Newport weekly independent., 1902-03-21

A manufacturer cares but very little for a stream that slowly runs through the meadow, but values 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 fiut- 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- cible and more bothered about the mote in their neighbours 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 I 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 a Christian Mer- chant" when he says: ''He grew in grace the last six years of his life more 1 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 a 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 CTS 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 l 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 it's mightiest auxiliary.
 Religion will give an equipose of spir- it. It will keep you from ebullitions of temper, and you know a great many fine businesses have been blown to l atoms by bad temper. It will keep you from worriment about frequent loss; it will keep you industrious and 1 squandering 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 1 child is we'll or sick but the anxiety is to | know how many dozen cambric pocket handkerchiefs you will take and pay cash down. It will prepare you for the practical duties of everyday life. l do not mean to say that religion vii make us financially rich, but l do say that it vii give us, it will assure us of com fortable sustenance at the start, a com l fortable subsistence all the way through, and it will help us to direct the bank, to manage the traffic, to con- 1 duct all our business matters and to make the most insignificant affair of our life as a matter of vast importance, gloriied by Christian principle.
 How can you get along without this religion? Is your physical health so 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 if what I have said is true then you see what a fatal blunder it is when a man adiourns 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 final repentance, but what can compensate him for a whole lifetime unallevia ted 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 ail of Gods eternal help, go forth amid the assault of all hell's sharpshooters? Can you walk alone across these crumbling graves and amid these gaping earthquakes? Can