Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-12-21


whoever gets this banknote will please
to Inform my brother, John Dean, living
near Carlisle, that | am slave Of the hey
of Algiers." The merchant sent word
employed government 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 oil
the hey of Algiers. He was Immediately
emancipated, but was SO worn out by
hardship and exposure he soon after died
| Oh, if some of the bank bills that come
through your hands could tell all the
scenes through which they have passed
it would be tragedy ecliPsing any drama
of Shakespeare mightier than King Lear
or Macbeth.
THE TEMPTATIONS OF BUSINESS MEN.
As go on in this subject, am impressed
with the Importance of our having more
sympathy with business men. Is it not a
shame that we in our pulpits do not oftener
| preach about their struggles, their trials
and their temptationsY Men who toll with
the hand are not apt to be very sympa.
thetic with those who toll with the brain.
| The farmers who raise the corn, and the
oats, and the wheat sometimes are tempted
to think that grain merchants have an
easy time, and get their profits without
| giving any equivalent. Plato and Aris-
totle were so opposed to merchandise that
they declared commerce to be the curse of
the nations, and they advised that cities
be built at least ten miles from the sea-
coast.
But you and | know that there are no
more industrious or high minded men
than those who move in the world of traf-
tic. Some of them carry burdens heavier
than hods OF brick, and are exposed to
sharper things than the east wind, and
climb mountains higher than the Alps or
Himalayas, and If they are faithful Christ
will at last say to Them "Well done, good
and faithful servant; thou hast been faith
full over few things, | will make thee
ruler over many things. Enter thou into
the joy of thy Lord"
We talk about the martyrs of the Pied
mont valley, and the martyrs among the
Scotch highlands, and the martyrs at Ok.
ford. There are just as certainly martyrs
of Wall street and State street, martyrs of
Fulton street and Broadway, martyrs Of
Atlantic street and Chestnut street, going
through hotter fires, or having their necks
under sharper axes. Then it behooves us
to Danish all fretfulness from our lives if
this subject be true. We look back to the
time when we were at school, and we re-
member the rod, and we remember the
hard tasks, and we complained grievously,
but now we see it was for the best. Bust
ness life is a school, and the tasks are
hard, and the chastisements sometimes are
very grievous, but do not complain The
hotter the fire the better the refining.
There are men before the throne of God
this day in triumph who on earth were
cheated out of everything but their coffin.
They were sued, they were imprisoned for
debt, they were throttled by constables
with whole pack OF writs, they were sold
out by the sheritfs, they had no com promise
with their creditors, they had to make as
signments Their dying hours were an
noyed by the sharp ringing of the door
bell by some impetuOus creditor who
thought it was outrageous and impudent
that man should dare to die before he
paid the last three shillings and sixpence.
| had a friend who had many misfor-
tunes. Everything went against him. He
had good business quality and was of the
best morals, but he was one of those men,
such as you have sometime IS seen, for whom
everything seems to go wrong His life
became to him plague When | heard
he was dead | said, Good; got rid of the
sheriffs" Who are those lustrous souls
before the throne? When the question is
asked, "Who are theyP" the angels stand
ing on the sea of glass respond, "These are
they who came out of great business trou-
BILE and had their robes washed and made
white in the blood of the Lamb"
REMARKABLE ANSWER TO PRAYER.
man arose in Fulton street prayer
meeting and said: 81 wish publicly to ac-
knowledge the goodness of God was in
business trouble. | had money to pay
and had no means to pay it., and was n
utter despair Of all human help, and lad
this matter Lofore the Lord, and this morn
ing | went down among some old business
friends had not seen in many years--iust
to make a call-and one said to me: why,
am so glad to see you; walk in. We have
some money on our books due you a good
while but we didn't knowwhere you were,
and therefore not having your address we
could not send it. We are very glad you
have come.'" And the man standing in
Fulton street prayer meeting said, "The
amount they paid me was six times what
l owed" You say it only happened 50,
You are an infidel God answered that
mans prayer. Oh, you want business
grace.
Commercial ethics, business honors, laws
of trade are all very good in their place,
but there are times when you want some.
thing more than this world will give you.
You want God. For the lack of him some
that you have known have consented to
forge, and to maltreat their friends, and to
curse their {. .smies, and their names have
been bulleti0ed among scoundrels, and
they have / III ground to powder, while |
other men you have known have gone
through the very same stress of circum |
stances triu plant. There are men here
today who fought the battle and gained |
the victory. People come out of that
mans store, and they say, "Well, if there
ever was CHRISTIAN trader, that is one"
Integrity kept the books and waited on
the customers. Light from the eternal
world flashed through the show windows, |
Love to God and love to man presided in
that storehouse.
Some day people going through the street |
notice that the shutters of the window are |
not down. The bar of that store door has
not been removed. Peopesay what is
the matterY" You go up q little closer, !
and you see written on the card of that |
window, CLOSED on account of the death |
of one of the firm That day all through |
the circles of business there is talk about |
how a good man has gone. Boards of
trade pass resolutions of sympathy, and |
churches of Christ pray, Help, Lord, for
the godly man ceaseth."
He has made his last bargain, he has suf |
fered his last loss, he has ached with the
last fatigue. His children will get the re-
suit of his industry, or, if through misfor
tune there be no dollars left, they will have !
an estate of prayer and Christian example |
which will lee everlasting Heavenly re-