Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1895-08-08

oSSAi 3 wing w Llle reluaTKaDle
women OF the Bible-remarkable for
ohelr virtue or their want of it, or re-
markable for their deeds-D Deborah and
Jezebel, and Herodias and Athaliah,
and Dorcas and the Marys, excellent or
aoandoned-it is high time some of the
attention we have been giving to the
conspicuous women of the Bible be
given to Julia of the text, an ordinary
woman amid ordinary circumstances,
attending to ordinary duties and meet
ing ordinary responsibilities.
Then there are all the ordinary bust
ness men. They need divine and Chris
tian help. When we begin to talk about
business life we shoot right off and talk
about men who did business on large
scale, and who sold millions of dollars
OF goods year; but the vast majority
OF business men do not sell million
dollars of goods, nor half million, nor
quarter of q million, nor tho eighth
part OF million. Put all the business
men of our cities, towns, villages and
neighborhoods side by side, and you
will find that they sell less than fifty
thousand dollars worth of goods. All
these men in ordinary business life
want divine help. You see how the
wrinkles are printing on the counte-
nance the story of worriment and care
You cannot tell how old a business man is
by looking at him. Gray hair at thirty.
A man at forty-five with the stoop Of
a nonogenarian. No time to attend to
improved dentistry, the grinders cease
because they are few. Actually dying
of old age at forty or fifty, when they
ought to be at the meridian. Many Of
these business men have bodies like
neglected clock to which you come,
and you wind it up, and it begins to
buzz and roar, and then the hands
start around very rapidly, and then the
clock strikes five. or ten, or forty, and
strikes without any sense, and then
suddenly stops. So is the body OF that
wornout business man. 1t is a neg
lected clock, and though by some sum-
mer recreation it may be wound up,
still the machinery is all out of gear.
The hands turn around with velocity
that excites the establishment OF the
world Men cannot understand the
wonderful activity, and there is a roar,
and buzz, and rattle about these
disordered lives, and they strike ten
when they ought to strike five, and
they strike twelve when they ought to
strike six, and they strike forty when
they ought to strike nothing, and sud
denly they stop Post-mortem examr
nation reveals the fact that all the
springs, and pivots, and weights, and
balance wheels of the health are COM
pletely deranged. The human cloch
has simply run down. And at the time
when the steady hand ought to DC
pointing to the Industrious hours on o
clear sunlit dial, the whole machinery
of body, mind and earthly capacity
stops forever. The cemeteries have
thousands of bust ness men who died Oh
old age at thirty, thirty-fve, forty
| forty-tve.
Now, what is wanted is grace-divins
grace for ordinary business men, men
who are harnessed from morn till night
and all the days of their life harnesseo
| in business. Not grace to lose hun
bred thousand, but grace to lose ten
dollars. Not grace to supervise TWO
hundred and fifty employees in a fac
tory. but grace to supervise the
bookkeeper, and two statesmen, and
the small boy that sweeps the store.
Grace to invest not eighty Thousand
dollars of net profit, but twenty-five
hundred of clear gain. Grace not TO en-.
| dure the loss of whole shipload OF
spices from the Indies, but grace to en-
dure the loss Of a paper Of collars from
the leakage of a displaced single on
a moor roof. Grace not to endure the
hardness of the American congress In
passing necessary law, but grace To
endure the hardness of an errand boy
stopping to play marbles when he ought
to deliver the goods. Such a grace ~
/ thousands Of business men have to-day
-lxeeping them tranquil whether goods
sell or do not sell, whether customers
nav or do not pay, whether tariH i
nm or tariff is down, whether the crops
are luxuriant or dead failure-caln
n all circumstances and amid al
vicissitudes. That is the KIND q
Grace we want. Millions OF men wan
t. and they may have it for the asking
some hero or heroine comes to town
and as the procession passes through
the street, the business men come gu
and stand on tiptoe on their stor'
steps and look at some one VINO ! !
Arctic cline, or in ocean Storm or y
day battle, or in hospital agonies, on
the brave thing, not realizing that tney
the enthusiastic spectators, have gon
through trials in business life that ar
lust as great before God. There are mel
Who have gone through freezing Arc
tics and burning torrids, and awiu
, Marenros Of experience without NOV
mo- Ave miles from their doorsteps.
Then there are all the ordinary iai
, mers. We talk about agricultural lll :,
and we Immediately shoot Oft to tai
ahout Cincinnatus, the patrican, VIII
] vent from the plow to a higher pos
!, ton. and after he got through the al'
tatorship in twenty -one days went .. oa :.
} again to the pillow. What encourage ng'
- e that to ordinary farmers? In