The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-01-01

nearly all through their occupations
come to understand questions of finance
and politics, and geography. and juris-
prudence, and ethics. Business is a Sc
we're schoolmistress. II pupils will not
learn. she strikes them over the head
and the heart with severe losses. You
put S., 900 into an enterprise. It is all
gone You say, THAT is u dead loss. -
o. no. You are paying the schooling.
That was only tuition, very large tut
toni told you it was a severe school
mistress-but it was worth II. You
learned things under that process you
would not have learned in any other
way. Traders in grain come to know
something about foreign harvests; trad
ers in fruit come to know something
about the prospects of tropical produc-
ton: manufacturers 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
casll. aud every tea box. and every
cluster of bananas is 81 much literature
for business man. Now. my brother.
what are you going 10 do with the in
telligence? Do yous oppose God put you
in this school of information merely
that you might be sharper in trade.
that you might be more successful as
wording? 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 will be wise for time and a
fool for eternity?
Iremark 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 have never been tested. A man
was elected treasurer of the state of
Maine some years ago. He was dis
tinguished for his honesty. usefulne
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
tiuguished 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
dence. 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 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
truthfully. I'm all the sales 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 | 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 tir1in
of butter, because their honesty and in
tegrity have been tested, tried and
came ont triumphant But they re-
member time when they could have
robbed a partner or have absconded
with the funds of bank, or sprung a
snap Judgment, or made false assign
ment. or borrowed illimitably without
any efforts at payment. or got 4 man
into a 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 their Bible without thinking of
the time when, with a 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 filuching that day when al.
charlatanS and cheats and Jockeys and
friends shall be doubly damned. 1t
does not make their knees knock to-
gether, and it does not make their
teeth chatter to read las 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, II you have ever been tempted
to let your Integrity cringe before
present advantage, if you have ever
Weakened up in some embarrassment
and said: Now, I'll step littls 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 tens of thousands of men for
this life and blasted their souls for
eternity. 1t is a tremendous school,
business life school OF integrity.
As 90 on in this subject l am i'm
pressed with the importance OF our hav-
ing more sympathy with business men.
Is il not a shame that we in our pulpits
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 sympathetic with those
who toll with the brain The farmers
who raise the corn aad 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 50 opposed to merchan-
disc that they declared commerce
to be the curse of the nations,
and they advised that cities be built at
least ten miles from the seacoast- But
yos and l 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