Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-04-24

tBe eEcitementof business? Will focks
| and herds with their bleats and means
be able to sileiice al Unsuitable spirit Of
ac1Hisitiveness which for years has had
/ full swing in the soul? Will the him
of the Breeze sooehe the man who now
can And his only enjoyment in the stock
market? Will leaf and cloud and fount-
ain charm the eye that FOR three-fourths
Of lifetime found its chief duty in
hogsheads and bills of sale? Will par
ents be competent to rear their children
for high and holy purpose If their in
fancy and boyhood and girlhood were
neglected when they were almost ready
to enter upon the world and have all
their habits fixed and their principles
stereotyped? No, no; now is the time
to be happy. Now is the time to serve
your Creator. Now is the time to be q
Christian. Are you too busy? have
known men as busy as you are who had
place in the store loft where they went
to pray.
Again, business men are often tempted
to let their calling interfere with the
interests Of the soul God sends men
into the business world to get educated,
just as boys are sent to school or col
lege. Purchase and sale, loss and gain,
disappointment and rasping, prosperity,
the dishonesty of others, panic and
bank suspension, are but different les
sons in the school The more business,
the more means Of grace. Many have
gone through the widest panic unhurt
The store and the counting house have
developed some of the most stalwart
characters. Perhaps originally they
had but little sprightliness and force,
but two or three business thumps woke
them up from their lethargy and there
came thorough development in their
hearts of all that was good and holy and
energetic and tremendous, and they
have become the front men in Christ's
great army, as we'll as lighthouses in the
great world of traffic. But business has
been perpetual depletion tomany a man.
1t first pulled out of him all benevo-
lence, next all amiab:lity, next all re-
ligious aspiration, next all conscience,
and, though he entered his vocation
with large heart and noble character,
he goes out of it a skeleton, enough to
scare ghost.
Men appreciate the importance Of
having good business stand, a store on
the right side of the street, or the right
block. Now every place of business is
a good stand for spiritual culture. Gods
angels hover over the world of traffic to
sustain and build up those who are try
ing to do their duty. Tomorrow, if in
your place of worldly engagement you
will listen for it. you may hear a sound
louder than the rattle of drays and the
shuttle of feet and the chink Of dollars
stealing into your soul, saying: Seek
We first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all other things shall
be added unto you"
Perhaps some of you saw the fire in
New York in 1885. Aged men tell us
that it beggared all description. Some
stood on the house tops of Brooklyn and
looked at the red ruin that swept down
the streets and threatened to obliterate
the metropolis. But the commercial
world will yet be startled by a greater
conflagration, even the last. Bills of
exchange, policies of insurance, mort
cages and bonds and government Sc
curities will be consumed in one lick
of the flames. The bourse and the
United States mint will turn to
ashes. Gold will run molten into the
dust of the street Exchanges and
granite blocks of merchandise will fall
with crash that will make the earth
tremble The flashing up of the great
light will show the righteous the way to
their thrones-their best treasures in
Heaven. They will go up and take pos
session of them. The tolls of business
life, which racked their brain and
rasped their nerves for so many years,
will have forever ceased. There the
wicked cease from troubling and the
weary are at rest"