The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1911-05-04
THE MIND OF CHRIST
Sermon by Business Man at Gen.
trail M. E. Church.

school and the public morning Sc
vice at Central NJ. L. Sunday NOR
ing. Mr., Chas. Alden, of Chicag,
. who is here working in the interes
of Penn College, spoke to the Men
Bible class in Sunday school on tn
subject Of Civic Righteousness" pal
ticularly as 1t has been connects
with his work in Chicago. He also de
livered the sermon at the regula
morning services and spoke most &C
ceptably of religion from the stand
point of the practical business maj
on the subject. The Mind of Christ.
Mr.. Alden is a forceful speaker. draw
ing his illustrations from history
from art, from nature, from educatior
and from experience. He touches
men where they live and move and
his arguments penetrate to the yer,
center of their being. In all 1t was q
grand address on grand subject and
will be fruitful of great results.
Mr.. Alden in part said:
Somebody has said that there is
| just as much Christianity outside the
church as there is in it, and the bust
ness man will frequently declare that
he is not religious, but that he does
believe in the Ethics of business"
Il think that both the church and
the business man are somewhat at
| fault that their lines have not come
closer together. ! believe that many
men in the business world have a
great deal of The mind of Christ,
probably a great deal more than they
realize themselves, but they make
mistake in dreaming that the Eth
les of Business have ever had any
other source than the gospel of Jesus
Christ, and believe that the time has
come when business men must admit
the source from which their Business
Ethics have sprung, and the church
of Jesus Christ must acknowledge the
offspring in whose very features may
be traced the lineaments of our Lord
and Master.
IF we should take the ground that
there is as much Christianity outside
the church as there is in it, 1t will
then be appropriate if we should ad-
risy outside the church as there is
on it, Men of the world are always
Gliding the church because some
of its members have been long on
profession and short on performance,
but there is no greater hypocrisy in
the world than to enjoy the fruits OF
a Christian civilization, and the ad-
vantage of Christian community.
and Christian schools and colleges
and then blandly affirm that they
have no use for religion.
81 hereby challenge the business
men of Oskaloosa and Mahaska coun-
ty to point out on the map. one single
place or community in which they
would dare to live or care to do bust
ness; in which the evidences of the
gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be !
found on every hand.
How then has it come about that
every business man has the idea that
religion is weak and effeminate (al'
though things effeminate are not in
these DAYS of the Suffragettes and
suffragists always considered weak |
The first question that Immediately |
arises is, Has the judgment of the
business man always been correct,
and therefore infallible. A brief read |
ing of history not only answers the
question, but makes the proposition
Iudicrous. You have only to note
how brilliant inventors have been
compelled to fight their way through
all sorts of difficulties before the hard
thick headed precedent bound bust. !
ness intelligence of the country has
been made to see the virtues of their
ideas which fifteen minutes Of prac.
tice would elequently demonstrate.
Think also of the mining stocks and
other visionary stocks which these
same men have collected as sOuve-
Mrs.
More business houses have gone in
the hands OF receivers than churches.
More banks controlled by the wise
acumen of business men have closed
their doors than churches.
Therefore business men may have
been wrong when they considered re-
ligion as a matter for idle minutes
and Sundays and class it with golf
and base ball or automobiling, as
Testful recreation. The fact is that
while religion must be either spirit |
ual or nothing it is nevertheless
strong and virile. In fact the spirit
ual is not only practical but actually |
dominates and rules every practical
enterprise.
POliteness is now being prescribed
by railroad companies TO their Off !
Gals because they can't afford TO out |
rage the sense of decency which the
public has. And no business man in !
any community can make good" or
win success IL he does not constantly |
express courtesy and politeness and
interest in the community where he
does business.
These are not matters of senti- |
ment, but of cold hard business facts,
and every one of them not only in |
wolves the mental and spiritual con. |
troll OF practical and material things, |
but affirms, by brief analysis, that
the only gpirit which can nossibiy |