The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-11-04

Inc CldSsteS dT6 OlNlleu lIlUD JQIe6
groups-producers, manufacturers, traders.
Producers, such as farmers and miners.
Manufacturers, such as take the corn and
change it into food, or the wool and fax and
change them into apparel. Traders, who
make a profit out of the transfer and ex-
change of that which is produced or mannfac-
ti1red. Now, business man may belong to
one of these classes or he may belong to all of
them. Whatever be your avocation, if you
plan, calculate, bargain; if into your life
there come aHnoyanceS, vexatlons and disap-
pointments, as well as gains, dividends and
percentages; if you are harassed with null
tiplicity of engagements; in word, if you
are driven from Monday morning to SatIIr-
day night and from January to January with
relentless obligations and duty, then you are
q business man or business woman, and my
subject is appropriate to your ease. We are
apt to speak of the moil and tug of business
life as though it were an inquisition or a
prison into which man is thrown, OF an IN
equal strife where, half armed, he goes TO
contend. Hear me- this morning, while try
to show you that God intended business life
to be a glorious education and discipline, and
If l shall be successful in what say l shall
rub the wrinkles out of your brow and un-
strap some of the burdens from your back,
l have first to remark that God intended
business life to be to you school of Chris
tian energy. God started US in the world,
giving US q certain amount of raw material
out of which we we're to hew our own char
acter Every faculty needs to be reset,
rounded, sharpened up. After our young
people have graduated from the schools and
colleges and universities, they need higher
education, that which the collision and rasp-
ing of everyday life alone can effect. En-
ergy Of soul is wrought out only in the fire.
And when man for ten, or fifteen, or twen-
tv, or thirty years has been going through
business activities, his energy can no longer
be measured by weights, or plumnets, or lad
ders. 1t can scale any height. 1t can plum
met any depth. It can thrash any obstacle.
Now. do you suppose that God has spent all
this education on you for the purpose OF
making you a more successful worldling,
Of enabling you to more rapidly ac-
cumulate dollars, making yaq sharp in
a trade? Did God make you merely to be
n yardstick to measure cloths, or a steelyard
to weigh flouri And did He intend you to
spend your life in doing nothing but to chatter
and higgleg My friend He has put you in
this school to develop your energy for His
cause and kingdom. There is enough unem-
pIoyed talent in the churches, and in the
world to-day, to reform all empires, and all
kingdoms and people in three weeks. Q, how
much idleness and strong muscles and stout
heartsl How many deep streams that t4rn
no mill wheels and haul on the bands of no
factory? God demands that he have the best
lamb out of every flock, the richest sheaf in
every harvest, the best men OF every genera
ton; and in a cause where the Newtons and
the Lockes and the Mansfelds of the earth
we're proud to enlist, you and need not be
asbamed to toll o, for fewer idlers and
Tor moro consecrated Christian workers.
1I11I 70. I.,A
YOU a school of patience How many little
things there are in one days engagements to
perturb, and annoy, and disquiet yol. Bar
gains will rub, and men will break their en-
eagements Collecting agents will come
back empty handed Tricksters in business
will play upon what they cell the Hhard
times" when in any times they never pay.
Goods placed on the wrong shelf Cash
books and money drawer in q quarrel. Goods
ordered for an especial emergency failing to
come, or. il coming, damaged in the trans
portation. People WHO intend no harm go
ing about shopping, unroiiiHg goods they do
not mean TO buy, and trying to bFeak the
dozen. Men obliged to take up other peoples
notes. More counterfeit bills in the drawer.
More bad debts. Another ridiculous panic.
Under all this friction men break down, or
they are secured up into additional bright
ness How many you and have known
who. 81 the past few years, have gone down
under the pressure, and have become petu-
liant. end choleric, and crabhad, and sour, and
puguscious. until customers fcrseoA their
stores, ard these merchants have become insei-
veat. aud their names were pronounced with
de,estationl But other men have found in
this school for patience. They teIgbened
under tho exposure. They were like rocis,
mos serviceable for the blasting. There
,ras a time when they had to choke down
their wrath There was a time when they
had to bite their lip. There was time when
thoy thought of a stinging retort they
would like to utter. But now they have
conquered their impatience They have
kind words for sarcastic filings. They baye
a polite behaviour for discourteous customers
They have fo-bearnnce for unfortunate debt
ors They have moral reflections ter the
sudden reverses Of fortune, How are yeq
going to get that grace OF patiencei NOT
through hearing ministers preach about lt
Oh, no. II you get it at all you Will get IL
in the world, where you sell hats, and plead
causes, and tin roofs, and make shoes, and
turn banisters, and plow corn. ] pray God
that through the turmoil and sweat and ex-
ASPIRATION OF your everyday life you may
hear the voice Of Christ saying to you: III
patience possess your soul, let patience have
perfect work"
Again: God intended business life to be to
you school for the attaining Of knowledge.
Merchants do not read many books, nor study
many lexicons, nor dive into great profounds,
yet through the force of circumstances they
get intelligent ON questions of politics, and
finance, and geography, and Jurisprudence,
and ethics. Business is hard schoolmistreSs,
If her pupils will not learn in any other way,
with unmerciful hand she smttes them on the
head and on the heart with inexorabie loss.
You went into some business enterprise, and
five thousand dollars got out Of your grasp.
You say the five thousand dollars were
wasted o, not that was only tuition Ex-
pensive schooling. but it was worth it Mis-
fortune. with hard hand. comes upon man