The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-07-31
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Practical Sermon to the Great
Army Of Clerks.
advice ms to Conduct In Business-Im-
portance of the Habits of Industry,
Punctuality and Obedience
to Employers.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage addresses the
following sermon to the great host of
clerks in stores, offices and other places.
It is based on the texts:
And q certain woman named Lydia, seller
OF purple, OF the city OF Thyatira, which 'wor-
SHIPPED God, heard Us: whose heart the Lord
opened.-Acts xvi, IA
Seest thou man diligent in his business He
shall stand before kings.-Proverbs. XIII, 20.
The first passaged introduce to you
Lydia, Christian merchantess. Her
business is to deal in purple cloths or
silks. She is not giggling nonentity,
but a practical woman, not ashamed to
work for her living. All the other
women Of Philippi and Thyatira have
been forgotten; but God has made i'm.
mortal in our text Lydia, the Christian
saleswomen. The other text shows
you man with head, and hand, and
heart and foot all busy toiling on up
until he gains a princely success.
"Seest thou n man diligent in his bust
ness2 He shall stand before kings"
Great encouragement in these two
passages for men and women who will
be 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 turn
down. The law of thrift is as inexor-
able 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 awhile, invert
the same wand, and all the splcndors
will vanish into thin air.
There are certain styles of behavior
which lead to usefulness, honor and
| permanent success, and there are GER
tain styles of behavior which lead to
| dust, dishonor 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 cxpecta-
tons. 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 direct human ambition. There
fore, it is that l utter words of
encouragement to those who are occu-
pied as clerks in the stores and shops,
and banking houses of the cou ntry.
They are not an exceptional class.
They belong to great company of
| tens of thousands who are in this
country, amid circumstances which
will either make or break them for
time and Cor eternity. Many of these
people have already achieved Chris
tian manliness and Christian woman
liness which will be their passport to
any position. / have seen their trials.
/ 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, counsel clerks to
remember that for the most part their
clerkship is only school from which
they are to be graduated. 1t takes
about eight years to get into one of
the learned professions. it takes
about eight years to get to be mer-
chant Some of you will be clerks all
your lives, but the vast majority of you
are only in n transient position. AT
ter 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 interest
In our concern" You will bow to that
edict very gracefully. Getting into n
street car to go home, an old comrade
will meet you and say: "What makes
you look SO happy tonight" oh"
you will say, nothing, nothing" But
In few days your name will blossom
on the sign. Either in the store or
bank where you are now, or in some
| other store or bank, you will take u
higher position than that which you
now occupy. Sol feel l am not address
| ing people who will yet have their
| hand on the hel IN of the worlds COM
merce, and you will turn it this way or
that; now clerks, but to be bankers,
| importers, insurance company direc-
tors, shippers, contractors, superin-
tendonts of railroads-your voice
mighty ION change"-standing fore
most in the great financial and relig-
ious enterprises OF the day. For, though
we who are in the professions may, on
| the platform, plead for the philan-
thropies, after all, the merchants must
come forward with their millions to
suspend 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 opportunity. You see
an affiuent father some day come down
n prominent street with his son who
has just graduated from the university,
and establishing him in business, put
ting 5000 of capital in the store.
Well, you are envious. You say: "Oh,
| II only had q chance like that young
man-if only had a father to put $780,
900 in business for me, then 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 vessel Is about to
sail for Valparaiso. and say: Let me
| pilot this ship out to sea-" Why, 1
would sink crew and cargo before l
Al II. 4.