Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-09-14
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE

Subject: Ledgers and BibIes-There is No
War Between Religion and Business
righteousness is u Reinforcement
and Not q Hindrance in Life's Affairs.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON, D. C.-In this discourse DR..
! ralmage argues that religion may be TAX en-
INTO all the affairs OF life and instead OF
| oeing II hindIance, us many think, is a re-
enforcement. The text is Romans Kill, IL:
| Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord
Industry, devoutness and Christian SER
| vice-all commended In that short text.
What! Is it possible that they shall be con-
Joined? Oh, yes! There is no war
| between religion and business, between
ledgers and Bibles, between churches and
| counting houses. On the contrary, re-
t ligion accelerates business, sharpens mems
| wits, sweetens acerbity OF disposition,
| hllips the blood Of phiegmatics and throws
| more velocity into the wheels Of hard
work. 1t gives better balancing to the
| Judgment, more strength to the will, more
| muscle to industry and throws into enthu-
! siasm more consecrated fire. You cannot
In all the circle Of the world show me a
man whose honest business has been de-
| spoiled by religion.
The industrial classes are divided into
! three groups--producers, manufacturers,
traders. Producers, such as farmers and
miners. Manufacturers, such rs those who
| apparel. Traders, such as make profit out
| OF the transfer aud exchange Of all that
| which is produced and manufactured. A
business man may belong to any one or all
| of these classes, and not one is indepen-
| dent of any other.
When the prince imperial of France fell
on the Zulu battlefield because the strap
| fastening the stirrup to the saddle broke
as he chung to it, his comrades all escap-
ing, but he falling under the lances OF the
| savages, q great many people blamed the
empress for allowing her son to so forth
into that battlefield, and others blame
the English Government for tcceptiDS
the sacrifice and others blamed the Zuius
| for their barbarism. The one most to
blame was the harness maker who
fashioned that strap of the stirrup out
Of shoddy and imperfect material, as it
was found to have been afterwurd. If the
strap had held, the prince imperial would
probably have been alive to-day. But the
strap broke. No prince independent of a
harness maker! High, low, wise, ignorant,
you in one occupation, I in another, all
bound together. SO that there must be
one continuous line of sympathy with each
others work. But whatever your vocation,
II you have multiplicity of engagements,
II into your life there come losses and an
noyances and perturbations us well rs per-
cottages and dividends, If you are pursued
from Monday morning until Saturday night
and from January to January by inexor-
able obligation and duty, then you are a
business man, or you are business wom-
an, and my subject is appropriate TO your
case.
We are under the impression that the
MOL and tug of business life are a prison
into which Il man is thrust or that IL is AN
unequal strife where unarmed man goes
forth to contend. l shall show you this
morning that business life was intended of
God for grand and glorious education and
discipline, and II shall be helped to say
what / want to say shall rub some of the
wrinkles OF care out of your brow and un-
strap some of the burdens from your back.
l am not talking Of an abstraction.
Though never having been In business life,
know all about business men.
In my first parish ut Belleville, n. j., ten
miles from New York, large portion of
my audience was made up of New York
merchants. Then I went to Syracuse, q
place Of immense commercial activity, and
then went to Philadelphia and lived long
among the Merchants of that city, than
whom there are no better men on earth,
and for twenty-five years | stood in my
Brooklyn pulpit, Sabbath by Sabbath,
preaching to audiences the majority of
whom were business men and business
women. 1t is not an abstraction OF which
speak, but reality with which am well
acquainted.
In the first place, remark that business
life was intended AS school of energy.
God gives us a certain amount of raw ma
terial out of which we are to hew our
character. Our faculties are to be reset
rounded and sharpened up. Our young
folks having graduated from school or COL
lege need higher education, that which
the rasping and collision OF everyday life
alone can effect. Energy is wrought out
only in the 6re. After man has been in
business activity ten, twenty, thirty years,
his energy is not to be measured by weights
CS plummets or ladders. There is no height
II cannot scale, and there Is no depth 1t
cannot fathom, and there is no obstacle 1t
cannot thrash.
Now, my brother, why did God put You
| in that school OF energy? Was it merely
that you might be yardstick to measure
cloth or a steelyard to weigh flour? Was
1t merely that you might be better qualified
to chatter and higgie? No. God placed
you in that school Of energy that you might
be developed for Christian work. If the un-
| developed talents in the Christian churches
of to-day were brought out and thoroughly
| harnessed, I believe the whole earth would
| be converted to GOD in twelvemo onth.
| There are sc many deep streams that are
turning no mill wheels and that are har-
! messed to no factory bands.
| Now, God demands the best lamb out Of
every flock. He demands the richest sheaf
| of every harvest. He demands the best
men of every generation. A cause I'm which
! Newton and Locke and Mansfield toiled
! you and can afford to toll in. On, for
more Christian W orkers, men who shall
take the same energy that from Monday
! morning to Saturday night they put forth
| for the achievement OF livelihood or the
| gathering of a fortune and on Sabbath
days put it forth to the advantage of
Christ's kingdom and the bringing of men
| to the Lord.
DR.. Duff visited a man who had inheri-
| ted great fortune. The man said to him:
II had to be very busy for many years Of my
| life getting my livelihood. After a while
this fortune came to me and there has
been no necessity that toll since. There
came time when said to myself Shall
now retire from business. or shall so on
and serve the Lord in my worldly occupa-
| tion?'" He said: 81 resolved on the
latter, and I have been more indus
trious iu commercial circles than ever
| was before, and since that hour | have
never kept farthing for myself. I
have thought it to be n great shame ii
couldn't toll as hard for the Lord as
had toiled for myself, and GIL the pro-
ducts Of my factories and my commercial
fab lick 70 fo In Of ri bov