Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1902-03-29


to poesy, weeping in Dr. Young's
Might Thoughts" teaching in Cow
per's Task flaming in Charles Wes-
ley's hymns and rushing with arch
angelic splendor through Milton's
Paradise Lost" Is it possible that
religion which builds such indestruct-
ible monuments and which lifts its en-
sign on the highest promOntor1es of
worldly power can have any effect up
on mans intellect but elevation?
Now, 1 commend godliness as the
best mental discipline, better than
bellies lettres to purify the taste, better
than mathematics to harness the mind
TO all intricacy and elaboration, better
than logic to marshal the intellectual
forces for onset and victory 1t will go
with Hugh Miller and show him the
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 worlds
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, l shall be very busy to-day,
If 1 forget thee, forget me not With
such a 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 a mightier
hand to bend evil habits than the hand
that bent the bow of Ulysses, and it
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
men into whose spirit the influence of
the gospel of Christ came until their
disposition was entirely changed.
"Oh" says some one, Il have 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
| fiuttering shuttles and grinding mill
/ and flashing water wheel And a ma
| ture the swiftest, the most rugged and
| the most tremendous-that 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 i'll
their own eye who have been entirely
changed by the grace of God and have
found out that --godliness is profita Dle
| for the life that now is as well as for
the life to come
| Now, religion Ei;, hinder your busi-
| ness if it be a bad business Or Il 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, wifi Ell the religion
| of the Lord Jesus Christ its mighdest
auxiliary.
/ Religion will give an equipoise of
spirit 1t will keep you from ebulli-
tions of temper, and you know great
/ many fine businesses have been blown
to atoms by bad temper. 1t will keep
/
loss; it will keep you Industrious and
prompt; it will keep you back from
| squandering and from dissipation; 1T
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 IF 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 viii take and
| pay cash down. 1t will prepare you for
| the practical duties OF everyday life ]
| do not mean to say that religion viii
make US financially rich, but I do say
that it will give US, it will assure US
| of, comfortable sustenance at the
start, 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
| and to make the most Insignificant af-
l -