The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-02-28

is that the acquisition of wealth may be-
 come passion. The calls of the money
 market become so great and urgent that
 an average business man does not feel that he has time to stop and think about
 lis relations to God. Amid the whirl of
 business activities he fes a great deal as did Oliver Wendell Holmes during his trip through England. He said he went so fast he had time ito talk with lots of
 people, but he had time to have a true conversation with none" By that the
 poet Holmes meant that he had time to
 drop here a word and there a word but
 he went through Europe so quickly he
 had no time to exchange heart to heart thoughts with great thinkers, as he did with Max Muller when he lay in his
 house sick for nearly a wek But, though ,, the business world demand all of a mans
 energies, the Lenten season comes into
 busy merchants life and says, 70 man, you should never be too busy to take time to think of your responsibilities to
 God!" So the Episcopaiian Lent sends it's best men straight into the very heart of Wall street. In old Trinity church in
 the busiest part of the day during the
 Lenten season we hear the Christian
 preachers voice calling, as do the Mo- hammedan priests from the minarets of the eastern mosques: Oh, business men, ] come to prayersl Come to prayersl o ye business men, come to prayers; come to | prayers, come to prayers.
 A Plea For Higher Life.
 The Lenten season pleads with business
 men for the higher life as I once heard
 Robert Speer plead with a great audi
 ence of men for the higher life Men"
 said he, 'I have always been ambitious
 By that mean I have always wanted to
 make the most out of my life. If I had
 thought I could have made more out of
 my life by entering the United States | army I certainly would have done so. Had I thought I would have made more out of my life by entering business should have consecrated my energies to | money making But I did think I could
 make most out of my life by being an
 evangelist of God Therefore. men, I beg
 and plead with you, no matter who you
 are. to live for the higher life. If you | are a merchant, be a Christian merchant; If a lawyer. be a Christian lawyer; If a
 manufacturer, be a Christian manufac-
 turer.' Thus the Lenten season says: Live for the higher life. Make your counter. O man, Christian counter. Make your mechanics bench a Christian bench. Make your office Christian of- | flee. Be like Paul, a Christian tent | maker. At the same time he was a | Christian preacher" o business men, wherever you may be and whatever you may be doing. "sanctify ye a fast: call a solemn aSSemDlage! Come to prayerSi | Come to the Lenten prayers.
 A Spiritual Housecleaning.
 | The Episcopalan Lent in the next | place. is time for spiritual houseclean- ing. As the spring fast immediately
 succeeds the time when the business man I takes an account of stock. we find the spring fast comes just before the days when the housewives are turning the houses upside down in their semiannual attacks upon the dust and the moths. It is the time which we husbands dread,
 but it is the housecleaning time, which every prudent wife declares Is essential for the physical health of her family. It is absolutely necessary to keep physical dirt out of house. yet in spite of all precautions it will keep creeping in ev-. anywhere. Although the workmen in the Philadelphia mint are as careful as they can be, the dirt and the fine particles of gold will sift through the floor cracks. So great are these siftings that every wear the floor is taken up and the dirt is separated from the gold, and thou sands of dollars worth of gold are thus collected for the United States treasury. In spite of all our precautions the min ute. innumerable stains of sin will creep into the heart. Therefore, each year 1t is very desirable to obey the call to the Lenten spring fast.
 Once year is certainly not too often to take spiritual accounting and to con-. duct serious self-examination- The call to, fast should reach the ear of every. | Christian. What does that mean? Shall our wives and mothers and sisters go to