Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-04


not been able TO make up their mind.
Perhaps they will 20 West. Perhaps
they will go East. Perhaps they will
not. Perhaps they will 90 North. Per-
haps they may go South. Perhaps they
will not. Perhaps they may make an
investment in real estate or In railroads.
! Perhaps they will not. They are like
steamer 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 for Boston, and the next Liver
| pool, These men oil the sea of life ever
lastinely lacking ship and making no
| Roadway. Or they are like man who
starts to build house in the Corinthian
style and changes II to Dorio, aud then
! com letes it In the Ionic, aud is cursed
| by all styles of architecture.
YOUNG MAN, START RIGHT AND KEEP ON.
Have decision of character. Cbarac-
! ter is like the gold finch of TOnquin; il 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 make sarcastic filings at
| the They go on excursions and they
do not invite them. They prophesy 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 saint.
oh young man! have decision of char
acter. You can afford in this matter of
religion 10 be laughed at. What do you
care for the SCOTS of these men, who are
affronted because you will not 20 to ruin
with them? When the grave cracks
a. hai- nd
gers push them into it, and eternity
comes down hard upon their spirit. and
conscience stings, and hopeless ruin lifts
them up to hurl them down, will they
laugh then.
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
n correspondence vast beyond all COM
putation. There was not a man in all
the earth who had more to do than DAN
lei, the secretary of state, and yet we
find him three times day bowling be-
fore God in prayer. There are men in
our day who have not hundrpdth part
of Daniels engagements who suy 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 disarrange the merchant
store shelf.
They think religion is impertinent.
They would like to have it very well
Sabbath, to find the place i'll the psalm
book, or to nudge them awake when |
they get sleepy under the didactic dis
course; or they would like to leave it III
the pew on Sabbath evening, as they go
out closing the door saying, Good |
night religion,
I'LL BE BACK NEXT sUNDAYi"
But to have religion 60 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 bag of dishonest gold |
and shake it, and say: "Hai hal where !
did you get that?'' They think that |
is an impertinent religion. They would |
like to have Il religion to help them when |
they are sick, and when the shadow oil |
death comes over them they would like
to have religion as Il sort of nIght-key
with which to open the door of heaven;
but religion under other circumstances
they take to be an impertinenoe. Now,
my friends, religion never robbed a man
of dollar. Other things being equal.
mason will, build a better wall, q cabi-
net maker will make better chair,
plumber will make a better pipe, a law
yer will make a better plea, merchant
will sell better bill of goods.
l say other things being equal. OF
course, when religion gives a man a new
heart it does not propose to give him
new head or 10 intellectualize him, or TO
change a man 8 condition when his ordi-
nary state is an overthrow of the philo-
sophical theory that a total vacuum Is
impossible; but the more letters YOU have
to write, the more burdens you have to
carry, the more miles you have to travel,
the 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
Christian.
II you have a thousand irons in the
fire, you have n thousand more opportu-
mites of serving God than if you had only
one iron III the fire. Who so busy as
Christ? And yet who a millionth part as
holy? The busiest men the best men.
All the persons converted in Scripture
were busy at the time OF their being con-
Matthew attending to his GUS
tom house duties; the Prodigal Son feed
ing swine; Lydia selling purple; Simon
Peter hauling in the net from the sea;
Saul squirting his horse toward Damas-
Gus, going down on his law business.
Busy! busyi Daniel with all the affairs
Of state weighing down upon his soul,
and yet three times day
woRsHIPING THE GOD OF HEAVEN.
Again: learn from this subject that
/ man may take religion into his politics.
Daniel had all the affairs of state on
hand, yet a Christian. He could not
have kept his elevated position unless he
had been thorough politician; and yet,
Ill the trusts of the officials and all the
LANCER of disgrace did not make him
Tield one iota of his hight toned religious
He stood before that age. he
stands before all ages, a specimen of a
Christian politician.
SO there have been in our day and in
he days of our fathers men as eminent
IL the service of God as they have been
eminent In the service OF the state. Such
vas Benjamin F. Butler, attorney-gen-
'ral OF New York In the time of your