The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-09-12

4
a steamer that should go out Of New
York harbor. starting for Glasgow, and
the next day should change for Hayre
de Grace. and the next for Charleston.
and the next for Boston, and the next
for Liverpool. These men on the sea
of life are everlastingly lacking ship
and making no Roadway. Or they are
like man who starts to build house
in the Corinthian style and changes IL
to Doric, and then completes it in the
Ionic. and is cursed by all styles Of
architecture
Young man, start right and keep or.
Have decision of character. Character
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 Christians! 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"
0ycung 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 it 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 a 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 impertinent 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 bargain. to have religion take up
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
religion to 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-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 man
of dollar. Other things being equal,
a mason will build better wall, cab
inetmaker will make better chair, a
plumber will make better pipe, law
yer will make 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 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 a 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
a man may take rel gion 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
dangers Of disgrace did not make him
yield "ne iota of his high-toned relig-
ious principle. He stood before that
age; he stands before all ages, 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