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ligion llir iiiglit bi-fort'. One of tlic small buys 

 •<l(vlan'd very vcIumihmiiIv that it was not so; aiul 

 wlii'ii (Hit'Slioin'<l as to why hi' did not Ixdicvi' 

 that Mf. had iroi irliyioii In' said. " Hc- 



■faiisc I saw him «o down sticct a IVw miiuilt's 

 ago. and he had a i-i};ai' in his mouth." A 

 iTowd of otiicr small hoys— street Aial)s thi'y 

 might he eiilN'd stood hy: and w lien they 

 lu>ard his stateiueiii. not one of them dispiiii'd 

 it. Without liiseiissintj the lohaeoo quesiinn 

 heri'. every snuill l)oy seemed to have a elearly 

 •<le(inod oonvietion in his n\ind that the man 

 wlio got religion the night before would not go 

 4I0W11 street smoking a cigar t he next inoriiitig. 

 Well, now . the same kinii of logie or reasoning 

 will tell what the inllui'nces of the Holy Spirit 

 would be. or. if you ehoose. what kind of fruit 

 sueh inllnenees should hear. One of tlii' lirst 

 retjuisites in letting (iod speak through us, and 

 in letting the Holy Spirit deeide matters, is 

 that we avoid hasti'and precipitation. \Mii'n 

 yon are getting into a bad frame of mind, or 

 wlien yon feel that Saiuifs pronudings are 

 coming pretty thick and fast, you must stop 

 mid tell your companion something like this: 

 "I hope you will excuse me. neighbor Jones. 

 but 1 think we haii both IxUter stop right here 

 and take this matter up some other time." If 

 you have the strength of ciiaracter to do t his. 

 you are a pretty safe man. You know what 

 my favorite text says, for I have repeated it 

 often enough: "lie that overcometh. and 

 keepeth my works unto the end. to him will I 

 give power ovei' the nations." 



Sometinies after waiting an liour you will 

 feel so differently about the matter under dis- 

 t'ussion that it will astonish you. If. however. 

 yon are greatly stirred up by soinething that 

 has been on your tiiind a long while, it may 

 take several days to put self down out of the 

 way so that the Holy Spirit can speak to you 

 ■clearly, tellingyou what a Christian ought todo. 

 Now look out for a stubborn spirit that is very 

 likely to come in. This stubborn spii'it will say 

 something like this: "fan"! hel[) it; Christian- 

 ity or no Chiistianity, 1 am not going to be run 

 over in that sort of way by anybody." Look 

 ■out forall such promptings and counsel as this. 

 It comes from the evil (Jiie. I do not mean. 

 mind yon. that you are always to submit to be 

 run over: for my ex])erience is, that a consist(!nt 

 Christian is less likely to b(! run over than al- 

 most anybody else. The man who is quiet and 

 cool, and nevei- raises his voice above its ordi- 

 nary tenor, is the one whom ijeople respect. 

 It is the man who gets to talking loud, and 

 attracting the attention of the passersby with 

 his (piarrels and jangles who is most sure to lie 

 run over at every turn. 



In olden time the prophets prefaced their ut- 

 terances with a ""thus saith the Lord." I do 

 not suppose that tin- Holy Spirit speaks to us 

 now in just the sarins way that it did then: but 

 if we think coolly and calmly, with no seltish 

 schemes or feelings in our hearts, but, rather, a 

 feeling of peace and good will toward all man- 

 kind, we can be jjretty sure to know just wliat 

 the Holy Spirit would say on almost every 

 occasion. It does not tak<! more than a ouarter 

 of a minute to decide what noii would like to 

 do under the circumstances; but it may take us 

 several liours to tight down seltish impulses so 

 that we can hear cli-arly and plainly a " thus 

 saith the Lord" in regard todillicult and trou- 

 blesome matt<'rs. Perhaps the greatest obstacle 

 in the way of receiving and acting upon this 

 wisdom that comes from the Holy .spiiit is self- 

 ishness and self-interest. I have read of some 

 great man who had such a high temper that 

 sometimes he would go off V)y himself and wres- 

 tle with it as he would wrestle with some wild 

 animal. Some of you may smile at such an 



illustration; but the very man who thinks then- 

 is no wild animal inside of him to he. whijjped 

 and put, down is the very man w ho is (Jangerous. 



