The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-01-06

III WIOSc honesty you ndu 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 q man talk about |
living a life of complete commercial ac-
curacy there are those who Gscribe 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
ems and silks were silks and men were
men.
How many men do you suppose there
are in commercial life who could say
truthfully, I'm all the sales have ever
made | have never overstated the value
of goods; in all the sales have ever
made have never covered up an i'm
perfection in the fabric; of all the thou
sands of dollar have ever made have
not taken one dishonest farthing?"
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 frkin of butter. be-
cause their honesty and integrity have
| been tested, tried, and come out tri-
umphant But they remember time
when they could have robbed partner,
or have absconded with the funds of
bank, or sprung a snap judgment or
made false assignment, or borrowed
unlimitably without any efforts at pay
ment, or got man into sharp corner
and feeced 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 the Bible without think
! ing of the time when without lie on
their soul in the custom-bouse they
kissed the Book. They can think of
death and the Judgment that comes
after it without any finching-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: "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 his days. and at
his end shall be fool"
o, what a school of integrity business
life is! If you have ever been tempted
to let your integrity cringe before pres
ent advantage, if you have ever walk
ened up in some embarrassment, and
said, "Now, I'll step little aside from
the right path and no one will know it.
and I'll come all right again; it is only
once" o, that only once has ruined
J tens of thousands of men for this life
: and blasted their souls for eternity. L
: is tremendous school, business life, {
school of integrity A merchant in Liv
i erpool got fve-pound Bank of En-
, gland note, and holding it up toward
, the light he saw some interlineations il
what seemed red ink. He finally de
, ciphered the letters and found out tina
the writing had been made by slave
! in Algiers, saying in substance: "Who
I ever gets this bank -note will please t.
!: inform my brother John Dean, Twin!
t near Carlisle, that am slave of tn,
Bey of Algiers." The merchant sen
a word, employed government officers
s and found who this man was, spoken o
t in this bank bill. After awhile the mai
0 was rescued, who for eleven years ha,
v been slave of the Bey of Algiers. II
o was Immediately emancipated, but wa
d so worn out by hardship and exposur
J.. he soon after died. O, if some 0
e the bank bills that come throug
|. your bands could tell all the scene
e through which they have passed,
: would be tragedy eclipsing any dram
!. of Shakespeare, mightier than Kin
}. Lear or Macbeth.
4 AS go on in this subject / am in
7 pressed with the Importance of our ha,
"a ing more sympathy with business mer
d Is it not shame that we in our pulpit
d do not oftener preach about their strul
,. giles, their trials and their temptations
a. Men who toll with the hand are not az
n to be very sympathetic with those VIII
# toll with the brain. The farmers VIII
n. raise the corn and the oats and tn
,e wheat sometimes are tempted to thin
Il that grain merchants have an easy tim
,e and get their profits without giving an
" equivalent. Plato and Aristotle wei
10 so opposed to merchandise that they d,
n. clared commerce to be the curse of tn
i. nations, and they advised that cities /
" built at least ten miles from the sc
re coast But you and know that thei
p are no more industrious or high-minde
n. men than those who move in the worl
pt of traffic, Some of them carry burden
a. heavier than hods of brick, and are e:
]e posed to sharper things than the ca
n wind, and climb mountains higher tina
III the Alps or Himalayas, and if they al
n faithful Christ will at last say to ther
at well done. good and faithful servan
m thou hast been faithful over fe
~ things, / will make thee ruler ov,
m many things. Enter thou into the j
e. of thy Lord"
pc We all talk about the martyrs of Il
IN Piedmont Valley, and the marty
at among the Scotch highlands, and Il
i'd martyrs at Oxford. There are just
N certainly martyrs of Wall street a,
,d State street, martyrs of Fulton sire
Id and Broadway, martyrs of AtlSnt
,c street and Chestnut street, goil
wv through hotter fires, or having the
i'll necks under sharper axes Then it b
L. ,;.l frat f,,1n f,-o