Connecticut western news., 1899-02-09
our reflglon IS q humDug.


 sounded into the ears of all the young men of America, and iterated and re- | iterated, if this country is ever to be delivered from its calamities and con- mercial prosperity is to be established and perpetuated: Live within your means. Spend no more than you make. And let us adjust all our business and our homes by the principles of tue Christian religion. Our religion ought to mean inst as much on Saturday and Monday as on the day between, and not to be a mere periphrasis of sanctity. Our religion ought to first clean our hearts, and then it ought to clean our lives. Religion is not, as some seem to think, sort of church delectation, a kind of confectionery sort of spiritual caramel, or holy gumdrop, or sanctified peppermint, or theological anesthetic. It is an omnipotent principle, all con- ! trolling, all conquering. You may get along with something less than that, and you may deceive yourself with 1t, but you cannot deceive God, and you cannot deceive the world. The keen business man will put on his spectacles, and he will look clear through to the back of your head and see whether your religion is a fiction or a fact. And you cannot hide your samples of sugar or 1 rice or tea, or coffee if they are false, you cannot hide them under the cloth of a communion table All your prayers l go for nothing so long as you misrepre- sent your banking institution, and in the report of the resources you put down more specie, and more fractional cur rency, and more clearing house certifi- cates and more legal tender notes, and I more loans and more discounts than there really are and when you give an account of your liabilities you do not mention all the unpaid dividends and the United States bank notes outstand- ing, and the individual deposits and the obligations to other banks and bankers. An authority more scrutinizing than that of any bank examiner will go through and through and through your 1 business.
 | Care For Others Property.
 Gathered in all religious assemblages there are many who have trust funds. It is compliment to you that you have been so intrusted, but I charge you, in the presence of God and the world, be as careful of the property of others as you are careful of your own. Above all, keep your own private account at the bank separate from your account as i trustee of an estate or trustee of an in stitution That is the point at which thousands of people make shipwreck. 1 They get the property of others mixed up with their own property they put it into investment, and away it all goes, and they cannot return that which they borrowed Then comes the explosion, and the money market is shaken, and the press denounces, and the church thunders expulsion. You have no right to use the property of others, except for 1 their advantage nor without consent, unless 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 delu- sion which has ruined so many men of thinking because thing is in their possession therefore it is theirs. You have solemn trust that God has given you. In any assemblage there may be some who have misappropriated trust funds Put them back, or if you have i so hopeless.y involved them that you cannot put them back confess the whole thing to those whom you have wronged and you will sleep better nights and you will have the better chance for your soul. What sad thing it would {, be if after you are dead your admins trator should find out from the account books or from the lack of vouchers that you are not only bankrupt in estate, but that you lost your .soull If all the trust funds that have been misappro- priated should suddenly fly to their owners and all the property that has been purloined should suddenly go back to it's owners, it would crush into ruin | every city in America.
 A missionary in one of the islands of the Pacific preached on dishonesty, and the next morning he looked out of his window and he saw his yard full of goods of all kinds. He wondered and asked the cause of all this. "Well, '" said the natives, -four gods that we have been worshiping permit us to steal; but, according to what you said yesterday, the God of heaven and earth will not allow this So we bring back all these goods and we ask you to help us in taking them to the places where : they belong. If next Sabbath all the ministers in America should preach ser mons on the abuse of trust funds and on the evils of purloining, and the ser mons were all blessed of God and regu- lations were made that all these things !, should be taken to the city halls, it would not be long before every city hall in Ameirca would be crowded from cellar to cupola.
 Dishonesty Never Pays.
 Let me say in the most emphatic manner to all young men, dishonesty will never pay An abbot wanted to buy piece of ground and the owner would not sell it, but the owner finally con- sented to let it to him until he could raise one crop, and the abbot sowed acorns, 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 over shadow you with horrible darkness, overshadow all time and all eternity It will not be crop for 900 years, but crop for everlasting ages.
 l have also word of comfort for all who suffer from the malfeasance of oth- CTS, and every honest man, woman and child does suffer from what goes on in financial scampdom. Society is so bound together that all the misfortunes ..l. I T.