Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-07-26

attention we have been giving to these
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.
Premature Old Age.
Then there are the ordinary business
men. They need divine and Christian
help When we begin to talk about bust
ness life, we shoot right off and talk
about men who did business on a large
scale, and who sold millions Of dollars
of goods a year, but the vast majority
Of business men do not sell million
dollars Of goods, nor half million, nor
q quarter Of o million, nor the 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 $780,
900 worth Of goods All these men in
ordinary business life want divine help. |
You see how the wrinkles are printing |
on the countenance the story Of worri- |
ment and care. You cannot tell how old |
business man is by looking at him.
Gray hairs at 30 A man at 40 with the
stoop of a nonogenarian. No time to at
tend to improved dentistry, the grinders
cease because they are few. Actually |
dying Of old age at 40 or so 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 o or 10 or 40, |
and strikes without any sense, and then
suddenly stops. So is the body Of that |
wornout business man. 1t is a neglect |
ed clock, and though by some summer
recreation it may be wound up still the
machinery is all out of gear. The hands
turn around with a velocity that excites |
the astonishment Of the world. Men |
cannot understand the wonderful actlv- |
ity, 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 ~ when |
they ought to strike six, and they strike |
40 when they ought TO strike nothing, |
and suddenly they stop. Post mortem
examination reveals the fact that all the |
springs and pivots and weights and bal |
ance wheels Of health are completely |
deranged. The human clock has simply |
run down. And at the time when the |
steady hand ought to be pointing to the |
industrious hours on clear and sunlit |
dial the whole machinery Of body, mind |
and earthly capacity stops forever. The
cemeteries have thousands Of business
men who died of old age at 80, 30, 40,
IS.
The Best Kind OF Grace.
Now, what is wanted is grace-divine |
grace for ordinary business men, men
who are harnessed from morn till night |
and all the days Of their lfe-harnessed
in business. Not grace to lose $780,
900. but grace to lose $40. Not grace
to supervise $50 employees IN factory,
but grace TO supervise the bookkeeper
and two Salesmen and the small boy
that sweeps out the store. Grace to in
vest not the $50, 900 Of net profit, but
the 81, 500 Of clear gain. Grace not to
endure the loss Of a whole shipload of
spices from the Indies, but grace 10 en-
dure the loss Of paper Of collars from
the leakage Of a displaced shinglc on a
poor roof.
Grace not to endure the tardiness Of
the American congress in passing nec-
essary law, but grace to endure the tar
diness Of an errand boy stopping to play
marbles when he ought to deliver the
goods; such a grace as thousands OF
business men have today, keeping them
tranquil whether goods sell or do not
sell. whether customers pay or do not
pay, whether the tariff is up or tariff is
down, whether the crops are luxurlant
or dead failure, calm in all circum-
stances and amid all vicissitudes-that
is the kind of grace We want. Millions
Of men want it, and they may have 1t
for the asking. Some hero or heroine
comes to town, and as the procession
passes through the street the business
men come out and stand on tiptoe on
their store steps and look at some one
who in arctic cline or in ocean storm
or in day Of battle or in hospital agonles
did the brave thing, not realizing that
they, the enthusiastic spectators, have
gone through trials in business life that
are Just as great before God. There are
men who have gone through freezing
arctics and burning torrids and awful
Mareneos Of experiences without moving
five miles from their doorsteps. Now,
what ordinary business men need is TO
realize that they have the friendship OF
that Christ who looked after the religious
interests Of Matthew, the custom house
clerk. and helped Lydia Of Thyatira to
sell the dry goods and who opened
bakery and fish market in the wilderness
of Asia Minor to feed the 1000 who had
come out on a religious picnic, and who
rounts the hairs Of your head with as
much particularly as though they were
the plumes Of a coronation, and who
took the trouble to stoop down with his
finger writing on the ground, although
the first shuttle Of feet obliterated the
divine caligraphy, and who knows Just
how many locusts there were in the
Egyptian plague and knew just how
many ravens were necessary TO supply
Elijah's pantry by the brook Cherith,
and who as floral commander leads forth
all the regiments Of primroses. fox
gloves, daffodils, hyscintbS and lilies
which pitch their tents Of beauty and
kindle their camp fires Of color all around
the hemisphere; that that Christ and
that God know the most minute Affairs
Of your business life. and. however In
considerable, understanding all the st-
fairs Of that woman who keeps thread
and needle store as we'll as all the affairs
of Rothschild and Stewart
Tiliers Of the Soil.
Then there are ali the ordinary farm
ers. We talk about agricultural life, and
We Immediately shoot of TO talk about
Cincinnatus, the patrician, who went
from the plow TO high position, and
after he got through the dictatorship in
al days went back again to the plow.
What encouragement is that to ordinary
/ -..k tovrifv ~ hharn