Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-07-17
REV. DR.. TaLuaGE.
The Brooklyn Divine's Sunda!
Sermon.
Subject: 'Business Troubles -

Subject: s'Business Troubles"
| TEXT: tThese were thy merchants IN al
sorts Of fthings."-Ezekiel xvii, "a.
| We are at the opening door Of returning
National prosperity. The coming crops, the
| re-establishment of public confidence and,
above all, the blessing Of God will turn in
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 yet 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 oi
God can afford to extend to them her SYM
pathies and plead before heaven with all
availing prayer. The schools such men have
| established, the churches they have built.
/ the asylums and beneflcent institutions they
| have fostered will be their eulogy long after
| their banking institutions are forgotten.
Such men can never fail. They have their
| treasures in banks that never break and will
| be mfllionaires forever. But I thought IT
| 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 a
| 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 it now takes
| three or four times as much to do business
| well than it once did. Once a few hundred
| dollars were turned into goods. The mer-
| chant would be his own storekeeper. his own
| salesman, his own bookkeeler. He would
manage ali the affairs himself, and every
| thing would be net profit. Wonderful
| changes have come. Costly apparatus, ex-
| tensive advertising, eNorbitant store rents.
heavy taxation, expensive agencies are only
parts of the demand made upon our COM
| mercial men, and when they have found
themselves in such circums tances 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. 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
| eer's hammer. They blanched at the finan-
cial peril. They did not understand that
| there is such a thing as heroism in merchan-
disc and that there are Waterloos of the
counter and that a 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
unstable goods were on the shelf and
bad debts in their ledger. The gloom or
their countenances overshadowed even their
dry goods and groceries. Dependency,
coming from limited capital, blasted them.
Others have felt 1t 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 be-
nd Itfyht xha -
ulation. He borrows few thousand dollars
from friends who dare not refuse him, and he
goes bartering on q large scale. He reasons
In this way: "Perhaps may succeed, and II
don't will be no worse off than I am now,
for 500. 900 taken from nothing, nothing re-
MAINS
Stocks are the dice with which he gam
bles. He bought for a few dollars vast tracts
OF Western land. Some man at the East, liv-
ing on fat homestead, meets this gambler
OF fortune and is persuaded to trade off his
estate for lots in a Western city, with large
avenues, and costly palaces, and lake stean-
ers smoking at the wharves, and rail trains
coming down with lightning speed fro n
every direction. There it Is all on paper!
The 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. Well, the man goes on, stopping
at no fraud or outrage. In his splendid
equipage he dashes past, while the honest
laborer looks up and wipes the sweat from
his brow aad says, 81 wonder where that
bubble bursts. Creditors rush in. The law
clutches, but finds nothing in its grasp. The
men who were swindled say, y don't know
how could have ever been deceived by that
man, and the pictorials, In handsome wood
cuts, set forth the hero who in ten years had
genius enough to fail for $3.50, 900!
And that is the process by which many
have been tempted through limitation of
capital to rush into labyrinths from which
they could not be extricated. I would not
want to chain honest enterprise. I would
not want to block up any of the avenues for
honest accumulation that open before young
men. On the contrary, would liketo cheer
them on and rejoice when they reach the
goal, but when there are such multitudes Of
men going to ruin for this life and the life
that il to come through wrong notions of
what are lawful spheres Of enterprise it Is
the duty of the Church Of God, and the minis
ters Of religion, ana the friends of all young
men, to utter plain, emphatic, unmis-
taxable protest. These are the influences
that drown men in destruction and per-
ution.
Again, a great many of our business men
are tempted to overanxiety and care. You
know that nearly all commercial 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.
)nly comes. Our best merchants are thrown
into competition with men OF more means
and less conscience, and II an opportunity
of accumulation be neglected one hour
some ono else picks it up. From
January to December the struggle goes
on. Night gives no quiet to limbs toss
ing in restlessness nor to a brain that
will not stop thinking. The dreams are
narrowed by imaginary loss and flushed |
with imaginary gains. Lven the Sab |
bath cannot dam back the tide of anxiety,
Tor this wave OF worldliness dashes clear |
over the churches and leaves its foam on
Bibles and prayer books. Men who are
living on salaries or by the cultivation Of the |
,oil cannot understand the wear and tear of |
.he body and mind to which our merchants /
are subjected when they do not know but |
hat their livelihood and their business |
honor are dependent upon the uncertainties |
If the next hour. This excitement OF the ]
brain, this corroding care OF the heart, this /
train of effort that exhausts the spirit,
sends a great many Of our best men in mid /
die life into the grave, their life dashed out |
against money safes. They go with their /
store on their backs. They trudge like cam
els, sweating, from Aleppo to Damascus.
They make their life a crucifixion. Stand |
ing behind desks and counters. banished |
from the fresh air, weighed down by cark-
Ing cares. they are so many suicides Oh.
wish could to-day rub ont some OF these
lines Of care; that could lift some OF the
burdens from the heart; that I could give
relaxation to some of these worn muscles. |
1t Is time for you to begin to take 1t 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 always
have nests. Take long breath. Bethink /
betimes that God did not make you for a |
pack horse. Dig yourselves out from among |
the hogsheads and the shelves, and in the l
light of the holy Sabbath day resolve that |
you will give to the winds your fears, and
your fretfulness, AM your distresses. You
brought nothing Sinto the world, and It Is |
very certain you can carry nothing out.
Having food and raiment be Herewith con.
tent. Inc merchant came nome from the
store. There had been great disaster there.