Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-12-24

that you might take that useful IN
formation and use It for Jesus Christ
Can Il be that you have been dealinl
with foreign lands and never had tn
missionary spirit. wishing the salvatior
of foreign people7 Can IL be that you
have become acquainted with all tn,
outrages inflicted in business life anC
that you have never tried to bring Il
bear that gospel which is to extirpats
all evil and correct all wrongs anC
illuInine all darkness and lift up al
wretchedness and save men for thi.
world and the world to Gomez Can i
be that. understanding all the intri
eacies of business. you know nothing
about those things which will last after
all bills of exchange and consigninents
and invoices and rent rolls shall have
crumpled up and been consumed in the
fires of the last great dayl Can it be
that a man will be wise for time and a
fool for eternityl
remark, also. that business life is a
school for integrity. No man knows
what he will do when he is tempted.
There are thousands Of men who have
kept their integrity merely because
they never have been tested. A man
was elected treasurer of the state of
Maine some years ago. He was dis.
tinguished for his honesty. usefulness
and uprightness, but before one year
had passed he had taken of the public
funds for his own private use and was
hurled out of Office in disgrace. Dis
tinguished for virtue before; distin-
guished for crime after You can call
over the names OF men just like that
in whose honesty you had complete
confidence, but placed in certain crises
OF temptation they went overheard.
Never so many temptations to scoun-
drelisln as now. Not IA law on the
statute book but has some back door
through which misereant can escape.
Ali how many deceptions in the fabric
of goods; so much plundering in COM
mercial life that If a man talk about
living a life of complete commercial ac-
curacy there are those who ascrbe it
to greenness and lack of tact. More
need of honesty now than ever before !;
tried honesty, complete honesty, more
than in those times when business was
plain affair and woo!ens were wool
lens and silks were silks and men were
men.
How many men do you suppose
there are in commercial life who could
say truthfully. I'm all the sales have
ever made have never overstated the
value of goods; in all the sales have
ever made have never covered up an
iInperfection in the fabric; of all the
thousands of dollars / have ever made
| have not taken one dishonest farth-
mgr There are men, however, who
can say it, hundreds who can say it,
thousands who can say It, They are
more honest than when they sold their
butter, because their honesty and in
tegrity have been tested, tried, and
came out triumphant. But they re-
member time when they could have
robbed a partner, or have absconded
with the funds of a bank, or sprung a
snap judgment, or made false assign
ment or borrowed illimitably without
any effort at payment, or got a man
into sharp corner and fleeced him.
But they never took one step on that
pathway of hell fire. They can say
their prayers without hearing the chink
of dishonest dollars. They can read
their Bible without thinking of the
time when, with lie on their soul, in
the custom house they kissed the
Book. They can think of death and
the Judgment that comes after it with
out any flinching-that day when all
charlatans and cheats and jockeys and
frauds shall be doubly damned. 1t
does not make their knees knock to-
gether and it does not make their
teeth chatter to read las the partridge
sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not,
so he that getteth riches and not by
right shall leave them in the midst of
his days, and at his end shall be a
fool :"
TIIE SLAVE IN ALGIERs.
Oh, what a school of integrity busi-
ness life isl If you have ever been
tempted to let your integrity cringe be-
fore present advantage, If you have
ever wakened up in some embarrass-
ment and said, Nov, I'll step little
aside from the right path and no one
will know it, and I'll come all right
again; it is only once" Oh, that only
once has ruined tens of thousands of
men for this life and blasted their souls
for eternity. IL is a tremendous school,
business life, school of integrity. A
merchant in Liverpool got FIVE pound
Bank of England note, and holding it
up toward the light he saw some inter
lineations in what seemed red ink.
He finally deciphered the letters, and
found out that the writing had been
made by slave in Algiers, saying in
substance, Whoever gets this bank
note will please to inform my brother,
John Dean, living near Carlisle, that l
am slave of the hey of Algiers." The
merchant sent word, employed govern
ment officers and found who this man
was spoken of in this bank bill After
awhile the man was rescued, who for
eleven years had been slave OF the
hey of Algiers He was Immediately
emancipated, but was SO worn out by
hardship and exposure he soon after