The Progress., 1893-12-30

ana TINS man 1"ll ana tnat. Nobody
knew anything aDout it. Millions flow
ed in every possible direction. Men
high in position SuCcumhcd oft. Well,
they succeeded, invested their millions.
They had their money and their day,
but the day of wrath came at last And
now poor weeping France looks on, and
one great man falls and another and an
other. And the poor little fool that was
in the assembly that day and said; II
believe in old fashioned honor and in
tegrity, and will not have your money.
/ | will vote as my conscience dictates '-
he was described as fool and an idiot
then. but now he is the only man that
can hold his head up and look the world
squarely in the face.
The great principles of right and
/ truth are those that really are guiding
and directing the world. Every doubt
/ ful business in this world could be swept
/ from the face of the earth, and the
earth would be richer Whenever men
ask you to enter into successful bust
ness transaction, remember that this
world can 10 without that transaction
and be the better for it, and you had
better let it alone. 1t is not the easiest
way, this way of Christian life ~
against this modern business method,
but it is the only true way. Christians
in the past had hard time to live;
then they died. They were put to death
in the arena. They marched over burn
ing plowshares. The Christian man to-
day can live better, easier, with less
sacrifice called for by modern life, than
ever before i'll the history of the world.
And the man that says, Il cannot live
today unless | do these things, " simply
lies. Is the business world in conflict
with Christianity? So much the worse
for the business world. The curse of
Coda living, whitening, blasting
curse-is on that society, on that com
merce that makes success possible
against truth and right and honor
HONEST WORK SACRED.
"All things are yours, and because
the business world is a legitimate field
for Christian its obligations are high.
1t is yours; but, precisely because it is.
it is holy ground. The merchant that
sits ut his desk is doing as sacred a work,
when honest in his transactions and deal
ings, as | do when | am here at this
desk before You ON Sunday. The labor
er at his anvil, the farmer who holds /
his plow, every workingman that does
his work unto the Lord, is doing sa-
cred work. His shop, his office, his
place of business, is as sacred as the ,
high altar of God to him, for God call |
ed him there to be the high priest. But, /
you say, what is the use to be honest! .
People love to be humbugged But,
my friend, for your own sake, be hon
est. Most people, take them all in all,
have a large streak of fool in them.
They will run after special bargains
and sales. For your own heart and life
he honest. You do not fool yourelf, and
when you mark your goods to fool the
people and to- rope in the unwary You
know in yourself you have degraded
yourself. You have sold your own soul
out to tho devil in the process. Be hon
est and avoid every man who in the
process of the business world seeks to
coin money out of other peoples blood.
| am done with bargains, sheriff's sale
and bankrupt clothing establishments.
If you support those establishments, you
are trading in the blood of broken
hearts and homes. for it took good. hard
labor to make those goods, and if they
are sold at less than it costs to make
them You are buying the price of good
hearts blood. AS for the man that can
another man and make it pos
sible to undersell by cheating clerks and
giving small wages and making them
work their lives out would rather go
to man that gives his clerks honest
salaries. The time may come in your
life when adversely may be yours, and
your loved ones are thrown on this great
vulgar labor market of the world, and
in your own flesh and blood others can
trade in dollars and cents. If you get
what are called bargains today, it means
heart is broken-somebody
else has paid for it too high a price.
soULLEss CORPORATIONS.
do not want anything to do with
business transactions where the princi-
pies that are used are such that an indi-
vidual would not touch. We have
A distinguished man
died some years ago in New York city,
the soul of honor in every personal
His servants stood weep
ing by the door when he died. He did
not owe cent. Everything was paid
for in cash. He said: DO not owe your
a cent. 1t is dishonest to
keep his wages from him, unless you
pay him interest ON it - pay him
But he was at the head of
a gigantic corporation that held mo-
nopoly and made his fortune out of the
lives of community that were ground
in the process. And when men ap-
preached him he said, II am honest in
all my transactions, but a corporation
has got no soul" God does not call cor
porations to account. The devil does not
call them to account. They have no
THa,, Il. l