Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-01-17

religion which builds such indestructIble
monuments and which lifts its ensign on
the highest promontories of worldly
power, can have any effect upon a mans
| intellect but elevation and enlargement?
Now, L commend golliness as the best
mental discipiine-better than bellies let
tres to purify the taste, better than mathe-
mates to harness the mind to all intricacy
and elaboration, better than logic to mar
| shall the intellectual forces for onset ana
victory. 1t will go with Hugh Miller and
show him the footprints of the Creator in
the red sandstone. 1t will go with the
botanist and show him the celestial glories
| encamped under the curtain OF a water
| lily. 1t will 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 DE
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: 30, Lord. shall
be very busy to-day; if l forget Thee,
forget me not" With such a Christian
| disposition as that a man is independent
of all circumstances. Our piety will have
tinge of our natural temperament. Ii
man be cross and sour and fretful natu-
rally, after he becomes Christian he VIII
always have to be armed against the rebeiI-
ion of those evil inclinations, but religion
has tanned the widest nature; it has turned
fretfulness into gratitude, dependency
into good cheer and those who were hard
and ungovernable and incorporating
have been made pliable and conciliatory.
Good resolution, reformatory effort,
Will not effect the change. 1t takes
a mightier arm and a mightier
hand to bend evil habits than
the hand that bent the bow Of Ulysses. and
it takes stronger lasso than ever held the
buffalo on the prairie. a man can not go
forth with any human weapons and con-
tend successfully against these Titans
armed with uptorn mountain. But you
have known men into whose spirit the in
fuence of the gospel of Christ came, until
their disposition was entirely changed.
So l. 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 business. One of the merchants was
converted to God. Having been con-
verted he asked the Lord to teach him
how to bear himself toward that bust
ness antagonist, and he was impressed
with the fact that it was his
duty when a 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. l suppose that is
about the hardest thing man could do;
but being thoroughly converted to God he
resolved to do that very thing, and being
asked for a certain kind of goods which he
had not he said: you go to such and such
a store and you will getit." After while
merchant number two found these custom
ers 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.
80, says some one, 81 have a rough,
jagged, impetuous nature, and religion
can't do any thing for me-" Do you know
that Martin Luther and Robert Newton
and Richard Baxter were impetuous, all
consuming natures, yet the grace of God
turned them into the mightiest usefulness:
A manufacturer cares but very 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
futtering shuttlcs and grinding mill and
flashing waterwheel. And a nature, the
swiftest, the most rugged and the most
tremendous, that is the nature God turns
into greatest usefulness. 0, 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"
Again remark, that religion is good for
mans worldly business. 1 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 a Christian Merchant"
when he says: "He 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 man has, the more OPP
portunity to serve God. Does religion
exhilarate or retard worldly business? is
the practical question for you to discuss.
Does it hang like a mortgage over the
farm? Is it bad debt on the ledger? Is
it a lien against the estate? Does it crowd
the door through which customers come
for broadcloths and silks?
Now. religion will hinder your business
if it be a bad business, or if it be good
business wrongly conducted. If you tell
lies behind the counter. if you are false in
your weights and measures, il 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
lawful business, lawfully conducted, will
find the religion Of the Lord Jesus Christ |
its mightiest auxiliary.
Religion will give an equipoise of spirit, |
it will keep you from ebuIlitions of temper |
and you know a great many fine bust |
nesses have been blown to atoms by bad |
temper-it will keep you from worriment
about frequent loss, it will keep you indus |
trious and prompt after loss, it will keep |
you back from squandering and from dis |
sipation, it will give you kindness of
spirit which viii be easily distin-
guished 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 sickl but the anxiety
is to know how many dozen cambria pock-
ct handkerchiefs you will take and pay
cash down. 1t will prepare you for the |
practical duties of everyday life. do not
mean to say that religion will make us
financially rich, but 1 do say that it will |
give us, it will assure US of comfortable |
sustenance at the start. comfortable SUBJ |
sistence all the way through, and it will |
help US to direct the bank, to manage the |
traffic, to conduct all our business matters, |