523. Ante-Mortem Religion

(A New Year’92s Sermon.)

Ante-Mortem Religion

(A New Year’92s Sermon.)

1Ti_4:8 : ’93Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.’94

There is a gloomy and passive way of waiting for events to come upon us, and there is a heroic way of going out to meet them, strong in God and fearing nothing. When the body of Catiline was found on the battlefield it was found far in advance of all his troops and among the enemy; and the best way is not for us to lie down and let the events of life trample over us, but to go forth in a Christian spirit determined to conquer.

The papers are already made out, and to-morrow some of you will enter into business partnership, and others of you will take higher position in the commercial establishment where you are now engaged, and others will enter upon new enterprises, and there will be in these cities ten thousand business changes. You are expecting prosperity, and I am determined, so far as I have anything to do with it, that you shall not be disappointed, and therefore I propose, as God may help me this morning, to project upon your attention a new element of success. You will have in the business firm frugality, patience, industry, perseverance, economy’97a very strong business firm,’97but there needs be one member added, mightier than them all, and not a silent partner either’97the one introduced by my text: ’93Godliness which is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come.’94

I suppose you are willing to admit that Godliness is important in its eternal relations; but perhaps some of you say, ’93All I want is an opportunity to say a prayer before I die and all will be well.’94 There are a great many people who suppose that if they can finally get safely out of this world into a better world, they will have exhausted the entire advantage of our holy religion. They talk as though religion were a mere nod of recognition which we are to give to the Lord Jesus on our way up to a heavenly mansion; as though it were an admission ticket, of no use except to give in at the door of heaven. And there are thousands of people who have great admiration for a religion of the shroud, and a religion of the coffin, and a religion of the hearse, and a religion of the cemetery, who have no appreciation of a religion for the bank, for the factory, for the warehouse, for the jeweler’92s shop, for the broker’92s office.

Now, while I would not throw any slur on a postmortem religion, I want this morning, and in the first Sabbath of the new year, to eulogize an ante-mortem religion. A religion that is of no use to you while you live, will be of no use to you when you die. ’93Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come.’94 And I have always noticed that when the grace is very low in a man’92s heart he talks a great deal in prayer meetings about deaths, and about coffins, and about graves, and about churchyards. I have noticed that the healthy Christian, the man who is living near to God, and is on the straight road to heaven, is full of jubilant satisfaction, and talks about the duties of his life, understanding well that if God helps him to live right he will help him to die right.

Now, in the first place, I remark that Godliness is good for a man’92s physical health. I do not mean to say that it will restore a broken-down constitution, or drive rheumatism from the limbs, or neuralgia from the temples, or pleurisy from the side; but I do mean to say that it gives one such habits and puts one in such condition as is most favorable for physical health. That I believe, and that I avow. Everybody knows that buoyancy of spirit is good physical advantage. Gloom, unrest, dejection are at war with every pulsation of the heart, and with every respiration of the lungs. It lowers the vitality, it slackens the circulation, while exhilaration of spirit pours the very balm of heaven through all the currents of life. The sense of insecurity which sometimes hovers over an unregenerate man, or pounces upon him with the blast of ten thousand trumpets of terror, is most depleting and most exhausting, while the feeling that all things are working together for my good now and for my everlasting welfare, is productive of physical health.

You will observe that Godliness induces industry, which is the foundation of good health. There is no law of hygiene that will keep a lazy man well. Pleurisy will stab him, erysipelas will burn him, jaundice will discolor him, gout will cripple him, and the intelligent physician will not prescribe antiseptic, or febrifuge, or anodyne, but saws and hammers and yardsticks and crowbars and pickaxes. There is no such thing as good physical condition without positive work of some kind, although you should sleep upon down of swan, or ride in carriage of softest upholstery, or have on your table all the luxuries that were poured from the wine vats of Ispahan and Shivaz. Our religion says, ’93Away to the bank! away to the shop! away to the factory! do something that will enlist all the energies of your body, mind and soul.’94 Diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, while upon the bare back of the idler and the drone comes down the sharp lash of the apostle as he says: ’93If any man will not work, neither shall he eat.’94

How important in this day, when so much is said about anatomy and physiology and therapeutics, and some new style of medicine is ever and anon springing upon the world, that you should understand that the highest school of medicine is the school of Christ, which declares that ’93Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come.’94 So, if you start out two men in the world with equal physical health, and then one of them shall get the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ in his heart, and the other shall not get it, the one who becomes a son of the Lord Almighty will live the longer. ’93With long life will I satisfy thee, and show thee My salvation.’94

