The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1891-12-25

that you might take that useful In.
formation and use 1t for Jesus Christ.
Can it be that you have been dealing
with foreign lands and never had the
missionary spirit, wishing the salvation
of foreign peopleG Can it be that you
have become acquainted with all the
outrages inflicted in business life and
that you have never tried to bring to
bear that Gospel which is to extirpate
all evil and correct all wrongs and
nlumine all darkness and lift up all
wretchedness and save men for this
world and the world to Gomez Can il
be that, understanding all the intri
cacies of business, you know nothing
about those things which will last after
all bills of exchange and consignments
and invoices and rent rolls shall have
crumpled up and been consumed in the
fires of the last great day2 Can it be
that man will be wise for time and q
fool for eternity2
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
tingushed 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-
drelism as now. Not law on the
statute book but has some back door
through which a miscreant can escape.
All! how many receptions in the fabric
of goods; so much plundering in COM
mercial life that if a man talk about
living life of complete commercial &C
curacy there are those who ascribe 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 woolens 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, In all the sales have
ever made | have never overstated the
value of goods; in all the sales 1 have
ever made l have never covered up an
imperfection in the fabric; of all the
thousands of dollars l have ever made
l have not taken one dishonest 1arth-
ing2' 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
first tierce of rice, or their first firkin of
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 partner, or have absconded
with the funds of a bank, or sprtRg a
snap Judgment, or made false assign
ment, or borrowed illimitably without
any effort at payment, or got man
TITO n ubo ~ no,var on1 Aoooo1 hin,
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 ''as the partridge
sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not,
80 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"
THE SLAVE IN ALGIERs.
Oh, what school of integrity bust
ness life is! 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, snow, I'll step a 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. 1t is 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
Whoever gets this bank
note will n1oaso tn inform, INV, h-o4h