Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-08-03

|
| he takes what we keep back, and he
takes more. He takes it by storm, by
sickness, by bankruptcy, by any one
| of the tel thousand ways which he can
| employ. The reason many of you are
cramped in business is because you
have never learned the lesson of Chris
tian generosity. You employ an agent.
You give him reasonable salary; and,
| 10! you find out that he is appropriate
| ing your funds besides the salary.
What do you do? Discharge him.
| Well, we are Gods agents. He puts
in our hands certain moneys. Part are
to be ours. Part are to be his. Sup
pose we take all, what then? He will
discharge us; he will turn us over to
| financial disasters, and take the trust
away from us. The reason that great
multitudes are not prospered in busi-
ness is simply because they have been
| Withholding from God that which be-
longs to him. The rule is, give, and
you will receive. Administer literally,
and you shall have more to administer.
l am in full sympathy with the man
and some one said. You had better
| leave your pocket book out, it Will get
wet" NO." said he, Il want to go
down under the wave with everything.
l want to consecrate my property and
| all to God" And so he was baptized.
| What we want in this country is more
baptized pocketbooks.
hue
seemed to be failing. Here loss, and
there loss, and everything was both
ering. perplexing and annoying him.
He sat down one day and said, God
must have a controversy with me about
| something. / believe | haven't given
enough to the cause of Christ" And
there and then he took out his check
! book and wrote large check for mis-
sionary society. He told me, THAT.
was the turning point in my business.
Ever since then l have been prosper
GUS. From that day, aye, from that
very hour, / saw the change" And,
sure enough, he went on, and gathered
fortune. The only safe investment
| that man can make in this world is
| in the cause of Christ. If man give
| from a superabundance, God may or
| he may not respond with blessing;
but IL man give until he feels 1t, IL
man give until it fetches the blood,
| if a man give until his seifishness
! cringes and twists and covers under
it he will get not only spiritual pro-
| fit, but he will get paid back in hard
| cash or in convertible securities. We
often see men who are tight listed who
seem to get along with their invest
ments very profitably, notwithstanding
all their parsimony. But wait. Sud-
| denly in that mans history everything
! goes wrong. His health fails, or his
reason is dethronsd. or domestic
curse smites him, or a midnight sha-
dow of some kind drops upon his soul
| and upon his business. What is the
matter? God is Furnishing him for his
! email heartedness. He tried to cheat
| God and God worsted him. So that
| one of the recipes for the cure of in
dividual and national finances Is more
generosity. Where you bestowed one
| dollar on the cause of Christ. give two.
| God loves to be trusted. and he is
very apt to trust back again. He says:
"That man knows how to handle
money: he shall have more money to
| handle" And very soon the property
that was on the market for great
while gets purchaser, and the bond
| that was not worth more than fifty
cents on dollar goes to par, and the
! opening Of new street doubles the
value of his house. or in any way of
1 million God blesses him.
| People quote as joke what is di-
vine promise: Cast thy bread upon
| the waters, and 1t will return to thee
| after many days" What did God mean
/ by that? There is an illusion there. In
Egypt, when they sow the corn, it is
! at a time when the Nile is overlooking
it's banks and they sow the seed corn
| on the waters, and as the Nile begins
| TO recede this seed corn strikes in the
| earth and comes up harvest and that
| Is the allusion. 1t seems as IL they are
| throwing the corn away on the waters,
but after a while they gather it up in
| n harvest. Now says God in his word
Cast thy bread upon the waters, and
! it shall come back to thee after many
| days" 1t may seem to you that you
are throwing it away on charities; but
| It will yield harvest of green and gold
"a harvest on earth and harvest in
heaven. If men could appreciate that
and act on that, We would have no
more trouble about individual or ma
| tiopal finances
Prescription the third, for the cure
| of all our individual and national IL
nancial distresses; great spiritual
awakening. 1t is no more theory. The
merchants OF this country were posi-
| lively demented with the monetary ex-
element in 1857. There never before
nor since has been such a state of fl
nancial depression as there was at that
time. A revival came. and five hundred
thousand people were born into the
kingdom of God What came after the
! revival? The grandest financial pros
perity we have ever had in this coun-
| try. The finest fortunes, the largest
! fortunes in the United States, have
been made since 1857. well" you say.
| hot ;,it