Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1892-01-01

now for TIE sarcastic filings. They
have gentle behavior now for unmRnnerly
customers. They are patient now with un-
fortunate debtors. They have Christian re-
fections now for sudden reverses. Where
did they get that patience? By hearing a
minister preach concerning it on Sabbath?
Oh, no. They got 1t just where you will get
it-ifyo ever get it at all-selling hats, dis
counting notes turning banisters, plowing
corn, timing roofs, pleading causes On,
that amid the turmoil and anxiety and ex-
asperation OF everyday life you might hear
the voice of God saying: 'ln patience
possess your soul. Let patience have her
perfect work"
remark again that business life is a school
of useful knowledge Merchants do not read
many books and do not study lexicons. They
do not dive into protounds OF learning, and
yet nearly all through their occupations come
10 understand questions OF finance and poll
tics aud geography and jurisprudence and
ethics. Business is severe schoolmistress.
Ii pupils will not learn, she strikes them over
the head aud the heart with severe losses.
You put 5000 into an enterprise. 1t is all
gone. You say, That is a dead loss" Oh
no. You are paying the schooling That
was only tuition, very large tution-I told
you it was a severe notwithstanding it
was worth it. You learned things under chat
process you would not have learned in any
other way.
Traders in grain come to know som ething
about foreign harvests; traders in fruit come
to know something about the prospects of
tropical production; manufacturers of
American goods come to understand the
tariff on Imported articles; publishers Of
books must come to understand the new law
of copyright; owners of ships must come TO
know winds anl shoals AMI navigation; AMI
every bale Of cotton, and every raisin cass,
an1 every tea box, anl every cluster of
bananas is So much literature for business
man. Now, my brother, what are you 60
ing to do with the intelligence? Do you sup
pose Col put you in tbs scnool OF informa.
ton merely that YOU might be sharper in
trade, that you might he more successful as
wording, Oh, no; it was that YOU might
take that useful information and use it for
Jesus Christ.
Can it be that you have been dealing with
foreign lands ani never had the missionary
spirit, wishing the salvation Of foreign peo-
pie? Can it be that you have become ac-
quainted with all the outrages inflicted in
business life and that YOU have never tried
10 bring to bear that Gospel which is to ex-
tripate all evil and correct all wrongs and
lllumine all darkness and lift up all wretch
edness and save men for this world and the
world to come? Can it be that understand
nothing about those things which will last
long after all bills Of exchange and. consign-
ments and invoices and rent rolls shall have
Crumplei up and been consumed in the fires
OF the last great day? Can it be that man
will be wise for time and fool for eternity
| 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 in
Ix+ bn, I,,a
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 usa, AMI was hurled out OF olfics in
disgrace Distinguished for virtue before.
Distinguished for crime after. You can call
over the names of men Just like that in
whose honesty you had complete confidence,
but paCed in certain crises Of temptation
they went overheard.
Never so many temptations to scoundrel-
Ism as now. Not law on the statute book
but has some back door through which a
miscreant can escape. Ali how many de-
reptions in the fabric OF goods; so much
plundering in commercial lite, that ii man
talk about living life OF complete COM
nercial accuracy there are those VINO
lscribe it to greennesS and lack of
ldCl. nAOit ueEl VI ilJhSSb1 nO" lDhu ever
before-triel honesty, complete honesty.
more than in those times when business was
a plain affair, and woolens were woolens
and silks were silks and men were men,
How many men do you suppose there are
In commercial life who could say truthfully,
"ln all the sales | hava ever ma ie [ have
never overstatel tho value OF gsois; in ali
the sales | have ever made | hage never
covered up an imperlection in the fabric; of
all the thousands of dollars | have ever
made | have not taken one dishonest far.
thing There are men, however, who can
say lt-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 firkiD OF butter, because
their honesty and integrity have been
tested tried aud carried out triumph
ant. But they remember time when
they could have robbed part
ner, or absconded with the funds
of bank, or sprung snap
signment or borrowed illimtably
without any effort at payment, or got man
into sharp corner and Geeced him. But
they never took one step on that pathway
of hel-hre. They can say their prayers
without hearing the clink of dishonest dol
lars. 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 without any
tiinching-that day when all charlatans and
cheats and jockeys and frauds shall be
doubly damned. 1t does not make their
knees knock together and it does not make
their teeth chatter to read 'tas the partridge
sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not, so
he that getteth riches ana not by right,
shall leave them in the midst OF his days
and at his end shall be fool"
Oh, what school of integrity business life
isl Ii you have ever been tempted to let
your integrity cringe before present alvau-
tage; If you have ever wakened up in some
embarrassment and said: "Now I'll step a
little aside from the right path and no one
will know it, and I'll come all right again
1t is only once" Oh, that only once has
ruined tens OF thousands of men for this life
and blasted their souls for eternity. Ii is a
tremendous school, business life-a school oI
integrity. A merchant in Liverpool got
five pound Bank of England note, and hold
ing it up toward the light he saw some inter
lineationsin what seemed red ink.
He finally decphered the letter., and found
out that the writing had been made by {
slave in Algiers, saying in substance, 'Who
/ ever gets this bank note will please 10 inform
my brother, John Dean, living near Carlisle
that l am slave OF the bey of Algiers.
The merchant sent word, employed Govern
ment officers and found who this man wa
spoken Of in this bank bill. After awhil
the man was rescued, who for eleven year
had been a slave of the boy of Algiers. II
was Immediately emancipated, but was S
worn out by hardship aud exposure he 500
after died. Oh, If some Of tho bank bill
that come through your hands could tell a
the scenes through which they have passaC
it would be tragedy eclipsing any dram
of Shakespeare, miShtier than King Lear c
Macbeth.
AS | 60 on in this subject / am impressc
with the importance OF our having mol
sympathy with business men. Is il not
shame that we in ou. pulpits do not oftent
preach about their struggles, their trials Rr
their temptations Men who toll with Il
hand are not apt to.be very sympathetic wi
those who toll with the brain. The farme