The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-01-06
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Snbject: "Religion and Business

Subject: .Religion and Business.r
TEXT: "Tn oil thu caus acknowledge
Him and he shall direct thy path."-
Proverbs ILL.,, o.
"a promise good enough for many kinds
of life. but not for my kind Of life" says
some business man; "the law Of supply and
, demand controls the business world" But
] have reason to say that it is a promise to
all persons in IN kind Of honest business.
There is no war between religion and bust
ness, between ledgers and Bibles, between
churches and counting houses. On the con-
itrary religion accelerates business. sharpens
mems wits, sweetens acerbity uf disposition,
6nips the blood Of phlegmaticg and throws
more velocity into the wheels OF hard work.
It gives better balancing to tie Judgment,
more strength to thu will, more muscle to
industry and throws into enthusiasm a mora
consecrated fire. You cannot in all the round
of the world show me a 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 exchange 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 battlefield because the strap fasten-
ing the stirrup to the saddle broke as he
clung to it, his comrades all escaping, but he
falling 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 Govern
ment for accepting the sacrifice, and others
blamed the Zulusfor their barbarism. The
one most to blame was the harness maker
who fashioned hat strap Of the stirrup out
of shoddy and imperfect material, as it was
found to have been afterward. If the strap
had held, the prince imperial would probably
have beer alive to-day. But the strap broke.
No prince independent Of a harness maker.
High, low, wise, ignorant, you in n
occupation, I in another, all bound together.
So that there must be one continuous line of
sympathy with each others work. But
whatever your vocation, If you have a
multiplicity Of engagements, if INTO your
life there come losses and annoyances and
pereurbations as well as percentages and.
dividends, if you are pursued from Monday
morning until Saturday night, and from
January to January by inexorable obliga-
'llOu ohu oQIJ, ClCh w o1 uoaAS h1oo
or you are a business woman, and my SUBJ
Ject is appropriate to your case.
We are under the impression that the MOL
and tug OF business life are q prison into
which a man is thrust, or that it is an un-
equal strife where unarmed a man goes forth
to contend. I shall show you that business
life was intended Of God for grand and glori-
GUS education and discipline, ard If shall be
helped to say what l want to say, l shall rub
some Of the wrinkles of care out Of your
brow and unstrap some of the burdens from
your back. am not talking to an abstrac-
tion. Though never AVE been in business
life, I know all about business men.
In my first parish at Bellevile, New Jer-
sey, ten milss from New York, a largepor-
ton of my audience was made up OF New
York merchants. Then I went to Syracuse,
then I went to Philadelphia and lived long
among the merchants 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 Sabbath,
preaching to audiences, the majority OF
whom are business men and business women.
It is not an abstraction to which I speak, but
reality with which I am well acquainted.
In the first place, ! remark that business
life was intended as a school Of energy.
God gives us a certain amount Of raw ma
terial out of which we arc to hew our char
acter. Our faculties area be reset, rounded
and sharpened up. Our young folks having
graduated from school or college, need q
higher education, that which the rasping
and collision Of everyday life alone can eff
feet. Energy is wrought out only in O fire.
After a man has been in business activity
ten, twenty, thirty years, his energy is not
to be measured by weights or plummets or
ladders. There is no height it cannot sale,
and there is no depth it cannot fathom, and
there is no obstacle it cannot thrash.
Now, my brother, why did God put you in
that school OF energy? Was it merely that
you might be a yardsticS to measure cloth
that you might be better qualified to chatter
and niggle? No. God placed you in that
school of energy that you might be- devel.
oped tor Christian work. II the undev eloped
talents IN the Christian churches Of to-day
were brought out and thoroughly harnessed,
I believe tine whole world would be converted
to God in a short time. There are 80 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 demands the richest sheaf Of every
harvest. He demands the best man Of every
generation. A cause il which Newton and
Locke and Mansfield toiled you and I can
afford to toll in.
Oh, for fewer idlers in the cause Of Christ
u tor more Christian workers-men who
shall take the same energy that from Mon
day morning to Saturday night they put
forth for the achievement of a livelihood or
the gathering of a fortune, and on Sabbath
days put it forth to the advantage Of Christ's
kingdom and the bringing OF men to the
Lori. DR.. Duff, in South Wales, saw a man
who had inherited a great fortune. Tn man
said to him: II had to be very busy for
many years o my life getting my livelihood.
After awhile my fortune came to me, and
there has been no pecessity that I toll since.
There anne a time when l said to myself.
Shall l now retire from business, or shall I
60 on and serve the Lord in my worldly occu-
pation2n He said: II resolved Of the latter,
and 1 ave been more industrious in com.
mercial circles than l ever was before, and
since that hour l have never kept q farthing
for myself. Ihave thcasit it to be a great
shame il I couldn't tolls as hard for the Lord
as I had toiled for myself, and all the pro-
ducts of my factories and my commercial
establishments to the last farthing have gone
for the building OF Christian institutions and
supporting the church of God" Oh, if the
same energy put forth for the world could
be put forth for God! Oh, if a thousand
men in these great cities who have achieved
a fortune could see 1t their duty to do all
business for Christ and the alienation Of the
worlds suffering.
Again, l remark, that business life is a
school OF patience. In your everyday life
how many things to annoy and to disquiet!
Bargains will rub. Commercial men will
sometimes fail to meet their engagements.
Cash book and money drawer will sometimes
quarrel. Goods ordered for a special eme :
gency will come too late or be damaged in
the transportation. People intending no
harm will go shopping without any intention
of purchase, oyerturning great stocks Of