The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1902-03-21

| InOSe SIX years ne ndU more DuSIueSS
crowding him than at any other time"
In other words, the more worldly bust
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 mortgage over the
farm? Is it bad debt on the ledger?
Is it lien against the estate? Does it
crowd the door through which custom
ers come for broadcloths and silks?
Now, religion will hinder your bust
| ness if it be a 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 a lawful business, law
fully conducted, will find the religion
of the Lord Jesus Christ its mightiest
auxiliary.
Religion will give an equipose of spir-
it. 1t will keep you from ebullitions
of temper, and you know 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 we'll 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. L do
not mean to say that religion viii make
us financially rich, but do say that it
will give us, it will assure US of a COM
Portable sustenance at the start, a 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 a 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 a crisis and
went down-no fault of his, but
conjunction of evil circumstances
and all the other merchants were
willing to compromise 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 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 compromise,
and the agent said to the merchants:
"Will you take so cents on the dol
lar?" "No." ''Will you take any
| thing?" Wen 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 a prac-
teal help? How many there are to-
day who could testify out of their
] .
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.
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 1 have said is true then you
see what a fatal blunder it is when a
man adjourns to life's expiration the
uses of religion. A man who post
pones religion to 60 years of age gets
religion so years too late. He may
get into the kingdom of God by final
repentance, but what can compensate
him for a whole lifetime unalleviated
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 mail of Gods eternal help,
go forth amid the assault of all hells
sharpshooters? Can you walk alone
across these crumbling graves and
amid these gaping earthquakes? Can
you, waterlogged and mast shivered,
outlive the gale? Oh, how many there
have been who, postponing the reli-
gion of Jesus Christ, have plunged
into mistakes they never could cor
rect, although they lived 90 years
after, and like serpents crushed un-
der cart wheels dragging their mauled
bodies under the rocks to die. So
these men have fallen under the wheel
of awful calamity, while a vast multi
tude of others have taken the religion
of Jesus Christ into everyday life and,
first, in practical business affairs, and,
second, on the throne of heavenly tri-
umph, have illustrated, while angels
looked on and a universe approved, the
glorious truth that ''godEness is
profitable unto all things, having the
promise of the life which now is as
well as of that which is to come"
Four Meals in Washington.
- IL L l.