Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1902-03-19


& ligion is as good for this world as the
next and will help us 10 do anything that
ought TO be done at all: |. Timothy w.,
S. Goodness IS profitableNunto all things,
having promise of the life that now is
and of that which is to come"
There is gloomy and passive way of
waiting for events to come upon us, and
there is a heroic way of going out to
meet them, strong in God and fearing
nothing. When the body of Catiline was
found on the battlefield. it was found
far in advance of all his troops and
among the enemy. and the best way is
not for us to lie down and let the events
of life trample over us, but 20 go forth
in a Christian spirit determined to con-
quer. You are expecting prosperity. and
l am determined. so far as ! have any
thing 20 do with it, that you shall not
be disappointed, and. therefore, / pro-
pose, as God may help me, 10 project
upon your attention a new element of
success. You have in the Business firm
frugality, patience. industry, perseyer-
ance, eeonomy-a very strong business
firm-but there needs to be one member
added, mightier than them all, and not
silent partner, either the one intro
duced by my text. Goodness, which is
profitable unto all things. wing the
promise of the life that now is as well
'as of that which is to come"
| suppose you are all willing to admit
that goodness is important in its eter-
nal relations, but perhaps some of you
say, "All l want is an opportunity to
say a prayer before l die. and all will be
we'll" There are n good many people
who suppose that IL they can finally get
safely out of this world into a better
world they will have exhausted the entire
advantage of our holy religion. They
talk as though religion We're mere nod
of recognition which we are to give to the
Lord Jesus on cur way up to a heaven
ly mansion; as though it were an ad-
mission ticket of no use except to give
in at the door of heaven. And there are
thousands of people who have great adj
miration for a religion of the shroud and
a religion of the coffin and a religion of
the hearse and a religion of the cemetery
who have no appreciation of a religion
for the bank, for the farm. for the fac
tory. for the warehouse, for the jewelers.
shop, for the office. Now. while | would
not throw any slur on a post-mortem re-
ligiOn | want to-day to eulogize an ante
norton religion. A religion that is of 10
use to you while you live will be of no
use to you when you die. Goodness is
profitable unto all things, having prom
Use of the life that now is as well as of
that which is to come" And | have al
ways noticed that when grace is very
low in mans heart he talks great
, deal in prayer meetings about deaths and
about collins and about graves and about
churchyards. have noticed that the
healthy Christian, the man who is living
near to God and is on the strel,. at road
to heaven, is full of jubilant satisfaction
and talks about the duties of this life,
understanding well that if God helps him
to live right he will help him to die right
What Godliness Is Good For.
Now, in the first place. | remark that
godliness is good for a mans physical
health. ] do not mean to say that it
will restore broken-down constitution
or drive rhe latism from the limbs or
neuralgia from the temples or pleurisy
from the side, but do mean to say that
it gives one such habits and puts one in
such condition as are most favorable for
physical health. That / believe. and
that | avow. Everybody knows that
buoyancy of spirit is good physical adj
vantage. Gloom, unrest, detection. are
at war with every pusdtion of the heart
aud with every respiration of the lungs.
They lower the vitality and slacken the
circulation, while exhilaration of spirit
pours the very balm of heaven through
all the currents of life The sense of
insecurity which sometimes hoyers over
an unregenerate man or pounces upon
him with the blast of ten thousand trum-
pets of terror is most depicting and most
exhausting while the feeling that all
things are working together for our good
now md for our everlasting welfare is
condu i've to physical health.
You viii observe that godliness in
duces Industry, which is the foundation
of GOOD health. There is no law of by
giene ii At will keep a lazy man we'll
Pleurisy win stab him. erysipelas will
burn him. jaundice will dscolor him, govt
will cripple him, and the intelligent ply
stefan will not prescribe antiseptic or feb
rifuge or anodyne, but saws and ham
mers and yardsticks and crOwbars and
piekaxes. There is no such thing as good
physical condition without positive work
of some kind. although you should sleep
on down of swan or ride in carriage of
softest upholstery or have on your table
all the luxuries that were poured from
the wine watts of Ispahan and Shiraz
Our religion says; Away to the bank.
away to the field, away to the shop. away
: to the factory Do something that will
enlist all the energies of your body. mind
and soult' "Diligent in business, fer
vent in spirit, serving the Lord" while
upon the bare back of the idler and the
drone comes down the sharp lash of the
apostle as he says. If any man will not
work. neither shall he eat
Oh. how important in this day. when
so much is said about anatomy and ply
si6logy and therapeutics and some new
style of medicine is ever aud anon spring
ing upon the world, that you should I'M
derstand that the highest school of medi-
cine is the school of Christ, which de-
elares that ''godliness Is profitable unto
all things, having the promise of the life
that now is as well as Of that which is
to come" So if you start out two men
in the world with equal physical health.
and then one Of them shall get the relis-
ION of Christ in his heart and the orher
shall not get II, the one who becomes a
son Of the Lord Almighty viii live the
longer With long hfs will ! satisfy
him and show him my salvation"
Religion aud the Intellect.
Again I remark that jdlinesS Is good
for the intellect / know some have
supposed that just as soon as man
enters into Christian life his intellect
goes into warning process So far
from tiat. sion viii give new bril-