The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1889-01-11
NUMBER 30

better than logic TO marshal the intellectual
| forces for onset and victory. 1t viii go with
Hugh Miller and show him the footprints Of
| the Creator in tho red sandstone. It will 60
with tho botanist and show him celestial
| glories encamped under the curtain of a water
lily. 1t viii go with the astronomer on the
| great heights where God shepherds the great
| flock of worlds, that wander on the hills Of
heaven answering his voice as he calls them
| all by their names
HOW RELIGION PREVENTS DEsPoNDENCY AND
GLooMINESS.
Again l remark that godliness is profitable
| for ones disposition Lord Ashley, before he
went into great BATTLE was heard to offer
| this prayer: 80 Lord, shall be very busy
| today; If forget thee, forget me not" With
such Christian disposition as that, a man Is
| independent Of all circumstances Our piety
| will have a tinge Of our natural temperament
| If man be cross and sour and fretful natur-
ally, after he becomes a Christian he will
always have to bo armed against the rebellion
| Of those evil incinations; but religion has
| tanned the widest nature; it has turned fret
fumes into gratitude, dependency into good
| cheer, and those who were hard and ungov-
| ernablo and uncompromising have been made
pliable and conciliatory. Good resolution, re-
formatory effort, win not effect the change,
1t takes mightier arm and a mightier hand
to bend evil habits than the hand that bent
the bow Of Ulysses, and it takes q stronger
lasso than ever held tho buffalo on the prairie.
A man cannot 60 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 un-
til their disposition was entirely changed So
it was with two merchants in New York.
They were very antagonistic. They had
done all they could to injure each other.
They were in the same line of bud-
ness. One of the merchants was con-
verted 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 customer asked for certain kinds
of goods which he had not, but which he
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 being asked for
certain kind of goods which he had not, he
said: "You go to such and such store and
you will get it," After q while 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 religion. Now they are
good friends and good neighbors, the grace
of God entirely changing their disposition.
"Oh," says some one, 'Ihave rough, jag
ged, impetuous nature, and religion can't do
anything for me-" Do you know that Mar
tin Luther and Robert Newton and Richard
Baxter were impetuous, all consuming ma
lures, yet the grace of God turned them into
the mightiest usefulness3 A manufacturer
cares but very little for stream that slowly
runs through the meadow, but strong tor
rent 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
iuttering shuttles and grinding mill and
flashing water wheel And nature, the
swiftest, the most rugged and the most ire
mendous, that is the nature God
turns into greatest usefulness. Oh, how many
who have been pugnacious, and hard to
please, and irascible, and more bothered about |
the mote in their neighbours eye 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"
RELIGION Is GOOD IN LIES PRACTICAL |
Again remark, that religion is good for q |
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 q
Christian Merchant" when he says: HE |
grew in grace the last six years Of his |
life moro than at any time in his life; dur
ing those six years he had more busi-
ness crowding him than at any other time"
In other words, the moro worldly business |
man has, the moro opportunity to serve God.
Does religion exhilarate or retard worldly |
businessl is the practical question for you to |
discuss. Does it hang like mortgage over |
the farma Is it bad debt on the ledgera Is |
it lien against the estate? Does it crowd
the door through which customers como for
broadcloths and silks9 Now, religion viii
hinder your business if it be bad business,
or If it be good business wrongly conducted
If you tell lies behind tho 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 interfere
with that business; but a lawful business,
lawfully conducted, viii find the religion Of
the Lord Jesus Christ its mightiest auxiliary.
Religion will give an equipoise of spirit,
it viii keep you from ebullitions of temper
and you know great many fine businesses
have been blown to atoms by bad temper
it will keep you from worriment
about frequent loss, it will keep you
Industrious and prompt, it, will keep
you back from squandering and from
dissipation, it viii give you O kindness of
spirit which viii 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 web or sicki
but the anxiety is to know how
many dozen cambria pocket handker-
chiefs you will take and pay cash
down. It will prepare you for the practical
duties Of everyday life. | do not mean tosay
that religion will make US financially rich,
but do say that it will give us, it will assure
us of comfortable sustenance at the start, q
comfortable subsistence all the way through,
and it win help us to direct the bank, TO man
age the traffic, to conduct all our business
matters and to make the most insignificant
affair of our life matter of vast Importance
glorifed by Christian principle.
In New York city there was merchant
hard in his dealings with his fellows, who had
written over his banking house. or his count
ing house room: mo compromise" Then
when some merchant got in crisis and went
down-no fault of his, but conjunction
of eyil circumstances-and all the other
merchants were willing to compensatory
would take seventy -ivecents on the dollar, or
fifty cents, or twenty cents-coming to this
man last of all, he said: mo comproGT.sccs: I'll
take one hundred cents on the dollar, and
can afford to wait" Well, the wheel turned,
and after q while that man was in q crisis of
business and he sent out his agents to COM
promise, and the agents said to the mer-
chants: "Will you take fifty cents on
the dollar9" ''No." "Win you take
anythingr "Wen take one hundred
cents on the dollar No compromise" And
the man who wrote that inscription over his
counting house door died in restitution. Oh,
we want more of the kindness of the Gospel
and the spirit of love in our business enter
prisesi How many young men have found
in the religion of Jesus Christ practical
helpl How many there are in this house to-
day who could testify out of their own expe-
rience that godliness is profitable for the life
that now is There were times in their bust
ness career when they went hero for help,
and there for help, and yonder for help, and
got no help until they knelt before the Lord
crying for his deliverance, and the Lord res
cued them.
In bank not far from our great metrop-
olis-a village bank--an officer could not bal
ance his accounts He had worked at them
day after day, night after night, and he was
sick nigh unto death as a result. Heknew he
had not taken one farthing from that bank,
but somehow, for some reason inScrutable
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 himself
in awful peril, conscious of his own integrity
but unable TO prove that integrity That
morning be went to the bank early, and he
knelt down before God and told the whola