Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-07-30

DAODltcAta Aarb WNo
coming, and the people said: I'VE shall
have unparalleled suffering among the
poor. 1t will be a dreadful winter. ."
Sure enough. il was a cold winter, but
there were more large hearted charities
than ever before poured out on the coun-
try, better provision made for the poor.
So that there have been scores Of win
ters when the poor had a harder. time
than they did last winter. Weather
prophets say we will have frosts this
summer which will Kill the haryests.
Now, let me tell you, you have lied
twice about the weather, and believe
you are lying this time.
Some people are so overborne with
the dolorousness Of the times that they
say we shall have communistic outrages
in this country such as they had in
France. do not believe it. The parallel
does not run. They have no Sabbath,
no Bible, no God in France. We have
all these defenses for our American peo-
pie, and public opinion is such that if
the people in this country attempt a
cutthroat expedition they will land in
Sing Sing or from the gallows go mp on
tight rope. do not believe the people
of this country will ever commit out
RACES and riot and murder for the sake
of getting bread. But all this lugubros-
ity of tone and face keeps people down.
Now will make contract. If the peo-
pie Of the United States for one week
will talk cheerfully, will open all the
manufactures, ! will give employment
TO all the unOccupied men and women,
1 will make a lively market for your
real estate that is eating you up with
taxes, l will stop the long professions
Oh the way TO the poorhouse and the
penitentiary and l will spread a plenti-
full table from Maine to California and
from Oregon TO Sandy Hook, and the
whole land shall carol and thunder with
national jubilee. But says some one, i
will take that contract, but we can't
affect the whole nation" My hearers
and readers, representing as you do all
professions, all trades and all occupa-
tions, if you should resolve never again
to utter dolorous word about the mon
ey markets, but by manner and by voice
and by wit and caricature and, above
all, by faith in God to try to scatter
this national gloom, do you not believe
the influence would be instantaneous
and widespread? The effect would be
felt around the world. For Gods sake
and for the sake of the poor and for the
sake Of the employed quit growing.
Depend upon it, if you men in comfort
able circumstances do not stop com
planning, God will blast your harvests
and see how you will get along without
corn crop, and he will sweep you with
floods, and he will devour you with
grasshoppers, and he will burn your
city. If you men in comfortable circum-
stances keep on complaining, God will
give you something to complain about.
Mark thatl
The Best Investment.
The second prescription for the ale
Walton of financial distresses is proper
Christian investment. God demands Of
every individual state and nation a GER
tain proportion cf their income. We are
parsimonious. We keep back from God
that which belongs to him, and when
we keep back anything from God he
takes what we keep back, and he takes
more. He takes it by storm, by sick
ness, by bankruptcy, by any one Of the
10, 900 ways which he can employ
The reason many Of you are cramped in
business is because you have never
learned the lesson Of Christian gener-
osity. You employ an agent You give
him q reasonable salary, and, 10, you
find out that he is appropriating your
funds, besides the salary. What do you
do? Discharge him. Well, we are Gods
agents. He puts in our hands certain
moneys. Part is to be ours, part is to be
his. Suppose we take all, what Them
He will discharge us. He will turn US
over 10 financial disasters and take the
trust away from US. The reason that
great multitudes are not prospered in
business is simply because they have
been Withholding from God that which
belongs to him. The rule is, give and
vou will receive, administer literally
and YOU shall have more 10 administer.
am in full sympathy with the man who
was 10 be baptized by immersion, and
some one said, "YOu had better leave
your pocketboOk out; it will get wet.
NO" said he: Il want to 90 down
under the wave with everything. !
want to consecrate my property and all
to God" And so he was baptized. what
we want in this country is more hap
tized pocketbooks.
| had relative whose business
seemedNo be failing. Here loss, and
there loss, and everything was bother
ing, perplexing and annoying him. he
sat down one day and said: "God must
have a controversy with me about some
thing. | believe / haven't given enough
TO the cause of Christ" " And there and
then he took out his checkbook and
wrote a large check for a missionary so
ciety, He told me "That was the turn
ing point in my business. Ever since
then have been prosperous. From that
very day-aye, from that very hour-l
saw the change" And. sure enough,
he went Oh. and he gathered fortune.
The only safe investment that man
can make in this world is in the cause
of Christ. II man give from super
abundance, God may or he may not re-
spond with a blessing, but If man
give until he feels it, If a man give un-
iii il fetches the blood. If a man give
until his selfshness cringes and twists
and covers under it, he will get not
only spiritual profit. but he will get
paid back in hard cash or in convertible
securities. We often see men who are
tight fisted who seem TO get along with
their investments very prohtably, not
withstanding all their parsimony. But
wait Suddenly in that mans history
everything goes wrong. His health
fails. or his reason is dethroned, or
domestic curse smites him, or a mid
night shadow Of some kind drops upon
his soul and upon his business. What
is the matter5 God is Furnishing him