Again, I remark that Godliness is good for the intellect. I know some have supposed that just as soon as a man has entered into the Christian life, his intellect goes into a bewildering process. So far from that, religion will give new brilliancy to the intellect, new strength to the imagination, new force to the will and wider swing to all the intellectual faculties. Christianity is the great central fire in which philosophy has lighted its brightest torch. The religion of the Lord Jesus Christ is the fountain out of which learning has dipped its clearest draught. The Helicon poured forth no such inspiring waters as those which flow from under the throne of God clear as crystal. Religion has given new energy to Poesy, weeping in Dr. Young’92s ’93Night Thoughts,’94 teaching in Cowper’92s ’93Task,’94 flaming in Charles Wesley’92s hymns, and rushing with archangelic splendor through Milton’92s ’93Paradise Lost.’94 The religion of Jesus Christ has hung in studio and in gallery of art and in Vatican, the best pictures’97Titian’92s ’93Assumption,’94 Raphael’92s ’93Transfiguration,’94 Ruben’92s ’93Descent from the Cross,’94 Claude’92s ’93Burning Bush’94 and Angelo’92s ’93Last Judgment.’94 Religion has made the best music of the world. Haydn’92s ’93Creation,’94 Handel’92s ’93Messiah,’94 Mozart’92s ’93Requiem.’94

Is it possible that a religion which builds such indestructible monuments, and which lifts its ensign on the highest promontories of worldly power, can have any effect upon a man’92s intellect but elevation and enlargement? Now, I commend Godliness as the best mental discipline’97better than belles lettres to purify the taste, better than mathematics to harness the mind to all intricacy and elaboration, better than logic to marshal the intellectual forces for onset and victory. It will go with the botanist and show him celestial glories encamped under the curtain of a water-lily. It will go with the astronomer on the heights where God shepherds the great flock of worlds, that wander on the hills of heaven answering His voice as He calls them all by their names.

Again I remark, that Godliness is profitable for one’92s disposition. Lord Ashley, before he went into a great battle, was heard to offer this prayer: ’93O! Lord, I shall be very busy today; if I forget Thee, forget me not.’94 With such a Christian disposition as that, a man is independent of all circumstances. Our piety will have a tinge of our natural temperament. If a man be cross and sour and fretful naturally, after he becomes a Christian he will always have to be armed against the rebellion of those evil inclinations; but religion has tamed the wildest nature; it has turned fretfulness into gratitude, despondency into good cheer, and those who were hard and ungovernable and uncompromising have been made pliable and conciliatory. Good resolution, reformatory effort, will not effect the change. It takes a mightier arm and a mightier hand to bend evil habits than the hand that bent the bow of Ulysses, and it takes a stronger lasso than ever held a buffalo on the prairie. A man cannot go forth with any human weapons and contend successfully against these Titans armed with uptorn mountain. But you have known men into whose spirit the influence of the Gospel of Christ came, until their disposition was entirely changed. So it was with two merchants in New York. They were very antagonistic. They had done all they could to injure each other. They were in the same line of business. One of the merchants was converted to God. Having been converted, he asked the Lord to teach him how to bear himself toward that business antagonist, and he was impressed with the fact that it was his duty when a customer asked for a certain kind of goods which he had not, but which he knew his opponent had, to recommend him to go to that store. I suppose that is about the hardest thing a man can do; but being thoroughly converted to God, he resolved to do that very thing and being asked for a certain kind of goods which he had not, he said: ’93You go to such and such a store and you will get it.’94 After a while, merchant number two found these customers coming, so sent, and he found that merchant number one had been brought to God, and he sought the same religion. Now they are good friends and good neighbors, the grace of God entirely changing their disposition.

’93Oh!’94 says some one, ’93I have a rough, jagged, impetuous nature, and religion can’92t do anything for me.’94 Do you know that Robert Newton and Richard Baxter were impetuous, all-consuming natures, yet the grace of God turned them into the mightiest usefulness? A manufacturer cares very little for a stream that slowly runs through the meadow, but prefers a torrent that leaps from rock to rock, and rushes with mad energy through the valley and out toward the sea. Along that river you will find fluttering shuttles and grinding mill and flashing water-wheel. And a nature the swiftest, the most rugged and the most conquering, that is the nature God turns into greatest usefulness. How many who have been pugnacious, and hard to please, and irascible, and more bothered about the mote in their neighbor’92s eye than about the beam like ship-timber in their own eye, have been entirely changed by the grace of God, and have found out that ’93Godliness is profitable for the life that now is as well as for the life which is to come.’94

Again I remark that religion is good for a man’92s worldly business. I know the general theory is the more business the less religion, the more religion the less business. Not so thought Dr. Hans in his ’93Biography of a Christian Merchant,’94 when he says: ’93He grew in grace the last six years of his life more than at any time in his life; during those six years he had more business crowding him than at any other time.’94 In other words, the more worldly business a man has, the more opportunity to serve God. Does religion exhilarate or retard worldly business? is the practical question for you to discuss. Does it hang like a mortgage over the farm? Is it a bad debt on the ledger? Is it a lien against the estate? Does it crowd the door through which customers come for broadcloths and silks?

Now, religion will hinder your business if it be a bad business, or if it be a good business wrongly conducted. If you tell lies behind the counter, if you use false weights and measures, if you put sand in sugar, and beet juice in vinegar, and lard in butter, and sell for one thing that which is another thing, then religion will interfere with that business; but a lawful business, lawfully conducted, will find the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ its mightiest auxiliary.

