Sharp County record., 1890-10-09

Will DC lIouO
Mind this: God never yet undertook
failure. The old Book, which is worth
all other books put together, makes 1T
plain that God has undertaken to regu-
late this world by Gospel influences,
and if He has the power He will do
what He says He will, and no one who
amounts to any thing will deny His
power. God has said hundred times:
81 will" but never once has said, 81
can not" We may with our tack-ham-
mers pound away, trying to mend and
improve and stra ighten the financial
condition of the would, and be
disappointed in the result, because our
arm is too weak and the hammer we
WELD too small, but the most defiant
difficulty will flatten and disappear when
God, with hammer made of summer
thunderbolts, strikes it, saving: THE
crooked shall be made straight"
In your business concerns there are
influences perplexing. Your affairs
may seem all right to outsiders, for bus
mess firms do not advertise their
private troubles, but whore one firm
has every thing just as they want it,
there are hundred firms at their wits
end what to do with that partner who
draws more than his share of the
profits, or with that stockholder who
comes in just often enough to upset
things, or with that disappearance of
funds which you can not account for,
although you have suspicious you can
not mention, or with that investment
which was made contrary to your judg-
ment because there was deter
mination to push it through, or
because you are going behind
month by month without any pros
pect of extrication. The trouble is put
ting wrinkle on your forehead that
ought not to appear there for years yet,
and you will be forty years old when
you ought to be only thirty, or sixty
when you ought be fifty, Or seventy
when you ought to be only sixty Stop
worrying. 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 com.
mercial houses fail the suspension is
advertised, but of the tens of thousands
of men who are every day extricated
no public mention is made. Yester-
day was Saturday. and warrant
that at the windows Of banks, and in
counting room of stores and on every
street of every city, God appeared for
the deliverance of good men, as cer-
tainly as when with His right foot He
trod Lake Galilee into placidity and
made Daniel as safe among the lions as
though they had been house dogs
asleep on rug before a winters fire.
Throw yourself on the promise of the
text, or hundred other texts meaning
about the same thing.
never yet asked God to do any thing
but He did it if it were best, and in all
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
have tested the full power Of prayer.
1t is force very like some of the forces
of nature, that were in existence, but
not employed. For ages electricity was
thought good for nothing but to burn
barns and kill people with fell stroke.
The lightning rods on the tops Of houses
was the speer with which the world
charged on the thunderstorm, as much
as to say: 'If you dare come this way l
will hurl you into the ground" But
now electricity lightens houses, and
churches, and cities, and Christendom,
and moves rail cars, and he is a rash
man who mentions any thing as impos-
sible to this natural energy.
SO tho power Of prayer was to tho
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 como
when it will be used in all things, and
there will be Bible in every counting
room, and supplication will ascend
from every commercial establishments,
and when business 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 heavonward for
help, flashing earthward with Di.
vino response, God in busi-
ness life. God in agricultural
life. God in mechanical life. God
in artistic life. God in every kind of
life. Your religion for tho most part is
hung up so high you can not reach it,
1t is hung up on the cloudy rafters OF
tho sky, whore you expect to snach 1t
up as you finally go through for heav-
leny residence. Oh have your religion
within easy reach nowl Religion is not
for Heaven, but for this world. Once in
Heaven, we will need no prayer for we
shall have every thing we want We
will need no repentance, for we shall
forever got rid Of our sins. We shall
have no need Of comfort, for thore will
be no trouble, The Christian religion
Is not for Heaven whore every thing Is
all right, but for this world whore so
many things arc all wrong.