The age-herald., 1902-03-23

were willing to compromise-they would take 75 cents on the dollar or 50 cents or 20 cents-coming to this man last of all, he said No compromise. I'll take 100 cents on the dollar. and I can afford to watt Well, the wheel turned and after awhile that man was In a crisis Of busi- ness, and he sent out his agent to com promise, and the agent said to the mer- chants. "Will you take 50 cents on the dollar?' No" 'Will you take any thing?" wen take 100 cents on the dol lar. 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 en- terprises! How many young men have found in the religion of Jesus Christ practical help? How many there are to- day who could testify out of their own experience that godliness 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 wonder for help and got no help until they knelt before the Lord crying for his de- liverance and the Lord rescued them.
 In q 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 result He knew 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 morning of the day when the books should pass under the inspection of the other officers arrived, and he felt him self in awful peril conscious of his own integrity, but unable to prove that in- tegrity 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: 70 Lord, I have done right, I have preserved my integ- rity, but here 1 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 blotter that he had forgotten all about. He opened 1t. and there lay a sheet of figures which he only needed to add to another line of figures-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 infidel if you do not believe it. The Lord delivered him. God answered his prayer. he will answer your prayer. oh. man of business in ev- cry crisis when you come to him.
 Can You Get Along Without It?
 Now. if this be so, then am persuad- ed, as you are, of the fact that ,.le vast majority of Christians do not fully test the value of their religion. They are like farmer in California with 15 900 acres of good wheat land and culturing only a Guarter 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, be- ginning now, and tomorrow morning putting into practical effect this holy re- nglon and demonstrating that godliness is profitable here as well as hereafter?
 How can you get along without this re- ligion2 Is your physical health so good you do not want this divine tonic? Is your mind so clear. so vast, so compre- hensive that you do not want this di- vine inspiration? Is your worldly busi- ness so thoroughly 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 1t is when man adiourns to life's expiration the uses of religion A man who post pones religion to sixty years of age gets religion fifty years too late. He may get into the kingdom of God by final repent ance, but what can compensate him for a whole lifetime unalleviated and uncom- forted? You want religion today in the training of that child. You will want re- ligion tomorrow in dealing with that cus- toner You wanted religion yesterday to curb your temper. Is your arm strong enough to beat your way through tn floods? Can you, without being incased in the mail of Gods eternal help go forth amid the assault of all hell's sharp shooters? Can you walk alone across these crumbling graves and amid these gaping earthquakes? Can you, waterlog- ged and mast shivered, outive he gale? Oh, how many there have been who, post poning the religion of Jesus Christ, have plunged into mistakes they never could correct, although they lived sixty years after, and like serpents crushed under 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 multitude of oth- CTS have taken the religion of Jesus Christ into everyday life and first in practical business affairs, and, second on the throne of heavenly triumph, have illustrated while angels looked on and a universe approved the glorious truth that "godiness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life which now is as well as of that which is to come"