The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-01-18

their own experience that goodness ID
profitable for the life that now is. There
were times In their business career when
they went hers for help, and there for
help. and yondsr for help, and got no
help until they knelt before the Lord cry
ing for His deliverance, and the Lord res
cued them.
In . bank not Gar from our great metrop-
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 ono 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: 20, Lord;
I have done right; have preserved my
integrity, but here 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 1t and there lay a 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 ball
anced, and the Lord delivered him. You
are an infidel il you do not believe it. The
Lord delivered him. God answered his
prayer as He will answer your prayer, o
man of business, in every crisis when you
come to 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 q
farmer in California with 15 600 acres #
good wheat land and cuturing only a
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 we'll as
hereafter?
How can you get along without this re-
ligion? Is your physical health so good
you do not want this divine tonic? Is your
mind so clear, so vast, so comprehensive
that you do not want this divine inspira-
tions 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
il what l have said this morning is
true, then you see what fatal blunder
it is when q 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 the training of that child. You will
want q religion to -morrow 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 encased in the mail of Gods eternal
help go forth amid the assaults of all hell's
sharpshooters: 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,
postponing 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; so these men have fallen under
the wheel of awful calamity, crushed
here, destroyed forever, while a vast
have taken the religion of Jesus
Christ into everyday life, and first in prac-
teal business affairs, and secondly on the
throne of heavenly triumph, have illus
trated, while angels looked on and q
universe approved. the glorious truth that
Goodness is profita BILE unto all things,
having the promise of the life which now
is as well as of that which is to come"