Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-07-21
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
COMFORT FOR BUSINESS MEN
DISCUSSED BY TALMAOE
The Recent Disturbances In the Bust
ness World the Subject OF an Eloquent
and Appropriate sermon-The Church
of God.

| topic OF the greate,t interest ana tlmeU-
ness, viz. :''COmfort for Bu,iness Men, enc
text being Isaiah Al: 2: "Speak ye com
fortaby to Jerusalem"
" hat an awful six weeks in COM
mercial circles! The crashing OF banks
from 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
at thor 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 good cha ity. The
church of God can afford to extend
TO them her svmpathies, and plead be-
fore heaven w th all availing prayer.
The schools such men have stablished,
the churches they have built, the
asylums and beneficent institutions
they have fostered, will be their
eulogy long after their banking insti-
tutions are orgotten. Such men can
never tail. II ey have their treasures
In banks that never break, and will be
milionalres forever. The stringency
of the money market, l am glad to
say, begins to relax. Nav the wis
upon our national legi lature at
! their converting next month in Wash
ington, and su IN results DO coached as
shall restore confidence, tad revive
trade, and multiply pro perlties! Yet,
not only now In the time of tinancial
d saster, but all tn ough life our
active business people have struggle,
and ! think it will be appropriate and
/ useful for me TO talk about their trials
and try to offer some curative pre-
ser ptiOns
In the first place l have to remark
! that a great many of our business men
| feel ruinous trials and temptations
! coming to them from small and linn
! tied capital in bus ness 1t is every
| where understood that it takes now
/ three or four times as much TO do bust
ness wei, as once it did. On e, few
hun ired dollars were turned into
| goods-the merchant would be his
own store sweeper, his ON salesman,
his own bookkeepcr: he would manage
all the affairs himself, and everything
would be netproiit Wonderful changes
have come: costly apparatus, extensive
advertising, eNorbitant store rents,
heavy taxation, expensive agencies,
are only parts of the demand made
they have found themselves in such
circumstances with small CAPT al, they
have sometimes been tempted to run
against the rocks of moral and fnan ial
dtstru ton. This temptation of limited
capital has ruined men in two wa,
Sometimes they have shrunk down
yielded the battle before the first shot
was fired. AT the first hard gun they
surrendered. Their knees kno, kei to.
gether at the fall of the auctioneer's
hammer. They blanched at the finan-
cial peril. They did not understand
that there is such "a thing as heroism
| in NOR .handise, and that there are
Naterloos of the counter, and that n
man can fight no Drawer battle with
the sword than he can with the yard
stick. Their souls melted in them be-
cause sugars were up w en- thev
wanted TO buy, and down when they
wanted to SELL and unsuitable goods
were on the shelf, and bad debts in
their ledger. he gloom of their
countenances overshadowed even their
dry 60 DIS and groceries. Dependency
coming from limited capital blasted
them. Others have felt it in different
ways. They have said: Here have
been trudgng along. l have been
L
find it is of no use. Now tits make or
break" The small craft that could
have stood the stream, is put out be-
yond the lighthouse, on the great sea
of speculation. = Stocks are the dice
with which he CANDLES. tie bought
for few dollars vast tracts of western
| land. Some man at the east, living on
fat homestead, meets this gambler
OF fortune, and is persuaded to trade
off his estate here, for lots in west
ern city with large avenues and cost
/ ly palaces, and lake steamers smoking
at the wharves, and rail trains coming
downwith lightning speed from every
direction. There it is all on paper. i he
city has never been built, nor the rail
roads 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. i would not want
to chain honest enterprise. l would
not want to block up any of the ave-
nues for honest accumulation that
open before young men. On the con-
trary, l would like TO CHI er them on
and re Dice when they reach the goal;
men going to ruin for this life and the
life that is to come, through wrong no.
tions ST wha are law sul spheres of en-
terprise, it is the duty of the ministers
of religion, and the friends of all
young men, to utter plain, emphatic,
unmistakable protest. These are the
influences that drown men in destruc-
ton and perdition.
Again: a great many of our business
men are tempted to over-anXiety and
care. You know that nearly all con.
mercial bust esses are over-done in
this day. Smitten with the love of
quick gain, our cities are crowded
with men resolved 10 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 If an
opportunity of accumulation be neg
lccted one hour, some one else picks IL
uD. From January TO December the
struggle goes on. Night gives no quiet
TO limbs toss ing in restlessness, nor
to n brain that will not stop tn mixing.
The dreams are narrowed with i'm
aginary loss, and flushed with I'M
aginary gains. Even the Sabbath can