The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-11-05

Of Frightening up your intellect and of in
creasing your knowledge merely 70 get
larger treasures and grander businessi O,
no! Can it be that you have been learning
about foreign lands and people that dwell
under other skies, and yet have no mission
airy spirit Can it be that you have been
learning the follies and trickeries and hel-
lOwness Of the business world, and yet you
are not trying to bring to bear upon them
this Gospel which is to correct all abuses,
and abolish all ignorance, and correct all
mistakes, and arrest all crime, and irradi.
ate all darkness, and lift up all wretched-
nesss Can it be that, Notwithstanding your
acquaintance with the intricacies Of busi-
ness, you are ignorant Of those things
which will last the soul long after bills of
| exchange and commission, and invoices
and consignments, and rent rolls, have
| crumpled up and consumed in the fires Of q
| judgment dayi .
| Again: God intended business life to be
TO you q school of Christian integrity. No
| age Of the world ever offered so many IN
| 6ucements for scoundrelism as are offered
| now. There is hardly statute on the ls.&
| books that has not some back door ttx.t1gn
| which miscrcants can escape. JG.r.s many
| receptions in the fabric Of Re.Sr. CONNER
cial life plies the land with trrckeries innu-
, merable, and there are so many people in
| Brooklyn and New York who live life Of
plumber, that when man proposes q
straightforward, honest business, 1t is al
most charged to greenness and want of
| tact. All, my brethren, this ought not to
| be. But l have 10 tell you that it requires
| more grace to be honest now than it did in
! the days of our fathers, when business was
plain, and there was no stock gamblers. and
| wooden was wooden, and silk was silk, and
| men were men. How rare it is that you
| find a man who can from his heart say: Il
never cheated in trade; never overesti-
| mated the value Of goods when l was SELL
| ing item; I never covered up defect in a
fabric; never played upon the ignorance
of customer, and in all my estate there il
| not one dishonest farthing."
There are those who can say it. They
| never let their integrity bow or cringe to
present advantage. They are as pure and
| Christian now as on the day when they sold
their first tierce of rice, or their first iirkin
! of butter. There were times when they
could have robbed a partner; when they
| could have absconded with the funds Of a
bank; when they could have sprung snap
judgment; when they could have borrowed
| illinitably; when they could have made a
false assignment; when they could have
| ruined a neishbor for the purpose of pick
ing up some of the fragments: but they
| never took one step on that pathway of hell
| fire. Now they can pray without being
haunted with the chink OF dishonest
| gold; now they can read the Bible without
| thinking Of the &ay when, with lie on
their soul, they kissed a book in the custom
house; now they can look into the laughing
faces of their children without thinking of
orphans left by them penniless and hoSse-
less; now they can think of death without
having their knees knock together, and
their hearts sink, and their teeth chatter,
because there is judgment where all de-
frauders, aud Jockeys. and tricksters, and
charlatahs, shall be doubly damned. Now
they can read in the Bible without finch
ing: Gas the partridge stitch on eggs
and matches them not; SO he shat gctteth
riches. and not by right, shall leave them
in the midst of LSs days, and at the end
shall be fool"
Alas! if any Of you, for tho purpose Of
getting out OF temporary embarrassment.
dare to sell your soal, or any portion of it
You may wake up in the midst Of embar-
rassnent and say: ''No enc is looking; this
transaction may be a little out of the way,
but it is only once, only once.' On that
ual nature, but you despoil your business
prospects. You put one dishonest dollar in
an estate but it will not stand. You may
take dishonest dollar and put it down in
the very depths Of the earth, and you may
roll on the top of it rocks and mountains,
and on the top Of those rocks and mount
aims you may put all the banks and mon
eyed institutions, pilirg them up heaven
high, but that one dishonest dollar down in
the depths OF the earth will begin to rock,
and hcavc. and upturn itself until it comes
to the resurrection of demnation. You can
not hide dishonest dollar.
in the review of this subject there are
two or three things l want to say. and the
first is, let US have larger sympathy for
business men. think it is shame that
in our pulpits we do not oftener preach on
this subject and show that we appreciate
the SORROWS, and struggles, and tempta-
tons, and trials of everyday life. Men who
toll with the hands are very apt to he sus-
piciOus Of those who move in the world of
traffic, and think that they get their money
idly, and that they give no equivalent. Men
who raise the corn, and wheat, and rye, land
oats are very apt to think that grain mcr-
chants get easy profits. The first is very
apt to be jealous of the brain.
Plato and Aristotle were so opposed to all
kinds of merchandise that they said com-
mercc was j curse to the earth, and they
recommended that cities should never be
built any nearer the sea-coast than ten
miles. But we have become wiser than
that, and you know that there are no harder
workers than those who plan and calculate
in stores and banks and counting houses.
Wast though their apparel be neat, what
though their manners be refined, 60 MT put
them down as id,-:rs. They carry roads
heavier than a hOd OK Sricks :hcy 20 into |
exposures kecner thar the eating Of the |
cast wind, they scale noun iains higher |
than the Alps and Hmalay.s, and Elain- |
tanning their Christian int gritty, Christ |
will ut last accost them, saying: "Well |
done, thou good and faithful servaat: thou |
hast been faithful o,.r fey things, will |
make thee rule. over many things; enter |
thou into the Joy o: thy Led"
l also enjoin ecu to quY. all f.etfulneSs /
about business matters. Is there not some
thing in your 0T-, iiouschc Id that ysu would
not give up for tL, worldly SUCCESS other
men havel Besides that, e thesa trials
lifted you up, sou ought t. bless God for
the whip of discipline. The larger the note |
you have to gay, the greater tbs unccr-
tainty of business life, tie bettes Tor your
soul if JESUS Christ leads you tril. mphantly
through. dow do I know; know it by
this prircIpIe-the hotter the furnace the
better lac refining. Theru nave feen thou
sands II men who have gone through the
same path you are now going through with
IN aching heart. There are multi
tudes before the throne Of God
who were dashed with cares and
anXieties innumerable, and were cheat
ed out Of every thing but their coffin.
They were sued; they were elected; they
were imprisoned for debt; they were NAL
treated; they were thrott,ed by constables
with whole packs of writs: they were sold
Dut by sheriffs; they had TO confess judg-
ments; they had to compromise with cred
tors, and their last hour on earth was dis