Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1899-02-09
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
"ABUSE OF TRUST FUNDS"
SUNDAYS SUBJECT.
"whose Trust Shall lie "a Spiders
Web''-Job, Chapter VIII. Verse ID
BANKERS and Lawyers Are Given
Some Good Advice.

The two most sklllful architects in
the world are the bee and the spider.
The one puts up sugar mandatory
and the other builds a slaughter house
for flies. On bright summer morn
Ing when the sun comes out and
shines upon the spiders web, bedeck-
ed with dew, the gossamer structure
seems bright enough for suspension
bridge for aerial beings to cross on.
But, alas for the poor fly, which in the
latter part OF that very day, ventures
on 1t, and is caught and dungeoned
and destroyed! The fly was informed
that 1t was a free bridge, and would
cost nothing, but at the other end of
the bridge the toll paid was its own
life. The next day there comes down
a strong wind, and away goes the web,
and the marauding spider and the vic
timized fly. So delicate are the silken
threads OF the SPIDERS web that many
thousands of them are put together
before they become visible to the hui
man eye, and 1t takes four million of
them 70 make thread as large as the
/ human hair. Most cruel as well as
most ingenious is the spider. A pris-
oner in the Bastile, France, had one
so trained that at the sound of the vio-
lin it every day came for its meal Of
flies. The author of my text. who was
leading scientist Of his day, had no
doubt watched the voracious process of
this one insect with another, and saw
spider and Fly swept down with the
same broom, or scattered by the same
wind Alas, that the world has so
many designing spiders and victim
lied flies! There has not been a
time when the utter and black ire
sponsibility of many men having the
! financial interests OF others in charge,
| has been more evident than in these
last few years. The bankruptcy Of
banks and disappearance OF admins
traitors with the funds Of large estates,
and the disordered accounts Of United
States officials. have sometimes made
a pestilence of crime that solemnizes
every thoughtful man and woman, and
leads every philanthropist and Chris
| tian to ask, What shall be done to stay
! the plague? There is ever and anon
a monsoon OF swindle abroad, ty-
phoon, a sirocco. | sometimes ask
myself if it would not be better for
men making wills to bequeath their
| property directly to the executors and
| officers Of the court, and appoint the
widows and orphans a committee to
see that the former got all that did not
belong to them. The simple fact is
! that there are a large number OF men
sailing yachts and driving fast horses,
and members OF expensive clubhouses.
| and controlling country seats, who are
not worth dollar If they return 10
others their just rights. Under some
sudden reverse they fail, and, with
| afflicted air, seem to retire from the
world, and seem almost ready for mon
! astic life. when in two or three years
they blossom out again, having COM
promised with their creditors, that Is,
paid them nothing but regret; and the
! only difference between the second
! chapter of prosperity and the first. Is
that their pictures are Murillos instead
of Kensetts, and their horses go mile
in twenty seconds less than their pre-
decessors, and instead of one country
seat, they have three. l have watched
and have noticed that nine out OF ten
OF those who fail, in what is called
high life, have more means after than
before the failure, and in many OF the
cases, failure is only stratagem to
escape the payment of honest debts,
and put the world off the track while
they practice a large swindle. There
is something woefully wrong in the
fact that these things are possible.
First OF all, charge the blame on
careless, indifferent bank directors and
boards having in charge great finan-
cial institutions. 1t ought not to be
possible for a president or cashier or
prominent officer of a banking insti-
tuition to swindle it year after year
without detection. / will undertake
to say that If these frauds are carried
on for two or three years without de-
lection, either the directors are part
ners in the infamy and pocket
part Of the theft, or they are guilty OF
a culpable neglect Of duty, for which
God will hold them as responsible as
he holds the acknowledged defrauders.
What right have prominent business
men to allow their names to be pub
lished as directors in a financial in
stitution, so that unsophisticated peo-
pie are thereby induced to deposit
their money in, or buy the script there
of. when they, the published directors,
are doing nothing for the safety OF
the institution? 1t is case of de-
ception and most reprehensible. Many
people with surplus of money, not
needed for immediate use, although
It may be little further on indispen-
sable, are without friends competent
to advise them, and they are guided
solely by the character of the men
whose names are associated with the
institution. When the crash came,
and with the overthrow OF the banks
went the small earnings and limited
fortunes of widows and orphans, and
the helplessly aged, the directors stood
with idiotic stare, and to the inquiry
OF the frenzied depositors and stock