The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-08-20

on the 30th of next April in the furni-
ture cart
No wonder that so many of our mer-
chants fail in business. They are swim
died into bankruptcy by these wander
ing Arabs, these nomads of city life.
They cheat the grocer out of the green
apples which make them sick, the ply
stefan who attends them during thell
distress and the undertaken who fits
them out for departure from the neigh
borhood where they owe everybody
when they pay the debt of nature, the
only debt they ever do pay.
Commercial Ethics.
Now our young men are coming up
in this depraved state of commercial
ethics, and am solicitous about them.
I want to warn them against being
slaughtered on the sharp edges of debt.
You want many things you have not,
my young friends. You shall have them
if you have patience and honesty and
industry. Certain lines of conduct al
ways lead out to certain successes.
There is a 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 bow many letters will be sent to
the dead letter office every year through
instruction; that it is possible to cal
oulate just how many letters will be de-
tanned 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-
nificant 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 l will tell you what will be his
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 I'want to
make them nervous in regard to the
contraction of unpayable debts. I give
you a paragraph from my own expe-
rience.
My first settlement as pastor was in
village. My salary was $500 and par
sonage. The amount seemed enormous
to me. 1 said to myself, What, all this
for one yearl" I 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. |
never completed the undertaking. AT
the end of six months | was in tinan-
cial despair. | found that we not only
had not the surplus of luXuries, but we
had struggle to get the necessities,
and l 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 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
reindeerl They jingle his doorbell be-
fore he gets up in the morning, they
jingle his doorbell after he has gone to
bed at night. They meet him as he
comes off his front steps They send
him postal card or a letter in curtest
style, telling him to pay up. They at
tach his goods. They want cash or
note at 80 days or a note on demand.
They call him a knave. They say he
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 beneath, and he is insulted
and gibbeted and sued and dunned
and sworn at until he gets the nervous
dyspepsia, gets neuralgia, gets liver
gets heart disease, gets con-
vulsive disorder, gets consumption.
Now he is dead, and you say, "Of
course they will let him alone. Oh,
no! Now they are watchful to see
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 on the shroud. to see whether the
hearse is costly or cheap, to see whether
the flowers sent to the casket 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 bereft |
household, the books, the pictures, the |
carpets, the chairs, the sofa, the piano, |
the mattresses, the pillow on which he
lied. Cursed be debit For the sake of
your own happiness, for the sake of
your good morals, for the sake of your
soul, for Gods sake, young
nan, as far as possible keep out of It'll
Irreligious Young Men.
But l think more young men are
through irreligion. Take |
away young mans religion and you
make him the prey of evil We all know.
hat the Bible is the only perfect system |