Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-02-26

ngntS or the bathrooms and the ban
quet halls. Know We not that during
the spring fast" the lowly Nazarene Is
knocking at the door OF your hearts
trying to get in2
IT'S true we cannot reach Christ's for
tieth day.
Yet to go part OF that religious way
Is better than no deed.
Neither ought other mems abuse OF Lent
Spoil the good use. lest by that argument
We forfeit all our creed.
The Lenten Call.
The Episcopalian Lent, in the next
place. is a protest against business alb
sorption. It says to the merchant. the
manufactures and the professional
man: You have u right to work. In-
deed, you must work and work hard IL
you are TO support your family and
meet the financial necessities which
are yours. But, o man. you have no
right to make the acquisition OF money
the chief object OF your life any more
than you have a right to live to eat.
BY the sweat OF thy face shalt thou
eat bread But that sweat should not
make thee indifferent to God or to the
higher purposes of life, for which thou
vert created"
But the great danger OF money max
Ing is that the acquisition OF wealth
may become a 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 his relations to God.
Amid the whirl OF business activities ne
feels great deal as did Oliver Wen
dell 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 CONVEX
sation 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 week. But,
though the business world would de-
mand all of mans energies, the
Lenten season comes into a busy mer-
chants life and says. 90 man. you
should never be too busy to take time
TO think Of your responsibilities to
Godw So the Episcopalian Lent sends
rs ONSS AhSa oNAaAfhS AhNO aht 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 Mohammedap priests from the
miuarets~ OF the eastern mosques; go
business men, come 10 prayers. Come
to prayersi o We business men, come
to prayers, come to prayers, come to
prayers
Pies Fer Higher Life.
The Lenten season pleads with bust
ness men for the higher life, as once
heard Robert Speer plead with q great
audience OF men for the higher life
Men" said he, 81 have always been
ambitious. BY that mean have all
ways wanted to make the most out OF
my life. II had thought I could
have made more out OF my life by en-
tering the United States army / GER
tainly would have done SO. Had /
thought / would have made more out
of my life by entering business I
should have consecrated my energies
to money making. But did think I
could make most out OF my life by be-
ing an evangelist OF God Therefore,
men, beg and plead with you, no mat
ter who you are. to live for the higher
life. III you are a merchant, be q
Christian merchant: II a lawyer, be a
Christian lawyer: II a manufacturer,
be Christian manufacturer" 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 a Christian office. Be
like Paul, n Christian tentmaker. At
the same time he was Christian
preacher" business men, wher-
ever you may be and whatever you
may be doing, ''sanctify We fast: call
a solemn assemblagew Come to pray
ers! Come TO the Lenten prayersl
A Spiritual demonstrating.
The Episeopalian Lent, In the next
place, is time for spiritual house
cleaning. AS the Spring fast" imrre-
niately succeeds the time when the
business man takes an account OF
stock, we ind the spring fast comes
just before the days when the house
wives are turning the houses upside
down in their semiannual attacks upon
the dust and the moths. IT Is tho time
which we husbands dread, but IL II the
housekeeping time, which every pru-
dent wife declares Is essential for the
physical health OF her family. 1t is alb
soIutely necessary to keep physical dirt
out or house, yet I'm spite Of all pre-
cautions IL will keep creeping in every
where. Although the workmen IN the
Philadelphia mint are as careful as
they can be, the dirt and the fine parti-
cles OF gold will sift through the floor
cracks. So great are these Strings that
every year the door is taken up and
the dirt is separated from the gold, and
thousands OF dollars worth OF gold are
thus collected for the United states
treasury. In spite OF all our precau-
tons the minute. innumerable stains OF
sin will creep into the heart. There
fore each year IT 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
conduct serious self examination. The
call to fast should reach the ear OF
every Christian. What does that meanf
Shall our wives and mothers and sis
o. ~ eAAC 8toSCl anu tue DulCltE
and the baker and say. I'VE de not
want any more meat or vegetables or
bread for the next forty days?" Does
II mean that NIL the members OF home
shall 80 without physical nutrition, as
DIR. Tannar tasted for forty days and
Leonard Thress tasted for ffty days
ana Rev. c. III. Dairymple tasted for
thirty-nine days and Milton Rathburp
tasted for thiFty-six days and EsteIla
f. kuenxel tasted for forty-one days?
Oh, no. The habit of fasting, inspired
by boastfni folly and the desire of see
ing how long we can live without tast.
Ing food, Is just as sinful as the oppo-
site extreme OF gluttony, to see how
much one can eat without utterly de
stroying the smooth workings OF the di.
gestive organs.
Spiritual housekeeping does not
mean the r0pnlafa ahS&f-oxoo So