The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-03-16
NUMBER 80


and you may deceive yourself with #; but
you cannot deceive God, and You cannot
deceive the world The keen business man
viii put on his spectacles, and he win look
clear through TO the back Of your head and
sec whether your religion is fiction or
fact. And you cannot hide your samples of
sugar, or rice, or tea, or coffee IL they are
false; you cannot hide them under the cloth
Of communion table. All your prayers 20
for nothing 50 long as you miTepresent your
b. king institution, and in the amount Of the
r ssources you put down more specie, and
more fractional currency, and more clearing
house certificates, and more legal tender
notes, and more loans, and more discounts
than there really are, and when you give an
account of your Liabilities you do not men
ton all the unpaid dividends, and the United
States ban1 notes outstanding, and the lin
dividual deposits, and the obligations to other
banks and bankers An authority more
serutinizing than that Of any bank examiner
viii go through and through and through
your business.
stand this morning before many who
have trust funds. 1t is compliment to You
that you have been so intrusted: but 1
charge you. in the presence Of God and the
world, be careful; be as careful Of the prop
erty Of others as you are careful of your
own. Above all, keep your own private ac-
count at the bank separate from your &C
count as trustee of an estate, or trustee of an
institution. That is the point at which thou
sands of people make shipwreck. They get
the property of others mixed up with their
own property, they put it into investment,
and away it all goes, and they cannot return
that which they borrowed. Then comes the
explosion, and the money market is shaken,
and the press deuounces, and the church
thunders expulsion You have no right to
use the property of others, except for
their advantage, nor without consent,
unless they are minors. If with their
consent you invest their property as
well as you can, and it is all lost,
you are not to blame; you did the best you
could; but do not come into the delusion
which has ruined SO many men, of thinking
because thing is in their possession, there
fore it is theirs. You have a solemn trust
that God has given you. In this vast assem-
blage there may be some who have misappro-
priated trust funds. Put them back, or, if
you have so hopelessly involved them that
you cannot put them back, confess the whole
you will sleep better nights, and you will
have the better chance for your soul What
a sad thing it would be if, after you are
dead, your administrator should find out
from the account books, or from the lack of
vouchers, that you not only were bankrupt
in estate, but that you lost your soul. If all
the trust funds that have been misappro-
priated should suddenly fly to 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 of 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.
''Well, said the natives, ''our gods that we
have been worshipping 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 in taking them to the places
where they belong" If 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 manner
to all young men, dishonesty win never pay.
An abbot wanted to buy piece of ground,
and the owner would not sell it, but the
owner finally consented to let it to him until
he could raise one crop, and the abbot sowed
acorns, a crop of 200 years! And tell you,
young man, that the dishonesties which you
plant in your heart and life viii seem to be
very insignificant, but they will grow up I'M
til they will overshadow you with horrible
darkness, overshadow all time and all eter-
nifty. 1t will not be a crop for 200 years, but
a crop for everlasting ages.
have also a word of comfort for all who
suffer from the malfeaSance of others, and
every honest man, woman and child does
suffer from what goes on in financial scamp
dom. Society is so bound together that ali
the misfortunes which good people suffer in
business matters come from the misdeeds of
others. Bear up under distress, strong in
God. He will see You through, though your
misfortunes should be centupled. Philoso-
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 for you to have. Trust to his
appointment. The door will soon open to
let you out and let you up. What shock of
delight for men who for thirty years have
been in business anxiety when they shall sud
denly awake in everlasting holiday. On the
maps of the Arctic regions there are two
places whose names are remarkable, given, ]
suppose, by some Polar expedition "Cape
Farewell" and THANK God Harborn At this
last the Polaris wintered in 1871, and the
Tigress in 1873 Some ships have passed the
cape, yet never reached the harbor. But
from what know of many of you, I have
concluded that though your voyage of life
may be very rough, run into by icebergs on
this side and icebergs on that, you will in
due time reach Cape Farewell and there bid
good-by to all annoyances, and soon after
drop anchor in the calm and imperturbable
waters of Thank God Harbor. "There the
wicked cease from troubling, and the weary
are at rest"