The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1890-09-05

loses all its beauty in flight How much
decision OF character in order that these
young men may be Christiansi Their
old associates make sarcastic filings at
them They go on excursions and they
do not invite them They prophecy
that he will give out They wonder if
he is not getting wings. AS he passes
they grimace, and wink, and chuckle,
and say: There goes a saint"
OyOung mani 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, who are
affronted because you will not go to
ruin with them? When the grave
cracks open under their feet and grim
messengers push them into 1T, and
eternity comes down hard upon their
spirit, and conscience stings, 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 to occupy six men. All the affairs of
state were in his hands-questions of
finance, questions of war, of peace, all
international questions were for his
settlement or adjustment He must
have had correspondence vast beyond
all computation. There was not a man
in all the earth who had more to do
than Daniel, the Secretary of State, and
yet we find him three times day bow
ing before God in prayer. There are
men in our day who have not hun
dredth part of Daniels engagements,
who say they are too busy to be relig-
ious They have 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 go right along by them all
through life. to have religion looking
over their shoulder when they are max
ing a bargain. to have religion take up
bag of dishonest gold and shake it.
and say: Hal hal where did you get
thatP" They think that is an imperti-
nent religion. They would like to have
a religion to help them when they are
sick, and when the shadow of death
comes over them they would like to
have a religion as a sort of night-key
with which to open the door of Heaven,
but religion under other circumstances
L he. falr 4, T.
my friends. religion never robbed man
of a dollar. Other things being equal,
a mason will build better wall, cab
inetmaker will make a better chair, a
plumber will make a better pipe, a law
yer will make a better plea, merchant
will sell better bill of goods.
! say other things being equal. OF
course when religion gives a man a new
heart it does not propose to give him a
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 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
settle, the more opportunity you have
of being Christian
If you have 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 n 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 feeding swine; Lydia selling
purple; 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: learn from this subject that
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 politicians; and
yet all the thrusts of officials and all the
dangers of disgrace did not make him
yield one iota of his high-toned relig-
ious principle. He stood before that
age; he stands before all ages, q speci-
men of 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 f. 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 to the state, at the same time
faithful to God
1t is absurd to expect that men who
have been immersed in political wick
edness for thirty or forty years shall
come to reformation; and our hope is in
the young men who are coming up that
they have patriotic principle and Chris
tian principle side by side when they
come to the ballot box and cast their
first vote, and that they swear allegi-
ance to the government of Heaven as
well as to the government of the United
States We would have Bunker Hill
mean less to them than Calvary. and
Lexington mean less to them than Beth
lehem.
But because there are bad men around
the ballot box is no reason why Chris
tian men should retreat from the arena
The last time you ought to give up your
child or forsake your child is when it is
surrounded by company of Choctaws;
and the last time to surrender the bal
lot box is when it is surrounded by i'm
purity and dishonesty and all sorts OF
wickedness-
Daniel stood on 4 most unpopular
platform He stood firmly, though the