The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1888-03-22

Us adjust all our business and ~
homes by the principles Of the Christian
religion.
Our religion ought TO mean just as
much on Saturday and Monday as on
the day between, and not be a mers
periphrasis of sanctity. Our religion
ought to first clean our hearts, and
then IL ought to clean our lives Religion
is not, as some seem to think, sort OF
church deectation, kind Of confection-
ery, a sort Of spiritual caramel or holy
gumdrop, or sanctified peppermint, or
| theological anBsthetic. 1t is an
omnipotent prime ple-all controlling, all
conquering. You NAV get along with
something less than that, and you may
deceive yourself with it, but you can
not deceive God, and you can not de-
ceive the world. The keen business man
| will put on his spectacles, and he will
look clear through to the back Of your
head and see whether your religion
is fiction or fact. And
You can not hide your SAM
pies of sugar, or rice, or tea
or coffee IL they are false; you can not
hide them under the cloth OF commun"
ion table. All your prayers go for noth-
| ing so long as you misrepresens your
banking institution, and in the amount OF
the resources you put down more specie.
| and more fractional currency, and more
clearing house eerti fcates, and more dis.
counts than there really are, and when
you give an account Of your liabilities
YOU do not mention all the unpaid divi-
dends, and the United States bank notes
outstanding, and the indi vidua deposits,
and the obligations to other banks and
| bankers. An authority more scrutniz ng
| than that Of any bank examiner will go
through and through and through your
| business.
| stand this morning before many who
| have trust funds. II is a compliment to
you that you have been so intrusted; but
| l charge you, in the presence of God and
| the worl d, be careful, be as careful OF the
property of others as YOU are careful OK
! your own. Above all, keen your own
| private account at the bank separate from
| your account as trustee OF an estate, or
trustee of an institution. That is the
| point at which thousands of people make
shipwreck. They get the property OF
others mixed up with their own property,
they put 1t into inves tment, and awav it
| all goes, and thev can not return that
which they borrowed. Then comes the
| explosion, and the money market IL
shaken, and the press denounces, and
the church thunders expulsion. You
| have no right to use the pr \ erty
of others, except for their advan-
tage, nor without consent, unless they
| are minors. If with their consent you
| invest their property as we'll as
YOU can, and it is a lost, you are not to
blame, you did tine best you could, Gu' do
not come into tIe delusiou. which has
ruined so many men, Of thinking, because
| a thing Is In their possess on, therefore it
| il theirs You have a solemn trust that
God has given you. In this vast assem-
b age there may be some who have mis-
appropriated trust funds. Put them back,
or. if you have SO hopelessly involved
them that you can not put them back,
| confess the whole thing to those whom
you have wronged, and you will sleep
| better nights, and You will have the pet
ter chance for your soul. What SAD
thing it would be if, after you are dead,
your admin strator should find out from
the account books, or from the lack OF
vouchers, that you not only were BANK
rupt in stock, but that you lost your soul.
| If all the trust funds that have been mis-
appropriated should suddenly fly 10 their
owners, and all the property that has
been purloined should suddenly go back
to its owners, it would crush into ruin
every city in America.
A missionary in one Of the islands or
the Pacific preached on dishonesty, and
the next morning he looked out of his
window and he saw his yard full of goods
of all kinds. He wondered and asked the
cause of all this.
swell" said the natives, "our gods
that we have been worShiping permit US
to steal, but, according to what you said
Yesterday, the God of Heaven and earth
will not allow this, so we bring back all
| these goods and we ask you to help US III
taking them to the places where they be-
long"
II next Sabbath all the ministers in
America should preach sermons on the
abuse of trust funds and on the evils OF
purloining, and the sermons were all
blessed of God, and regulations were
made that all these things should be-
taken to the city halls, it would not be
long before every city hall in America
would be crowded from cellar TO cupola.
Let me say in the most emphatic man.
ner to all young men, dishonesty VIII
never paw. An abbot wanted tc buy a
piece of ground and the owner would not
sell it, but the owner finally consented TO
let It to him until he could ra is9 one crop,
and the abbot sowed acornS, crop of two
hundred vears And l tell YOU, young
man, that the dishonesties which you plant
in your heart and life will seem to be very
insignificant, but they will grow up until
thew will overshadow you with horrible
darkness, overshadow all time and all
eternity. 1t will not be crop Cor two
hundred years, buta crop for everlasting
| ages.
1 have also a word of comfort for all
who suffer from the malfea1ance Of
others, and every honest man, woman
and child does suffer from what goes Oh
in financial scampdom. Society Is so
bound together that all the misfortunes
which good people suffer in business mat
ters come from the misdeedes of others.
; Bear up under distress, strong in God. lie
will see you through, though your mis-
fortunes should be centupled. Fhllo'o-
, pliers tell us that a column OF air forty
five miles in height rests on every mans
head and shoulders. But that is nothing
compared with the pressure that business
) life has put upon many OF you. God
made up his mind long ago how many or
> how few dollars it would be best Tor
Won TO have Trust to his appointment.
l The door will soon open to let you out
) and ret you up What shock or
9 delight for men who for thirty years
have been in business anxiety when they
q shall suddenly awake in everlast tlng holl-
: day. On the maps of the Arctic regions
o there are two places whose names are re-
9 markable, given, l suppose, by some polar
a expedition: ape Farewell" and "Thank
: God Harbor." At this last the Po!aris
r wintered in 1871 and the Tigress in 1878.
b Some china haye passed the Cape, vet