The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1891-12-23
THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
y Practical Sermon by Rev =
Dewitt Talmage.
tsisls and Tribulatlons OF Business LIFE
osd Intended II for Grand and Giori-
ous Education and DiscipiIne--A
, School for Integrity and Pa
tience.

In his recent sermon at the Brooklyn
tabernacle DR.. Talmage preached from
hAe tart Proverbs Ill, 20: ''In all thy
rays acknowledge Him and He shall
lirect thy pathA" The eloquent divine
Dpolo a. follows: @FFBH
"A promise Is good enough for many
kinds Of life, but not for my kind OF
Life, says some business man; 'the law
bf supply and demand controls the bust.
meas world" But have reason TO say
thst It is q promise TO all persons in any
kind Of honest business.
There is no war between religion and
business, between ledgers and Bibles,
between churches and counting houses.
On the contrary, religion accelerates
business, sharpens mems wits, sweet
ems acerbiiy Of disposition, fiillips the
blood of phlegmatics, and throws more
velocity into the wheels of hard work.
It gives better balancing to the judg'
ment, more strength to the will, more
muscle TO industry, and throws into en-
thusiasm more consecrated fire. You
can not in all the round Of the world
show me man whose honest business
has been despoiled by religion.
The industrial classes are divided into
three groups: producers, manufacturers,
traders Producers, such as farmers
and miners. Manufacturers, such as
those who turn corn into food, and wool
and fax into apparel Traders, such as
make profit out of the transfer and ex.
change Of all that which is produced
and manufactured A business man
may belong to any one or all Of these
classes, and not one is independent OF
any other When the prince imperial
Of France fell on the Zulu battle field
because the strap fastening the stirrup
TO the saddle broke as he clung TO 1t,
his comrades all escaping, but he fall.
ing under the lances of the savages, a
great many people blamed the empress
for allowing her son to go forth into
that battle field, and others blamed the
English government for accepting the
sacrifice, and others blamed the Zulus
for their barbarism. The one most TO
blame was the harnessmaleer who fash
ioned that strap Of the stirrup out OF
shoddy and imperfect material as It was
found to have been afterward. II the
strap had held, the prince imperial
would probably have been alive to-day.
But the strap broke, No prince indie
pendent OF harnessmakerl High, low,
wise, ignorant, you in one occupation,
in another, all bound together SO that
there must be one continuous line OF
sympathy with each others work. But
whatever your vocation, II you have q
multiplicity Of engagements, II into
your life there comes losses and annoy
ances and perturbations as we'll as per
centages and dividends, II you are pur
sued from Monday morning until Sat
urday night and from January to Jan
nary by inexorable obligation and duty.
then you are business man, or you are
a business woman, and my subject is
appropriate TO your case.
We are under the impression that the
turmoil and tug of business life arc q
prison into which man Is thrust, OF
that II is an unequal strife where un-
armed a man goes forth 10 contend !
shall show you that business life was
intsnded Of God for grand and glorious
education and discipline, and II | shall
be helped to say what want TO say, ]
shall rub some Of the wrinkles Of care
ont Of your brow, and unstrap some oi
the burdens from your back ! am no,
talking TO an abstraction. Though
never having been In business life, ]
know all about business men. In my
hrst parish at Belleville, New Jersey,
ten miles from New York, large por.
ton OF my audience was made up OF
New York merchants. Then went tC
Syracuse, place of intense commercial
activity, and then ] went TO Philadel
phia, and lived long among the mer
chants Of that city, than whom there
are no better men on earth, and for
more than twenty-five years I have
stood In this presence, Sabbath by Sab.
bath, preaching TO audiences, the ma
jority Of whom are business men and
business women II In not an abstraction
TO which / speak, but reality with
which am well acquainted
In the first place, remark that busi
ness life was intended as a school ol
energy. God gives us certain amount
Of raw material out Of which we are "a
hew our characteE Our faculties are
10 be reset, rounded and sharpened up
Our young follsa, having graduated
from school or college, need n higher
education, that vthich the rasping and
collision Of everyday life alone car
effect Energy b wrought out ouly In
FIRE After man has been in bust
ness activity ten, twenty, thirty years
his energy is not to be measured by
weights or plummets or ladders There
Is no height II can not scale, and there
is no depth II can not fathom, and there
Is no obstacle Il can not thrash.
Now. my brother. why did God put
you in that school Of energy? Was 1,
merely that you might be yardsticl,
TO measure cloth, or a steelyard "a
weigh four7 Was II merely that YOU
might be better qualified to chatter and
higgle? No. God placed you in that
school Of energy that you might be de,
veloped for Christian work II the un-
developed talents IN the Christian
churches Of to-day were brought out
and thoroughly harnessed, believe
the whole world would be converted 10
God in short time. There are so many
deep streams that are turning no mill
wheels and that are harnessed to no
factory bands Now, God demands the
best lamb out Of every flock. He de-