The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-09-24

7 ptnAh ttiot VOu uaB unQ6rtakbn 10 reBu-
\ late this world by Gospel influences,
and Il he has the power He will do
! what He sAyE He will, andSio ono who
amounts TO any thing viii deny His
power God has said hundred times
Fl win. sbutlnever once has said II can
notp We may with our tack-hammers
! pound away, trying to mend and Inn
prove and straighten the financial con-
dillon Of the world, 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 fat
ten and disappear when God with ham,
mer made Of thunderbolts strikes 1t,
saying, "the crooked shall be made
straight"
In your business concerns there are
influences perplexing. Your affairs may
seem all right to outsiders, for business
firms do not advertise their private
troubles, but where one firm has every
thing just as they want 1t, there are q
hundred firm 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 dis
appearance Of funds which you can not
account for, although you have suspic-
ions you can not mention, or with that
investment which was made contrary to
your Judgment because there was de-
termination to push 1t through, or be-
cause you are going behind month by
month without any prospect Of extrica-
tion. The trouble is putting wrinkle
on your forehead that ought not to ap-
pear there for ten years yet, and you
will be forty years old when you
ought to be only thirty, or sixty
when you ought to be fifty or
seventy when you ought to be only
sixty. Stop worrying. Either by the
dissolution Of that Arm, or by re-adjust-
ing matters you will be brought safely
through II you put your trust in God.
When commercial houses fail the sus-
pension Is advertised, but Of the tens Of
thousands OF men who are every day ex-
tricated no public mention is made.
Yesterday was Saturday, and warrant
that at the windows OF banks, and in
counting-rooms Of stores, and on every
street OF every city, God appeared for
the deliverance Of good men as certainly
as whom 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 a
rug before winters fire. Throw your
self on the promise of the text or q
hundred other texts meaning about the
same thing.
never yet asked God to do anything
but He did 1t, II 1t were best, and in all
the cases where my prayer has not been
answered, I have found out afterwards
that 1t was best not to have been an.
swered In my way. But none Of US have
tested the full power of prayer. 1t is a
force very like some Of the forces OF ma,
ture, that were in existence but not em,
ployed. For ages electricity was thought
good for nothing but to burn barns and
kill people with fell stroke. The light
ming rod on the top of houses was the
spear with which the world charged on
the thunder storm, as much as TO say,
'If you dare 10 come this way
will hurl you into the ground"
But now electricity lightens homes,
and churches, and cities, and Christen
dom, and moves rail cars, and he is
rash man who mentions any thing as
impossible to this natural energy. So
the power Of prayer was TO the world
rather frightful power, II 1t was any
power at all But this has been
changed, and men begin to use It in
some things, and the time will come
when 1t will be used in all things and
there will be Bible in every counting.
room and supplication will ascend from
every commercial establishment, and
when business firms are formed the
question will not only be asked as tc
how much this one and that one put In
capital, but the question will be asked,
DO you know how to pray?" Mightiei
agent that any natural force yet do.
veloped will be this gospel electricity,
flashing heavenward for help, flashing
earthward with divine response. God
In business life, God in agricultural
life, God in mechanical life, God in ar.
tistic life, God in every kind OF life.
Your religion for the most part is hung
up so high you can not reach It. 1t Is
hung up on the cloudy rafters Of tho
sky, where you expect 10 snatch II up a.
you finally 20 through for your heavenly
residence. o, have your religion within
easy reach now. Religion Is not for
Heaven, but for this world. Once In
Heaven, we will need no prayer for wa
shall have every thing we want We
will need no repentance for we shall
have forever got rid Of our sins. We
shall have no need OF comfort for there
will be no trouble. The Christian re.
iigion is not for Heaven where every
thing Is all right but for this world
where SO many things are all wrong.
Washington Allston, whose name you
recognize as that Of Q great American
painter, was reduced TO extreme pow
erty, and one day got on his knees and
asked for loaf OF bread for himself and
his starving family. While he was
bowed in that prayer there was knock
at the door, and man came in and said:
"How about your painting, the Angel
Uriel, that received the prize at the
Royal Academy Has It been soldp"
"No." said Allston. i"How much do you
want for it2' Allston replied: II am
done fixing price for I can not get II. )"
''Will e4oo be enough9'' asked the
stranger "Why. that "a more than |