Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-12-24

crawled. Then all that story about the
whale swallowing Jonah, or Jonah swal-
lowing the whale, which was iti It don't
make any difference, the thing ia absurd;
1t Is ridiculous 70 suppose that man could
have gone down through the jaws Of a sea
monster aud yet kept his life; why, his
respiration would have been hindered; he
would have been digested; the gastric
Juice would have dissolved the Abrine and
coagulated albumen, and Jonah would
have been changed from prophet into
ehyle. Then all that story about the mi
rsculous conception-why, it is perfectly
disgraceful Oh, sirI believe in the light
of nature. This is the Nineteenth century.
Progress, sir; progress. / don't blame
you, but after you have been in town as
long as have you will think just as do"
RELIGION NECESSARY.
Thousands of young men are going down
under that process day by day, and there
is only here and there young man who
can endure this artillery Of scorn. They
are giving up their Bibles. The light of
nature They have the light of nature in
China; they have it in Hindostan; they
have it in Ceylon. Flowers there, stars
there, waters there, winds there, but no
civilization, no homes, no happiness. Lam
Gets to cut and juggernauts to fall under
and hooks to swing on, but no happiness.
tell you, my young brother, we have to
take religion Of some kind. We have to
choose between four or five. Shall it be
the Koran Of the Mohammedan, or the
Shaster of the Hindoo, or the Zendavesta
of the Persian, or the Confucius writings
of the Chinese, or the Holy Scripturesi
Take what you will; God helping me, /
will take the Bible. Light for all dark
ness; rock for all foundation; balm for all
wounds. A glory that lifts its pillars of
fire over the wilderness march. Do not
give up your Bibles.
Ask them what infidelity has ever done
to lift the fourteen hundred millions of the
race out of barbarism. Ask them when
infidelity ever instituted sanitary COM
mission, and before you leave their society
once and forever tell them that they have
insulted the memory of your Christian
father, and spit upon the deathbed of your
mother and with swine's snout rooted up
the grave of your sister, who died believ-
ing N the Lord Jesus.
Ii these people scof at you as though re-
ligion and the Bible were fit only for weak
minded people, you just tell them you are
not ashamed to be in the company Of
Burke the statesman, and Raphael the
painter, and Thorwaldsen the sculptor,
and Mozart the musician, and Blackstone
the lawyer, and Bacon the philosopher,
and Harvey the physician, and John Mil
ton the poet.
HOLD ON TO TIE BIBLE.
fn
is the best book you ever owned. 1t will
tell you how to dress, how to bargain, how
to walk, how to act, how to live, how to
die. Glorious Biblsl Whether on parch-
ment or paper, in octave or duodecimo, on
the center table of the drawing room or in
The counting room of the banker. Glorious
Biblel Light to our feet and lamp to our
path. Hold on to It'll
The second class of insidious ten ptations
that comes upon our young men is led on
by the dishonest employer. Every com
mercial establishment is school, In nine
cases out of ten the principles of the en-
ployer becolhe the principles of the en-
ployee. ask the older merchants to bear
me out in these statements. If, when yOu
were just tstartingin in life-in commercial life
you were Did that honesty was not mar
ketable; that, though you might sell all
the goods in the shop, you must not sell
your conscience; that, while you were tn
exercise all industry and tact, you were not
to sell your conscience; if you were taught
that gains gotten by sin were combustible,
and at the moment of ignition would be
blown on by the breath of God until all
the splendid estate would vanish into
Al II II zs,,l
| then that instruction has been TO you q
precaution and help ever since.
| There are hundreds of commercial estab-
lishments in our great cities which are
educating class of young men who will
be the honor of the land, and there are
other establishments which are educating
I young men to be nothing but sharpers
What chance is there for a young man
who was taught in an establishment that
it is right to lie, if it is smart, and that 8
French label is all that is necessary tc
make thing French, and that you ought
always to be honest when it pays, and that
it is wrong to steal unless you do it well?
Suppose, now, a young man just starting
in life enters a place of that kind where
there are ten young men, all drilled in the
infamous practices of the establishment
He is ready to be taught. The young mar
has no theory of commercial ethics. Where
is he to get his theoryS He will get the
theory from his employers. One day h'
pushes his wit a little beyond what the es
tablishment demands of him, and he fieecea
a customer until the clerk is on the verge o
being seized by the law. What is done il
the establishment He is not arraigned
The head of the establishment says to HIM
"Now, be careful; be careful, young man
you might be caught; but really that WA
splendidly done; you will get along in th.
world, warrant you" Then that youn.
man goes up until he becomes head clerk
He has found there is a premium on in
iquity.
One morning the employer comes to tn
establishment. He goes into his counting
room and throws up his hands and shouts
"Why, the safe has been robbedp Wha
il the matter9 Nothing, nothing; onl,
the clerk who has been practicing goot
while on customers is prscticing little Oh
tho employer. No new principle intro
duced into that establishment. 1t Is
poor rule that will not work both ways
You must never steal unless you can do i
we'll. He did it well. am not talking
an abstraction; am talking terrible aR
crushing fact.
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE,
Now here is q young man. Look at hin
today. Look at him five years from now
after he has been under trial in such a
establishment Here he staAds in tn
shop today, his cheeks ruddy with tn
breath of the hills He unrolls the good
on the counter in gentlemanly style. H
commends them to the purchaser. II
points out all the good points in the fabric
Heeffects the sale. The goods are wrappe
up, and he dismisses the customer with
cheerful good morning." and the country
merchant departs so impressed with tn
? straightforwardness of the young man tina