Now ill conclusion let me urge the importance 

 of my exhortation to-day in a tinancial point 

 of view. The wliole wide world is hunting and 

 clamoring for Iiiisty men— not only men who 

 are honest in dollars and cents, but men w lio 

 can be relied upon to be cool and stea<ly alw ays 

 alike men who will not- kick over their whiile 

 former record by a bit of foolishness now and 

 then; men who have wisdom to look ahead and 

 see what, is coming, and be n-ady for it. In 

 slioi-t. tlii^ world wants men of irisdnin. and it is 

 ready to pay big prices for them when they are 

 found. A collegiate course of study usually 

 gives this sort of wisdom: and men spend long 

 years in the spiingtime of life that they may 

 acipiire this mental drill. And sometimes even 

 t]n'n they forget the grenit promise in our little 

 text — "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask 

 of (iod, who gi\('th to all men liljerally. and 

 upt)raideth not: and it shall lie given him." 



L(^t me now rei)eat once more the principal 

 points of this talk: Ask (Jod for wisdom, just 

 exactly as yon would go for a bucket of water 

 to put out a tire. Von can not carry a bucket 

 of water with you all the while, neither can yon 

 very well provide each morning the water that 

 may be needed during the day. May be you 

 will not need any water at all: pei-haps you will 

 need something else; but when you see that 

 water is needed, go at once for ifdter. When 

 you see that a |)articular kind of wisdom is 

 needed, go for thiit wisdom, and go straight to 

 the (jreat Fitther nlxivc who gave us the promise. 

 Of course, there are emergencies where one can 

 not go off alone. For instance, a neighlior is 

 whipping a horse unmercifully. Cnaided hu- 

 man wisdom would be (luilc likely to say, " Mr. 

 Hrowii. if you strik<' that horse another blow I 

 will have you prosecuted." May be you have- 

 tried that way of doing. If you have, perhaps 

 you have seen a (juafrel betwi^en two neighbors, 

 instead of ainiarrel l)etweeii a man and a horse: 

 and I think we should alw ays nunember that a 

 man is of many times moi-e value than a horse 

 — not that I mean to excuse ci'uelty to animals, 

 l)y any means. In such an emergency as the 

 above, if there is not any time to do any thing 

 more I would l)reathe the little prayer that I 

 have .so often mentioned—" Lord, help." Then 

 I would, if possil)le, get up near the neighbor 

 who is whipi)iiig the horse. There is great gain 

 in coming close to a man. It is like inilling a 

 heavy load. If yon want a team to move it. 

 you must have it close up. The very fact of' 

 your coming up to him at such a time will usu- 

 ally induce him to slack up a little and think. 

 Besides, by the time you get there yon can have 

 time to listen foi words of wisdom from on high: 

 and the promptings of the Holy Spirit, or t7his 

 divine wisdom, will piobably be something like 

 this: "Neighbor Hrovvn. 1 fear you are whip- 

 ping that horse a little harder than you know. 

 Hadn't you better wait a little until you and he 

 both get a little cooled off?" |{y the time you 

 have got thus far the prayer you have breathed 

 will have enal)led you to have a pleasant, good- 

 natured look on y((ur face, and may be a smile 

 as your neighlmr looks at yon to see whether 

 i/oK are nuid and excited too. A little practice 

 in tills kind of work heljis one wonderfully. 

 .And then comes victory. " He that ruleth his 

 own spirit is gntater than he that taketh acity." 

 Now, then, dc^ar brother, the next time you feel 

 like saying to yourself, "Oh I wish 1 knew just 

 H'lKit to do in this matterl" please remember 

 what your old friend has said. If it is a matter 

 that has been on your mind several days, I 

 would advi.se you to get up in the morning 

 before anybody else is stirring. Then go off by 



