of the Gospel Of Christ came un-
til their disposition was entirely changed,
So it was with two merchants in
New York, They were very an
tagonistic. They had done all they could
to injure each other. They were IN the
chants was converted to God. Having
been converted, he asked the Lord tn
teach him how to bear bin .elt toward
that business antagonist, and he was i'm
pressed with the fact that it was his duty
when a customer asked for certain kinds
of goods which he had not, but which be
knew his opponent had, to recommend
him to go to that store. suppose that is
about the hardest thing a man could do;
but, being thoroughly converted to God,
he resolved to do that very thing, and be=
ing asked for certain kind of goods
which he had not, he said! "You go to
such and such q store and you will get it,"
After awhile Merchant No. found these
customers coming so sent, and he found
also that merchant No. / had been
brought to God, and he sought the same
religion. Now they are good friends and
good neighbOrs, the grace of God entirely
changing their dispositions,
"Oh,n says some one, ~ have a rough;
jagged, impetuous nature, and religion
| can't do any thing for me-" Do you knoM
that Martin Luther, and Robert Newton,
and Richard Baxter were impetuous, all
consuming natures, yet the grace of God
| turned them into the mightiest Hseftlness!
A manufacturer parcs but little for a
stream that slowly runs through the
meadow, but strong torrent that leaps
| from rock to rock, and rushes with mad
energy through the valley and out toward
the sea. Along that river you will find
fluttering shuttlcs, and grinding MILL and
flashing water-wheel. And q nature, the
swiftest, the most rugged and the most
tremendOus-that il the nature God turns
into greatest usefulness. Oh, how many
who have been pugnacious, and hard to
| please, and iras chile, 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 we'll as for the life
TINT is to Gomez
< Again l remark, that religion Is good
for mans worldly business, [ know
the general theory Is the more business
the less religion, the more religion the
less business. Not SO Thought DR.. Hans
in his biography Of Christian Mer-
chant, when he says: she grew in grace
the last six years of his life more than at
any time in his life; during those six years
he had more business crowding him than
at any other time" In other words, the
| more worldly business a man has, the
more opportunity to serve God. Does
religion exhilerate or retard worldly busis
ness? is the practical question for you to
discuss. Does 1t hang like a mortgage
over the farm? Is it bad debt on the
ledger? Is it lien against the estate
Does it crowd the door through which
customers come for broadcloths and silks7
Now, religion will hinder your business
If 1t be bad business, or if it be a good
business wrongly conducted. II you tell
lies behind the counter, if 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 inter-
fere with that business; but lawful BUSH
ness, lawfully conducted, will find the re-
ligion of the Lord Jusus Christ it's might
lest auxiliary.
Religion will give an equlpoise Of spirit,
it will keep you from ebullitions of tenn
per-and you know a great many fine
businesses have been blown to atoms by
bad temper-it will keep you from worri.
ment about frequent loss; it will keep
you industrious and prompt; it will keep
you back from squandering and from
dissipation; it will give you kindness of
spirit which will be easily distinguished
from that mere store courtesy which
shakes hands violently 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. Ii will prepare You for the prac-