The Red Cloud chief., 1890-09-12

Young maa. start right and keen O.
- decistoA Of character. Character
- like the goldflnch Of Touquin; It d
magnificent while standing firm, but
loses all its beauty in flight How much
decision OF character In order that these
young men may b Christians! Their
\ associates make sarcastic filings .,
them. They 60 on excursions and they
90 not invite them. They prophecy
that he will give out They wonder Il
ne 10 not getting wings As he passes
they grimace, and wink. and chuckle,
and say: There goes /. saint"
young man! have decision Of char.
scteE. You can afford in this matter OF
religion to be laughed At What do you
care for the SCOTS Of these men, who are
anronted because you will not 20 ia
ruin with them? When the grave
cracks open under their feet and grim
messengers push them into it and
eternity comes down hard upon their
spirit and conscience stingx and hope
less ruin lifts them up to hurl them
down. will they laugh then?
LEARN also from my subject that men
may take religion into their worldly
business Daniel had enough work to
| do tn O,cunv siv man Al, a. .0--
state were in his hands-4uestions OF
finance. questions Of war. of peace, all
international questions were for his
settlement or adjustment He must
have had q correspondence vast beyond
all computation. There was not q man
in all the earth who had moro to do
thar Daniel, the Secretary of State. and
yet we find him three times q day bow
ing 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 relig-
ions They nave an idea somehow that
religion will spoil their worldly occupa-
ton. that it will trip the accountants
pen or dull the carpenters saw, or con-
fuse the lawyers brief, or disarrange
the merchants store shelf They think
religion Is impairment They would
like to have it very we'll seated beside
them in church on the Sabbath. to find
the place in the psalm book, or to
nudge them awake when they get sleepy
under the didactic discourse; 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 Sunday" But to have
religion 60 right along by them all
through life. to lave religion looking
over their shoulder when they are max
ing a bargain, to have religion take up
a bag of dishonest gold and shake it,
and say: "Ha! ha! where did you get
that?" They think that is an imperti-
nent religion. They would like to have
q religion to help them when they are
sick. and when the shadow of death
comes over them they would like to
have q religion as q sort of night-key
with which to open the door of Heaven, |
but religion under other circumstances
they take to be an impcrtincnce. Now,
my friends. religion never robbed a man
OF q dollar. Other things being equal. |
a mason will build a better wall, a cab
inetmaker will make a better chair, q
plumber will mako a better pipe, a law
yer will make a better plea, a merchant |
will sell a better bill of goods
say other things being equal. OF
course when religion gives q man a new
heart. 1t doe not propose to give him q
new head, or to intellectualize him or to
change a mans condition when his or
binary state is an overthrow of the
philosophical theory that a total vacuum
is impOssible; out the more 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
the more opportunity you have
of being a Christian.
If you have q thousand irons in the
fire, you have a thousand more oppor-
tunities OF serving God than if you had
only one iron in the fire. Who SO busy
as Christ? And yet who . millionth
part as holy? The busiest men the best
men. All the persons converted in
Scripture were busy at the time of their
being converted. Matthew attending
To the custom house duties; the Prod
igal Son feed ng swine; Lydia selling
Simon Peter hauling in the net
tho sea; Saul squirting his horse
toward Damascus going down on his
law business. Busy! busy! Daniel with
all the affairs Of state VIC Ching down
upon his soul, and yet three times q day
worshipping the God Of Heaven.
Again: learn from this subject that
a man may take rel gion into his poll
tics. Daniel had all the affairs of state
on hand. yet a Christian. lie could not
have kept his elevated position unless
he had been . thorough politicians; and
yet all the thrusts Of officials and all the
of disgrace did not make him
Yield n iOta of his high-tOned rclig- (,
ious principle. lie stood before that
he stands before all ages, a speci- :
men of a Christian politician. =
So there havc been in our day. and in .
he days Of our fathers, men as eminent +,
n the service Of God as they have been 4
in the service of the state. =
such was BENJAMIN +. Butler, Attorney. ,
;eneral of New York. in the time Of =
our fathers Such a John Mclean. /,
II Ohio. Such was George Briggs. OF r
Such was Theodore 4
'relinghuysen. Of New Jersey. Men
to the state, at the same time Z
to God.
1t is absurd to expect that men who
lavc been immersed in political wick j.,
dness for thirty or forty years shall !.
ONE to r~cformation; and our hope is in :
he young men who are coming up that !"
hey have patriotic principle and Chris !.
an principle side by side when they !.
ONE to the ballot box and cast their =
vote. and hat they swear allegi. =
nee to the government OF Heaven as !.
ell as to he government Of the United :
tates. We would have Bunker Hill !"
q less to them han Calvary. and =,
'exingtOn mean less to them than Beth =
chem. !"
but because there ara had mon o~curI