Religion will give an equipoise of spirit, it will keep you from ebullitions of temper’97and you know a great many fine businesses have been blown to atoms by a bad temper’97it will keep you from worriment about frequent loss, it will keep you industrious and prompt, it will keep you back from squandering and from dissipation, it will give you a kindness of spirit which will be easily distinguished from the mere store courtesy which shakes hands violently with you, asking about the health of your family when there is no anxiety to know whether your child is well or sick, but the anxiety is to know how many dozen cambric pocket-handkerchiefs you will take and pay cash down. It will prepare you for the practical duties of everyday life. I do not mean to say that religion will make us financially successful, but I do say it will assure us of a comfortable sustenance at the start, a comfortable subsistence all the way through, and it will help us to direct the bank, to manage the traffic, to conduct all our business matters, and to make the most insignificant affair of our life a matter of vast importance glorified by Christian principle.

In New York city there was a merchant hard in his dealings with his fellows, who had written over his banking-house or his counting-house room ’93No compromise.’94 Then, when some merchant got in a crisis and went down’97no fault of his, but a conjunction of evil circumstances’97and all the other merchants were willing to compromise’97they would take seventy-five cents on the dollar, or fifty cents, or twenty cents; coming to this man last of all, he said: ’93No compromise; I’92ll take one hundred cents on the dollar, and I can afford to wait.’94 Well, the wheel turned, and after a while that man was in a crisis of business, and he sent out his agents to compromise, and the agents said to the merchants: ’93Will you take fifty cents on the dollar?’94 ’93No.’94 ’93What will you take?’94 ’93We’92ll take one hundred cents on the dollar. No compromise.’94 And the man who wrote that inscription over his counting-house door died in destitution. Yes, we want more of the kindness of the Gospel and the spirit of love in our business enterprises. How many young men have found the religion of Jesus Christ a practical help! How many there are in this house today who could testify out of their own experience that Godliness is profitable for the life that now is. There were times in their business career when they went here for help, and there for help, and yonder for help, and got no help before they knelt before the Lord crying for His deliverance, and the Lord rescued them. In a bank not far from our great metropolis’97a village bank’97an officer could not balance his accounts. He had worked at them day after day, night after night, and he was sick nigh unto death as a result. He knew he had not taken one farthing from the bank, but somehow, for some reason inscrutable then, the accounts wouldn’92t balance. The time rolled on, and the morning of the day when the books should pass under the inspection of the other officers arrived, and he felt himself in awful peril, conscious of his own integrity but unable to prove that integrity. That morning he went to the bank early, and he knelt down before God and told the whole story of his mental anguish, and he said: ’93Oh, Lord! I have done right; I have preserved my integrity, but here I am about to be overthrown unless Thou wilt come to my rescue. Lord, deliver me.’94 And for one hour he continued the prayer before God, and then he rose, and he went to an old blotter that he had forgotten all about. He opened it, and there lay a sheet of figures which he only needed to add to another line of figures’97some line of figures he had forgotten, and knew not where he had laid them, and the accounts were balanced, and the Lord delivered him. You are an infidel if you do not believe it. God answered his prayer as He will answer your prayer, O man of business, in every crisis when you come to Him.

Now, if this be so, then I am persuaded, as you are, of the fact that the vast majority of Christians do not fully test the value of their religion. They are like a farmer in California, with fifteen thousand acres of good wheat land and culturing only a quarter of an acre. Why do you not go forth and make the religion of Jesus Christ a practical affair every day of your business life, and all this year, beginning now and to-morrow morning putting into practical effect his holy religion, and demonstrating in your life that Godliness is profitable here as well as hereafter? How can you get along without this religion? Is your physical health so good you do not want this divine tonic? Is your mind so clear, so vast, so comprehensive, that you do not want this divine inspiration? Is your worldly business so thoroughly established that you have no use for that religion which has been the help and deliverance of tens of thousands of men in crises of worldly trouble?

And if what I have said this morning is true, then you see what a fatal blunder it is when a man adjourns to life’92s expiration the uses of religion. A man who postpones religion to fifty years of age gets religion fifty years too late. He may get into the kingdom of God by final repentance, but what can compensate him for a whole lifetime unalleviated and uncomforted? You want religion today in the training of that child. You will want religion to-morrow in dealing with that Western customer. You wanted religion yesterday to curb your temper. Is your arm strong enough to beat your way through the floods? Can you, without being encased in the mail of God’92s eternal help, go forth amid the assault of all hell’92s sharpshooters? Can you walk alone across these crumbling graves, and amid these gaping earthquakes? Can you, waterlogged and mast-shivered, outlive the gale?

Oh, how many there have been who, postponing the religion of Jesus Christ, have plunged into mistakes they never could correct although they lived fifty years after, and, like serpents crushed under cart wheels, dragging their mauled bodies under the rocks to die; so these men have fallen under the wheel of awful calamity, crushed here, destroyed forever, while a vast multitude of others have taken the religion of Jesus Christ into everyday life, and first, in practical business affairs, and secondly, on the throne of heavenly triumph, have illustrated, while angels looked on and a universe approved, the glorious truth that ’93Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life which now is, as well as of that which is to come.’94

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage