The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-07-29
The second prescription for the al1eviation
If financial distfeSSeS is

God demands of every individual State ana
Nation certain proportion of their income.
We are parsimonpus! 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 sickness, by bank
ruptcy, by any one Of the ten thousand ways
which he can employ. The reason many Of
you are cramped IN business is because You
have never learned the lesson Of Christian
generosity. The .reason that great multi
tudes are not prospered in business, is simply
because they have been Withholding from
God that which belongs to him. The rule
is, give and you will receive; administer
literally and YOU shall have more to admin
lister.
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 if a man give until he feels it, if man
give until it fetches the blood, if a man
give until his selfishness cringes and twists
and covers under it, he will get not only
spiritual profit, but he will get
PAID IN HARD CASH
or in convertible securities. We often see
men who are tight-fste who seem to get
along with their investments very profit
ably, notwithstanding all their parsimony.
But wait. Suddenly in that mans history
everything goes wrong. His health fails, or
his reason is dethfoned, or domestic curse
snaites him, or midnight shadow Of some
kind drops upon his soul and upon his busl-
ness.
What is the matter? God is Furnishing
him for his small-heartedness. he tried to
cheat God, and God worsted him. So that
Of the recipes for the cure of individual
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 moneys
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
| 50 cents on dollar goes to par, and the
opening of new street doubles the value of
his house, or in any way of million God
| bleSseS him.
Once the man finds out that secret, and
4 he goes On to fort hhe
Strike a balance for God. EconOnize in
anything rather than in your Christian
I cHaTIUleS. mere ID HUt mOIe tudu OHo wv
of 800 Of you who ever give enough to dc
4 YOU ANY good, and when some cause oil
4 Christianity -sofne missionary society OF
/ Bible society or church organization comes
along and gets anything from you, what dc
! you say? You sag, Il have been bled,
4 and there never was more significant
! figure of speech than that used in common
| pariance Yes. you have been bfed, and
-, 1,.trr,
when if You had been courageous enough t.
go through your Property and say "Iha
belongs to God and this belongs TO God ant
the other thing belongs to Cod" and ne
more dared to appropriate it to your owl
use than something that belonged to YOU
ncighbor, instead of being bled to death BY
charities yon would have been re-invigor
| ated and fecnperated and built up for time
and for eternity. ~,
People quote as a joke what is 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 al
allusion there. In Egypt, when they SOW
The corn, 1T is att time when the Nile i
OVERLOOKING its banks and they SOW the sect
corn on the waters, ind as the Nile begins t.
recede this seed corn strikes in the earti
and comes up harvest, and that is TIL
allusi1n. -.7.~gtk
Now says God in his word "Cast tn.
bread upon the waters, and it shall com
back to thee after many days" 1t ma.
seem to you that you are throwing it ava.
on charities bat it Will yield harvest 0
green and god-a harvest on earth, a har
vest in heaven If men could appreciat
that and act on that we would have n
more trouble about individual or Nationa
finances.
PRESCRIPTION THE THIRD,
for the cure of all our individual and Ma
tional financial distresses: great spiritua
awakening. 1t is no mere theory. TIL
merchants OF oar co6nfry were positiver
tiemented With the monetary excitement j
1857. There never before nor since has bee
such stare OF financial depression as ther
was at that 1ine. A revival came, an
, 100000 people were born INTO the kingdor
: OF Gsod. What came after the revival? TIL
srandest financial prosperity We have eve
: l,ad in this country The finest fortune
the largest fortunes in the United State.
I have been made since 1857
! We'll" You say, what has spiritual i'm
, proyefneht and revival do with nionetar
!, improvement and revivnl?" Much to d
7 1'he religion of Jesus Christ has diret
I tendency TO make mon honest and sober an
e truth-teiliiIg, aud IRE not honesty an
e sobriety and truth tefnng auxiliaries /
e material prosperity?
: IT We could have an awakening in Iii
4 country as in the days OF Jonathan Edward
of Northampton; as in the days of DR.. Fl,
ley, OF Basking Ridge; rs in the days of d
Griffin, of Boston, the whole land woul
: rouse to a higher moral tone, and with thu
. moral tone the honest business enterprise
/, the country would come up You say
. A GREAT AWAKESING HAS AN INFLUENC
y upon the future world. i tell You it has
. direct Influence upon the financial wella
il OF this world. The religion of Christ is l
a foe to successful business 1T is its best frien
And ifthere should come a great awakenii
a in this country, and all the banks and il
q surarce companies nnd stores and Offices at
= shops should close up for two weeks, and
: nothing but attend to the public worship
ia Almighty 600 after such n spiritual VIC
is ton the land would wake up to such fina
e cial prosperity us we have never dreamed I
All this canting TRADE against money,
It though it had no practical use. When
J. hear man indulge in it, it makes me thin
/" the best heaven for him would be an eve
( lasting poofhousei No. there is practic
lie use in money; but, while we admit that, y
must also admit that it cannot satisfy Il
soul; that it cannot pay for our ferria
!" across tie Jordap Of death; that II cam
n unfCclS Ire Ja.e NJ heaven for our lnlm1rt