The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-07-28


blow after blow. Gods law forever and
forever is the only standard of right
and wrong and not commercial ethics.
Young business man, avoid the first
business dishonor, and you will avoid
all the rest. The captain of vessel
was walking near the mouth of a river
when the tide was low, and there was
long, stout anchor chain, into one of
the great links of which his foot
slipped, and it began to swell, and he
could not withdraw it. The tide began
/ to rise. The chain could not be loos-
ened nor filed off in time, and surgeon
was called to amputate the limb, but
before the work could be done the tide
rolled over the victim, and his life was
gone. have to tell you, young man,
that just one wrong into which you
slip may be link of long chain of cir
cumstances from which you cannot be
extricated by any ingenuity of your
own or any help from others, and the
tides will roll over you as they have
over many. When Pompey, the war
rior, wanted to take possession of
city and they would not open the gates,
he persuaded them to admit a sick SOL
dier. But the sick soldier after awhile
got well and strong, and he threw open
the gates and let the devastating army
come in. One wrong admitted into the
soul may gain in strength until after
awhile it filings open all the gates to the
attack of sin, and the ruin is complete.
Again, business men are sometimes
tempted to throw off personal respon-
-, to ha inc t1Itin
to which they belong. Directors in
banks and railroad and insurance COM
panies sometimes shirk responsibility
underneath the action of the corpora
ton, and how often, when some bank
ing house or financial institution e.
plodes through fraud, respectable men
in the board of directors say: why,
thought all was going on in an honest
way, and am utterly confounded with
this demeanor!" The banks and the
| fire and life and marine insurance COM
panies and the railroad companies will
not stand up for judgment in the last
day, but those who in them acted
righteously will receive, each for him.
self, a reward, and those who acted the
part of neglect or trickery will, each
for himself, receive condemnation.
Unlawful dividends are not clean be-
fore God because there are those asso.
ciated with you who grab just as big
pile as you do. He who countenances
the dishonesty of the firm or of the cor
poration or association takes upon him
self all the moral liabilities. If the
financial institution steals, he steals.
If they go into wild speculations, he
himself is a gambler. If they needless
ly -embarass a creditor, he himself is
guilty of cruelty. If they swindle the
uninitiated he himself is a defrauder.
No financial institution ever had a
money vault strong enough, or credit
stanch enough, or dividends large
enough, or policy acute enough to hide
the individual sins of it's members. The
old adage that corporations have no
souls is misleading. Every corpora
ton has as many souls as it has mem
bers.
Again, many business men have been
tempted to postpone their enjoyments
and duties to a future season of entire
leisure. What sedative the Christian
religion would be to all our business
men if instead of postponing its uses
to old age or death they would take it
into the store or factory or worldly en-.
gagements now! 1t is folly to go amid
the uncertainties of business life with
no God to help. A merchant in New
England village was standing by
horse, and the horse lifted it's foot to
stamp it in a pool of water, and the
merchant, to escape the splash, stepped
into the door of an insurance agent,
and the agent said: 81 suppose you
have come to renew your fire insur-
ance." "Oh!" said the merchant. II
had forgotten that" The insurance
was renewed, and the next day the
house that had been insured was
burned. Was it all accidental that the
merchant, to escape a splash from
horses foot, stepped into the insurance
Office? No, it was providential. And
what a mighty solace for a business
man to feel that things are providen-
tial!
Many, although now comparatively
Strengthened in worldly circumstances,
have a goodly establishment in the fu-
ture planned out. They have an i'm
agination built, about 20 years ahead,
a house in the country not diffidIlt OF
access from the great town, for they
will often have business or old accounts
to settle or investments to look after.
The house is large enough to accommo-
date all their friends. The halls are
wide and hung with pictures of hunt
ing scenes and branch of antlers and
are comfortable with chairs that'can
be rolled out on the veranda when the
weather is inviting or set out under
some of the oaks that stand sentinel
about the house, rustling in the cool
breeze and songful with the robins.
There is just land enough to keep them
interested, and its crops of almost fab
ulous richness springing up under ap-
plcation of the best theories to be
found in the agricultural journals The
farm is well stocked with cattle and
horses and sheep that know the voice
and have a kindly bleat when one goes
forth to look at them. In this blissfuI
abode their children will be instructed
in art and science and religion. This
shall be the old homestead to which he
boys at college will direct their letters,
and the hill on which the house stands
will be called Oakwood or Ivy hill or
Pleasant Retreat or Eagle Eyrie. May
the future have for every business man
here all that and more besides! But
are you postponing your happiness to
that time? Are you adjourning your
joys? Suppose that you achieve all you
expect-and that the vision ] mention
is not up to the reality, because the