344 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



May 



complain if you can not get the accommoda- 

 tion you ask for. You must either get a 

 signer, or accumulate property enough to 

 make it easy for your wife to pay your (debts 

 if you die suddenly. If you can not do one 

 of "the two above things, it seems to me if 

 you are a good Christian you ought not to 

 complain because the world does not see fit 

 to give you credit. 



The rules laid down for our book-keeper 

 are just in accordance with the above, only 

 we are a little more liberal than banks in 

 general. This book-keeper, of many years' 

 experience, is a Christian woman of good 

 judgment, and one who has a kindly love 

 for all humanity. In this very work of 

 which I have told you, it is her constant end 

 and aim to decide all these matters in a 

 Christianlike way. Mr. Calvert, her aid and 

 adviser, is also a thorough-working Chris- 

 tian—a man who asks God day by day to 

 help him to love his neighbor as himself. 

 Perhaps they make mistakes. They do not, 

 of course, know all the old friends of 

 Gleanings just as I do ; but I assure you 

 that we all stand ready to correct any mis- 

 take at once, as soon as we are informed of 

 it. I told you we were more liberal than 

 the banks. It is this way : We have quite a 

 few customers who are not men of property 

 —who have very little indeed to fall back 

 on in case of sickness, death, fire, cyclones, 

 floods, etc.; but this class have gained cred- 

 it by being prompt and careful about paying 

 all small balances. They are often quoted, 

 " Has always paid exactly according to 

 promise," and I tell you this one simple rec- 

 ord goes a great way. The man who has al- 

 ways been " faithful in small things," cer- 

 tainly will be faithful in larger ones ; but of 

 late a good many facts have come to light, 

 showing that it is sometimes a mistake and 

 an unkindness to even these friends to give 

 them too large a credit. Very often I pen • 

 cil on letters, " Why was this man trust- 

 ed?" The letter comes back to my special 

 box, marked something like this : " He was 

 always prompt, and fully up to promise in 

 small amounts, say from five cents up to 

 five dollars, until we decided to trust him 

 $25.00, then he had bad luck, and wrote us 

 once or twice about his misfortunes, and 

 now we can't get any answer from him at 

 all." Now, friends, the fault was ours. To 

 be kind and helpful to this individual, our 

 duty was to tell him that we did not feel 

 justified in trusting him to so large an 

 amount as S2-3.00, from what we could learn 

 of him, even though his past record had 

 been excellent. Very likely he would have 

 been greatly hurt and pained on receiving 

 this answer; but it would have been much 

 better for all parties, just as it was with the 

 wheelbarrow, had neighbor A stated kindly 

 but firmly that he preferred not to lend it ; 

 and, my friend, if you know the neighbor 

 who comes to borrow your wheelbarrow is 

 notorious for breaking and injuring and 

 keeping every tool he gets hold of, I think 

 the kindest act you can do is to tell him 

 pleasantly, that, if he will excuse you, you 

 would rather not lend it. 



Some years ago I wanted accommodation 

 at our bank. The cashier questioned me, 



and finally told me he did not see how they 

 could consistently let me have what I 

 wanted, especially as I objected to giving a 

 signer. I urged, however, and he finally 

 said that perhaps they could get around 

 their rules in some way. After a little re- 

 flection I decided, however, and spoke out 

 something as follows : 



1,1 Look, here, my friend, I do not want to 

 be any exception to your regular rules. I 

 want just as good terms as you offer to any- 

 body else, but no better. If your rules are 

 as you have stated, I prefer to abide by 

 them; " and I went without the money I 

 wanted, and felt then a good deal hap- 

 pier, and have ever since. And you too, 

 my friend, will feel better and happier and 

 manlier to abide by the established rules 

 than to beg to be an exception because you 

 are a " near neighbor," or an " old friend," 

 or something of that sort. I am sure a lit- 

 tle foolish pride often comes in here. Men 

 who are worth their thousands do not feel 

 hurt, nor object to being questioned ; and I 

 believe it is generally laid down that the 

 man who flares up and gets offended, or 

 shows anger because he is asked to submit 

 to the regular established business customs 

 in the way of debt and credit, is, as a rule, 

 found to be unworthy of any credit. 



Some years ago a good friend of mine, 

 who is in the banking business, wrote me a 

 kind letter. After excusing himself for 

 taking the liberty, he said he would like to 

 urge upon me the importance of keeping a 

 little more ready cash ahead, so that I 

 might not be so often in cramped places. 

 He said it injured my standing, not only as 

 a man of business, but also my reputation as 

 a Christian, to have the world see that I 

 was cramped or pinched, or to be inquiring 

 here and there for money. Now, this friend 

 is not a Christian ; but from a business 

 standpoint he saw that I was dishonoring 

 Christ Jesus the Savior by continually pay- 

 ing out my money as fast as I got it, or a 

 little faster, so that I was every little while 

 crowded. I thanked him, and told him that 

 I would try to show him that his advice was 

 not thrown away. In a little time I had 

 quite a sum of money in the bank, saved up 

 for a "rainy day," as the expression goes; 

 and during that summer I was enabled to 

 take advantage of many opportunities in 

 the way of purchases, that I had never 

 been able to manage before ; and I resolv- 

 ed then that I would never more dishonor 

 the Master by want of ordinary business 

 prudence; and let me tell you, my friends, 

 that, although we like to do business, and 

 like to sell you goods, I would urge and 

 implore you, not only for your own good 

 and happiness, but for the sake of Christ 

 Jesus, not to be in such haste to make such 

 investments that you cramp and cripple 

 yourself. Read over again the little clause 

 in the fore part of our price list, about bor- 

 rowing money to buy goods. 



A few have objected to 8 per cent inter- 

 est. Some have said they did not think we 

 were obliged to pay it ; and a few have said 

 that we are not very smart in business or 

 we would not pay 8 per cent interest. My 

 friends, we can get money at <> per cent by 



