The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-03-18

uOH III tnelr 8 eye tn0n aDO
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 as well as for the
life to come"
Religion In Business.
Again / remark that religion is good
for worldly business. 1 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 a 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 bust
ness q man has the more opportunity
to serve God. Does religion %exhilarate
or retard worldly business? is the prac-
teal question for you to discuss. Does
it hang, like a mortgage, Eel the farm?
Is it a bad debt ON the ledger? Is it a
lien against the estate? Does it crowd
the door through which customers
come for broadcloths and silks?
Now, religion will hinder your bust
ness if it be a bad business or if il be
a 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 vim
egar and lard in butter and sell for one
thing that which is another thing, then
religion will interfere with that bust
ness, but a lawful business, lawfully
conducted, will find the religion of the
Lord Jesus Christ its mightiest aux
Hilary.
Religion will give an equipoise of
spirit. 1t will keep you from ebulli-
tons Of temper, and you know q 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 hand
kerchiefs you will take and pay cash
down. 1t will prepare you for the prac-
tical duties of everyday life. 1 do not
mean to say that religion will make us
financially rich, but I do say that it
will give us, it will assure us of, a COM
Portable SuStenance at the start, a
comfortable subsistence all the way
through, and it will help us to direct
duct all our business matters and to
make the most insignificant affair of
u life a matter of vast Importance,
glorified by Christian principle.
The Story of a Merchant.
In New York city there was a mer-
chant, hard in his dealings with his
fellows, who had written over his
banking house or his counting house
room, "No COMPROMISED" Then when
some merchant got in a crisis and went
down-no fault Of his, but a c%onjunc-
ton of evil circumstances-and all the
other merchants were willing to COM
promise-they would take rs cents on
the dollar or so cents or 20 cents-com-
ing to this man last of all, he said: mo
compromise. I'll take 100 cents on the
dollar, and 1 can afford to wait" Well,
the wheel turned, and after awhile
that man was in a crisis of business,
and he sent out his agent to compro-
mise, and the agent said to the mer-
chants, "Will you take so cents on the
dollar?" mo" "Will you take any
thing?" well take 100 cents on the
dollar. No COMPROMISED" And the man
who wrote that inscription over his
counting house door died in restitution.
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 today who could testify out
of their own experience that goodness
is profitable for the life that now is!
There were times in their business ca
reer when they went here for help and
there for help and yonder for help and
got no help until they knelt before the
Lord crying for his d~eliverance, and
the Lord rescued them.
In a bank not far from New York-a
village bank-an officer could not bal
ance 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 he had not taken one
farthing from that bank, but somehow,
for some reason, inscrutable then, the
accounts would not balance. The time
rolled on and the morning Of the day
when the books should pass under the
inspection of the other officers arrived,
and he felt himself in awful peril, con-
scious Of his W integrity, but unable
to prove that integrity. That morning
he went to the bank early, and he knelt
down before God and told the whole
story Of mental anguish, and be said:
20 Lord. / have done right, l have pre-