The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-11-18

4
basiness.n After while you and | VIII
come up before the throne of God in
Judgment. How if Christ should say
to US: "Right is right and wrong is wrong
Iou did a thousand wrong things in your
life; you neglected thousand duties. De-
part, ye cursea Business is busineSs"
There is IA old book that says something
like this: with what Judgment ye mete it
shall be measured to You again" | woull
rather take the opportunity, the chance OF
Archibald Sloane in the Judgment.
My subject also impresSes me with the fact
that business life is q school for the obtaining
of very important knowledge Business men
for the most part do not real books Tho
business men of America do not average one
ligent if they have ucceeded-intelligent on
questions of finance and Jurisprudence and
geography and ethics and morals. They are
compelled to intelligence by the activities of
business life. Often some of those who have
large libraries know nothing about them.
Their libraries are established in the same
way as when in England library was to be
established and a Secretary wrote to book
seller; Send my master six feet of theology
and about as much metaphysics and some
thing like yard Of old civil law" And yet,
though they as class do not read many
books, they are compelled by their style
Of life to intelligence. Misfortune is a
harsh schoolmistress, and when q pupil
will not learn she strikes him with irrevoca-
BILE loss. You put 5000 in business and tits
gone, You say these 5000 are all wasted"
No, they were the tuition-expensive school
ing-but it is worth it Traders in grains
are compelled to be intelligent in regard to
foreign harvests Traders in fruits
are compelled to bo intelligent in
fruits. Manufacturers OF American goods
are compelled to be intelligent in regard to
the tariff on imported articles The question
that want to pre- ent to you this morning
is, have you applied your intelligence in the
Christian directionl Trading with foreign
lands, are you not interested in foreign mis-
sions' Understanding how in business there
is so much fraud and chicanery
and double dealing are, you advo-
cate all wrong and irradiate all
darkness and correct all mistakes and up
lift all wretchedness! Understanding as you
do all the intricacies of business, do you uG-
derstand that there is something for the soul
which will last after all bills of exchange
and invoices and rent rolls shall have crum-
bled up and been consumed in the fires of
Judgment day. Wise for time, are you
wise, my brother, for eternitY2 "What
shall it profit man if he gain the whole
world and then lose his soul!'
l go further fand remark TO you that bIsi-
ness life is school for integrity. Itrequires
more business grace W than it did in the
time when there were no stock gamblers and
wooden was woolen and silk was silk and
men were mea. There n>ver was time
when there were so many temptations to
s,oundrelism as there are t2-day. There
are so many men doing business on a wrong
scale in all departments that if a
man starts cut and stakes a straight path for
Himself it is called verdancy, it is as
cribed to lack of tact, business tact. You
know better than | do how true all this is,
and how you, the Christian man, trying to
live faithful to God AMI do justice to your
soul AMI the s3uls of Others, you know how
many obsta lies you have to run against In
the city OF New York q young man
was selling, goods, and after, no had
sold silk dress to lady he
said; Madame | feel bound to tell you
that there is a fracture in that silk :" why"
she said, then don't want it She de-
parted without the goods. The head man
of the firm came and said: "What was that
customer wantiuga' Well" the ether re-
pile |, ''she bought this dress, but felt bound
to tell her there was fracture in the silk,
so she went off without it, The
counting room and wro5e q letter to the
young mans father in the country; Come to
town quickly AMI take vour boy" The old
farmer came down to the city in great agita
tion, wondering what his boy had been
doing, AMI he went into the store, and the
stances and said: Your son will
never make merchant" The old farmer
said; "Is that all? Is that ell my
boy has been doing, pointing out the imper-
fections in tie goods Well, always was
proud of John and | am prou1er now than
'er. John get your hat and come home.
And tell YONG men it is always safe to do
right and it is never safe to do wrong. God
will never let young man like that suffer.
Oh, how hard sometimes it is to take tho
straight path wAen 50 many are divergent.
And yet there are those. l believe they
are in the ma GRITTY. believe there is
hig er STYLE of commercial ethics than ever
before and I believe they are in the ma
jor.ty, the men who can say: II never mis-
state tie value OF goods, | never covered up
the imperfection in fabric. In all Of my
money there is not a dishoue t farthug. Col
help me- II you do not know such men |
am sorry for your a'Gnaintances know
many such. They are as hon st as the day
they sold their Fl st yard of cloth, or
their first firkn Of butter So it will be ell
the way thr, u Tie school OF life has de-
yeloped them Tley can say their prayers
without being haunted by the chink of dis
honest dollars They can read their bible
without thinking Of the time when with q lie
| on their soul they kissed TIE book in the Gus
tom House TEey can think of death with
cut having their teeth chatter at the thought
| Of q iudgmenuwhere defrauders and jockeys
| aud tricksters and charlatans shall be doubly
| damned They car read without finching:
''As partridge setteth on eggs and hatcheth
them not so ri, hes g; t By fTald, man shall
leave them in the midst Of his days, and at
the end he shall lie fool.' Are you being
developed upward by the school of
business life, or are YOU being
yesterday in an old book of scene that oc-
! CURED in New York City. Mr.. N was
| in a group Of gentlemen, and he said: IF
had 5000 coa'd 6ouble The money in a
short time in business, but don't kno"
| where | shall get the S5,0J0.h There was
Georgia planter standing by, and he rh said:
security, can You give for it," "Well" he
| said, ''the word of an honest man:
"rll take that as security" sad
the George planter ra 80 O,ssas ne o, gaSss ans
the Georgia planter was in business trouble.
HIS fortuHes had failed and he must raiss
5000. and he said to himself: Now, will
90 to that man in New York whom | helped
| and / think he will help me-" he came to
New York. He told the man his perr22iee1'3, r g N
ity. He said: Il loaned you, s3,oo
me- me- s5.COln "Wen,d said tn, other
what security will You give mei' He re.
piled: '.Ths word of an hon sst man. II can't
let you have it on that ground" He did not
LET him have it. Business life, how it de-
yelors some men up and how it develops
| Others down. What vast multitudes are
ground to powder. when God intended all
the hardships, all the anuoyancas, all tn,
yexations and all the activities an oppor-
tunity for developing the soul for usefulnsss
and for Heaven.
Now, if these things be 50, it seems to me
that we ought to enlarge our sympathies to-
ward business men. 1t is shame that in our
pulpits we do not oftener speak of their
trails, their misfortunes and their hardships
The fat is, the men who toll with the
hand ere not always sympathetic with
those who toll with the brain. The
man who raises the corn and the
wheat is apt to think that the grain mer-
chant gets his money easily. Does he. am
sorry to see t1at the fist Is often 5ealous OF
the brain. Plato and Aristotle were so o2-
po=ed to commerce that they pronounced 1t
the curse of the nations, and they advised
that no city ever be built nearer the saboard
than ten miles. But yen and have learned
Saat there are no more faithful o.
more conseeratel men than those to be
found in business life, and that they lift a
burden heavier than the carrying OF a hoi
up the ladder or the wall, and that they get
o,t into axnns,lras sharper than the northeast