Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-07-28

1
man who will give his customers NOR,
for their money than any one else viii
give. A great merchant builds up hI.
business by winning the confidence and
the respect OF community. not by
selling them shoddy goods. The story
Is tcid that many years ago new
trader went out TO live among the In
dians. No sooner had he landed and
opened his store than the Indian chief
CAME 10 him and bought some goods
The chief said. II pay you tomorrow. .
The next day the Indian chef returned
with many members of his tribe. Then
ne commenced to pay the trader for
his goods. He gave him one otter
skin, then another skin, then another
skin and then another skin until he
had given to him four skins. The
goods were worth just about four
skins Then the chief drew out beau
tiful otter skin and offered IL also. He
offered this fifth skin to test the trad
er's honesty. Chief" said the trader.
Il do not want that ffth skin. You
have paid me enough" The indian
chief said: mo. no. White man take
this skin also Again and again the
white trader refused. mo. chief" said
be. you have paid noe enough. 1 do
not want any more" With that the
Indian chief gave grurt OF satisfac-
tlon. He turned to his warriors and
said: Come, trade with paleface. He
honest man" Then turning to the
white trader he said: "Paleface, sup
pose you take that last skin, Indian no
trade with you. Then me know you
dishonest white man." All, yes, the old
Indian trader knew the law OF the sur
vival OF the fittest in the business
world. The way the great merchant
builds up bis true business success Is
not by cheating his customers. but by
always being honest, always true and
always trying to give his customers
more for their money than they can
get In any other store
As there is a survival Of the fittest
IN the physical and mental and moral
realms, so there is also a survival In
the spiritual realm. Charles Darwin
never meant to apply this sentence to
the spiritual world. but God does. God
emphatically does this in the words of
my text How does the first psalm of
David read? The godly shall be like
tree planted by the rivers of water.
that bringeth forth its fruit In It's sea-
SON His leaf also shall not wfthsr.
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper
But the way of the ungodl,
shall perish" Yes, there is the law OF
the survival OF the fittest In the spir
itual world. If we are one with Christ
we shall grow and keep on growing
all through the eternities. We shall
bear fruit millennium after millennium
Ii we are not one with Christ. we shall
become like the chan which the wind
driveth away" The whirlwinds OF the
Judgment day shall sweep us away &c
our eternal doom.
But says one, 'how could man
like Charles Darwin grasp a great
truth like this OF the natural world and
yet not grasp il in the spiritual? How
could he find Gods footprints In ma.
ture and yet not find Gods footsteps
on Calyary's rocksY All, my friends
L cannot account for that. I cannot
and dare not pass Judgment on Charles
Darwin's life. l cannot understand
how this great student OF nature could
turn his back upon God any more than
1 can understand how he who was
once such lover Of the beautiful could
so warp his mind that the poets like
Shakespeare aud the musicians like
Handel and Beethoven and Wagner
could not touch his heart
In his own words read the follow.
ing: 81 have said that In one respect
my mind has changed during the last
twenty years. Up to the age OF thirty
or beyond it poetry OF many kinds,
such as the works of Milton, Gray
Byron. Wordsworth, Coleridgo and
Shelley, gave me great pleasure, and
even as schoolboy 1 took intense de.
light in Shakespeare, especially in the
historical plays 1 have also said that
formerly pictures gave me consider.
able pleasure and music very great de.
light. But now, for many years, can.
not endure to read a line or poetry. ]
have tried lately TO read Shakespeare
and found Ii so intolcrably dull that n
nauseated me. i have also lost nv
taste for music aud pictures. / retain
some tnste for fne scenery, but Il does
not cause me the exquisite delight
which IL formerly did" In other words
Charles Darwin became such a close
student In one line OF study that he nj
lowed his love for the beautiful In ART
and nature and his love for God TO be,
come atrophied. Parts or his brain
were nightly alive. Some parts were
completely dead.
Develop Through Chrf.t.
| Let me read on n little further: my
mind seems TO have become kind OF
machine for. grinding general laws out
OF large collections OF facts, but why
this should have caused the atrophy
or that part OF the brain alone on which
the higher tastes depend cannot con-
ceive. A man with a mind more high
iy organized or better constituted than
mine would not. 1 suppose, have thus
suffered. and II had to live my life
again j would have made a rule 10
read some poetry and listen to some
music at least once a week, for per-
haps the parts OF my brain now afro
phied would thus have been kept active
through use. The loss OF these tastes
Is loss or happiness and may possibly
De injurious 10 the intellect and more
probably to the moral character by en-
feebling the emotional part Of our ma
ture." Do you wonder that Darwin.
who wrote such sentences as these
could let the spiritual part of his life
become atrophied as we'll as the aes-
thetic and the love for the beautiful?
ana SO. young people as well as older
people, as you develop along physical
and moral lines want you to deyelop
along the hne OF the spiritual. / want
You TO develop in Christ and through
Christ. who Is the highest model for
all spiritual development
But" says some one, 1T have never
tried to develop myself In and through
christ Then, my brother. is that any
reason why you should not start now I?
when an enemy one day tainted the
great preacher Esprit Fletcher be-
cause or his humble birth and because
he had begun life as tallow Chandler
DIR. Fletcher replied. Eyes. my sphere
IN life used to be very humble. but
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