Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1897-07-23
TALMAGE'S SERMON
INTERESTING THEME 81 THE
WASHINGTON PREACHER.

lydia. a seller Of purple ~ the city ui
Thyatira. which worshipci God, heard "a
whose heart the Lord opened. Acts xvi
IA. "SeeSt thou a man dilgent IN nj husi.
ness He shall stand before Kings,
Proverbs xii. 20.
The first passage introduces 10 Won
Lydia, Christian merrhantrss. Her bust.
ness is to deal in purple cloths or silks.
she Is not giggiinc nonentity, hut pra"-
teal woman, not ashamed to work for her
living, All the other women Of Philppi
and Thvntira have been forgotten, hut God
has made immortal in our text Lydia, the
Christian saleswoman. The other text
shows you man with head and hand and
heart and foot all busy toiling nn up until
he gains princelv success. 'Seest thou a
man diligent in his business; He shall
stand before kings"
Great encouragement in these two pas
saCes for men and women who will he busy,
but no solRce for those who are waiting for
good luck to show them, AT the foot Of the
rainbow, a casket OF buried gold II is
folly for anybody in this world to wait for
something to turn up. 1t will turn down,
The law of thrift is rs inexorahle as the
law of the tides. Fortune. the magician
may wave her wand In that direction until
castles and palaces come, but she will after
while invert the same wand. and all the
splendors will vanish into thin air.
There are certain styles of behavior
which lead to usefulness, honor and per-
manent success, and there are certain
styles of behavior which lead to dust, dis
honor and moral default. | would like to
fire the ambition of young people. / have
no sympathy with those who would prepare
young folks for life by whiting down
their expectations. That man or woman
will be worth nothing to church or state
who begins life cowed down. The business
of Christianity is not to quench but to d..
rect human ambition. Therefore it IL that
utter words of encouragement to those
who are occupied as clerks In the stores and
shops and banking houses Of the country.
They are not an exceptional class. They
belong to great company Of tens of thou
sands who are in this country, amid cir
| cumstances which will either make or break
them for time and for eternity. Many of
these people have already achieved a
| Christian manliness and a Christian wo-
| manliness which will be their passport to
any position, l have seen their trials. |
have watched their perpexities. There
are evils abroad which need to be hunted
down and dragged out into the MONDAY
light.
In the first place, | counsel clerks to
remember that for the most part their
clerkship is only school from which they
are to be graduated, It takes about eight
| years to get into one Of the learned profess
| slons' 1t takes about eight years to get to
| be merchant. Some of YOU will he clerks
all your lives, but the vast majority of
! you are only in a transient position. After
awhile, some December day, the head men
OF the firm will call you into the back
| ONCE and they will sayto you: Now, you
| nave done well by us, we are going to do
! well by you. We invite you to have an in
! terest in our concern" You will bow to
that edict very gracefully. Getting into u
street car to go home, an old comrade will
meet YOU and say, what makes YOU look
SO happy tO-night?" ooh" you will saw,
nothing, nothing But in n few DAYS
your name will blossom on the sign. Either
in the store or bank where Won are now,
or in some other store or bank YOU will
take higher position than that which you
| now occupy. SO feel | am now address.
Ing people who will yet have their hand
on the worlds commerce and you will turn
1t this way or that. Now clerks, but to be
bankers, importers, insurance company
directors, shippers, contractors. supcrin-
tendents of railroads your voice mighty
"on Change standing foremost in the
great financial and religious enterprises
OF the day. For, though we who are in
the profession may, on the platform, plead
Tor the philanthropies after all, the mer-
chants must come forward with their mil.
lions to sustain the movement.
Be therefore patient and diligent in this
transient position. You are now where
you can learn things you can never learn
in any other place. What YOU consider
your disadvantages are your grand oppOr.
tunlty You see an affiuent father some
uay come down prominent street with his
son who has just graduated from the uni.
versity and establishing him In business
putting @5O,0 900 of capital in the store
Well, you are envious. You say; ooh, if !
only had chance like that young man! II
l only had father to put 80. 900 in Il
business for me, then | would have some
chance in the world" Be not envous
You have advantages over that Young man
which he has not over you. AS well might
come down to the docks when a vessel /,
about to sail for Valparaiso and say, LET
me pilot this ship out to sea-" Why,
would sink crew and cargo before got out
OF the harbOr simply because | know moth.
ing about pilotage, Wealthy sea captain.
put their sons before the mast for the
reason that they know it is the onl,
place where they can learn to be sue
cessful sailors. 1t is only under drill
that people get to understand piIotage and
navigation, and | want you to understand
that it takes no more skill to conduct a YES
sci out Of harbor and across the sea than tc
steer commercial establishment clear OF
the rocks. You see every day the folly of
people going into a business they know
nothing about A man makes q fortune in
one business, thinks there is another Orcu
patton more comfortable, goes into it and
sinks all, Many of the commercial estab.
Hshments of our cities are giving theii
clerks mercantile education as thorough
as Yale or Harvard or Princeton are giving
| scientific attainments to the students ma.
| circulated. The reason there are so many
| men laundering in business from wear re-
year is because their early mercantile edu.
cation was neglected. Ask the men in hiph
commercial circles, and they will tell YOU
they thank God for this severe discipline OF
their early clerkship. You can afford tC
endure the wilderness march if it is going
to end in the vineyards and orchards of the
promised land.
But you say, "Will the womanlv clerks
In our stores have promoton?' Yes, Time
Is coming when women will be as well pait
Tor their toll in mercantile circles as mer
are now paid for their toll. Time Is coming
when woman will be allowed to do any
thlng she can do well. II is only a littl,
while ago when women knew nothing o.
telegraphy, and they were kept out of
| great many commercial circles where they
are now welcome. and the time will 20 or
until the woman who at one counter In /
store sells $4,000 worth of goods in yea
will get as high salary as the man who
AT the other counter of the same store sell.
$4,000 worth of goods. All honor to lydia
the Christian saleswoman.
The second counsel l have to give tc
clerks is that you seek out what are the
lawful regulations Of your establishment
| RI EIat
ordered house has its usages. In militar,
life, on ships deck in commercial life
there must be order and discipline. Those
people who do not learn how to obey will
never know how to command Iwlil tel
you what young man will make ruiz
financial and moral 1t is the Young MAJ
who thrusts his thumb into his vest ant
says; Nobody shall dictate to me- | an
my own master. | will not submit to tn
regulations of this house" Between al
establishment in which all the employe
| are under thOrOuph dienirlino ond III