The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-04-17
NO. s..


for a stream that slowly runs
through the meadow, but values a
torrent that leaps from rock to rock
and rushes with mad energy through
the valley and out toward the sea.
Along that river you will find fut-
tering shuttles and grinding mill and
| flashing water wheel. And a nature
the swiftest. the most rugged and the
most tremendous-that is the nature
God turns into greatest usefulness.
Oh, how many that have been pug
nacious and hard to please and iras-
chile and more bothered about the
mote in their neighbor's eye than
about the beamlike ship timber in
their own eye who have been entirely
changed by the grace of God and
have found out that ''godliness is
profitable for the life that now is al
well as for the life to come"
Again remark that religion is good
for worldly business. know the gen.
eral theory is the more business the
less religion, the more religion the less
business. Not so, thought DR.. Hans in
his Biography of Christian Mer-
chant" when he says: "He grew in
grace the last six years of his life more
than at any time in his life. During
those six years he had more business
crowding him than at any other time"
In other words, the more worldly busi-
ness man has the more opportunity
to serve God. Does religion exhilarate
or retard worldly business is the
practical question for you to discuss.
Does it hang like a mortgage over the
farm? Is it a bad debt on the ledger?
Is it lien against the estate? Does it
crowd the door through which custom
ers come for broadcloths and silks?
Now, religion will hinder your busi-
ness if it be a bad business or II it be
good business wrongly conducted.
If you tell lies behind the counter, il
you use false weights and measures,
if you put sand in sugar and beet juice
in vinegar and lard in butter and sell for
one thing that which is another thing,
then religion will interfere with that
business, but a lawful business, law
fully conducted, will find the religion
of the Lord Jesus Christ its mightiest
auxiliary.
Religion will give an equipose of spir-
it. 1t will keep you from ebullitions
of temper, and you know a great many
fine businesses have been blown to
atoms by bad temper. 1t will keep You
from worriment about frequent loss;
it will keep you Industrious and
prompt; it will keep you back from
squandering and from dissipation; it
will give you a kindness of spirit which
will be easily distinguished from that
mere store courtesy which shakes
| hands violently with you, asking about
| the health of your family, when there
| is no anxiety to know whether your
child is well or sick, but the anxiety is to
| know how many dozen cambria pocket
handkerchiefs you will take and pay
cash down. 1t will prepare you for the
practical duties of everyday life. / do
not mean to say that religion viii make
| us financially rich, but do say that it
will give us, it will assure us of COM
Portable sustenance at the start, a COM
| Portable subsistence all the way
through, and it will help us to direct
the bank, to manage the traffic, to con-
duct all our business matters and to
make the most Insignificant affair Of
our life as matter of vast Importance,
| glorified by Christian principle.
How can you get along without this
religion? Is your physical health 50
| good you do not want this divine
| tonic? Is your mind so clear. so vast.
want this divine inspiration? Is your
worldly business so thoroughly estab-
| lished that you have no use for that
| religion which has been the help and
| deliverance of tens of thousands Of
men in crises of worldly trouble? And
| if what / have said is true then you
see what fatal blunder it is when a
man adjourns to life's expiration the
uses of religion. A man who post
pones religion to 60 years of age gets
| religion so years too late. He may
| get into the kingdom of God by final
| repentance, but what can compensate
him for whole lifetime unalleviated
| and uncontrolled? You want religion
to-day in the training of that child.
You will want religion tomorrow in
| dealing with that customer. You
wanted religion yesterday to curb
your temper. Is your arm strong
enough to beat your way through the
/ floods? Can you, without being in
cased in the mail of Gods eternal help,
go forth amid the assault of all helps
sharpshooters? Can you walk alone
! across these crumbling graves and
amid these gaping earthquakes? Can
you, waterlogged and mast shivered,
outlive the gale? Oh, how many there
have been who, postponing the reli-
gion of Jesus Christ, have plunged
into mistakes they never could cor
rect, although they lived 20 years
after, and like serpents crushed un.
der cart wheels dragging their mauled
bodies under the rocks to die Sc
these men have fallen under the wheel
of awful calamity, while vast multi
tude Of others have taken the religion
of Jesus Christ into everyday life and
first, in practical business affairs, and