The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-12-25

not study leNicons- They do not dive
| into prOfounds Of learning, and yet
/ nearly all through their occupations
come 70 understand questions of finance
and politics. and geography, and juris-
| prudence. and ethics Business is Sc
we're schOOIpaistress. If pupils viii not
/ learn. she strikes them over the head
l and the heart with severe losses You
/ put S, 600 into an enterprise. 1t is all
! gone. YOu say, THAT is n dead loss. -
| o, NJ. You are paying the schooiiu &.
/ That was only tuition, very large tut
I toni told you it was a severe school
mistress-but it was worth it. You
learned things under that process you
would not have learned in any other
way. Traders in grain coms to know
something about foreign harvssts; trad
ers In fruit come to know something
about the prospects Of tropical produc-
tim; manufacturer of American goods
come to understand the tariff on i'm
ported articles; publishers of books
must come to understand the new
law of copyright; owners of ships
must come to know winds, and
shoals, and navigation; and
every bale of cotton, and every raisin
eask, aud every tea box, and every
cluster OF banaGas is so much literature
for business man. Now, my brother,
what are you going to do with the in
teiligenee2 Do yOus uppOse God put you
in this school of information merely
that you might be sharper in a trade,
that you might be more successful as
wOrldlingY o, no; it was that you
might take that useful information and
use it for Jesus Christ. Can it be that
understanding all the intricacies OF
business, you know nothing about those
things which will last after all bills of
exchange and consignments and in
voices and rent rolls shall have
crumpled up and been consumed in the
fires of the last great day? Can it be
that a man viii be wise for time and a
fool for eternity?
IremarIs also that business life is
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 have never been tested. A man
was elected treasurer of the state of
Maine some years ago. He was dis
tinguishsd for his honesty, usefulne e
ana uPriRhtness, 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 conf
dencs. but placed in certain crises of
Never so many temptations to scouu-
drelism as now. Not law OF the
statute books but has some back door
through which miscreant can escape.
How many men do you suppose there
are in commercial life who could say
truthfuliy, "In all the sales I have ever
made ] have never Overestimated the
value of goods in all the sales have
made L have never covered up an i'm
perfection in the fabric; of all the
thousands OF dollars 1 have ever made
have not taken one dishonest far
thing?" 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 fierce of rice, or their first hrlzin
of butter, because their honesty and in
tsgrity have been tested, tried and
came out triumphant But they re-
mem mber Z time when they could have
robbed partner or have abscOnded
with the funds OF a bank, or sprung n
snap Judgment or made false assign
ment or borrowed itlimitabiy without
any efforts at payment, or got a man
into a sharp corner and fieeced him.
But they never took one step on that
pathway of hell fire They can say
their prayers without hearing the
chinl of dishonest dollars They can
read their Bible without thinking of
the time Mnen4 Win a ne on buelE SOul.
10 the custom houss they kissed the
book. They can think of death and
the Judgment that comes after it with
out any hinching that day when al
charlatans and cheats and jockeys and
friends shall be doubly damned. It
does not make their knees knock to-
gether, aud it does not make their
teeth chatter t. reaI las the partridge
sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not;
so he that getteth riches, aud not by
right, shall leave them in the midst of
his days, and at his end shall be fool "
O, what school of integrity business
life isl If you have ever been tempted
to let your Integrity cringe before
present advantage, if you have ever
walScned up in some emb barrassment
and said; Now, Iii step a littls aside
from the right path and no one will
know il, and III come all right again
It is only once" o. that only once has
ruined tens of thousands of men for
this life and blasted their souls for
eternity. 1t Is a tremendous school,
business life a school OF integrity.
As go on in this subject I am i'm
pressed with the importance of our hav-
ing more sympathy with business men
Is 1t not e shame that we in our putpits
do not oftener preach about their strug-
giles, their trials and their temptations?
Men who toll with the hand are not
apt to be very sympsthetle with those
who toll with the brain The farmers
who raise the corn aud the oats and
the wheat sometimes are tempted to
think that grain merchants nave an
easy time aud get their profits without
giving any equivalent Plato and Aris-
toue were 50 opposed to merchan-
disc that they declared commerce
10 be the curse OF the nations,
and they advised that cities be built at
least ten miles from the seacOast- But
YOU and 1 know that there are no
more Industrious or high minded men
than those who move in the world OF
traffic Some Of them carry burdens
heavier than hOds of brick and are eX-
posed to sharper things than the east
wind, and climb mountains higher than
the Alps or Himalsyss, and If they are
faithful Christ will at last say 20 them:
ssWell done, good aud faithful servant;
thou hast been faithful over few
things, viii make thee ruler over
many things. Enter thou into the JOY
OF thy lord"
We talk about the martyrs of the
Piedmont valley, and the martyrs
l. ~