Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-08-20

Commercial Ethics.

1Ou want many Things you nave not
my young friends. You shall have then
if you have patience and honesty anC
industry. Certain lines Of conduct al
ways lead out to certain successes
There is law which controls even
those things that seem haphazard.
have been told by those who have OBJ
served that it is possible to calculate
just how many letters will be sent tC
the dead letter Office every year through
misdiTection; that it is possible to cal
culate just how many letters will be de-
tained for lack Of postage stamps through
the forgetfulness Of the senders, and
that it is possible to tell just how many
people will fall in the streets by slip
ping on an orange peel In other words,
there are no accidents. The most insig-
nihcant event you ever heard Of is the
link between two eternities-the eter.
nifty Of the past and the eternity Of the
future. Head the right way, young
man, and you will come out at the
right goal
Bring me a young man and tell me
what his physical health is and what
his mental caliber and what his habits,
and | will tell you what will lie bis
destiny for this world and his destiny
for the world to come, and will not
make five inaccurate prophecies out Of
the 500 All this makes me sOlicitous
in regard to young men, and l want to
make them nervous in regard to the
contraction of unpayable debts. give
you a paragraph from my own expe-
rience
Ny first settlement as pastor was in a
village Ny salary was $500 and a par
sonage The amount seemed enormous
to me- | said to myself, What, all this
for one yearW | was afraid Of getting
worldly under so much prosperity. |
resolved to invite all the congregation
to my house in groups Of % each. We
began, and as they were the best con-
gregation in all the world, and we felt
nothing was too good for them, we
piled all the luXuries on the table. l
never completed the undertaking. AT
the end Of six months | was in finan-
cial despair. | found that we not only
had not the surplus of luxuries, but we
had a struggle TO get the necessities,
and | learned what every young man
learns, in time to save himself or too
late, that you must measure the size Of
a maps body before you begin to cut
the cloth for his coat.
When a young man willfully and OF
choice, having the comforts Of life, goes
into the contraction of unpayable debts,
he knows not into what he goes. The
creditors get after the debtor, the pack
Of hounds in full cry and alas for the
reindeer! They jingle his doorbell be-
fore he gets up in the morning, they
jingle his doorbell after be has gone TO
bed at night They meet him as he
comes of his front steps. They send
him a postal card or letter IN curtest
style, telling him to pay up. They at
tach MS goods They want cash or a
note It 30 days or a note on demand.
They call him a knave. They say be
lies. They want him disciplined in the
church. They want him turned out OF
the bank. They come at him from this
side and from that side and from be-
fore and from behind and from above
and from te1eath, and he is insulted
and eibbeted and sued and dunned
and sworn at until he gets the nervous
dyspepsia, gets neuralgia, gets liver
complaint, gets heart disease, gets con
vulsive disorder, gets consumption.
Now be is dead, and you say "Oi
course they will let him alone. Oh,
no! Now they are watchful to see
whether there are any unnecessary ex-
penses at the obsequies, to see whether
there is any useless handle on the cas-
ket, TO see whether there is any surplus
plat Oh the shroud, to see whether the
hearse is costly or cheap, to see whether
the flowers sent TO the casEet have been
bought by the family or donated to see
in whose name the deed TO the grave Is
made out. Then they ransack the tereit
household, the books, the pictures, the
carpets, the chairs, the sofa. the piano,
the mattresses, the pillow ca which hC
died. Cursed be- dcb! Fer Tic sake oi
your own happiness, for tie sake G
your good morals, for The sake Ct ycsi
immortal soul for Gods sake, youns
man, as far as possible keep cct CT IL
Irrel.gious Young Ven.
But think mere young men ar
slaughtered through irleligion. Take
away young mans religion and yor
make him the prey Of evil. Veal Know
that the Bible is the only perfect system
Of morals. Now, if you want to destroy
the young mans morals, take his Bible
away. How will you do that! Well. you
will caricature his reverence for the
Scriptures, you will take all those incl
dents Of the Bible which can be made
mirth of - Jcnah's whale, Samson's
foxes, Adam 5 rib. Then you will carl
cature eccentric Christians or inconsist-
ent Christians. Then You will pass of as
your own all those hackneyed arguments
against Christianity which are as old as
Tom Paine, as old as Voltaire. as old
as sin. Now you have captured his BIZ
BILE, and you have taken his strongest
fortress. The way is comparatively
clear, and all the gates Of his soul are
set open in invitation to the sins Of
earth and the sorrows Of death, that
they may come in and drive the stake
for their encampment.
A steamer 1000 miles from shore,
with broken rudder and lost compass
and hulk leaking so gallons the hour. is
better off than a young man when you
have robbed him Of his Bible. Have
Won ever noticed how despicably mean
il is to take away the worlds Bible
without proposing a substitute! IL IS
meaner than to come TO sick man ana
steal his medicine, meaner than to come
TO n cripple and steal his crutch, meaner
than to come to a pauper and steal his
ernst. meaner than to come TO poor
man and burn his house down. 1t is the
worst of all larcenies to steal the Bible
which has been crutch and medicine
and food and eternal home to so many.
What a generous and maenanimous
A.f,,o., ;p6daiitv has yOne intO-thie