The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1895-07-11
THE TRIALS or BUSINESS
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Struggle For Riches, Causes Many
Downfails.
TExr, "These were thy merchants In all
sorts OF things. ."-Ezskiel xviii, "a.

Nationa; prosperity. Tho coming crops, the
r,,-e.tabishment OF public confidence and.
above all, the blessing OF God will turn ia
upon all sections OF America the widest,
greatest prosperity this country has ever
seen. But that door of success Is not yet
fully open. and thousands of business men
are vet suffering from the distressing times
through which we have been passing.
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 aud plead before heaven with all
ayailing prayer. The schools such men have
established. the 1hurches they have built,
the asylums and bencncent institutions they
have fostered will be their eulogy long after
their banking institutions nre forgotten
such men can never fail. They have their
treasures in banks that never hreak and will
be- millionaires forever But | thought II
would be appropriate to-day and useful for
me TO talk about the trials and temptations
OF our business men 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 from
small and limited capital in business 1t Is
everywhere understood that IL now takes
three or four times rs much to do business
we'll than IL once did. Once a few hundred
dollars were turned int goods. The mer-
chant would be his own storekeeper. his own
salesman. his own bookkeelcr. He would
manage all the affairs himself, and every
thing would be net profit. Wonderful
changes have come. Costly apparatus ex-
tensiye advertising, exorbitant store rents,
heavy taxation, expensive agencies are only
parts Of the demand made upon our COM
mercial men, and when they have found
| themselves I'm such circums tances with small
..utfa1 thay have gDmntimpg haan ta ,,fa aH 20
run against the rocks OF moral and financial
destruction. This temptation OF limited
capital has ruined men in two ways. Some
times they have shrunk down under the
. temptation. They have yielded the battle
| before the first shot was fired. At the first
| hard dun they surrendered. Their knees
| Knocked together at the fall OF the auction
GERS hammer. They blanched at the flnan-
cial peril. They did not understand that
there is such II thing rs heroism in mcrchan-
disc and that there are Waterloos of the
counter and that Il man can fight no braver
battle with the sword than he can with the
yardstick. Their souls melted In them be-
cause sugars were up when they wanted To
buy and down when they wanted to SELL and
unsaabe goods were on the shelf and
bad debts in their ledger. The gloom OF
their couutenances overshadowed even their
dry goods and groceries. Dependency
coming from limited capital, blasted them.
|OtntrS nave lNll III III u ulUtFent way. IneN
have said: "liere L have been trudginc
along. have been trying to be honest all
these years. find IL IL OF no use. Now Ii
make or break" The small craft that
fould have stood the stream is put out be-
ond the lighthouse on the great sea OF spec
lation. He borrows n few thousand dollar.
rom friends who dare not refuse him, and h.
oes bar;ering on II large scale. He reasons
this way; perhaps l may succeed. and IL
don't will be no worse off than am now,
br 800, 900 taken from nothing, nothing re-
bains.
Stocks ARE the dice with which Ae gam
H.. lls iought for few dollar vast tracts
NC.,ern land. Some man NJ :he East Nv
Is OF nj homestead, neets this gambler
fortune and is persuaded to trade OIL his
Ate \, lots in n Western city, with large
fnues. and costly palaces, and lake steam
smoking at the wharies, and rail trains
ping down with lightning speed from
~ direction. There it Is all ON paper.
city has never been built nor the rail-
is constructed. but everything points that
and the thing will be done as sure rs
live. Well, the msn goes on, stopping
hO fraud or Outrage. In his splendid
page he dashes past, while the honest
rer looks up and wipes the sweat from
brow and SAYS 1 wonder where that
got all his money! After while the
le bursts Creditors rush in. The law
Ehes, but finds nothing in its grasp. The
who were sG,ndled say, II don't know
could have ever been deceived by that
and the pictorials, in handsome wood
set forth the hero who in ten years had
is enough TO fail for Sl50,0OO!
i th.t IS the process by which many
been tcmpted through limitation OF
Pl Zoo rush into labyrinths from which
ec.t not be extricated. l would not
to iin honest enterprise. / would
Bat % block up any of the avenues for
umulation that open before young
I0 the contrary, would like to cheer
oH and rejoice when they reach the
hNl when there are such multitudes of
Ls > ruin for this life and the life
come through wrong notions OF
az awful spheres OF enterprise Ii Is
y al the Church of God, and the minis
lgion. ana the friends of all young
utter plain, emphatic, unmis-
protest. These are the influences
jwn men in destruction and per-
Sreas many of our business men
/, ' d to oyeranxiety and care. You
't' nearly all commercial businesses
ne In this day. Smitten with the
l. GAlck gain, our cities are crowded
~ resolved to bs rich at all hazards.
" lOt care how money comes il il
i .. Our best merchants are thrown
petition with men of more means
: Conscience, and III an opportunity
mutation be neglected one hour
me else picks 1t up. From
10 December the struggle goes
X hght gives no quiet 10 limbs toss
A resllessness nor 10 Il brain that
stop thinking. The dreams are
20 ca by imaginary loss and flushed
;ei imaginary gains. Lven the Sab
lhhot dam back the tide OF anxiety,
wave OF wOrldliness dashes clear
echurches and leaves its foam on
anu prayer books. Men who ara
~ ~ salaries or by the cultivation OF the
no' understand the wear AMI tear OF
Ou ana mind TO which our merchants
,es leeted when they do not know but
lelf livelihood anl their business
're dependent upon the uncertainties
G." next hour. This excitement OF the
Y u,a corrpding care of the heart. this
q VI effort tina. exhausts the spirit,
s,,s sieat many of our best men In mid
'n'o the grave, their life dashed out
money safes. They go with their
fol .heir backs. They trudge like cam
er . alng, from Aleppo to Damascus.
n aNs thelr life cruclixion. Stand
~ 'inu desks and counters, banished
NV fresh air, weighed down by cark-
,opo ,hey ara 50 many suicides. oh,