The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1894-06-13

pose he thought, II can't attend 10 re-
ligion while am SO pressed by affairs
of state" II was businss, among other
things, that ruined his soul, and sup
pose there are thousands of people who
are not children of God because they
have so much business. 1t is business
in the store-losses, gain, unfaithful
employees. 1t is business in your law
ice--subpenas, writs you have to
write out, papers you have to file, argu-
ments you have to make. 1t Is your
medical profession, with It's broken
nights, and the exhausted anxieties OF
life hanging upon your treatment 1t
is your real estate Office, your business
with landlords and tenants, and the
failure of men to meet their obligations
with you. Aye, with some Of those who
are here, it is the annoyance OF the
kitchen, and the sitting room and the
parlor the wearing economy OF trying
to meet large expenses with small in
come. Ten thousand voices Of "busi-
ness, business, business" drown the
voice of the Eternal Spirit, ST.
lencing the voice of the advanc-
ing Judgment day, overcoming the
voice Of eternity: and they can
not hear, they cannot listen. They
say, go thy way for this time" Some
of you look upo your goods, look up
on your profession, you look upon your
memorandum book and You see the de-
mands that are made this very week
upon your time and your patience and
your money; and while | am cntreating
you about your soul and the danger OF
procrastination, you say: go thy way
for this time; when have a convenient
season. will call for thee" O, Felix,
why be bothered about the affairs OF
this world so much more than about
the affairs of eternity? DO you not
know that when death comes you will
have to stop business, though 1t
be in the most exacting period OF
it--bctwecn the payment OF the
money and the taking of the receipt?
The moment he comes you will have to
90. Death waits for no man, however
high. however low. VIII you put your
Office. will you put your shop in COM
parison with the affairs OF an eternal
world? Affairs that involve thrones,
palaces, dominions eternal? VIII you
put two hundred acres Of ground against
immensity? win you put forty or fifty
years of your life against millions OF
ages? o, Felix, you might better post
pone everything else! for you do moi
know that the upholstering of Tyrian
purple in your palace will fade and the
marble blocks OF Cesarea will crumble,
and the brealSwater at the beach, made
Of great blocks of stone sixty feet long
must give way before the perpetual
wash of the sea; but the redemption
that Paul offers you will be forever
And yet, and yet, and yet you wave
him back to the guard room, saying
"Go thy way for this time; when | have
a convenient season | will call fol
thee"
Again, Felix adjourned this subjec
of religion and put off Paul's argu
ment, because he could not give up the
honors of the world. He was afrait
somehow he would compromise himself
in this matter. Remarks he made af
teruard showed him to be intensely am
bilious. o, how be Rugged the favol
of men!
never saw the honors OF this worlt
in their hollowness and hypocrisy 81
much as In the life and death of tina
wonderful man, Charles Sumner. Al
he went toward the place Of burial
even Independence hall, in Philadel
phia. asked that his remains stop ther,
on their way TO Boston. The flag
were at half mast, and the minute gum
on Boston Common throbbed after hi
heart had ceased to beat. Was it al
ways so? While he lived, how cen
sured Of legislative resolutions, how
caricatured Of the pictorials; how
charged with every motive mean anc
ridiculous; how all the urns Of seorr
and hatred and billingsgate emptiet
upon his head; how, when strucl
down in senate chamber, there wer,
hundreds Of thousands of people whit
said: Good for him, served hin
right How he had to put the oceaI
between him and his maligners, thai
he might have little peace, and how
when he went off sick, they sale
he was broken-hearted because h,
could not get to be president or sec
retAry of state. q commonwealth o
Massachusetts! Who is that man wh'
sleeps in your public hall, covered IL
garlands and wrapped in the stars anC
stripes? Is that the man who, only |
few months before, you denounced a
the foe OF republican and democratic
installations? Is that the same man
Ye American people, ye could not, BY
one week Of funeral eulogium anC
newspaper leaders, which the deaC
senator could neither read nor hear
atone for twenty-five years Of NAL
treatment and caricature. When
see a man like that, pursued by
all the hounds of the political
kennel SO long as he lives, and ther
buried under a great pile Of gar
lands, and amidst the lamentations oi
a whole nation, say TO myself: What
an unutterably hypocritical thing /,
all human applause and all human
favorl You took twenty-five years in
trying TO pull down his fame, and then
take twenty-five years in trying tC
build his monument. My friends, wa,
there ever better commentary on the
hollowness Of all earthly favor? II
there are young men who read this
who are postponing religion in order
that they may have the favors Of this
world, let me persuade them Of their
complete folly. II you are looking for
ward TO gubernatorial, senatorial, OF
presidential chair, let me show YOU