The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-02-22

RAISING. 1t is high time that some of
the attention We have been giving to
the remarkable women Of the Bible
remarkable tor their virtue or their
want of it Or remarkable for their
deeds-Deborah and Jezebel and Hero
dias and Alfalfa and Dorcas and the
Marys, excellent and abandoned-it is
high time some of the attention we
have been giving to these conspicuous
women Of the Bible be given to Julia,
an ordinary woman, amid ordinary
duties and meeting ordinary circum-
stances, attending to ordinary respon-
sibilities.
WORK FOR CHRISTIANS.
Then there are all the ordinary bus
mess men. They need divine and
Christian help. When we begin to
talk about men who did business on a
large scale and who sold millions of
dollars of goods a year, n the vast
majority Of business men do not sell a
million dollars worth of goods, nor
half a million, nor a quarter of a mill
lion, nor quarter Of a million, nor the
eighth part of a million. Put all the
business men of our cities, towns, viii
lagos and neighborhoods side by side,
and you will find that they sell less
than a hundred thousand dollars worth
of goods. All these men in ordinary
business life want divine help. You
see how the wrinkles are printing on
the cOuntenance the story of Worri-
ment and care. You cannot tell how
old a business man is by looking at
him. Gray hairs at 80; a man at As
with tho Ctnnn of q norion No
time to attend to improved dentistry;
the grinders cease because they are
few. Actually dying of old age at 40
or so, when they ought to be at the
meridian, Many of these business men
have bodies like a neglected clock to
which you come, and when you wind
it up it begins to buzz and roar, and
then the hands start around very rap
idly, and the clock strikes 5 or 10 or
40, and strikes without any sense, and
then suddenly stops. So is the body
Of that wOrnOut business man. 1t is a
neglected clock, and, though by some
summer recreation it may be wound
up, still the machinery is all out of
gear. The hands turn around with a
velocity that eXcites the establishment
of the world. Men cannot understand
the wonderful activity, and there is a
roar and a buzz and a rattle about
these disordered lives, and they strike
10 when they ought to strike 5, and
they strike - when they ought to
strike 6, and they strike 40 when they
ought to strike nothing, and suddenly
they stop. PostmOrtem examination
reveals the fact that all the springs
and pivOts and weights n balance
wheels of health are completely de-
ranged. The human clock is simply
run down, and at the time when the
steady hand ought % be pointing to
the Industrious hours or a clear and
sunlit dial the whole machinery of
body, mind and earthly capacity stops
forever. Oak Hill and Greenwood
have thousands of business men who
died Of old age at 80, 35, 40, As.
WANTS OF BUSINESS LIFE.
Now, what is wanted is grace-di-
vine grace for ordinary business men,
men who are harnessed from morn till
night and all the days of their life
harnessed in business. Not grace to
lose 500, 900, but grace to lose $40.
Not grace to supervise $50 employees
~ q loNSOl u L - " oupSA IoS S1S
bookkeeper and two statesmen and the
small boy that sweeps out the store
Grace not to invest the $50, 900 of net
profit, but the $4,000 of clear gain.
Grace not to endure the loss of a whole
shiplOad of spices from the Indies, but
grace to endure the loss of a paper of
collars from the leakage of a displaced
Shingle on a poor roof. Grace not to
endure the hardness of the American
congress in passing a necessary law,
but grace to endure the hardness of an
errand boy stopping to play marbles
when he ought to deliver the goods.
Such a grace as thousands of business
men have today-keeping them tran
quill, whether goods sell or do not sell,
whether customers pay or. do not pay,
whether tariff is up or tariff is down,
whether the crops are luxuriant or a
dead failure-calm in all circum-
stances and amid all v%icitudes. That
is the kind Of grace we want.
Millions of men want it, and they
may have it for the asking. Some hero
or heroine ONE to town, and as the
procession passes through the street
the business men come out, stand on
tlptoC ol lIlSlA OIolC oICp IN looh az
some one who in arctic cline, or in
ocean storm, or in day of battle, or in
hospital agonies did the brave thing,
not realizing that they, the enthusiast
tic spectators, have gone through trials
in business life that are just as great
before God. There are men who have
gone through freezing arctics and
burning torrids and awful Marengos
of experiences without moving five
miles from their door step.
CHRIST'S FRIENDSHIP.
Now, what ordinary business men
need is to realize that they have the
friendship of that Christ who looked
after the religious interests of Mat
thew, the custom house clerk, and
helped Lydia or Thyatira to sell the
dry goods and who opened a bakery
and fish market in the wilderness of
Asia Minor to feed the 1000 who had