The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-11-17

- 1900 Fset IS W t-sIG y =. - !
You went INTO some business enterprise,
and i've thousand dollars tot out Of your
grasp. You say the i've thousand dollars
were wasted. o, no, that was only tuition
expensive schooling, but 1t was worth Il
Misfortune, with hard hand, comes upon .
man and wakes him up, and by the very
force Of circumstance, business men get q
b6 Intelligent Traders In grains nust
know about foreign harvests; trdders-in
fruit must know about the prospects Of
tropical productiont manufacturers Of
American goods must know about the
tariff on imported articles; publishers Of
books must know the new law Of copy
right; owners of shipp como To- undeFstand
winds, and shoalst end Aavigation. Ard 60
every bake Of cottbn; and every raisifi' cask,
and every tea box, and every cluster Of
bananas, become literature to our business
men. .. ..g Ns
Now, what is the use Of all this intelli-
genoe unless you give It TO Christ. Do you
suppose God gives you these, opportunities
Of Frightening up your !ntellect and Of In
creasing syour knowledge merely to get
larger treasures and grander businessl o,
NOT Can 1t be that you have been learning
about foreign lands and people that dwell
under other skies, and yet have no mission
AIRY spirit Cah It be that you have been
learpiAg the fellies and trickeries and hol-
lowness Of the business world, and yet you
are not trying to bring 70 bear upon them
this Gospel which Is TO correct Ill abuses,
and abolish all ignorance, and correct ell
,ioto anA oRHoat all Np{Unn and tPpad{.
ate all darkness, and lift up al wretched-
nessi Can II be that, Notwithstanding your
acquaintance with the intricacies Of bust
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 80 many In
ducements for scoundrelism as are offered
now. There Is hardly statute on the law
books that has not some back door through
which miscreants can escape. How many
receptions in the fabric Of goods CONNER
cial life plies the land with trickeries innu-
merable, and there are 80 many people In
Brooklyn and New York who live Q life Of
plumber, that when Q man proposes Q
straightforward, honest business, it is al
most charged to greenness and want Of
tact All, my brethren, this ought not to
be. But have to tell you that 1t requires
more grace to be honest now than 1t 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 man who can from his heart say. ~
never cheated In trade; never Overesti-
mated the value Of goods when was sell
ing them; ! never covered up defect in o
fabric; never played upon the ignorance
Of q customer, and in all my estate there Is
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 tirkin
of butter. There were times when they
could have robbed partner; when they
could have absconded with the funds Of o
bank; when they could have sprung snap
Judgment; when they could have borrowed
illimitably; when they could have made
false assignment; when they could have
ruined neighbor 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 day when, with lie on
their soul, they kissed 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 house.
less; now they can think Of death without
having their knees knock together, and
their hearts sink, and their teeth chatter,
because there is a Judgment where all de-
frauders, and jockeys, and tricksters, and
charlatans, shall be doubly damned. Now
they can read in the Bible without finch
ing: "As the partridge stitch on eggs
and matches them not; 30 he that getteth
riches, and not by right, shall leave them
in the midst Of his days, and at the end
| shall be fool"
Alssi If any Of you, for the purpose Of
getting out Of temporary embarrassment,
dare TO sell your soul, or any portion Of it !!
You may wake up In the midst Of embar-
rassment and say: mo one Is looking; this
transaction may be little out of the way,
but 1t is only once, only once" On that
one occasion you not only wreck your spirit
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 1t 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, piling them up heaven
high, but that one dishonest dollar down in
the depths Of the earth will begin to rock,
and heave, and upturn itself until it comes
to the resurrection Of damnation. You can
not hide dishonest dollar.
In the review Of this subject there are
two or three things want to say, and the
first is, let us have Q larger sympathy for
business men. think it is q shame that
in our pulpits we do not oftener preach on
this subject and show that we appreciate
the sorrows, and struggles, and tempta-
tious, and trials Of everyday life Men who
toll with the hands are very apt to be 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, and
oats are very apt TO think that grain mer.
chants get easy profits. The first Is very
apt to be jealous Of the brain.
Plato and Aristotle were 80 opposed to all
kinds Of merchandise that they said com.
merce WA Q curse to the earth, and they
recommended that cities should never Be
built any nearer the sea-coast than ter
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
What though their apparel be neat, what