Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1890-10-04

~ .'.Au oOoISe 1edDOdyS. SO will
come redistribution, and the crooked
Will be made straight.
Mind this: God never vet undertook
failure. The old book. which Is worth
all other books put together. makes It
plain that God has undertaken to repn-
late this world by gospel influences, and
II lie has the power He will do what He
says He will, and no one who amounts to
anythlng Will deny his power. God has
salo hundred times II WILL" but never
once has said II cannot We may with
our TACK hammers pound away irving
10 mend and improve and straighten the
nnanclai condition of the world, and be
disappointed in the result, because our
arm IS too weak and the hammer we
weld too small; but the most defiant
dlfnculty will fatten and disappear when
God with hammer made of summer
thunderbolts strikes it, saying, s'The
crooked shall be made straight"
In your business concerns there are
influences perplexing. Your affairs NAV
seem all right to outsiders, for business
firms do not advertise their private
troubles; but where one firm has eyery-
thing just as it wants it there are q hun
dred firms at their wits end what to do
with that partner who draws more than
his share of the profits, or with that
stakeholder who comes in Just often
enough to upset things, or with that dis
appearance OF funds which you cannot
account for, although you have sus-
plclons you cannot mention; or with that
investment which was made contrary to
your Judgment because there was de-
termination to push it through, or be-
cause you are going behind month by
IF wi
ton. The trouble is putting wrinkle
on your forehead that ought not to ap-
pear there for ten years yet, and you
will be forty years old when you ought
to be only thirty, or sixty when you
ought to be only fifty, or seventy when
you ought to be only sixty. Stop worry
ing; either by the dissolution of that firm
or by readjusting matters you will be
brought safely through if you put your
trust in God.
When commercial houses fail the sus-
pension is advertised, but Of the tens Of
thousands of men who are every day eX-
tricated no public mention is made. Yes
terday was Saturday, and / warrant that
at the windows of banks, and in count
ing rooms of stores, and on every street
OF every city God appeared for the de-
llverance OF good men as certainly as
when with His right foot He trod Lake
Gallee into placidity, and made Daniel
as safe among the lions as though they
had been house dogs asleep on a rug be-
fore winters fire. Throw yourself on
the text, or HUNDRED other texts mean
ing about the same thing.
Inever yet asked God to do anything
but He did it, if it were best, and in ali
the cases where my prayer has not been
answered have found out afterward
that it was best not to have been an.
swered in my way. But none of us has
tested the full power Of prayer. 1t is
force very like some of the forces OF ma
ture that were in existence but not en-
ployed. For ages electricity was thought
good for nothing but to burn barns and
kill people with one fell stroke. The
lightning rod on top Of houses was the
spear with which the world charged on
the thunderstorm, as much as to say,
eff you dare to come this way l will
hurl you into the ground" But now
electricity lightens homes and churches
and cities and Christendom, and moves
rail cars, and he is a rash man who men
tions anything as impossible to this
natural energy.
So the power of prayer was to the
world rather frightful power, if it was
any power at all. But that has been
changed, and men begin to use it in some
things, and the time will come when it
will be used in all things, and there will
be Bible in every counting room and
supplication will ascend from every COM"
mercial establishment, and when BUSH
ness firms are formed the question will
not only be asked as to how much this
one and that one put in of capital, but
the question will be asked: ''Do you
know how to pray?" Mightier agent than
any natural force yet developed will be
this Gospel electricity flashing heaven
ward for help, flashing earthward with
divine response God in business life.
God in agricultural life. God in mechani-
cal life. God in artistic life. God in
everv kind of life.
Your religion for the most part is hung
up so high you cannot reach it. 1t is
hung up on the cloudy rafters of the sky,
where you expect to snatch it up as you
finally go through for heavenly resi-
dence. Oh, have your religion within
easy reach now! Religion is not for
heaven. but for this world. Once in
heaven we will need no prayer, for we
shall have everything we want. We
will need no repentance, for we shall
have forever got rid of our sins. We
shall have no need of comfort, for there
will be no trouble. The Christian re-
ligion is not for heaven, where every
thing is all right, but for this world,
where so many things are all wrong
Washington Alston, whose name you
recognize as that of great American
nainter. was reduced to extreme poverty,