Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-03-12
IAN AGE OF SWTNDLE.
DR. TALMAGkS TABERNACLE SERMON
LAST SUNDAY.
Whose Trusts Shall bs Spiders Ws6"-Ds-
signing Spiders and Victnizd Fliss-fhs
Temptations Of Business Lifs-Ths
Value Of Business Honesty.
Special Telegram 10 he Register.
BRooKLYN, March 1.-THE hymn sung
at the Tabernacle this morning begins:
"a cloud of witnesses around

SIecfdl Telegram 10 uis Register.
BROOKLYN, March II. The hymn sung
at the Tabernacle this morning begins:
"a cloud of witnesses around
Hold thee in full survey;
Forget the steps already trod,
And onward urge thy way"
As, last Sabbath, the Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage, D. D., the pastor, had baptized
by sprinkliDg, he this morning baptized
by immersion those who preferred this
mode, baptistry having been built under
the pulpit. The subject Of his sermon was
''The Age of Swindle," and the text, job
Is, IA: "whose trust shall be spiders
web" DR.. Valmage said a
The two most skillfnl architects in a.
the world are the bee and the spider. The
one puts up q sugar manufactory and the
other builds a slaughter-house for flies.
On a bright summer morning when the sun
comes out and shines upon the SPIDERS
web, bedecked with dew, the gossamer
structure seems bright enough for sus'
pension bridge for supernatural beings to
cross on. But alas for the poor fly, which,
in the latter part of that very day, ven
lures on it, and is caught and dungeoned
and destroyed. The fly was informed that
it was free bridge, and would cost moth
ing, but at the other end Of the bridge
the toll paid was its own price. The next
day there comes down strong wind, and
away goes the web and the marauding
spider and the victimized fly. So deli
cate are the silken threads of the spiders
web that many thousands Of them are put
together before they become visible to the
human eye; and it takes four million OF
them to make a thread as large as the
human hair. Most cruel as well as most
ingenious is the epider. A prisoner in the
Bastile, France, had one go trained that at
the sound of violin it every day came for
its meal of flies. Job, the author of my
text, and the leading scientist Of his day,
had no doubt
WATCHED THE vORACIOUs PROCESS
of this one insect with another, and saw
spider and fly swept down with the same
broom or scattered by the same wind.
Alas, that the world has so many design
ing spiders and yictimized flies.
"Oh," some QUE will say, "better preach
the Gospel and let business matters alone. "
/ reply: lfyour Gospel does not inspire
common honesty in the dealings of men,
the sooner you close up your Gospel and
pitch il into the depths of the Atlantic
Ocean the hetter. Au orthodox swindler
is worse than a heterodoX swindler. The
recitation of all the cathechism and creeds
ever written, and drinking from all the
communion chalices that ever glittered in
the churches of Christendom will never
save your soul unless your business char
acter corresponds with your religious pro.
fession. Some of the worst sIoundrels in
America have been members OF churches,
and they got fat on sermons about heaven
when they most needed TO have the pull
pits preach that which would either bring
them to repentance or thunder them out OF
the holy communion where their presence
was a sacrilege and an infamy.
We must especially deplore the mislor'
tune of banks in various parts of this
country in that they damage the banking
institution, which is the great convenience
of the centuries, and indispensable to COM
, merce and the advance of nations. With
one hand it blesses the lender, and with
/ the other it blesses the borrower. The
bank was born Of the worlds necessities,
and is venerable with the marks Of thou
sands of years. Two hundred years be-
fore Christ the hank of Ilium existed and
paid its depositors ten per cent. The bank
of Venice was established in ll7l and
was of such high credit that its bills were
at premium above coins, which were fire.
quently clipped. Bank of Genoa, founded
in 1345; bank OF Barcelona, 140l hank ot
Amsterdam, 1899; bank 6 Hamburg
founded 1919, its circulation based or
great silver bars kept in the vaults. Bank
of England, started by William Patterson
in 1642, up to this day managing the stu
pendous debt of England; bank of Scot
land, founded in 1895; bank Of Ireland
1913; bank of North America, planned by
Robert Morris, It'll, without whose iuan
cial help all the
BRAVERY OF OUR GRAEDFATHERS
would not have achieved American indie
pendence. Bat now we have banks in al
our cities and towns, thousands and thous
ands. On their shoulders are the inter
ests of private individuals and great cor
porations. In them are the great arteriei
through which run the currents OF the M
tion's life. They have been the resources
of the thousands Of financiers in DAYS @
business exigency. They stand for accom-
modation, for facility, for individual
State and national relief. At their heat
and in their management there is as mucl
interest and moral worth as in any class Q
men-perhaps more. How nefarious, then
the behavior OF those who bring disreput
upon this venerable, benignant and God
honcred institution.
If the first men, and especially Christian
men, will learn never to speculate upol
borrowed capital. II you have mind +
take your own money and turn it all int
kites. to fig them over every commons il
the United States, you do sonisty n
wrong, except when you tumble you
helpless children into the poor house 70
the public to take care of. But you hay
no right to take the money Of Others an,
turn il into kites. There is one word tha
has deluded more people into bankruptC
and State prison and perdition than an
other word in commercial life, and that
. the word borrow; that one word is respor
sible for all the defalcstions, and embezzlt
ments, and financial oonsternations Of th
last twenty years. When executors cor
clude to speculate with the funds Of an e
tate committed 10 their charge, they d
not purloin, they say they only borrow
) when banker makes an oyerdraught lpo
his institution, he does not commit 8 thief
he only borrows. When the officer of
company, by flaming advertisement
some religious papers, and gilt certificate
: of stock, gets q multitude Of country pee
pie to put their small earnings into an er
terprise Of carrying on some undevelope
nothing. be dees not fraudulently tai
J their money. he only borrows. When
, young man with easy access to his emplo,
er's money drawer, or
THE CONFIDENTIAL CLERK,
by close prOpinquity TO the account book
takes few dollars for Wall street excu
sion, he expects to put it back; be will pV
it all hack; be will put it all back ver
soon. He only borrows. Whist Is neede
is some man Of gigantic limb to take b
place at the curb-stOne in front Of Trinit
3 Church, and when that word borrow com'