Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-11-01

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to you a school for the attaining Of knowl-
! edge. Merchants do not read many
! DOORS, nor study many leXicons, nor dive
| INTO great prulOunds, yet through the
! iorce of circumstances they get intelli-
gent on questions Of politics, and finance,
and geography, and Jurisprudence, and
| ethics. Business ts a hard school mistress.
II her pupils will not learn in any
| other way, with unmerciful hand she
smites them on the head and ON the heart
with ineXOrable loss. You went into
some business enterprise, and $4,000 got
out OF your grasp, You say the $4,000
We're wasted. O, mol that was only
tuition. Expensive schooling, but 1t was
| worth II. Misfortune, with hard hama.
comes upon man and wakes him up,
aud by the very force of circumstances
! business men get 10 be intelllgp mt.
! Traders in grains must know about
| foreign harvests. Traders in fruit
must know about the prospects OF
tropical production. Manufacturers OF
| American goods must know about the
| tarlh on imported articles. Publishers
! OF books must know the new law of copy
| right. Owners OF ships come to under
stand winds, and shoals, and navigation.
! And so every bale of cotton, and every
! ralsin cask, and every tea box, and every
| cluster OF bananas, becomes literature to
OF all this intelligence unless you give 1t
to Christ? Do you suppose God gives
| you these opportunities of Frightening up
| your intellect and OF increasing your
! knowledge merely to get larger treasures
and grander business? O, no! Can it he
that you have been learning about foreign
lands and people that dwell under other
skies, and yet have no missionary
spirit? Can it be that you have
h. Loo h. N..l1
cries and hOllOwness 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 ignOr-
ance, AID correct all mistakes, aud arrest
ali crime, and irradiate all darkness, and
lift up all wretchednessY Can 1t be that,
Notwithstanding your acquaintance with
the intricacles OF business, you are ignor-
ant OF those things which will last the
soul long after bills OF exchange, and COM
missions, and invoices, and cOnsign-
ments, and rent rolls nave crumpled up
aud consumed in the fires Of a judgment
day!
Again: God intended business life to be
to you school OF Christian integrity No
age of the world ever offered so manV in
ducemenJs 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 deceptIons in the fabric of
goodsl Commercial life plies the land
with trickeries innumeraule, and there
are so many people in Brooklyn and New
York who live life of plumber that when
man proposes straightforward, hon
est business it is almost charged to
greenness and want of tact. All my
brethren, this ought not to be. But |
nave to tell you that IL requires more
grace TO be honest now tnan IJ did in the
dals OF our fathers, when business was
plain and there we're no stock gamblers.
ana wooden was WOolen, and SILK was
silk, and men were men. How rare it IS
that you find man who can rom his
heart say: Il never cheated
in trade. never over-esti.
mated the value of goods when |
was selling them, | never covered up a
detect in a fabric. l never played uUOn
The ignorance of a customer, and in all
my estate there is not one dishonest far
hing" There are those who can say 1t.
Tney never let their integrity bow or
crlnge TO present advantage. They are as
pure and Christian to day as on The day
when they sold their first tierce OF rice or
their first 1irkin of butter. There were
times when they could have robbed
partner, wnen they could have absconded
with the funds OF bank, when they could
have sprung snap Judgment, when they
could nave borrowed ilnmltably, when
they could have made false assignment
when they could have ruined
neighbOr for the purpose OF pick
lng mp 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 wi hout thinking OF the
day when, with a lie on their soul, they
kissed the book in custom house. Now
they can look into the Laughing faces of
their children without thinking of or
pDans left by them pennIless and house,
less. Now they can think uf death with
out having their knees knock together,
and their hearts sink, aud their teeth
chatter, because there Is a judgment
where all deirauders, and jockeys, AID
tricksters. and chariatans shall be dOubly
damned. Now they can re al in tue b be
without filuchin1: ''As the partridge
sitttth on eggs and natcheth
t1em not go; be that gettetu
riches, and not by right, shall leave them
In the midst OF mis- days, and at the end
shall be u fool" Alas! II any Of you. for
the purpose OF getting out Of temporary
Embarrassment, dare 10 sell your soul. or
any portion OF 1t. You may wake up Ia
the midst Of embarrassment aud say:
"NO one is looking. This Transaction
may be IA little out Of the way, but IL is
0nly once, only Once.' On that one oc-
caslon YOU not only wreck your spiritual
nature but you despOll your business
prospects. You put one dishonest dollar
IN an estate, but IL Will not stand. YOU
may take dishonest dollar and put II
down In tue very depth OF the
earth, and you may roll on the
top Of 1t rocks ana mountains, aud
on the top OF those rocks aud noun
tains you may put all tle banks and
institutions, pilinR them up
heaven nigU; but That one dishonest dol
lar down m the depths Of the earth will
beg.n 10 rock, and heaye, and upturn IT,
sell until ~ comes To the resurrection of
damnatiOn. You cannot hide dishonest
dollar.
In The review Of this subject there arc
two or three Things want 10 say, and the
drst is, let us nave "A larger sympatny for
business men. tuink IL is shame that
Ia our pulpits we do not uttener preach
ON this subject. and show that we Appre.
cate the sOrr0ws and struggles and temp
tatiOns, aud trials OF everyday life. Men
VINO t)il win 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, aud tbat they give
no equivalent. Men who raise the corn,
and wheat, and rye, and Oats are very
apt ~ think that gram merchants get
easy profits. The iist ~ very apt TO be
jealous Of the brain. PlatO are Aristotle
were 30 opposed 70 all kinds OF mercnau-
alae thai IhgV guId eummNrpn V.aA ina !