Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-01

/ perhars they will go West. Perhaps
they Will 20 East. Perhaps they will
moi. Perhaps they will 90 North. Per-
hans they NAV go South. Perhaps they
will not. Perhaps they may make IN
Investment i'm real estate or in railroads.
! PprhAps they will not. They are like
| sranmrr that should go out OF New York
! harbor, starting for Glasgow, and the
next day should change for Havre de
! Grace. and the next for Charleston, and
| the next TOR Boston, and the next Liver
/ pool. These men on the sea OF life ever
! lastineIy lacking ship and making 10
| Roadway. Or they are like man who
starts to build house in the Corinthian
style and changes IL TO Doric, and then
completes it in the Ionic, aud is cursed
by ali styles of architecture.
YOUNG MAN. START RIGHT AID KEEP ON.
Have decision of character. Cbarac-
ter is like the Eul fiuph OF TOuuuin; it Is
magnificent while standing firm, but
loses all its beauty in flight, How much
decision of character in order that these
young men may be Christians! Their
old associates mako sarcastic filings at
them. They go on excursions and they
do not Invite them. They prophecy that
he will give out. They wonder if he is
not getting wings. AS he passes they
grimace and wink and chuckle and say:
''There goes a saint.
oh young man! have decision Of char
acter. You can afford in this matter of
religion TO be laughed at. What do you
care for the SCOTS of these men, who are
affronted because you will not go to ruin
with them? When the grave cracks
open under their feet. and grim messen-
int 10
comes down hard upon their spirit. and
conscience stings, and hopeless ruin lifts
them up to hurl them down, Will they
laugh then.
l learn also from my subject that men
may take religion into their worldly
business. Daniel had enough work to do
to occupy six men. All the affairs OF
state were IN his neutrality-suspicious. OF
finance, questions of war, of peace, all
international questions were for his set
tleme or adjustment. He must have had
q correspondence vast beyond oil COM
putation. There was not man in ell
the earth who had more to do than Dam
lei, the secretary Of state, and yet we
find him three times a day bowling be-
fore God in prayer. There are men in
our day who have not huudredIh part
of Daniels engagements who say they
are too busy to be religious. They have
an idea somehow that religion will spoil
their orldly occupation, that 1t will
trip the accountants pen, or dull the
carpenters saw, or confuse the lawyers
brief or disarranEe the merchants
store shelf.
They think religion is impertinent |
They would like to have 1t very well |
seated beside them in church on the |
Sabbath, TO find the place ill the psalm |
book, or to nudge them awake when |
they get sleepy under the ddartic dis |
course; or they would like to leave 1t III |
the pew GU Sabbath evening, as they 20 |
out closing the door saying, Good |
night religion,
Ill BE BACK NEXT sUNDAY!'
But TO have religion go right along |
by them all through life, to have re-
ligiOn looking over their SHOULDER when |
they are making bargain, to have re-
ligiOn take up IA bag of dishonest gold |
and shake it, and say: "Ha! ha! where
did you get thnt?' They think that
is al impertinent religion. They would
like to have religion TO help them when
they are sick, and when the shadow of
death comes over them they would like
TO have religion as sort of nIght-key
but religion under other circumstances
they take to be an iInpertineuue. Now,
my friends, religion never robbed man
Of dollar. Other things being equal.
mason Will, build better wall, a cabi-
net maker will make better chair,
plumber will MAKE a better pipe. law
yer will make q better plea, d merchant
will sell better bill of goods.
] say other things being equal. or
course, when religion gives man Il new
heart it does not propose to give him
new head, or 10 iDtellectualiZe him, or 10
change a man S condition when his ordi-
larT state Is an overthrow of the phio-
'ophicnl theory that total vacuum is
impossible; but the more letters YOU have
% write, the mOrs burdens you have TO
AIRY, the more miles you have to travel,
he more burdens you have TO lift, the
more engagements YOU have to meet, the
more disputes you have to settle, the
more opportunity you have of being a
,hr!stigu.
If you have thousand irons in the
ire, you havo n thousand more opportu-
titles OF serving God than if you had only
me iron III the fire. Who SO busy Us
'hrsl? Aud yet who millionth part as
loly? The busiest men the best men.
All the persons converted in Scripture !
we're busy at the time of their being con-
erted. Matthew attending to his GUS
ON house duties; the Prodigal Son feed
ng swine; Lydia selling purple; Simon
'eter hauling in the net from the sea;
saul squirting his horse toward Damas-
us, going down on his law business.
5usy! busYl Daniel with all the affairs
{ state weighing down upon his soul,
nd yet three times day
woRsHIPING THE GOD OF HEAVEN.
Again: learn from this subject that
man may take religion into his politics,
)aniel had all the affairs of state on
and, yet a Christian. He could not
ave Kept his elevated position unless he
I'D been thorough politician; ana yet,
II the trusts of the officials and all the
anger of Disgrace did not make him
IrId one iota OF his high toned religious
riuciple. He stood before that age, he
lands before all ages, a specimen OF
hrisIiGn politician.
So there have been in our day and in
ne days of our fathers men as eminent
the service of God US they have been
miueut III the service of the state. Such
as Benjamin +. Butler, attorney-gen-
raj of New York in the time of your