Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-04-03

Again I remark that godiiness is profit
able for ones disposition. Lord Ashley,
| before he went into a great battle, was
heard to offer this prayer: 30 Lord, / shall
be very busy to-day! Ii | forget Thee, for
get me not" With such Christian dispo.
sltion as that man is independent of all
| circumstances.
| Our piety will have tinge of our natural
| temperament. If man be cross and sour
and fretful naturally, after he becomes
Christian he will always have to be armed
/ against the rebellion of chose evil inclina.
| tlons.
| But religion has turned the widest ma
| lures. 1t has turned fretfu,ness into graf
itude, dependency into good cheer, and
| those who were hard and ungovernable
| and uncompromising have been made PHI
| able and conciliatcry.
Good resolution, reformatory effort. will
not effect the change. 1t takes mightier
arm and a mightier hand to bend evil hab-
| its than the hand that bent the bow of
| Ulysses, and it takes stronger lasso than
| ever held the buffalo on the prairie.
| 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
| tiu5tering shuttles and grinding mill and
flashing water wheel. And nature the
swiftest the most rugged and the most
tremondous-that is the nature that God
| turns into greatest usefulness.
| Religion will give an equipoise of spirit.
| 1t will keep you from ebullitions of tenn
| per, and you know great many fine busi-
nesses have been blown to atoms by bad
| temper. 1t will keep you from worriment
about frequent loss; it viii 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 violent
| ly with you, asking about the health OF
your family, when there is no anxiety to
know whether your child is well or sick,
dozen cambria pocket handkerchefs you
will take and pay cash down. 1t will pre-
pare you for the practical duties of every
day life.
In New York City there was a merchant,
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 q con-
| junction of evil circumstances-and all the
| other merchants were willing to compro-
mise-they would take seventy-fve cents
on the dollar or fifty cents or twenty 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 crisis of business, and he sent
out his agent to compromise. and the agent
said to the merchants, will YOU take
fifty cents on the dollar| No will
on the dollar. No compromise" And the
man who wrote that inscription over his
| counting house door died in destitution.
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 practical help?
| How many there are to-day who could tes-
| tfy out OF their own experience that god
illness 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 kne,t before the Lord cry
ing for His deliverance, and the Lord res
cued them.
In a bank not far from New York-a
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 a result. He knew
that 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 morn
ing of the day when the books should pass
under the inspection 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 anguish, and he said: 20 Lord, 1
have done right, have preserved my in
| tegrity, but here / am about to be over
thrown 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 blot
| tar thot bn hal oil ohont He
opened it, and there lay sheet of figures
which he only needed to add to another
| line of tigureS-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 inf
del if you do not believe it. The Lord de-
livered 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 am persuaded,
as you are, of the fact that the vast major
ity Of Christians do not fully test the value
of their religion. They are like farmer
in California with $4,000 acres of good
wheat land and cu.turing only quarter of
| an acre.
| Why do you not go forth and make the
| religion of Jesus Christ practical affair
every day of your business life and all this
year, beginning now, and tomorrow morn
ing putting into practical effect this holy
religion and demonstrating that godliness
is profitable here as well as hereafter?
| How can you get along without this re-
ligion? 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 inspira-
ton? Is your worldly business so thor
oughly established 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 have said is true then you see what
| fatal blunder it is when man adjourns
to life's expiration the uses of religion.
man who postpones religion to sixty years
of age gets religion fifty years too late. He
may get into the kingdom of God by final
repentance. but what can compensate him
for whole lifetime unaleviated and un-
comforted? 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