The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-07-12
These are the influences that drown men
in destruction and perdition.
A Hazardous Undertaking.

In6S6 are un6 luuueilCes tlldJ OIOWn ulCli
in destruction and perdition.
A Hazardous Undertaking.
Again, great many Of our business
men are tempted to overanxiety 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 if it only comes.
Our best merchants are thrown into
competition with men of more means
and less conscience, and if an opportu-
nifty of accumulation be neglected one
hour some one else picks it up. From
January to December the struggle goes
on. Night gives no quiet to limbs toss
ing in restlessness nor to brain that
will not stop thinking. The dreams are
narrowed by imaginary loss and flushed
with imaginary gains. Even the Sab
bath cannot dam back the tide Of anx
iety, for this wave of worldliness dashes
clear over the churches and leaves it's
foam on Bibles and prayer books. Men
who are living on salaries or by the cul-
tivation of the soil cannot understand
the wear and tear of the 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 uncertainties of the
next hour This excitement of the brain,
this corroding care of the heart, this
strain of effort that exhausts the spirit,
sends great many of our best men in
middle life into the grave, their life
dashed out against money safes They
90 with their store ON their backs. They
trudge like camels, sweating, from
Aleppo to Damascus. They make their
life crucifxion. Standing behind desks
and counters, banished from the fresh
air, weighed down by carking cares, they
are so many suicides. Oh, wish could
today rub out some Of these lines OF
care that 1 could lift some of the bur-
dens from the heart; that could give
relaxation to some of these worn mus
cles. It is time for you to begin to take
it a little easier. Do your best and then
trust God for the rest. Do not fret. God
manages all the affairs of your life, and
he manages them for the best. Consider
the lilies. They always have robes.
Behold the fowls of the air They al
ways have nests. Take long breath
Bethink betimes that God did not make
you for pack horse Dig yourselves out
from among the hogsheads and the
shelves, and in the light of the holy Sab
bath day resolve that you will give to
the winds your fears, and your fretful-
ness, and your distresses. You brought
nothing into the world, and it is very
certain you can carry nothing out. Hav-
ing food and raiment, be Herewith con-
tent. The merchant came home from
the store. There had been great disas-
ter there He opened the front door and
said in the midst of his family circle :
81 am ruined. Everything is gone. l
am all ruined" His wife said, II am
left" and the little child threw up its
hands and said, Papa, I 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 I have been so ungrateful! l
find / have great many things left
God forgive me!'
Home Matters.
Again, I remark that many OF our
business men are tempted to neglect
their home duties. How often it is that
the store and the home seem to clash,
but there ought not to be any collision
II is often the case that the father is the
mere treasurer of the family, a sort of
agent to see that they have dry goods
and groceries The work Of family gov
eminent he does not touch. Once or
twice in a year he calls the children up
on Sabbath afternoon, when he has a
half hour he does not exactly know what
to do with, and in that half hour he dis
ciplines the children and chides them
and corrects their faults and gives them
a great deal of good advice, and then
wonders all the rest of the year that his
children do not do better when they
have the wonderful advantage Of that
semiannual castigation.
The family table, which ought to be
the place for pleasant discussion and
cheerfuness, often becomes the place of
perilous expedition. If there be any
blessing asked at ALL it is cut off at both
ends and with the hand on the carving
knife. He counts on his fingers, making
estimates in the interstices of the repast.
The work done, the hat goes to the head,
and he starts down the street, and before
the family have arisen from the table he
has bound up another bundle of goods
and says to the customer, Anything
more 1 can do for you today, sir?" A
man has more responsibilities than those
which are discharged by putting com.
petent instructors over his children and
giving them drawing master and q
music teacher. The physical culture Of
the child will not be attended to unless
the father looks to it. He must some
times lose his dignity. He must unlim
Der his joints. He must sometimes lead
them out to their sports and games. The
parent who cannot forget the severe du
ties of life sometimes, to fly the kite and
trundle the hoop and chase the ball and
Jump the rope with his children, ought
never to have been tempted out of 6
crustv and understandable sOlitariueSS- Is