The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-08-16

awful mistake when they put their
boys in banking houses and stores and
shops and factories and places of SOL
emn trust without once discussing
whether they a endure the tempta-
toni You give the boy plenty of
money and have no account of it and
make the way down become very easy,
and you may put upon him a pressure
he cannot stand. There are men who
go into positions full Of temptation,
considering only that they are lucra-
tive positions.
An abbot wanted to buy a piece of
ground, n the owner would not sell il
but the owner finally consented to let
IL to him until he could raise crop.
and the abbot sowed acorns, a crop OF
200 years, And / tell you, young man.
that the dishonesties which you plant
in your heart and life will seem TO be
very insignificant, but they will grow
up until they will overshadow you with
horrible darkness, o~vershadow all time
and eternity. 1t will not be a crop of
200 years., but a crop for everlasting
ages.
/ address many who nave trust funds
1t is a compliment to you hat you
have been so %intrusted, but I charge
you in the presence of God and the
world, be careful, be as careful of the
property OF others as you are careful
of your own. Above all keep your own
private at the bank seperate from your
account as trustee Of an institution.
That is the point at which thousands
of people make shipwreck. They get
the property of others mixed UP with
their own property, they put it into in
vestment, and away it all goes, and they
canno return that which they borrow
ed. hen comes the explosion, and
the money market is shaken, and the
prnCc 2nnnIrrnnc nr1 tha ah,,-rI tI,,rl-
ers expulsion,
You have no right to use the prop
erty of others except for their advan-
tage, nor without consent unleS they
are minors. If with their consent you
invest their property as we'll as you
can and it is all lost, you are not to
blame. You did the best you could.
But do not come into the delusiOn,
which has ruined SO many men, of
thinking because a thing is in their
possession therefore it is theirs. You
have a solemn trust that God has Civ
en- you.
In any community there may be
some who W misappropiated trusts
funds. Put them back, or, if you have
so hopelessly involved them tina you
cannot put them back, confess the
whole thing to those whom you have
wronged, and you will sleep better
nights, and you will ave the better
chance for your soul. What a sad
thing it would be if after you are dead
your administrator should find out
from the accoun books or from the
lack of vouchers that you were not
only bankrupt in estate, but hat you
lost your soul!
SMALL SWINDLES.
A clustering young man arrived at
a hotel in the west and he saw a man
on the sidewalk whom he supposed to
be a laborer, and in a rough way, as
no man has a right to address a Ia
borer, said to him, Garry this trunk
up stairs" The man carried the trunk
up stairs and came down, and then the
young mar gave him a quarter of a
| dollar which was clipped, and instead
| of being 25 cents it was worth only 20
cents. Then the young man gave his
| card to the labOrer and said: you take
| this up to Governor Crimes. I want to
see him." "Ah,' said the laborer, Il
| am Governor Grimes!' "Oh," said the
young man, ''you-I-excuse mel"
Then the governor said: II was much
impressed by the letter you wrote me
asking for a certain office in my gift
| and 1 a made up my mind you should
have it; but a young man who will
| cheat a laborer out of five cents would
| sWindle the government or the state If
he got his hands or it. I don't want
you. Good morning, sir"
I do not there was ever a
! better specimen of honesty han was
| found in the Duke of Wellington. He
marched with his army over the
French frontier and the army was suf-
fering and he scarcely knew how to
get along. Plenty of plumber all about,
but he commanded hone of the plumber
to be taken. He writes home these
remarkable words, 1--WE are over
Whe1med with debts and I can scarcely
stir out of my house on account of
public creditors waiting to demand
what is due them" Yet atthev very time
the French p~easantry were bringing
their v~aluables to him to keep. A cele-
brated writer says of the transaction:
Nothing can be grander or more no.
bly, original than this admission. Thi
old soldier, after 80 years service, this
iron man and victorious general, es-
tablished in any enemy's country at the
head Of an immense army, is afraid of
his creditors. This is a kind Of fear
that has seldom troubled conquerors
and invaders, and I doubt if the an
nails of war present anything compar-
able to it's sublime simplicity"
oh, is it not high time that. we
preach the morals of the gospel right
beside the faith of the gospel? Mr.,
Froude, the celebrated English histo-
rldn, mas written Oh MS own country
these remarkable words: From the
great house in the city of London to
the village grocer the commercial life
of England has been saturated with
fraud. So deep a it gone that a
strictly honest tradesman can hardly
hold his ground against competition,
You can no longer trust that any arti-
Gle o buy is the thing which it pre-
end to be. We have false weights,
false measures, cheating and shoddy
everywhere. And yet the clergy have
seen all this grow up in absolute in
difference. Many hundreds Of sermons
have 1 heard in England on the di-
vine mission of the clergy, on bishops
and On justification, and the theory OF
good works and verbal inspiration, and
the efficacy of the but
during all these thirty wonderful years
never one that I can recollect on con
mon honesty"
Now, that may be an exaggerated
statement of things in England, but !
am very certain that in all parts OF