The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-11


ion-the cross should be erected In the
market place. Our religion should have
our business-the market place should
be brought into the church. Our re-
ligion should be our business-we
should seek first the Kingdom of
Cod
Business and Religion
First, our business should have our
religion. No department of life is COM
plete without a vital relation to re-
ligion. This is just as true of business
as of anything else; and chrlstendom
is coming more and more to feel that
way about it. We are learning the
sacredness of the secular today. There
should never have been any divorce
ment of the two. The man who Is only
religious on Sunday is held in con-
tempt today. The man who prays on
his knees in the church and preys on
his neighbors in the market place Is
labeled a hypocrit The man who pro-
fesses to believe the gospel of Christ
and practices only the gospel of get
ting on is accounted wording. For If
religion is for all life---the whole
life-and ii is, then 1t is just as much
for the market place as II is for the
church; just as much for the office
chair as it is for the cushioned pew;
just much for the grocery store as
it is for the communion table. One rea-
son there are so many wrecks=is be-
cause religion is left out of character
in business-is because religion is left
hi ie @F
| A member of my church few years
ago met me on the street one morning
and said, You may take my name off
the church ROLL said, what's the mat
ter now%
He replied: I cannot be religious adm
follow the business I'm in. I say and do
things unbeeoming a Christian. l am
provoked to it; and I want to quit the
church; l don't want to be a hypocrite..
said to him: Why not quit your busi-
ness? Is your business more important
than your relgion?' He thought for a mo-
ment very seriously and replied No
my business is not the most important
thin gin the world Then / said My
friend, the business you are In is a
legitimate one. The mistake you have
hldue 10 not JdhiHB your TeilBlOn INTO your
business. il you will do that you will
not lose your temper as you do; you will
| be true to yourself and to your fellow
man and to God.
Right Kind of Religion
Secondly, our religion should have our
! business. This is the proposition ] wish
to discuss more particularly this morn
ing. Doubtless we all believe, though we
do not all practice 1t, that our business
should have. our religion; but how many
| of us believe that our business qualifica-
| tions should. be carried over into our re-
| lgious life? But why not?
| Our Lord here compares citizen OF
the kingdom of God to merchantmen
| a busy business man who uses his busi-
ness sense In matters religious. He il
just as much absorbed in winning spiritual
riches as he is in the pursuit of materia
| gain. He is as anxious. to lay up treasure
| in heaven as he Is to increase his bank
account ON earth. And our Lord com
mends this 1t is as it should be. He
needs men in carrying on the work of Hi
kingdom in the world who will use theil
/ business sense In their religious life. II
the beginning of his ministry He passed
by the lake where some men were fishing
and he said, Follow Me and / will make
you fishers of men, He needed the ang
| ler's art in His kingdom. And how wei
| these men used 1t, their after life tells
And again, He saw a man sitting at thu
receipt of custom, and He called him
| He needed a man of detail And 1t wa.
Matthew who wrote the First Gospel set
| ting forth the life and ministry of Jesu.
| with minute detail and scrupulous care
| He called Luke, the physician, and h,
shows in the gospel which bears his nam,
| how we'll he used his knowledge of medi
| cine as he followed Jesus There are som,
beautiful things in the healing ministr,
| of Christ that would have been lost to th
world but for Luke. Now the Master 4
| Just the same today, the kingdom Is th
| same and He still needs men who will
use their business qualifications for Hi
/ glory. This parable Is an appeal Il
| men to bring into religion the same wide
awake business methods which they u.s.
so successfully in the market place, ant
| which, strange to say, they leave benin,
when they go to church.
LET us consider a few of the quail
iflcations that essential to sue
cess in the market place and then le
US bring them over into the churcl
and the religious life and see IL the,
are not also the secrets of success
there. c
How To Succeed
"a man in business to succeed mus
be wide awake. You hear 1t said O
a man who is successful in business
| You never catch him mapping or H
Is always on the job A man like tina
always knows what he is about II
keeps his fingers on the throbbin,
pulse of commerce. He keeps his aler
eye on the weather vane Of trade WheI
methods play out he abandons then
at once. When the possibilities of th
novel present themselves. he Is no
bound hand and foot by precedent. H
is on the lookout for opportunity an,
grabs it by the forelock. He is wild
! awake!
to watch the signs OF the times as i
Is for the merchant. 1t Is as import
ant that the church abandon worn
out methods and adopt the new as /
f1.r the. ms n of hi sinosa haze, .....,a.