Norwich bulletin., 1911-12-27
THE PRICE oFA MAN
 WAS THE TOPIC
Talk by Rev. H. J. Wyckoff Before
 Crescent Firearms Company Men.

Rev. H. J. wyckoff. pastor of the Second Congregational church, was the speaker on Monday at noon in the second of a series of shop talks giv en under the auspices of the Y- NJ. C.. A., at the Crescent Firearms company. The Price of a Man was his topic, up on which he spoke as follows:
 The old saying, Every man has his price," is capable of more than & sin gle, simple interpretation. It Is usual " understood to mean that there is some fancy price at which a man will sell out: that he puts a price upon himself, and when that price is of fered he accepts 1t and all the conse ouences of the sale. This price may vary with the hazard or hardship of the undertaking for which the man Is bought. A man with a ditch digging gang may get two or three dollars day for pla nting the dynamite for the blasts, while the McNamara brothers received two hundred dollars for about the same amount of actual la bOr A lawyer sets a modest price upon his services for some unimport- ant case, but Mir. Darrow of Califor- mia demands fifty thousand dollars for the defence of those charged with the destruction of The Times building and employees at Los Angeles. These prices are based on the mans own es timate of himself: and supposedly
 
 him. Yet what he gives in return should also be reckoned as part of that price; for, from another point of view, the man pays price for him. self. He trades his time. he pays with his strength and skill, he puts his reputation on the counter he may barter his conscience, and sell his self-respec and throw in his fmmor- tai soul All these are of his own private payment; often lightly enough tossed on the moral bargain counter, and usually heavily regretted when the transaction is brought under the strong light of publicity.
 But there is another aspect of this matter that adds soberness to our consideration of it: namely, that not only the man himself and his purchas- CT combine to may this payment, but that many others are also called on is that unreckoned price of pain and peril his mother pays at his birth, sometimes intensified by poverty and loneliness like that in Bethlehem nine teen centuries ago. There is to be add ed the price of his keep and food and nurture, of his education in school and out, of sympathy wor his hurts and troubles, of anxiety for his perils and mistakes, of suffering for his selfish ness and sins. This price is a graded cost, based on the comparative com prehension of the real value of that which is being sold. Strangers have llO III It, put d Indl aCQudInI- ances may occasionally contribute; his friends give according to the genuine ness of their friendship; but his kin dred are taxed pro rata, those nearest most heavily.
 Yet none of these who contribute to or are taxed for the price of man fully comprehends what is actually at stake; for none knows the true worth of a man. The supreme price of a. man is that which God pays. for He alone knows the cost of q human soul; and comprehends the terrible fact that if a man should gain the whole world and lose his own soul. he would be absolutely beggared. This is the price God paid to redeem men from the poverty into which they have thoughtlessly or foolishIy or wantonly sold themselves; the price for which the real spirit of Christmas stands; the price of the life of a Son who for our sakes became poor that we inn poverished through the trickery of moral bargaining. might become again rich through the divine redemption; free from the bondage into which we had sold ourselves for a price that mocl0ed Gods accurate estimate of our actual worth Truly, Every man has his price,; but that price needs mark ing up, not down, like the remnants on the counters the day after Christ mas; up past our careless valuation of up even past the figure at which our own kindred holds us: clear up to that price at which we are held by the God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.