Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-09-05

| find him three times day bowling before
| God In prayer. There are men I'm our day
| who have not hundrcdth part OF Daniels
| engagements, but say they are too busy to
be religious. They have an idea somehow
that religion will spoil their worldly occu-
patton. that it will trip the accountants pen,
or dull the carpenters saw, or confuse the
lawyers brief, OF disarrange the merchant
store-shelf
They think religion IS impertinent. They
would like to have IL very well seated beside
them in church on the sabbath, to find the
place in the psalm book, or TO nudge them
when they get sleepy under the didactic dis
course; or they would like to have 1t in the
pew on sabbath evening, as they go out
closing the door, saying, Goodnight re
ligion; I'll be back next Sunday" But to
have religion go right along by them all
through life, to have religion looking over
their shoulder when they are making "A bar
gain to have religion take up IL bag of dis
honest gold and shake It, and say: "Ha!
ha! where did you get thaty" They think
that Is an impertinent religion. They would
like to have religion 10 help them when
they are sick, and when the shadow OF death
comes over them they would like TO have
religion as a sort of night-liey with which to
open the door of heaven; but religion under
other circumstances they take TO be an i'm
pertinence. Now. my friends, religion never
robbed man of a dollar. Other things
being equal, a mason will build a better
wall, n cabinet-maker will make n better
chair, a plumber will make better pipe,
lawyer can make a better plea, a merchant
will sell better bill of goods.
l say other things being equal. or course
when religion gives man "A new heart IL
does not propose to give him IA new head, or
TO intellectualize him, or 20 change mans
condition when his ordinary state is an
overthrow OF the philosophical theory that
al 10 h,,t q
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 IA
christian.
II you have thousands irons In the FIRE.
you have a Thousand more opportunities of
serving God than il you had only one iron
In the fire. Who so busy as Christi And
yet who millionth part as holy? The
busiest men the best men. All the persons
converted in Scripture busy at the time OF
their being converted. Matthew attending
10 his custom house duties; the prodigal
son feeding swine; Lydia selling purple;
Simon Peter hauling in the net from the sea;
Saul squirting his horse toward Damascus,
gowing down on his law business, Busy.
busy! Daniel with all the affairs OF state
weighing down upon his soul, and yet three
times a day worshippng 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 n christian. He could not have kept
his elevated position unless he had been
n thorough politician; and yet all tho
thrusts Of officials and all the danger Of
disgrace did not make him yield one iota
of his heightened religious principle. He
stood before that age, he stands before all
ages, specimen Of n christian politician.
SO there have been In our day and In tho
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 Benja-
min +. Butler. attorney general OF New
York in the time of your fathers. Such
was John Mclean of Ohio. Such was
George Briggs of Massachusetts,. Such was
Theodore Frelinghuysen OF New Jersey.
Men faithful u the state, ut the same time
faithful to God.
1t is absurd to expect that men who
have been immersed IA political wickedness
for thirty or forty years shall come to re-
formation; and our hope is In the young
men who are coming up. that they have
patriotic principle and christian principle
side by side when ;mey some u the ballet
box and cast their first vote, and that they
swear allegiance 10 the government OF
heaven as well rs 10 the government OF the
United States. We would have Bunker
Hill mean less to them than Calvary, and
Lexington mean less TO them than Bethle-
hem.
But because there are bad men around
the ballot box is no reason why christian
men should retreat from the arena. The
last time you ought to give up your child
or forsake your child is when IL is sur
rounded by Il company Of Choctaws; and
the last time tn surrender the ballot box Is
when IL is surrounded by impurity and dis
honesty and all sorts of wlckedness.
Daniel stood on a most unpopular plat
form. He stood firmly, though the dema-
gogues OF the day Kissed ut him and tried
to overthrow him. We must carry our re-
ligion into cur politics. But there are a
great many men who are in favor of taking
religion into national politics who do not
see the importance OF taking IL into city
politics; as though q man were intelligent
about the welfare OF his neighborhood, and
had no concern about his own home.
Religion would drive out all base person.
alities from politics. You have right &c
discuss mems politics and denounce their
political sentiments, or receive them, as
you Will; but yOT have no right TO assail
their private character, as Is done every
autumn. That is not carrying religion into
politics. Now you can always tell without
asking, In any contest, what candidate l
will vote for. 1t is always for the man who
10 lhOSb bdhEtINd, anu mOSb ana
most spit upon, and most howled at. You
have right to contest mans political
sentiments: you have no right for base po-
litical purposes to assail his private moral
character
My subject also impresscs me with the
fact that lions cannot hurt n good man.
No man ever got into worse company than
Daniel got into when he was thrown into
the den. What rare morsel that fair
young man would have been for the hungry
monsters! II they had plunged at him he
could not have climbed into n niche beyond
the reach of their paw or the snatch Of their
TOOTH They came pleased all around
about him, as n hunters hounds at the we'll
known whistle come bounding 10 his feet.
You need not go to Numldia to get among
lions. You all have had them after you
the Ton Of financial distress. tho lion OF
sickness. the lion of persecution. You saw
that lion OF financial panic putting his
mouth down TO the earth, and he roared
until all the banks and all the insurance
companies quaNcd. With his nostril he
scattered the ashes on the domestic hearth.
You have had trial after trial, misfortune
after misfortune, lion after lion; and yet
they have never hurt you IL you put your
trus: In God and they never will burt
you. They did not hurt Daniel and they
cannot hurt you.
The Persians used 10 think that spring
rain falling into sea shells would turn into
pearls; and l have u tell you that the tears
of sorrow turn into precious gems when