Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-09-07

10y iSSiocf q llLue Wueu tucy CouAu
have robbed partner, or have abb
seconded with the funds of a bank, or
| sprung a snap judgment, or made
| lalse assignment, or borrowed illimit-
ably without any efforts at payment,
or got man into sharp corner and
feeced him. But they never took one
step on that pathway of hell fire. They
can say their prayers without hearing
the chink of dishonest dollars. They
can read their Bible without thinking
of the time when with lie on their
soul in the custom house they kissed
the book. They can think of death
and the Judgment that comes after 1t
without any fiinching-that day when
all charlatans and cheats, and jock
eys and frauds shall be doubly damn
ed. 1t does not make their knees
knock together, and it does not make
their teeth chatter to read "as the part
ridge stitch on eggs, and hatcheth
them not; so he that getteh riches, and
not by right, shall leave them in the
midst of his days, and at his end shall
be a fool"
What a school of integrity business
life is! If you have ever been tempt
ed to let your integrity cringe before
present advantage, if you have ever
wakened up in some embarrassment,
and said: Now, l will step little
aside from the right path and no one
will know it, and l will come all right
again, it is only once. That only once
has ruined tens of thousands of men
for this life and blasted their souls for
eternity.
A merchant in Liverpool got five
pound Bank of England note, and,
holding it up toward the light, he saw
some interlineations in what seemed
red ink. He finally deciphered the let
tiers, and found out that the writing
had been made by a slave in Algiers,
saying in substance: Whoever gets
| this bank note will please to inform
my brother, John Dean, living near
| Carlisle, that am slave of the Bey
| of Algiers." The merchant sent word,
employed government officers and
found who this man was spoken Of in
| this bank bill. After awhile the man
was rescued, who for eleven years had
| been a slave of the Bey of Algiers.
He was Immediately emancipated, but
was so worn out by hardship and ex-
posture he soon after died. Oh, If
some of the bank bills that come
through your hands could tell all the
scenes through which they have pass
ed, it would be tragedy eclipsing any
drama of Shakespeare, mightier than
King Lear or Macbeth!
AS 60 on in this subject, am i'm
pressed with the Importance of our
having more sympathy with business
men. Is it not a shame that we in our
pulpits do not oftener preach about
their struggles, their trials, and their
temptations? Men who toll with the
hand are not apt to be very sympathet-
ic with those who toll with the brain.
| The farmers who raise the corn and
oats and the wheat sometimes are
tempted to think that grain merchants
have an easy time, and get their prof.
| its without giving any equivalent. Pa
to and Aristotle were so opposed to
merchandise that they declared COM
merce to be the curse of the nation,
|
at least ten miles from the sea coast.
But you and l know that there are no
more industrious or high minded men
than those who move in the world Of
traffic. Some of them carry burdens
heavier than hods of brick, and are
exposed to sharper things than the
| east wind, and climb mountains high
er than the Alps or Himalaya, and if
they are faithful Christ will at last say
to them "Well done, good and faith
full servant; thou hast been faithful
over a few things. I will make thee
ruler over many things. Enter thou
into the JOY of thy Lord"
We talk. about the martyrs Of the
Piedmont valley, and the martyrs
among the Scotch highlands, and the
martyrs at Oxford. There are just as
certainly martyrs of Wall street and
State street, martyrs Of Fulton street
and Broadway, martyrs Of Atlantic
street and Chestnut street, going
through hotter fires, or having their
necks under sharper axes. Then it be-
hooves us to Danish all fretfulness
from our lives, If this subject be true.
| We look back to the time when we
were at school, and we remember the
rod, and we remember the hard tasks,
| and we complained grievously; but
now we see it was for the best. Bust
ness life is a school, and the tasks
are hard, and the chastisements some
times are very grievous; but do not
| complain. The hotter the fire the bet
ter the refining. There are men before
the throne of God this day in triumph
who on earth were cheated out Of ev-
| erything but their coffin. They were
| sued, they were imprisoned for debt,
they were throttled by constables with
whole pack of writs, they were sold
promise with their creditors, they had
to make assignments. Their dying
hours were annoyed by the sharp ring
ing of the door bell by some impetuous
creditor who thought it was outrageous
and impudent that a man should dare
to die before he paid the last half
dollar.
had friend who had many mis-
fortunes. Everything went against
ulm. he Adu soou puslhess capacity
and was of the best of morals. but he
was one Of those men such as you have
sometimes seen, for whom everything
seems to go wrong. His life became
to him a plague. When I heard he
was dead, I said: "Good-got rid of
the sheriffs!" Who are those lustrous
souls before the throne? When the
uuestion IL asked "Uho are they?" the