Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1899-07-29
Spiritual DefaIcatiOn.


ness.
Spiritual DefalcatiOn.
Again, business men are often tempt
ed to let their calling interfere with
the interests Of the soul. God sends
men into the business world to get ed
ucated, just US boys are sent to school
and college. Purchase and sale, loss
and gain, disappointment, prosperity,
the dishonesty Of others. panic and
bank suspension, are but different les
sons In the school. The more bust
ness. the more means Of grace. Many
have gone through widest panic UNI
hurt. AYE you not afraid YOU will
break said some one 10 Il merchant
in time OF great commercial excite
ment. He replied Aye, | shall break
when the fftieth Psalm breaks in the
fifteenth verse, Call upon me in the
day of trouble, and will deliver
thee" The store and the counting
house have developed some Of the most
stalwart characters. Perhaps origi-
nally they had but little sprightliness
and force, but two or three hard bust
ness thumps woke them up from their
lethargy, and there came q thorough
development in their hearts of all that
was good and holy and energetic and
tremendous, and they have become the
front men in Chrst's army, as well as
lighthouses in the great world Of traf-
fic. But business has been perpetual
depletion to many a man. 1t first pull
ed ont Of him all benevOlence, next all
amiability, next all religious aspira-
lions, next all conscience, and, though
he entered his vocation with large
heart and noble character, he goes out
of it a skeleton, enough to scare q
ghost.
Men appreciate the Importance OF
having O good business stand, q store
on the right side Of the street or in
the right block. Yet every place Of
business Is q good stand for spiritual
culture. Gods angels hover over the
world of traffic to sustain and build up
those who are trying to do their duty.
Tomorrow If in your place Of worldly
engagement you will listen for 1t you
may hear sound louder than the rat
tile Of drays and the shuttle Of feet and
the chink of dollars stealing into your
SOUL saying, Seek ye first the king
dom of God and his righteousness, and
all other things shall be added unto
you"
Yet some Of those sharpest at bar
gain are cheated out Of their immortal
hlessedness by stratagems more palDa'
bic than any drop game" Of the
street. They make investments in
things everlastingly below par They
put their valuables In safe not fire.
proof. They give full credit to indu-
ences that will not be able to pay one
cent on the dollar. They plunge Into q
labyrinth from which no bankrupt law
or "two-thlrds enactment VIII ever
extricate them. They take into their
partnership the world. the flesh and
the devil, and the enemy of all right
eousness will boast through eternal
ages that the man who In all his busi-
ness life could not be outwitted, at
last tumbled into spiritual defalcation
and was swlndled out Of heaven.
Perhaps some of you saw the fire IN
New York in 1885. Aged men tell US
that it beggared all description. Some
STOOL on the housetops Of Brooklyn
and looked At the red ruin that swept
down the streets and threatened to OBJ
litcratc the metropolis. But the COM
mercial world will yet be startled by
a greater conilagration, even the last
one. Bills of exchange, policies OF in
surance, mortgages and bonds and gov
eminent securities will be consumed
In one lick Of the flame The bourSe
and the United States mint will turn
TO ashes. Gold will run molten into the
dust of the street. Exchanges and
granite blocks of merchandise will fall
with a crash that will make the earth
trcmble. The flashing up Of the great
light will show the righteous the way
10 their thrones. Their best treasures
in heaven, they will go up and take
possession Of them. The tolls Of busi-
ness life, which rae ed their brains
and rasped their nerves for SO many
years, will have forever ceased. There
the wicked cease from troubling, and
the weary are ut rest"