Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-07-28
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.


circles The crashing OF D1nES rom San
Francisco to New York and from ocean TO
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 ar
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 10 them her sympathes and plead be-
fore heaven with all avail1ng prayer. Inc
schools such men have established, the
churches they have built, the asyiuns and
benefcent institutions they have fostered,
will be their ealOgy long e-tsr their banking
institutions are forgotten.
Such men can never fail! They have their
treasures in banks that never break and will
be milIonaires forever The stringcncy of
the money market. / an glad TO say, begins
TO relax. May the wis dom of Almighty God
come down upon 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 70 talk about their trials and try to offer
some curative prescriptions.
In the first place, have to remark that
great many Of our business men feel ruinous
trials and temptations coming to them froC1
small and limited capital in business. 1t is
everywhere understood that it takes now
three or four times as much to do business
well AS once il did. Once q 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, exorbitant 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
capital they have sometimes been tempted to
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 wss fired. At the first hard gun thev
surrendered. Their knees knocked toSetheI-
at the fall of the aUctiOneer s hammer. They
blanched at the financial peril. They did
not understand that there is such thing
heroism in merchandise. and that there are
WaterIoOs of the counter, and that a man
can fight no Drawer battle with the sword than
ne can with the Yardstick.
Their souls melted in them because sugars
were 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 I have been trudging along. | have
been trying to be honest all these years. l
find it 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 WI VEh ne He for
a few dollars vast tracts of western land.
Some man at the east living on fat hom>-
stead meets this gambler Of fortune and is
persuaded to trade off his estate here for lots
In 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 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 ex-
tricated.
| 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 there are
such multltudeS o. men going to ruin for
wrong notions of what are lawful spheres of
enterprise it is the duty Of ministers of re-
hgiOn and the friends Of all young men to
utter plain. emphatic. unmistakable pro-
test. THESE are the influences that drown
men in destruction and perditiOn.
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. Snitten 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 Il an opportunity OF &ccUmu latIOn be ne
elected one hour some one else picks it up.
From January to December the struggle goes
on. Night gives no quiet to limbs tossing III
restlessness, nor to a brain that will not stop
InInkng. The dreams are narrowed by
imaginary loss and flashed with imaginary
gains. Even the Sabbath cannot dam back
Inc tide OF anxiety. for this wave of WOrldli-
ness dashes clear over the churches and
leaves its foam on Bibles and prayer BOOKS
Men who are living on salaries or bv 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
ceftalntleS OF the next hour. This excite
ment OF the brain. this correcting care of the
heart, TINS strain of effort that exhausts the
spirit. sends great many OF our best men in
nlldIl1e TO the grave TREY find
mat Wall street does not end at the East
HlVer 1t ends at Greenwood! Their life
dashed out against money safes. They 90
with their store on their back. They trildSe
Ike camels, sweating from Aleppo to Damas-
Gus. Thew make their life 2 crucifixion.
Standing behind desks and counters. BAN
Hhed from the fresh air, weighed down by
carhng ceres. they are SO many suicides
Oh, wish could to-day rub out some Of