^ S. Wilberforce.
* H. Begbie, In the Hand of the Potter, 266. • H. Howard.
244 IN FASHION OR IN FAVOUR
3. We have examined what the words imply. Let us now see some of the consequences which follow.
(1) The danger of thwarting God's will. — Here is the key to the secret history of every careless life amongst us Christians, in its course and in its end. In its course — for such a life is a continuous striving against the will of God for us ; against His gracious will that we should be good, and perfect, and acceptable before Him.
(2) The assurance of success. — What an untold might would be ours in striving against sin, if we did indeed believe it to be God's will that we should overcome in the struggle ! The first condition of success is the expectation of succeeding. How it nerves the soldier's arm to know that he fights under a general who has always conquered. And so it is also in all the conflicts of our spiritual life. The lack of such confidence is one of the most common grounds of our weakness. We do not strengthen our- selves in God ; we doubt His good will towards us ; we practically shut Him out of our thoughts ; and we are lost.
(3) The reality imparted to the spiritual life. — The " proving " of God's will is that which gives a sense of true reality to all the spiritual world around us and within us. God's word, prayer, the holy Sacraments, all the ordinances of Christ's Church, as well as . the more hidden suggestions of the blessed Spirit, through the / heart and conscience — these are all full of a living reality for him who knows that he is here training under the active loving energies of the Almighty Will.
I worship Thee, sweet Will of God !
And all Thy ways adore, And every day I live, I seem
To love Thee more and more.
Thou wert the end, the blessed rule
Of our Saviour's toils and tears ; Thou wert the passion of His Heart
Those three-and-thirty years.
And He hath breathed into my soul
A special love of Thee, A love to lose my will in His,
And by that loss be free.
ROMANS XII. 2 245
He always wins who sides with God,
To him no chance is lost; God's Will is sweetest to him, when
It triumphs at his cost.
When obstacles and trials seem
Like prison-walls to be, I do the little I can do,
And leave the rest to Thee.^
» F. W. Fiber.
Business.
«*y
Literature.
Brooks (P.), Addresses, 51,
Brown (J. B.), The Christian Policy of Life, 109.
Caird (J.), Aspects of Life, 273.
Dale (B. W.), Laws of Christ for Common Life, 1.
Harris (S. S.), The Dignity of Man, 189.
Hopps (J. P.), Sermons of Life and Love, 53.
Horton (R. F.), Brief Sermons for Busy Men, 1.
Lambert (J. C), The Omnipotent Cross, 167.
Mackay (D. S.), The Eeligion of the Threshold, 92.
Rowland (A.), The Exchanged Crovms, 123.
Watkinson (W. L.), The Blind Spot, 201.
"Wilson (J. M.), Truths New and Old, 306, 316, 325,
Christian World Pulpit, iv. 250 (Beecher) ; xxiv. 323 (DaUinger) ;
li. 108 (Lorimer) ; Iv. 72 (Stalker). Church Pulpit Year Booh (1910), 13.
•48
Business.
Not slothful in business. — Rom. xii. ii (AV).
If we take the word "business" in this text in the sense of trade or occupation, we may make the text a starting-point for a consideration of the relation between business and religion. Let us put the question thus: Is it possible to be a Christian in business? And let us endeavour to answer it by answering the following questions : — I. What is Business ?
II. What hinders one from being a Christian in Business ? Ill, What helps one to be a Christian in Business ?
I.
What is Business?
The word " business " has come to mean much in our daily speech. Its meaning, as we use it, cannot be expressed by any single word in any other language. Like "home" and "neigh- bour," it enshrines a tradition and stands for a history. It means a vast department of human activity, in which all the movements of labour and commerce are included. It now stands for a far- reaching estate, which, though it cannot be claimed that the Anglo-Saxon race created it, has undoubtedly been organized by English-speaking peoples, who have made it the controlling power in the modern political world. The old sneer that the English are a nation of shopkeepers has lost its point though not its truth. More than aU other secular agencies, the business enter- prise of the English-speaking races has blessed the human race. It has led the van in the triumphal progress of Christian civili- zation. It has opened up continents, peopled deserts, and whitened solitary seas with the sails of commerce.
250 BUSINESS
Thus the old English word "business" has come to have a definite and noble meaning. It stands for a mighty commonwealth wherein men and nations are intimately related to each other. It has its own laws, enacted by the Supreme Law-giver, which senates and parliaments do not need to enact and cannot set aside. It enforces these laws by the swift and unerring awards of success or failure. It builds its own capitals in many lands on spots designated by God Himself, and in them it erects stately palaces which far outstrip the pride and magnificence of former ages. It has its own leaders, and it sets one up and pulls another down according as each obeys or disobeys its behests. Kings and cabinets are obedient to its commands. Armies are now little more than its auxiliaries, the hired mercenaries with which it protects its interests. A monarch surrounded by Oriental pomp in his Eastern capital dares to interfere with the interests of a lumber company in Burma. An English expeditionary army sets out from Calcutta, marches to Mandalay, dethrones that mad and foolish king, and sees to it that the injured lumber company shall cut their logs of teak on the mountains of Burma in security and peace. When Muscovite or Austrian ambition marshals its legions, or Moslem fanaticism musters its Asiatic hordes, the business interests of Europe and the world call a halt to the fierce armies and insist that peace shall not be broken or war declared except as they shall dictate. The success or failure of campaigns, of diplomacy, of statesmanship is registered instantly, in all the world's markets, in the rise or fall of prices, in the establishment or impairment of business confidence. And so it has come to pass that almost all the practical concerns of the world have fallen under the iufluence of its potent mastery, and yield to the demands and movements of business.