Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-07-21
REV. DR.. 7ALMAGB.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject: Comfort for Business Men,

Francisco to New York and from ocean 10
ocean. The complete uncertainty that has
halted all styles Of business for three months
and the pressure of the money market for the
last year have put all bargain makers al
their wits end. Some of the best men in
the land have faltered-men whose hearts
are enlisted in every good work and
whose hands have blessed every great
charity. The church Of God can afford to
extend TO them her sympathies and plead be-
fore heaven with all ayailing prayer. The
schools such men have established the
churches they have built, the asylums and
benehcent institutions they have fostered,
will be their eulogy long after their banking
institutions are forgotten.
Such men can never fail. They have their
treasures in banks that never break and will
be millionaires forever. The stringency Of
the money market, am glad to say, begins
to relax. May the wisdom OF Almighty God
come down unon our National legislature at
their converting next month in Washington
and such results be reached as shall restore
confidence and revive trade and multiply
properties Yet not only now in the time
OF financial disaster, but all through life, our
active business people have a struggle, and
think it will be appropriate and useful for
me TO talk about their trials and try to offer
some curative prescriptions.
In the first place. I have to remark that a
great many OF our business men feel ruinous
trials and temptations coming to them flom
small and limited capital in business. II is
everywhere understood that It takes now
three or four times as much to do business
we'll as once 1t did. Once few hundred dol
lars were turned into goods-the merchant
would be his own store sweeper, his own
salesman, his own bookkeeper. He would
manage all the affairs himself, and every
thing would be net profit. Wonderful
changes have come. Costly apparatus. ex-
tensive advertising. exoroitant store rents
heavy taxation, expensive agencies, are
only parts Of the demand made upon our
commercial men, and when they have found
themselves in such circumstances with small
run against the rocks OF moral and financial
destruction.
This temptation OF limited capital has
ruined men in two ways. Sometimes they
have shrunk down under the temptation.
They have yielded the battle before the first
shot was fired. At the first hard gun they
surrendered. Their knees knocked together
at the fall of the auctioneer's hammer. Thev
blanched at the financial peril. They did
not understand that there is such thing
heroism in merchandise, and that there are
Waterloos of the counter, and that man
can fight no Drawer battle with the sword than
ne can with the yardstick.
Their souls melted in them because sugars
we're up when they wanted TO buy and down
when they wanted to sell and unstable
goods were on the shelf and bad debts in
their ledger. The gloom Of their counte-
nances overshadowed even their dry goods
and groceries. Dependency. coming from
limited capital. blasted them. Others have
felt it in a different way. They have said :
Here have been trudging along. I have
been trying 10 be honest all these years.
find 1t is of no use. Now it is make or
break.
The small craft that could have stood the
stream is put out beyond the lighthouse on
the great sea Of speculation. Stocks are the
dice with which he CANDLES. He bought for
a few dollars vast tracts of western land.
Some man at the east living on a fat home
stead meets this gambler of fortune and is
persuaded to trade off his estate here for lots
In a western city with large avenues and
costly palaces and lake steamers smoking at
the wharves and rail trains coming down
with lightning speed from every direction.
There it is all on paper The city has never
been built nor the railroads constructed. but
everything points that way. and the thing
will be done as sure as you live And that
Is the DTOttSS DN WHICH W0QY nave Deen
tempted through limitation OF capital into
labyrinths from which they could not be ex-
tEicated.
would not want to chain honest enter
prise would not want TO block up any Of
the avenues for honest accumulation that
open before young men On the contrary, ]
would like to cheer them on and rejoice
when they reach the goal but when thereare
such multitudes OF men going to ruin for
this life and the life that is TO come through
wrong notions Of what are lawful spheres Of
enterprise it is the duty Of ministers of re-
ligion and the friends Of all young men to
utter plain, emphatic. unmistakable pro-
test. These are the influences that drown
men in destruction and psrdition.
Again. a great many Of our business men
are tempted to over-anxiety and care. You
know that nearly all commercial businesses
are overdone in this day. Smitten with the
love of quick gain. our cities are crowded
with men resolved to be rich at all hazards.
They do not care how money comes. Our
best merchants are thrown into competition
with men Of more means and less conscience,
and II an opportunity of accumulation be ne
elected one hour some one else picks it up.
From January TO December thestruggle goes
on Night gives no quiet to limbs tossing ii
nor 10 brain that will not stop
thinking. The dreams are narrowed by
Imaginary loss and flashed with imaginary
gains. Even the Sabbath cannot dam back
the tide OF anxiety. for this wave Of worldli-
ness dashes clear over the churches and
leaves lis foam on Bibles and PRAYER books.
Men who are living on salaries or by the
culture Of the soil cannot understand the
wear and tear OF body and mind to which
our merchants are subjected when they do
not know but that their livelihood and their
business honor are dependent upon the I'M
certainties OF the next hour. This excite.
ment OF the brain, this zorro ding care Of the
heart, this strain OF effort that exhausts the
spirit, sends great many Of our best men in
midlife TO the grave. They find
that Wall street docs not end at the East
River. It ends at Greenwood Their life
dashed out against money safes. They go
with their store on their back. They trudge
like cames, sweating from Aleppoto Damas-
Gus. Thew make their life a crucihxion.
behind desks and counters, ban
ished from the fresh air. weighed down by
carking cares. they are SO many suicides.
On. wish | could to-day rub out some OF
these lines OF care that could lift some OF
the burdens from the heart that l could
give relaxation 10 some OF these worn
muscles 1t is time for you to begin 10 take
il little easier. Do your best. and then
trust God for the rest. Do not fret God
all the affairs OF your life, and He
them for the best Consider the
lilies-they always have robes. Behold the
fowls o. the air-they always have nests.
Take a long breath. Bethink betimes that
God did not make you pack horse Dig
yourselves out from among the hogsheads
and the shelves, and in the light Of the holy
oaopath DAY resolve that you will give to the
winds your fears, and your fretfulness, AMI
your distresses. You brought nothing into
The world, and it is very certain you can
carry nothing out. Having food and
be Herewith content
The merchant came home from the store.
There had been great disaster there. He
opened the front door and said in the midst
Of his family circle II am ruined. Ev-
erything Is gone. AN all ruined - His
wife said, Il am left" and the little child
threw up its hands and said. Papa. / am
here. The aged grandmother seated in the
room said, Then you have all the promises
Of God beside. John" And he burst into
tears and said God forgive me that have
been so ungrateful. I find have a great
many things left God forgive me-"
Again, remark that many OF our business
men are tempted TO neglect their home duties.