Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-09-14
= hundred thousand hard dollars. And

n hundred thousand hard dollars. And
vet there are men who profess the re-
licion of Jesus Christ who do not bring
the religion Of the gospel into their or
binary occupations and cmployments.
There are I'm the churches of this day
men who seem very devout on the
Sabbath who are far from that during
the week. A country merchant arrives
in this city, and he goes into tue STORE
to buy goods of a man VINO processes
religion, but has no grace III Ills hear''
The country merchant is sWlnuied. TIE
is too exhausted to go home tnat Weeh'
he tarries in town. On Sabbath he goes
to some church for consolation u
what is his amaZement TO find that tne
man who carries around the poor Don
is the very II who swindted MN. but
never mind-the deacon a his olack
coat on now, and looks solemn, ana
goes home talking about that blessed
sermon. Christians on Sunday. World
lings during the week.
That man does not realize that Coo
knows every dishonest dollar he has
in his pocket, that God is looking right
through the iron wall of his money safe,
and that the day Of Judgment is coming,
and that "as the partridge stitch ON
eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that
getteth riches. and not by right, shall
leave them in the midst of his days,
and 1T his end shall be a fool" BET
| how many there are who do not bring
the religion of Christ into their every
day occupation. They think religion IS
for Sundays.
This brings me TO another point. We
ought to bring the religion OF Jesus
Christ into all our trials. II we have a
bereavement, if we lose I'll fortune,
If some great trouble blast like the
tempest, Their we go to God for COM
fort; but Yesterday in the little annoy
anceS Of your store, or office, or shop,
or factory, or banking house, did you
20 to God for comfort? You did not.
My friends, you need to take the re-
ligion of the Lord Jesus Christ into the
most ordinary trials of your life. You
have your misfortunes, you have your
anxieties, you have your vcNations.
oh" you say, they don't shape my
character. Since l lost my child, since
L have lost my property, / have been a
very different man from what l was"
My brother, it is the little ~aDnoyances
IL Nout llIS Iiib 4 SOuAih- s'nh ''
position, clipping your moral character,
and making you less and less Of a man.
You 60 into an artists studio. You
see him making a piece of sculpture.
You say: why don't you strike hard
err" With his mallet and his chisel
he goes click, click, click! AMI you
can hardly see from stroke to stroke
that there Is any impression made upon
the stone, and yet the work is going on.
You say, why don't you strike hard
cry oh" he replies, that would
shatter the statue; / must make it in
this way stroke by stroke" And he
continues on Ivy week and month until
after awhile every IMAM that enters
the studio is fascinated. Well, / find
God dealing with onIe nan He is
shaping him for time, and shaping him
for eternity. l say, 20, Lord why not
with one tremendous blow of calamity
shape that man for the mex world?"
God says, That's not the way l deal
with this man; it is stroke after stroke,
annoyance after annoyance, irritation
after irritation; and after awhile he
will be done, and a glad spectacle for
angels and men"
Not by one great stroke. but by
ten thousand little strokes of misfor-
time are men fitted for heaven. You
know that large fortunes can soon be
scattered by being paid Out in small
sums of money, and the largest estate
of Christian character is sometimes en-
tirely lost by these small depletions.
We must bring the religion of Jesus
Christ to help us in these little annoy
ances. Do not say that anything is
too Insignificant to affect your character.
Rats may sink a ship. One lucifer
match may destroy a temple. A queen
got her death by smelling a poisoned
rose. The scratch Of a sixpenny nail
may give you the lOckjaw. Columbus
by asking for a piece Of bread and a
drink OF water at n Franciscan convent
came to the discovery of a new world.
And there is a great connection be-
tween trifles and ~immensities, between
nothings and eyerythings. Do you not
suppose that God cares for your insig-
niticant sorrows? Why, my friends,
there is nothing insignificant in your
life. How dare you take the response
bility Of saying that there is? Do you
not know that the whole universe is
not ashamed to take care of one violet?
L say: What are you doing down
there in the grass, poor little violet?
Nobody knows you are here. Are you
not afraid nights. You will die with
thirst; nobody ca"es for you; you will
suffer, you will perish" NO." says a
star, I'll watch over it tonight No"
says the cloud, IN give it drink"
No" says the sun, IN warm it in my
BOSOM" And her the wind rises.
and comes bending down the grain.
and sounding its psalm through the for
est, and | say: Whittier away, o
wind. on such swift wing" and it an
swers, II Am going to cool The cheek
of that violet" And then / see pulleys
ut work in the sky, and the clouds are
drawing water, and / say, What are
you doing there, . clouds" They say.
I'VE are drawing water for that yio-
let" And then i look down into the
grass, and / say, Can it be that God
80 n