The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-06-19


cry will, each for himself, receive a
condemnation. Unlawful dividends are |
not clean before God, because there are
those associated with you who grab Jus5
as big pile as you do. He who coun-
tenances the dishonesty of the firm, or
of the corporation, or of the associa-
ton, takes upon himself all the moral
liabilities. If the financial institution
steal, he steals. If they go into wild
speculations, he himself is a gambler.
If they needlessly embarrass creditor,
he himself is guilty of cruelty. If they
swindle the uninitiated, he himself is a
defrauder. No financial institution ever
had money vault strong enough, or
credit stanch enough, or dividends large
enough, or policy acute enough to hide
the individual sins of its members. The
old adage, that corporations have no
souls, is misleading. Every corpora
ton has as many souls as it has mem
bers.
Again, many business men have been
tempted to postpone their enjoyments
and duties to future season of entire
leisure. What sedative the Christian
religion would be to all our business
men if, instead of postponing its uses to
old age or death, they would take 1T
into the store or factory or worldly en-
gagements now! 1t is folly to go amid
the uncertainties of business life with
no God to help. A merchant in New
England village was standing by
horse, and the horse lifted his
foot to stamp it in pool OF
water; and the merchant, to escape
the splash stepped into the door Of an
insurance agent, and the agent said:
81 suppose you have come to renew
your fire insurance" ''Oh," said the
merchant, 81 had forgotten that. !" The
insurance was renewed, and the next
day the house that had been insured
was burned. Was it all accidental that
the merchant, to escape splash from
horses foot, stepped into the insurance
office? No, it was proyidential- And
what a mighty solace for business
man to feel that things are providential!
What peace and equilibrium in such a
consideration, and what a grand thing
if all business men could realize it!
Again, business men are often tempt
ed to let their calling interfere with the
interests of the soul. God sends men
into the business world to get educated,
just as boys are sent to school and col
lege. Purchase and sale, loss and gain,
disappointment and rasping, prosperity,
the dishonesty of others, panic and bank
suspensions, are but different lessons in
the school The more business. the
more means of grace. Many have gone
through widest panic unhurt. 'Are
you not afraid you will break?" said
some one to merchant in time of great
commercial excitement. He replied:
ave, I shall break when the fiftieth
: Psalm breaks, in the fifteenth verse,
call upon me in the day of trouble and
will deliver thee"
The store and the counting house
have developed some of the most stall
wart characters. Perhaps originally
they had but little sprightliness and
} force, but two or three hard business
thumps woke them up from their legar
thy, and there came thorough devel
opment in their hearts of all that wa
good and holy and energetic and tire
mendous, and they have become thu
men in Christs great army, as well a
lighthouses in the great world of traffic
But business has been perpetual deple
: ton to many a man. 1t first pulled GU
l of him all benevolence, next all anna
t bility, next all religious aspiration, mex
, all conscience, and though he entered
: his vocation with large heart and nobl
L character he goes out Of it skeleton
: enough to scare ghost.
3 Men appreciate the Importance o
having a good business stand, store o
d the right side of the street or the RICH
J, block. Now, every place of business
/ good stand for spiritual culture
s Gods angels hover over the world {
J. traffic to sustain and build up those VIII
|, are trying to do their duty. To-mo
IS row if in your place of world
q engagement you will listen fc
n it. YOU may hear sound loude
Q than the rattle of drays an
e the shuttle of feet and the chink of do
n lars stealing into your soul, saying
s ''Seek We first the kingdom of God an
If His righteousness, and all other thing
shall be added unto you" Yet some {
It those sharpest at bargain are cheate
d out of their immortal blessedness b
81 stratagems more palpab1e than an
or ''drop game" of the street. The
a make investments i'm things eve
le lastingly below par. They put the
/, valuables in a safe not fre-proo
OF They give full credit to infuene,
e. that will not be able to pay one cent {
or the dollar. They plunge into lab
as rinth from which no bankrupt law
re ''two-thirds enactment will ever exit
I'D cate them. They take into their PAL
Q. nership the world, the flesh, and Il
n, devil, and the enemy of all righteou
ch ness will boast through eternal ag,
in that the man who in all his business Ii
an could not be outwitted or overreache
OF at last tumbled into spiritual defalc
nd ton, and was swindled out of Heave
We Perhaps some of you saw the fire
" New York in 1885. Aged men tell
y, that it beggared all description. Sor
ne stood on the house-tops of Brookly
er. and looked at the red ruin that swe
'ot down the streets, and threatened
he obiiterate the metropolis. But the CO,