The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-03-22
THE AGE OF SWINUME.
The Rev. DR.. Talmage's Sermon at the
Tabernacle.

When u Mans Business Life Does Not
Correspond with His Profession, His
Religion is Humbug-when 1t Is Right
to Borrow.
BROOKLYN, March 11-As, last Sabbath,
the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, d. d, the
pastor, had baptized by sprinkling, he,
this morning, baptized by immersion those
who preferred this mode, baptistry hav-
ing been built under the pulpit. The sub
ject of his sermon WAS, "rhe Age of Swim
die, and the text, Job viii, IA: "Whoso
trust shall be spiders web." DR.. Tai
mage said:
The two most skillful architects in all
the world is the bee and the spider, The
one puts up sugar mandatory and the
other builds slaughter house for flies.
On bright summer morning, when the
sun comes out and shines upon the spiders
web, bedecked with dew, the gossamer
structure seems bright enough for q 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 O free bridge, and would cost moth
ing, but at the other end of the bridge the
toll paid was its own life. The next day
there comes q strong wind, and away goes
the web, and the marauding spider and the
victimized fly. So delicate 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 LOCO, 900 of them to make thread
rs large as human hair, Most cruel, as
we'll as most ingenious is the spider.
prisoner in the Bastile, France, had one sc
trained that at the sound of o violin il
every day came for its meal of flies
Job, the author of my text, and the leading
scientist of his day, had no doubt watchet
the Voracious process of this one insec
with another, and saw spider and fly
swept down with the same broom, or scat,
tered by the same wind. Alas, that the
world has 80 many designing spiders ant
victimized flies.
There has not been a time when the
utter and black responsibility of man!
men having the financial interests of otherI
in charge has been more evident than il
these last few years.
The unroofing of banks and disappear
ance of administrators with the funds o
large estates, and the disorder amid post
office accounts and deficits amid United
|
OF crime that solemnizes every thoughtful
man and woman, and leads every philan
thropist and Christian to ask: What shal
be done to stay the plague2 There is
monsoon abroad, typhon, a sirocco.
somestimes ask myself if it would not b.
better for men making wills to bequeau
the property directly to the executors AM
officers of the court, and appoint tn
widows and orphans a committee to se
that the former got all that did not belon
to them. The simple fact is that there ar
a large number Of men sailing yachts an'
driving fast horses, and members of ex
pensive club houses, and controlling coun
try seats who are not worth q dollar
they return to others their Just rights
nder some sudden reverse they fail, an
with afflicted air seem to retire from the
world, and seem almost ready for monus
tic life, when in two or three years the
blossom out again, having compromise
with their creditors, that is, paid ther
nothing but regrets, and the only differ
ence between the second chapter Of pros
perity and the first is that their picture
are Murlllos instead of Kensetts, AM
their horses go mile in twenty second
less than their predecessors, and instea
of one country seat they have three.
have watched and have noticed that min
out of ten of those who fail in what
called high life, have more means afte
than before the failure, and in many of th
cases failure is only strategem to escap
the payment Of honest debts and put th
world off the track while they practice
large swindle. There is something woe
fully wrong in the fact that these thing
are possible.
First of all, charge the blame on care
less, Indifferent bank directors and board
having in charge great financial institJ
tions. 1t ought not to be possible for
president or cashier or prominent officer
a banking institution to swindle it yei
after year without detection. 1 will unde
lake to say that if these frauds are carrie
on for two or three years without detection
either the directors are partners in the il
fanny and pocketed part of the theft, {
they are guilty Of o culpable neglect {
duty, for which God will hold them as rt
sponsible as lie holds the acknowledged d.
frauders. What right have prominent bus
ness men to allow their names to be put
lished as directors in financial institution
so that unsophisticated people are theret
induced to deposit their money in or bI
the scrip thereof, wEen they, the publisht
directors, are doing nothing for the safe
of the institution? 1t is a case Of deceptio
most reprehensible. Many people with
surplus of money, not needed for immed
ate use, although it may be little furth
on indispensable. are without friends cou
petent to advise them, and they are guido
solely by the character of the men who
names are associated with the institutio
When the crash cane, and with the owe
throw of the bank went the small earn n
and limited fortunes o. widows and c
phans, and the helplessly aged, the direc
ors stood with idiotic stare, and 10 the i
quiry of the frenzied depositors and stoc
holders who had lost their all, and to t
arraignment of an indignant public h
nothing to say except: ave thought it W
all right. We did not know that there W
anything wrong going on" 1t was thu
duty 10 know. They stood in positi
which deluded the people with the id
that they we're carefully observant. Cali
: themselves directors, they did not dire
They had opportunity of auditing accour
and inspecting the books. No time to
so? Then they had no business to acce
the position. 1t seems to be the pride
some monied men to be directors in
great many institutions, and all they kn(
is whether or not they get their dividen
regularly, and their names are used as
coy ducks to bring others near enough
be made game of. What, first of all,
needed is that five thousand bank drectO
, and insurance company directors resign
attend to their business as directors. L
business world will be full of fraud just
long as fraud is so easy. When you ARE
the president or secretary of bank
nm embeZZlement carried on for mai