The Penn's Grove record., 1897-07-30

A Plea For OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Prescrip-
lions For the Cure of Business DO.
preston; Cheerful Conversation and
Behavior, Proper Christian Invest
ment, and q Great Spiritual Awakening
TEXT: wherefore doth a living mar
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Ill.,, 80.
A cheerful interrog atory In the most mel
anch0ly boo Of the Biblei Jeremiah wrote
SO MANY sad things that we have a word
aamed after HIN, and when anything Il
surcharged with grief and complaint We
call II a ieremlad. But In my text Jcre-
mlah. as by O sudden Jolt, wakens us to O
thankful spirit, Our blessings are so much
more numerous than our deserts that he is
surprised that anybody should ever find
fault. Having life and with IL a thou
sand blessings 1t ought to hush into perpet-
ual silence everything like criticism Of the
dealings OF God. Wherefore doth a living
man complain"
While everything In our national finances
Is Frightening, for the last few years the
land has been set to the tune OF Naomi u
There has been here and there a cheerful
s%ololst, but the grand chorus has been one
OF lamentation, accompanied by dirges over
Frustrated commerce, silent manufactures,
unemployed mechanism, and all those dis.
orders described by the two short words,
hard times" The fact is that we have
been paying for the bloody luxury OF war
more b thirty years ago. There were
grent national differences, and we had not
enough Christian character to settle them
by arbitration n treaty. and 50 We went
into battle, expanding life and treasure and
well nigh swapping the national finances,
and north and south, east and west, have
ever since been paying for those four years
indulgence In barbasism.
But the time has come when this .depres-
sion ought to end-yeR, when 1t will end II
the people are willing to do two or three
things by way OF financial medicament, for
the people as we'll as Congress must Join In
the work OF recuperation. Tho best politi-
cal economists tell us that there Is no good
reason for continued prostration. Plenty
OF money awaiting investment. The ma
tional health with never 50 strong an arm
or so clear q brain. Yet we go on grooming,
grohning, grooming, as though God had
put this nation upon cruel and allowed ue
but one decent breakfast in six months.
The TACT Is, tho habit Of complaining has
become chronic in this country, n after
all these years OF whimper and wailing and
o~b1urgation we areunder such a momentum
OF SWIVEL that We cannot stop.
There are are three prescriptions by which
l believe that our individual and National
finances may be cured of their present de-
preston. The FIRST is cheerful CONVERSE
tion and behavior. Ihavo noticed that the
people who are most voeiferous against the
day In which we live are those who are In
comfortable circumstances. I have made
inquiry OF those persons who are violent in
their jeremiads against these times, and I
AVE asked them, Now, after all, are YOU
ton and coughing and clearing their throat
three or four times they say stammeringly,
Yes" Sothat with a great multitude Of
people 1t is not Il question OF getting d
livelihood, but they are dissatisfied because
they can't make US much money as they
unnIH 1Hn IN NAB L- fnlaaK h...x -.
$1,000 In the bank, where they would like
to have $4,000. They can clear in a year
only $4,000, when they would like to clear
$40 DOC, or things come out just even. Or
in their trade they get - a day when they
wish they could make - or IS. "0h,h
says some one, ARE you not aware OF the
fact that there Is q great population out OF
employment, and there are hundreds of
the good families ofthls country who are
at their wits end, not knowing which way
to turn" Yes, l know 1t better than any
man In private life can know that sad fact,
for it comes constantly to my eye and ear,
but who is responsible for this state Of
things2
Mueh OF that responsibility I put upon
men in comfortable circumstances who by
an everlasting growing keep public conf
dence depressed and new enterprises from
starting out aud new houses from being
built. You know very we'll that one de-
@Aft1 49, thAA AAtI Ahoh lhto uO-
spondency, while one cheerful physician
can wake up into exhilaration q whole asy-
lum of hypochondriaes. II Is no kindness
to the poor or the unemployed for you to
join in this deportation. II you have not
the viii md the common sense to think Of
something eheerfult to say, then keep silent.
Now l will make u contract. II the peo-
pie of the United States for one week will
talk cheerfully, | will open all the manu-
factories, will give employment to oil the
unoccupied men and women, l will make a
lively market for your real estate that Is
eating you up with taxes. / will stop the
long professions on the way to the poor
house and the penitentiary and l will spread
O plentiful table from Maine to California
and from Oregon to Sandy Hook, and the
whole land shall carol and thunder with
national jubilee. But says some one. II
will take that contract, but we can't affect
the whole nation.i' My hearers and read
ers, representing as you do all professions,
all trades and all occupations, IL
you should resolve never again to utter
u dolorous word about the money
markets, but by manner and by voice
inc by wit and caricnture and, above
all, by faith in God to try to scatter this
national gloom, do you not believe the in
huenee would be instantaneous and wide
spread2 The effect would be felt around
the world. For God'ssake and for the sake
Of the poor and for the sake of the m
ployed quit growing. Depend upon 1t, II
you men in comfortable circumstances do
not stop complaining, God Will blast your
harvests and see how you will get along
without q corn crop, and He will sweep you
with floods, and He will devour you with
grasshoppers. and He will burn your city.
II you men in comfortable circumstances
keep on complaining, God will give you
something to complain about. Mark thatl
The second prescription for the allevia-
ton of financial Distress is proper Chris
tian investment. God demands of every
individual state and nation a certain pro-
portion OF their income. We are parsfmo-
nious. We keep back from God that which
belongs to him, and when we keep back
anything from God he takes what we keep
back, and he takes more. He takes 1t by
storm, by sickness, by bankruptcy, by any
one OF the 10000 ways which he can en-
ploy. The reason many Of you are cramped
In business Is because 0 have never
learned the lesson of Christian generosity.
You employ an agent. You give him a
reasonable salary, and. 10, you find out
that he is appropriatlng your funds, be-
sides the salary. What do you dor Dis
charge him. Well, We are Gods agents.
He puts In our hands certain mon
eys. Part is to be ours, part is to be
His. Suppose we take all, what them
He will discharge us. He will turn us over
to financial disasters and take the trust
ava from us. The reason that great multi
tudes are not p~rospered in business is SIM
ply because they have been Withholding
from God that which belongs to Him.
The rule is, give and you will receive, ad-
minister literally and you hall nave more
to administer. ! am Ia full sympathy with
the man who was to be- baptized by INNER
sion, and some one said, '.You had better
leave your pocketbook out; 1t will get wet. .
mo" said he, II want to go down under
the wave with everything. / want to con-
secrate my property n all to God" And
80 he was baptized. What We want In this
country is more baptized pocketbooks.
Tho only safc Investment that a man
can make In this world Is In the cause OF
Christ. liza man give from a superabun-
dance, God may or he may not respond
with a blessing, but II q man give until he
feels 1t, II a man give until 1t fetehes tho
blood, IL a man give until his sellshness
crlnges and twists and overs under ii, he
will get not only spiritual profit. but he
will get paid bach In hard cash or In con
vertible securities. We often see men who
are tight-lsted who seem to get along with
their Investments very profitably, notwith-