St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-29
CHRISTIANITY AND SUCCESS,

DR.. S. G. SMITH, who is one of the
alertest and brainiest of our alert and
brainy clergymen, wrote recently to
fifty leading business men of st. Paul.
asking whether young man can be a
Christian and succeed in business, and
if so, how he must 90 about it. Last
night he preached sermon based on
their replies. 1t depends really on
what the reverend inquirer means by
being Christian. If he means being
like Christ, a young man can have no
which he ventures. Christ, according
to His biographers, was earnest, faith
full, tolerant, fearless, persistent. He
thought more of effort than He did
of anything else. He kept constantly
saying that it was mans duty to try,
and He argued that by trying one would
develop himself so as to become capable
of achievement after while. Christ
was eminently human, as well as di-
vine. He mingled with His fellows;
lie went to innocent social enter
tertainments; He visited His friends;
He knew what was going on about Him,
He kept Himself in touch with the
world in which He lived. This made
him broad-minded, sympathetic, attract
i've to the men and women who met
him. And yet all the time He was in
tent upon his great work. and kept at it
bravely, fiinching little when appar-
ent defeat stared Him in the face; but
with high courage enduring the awful
end to which His career led under God S
mystic providence. Any young man
who is Christian in the sense of striv-
ing to be like this sort of a Christ is
sure of victory in what he under
takes, because, even if he fails to win
great wealth and prominence, his soul
will have grown to perfect maturity,
and he will have the proud conscious
ness of approaching his ideal. Than
this there is no more satisfactory sue
cess.
But if being Christian means be-
lieving this doctrine about the nature
of the Godhead. or that doctrine about
the destiny of the human spirit, then
there is no connection between sue
cess and being Christian. Sub
scription to theological creed will
not help young man in the dis
charge of his business duties, any
more than his opinion on the tariff or
the currency problems. To be sound
on such matters is all evidence of seri-
BUSINESS, and seriousness counts. But
people who are Christians in this sense
do make money, and so do people who
are not Christians in this sense. JAY
GOULD has recently declared that he is
a Presbyterian, and has backed his faith
by check for $4,000. He probably has
never had any doubts on doctfinal
questions. But he has been a brig
and, an enemy of the truth, a
destroyer of property, cunning con-
spirator against the peace of society and
the progress of this country all his life.
He would probably be voted a success
in his line, but not a bit greater one
than ROBERT g. INGERsoIL is in his.
And yet INGERsOLL has gloried in his
unbelief. and does not admit the exist
ence OF heaven, hell, miracles or any of
the other things of which JAY GOULD
makes so much. Thus it also is with
humber examples. Employers do not
subject their clerks to an examination
in the catechism when they hire them,
but they do want to know about their
characters. 1t helps one to be Chris
tan in the sense of being like Christ.
But in the other sense. it is not of great
value in this world, however much it
may count in the next.