The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-07-19

BROOKLYN. July 16.-The Rev. DR..
Talmage has selected as his subject for
today a topic of the greatest interest
and timeIiness-viz, Comfort For Bust
ness Men," the text being Isaiah XII. 2,
Speak We comfortably to Jerusalem"
What an awful six weeks in CONNER
cial circlesI The crashing OF banks
from San Francisco TO New York and
from ocean TO ocean. The complete un-
certainty 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
at 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 sym
pathies and plead before heaven with all
availing prayer. The schools such men
have established, the churches they have
built, the asylums and benefcent insti-
tutions they have /fostered. will be their
eulogy long after their banking institu-
tions are forgotten. Such men can never
fail. They have their treasures I'm
banks that never break and will be
milllonaires forever.
The stringency of the money market,
] am glad TO say. begins 10 relax. May
the wisdom Of Almighty God come down
upon our national legislature at their
converting next month in Washington
and such results be reached as shall re-
store confidence and revive trade and
multiply prosperitiesl 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.
The Tempted Merchant.
In the first place, have to remark
that great many Of our business men
feel ruinous trials and temptations COM
ing TO them from small and limited capt.
tai In business. IL Is everywhere under
stood that IT takes now three or four
times as much 10 do business well as
once II did. Once a few hundred dollars
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 everything would be net profit.
Wonderful changes have come. Costly
apparatus, extensive advertising. exorbi-
tant store rents, heavy taxation. expen-
sive agencies. are only parts OF the de-
mand made upon our commercial men.
And when they have found themselves
In such circumstances with small capital
they have sometimes been tempted 10
run against the rocks of moral and finan-
cial destruction
This temptation OF limited capital has
ruined men In two ways. Sometimes
they have shrunk down under the temp
tation. They have yielded the battle be-
fore the first shot was fired. At the
first hard gun they surrendered. Their
knees knocked together at the fall OF
the auctioneer's hammer They blanched
at the financial peril. They did not un-
derstand that there is such a thing as
heroism in merchandise, and that there
are Waterloos Of the counter. and that a
man can fight no drawer battle with the
sword than he can with the yard-stick.
Their souls melted in them because
sugars were up when they wanted 10
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 countenances over
Swallowed 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 I have been trudging
along l have been trying to be honest
all these years. I'find it. is Of no use.
Now IL is make or break"
The small craft that could have stood
L.
house on the great sea OF speculation.
Stocks are the dice with which he gam
bles. He bought for a few dollars vast
tracts OF western land. Some man at
the East living on a fat homestead meets
this gambler of fortune and Is pursuaded
10 trade off his estate here for lots in
western city with large avenues and
costly palaces and lake steamers smok-
ing at the wharves and rail trains COM
ing down nth lightning speed from
every direction. There II 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 process by which many have been
tempted through limitation OF capital
into labyrinths from which they could
not be extricated.
/ would not want TO chain honest en-
terprise. 1 would not want to block up
any OF the avenues for honest accumula-
ton that open up for young men, On
the contrary. L would like to cheer them
on and rejoice when they reach the goal,
but when there are such multitudes Of
men going 10 ruin for this life and the
life that is TO come through wrong
notions OF what are lawful spheres of
enterprise II Is the duty OF the ministers
OF religion and the friends of all young
men TO utter a plain, emphatic. unmis-
taxable protest. These are the In
huences that drown men In destruction
and perditiOn.
The Feverish Thirst for Gain.
Again. a great many Of our business
men are tempted 70 over anxiety and
care. You know that nearly all CONNER
cial 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 mer-
chants. are thrown into competition with
men OF more means and less conscience
and IL an opportunity of accumulation
be neglected one hour some one else
picks II up. From January TO December
the struggle goes on. Night gives no
quiet 10 limbs tossing in restlessness
nor 20 a brain that will not stop think
ing. The dreams are narrowed by imag-
mary loss and flushed with imaginary
Urvar tho Sabbath appof dam