The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-03-14

down. 1t VIII prepare you for the prac-
teal duties of everyday life. I do not
mean to say that religion will make us
financially rich, but do say that it will
| give us, it will assure US of a comfortable
sustenance at the start, a comfortable
subsistence all the way through, and it
will help us to direct the bank, to manage
the traffic, to conduct all our business
matters, and to make the most insignifi-
can't affair of our life a matter of vast
! Importance, glorifed by Christian prin-
ciple.
In New York City there was a merchant
hard in his dealings with his fellows, who
had written over his banking house or
his counting-house room: "No compro-
mise" Then when some merchant got in
the crisis and went down-no fault of his,
! but conjunction of evil circumstances,
and all the other merchants were willing
to compromise-they would take seventy
five cents on the dollar, or fifty cents, or
| twenty cents-coming to this man last Of
all he said: f'No compromise; I'll take
one hundred cents on the dollar, and
can afford to wait" Well, the wheel
turned, and after awhile that man was in
q crisis of business, and he sent out his
agents to compromise, and the agents
said to the merchants: evil you take
fifty cents on the dollar?" 'sNo."
"Will you take any thing?" ''WeIl
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
prises How many young men have found
in the religion of Jesus Christ practical
help? 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
here 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 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 a re-
suit. He knew he had not taken one far
thing from that bank, but somehow, for
some reason, inscrutable then, the ac-
counts 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 integ-
rity. 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: "Oh, Lord, have done right.
l have preserved my integrity, but here I
am about to be overthrown unless Thou
should come to my rescue. Lord, deliver
me-" And for one hour he continued the
prayer before God, and then he
arose and went to an old blotter
that he had forgotten all about. He
opened it, and there lay a sheet of
figures which he only needed to add to an
other line of fgures-some line of figures
he had forgotten, and knew not where he
had laid them-and the accounts were
balanced and the Lord delivered him.
You are an inidel if you do not believe
it. The Lord delivered him. God an
swered his prayer as He will answer your
prayer, oh, man of business, in every
crisis when you come to Him. Now, if
this be SO, I am persuaded, as you are, of
the fact that the vast majority of Chris
tains do not fully test the value of their
religion. They are like farmer in Cali
fornia with fifteen thousand acres of good
wheat land and cultiyating only quarter
of an acre. Why do you not go forth and
make the religion of Jesus Christ prac-
teal affair every day Of your business life,
and all this year, beginning now, and to-
morrow morning putting into practical
OBJECT this holy religion, and demonstrate
ing in your life that godliness is profta-
bic here as well as hereafter?
oil |, ,,,4 ~
igion? Is your physical health so good
that you do not want this Divine tonic?
Is your mind so clear, so vast so COM
prehensive, that you do not want this
Divine inspiration? Is your worldly bus
mess 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 or worldly
trouble? And if what I have said this
morning is true, then you see what fatal
blunder 1t is when 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 compensate
him for 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 want
ed religion yesterday to curb your tenn
per. Is your arm strong enough to
beat your way through the floods?
Can you, without being encased in
the mail of Gods eternal help, go
forth amid the assault of all hell's
sharpshooters. Can you walk alone
across these erumbling graves and amid
these gaping earthquakes? Can you,
water-logged and mast-shivered, outlive
the gate? On, 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 vast multitude of CHEERS
have taken the religion of Jesus Christ
into everyday life, and first, in practical
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
Goodness is profitable unto all things,
! having the nrorniSa of tha life which nov,