Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-08
Il MAN OR A MERCHANT?

i'm the tombstone that marked the grave
II of man who had been successful
merchant was inscribed this epitaph
Born man, he died q grocer"
| The words told in one line the history of
a life in which manhood was suffocated by
merchandise. In seeking to get gain the
man lost himself. His case is described in
the Parable of the Sewer, wherein Jesus
shows the various classes of people in whose
hearts the good seed Of the KINGDOM of
heaven fails to yield the fruit designed and
expected by the divine Sewer. OF the class
to which this man belonged, the Master said
| And these are they which are sown among
thorns; such as hear the word, and the cares
Of this world, and the deceitfuness of riches,
and the lust of other things entering in,
choke the word, and it beeometh unfruitful. -
mark ": 1919 The soil is rich and strong,
| but 1t IS so infested with noXious grOwths
| that it has no room for anything wholesome
and useful. The thorns which thus infest
the ground are just the things which most
hinder spiritual life in the field of commerce.
All legitimate work should, and may. be a
means of grace Industry is not irreligious
but Incidence is. The Fourth Commandment
enjoins labor during six days quite as i'm
peratlyely as it requires rest on the Sabbath.
Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy
work" Exodus Xxx: 81
St. Paul in his second epistle to the Thes-
salonIans commanded them THAT if any
would not work, neither should he eat" CIT
Thessalonians ii: 10.) This he wrote be-
cause he says, I'VE hear that there are some
among you d1sorderly, working not at all,
but are busy-bodies." (Verse Ill Now as
chen, the people who do not engage in some
thing useful become busy-bodies, meddling
with the affairs of others and making mis-
chief by tale-bearing.
Tattlers will not toll. OF them the great
Apostle says, 'Withal they learn to be idle,
wandering about from house to house: and
bodies, speaking things which they ought
not" (Timothy V: 49,
But while working is duty, and idleness
is sin, man must master his work, orit
VIII master him, and enslave him. He must
not be "slothfuI in business" but in the
midst of it he must remember to be "fer-
vent in spirit, serving the Lord" (Romans
Kill ILL., Otherwise, his spiritual life will
surfer. This is true of any kind of labor or
business, and very especially true of CONNER
cial work. 1t breeds commercialism, which
is another name for covetousness, (which is
idolatry." That evil spirits tries truthful
ness and hinders honesty
Commerce tends to compromise the con-
Victions of conscience, and thereby it cor
rupts nations.
1t was so in Israel. The prophet Hosea
in rebuking the Ten Tribes traced much of
the sin which threatened the life of the ma
tlon and wrought its irremediabIe ruin to
conimercialism. The prophet said "Ephraim
is merchant, the balances of deceit are in
his hand: he loveth to Cypress. And he
said, Yet I am become rich. 1 have found
me out substances; in all my Iabours they
shall find iniquity in me that were sin. -
CHOsea xii: and 81
Amos is even more pointed in his denunci-
alton of the corrupting commercialism of
that period in Israel's history. saying, Hear
this, o We that swallow UP the needy, even to
make the poor of the land to fall. Saying,
when will the new moon be gone, that we
may sell corn? And the Sabbath that we
may set forth wheat, making the ephah small
and the shekel great" e. e., giving little
Hour for much money!, land falsifying the
balances by deceit? That we may buy the
poor for silver and the needy for pair of
sohes; yea and sell the refuse of the wheat?"
(Amos viii: 49,
BY the excessive proft-taking of these
ancient profteers Israel was polluted and
then persisted, never to rise up again even
as Amos predicted. To get gain they be-