The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-30
BUSINESS MEMS MEETING
AN AUDIENCE OF a,O00 PEOPLE YEs-
 TERDAY AFTERNOON.

Unusual Sight in "The Wickedest City in
 the World"-Business Places Closed-Mr.
 Mills Sermons Yesterday-To Address
 Young Men This Evening-Othcr AIcet-
 ings.
 Am audience of about 1,500 persons listened to the address of Rev. B. Fay Mills at the Grand Opera house yes- terday noon on ''The Kingdom of God and Society,"" MT. Mills spoke in part as follows:
 No man in business is Christian unless he realizes that he's as much of a minister as I am. We need business men to stand by the Sermon on the Mount more than We do more minis- ters. If We had more business men of that kind, we could dispense with the crop of some of our theological semi- raries every year. Unless a business man manages his business in some such way as this, it is a part of the principality oe hell. There is no law of business that will abide except love. Do you believe that God will let a man who bears the name of Chris tian' conduct his business on the mod- ern principles of competition?
 I wrote to a commercial traveller re- gently: If you are in your business for what you can get out of 1t, you are in a bad way; if you are in it to help ath- CTS you can only fail as Jesus failed
 Who is responsible for the inequal- ity in social condition to-day, the dif- ference between the rich and poor? Before God, believe the people who bear the name Christian are responsi- ble. There is going to be a, day when there will be no more poor people; no more poverty, and it will come just as soon as the principles of Christ pre- vail. One church in New York could make poverty impossible in that city. More than one church in New Haven could tear out poverty from this city, If only it had the real spirit of God in its work. What God needs more than anything else is men of Christ in the political heart of a nation and city. Christ never made anybody sick; He made sick people we'll. Christ never killed anyone; He raised dead men to life. Believe me, there are~ savage men on earth to-day only because some of the so-called Christians are savage. There are brutes on earth only because Christians allow them.
 The armory yesterday afternoon was l filled with an audience of over 4,000 per- sons, a proportion of those present being business men and their families, the fact that business places had closed having also given many clerks an op- portunity to attend. MT. Mills ex- pressed his gratitude for the noble re- sponse ito his appeal to have the after noon observed as a wid-week Sabbath and said that he was sure that it was because people here believe in righteous ness and the glory of God. MT. Mills also announced that at the request of the Central Labor union he would speak especially to wage earners at the arnlory Sunday afternoon att 3:30.
 He took as the text for his regular afternoons address Isaiah 5910: We stumble at monday as in the night" The sermon was as follows:
 '"The ancient people of God had been shown plain path, but they had stray ed from it and were brought to sorrow. To stumble at all is bad. It is bad to stumble in darkness, but to stumble with the light shining all around you lis worse yet What will become of those who in the blaze of gospel day are fn- different to the claims of the Master upon their lives? Every man born in a. Christian land, who has heard the gospel of the blessed God, will be judg- ed by that very fact and by a stand- ard different from those who have not had such privilege.
 "The text applies to people who do not use their opportunities as they should do, to those to whom the love of God has been offered and who have not accepted it. A woman lived so near a church that it cursed her, or at least she said so to herself. She had lived near the church and had seen people saved, but instead of going herself, or manifesting any interest, she discour- aged others dby her influence and at last l she acknowledged that she lived SO iclose to the church that it cursed her.
 q was talking to an old man onca who prided himself upon his knowledge of the scriptures. Why said he, T have read the Bible through fifteen times I wouldn't be surprised if lknew more about the scripture than you }do' I said to him. What noble, splell- did, beautiful sort of Christian you must be- but he wasn't; he was one of the meanest, most dog-in-the-manger, skinflint sort of man you ever saw.
 ''The text also applies to those who have experienced the manifestation of the love of God, but who have made nos response to that love. Deadly, indeed, lis the sin of ingratitude. Listen, friends. you were in despair and God gave you hope; you were sick and He healed you: you were cast down and He raised ycu Iup but you did not thank Him, nor did you acknowledge Him. A boy began to hoot at a cripple one day, and finally learned that the cripple had been made so by venturing his life to save him. The boy did not know that, but you know what God has done for you, and yet you pierce His heart by your indif- ference and ingratitude. You are not willing to yield to His love.
 "A soldier was riding along battle field after the flying enemy. when he Iobserved soldier lying on the ground, whom he thought to be still alive. He dismounted and found that his surmise was true, and that the wounded soldier was one of the enemy. He. however. gave him a drink and raised him to a