St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-04-26
T. will keen YOU Industrious an

prompt; it will keep you back from
squandering and from dissipation; ii
will give you 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 1t
will give US, it will assure us of a COM
Portable sustenance at the start, 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.
In New York city there was mer-
chant, 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 crisis and
went down-no fault of his, but q
conjunction of evil circumstances
and all the other merchants were
willing to compromise-they would
take Is cents on the dollar or so
cents or 20 cents-coming to this man
last of all he said: mo compromise.
I'll take 100 cents on the dollar, and l
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 compromise,
and the agent said to the merchants:
'Will you take so cents on the dol
lar?" "No." "Will you take any
thing?" We'll take 100 cents on the
dollar. No compromise. 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 prac-
teal help? How many there are to-
day who could testify out of their
own experience that godliness is
profitable for the life that now is!
| There were times in their business
career 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 de-
| liverance, and the Lord rescued them.
In bank not far from New York
! q 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 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 inspec-
ton of the other officers arrived
and he felt himself in awful peril
conscious of his own 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 an.
guish, and he said: 20 Lord, I have
done right, I have preserved my in.
| tegrity, but here / am about to be
| overthrown unless thou shouldst
come to my rescue. Lord, deliver
me-" And for one hour he continued
the prayer before God. and then he
arose and went to an old blotter that
he had forgotten all about. He
opened it. and there lay a sheet OF
figures which he only needed to add
to another line of fgures-some line
of figures he had forgotten and knew
not where he had laid them-and the
accounts were balanced, and the
Lord delivered him. You are an in
fdel if you do not believe it. The
Lord delivered him. God answered
his prayer, as he will answer your
prayer, oh, man of business, in every
crisis when you come to Him.
| Now, if this be SO, then l am per.
suaded, as you are, Of the fact that the
vast majority of Christians do not
fully test the value of their religion
They are like a farmer in California
with $4,000 acres of good wheat lane
and culturing only a quarter of al
acre. Why do you not go forth and
make the religion of Jesus Christ q
practical affair every day of ybur bust
ness life and all this year, beginning
now, and tomorrow morning putting
into practical effect this holy religion
and demonstrating that goodness is
profitable here as well as hereafter?
How can you get along without this
religion? Is your physical health sc
good you do not want this divine
tonic? Is your mind SO clear, so vast
so comprehensive, that you do not
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
# what I have said is true then you
see what fatal blunder it is when {
man adjourns to life's expiration the
uses of religion. A man who post
pones religion to 60 years of age gets
religion 50 years too late. He may
get into the kingdom of God by fina
repentance, but what can compensate
him for a whole lifetime unalleviatel