The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1890-09-11

They are like a steamer that should 60
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 for Liverpool. These men
on the sea Of life, everlastingly lacking
ship and making no Roadway. Or they
are like a man who starts to build a
house in the Corinthian style, and
changes it TO Doric, and then completes
it in the Ionic, and is cursed by all
styles OF architecture.
| Young mani start right, and keep on.
Have decision of character. Chara cter
is like the goldfinch 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 Christiansl Their
old associates mako sarcastic filings at
them. They go on excursions and they
do not invite them. They prophesy
that he will give out They wonder II
he is getting wings. AS he passes they
grimace, and wink, and chuckle, and
say: There goes a saint"
o 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 VIII o
are affronted because you will not 60 to
ruin with them? When the grave
cracks open under their feet, and grim
messengers put them into it, and eter.
nifty comes down hard upon their spirit,
and conscience stings, and hopeless
ruin lifts them up to hurl them down,
will they laugh then?
l 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
| Element or adjustment. He must have
had correspondence vast beyond all
computation. 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 a hun
dredth part of Daniels engagements,
who say they are too busy to be re-
ligious. They have an idea somehow
that religion will spoil their worldly
occupation, that it will trip the ac-
countants pen, or dull the carpenters
saw, or confuse the lawyers brief, or
disarrange the merchants store-shelf.
They think religion is impertinent
They would like to have it very we'll
seated beside them in church on the
| Ga bhatb tn Fl nd tho placa in I'm,
book, or to nudge them awake when
they get sleepy under the didactic dis
courses; or they would like to leave it
in the pew on Sabbath evening as they
go out closing the door saying: Good
night, religion; I'll be back next Sun
day" But to have religion go right
| by them all through life, to have re-
| ligion looking over their shoulder when
they are making a bargain, TO have
| religion take up bag of dishonest
gold and shake it, and say: ''Ila! ha!
whore did you get that?" They
| think that is an impertinent religion.
They would like to have religion to
help them when they are sick, and
when the shadow of death comes over
them they would like to have religion
as sort of night-key with which to
open the door of Heaven; but religion
under other circumstances they take to
be an impertinence. Now, my friends,
religion never robbed a man of dollar.
Other things being equal, a mason will
| build better wall, a cabinet-maker
will make a better chair, plumber
will make better pipe, a lawyer will
make better plea, merchant will sell
a better bill of goods.
say other things being equal. or
course when religion gives man new
heart, it does not propose to give him
| head, or to intellectualize him, or to
change a mans condition when his Or
binary state is an overthrow of the
philanthropical theory that a total
vacuum IS impossible; but the more let
tiers 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 moro opportunity
you have of being a Christian.
If you have a thousand irons in the
fire, you have thousand moro oppor-
| LunlJloS OF serving uOu imam II you DdQ
only one iron in 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 busy at the time of their be-
ing converted. Matthew attending to
his custom-house duties; the prodigaI
son feeding swine; Lydia selling pur-
pie; Simon Peter hauling in the net
from the sea; Saul squirting his horse
toward Damascus, going down on his
law business. Busy! busy! Daniel with
all the affairs of State weighing down
upon his soul, and yet three times day
worshipping the God of Heaven.
Again, l learn from this subject that
a man may take religion into his poll
tics. Daniel had all the affairs of State
on hand, yet Christian. He could not
have kept his elevated position unless
he had been thorough Politician; and
yet all the thrusts of officials and all
the danger of disgrace did not make
| him yield one iota of his hightened
religious principle. 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
the days of our fathers men as eminent
in the service of God as they have been
eminent in the service Of the State.
Such was Benjamin L. Butler, Attor-