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Could I Do Business? A. B. Earle

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TOPIC and SUBTOPIC: Business As A Christian, Possible, If Not Sinful

TITLE: Could I Do Business?

Could I go on with my business if I become a Christian?

That would depend on what your business is. If you are engaged in a wicked business, you would have to give it up. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But to be a faithful Christian never interferes with any lawful business or pleasure, on the sea or on the land.

I heard of one of New Yorks largest merchants, with a multitude of employees, yet, meet him where you would, he was always ready to converse on the subject of religion. He seemed filled with the love of Christ. They thought no one could enjoy religion as he claimed to, and perform the amount of work he did.

So they went to his store, and watched him. Whenever the clock struck, he would withdraw into another room for a moment or two. They managed to see what he did in that room. He would drop on his knee for a moment, and thank God that he had kept him another hour, and ask grace for the next hour. When asked about it, he said:

"Why, brethren, I serve God by the hour, and by his grace I mean to serve him by the half hour pretty soon."

Could he go on with his business, and yet be a faithful Christian?

I met the professors and students in Knox College in Illinois, while holding a meeting in that town, and said to them:

"I always wanted to stop any man when I heard him asking persons to give up all for religion, and request him to explain himself. Did he mean that that husband and wife should separate? Not at all.

"Should a student give up his studies to be a Christian? No.

"Should business men give up lawful, honorable business to serve the Lord? Not in the least. What, then, does the Saviour require me to give up, to be his obedient, happy child?

NOT ONE PROPER THING. Christ never asked me to give up one thing except what was sinful. The fullness of Christ's love was never designed to make one real pleasure less.

The students took hold of this thought, and the president wrote me nearly every one of them had either become a Christian, or had asked to be prayed for that they might be.

So then the joy of the Lord is the Christians strength. Christ only wishes to take from us what is sinful, and would hinder our highest enjoyment here, and our eternal happiness beyond. Will you become a Christian then? If not, why not?

A. B. Earle, From: Incidents Used … In His Meetings, published in 1888.