The Penn's Grove record., 1897-07-23
DIR. TALMAGEs SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
y Sermon Directed to the Great Army
OF Men and Women Employed as
Clerks I'm the Various Occupations
Worda of Adxica and Enanu.-

Words of Advice and encouragement
TExr; "And q certain woman named
LYDIA. n SELLER OF purple, OF the city Of
Thyatfra, which worshiped God, heard us.
whose heart the Lord opened. Acts XVI,
~. 'Seest h a man dnigent In his bust
nesst He shall stand before Kings"
Proverbs xii. 20.
The first passage Introduces to you
Lydia, a Christian merchantess. Her busi-
ness Is TO deal In purple cloths or silks.
She Is not O giggling nonentity, but a prac-
tieai 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 salcswoman. The other text
SHOWS you q man with head and hand and
heart and foot all b1sy toiling on up until
he gains a psincely success. ''Seest thou a
man dilfgent in his business? He shall
stand before kings"
Great encouragement in these two pas
sages for men and women who will be busy
put no solace for those who are waiting for
good luck to show them, at the foot of the
rainbow, a casket of buried gold. It Is
folly for anybody in this world to wait for
something to turn up. 1t will turn down.
The iaw OF thrift is as memorable 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
a 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
hret ambition of young people. l have
M 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
NDIN2 arNt. mn
OF Christianity Is not to quench but to d.
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 great company OF tens Of thou
sands who are in this country, amid cir
cumstanees which will either make or break
them for time and for eternity. Many of
these people have already achieved o
Christian manliness and u Christian wo-
manliness which will be their passport to
any position. 1 have seen their trials. l
hive watched their perplexlties. 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 tho most part their
clerkship is only a school from which they
are to DO graduated. 1t takes about eight
years to get into one Of the learned profess
sions. 1t takes about eight years to get to
be a merchant. Some of you will be 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
office, and they will sayto 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, IN old comrade will
meet you h say, "What make you look
so happy t~o-nigit?'' "Oh," you will say.
nothing, nothing" But in a few days
your name will blossom on the sign. Either
fin the store or bank where you are now, |
or in some other store or bank, you will
take q higher position than that which you
now occupy. SO l feel l 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, superin-
tendents of railroads-your voice mighty
'on 'Change"-standing foremost in the
great financial md religious enterprises |
OF the day. For, though W. who arc 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
ITautlcuL pOSiblOu. lou uTO now NueTc |
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 nff1uent father some
day come down q 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, i'll
only had q chance like that young mani If
[ only had a father to put $50, 900 in a
business for me, then l would have some
chance in the world" Be not envious.
You have advantages over that young man
which he has not over you. As well might
come down to the docks when q vessel is
about to sail for Valparaiso and say, 'Let
me pilot this ship out to sea-" Why, /
would sink crew and cargo before i got out
OF tho harbor simply because l know moth
ing about pilotage. Wealthy sea captains
put their sons before the mast for tho
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 and
navigation, and / want you to understand
that 1t takes no more skill to conduct a ves-
sci out of harbor and across the sea than to
steer a commercial establishment clear of
the rocks. You see every day tho folly OF
people going into q business they know
nothing about. A man makes q fortune in
one business, thinks there Is another occu-
patton more comfortable, goes into 1t and
sinks all. Many Of the commercial estab-
lishments Of our cities arc giving their
clerks a mercantile education as thorough
as Yale or Harvard or Princeton arc giving
| scientific attachments to the students ma
circulated. The reason there are so many
men laundering In business from year to
year Is because their early mercantile edu-
cation was neglected. Ask the men In high
| commercial circles, and they will tell you
they thank God for this severe discipline Of
their early c~lcrkship. You can afford to
endure the wilderness march II 1t Is going
to end In the vineyards and orchards OF the
promised land.
in our stores nave promotion2" Yes. Time
Is coming when women will be as well paid
for their toll in mercantile circles as men
are now paid for their toll. Time is coming
when q woman will be allowed to do any
thing she can do well. 1t Is only a little
| while age when women knew nothing OF
telegraphy. and they were kept out OF q
great many commercial circles where they
are now welcome, and the time will go on
until the woman who at one counter in a
store sells 5000 worth Of goods in q year
will get as high a salary as the maj who
at the other counter OF the same store sells
$1,000 worth Of goods. All honor to Lydia,
tho Christian saleswoman.
The second counsel I nave to give to
ciatks Is that you seek out what are the
lawful regulations'of your establishment,
and then submit to them. Every we'll
ordered house has its usages. In military
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. will tell
you what young man Will make ruin
financial and moral. It is the young man
who thrusts his thumb into his vest and
says: "Nobody shall dictate to me. 1 an
my own master. I will not submit to the
regulations of this house." Between an
establishment In which all the employees
are under thorough discipline and the
establishment In which tho employees
do about as they choose is the difference
between success and failure-between rapid
accumulation and utter bankruptcy. Do
not come to the store ten minutes atter the
time. BE there within two seconds and let
it be two seconds before instead of " Sec
onds after. Do not think anything too In
significant to do we'll. Do not say, tits
only lust once" From the most important