Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-09-04

0face, ana tno next I0r CntIleobOn, ana
the next for Boston, and the next for
Liverpool-these men on the sea Of life,
everlastihgIy tacldng ship and making
no headway. Or they are like man
who starts TO build house in the Co
rinthian style and changes IL to Doric,
and then completes II in the Ionic, and is
cursed by all styles Of architecture.
Young man, start right and keep on.
Have decision Of character. Character
is like the goldhnch of Tonquin; 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 make sarcastic fiings at
them. They go on excursions and do not
invite them. They prophesy that he will
give out. They wonder II he Is not get
ting wings. As he passes they grimace
and wink and chuckle, and say, There
goes saint. aa 4 yT
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
sffronted because you win not go to ruin
with them? When the grave cracks
open under their feet, and grim messen-
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 bus
mess. Daniel had enough work to do to
occupy six men. All the affairs of State
were In his hands-questions Of finance,
questions Of war, Of peace, all inter-
national questions were for his settle-
ment and ajustment. He must have had
a correspondence vast beyond all compu-
tation. There was not man in all the
earth who had more to do than Daniel,
the Secretary Of State, and yet we find
him three times day bowling before
God in prayer. There are men in our
day who have not q hundredth part Of
Daniels engagements who say they are
too busy to be religious. They have an
idea, somehow that religion will spoil
their worldly occupation, that it will trip
the accountants pen, the lawyers brief,
or disarrange the merchants store
shelf.
They think religion is impertinent.
They would like to have it very well
seated beside them in church on the Sab
bath, to find the place in the Psalm book,
or to nudge them awake when they get
sleepy under the didactic DISCOURSE; or
they would like to leave it in the pew on
Sabbath evening, as they go out closing
the door, saying: HGood night, religion;
I'll be back next Sundayr' But to have
religion go right along by them all
through life, to have religion looking
over their shoulder when they are max
ing bargain, to have religion take up a
bag of dishonest gold and shake it and
say, ''Ha! ha! where did you get that?"
they think that is an impertinent re-
ligion. They would like to have q re-
ligion to help them when they are sick,
and when the shadow Of death comes
they would like to have religion as sort
of q night-key with which to open the
door Of Heaven but religion under other
circumstances they take as an imperti-
nence. Now, my friends, religion never
robbed man of dollar. Other things
being equal, a mason will build better
wall, cabinet-maker will make better
chair, a plumber will make better pipe,
lawyer will make better plea, mer-
chant will sell better bill of goods.
say other things being equal. Of
course when religion gives man new
heart it does not propose to give him a
new head, or to intellectualiZe him, or to
change mans condition when his ordi-
nary state is overthrow of the philoso-
phical theory that total vacuum is i'm
possible; 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 tomeet, the
more disputes you have to settle, the
more opportunity you have of being q
Christian. #e
II you have thousand irons in the
fire, you have a thousand more oppor-
tunities of serving God than If you had
only one iron in the fire. Who so busy
as Christ? And yet who millionth part
as holy2 The busiest men the best men.
All the persons converted in Scripture
busy at the time of their being converted.
Matthew attending to his custom house
duties; the Prodigal Son feeding swine;
Lydia selling purple; Simon Peter haul
ing in the net from the sea; Saul spur
ring his horse toward Damascus, going
GOWN on ms law business BUSY! busy!
Daniei WIN all tne aHairs OF state
Weigning aown upon ms soul anu yes
Iaree times . oay worsniping tne goa Oh
neayen.
Again, learn from tnis suDJece tnaC .
man may TAKE reiigion lhto ms pontlcs.
Danlel II nao an tne aHalf Of state on nana,
yee . onrissian. ne couio not nave kept