Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1908-07-30
THE PULPIT.
A sCHoLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. CURTIS LEE Avs.


DR.. CURTIS LEE LAWS.
Subject: Christianity and Business.
Brooklyn, N.Y.-The Rev. DR..
Curtis Lee Laws, in the Greene Ave-
nue. Baptist Church, preached on
christianity and Business" The
text was from Deuteronomy 8:18:
sThou shalt remember the Lord thy
God, for it Is He that giveth thee
power to get wealth" DR.. Laws said:
When a man becomes a Christian
he does not sever his relations to the
world in which he lives. He Is given
to Christ by the Father. as q personal
and perpetual possession, but instead
of translating him, Christ sends him
back into the very world from which
he has been saved. Christ said to
the Father: "As Thou hast sent Me
into the world, even SO have l also
sent them into the world" But when
Christ sends the saved man back into
the world, He sends him back as a
new man. "They are not of the world,
even as 7 am not or the worIu. Tro
Christian Is in the world, but in the
world with a new motive, a new pur-
pose and a new power. Our Master
well knew that 1t would be difficult
for His disciples to be in the world
without being of the world, and SO He
prayed: II pray not that Thou
shouldst take them out OF the world,
but that Thou shouldst keep them
from evil" From the beginning,
therefore, the relation of the Chris
tian to the affairs of life has been a
problem worthy of the most serious
study. In the early times there were
fanatics who felt that it was below
the dignity of a Christian to enter the
secular pursuits in which they had
formerly been engaged. They gave
up their business and brought dis
credit upon their profession by the
vagaries Of their other worldism. The
Apostle Paul tried to correct this
abuse in his second letter to the Thes-
s%alonians. In his first epistle, in view
OF the second coming Of Christ, he
had urged the people to separate
themselves from the world. Misinter-
preting bis purpose, they had given
up their regular employnlents, and
had gotten into mischief. In the Sec
ond epistle the apostle says: "For we
hear that there are some which walk
among you disorderly, working not at
all but spending their time as busy
bodies. Now, them that are such we
command and exhort by our Lord
Jesus Christ, that with quietness they
work and earn their own bread"
The greatest problem for the Chris
t1an man is to adjust himself to the
callings and pursuits OF this life, that
ne may best serve God, his fellow men
and the highest interests of his own
soul. Instead Of translating us to
glory at our conversion, God leaves
us here that we may perfect personal
holiness, working out our own saliva
ton with fear and trembling, and
that we may win the world to our
new-Iound King. These are the two
functions OF the Christian. It is the
will OF God for His people to engage,
In the ordinary vacations OF this
world, that they may earn an honest
living and at the. same time show
forth to the world the saving and
keeping power of Jesus Christ.
Though it is the will of God for His
peopie to engage in the business OF
this world, it can be readily seer that
"a kLoxA xxU1xIdtlOuS WHlCH
arise from u relations to God.
But, again, the Christian man can
engage in no business which will
harm his fellow men, whom he has
been SEN to win to Christ. If you
are in a business which Is honest and
legitimate, others will share with you
the benefit of that business. If your
gain means loss to others, then your
business is not the business in which a
Christian man can engage. II you
cannot conduct this business your
self, you cannot own stock in it and
share in the profits of it without bar
tering your soul for gold. If you
can't conduct the business yourself.
you cannot rent your property for the.
conduct OF such a business without
adding hypocrisy to your other sins.
May God have mercy on the hypo-
critics who will not soil their hands BY
engaging in a wicked business, but
VINO will stuff their pockets full of the
cirty money received as dividends or
rent from the conduct of this same
wicked business.
Note now some Of the incentives to
business activity. "Thou shalt re-
membe the Lord thy God, for He has
given thee power to get wealth" The
money-mak1ng gift is from God. The
apostle urges us to be diligent in bust
hess, fervent in spirit, serving the
Lord. God las no patience with in
dolence and sloth. All through the
Bible the stamp Of Gods approval IS
put upon industry, while His curse
ever rests upon idleness. It is God
like to work. Our Lord said. "Thc
Father worketh hitherto and I work.
There is no place in Gods
for the idler. He -cumbers tho
ground.
Business activity brings wealth.
n this is an incentive which ought
to appeal to the generation in which
we are living. Wealth ought to he
desired by every man, because wealth
IS a mighty factor in the world In
which we live.
Think Of what wealth can do for
the individual. 1t can give oppor-
Sunity to acquire high and noble
tastes. 1t can give leisure for study
and research. These in turn will
cause the mind to grow stronger and
the character to grow nobler. Wealth
a purchase length of DAYS. and r.