18S.5 



GLEA^12<fGS IX UEE CULTURE. 



213 



Every Iniman being lias rights. The five 

 Avise virgius luid prndenlly provided oil for 

 their lumps. This oil was their own ; it was 

 right to do what they pleased witli it. They 

 had tlieir busy cares, very likely, and per- 

 haps did ni^t think of, may be did not know 

 of their improvi(U'nt neighbors. I have 

 .sometimes thought that this right, belong- 

 ing to every individual, was a sort of circle 

 surrounding Jiim, extending a certain dis- 

 tance, and this circle is his own premises. 

 Xobody has any right to infringe on it. 

 Even our smallest bov who comes to work 

 here at tliree cents an hour lias his circle of 

 rights. The three cents which he houv'-tly 

 earns belongs to him, subject, of course, to 

 his parents' approval. He is a man, to all 

 intents and purposes. Nobody has any 

 right to borrow his earnings if lie does not 

 choose to lend them: ami those who are 

 older ought to know better than to try to 

 borrow from him. They have no right to 

 take advantage of his inexperience, by ask- 

 ing him to loan his small earnings. A fe\V 

 times I have been obliged to be pretty severe 

 on some who had a weakness for borrowing 

 from their fellow-workmen, especially from 

 some of the yoimger ones, who did not know 

 they would not pay as they agreed to. .V 

 great many good jieople very much dislike 

 to disoblige, and so li^nd against their belter 

 judgment. Snnetimes when out Avagon 

 l)reaks down, the; hands suggest going across 

 the way and l)orrowiiig of our neighbor, who 

 is a dealer in lumber, and has many teams. 

 I know he would let me have a neckyoke or 

 a wagon, or may be a horse, if J should ask 

 for it; but the "very reason why I dislike to 

 ask him for any thing is because he is so 

 very kind and obliging. Now. under the 

 circumstances it seems to me I have no right 

 to ask the loan of his tools, unless the cir- 

 cumstances are very urgent indeed. Once 

 one of the hands, witliout my knowledge, 

 went over and Ixurowed a neckyoke. A 

 week or two after. I found it wluTc it iiad 

 been dropped. The hand who got it had 

 forgotten to lake it home, and our neighbor 

 was too good-natured to come after it. 



A little boy once got a bright new sled for 

 a Christmas present. It was an extra nice 

 sled, and he was proud of it. A neighbor 

 borrowed it to gel a sack of flour. He left it 

 in front of the postoflice.or some such place, 

 while he went in for iiis mail, and somebody 

 stumbled over it, and in his angei- kicked 

 and broke it. The neighbor took the sled 

 to a tin-shop and had it ])atched up with 

 some pieces of tin. telling tlie l)oy it was just 

 as good as ever. Tiie boy did not lliink so. 

 and he never cared for' his poor broken 

 patched-up sled afterward. His rights had 

 b:^en invaded. If any one iirefers nice new 

 things, witliout patcli or blemish, it is his 

 right, if he pays foi- them. The man who 

 borrowed the sled was a Christian. A friend 

 of mine had an old cutter whicli lie had 

 loaned so much that it was not decent to 

 take the children to Sunday-scliool witli. 

 He bought a nice new one for the purpose. 

 In order to get rid of the old one, as he did 

 not care for two, he had it repaired and 

 painted and varnislied, so it looked quite 

 respectable, and he did this on imrposc that 



I he might sell it. Before the paint was liard- 

 { ly dry, his old friends wanted to borrow it. 

 j He was too easy and obliging to refuse 

 i downright, as I should have done, and off it 

 j went. Before the borrower got quite home. 

 i another man wanted it to golo a temperance 

 I meeting. When it got back from the tem- 

 I perance meeting it was marred, and broken 

 ! in several places. The temperance-meeting 

 I man said he did not break it. and the first 

 borrower said he did not bieak it. and he 

 guessed it must have been so in the first 

 place. As the last one who used it did not 

 know where it belonged, it did not get home 

 for a couple of weeks ; the winter was then 

 : almost gone, and the cutter can not besold 

 I until another winter. Those who borrowed 

 i the cutter were church-members, and tlie 

 , man who owns it is not. I liave been for 

 years trying to convince him that church- 

 members are more reliable, as a rule, than 

 ! people who are not. IJo you wonder that 

 ' his faith is small V Xow. my friends, it 

 t seems to me that if we want to honor Christ 

 ' the Savior, it is of far more importance that 

 we avoid trespassing on the rights of our 

 : fellows than it is to make a profession of re- 

 ligion, or to be energetic and zealous in the 

 tcrnperanre work. If you want to win souls 

 to Christ, be careful' how you heedlessly 

 trample upon the rights of' your easy and 

 : obliging neighbors. " I do not belie've it 

 is a good nlan to borrow, as a rule. When 

 you are olnUjrd to, remenil)er the borrowed 

 jiroperty is, as it were, a sacred trust. Keep 

 your eye upon it, with tenfold more diligence 

 than if it were something of your own; for 

 by so doing you will honor the Savior in a 

 way you canscarcely do otherwise. Jf it is 

 injured, do not rest by snyiiig it is as good 

 as when you got it. ^lake it a great deal 

 better. Let the world understand, and let 

 the all-seeing Eye recognize, that you pro- 

 l)ose to go through this world leaving your 

 fellow-men more than they had before you 

 came along, ratlier tliau less. Never let it 

 be possible for any one to say truly that you 

 have been '• reaping where 'thou hast 'not 

 , sown, and gathering where tliou hast not 

 strewed."' 



Some of you come tome for advice. Some 

 of you ask me what you shall do to inherit 

 eternal life. Well, now. if you value my 

 opinion and judgment, it seem's to me almost 

 tlie greatest need is in the direction I have 

 pointed out— in lionoring (ukI by letting the 

 world see and know that you are not dis- 

 l»nsed to trespass on the rights of anv one. 

 This amounts in substance to what'Jesus 

 said: '"Thou shalt love thv neighbor as 

 thyself."' 



We have much trouble, as I told you be- 

 fore, here in our large factory, by borrowing 

 tools, and heedlessly dropi)iiig them where 

 they were used. One of my greatest cares 

 is to keep an eye on this sort of work. We 

 have one boy in om- number land he is one 

 who has newly found the Savior) who has 

 made up his mind to have tools of his own, 

 so as not to trespass on the rights of otliers. 

 One day I saw a brace and bit lying where 

 he was using it, and asked him if somebody 

 would not be wanting it. He looked up 

 smilingly, and, with a little conscious pride, 



