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

on dollar goes TO par, and the opening
Of new street doubles the value Of bis
house, or in any way Of million God
blesses him.
Christian Generosity.
Once the man finds out that secret
and he goes on TO fortune. There are
men whom / have known who for ten
years have been trying to pay God
81 ,0O0. They have never been able to
get it paid, for just as they were taking
cut from one fold of their pocketbook
bill mysteriously somehow in some
other fold Of their pocketbook there
came a larger bill. You tell me that
Christian generosity pays in the world
10 come tell you it pays now, pays
in hard cash, pays in government Sc
curities. You do not believe it? All,
that is what keeps you back. | knew
you did not believe it, The whole world
and ChristendOm is to be reconstructed
on this subject, and as you are a part
Of Christendom let the work begin in
your own soul. But, says some one,
II don't believe that theory, because l
have been generous and / have been
losing money for ten years. " Then God
prepaid you. that is all.
What became of the money that you
made in other days? You say to your
son. Now will give you $500 every
year as long as you live" After awhile
you say, "Well, my son, you prove
yourself so worthy Of my confidence
will just give you $4,000 in a single
lump" And you give it TO him, and be
starts eff. In two or three years he does
not complain against you: Father is
not taking care of me. / ought to have
$500 a year" You prepaid your son,
and he does not complain. There are
thousands Of US now who can this year
get just enough to supply our wants
But did not God supply for Us in the
past and has he not again and again and
again paid us in adyanceI In other
words, trusted you all along trusted
you more than you had right to ask?
Strike, then, balance for God. Econo-
mize in anything rather than in your
Christian charities. There is not more
than one out Of 300 of you who ever give
enough TO do you any good, and when
some cause Of Christianity, some mis-
sionary society or Bible society or
church organization, comes along and
gets anything from you what do you
say? You say, II have been bled."
And there never was a more significant
figure of speech than that used in COM
mon parlance. Yes, you have been bled,
and you are spiritually emaciated, when
if you had been courageous enough to
60 through your property and say,
"That belongs TO God, and this belongs
to God, and the other thing belongs to
God, and no more dared to appropriate
it to your own use than something that
belonged to your neighbor, instead Of
being bled to death by charities you
would have been reinyigorated and re-
cuperated 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.
A Great Promise.
People quote as a joke what is a
divine promise, Cast thy bread upon
the waters, and it will return TO thee
after many days" What did God mean
by that? There is an allusion there. In
Egypt when they SOW the corn it is at
a time when the Nile is oyerfiowing 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 harvest, and that Is the
allusion. II seems as if they are throw
ing the corn away on the waters, but
after awhile they gather it up in bar
vest Now says God in his word, Cast
thy bread upon the waters, and it shall
come back to thee after many days.
IL may seem to you that you are throw
ing it away OH charities, but 1t will
yield harvest of green and gold-a
harvest on earth and 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 finan-
cial distresses, great spiritual awaken
ing. 1t is no mere theory. The mer-
chants of this country were positively
demented with the monetary excite
ment in 1857. There never before nor
since has been such a state OF financial
depression as there was at that time.
a revival came, and 500, 900 people
were born into the kingdom Of God.
What came after the revivall The
erandest financial prosperity we have
ever had in this country. The finest
fortunes, the largest fortunes IN the
United States, have been made since
1857. well" you say, what has
spiritual improvement and revival to
do with monetary improvement and re.
vival?" 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 auxiliaries Of material
prosperity
IL we could have an awakening in this
country as in the days Of Jonathan Eo-
wards Of Northampton, as in the days
of DR.. Finley Of Basking Ridge, as In
the days Of DR.. Griffin Of Boston, the
whole land would rouse TO higher
moral tone, and with that moral tone
the honest business enterprise OF the
country would come mp. You say
great awakening has an influence upon
the future world. l tell you it has di-
rect influence upon the financial well
fare Of this world. The religion Of
Christ is no foe to successful business.
1t is its best friend. And if there should
come a great awakening in this coun-
try, 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 God, after such
spiritual vacation the land would wake
up to such financial prosperity as we
have never dreamed Of. Godliness is
profitable for the life that now is as
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