Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-11-11
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you school of Christian integrity. No age Of
the world ever offered so many inducements
for scoundrelism as are offered now. There
Is hardly statue on the law books that has
not some back door through which miscreants
can escape. How many receptions In the fab
rlc Of goodsl Commercial life plies the land
with trickerics innumerable, and there are so
many people In Brooklyn and New York who
live life Of plumber that when a man pro-
poses straightforward, honest business It is
almost charged to greenncss and want Of tact.
All my brethren, this ought not to be. But
have to tell you that it requires more grace to
be honest now than 1t did In the days Of our
fathers, when business was plain, and there
were no stock gamblers. and wooden was
wooden, and silk was silk aud men were men.
from his heart say: II never cheated in trade;
never overestimated the value of goods when
| was selling them; never covered up de-
feet in fabric; never played upon the igno-
rance OF 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 oday as on the
day when they sold their first fierce of rice or
their first firldn of butter.
NOT ALL MEN DISHONEST.
There were times when they could have
robbed partner, when they could have alb
seconded with the funds Of bank, when they
could have sprung snap Judgment when
they could have borrowed illimitabIy, when
they could have made a false assignment,
when they could have ruined a neighbor for
the purpose of picking up, some of the frag-
ments; but they never took one step on that
pathway Of hell fire. Nov they can pray
without being larted with the chink of dis
honest gold: Now they can fead the Bible
without thinking of the day when, with d lie
on their soul, they kissed the book In a Gus
tom house. Now they can look into the
lanuhtnu M hair nj, We
thinking OF orphans, left by them penniless
and houseless. 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 char
latans shall be, doubly damned. Now they
can read in the Bible without fiinchng: "As
the partridge stitch on eggs and hatcheth
them not, so he that getteth riches, and not
by right, shall leave them In the midst Of his
days, and at the end shall be fool"
RUIN CAUSED BY ONE DOLLAR.
Alas! If any of you for the purpose Of get
ting out Of temporary embarrassment dare to
sell your soul or any portion of it. You may
wake up In the midst of embarrassment and
say: mo one is looking. This may be lit
tie out OF the way but it is only once, only
once" On that one occasion you not only
wreck your spiritual nature but you despoil
your business prospects. You put one dishou-
est dollar In an estate, but il will not stand.
You may take a dishonest dollar and put it
down in the very depths Of the earth and you
may roll on the top of 1t rocks and mountains,
and on the top Of those rocks and mountains
you may put all the banks and Inoneyed inst-
tutious piiing them up heaven high; but that
bne dishonest dollar down In the depths OF the
earth will begin TO rock, and 1eaye, and up
turn itself until 1t 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 larger sympathy for business
inch. ! 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 temptations, and trials of every
day life.
Suspicious or THE MERCHANT
Men who toll with the hand are very apt to
be suspicious 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 Arts
tOtle were so opposed to all kinds of mer-
chandise that they said commerce was the
curse of the earth, and they recommended
that cities should never he built any nearer
the seacoast than ten miles. But we have be-
come wiser than that, and you know that
there are no harder workers than those who
plan aud calculate in stores and banks aud
counting houses What though their apparel
be neat, what though their manners be re-
fined, do not put Il IN down as idlers. They
carry loads heavic. ihau bod of bricks,
they go into exposures tsener than the cut
ting of the east wind, they Scale mountains
higher than the Alps and Himalayas, and,
maintaining their Christian integrity Christ
will at the last accOst them, saying. swell
done thou good and faithful servant; thou
hast been faithful over few things, will
make thee ruler over many things; enter thou
into the joy of thy Lord"
NO NEED OF FRETFULNEss.
/ also en- Join you 10 quit all fretfuiness about
business matters. Is thefe net something in
your own household that you would not give
up for the worldly success other men have!
Besides that, if these trials lifted you up you
ought to bless God for the whip Of discipline.
The larger the note you have to pay, the
greater the uncertainty Of business life, the
triumphantly through. How do know! lknow
it by this principle-that the hotter the fur
mace, the better the refining There have been
thousands OF men who have gone through the
same path you are now going through with an
aching heart. There are mutitudes before the
throne of God who were shed with cares and
anxieties innumerable, and were cheated out
of everything but their coffin. They were sued,
they were rejected they we're imprisoned for
debt, they were maltreated they were throttled
by constables with whole packs of writs, they
were sold out by sheriffs, they had to confess
judgments, they had to compromise with cred
itors and their last hour on earth was dis
ttlrbed BY the fact that their doorbrll was rung
loudly and angrily by the hand Of some inn
petuOus creditor, who was surprised that that
sick man should be so impertinent and outra-
geous as to die before he had paid him the last
three shillings and sixpence. o, how men are
tossed and driven!
NO MIsFoRTUNEs IN HEAVEN
had friend who went from one anxiety to
another; good and great heart he had, but
everything he put his hand to seemed to fai.
Misfortunes clustered around and after awhile
heard he was dead; and the first word said
was: Good! He has got rid of the sheriffS."
There is o great multitude of business men
who on earth had il hard but, by the grace OF
God, standing on seas OF glass, will cry out:
"These are they who came out of great tribu-
lation and had their robes washed and made
white in the blood of the Lamb"
Once more: / want you to seek business
grace Commercial ethics, business honor,
laws of trade may DO very well for awhile
but there will come a time when the ground
will slip from under your feet and the world
will frown, and the devils will set after YOUR
soul, and you will want more then than this
world can give you. You will want the cter-
nal rock to stand on. For the lack of that
grace you have known men 10 forge and to
maltreat their friends, and to curse their enc
tined among scoundrels, and spit upon, and
blistered by scorn. and ground to powder.
They not only lost their property, but their
souls were mauled and putrcfied and blasted
for eternity. You could count up scores OF
such persons, while their are Others who,
tossed on the same sea, sustained by the grace
of God, have all the time kept their eye on
the lighthouse.
REWARDS FOR THE UPRIGHT.
Men coming out Of that mans store say
'sIf there ever was Christian trader that Is
one" Stern integrity kept the books and
waited on the customers. Light from the fu
ture world flashed through the show windows
Wrath never stamped that floor, nor did sly
dishonesty cover up imperfections in goods
Love to God and love to men were the princi
pies that ruled in the store of that Christian
| trader. Some days the shutters are not lei
| down from the store window, and the bars arc
| not taken from the door. Men pass along anc
stop and stare, and go up to read card OF
the door which announces: CLOSED on &C