The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-04-25

sumption" Raphaeps "Transiguration,'
Rubcn5s Descent From the Cross"
Claude's Burning Bush and Angeles
Cast Judgment Religion has made Che
best music of the wor.d-llaydn's "Crea'
ton" Handles messiah" M0mrts Re-
QUEEN" is e possible that a religion
which builds such indestructIble monu'
ments, and which lifts It's ensign on the
highest promontoreis of worldly power
can have any effect upon mans intellect
but eley2tony
Now. I commend godliness as the besl
mental discipline, better than bellies lettres
to purify the TASTE better than mathemat-
les TO harness the mind TO all intricacy and
elaboration, better than logic to marshal
the intellectual forces for onset and vic
tory.
Again I remark that godliness is profit
able for ones disposition. Lord Ashley,
before he went into a great battle, was
heard to offer this prayer: 20 Lord, ! shall
be very busy today If forget Thee, for
get me not" With such a Christian dispo.
sition as that man Is independent OF all
circumstances.
Our piety will have tinge Of our natural
temperament. If a man be cross and sour
and fretful naturally after he becomes a
Christian he will always have to be armed
against the rebellion Of those evil lnclina-
tons.
But religion has turned the widest ma
lures. 1t has turned fretfulness into graft
itude, dependency into good cheer and
those who were hard and ungovernable
and uncompromising have been made PHI
able and conciliatory.
Good resolution, reformatory effort, viii
not effect the change. it takes a mightier
arm and a mightier hand to bend evil hab-
its than the hand that bent the bow of
Ulysses, and it takes q stronger lasso than
ever held the buffalo on the prairie.
A manufacturer cares but very little 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
huttering shuttles and grinding m ! and
flashing water wheel And a nature the
swiftest, the most rugged and the most
tremondous-that is the nature that God
turns into greatest usefulness.
Religion viii give an equipoise Of spirit.
1t will keep you from ebullitions of tenn
per, and you know great many fine busi-
nesses have been blown to atoms by bad
temper. 1t will keep you from worriment
about frequent loss; 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 violent
ly 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 pre-
! pare you tor the practical duties OF every
day life.
In New York City there was a merchant,
| hard in his dealings with his fellows, who
| had written over his banking house or his
counting house room, mo compromise"
! Then when some merchant got in a crisis
! and went down-no fault of his, but a con-
! junction of evil circumstances-and all the
other merchants were willing to compro-
| mise-they would take seventy-hve cents
on the dollar or fifty cents or twenty cents
coming to this man last of all he said:
"No compromise. I'll take 100 cents on the
dollar, and | can afford to wait" Well,
the wheel turned, and after awhile that
man was in crisis of business, and he sent
out his agent to compromise, and the agent
said to the merchants, "Will you take
fifty cents on the dollar" mo" "Will
YOU take anything?" "We'H take 100 cents
on the dollar. No compromise" And the
man who wrote that inscription over his
counting house door died in desrtut1on
Oh, we want more of the kindness of the
gospel and the spirit of love In our business
enterprises!
How many young men have found in the
religion of Jesus Christ a practical help
How many there are to-day who could tes
tify out of their own experience that god
illness is profitable for the life that now Isl
There were times in their business career
when they went here for help and there
for help and yonder for help and got nc
help until they knelt before the Lord cry
ing for His deliverance, and the Lord res
cued them.
In a bank not far from New York;
village bank-an officer could not balance
his accounts. He had worked at them day
after day, night after night, and he was
sick nigh unto death as a result. He knew
that he had not taken one farthing from
that bank, but somehow, for some reason
inscrutable then, the accounts would no
balance. The time rolled on and the morn
ing of the day when the books should pas
under the inspection of the other officer
arrived, and he felt himself in awful peril
conscious OF his own integrity, but unable
to prove that integrity. That morning h
went to the bank early, and he knelt dow
before God and told the whole story o
mental anguish, and he said: 20 Lord,
have done right, I have preserved my in
tegrity, but here / am about to be over
thrown unless Thou shouldst come to m
rescue. Lord, deliver me-" And for on
hour he continued the prayer before God
and then he arose and went to an old blot
ter that he had forgotten all about. H
opened it, and there lay a sheet of figure
which he only needed to add to anothe
line of fgures-some line of figures he ha
forgotten and knew not where he had lai
them-and the accounts were balanced, an
the Lord delivered him. You are an inf
del if you do not believe it. The Lord de
, livered him. God answered his prayer, a
He will answer your prayer, oh, man c
business, in every crisis when you come
Him.
Now, if this be so, then I am persuaded
as you are, of the fact that the vast major