The Chanute times., 1902-03-21

Will MiliSi anu shOW l'''% s'N
footprints of the Creator in the red
sandstone. 1t will go with the astron
omer on the great heights where God
shepherds the great flock of world
that wander on the hills of heaven
answering his voice as he calls them
all by their names.
Again | remark that godliness is
profitable for ones disposition. LORD
Ashley, before he went into a great
battle, was heard to offer this prayer
20 Lord, shall be very busy to-day
If | forget thee, forget me not" With
such q Christian disposition as that
man is independent of all circum-
stances. Religion has tanned the Wild
est natures. 1t has turned fretfulness
into gratitude, dependency into good
cheer, and those who were hard and
ungovernable and uncompromising
have been made pliable and concilia-
tory. Good resolution, reformatory
effort, will not effect the change. 1t
takes a mightier arm and mightier
hand to bend evil habits than the hand
that bent the bow Of Ulysses, and 1t
takes a stronger lasso than ever held
the buffalo on the prairie.
A man cannot go forth with any hui
man weapons and contend successfully
against these Titans armed with up
torn mountains. But you have known
men7into whose spirit the influence Of
the gospel of Christ came until their
disposition was entirely changed.
"Oh," says some one, Il have a rough,
jagged, impetuous nature, and religion
can't do anything for me-" Do you
know that Martin Luther and Robert
Newton and Richard Baxter had i'm
petuous and all consuming natures, yet
the grace of God turned them into the
mightiest usefulness? A manufactur-
er 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 en-
ergy through the valley and out toward
the sea. Along that river you will find
fluttering shuttles and grinding mill
and flashing water wheel. And ma
ture the swiftest, the most rugged and
the most tremendous-tha is the ma
ture God turns into greatest useful
ness. Oh, how many that have been
pugnacious and hard to please and
irascible 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 as we'll as for
the life to come"
Again remark that religion is good
for worldly business. l 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 business a man has the more
opportunity to serve God. Does re-
ligion exhilarate or retard worldly
business? is the practical question for
you to discuss. Does it hang. like
mortgage, over 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 busi-
ness if it be bad business or If it be
a good business wrongly conducted. If
you tell lies behind the counter, If 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 lawful business, law
fully conducted, will find the religion
of the Lord Jesus Christ its mightiest
auxiliary.
Religion will give an equipoise of
spirit. 1t will keep you from ebulli-
tions 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
suuandering and from dissipation; it
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 cambric
pocket handkerchiefs you will take and
pay cash down. 1t will prepare you for
the practical duties OF everyday life. l
do not mean to say that religion will
make us financially rich, but l do say
that it will give us, it will assure us
of. a comfortable sustenance at the
start. a comfortable subsistence all the
way through, and it will help us to
direct the bank, to manage the traffic,
TO conduct all our business matters.