The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-12-24
qlG Tabernacle Pulpit
CONTINUED from First Page.

I
I all evil and correct all wrongs and
/ iIluInine all darkness and lift up all
/ Indebtedness and save men for this
/ world and the world TO comet Can Ii
/ be that, understanding all the intri
| cacies Of business, you know nothing
| about those things which will ias. 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 dayf Can il be
| that a man VIII be wise for time and a
fool for eternityi
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. 4 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
tingnished 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 a law on the
statute book but has some back door
| through which a miscreant can escape.
All! how many receptions il 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
a plain affair and woolens were wool
lens and silks were silks ard men were
men.
How many men do you suppose
there are in commercial life who could
say truthfully, 'In all the sales l have
ever made have never overstated the
value of goods; in all the sales have
ever made l have never covered up an
imperfection in the fabric; of all the
thousands of dollars have ever made
have not taken one dishonest farth-
ingW 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 thei1
| 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 bank, or sprung
snap judgment, or made false assign
nent, or borrowed illimitably without
any effort at payment, or got man
INTO a sharp corner and f1eeced 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 ''as 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
bis days, and at luis end shall be q
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, Nov, 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 a five pound
Bank of England note and holding it
up toward the light he saw some inter
Aneations 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 ] |
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 be 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 a tragedy
eclipsing any drama of Shakespeare,
mightier than King Lear or Macbeth.
AS l go on in this subject am i'm
pressed with the importance of our
having more sympathy with business
men. Is it not shame that we in our
pulpits do not oftener preach about
their struggles, their trials and their
tenptations2 Men who toll with the
hand are not apt to be very sympathetic
with those who toll with the brain.
Inc farmers who raise the corn, and
the oats, and the wheat sometimes are
tempted to think that grain merchants
nave an easy time and get their profits
without giving any equivalent.
fla1o and Aristotle were SO opposed
TO merchandise that they declared COM
merce to be the curse of the nations. and
they advised that cities be built at least
ten miles from the seacoast- But YOU
and know that tbaro oro NJ xx =;