Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1902-03-21

uratt. The HelicOn poured forth no
such inspiring waters as those which
flow from under the throne of God
clear as crystal. Religion has given
new energy to poesy, weeping in DR..
YOung's might Thoughts" teaching in
COwper's Task" flaming in Charles
Wesley's hymns and rushing with
archangelic splendor through Millions
paradise Lost" The religion of Christ
has hung in studio and in gallery Of
art and in Vatican the best pictures
Titian's Assumption" RaphaeTs
TRANSPORTATION" Rubens' descent
From the Cross" Claude's Burning
Bush" and Angeles Last Judgment"
Religion has made the best music Of
the world-Haydn's Creation" Han
del's Messiah" MOzart's Requiem"
Is it possible that a religion which
builds such indestructible monuments
and which lifts its ensign on the high
est promOntOries Of worldly power can
have any effect upon mans intellect
but elevation?
Now, I 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 20 with the botanist
and show him celestial glo"ies encamp-
ed under the curtain of a water lily. 1t
will go with the astronomer 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:
90 Lord, | shall be very busy today!
If forget thee, forget me not" With
such a Christian disposition as that Il
man is Independent Of all circum-
stances. Our piety will have a tinge
of our natural temperament. If a man
be cross and sour and fretful naturally,
after he becomes a Christian he will
always have to be armed against the
rebellion of those evil inclinatiOns. But
religion has tanned the widest natures.
1t has turned fretfulness into gratitude,
dependency into good cheer, and those
who were hard and ungOvernable and
uncompromising have been made PHI
able and cOnciliatory. Good resolution,
reformatory effort, will not effect the
change. 1t takes a mightier arm and
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.
Influence of the Gospel.
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. So
it was with two merchants in New
York. They were very antagonistic.
They had done all they could to injure
each other They were in the same
line of business. One of the merchants
was converted to God. Having been
converted, he asked the Lord to teach
him how to bear himself toward that
business antagonist. and he was i'm
pressed with the fact that it was his
duty when a customer asked for GER
tain kinds of goods which he had not,
but which he knew his opponent had,
to recommend him to go to that store.
l suppose that isabout the hardest thing
a man could do; but, being thoroughly
converted to God, he resolved to do that
very thing, and, being asked for a GER
/ tain kind of goods which he had not,
he said, "You go to such and such a
store, and you will get it." After
awhile merchant No. found these
/ customers coming, so sent, and he
found also that merchant No. ! had
been brought to God, and he sought
the same religion. Now they are good
friends and good neighbours the grace
Of God entirely changing their DISPOSE
lions.
"Oh," says some one, 81 have a 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
tOck to rock and rushes with mad ener
gy through the valley and out toward
the sea. Along that river you will fine
fiuttering shuttles and grinding mil
and flashing water wheel. And a ma
lure the swiftest. the most rugged an(
the most tremendOus-that is the ma
ture God turns into greatest useful
hess. Oh, how many that have beer
pugnaciOus and hard to please anC
'rascible and more bothered about tn;
mote in their neighbours eye than about
the beamlike ship timber in their owl
eye who have been entirely changed
by the grace of God and have fount
out that "gOdliness is profitable fol
the life that now is as well as for tn,
life to Gomez
Religion In Business.
Again l remark that religion is goo(
SOr worldly business. 1 know the gen
eral theory is the more business tn,
less religion, the more religion the les
hrTCinngc fnN = II