The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-07-26

when some cause of ChriStianity-sOm
missionary society or Bible society or
church organization comes along and
gets anything from you, what do you say?
You say. II have been bed" and there
never was a more significant figure Of
speech than that used in common par
lance. Yes, You have been bled. and you
are spiritually emaciated. when if you had
been courageous enough to go through
your property and say: That belongs TO
God, and this belongs to God. and the
other thing belongs to Cod" and no more
dared TO appropriate 1t to your own use
than something that belonged to your
neighbor instead Of being bled to death
by charities you would have been rein
vigorated and recuperated and built up
for time and for eternity. God Will keep
many of you cramped in money matters
until the day of your death unless you
swing out into larger generosities.
People quote as joke what is divine
promise: Cast thy bread upon the wa
ters, and it will return to thee after many
days" What did God mean by that?
There is an alusion there. In Egypt,
when they SOW the corn, it Is at a time
when the Nile Is oVerfio wing its 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 a
harvest, and that is the allusion. 1t seems
as if they are throwing the corn away on
the waters, but after a while they gather
it up in a harvest. Now says Sod in his
word Cast thy bread upon the waters,
and 1t shall come back to thee after
many days" 1t may seem to you that
you are throwing it away on charities, but
IL will yield a harvest of green and gold
a harvest on earth and a harvest in heav-
en-. If men could appreciate that and act
on that, we would have no more trouble
about individual or national finances.
Prescription the third, for the cure of
all our Individual and national financial
a W bon
1t is no mere theory. The merchants of
this country were positively demented
with the monetary excitement in 1857.
There never before nor since has been
such state of financial 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 prosperity we have ever had in
this country. The finest fortunes. the
largest fortunes in the United State have
been made since 1851 "WeH," you say,
what has spiritual Improvement and re-
ViVal to do with monetary improvement
and reviVal?" Much to do. The religion
OF Jesus Christ has a direct tendency to
make men honest and sober and truth
telling, and are not honesty and sobriety
and truth telling auxiiiaries of material
prosperity? If we could have an awaken
ing in this country as in the days of Jona-
than Edwards of Northampton, as in the
EdSklng
In the days of DR. Griffin of Boston, the
whole land would rouse 10 a higher moral
tone, and with that moral tone the honest
business enterprise of the country would
come up. You say great awakening has
an influence upon the future world. | tell
you it has a direct influence upon the
financial welfare of this world. The relig-
ion of Christ is no foe to successful bust
ness; it is its best friend. And if there
should come great awakening in this
country, and all the banks and insurance
companies and stores and offices and shops
should close up for two weeks, and do
nothing but attend to the public worship
of Almighty Godfather such a spiritual
vacation the land would wake up to such
financial prosperity as we have never
dreamed Of Goodness is profitable for the
life that now is as well as for that which
is to come. But my friends, do not put
so much emphasis worldly success as
to let your eternal affairs go at loose ends.
have nothing TO say against money. The
more money you get the better, If IL comes
honestly and goes usefuly. For the lack
of It, sickness dies without medicine and
hunger find its coffin in empty bread
tray, and nakedness shivers for clothes
and fire All this canting TRADE against
money as though ii had no practical use,
when I hear a man indulge in ii, ii makes
me think the best heaven for him would
be an everlasting poor house! No, there
is practical use in money;
but while we admit that, we must
also admit that ii cannot satisfy the soul,
that il cannot pay for our ferriage across
the Jordan of death, that it cannot unlock
the gate of heaven for our immortal soul.
Yet there are men who act as though
packs of bonds and mortgages could be
traded off for a mansion in heaven, and as
though gold were legal tender in that
land where it is so common that they
make pavements out of il. Salvation by
| Il.
heaven are the only incorruptible treas
ures. Have you ever cphercd out that
sum in loss and gain, what shall ii profit
man If he gain the whole world and lose
his soul?f You may wear fine apparel now,
but the winds of death will fiutter it like
rags. Homespun and threadbare coat
have sometimes been the shadow of robes
white in the blood of the Lamb. All the
mines of Australia and Brazil, strung in
one carcanet. are not worth to you as
much as the pearl of great price. You re-
| member, l suppose, some years aao, the
| shipwreck of the Central America? A
storm came on that vessel. The surges
| tramped the deck and swept down through
| the matches and there went up a hundred
voiced death shrek. The foam on the jaw
of the wave. The pitching of the steam
/ er. as though il would leap a mountain.
| The glare Of the signal rockets The long
| cough of the steam-pipes. The hiss of eX-
| ungushed furnaces. The walking of God
on the wave. o, IT was a stupendous spec
! tacle. But that ship did not go down
/ without a struggle. The passengers stood
! in long lines trying to bail Il out, and men
/ unused TO toll tugged until their hands
/ were blistered and their muscles were
| strained. After awhile a sail came in sight.
! a few passengers got off. but the most
went down The ship gave one lurch and
| was lost.
So there are men who go on in life-a
| fine voyage they are making out OF IT, All
| Ia we'll, til some euroclydon OF business
! disaster comes upon them, and they 20
! down. The bottom of this commercial sea
/ is strewn with the shattered hulSs. But,
/ because your property goes. shall your
| soul go2 O, no! There Is coming a more
! stupendous shipwreck after while. This
! world-God launched Il 5000 years ago,
! and Il Is sailing on: but one day Il viii
] stagger al the cry of "hre" ana the tim
/ beers OF the rocks vii lburn. and the noun
! tains flame like masts, and the clouds
! like sails IN the judgment hurricane. God
/ viii take a good many of the deck and
] OF hers out of the herthg. where they are