Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-07-28
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
A .iermon Directed tn tho Great Army
of Men and Women Employed as
Clerks in the Various Occupations
Words of Advice and Encouragement.

Ot wen anu women Employed a1
Clerks in the Various Occupations
Words OF Advice and Encouragement.
TEXT: "And n certain woman named
lydia. seller of purple, of the city of
Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us,
whose heart the Lord opened. xvi,
II. ''Seest thou man diiSent in his bust
| neSs2 He shall stand before Kings
Proverbs xii, ~.
Lydia. a Christian merchantess. Her busi-
ness Is to deal in purple cloths or silks.
She is not gigGlinG nOnentity, but prac-
teal woman not ashamed to work for her
living; All the other women OF Philippi
and Thyatira have been forgotten, but 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 b1sy toiling on up until
he gains n princely success. "Seest thou a
man diligent in his business2 He shall
| stand before kings
Great encouragement in these two pas
sages for men and women who will he busy,
| but no solace for those who are waiting for
good luck to show them, at the foot of the
rainbow, a casket Of buried gold. 1t is
| folly for anybody in this world to wait for
| something to turn up. 1t will tuan down.
The law of thrift Is as inexorable 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
| n 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 cevtain
styles of behavior which lead to dust, dis
honor and moral default. 1 would like to
| fire the ambition of young people. l 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 di-
rect human ambition. Therefore it Is that
l 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 a great company Of tens of thou
sands who 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 C
| Christian manliness and a Christian wo-
manlness which will be their passport to
| any position. have seen their trials. 1
have watched their perplexities. There
| are evils abroad which need to be hunted
down and dragged out into the MONDAY
light.
| In the first place, I counsel clerks to
| remember that for the most part their
clerkship is only school from which they
are To De graduated IL taxes ABOUT e1Snt
years to get into one of the learned profess
| sions. 1t takes about eight years to get to
| be n merchant. Some of you will be clerks
| all your lives. but the vast majority of
| you are only in n transient position. After
| awhile some December day, the head men
Of the firm will call you into the back
| Office, and they will say to you: Now, you
| have 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 a
street car to go home, an old comrade will
so happy to-night?" "Oh," you will say,
nothing. nothing" But in few days
your name will blossom on the sign. Either
I'm the store or'bank where you are now,
| or in some other store or bank, you will
take a 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
| it this way or that Now clerks, but to be
bankers, importers, Insurance. company
| directors, shippers, contractors, superin-
|tendents of railroads-your voice mighty
"on 'Change''-standing foremost in the
great financial and religious enterprises
of the day. For, though who in
the profession may, on the platform, plead
for 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-
tunity. You see an afIiuent father some
| dau come down a prominent street with his
son who has just graduated from the uni
versity and establishing him in business.
putting $50, 900 of capital in the store.
Well, you are envious. You say: "Oh, II
only had a chance like that young mani II
| al hnl EaNh = n.An
business for me, then l would have some
chance in the world" Be not envious
You have advantages over tGat young man
which he has not over you. As we'll might
| come down to the docks when a vessel Il
about to sail for Valparaiso aud say, Lei
me pilot this ship out to sea Why,
would sink crew and cargo before ! got ou,
of the harbor simply because know moth
ing about pilotage. Wealthy sea captains
put their sons before the mast for the
reason that they know it is the only
place where they can learn to be sue
cessful sailors. 1t is only under drill
that people get to understand pilotage anC
navigation, and | want you to uLderSt ant
that it takes no more skill to conduct a yes
| sci out of harbor aud across the sea than tt
steer commercial establishment clear o.
| the rocks. You see every day the folly o.
people going into u business they know
nothing about. man makes a fortune il
one business, thinks there Is another Occu
patton more comfortable, goes into it ant
sinks all. Many of the commercial estab
| lishments of our cities are giving thei
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 man,
men laundering in business from year t.
year is because their early mercantile edu
cation was neglected Ask the men in higl
commercial circles, and they will tell yo,
they thank God for this severe discipline o
their early clerkship. You can afford t,
endure the wilderness march If it Is Soin,
to end in the vineyards and orchards of tn
promised land.
But you say will the womanly clerk
in our stores have promotion?" Yes. Tim
, is coming when women will be as wnll pai'
| for their toll in mercantile circles As mel
are now paid for their toll. Time is comm,
when a woman will be allowed to do any
thing she can do well. 1t Is only n littf
while ago when women knew nothing o
telegraphy, and they were kept out Of
great many commercial circles where the,
are now welcome, and the time will go OI
| until the woman who at one counter In
store sells 5000 worth of goods In yea
will get as high salary as the man VIII
at the other counter of the same store sell
! 5000 worth of goods. All honor to Lydia
the Christian saleSwoman.
, The second counsel l have to give t
clerks is that you seek out what are tn
lawful regulations OF your establishment
and then submit to them Every well
ordered house has its usages. In militar
life, on ships deck, in commercial life
there must be order and discipline. Thos
: people who do not learn how to obey wi
never know how to command. will tie
, | you what young man will make rui
financial and moral. 1t is the young ma
who thrusts his thumb into his vest an
says: Nobody shall dictate to me. a
my own master. 1 will not submit to Il
, regulations Of this house" Between a
establishment in which all the employ,
are under thorough discipline and Il
establish ment in which the employ
= do about as they choose is the diferen
= petween success and failure-between rap
accumulation and utter bankruptcy. I
not come to the store ten minutes after Il
r time. Be there within two seconds and
e it be two seconds before instead of two sc
K | onds after. Do not think anything too
| significant to do we'll Do not say, "It