Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-11-22
Young Business Men.
ONE OF rALMAeE's BEST SERMONS

lOlIOWS lEOm TIC lOllOWIuS tcASs
Acts xvi, IA: '.And certain woma
named Lydia, seller of purple of th
city of Thyatira, which worshippe
God, heard US whose heart the Lor
opened"
Proverbs xii, %: "Seest thou maj
diligent in business? I? he shall stand be
fore kings"
The first passage introduces to yol
Lydia, Christian merchantess. He
business is to deal in purple cloths o
silks. She is not giggliDg noDenity
but practical woman, not ashamed 4
work for her living. All the other wo
men of Philippi and Thyatira have beer
forgotten; but God has made immOrta
in our text. Lydia. the Christian sales
woman The other text shows you .
man with head and hand and heart an(
foot all busy toiling on up until he gain
a princely success. "Seest thou q mar
diligent in his business? he shall staDG
before kings" Great eDcouragementir ir
these two passages for men and women
who will be busy, but no g. lace for those
ho are waiting for good luck to show
them, at the foot Of the rainbow, q caske1
of buried gold.
I would like to fire the ambition O1
young people. I have no sympathy
with those who would prepare young
folks tor life by whittliDg down theil
expectations That man or woman will
be worth nothing to Church or State
who begins life cOwed down. The bu-
siDess of Christianity is not to qnench,
but to direct human ambition, There
fore, it is that 1 come out this evening
and utter words of encouragement to
those who are occupied as clerks in tbs
stores and shops and banking houses OF
the country.
In the first place, counsel clerks to
remember that for the most part their
clerkship Is only school from which
they are to be graduated. 1t takes
about eight years to get one of the
eight years to get to be merchant
Some of you will be clerks all your lives,
but the vast majority of you are only
in transient position. After awhile,
some December day, the head men OF
the firm will call you into the back office
and they will say to you: "Now, you
have done we'll by US, we are going to
do well by you. We inviteyo to have
an interest in our concern" You will
bow to that edict very gracefully, Get-
ting into street car to 60 home, an old
comrade will meet you and say: "What
makes you look SO happy to night ?''
"Oh," you will say, nothing, moth
ing" But in a few days your name
will blossom on the sign. Either in the
store or bank where you are now or in
some other store or bank you will take a
higher position than that which you
now occupy. So feel tonight that /
am standing before people who will yet
have their hand on the helm of the
worlds commerce, and you will turn
it this way or that; now clerks, but to
be bankers, importers, insurance COM
pany directors, shippers, contractors,
superintendents of railroads-your voice
mighty on 'chapge-standing foremost
in the great financial and religious en-
terprises of the day. For though we
VINO are in the professions may on the
platform plead for the phllanthrOpies,
after all the merchants must come forth
with their millions to sustain the move~
ment.
But you say: "Will the womauly
clerks in our stores have promotion ?''
Yes. Time is coming when women
will be as well paid for their toll in
mercantile circles as men are now paid
for their toll Time is coming when a
woman will be allowed to do anything
she can do well. 1t is only little while
ago when woman knew nothing of tel
egraphy, and they were kept out of a
great many commercial circles where
they are now welcome; and the time
will 90 on until the woman who, at one
counter sells $25, 900 worth of goods in
a year, will get as high salary as the man
who, at the other counter of the same
store. sells $25, 900 worth of goods. All
honor to Lydia, the Christian sales
woman.
Again, I counsel clerks in this house
to search out what are the unlawful and
dishonest demands of an establishment
and resist them. In the 900 y ears that
have passed there has never been an oc
casion when it was ones duty to sin
against God. 1t is never right to do
wrong. In this day when there are SO
many rivalries in business, all our com
mercial establishments ought to have
men abroad who are seeking out for Op
portunities of merchandise. There can
be no objection to that. But there are
prOfessed Christian merchants in the
week night prayer meeting who have
clerks abroad in New York, conducting
merchants of Cincinnati aud Chicago
and St. Louis through the debaucheries
of the great town in order to secure
their custom for the store. There are
in New York and Brooklyn drawers in
which there is kept money which the
clerks are 10 go and get whenever they
want to conduct these people through
the slums of the city. The head men
of the firm wink at it, and in come
places actually demand it-professed
ntnts IL L, /,
that the prayer would freeze on theil
lips. and they would fall back dead al
the sound of their own song. What
chance is there for young men when
commercial establishments expect such
things of them? Among all things in
ferhal pronounce that the most dam.
naple. Young man, how will that firm
treat you when you ale utterly besOileC
and dragged out with sin, going through
the haunts OF iniquity for the purpose
How will they treat you? Oh, they
build you a fine house! They will Civ,
you horse and carriage! viii they
No. Some day you will 60 to, the store
service, and they will say, "John, yoI
are disgrace to our house. Now, JUS
look at yourself! Accountant. how
much do we owe this man? "A dolla
and thirty cents Well, now, here
here it is, dollar and thirty cents. G,
off! Don't be hanging around tn
store" Magnanimity superb! The,
stole the lustre from his eye, and tb,
color from his cheek, and the homo
from his soul, and then they kicke,
him out If such Christian merchant
do not go straight to he'll, don't know
any use Of having such a place. M,
word is to all clerks in this house: B.
mightier than your temptations.
After the last store has been closed
after the last bank has gone down, afte
the shuttle of the quick feet on The Gus
tom house steps has stopped. after tn
long line of merchantmen on the se
have taken sail of flame, after Brook lyn
and New York, and London, and Wien
ma have gone down into the grave
! where Thebes, and Babylon; and Tyr
lie buried, after the great fire. bell of th
judgment day has toiled at the burnin,
of the wOrld-on that day all the affair
of banking houses and stores will com
up for inspection. On, what an open
ing of account books? Side by side th
clerks and the men who employ ed then
the people who owned thread au
needle stores m tho sarno foOtinu Uis]