business now. I went the other night. There was
a large party at our house, and my husband wanted us to go, and we
went; but when the curtain lifted, everything looked so different. I
said to my husband, 'This is no place for me; this is horrible. I am
not going to stay here, I am going home.' He said, 'Don't make a fool
of yourself. Everyone has heard that you have been converted in the
Moody meetings, and if you go out, it will be all through fashionable
society, I beg of you don't make a fool of yourself by getting up and
going out.' But I said, 'I have been making a fool of myself all of my
life.'"

Now, the theater hadn't changed, but she had got something better and
she was going to overcome the world. "They that are after the flesh do
mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the
things of the Spirit." When Christ has the first place in your heart
you are going to get victory. Just do whatever you know will please
Him. The great objection I have to these things is that they get the
mastery, and become a hindrance to spiritual growth.

Business.

It may be that we have got to overcome in _business_. Perhaps it is
business morning, noon and night, and Sundays, too. When a man will
drive like Jehu all the week and like a snail on Sunday, isn't there
something wrong with him? Now, business is legitimate; and a man is
not, I think, a good citizen that will not go out and earn his bread
by the sweat of his brow; and he ought to be a good business man, and
whatever he does, do thoroughly. At the same time, if he lays his
whole heart on his business, and makes a god of it, and thinks more of
it than anything else, then the world has come in. It may be very
legitimate in its place--like fire, which, in its place, is one of the
best friends of man; out of place, is one of the worst enemies of
man;--like water, which we cannot live without; and yet, when not in
place, it becomes an enemy.

So my friends, that is the question for you and me to settle. Now look
at yourself. Are you getting the victory? Are you growing more even in
your disposition? are you getting mastery over the world and the
flesh?

And bear this in mind: Every temptation you overcome makes you
stronger to overcome others, while every temptation that defeats you
makes you weaker. You can become weaker and weaker, or you can become
stronger and stronger. Sin takes the pith out of your sinews, but
virtue makes you stronger. How