352 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



trying matter of borrowing money, or of buy- 

 ing things to be paid for at some future time, 

 which amounts to the same thing. My lit- 

 tle rule has been this : To tell tliose whom 

 I was owing that I would get it for them 

 whenever they told vie they wanted it; and 

 to carry this out, of course I must use such 

 care alid economy, and such foresight as 

 well: that there would never be a chance, or 

 that there could not well be a chance, of my 

 getting where I should fail in doing this. 



A few days ago an old friend came into 

 our factory and looked through it admiring- 

 ly. He is a man who has been a minister of 

 the gospel the most of his life. After look- 

 ing around for some time he made the fol- 

 lowing remark : 



•'Mr. Hoot, this is all beautiful as well as 

 wonderful ; but it gives one a feeling of sad- 

 ness as well as pleasure.'" 



'• Why so ? '' I asked in a little surprise. 



"Because," replied he, " such large estab- 

 lishments are sure to fail and become bank- 

 rupt, sooner or later." 



I confess, the speech cut me a little at first ; 

 but for all that, 1 guess it did me good. I 

 replied, — 



'' My friend, do you really mean that a 

 man who is an earnest Clnistian fails in busi- 

 ness and becomes bankrupt V "' 



"Why. it seems they do sometimes, sooner 

 or later." 



•' But, if you will excuse me, is it not be- 

 cause they depart from their Christianity 

 and lose their leligion V" 



He was, i)erhaps, a little surprised at my 

 earnestness, and replied with a smile, " May 

 be so," and left me. 



I have thought of this very often since, 

 friends. Why did I feel hurt or indignant at 

 the remark he made ? xVnd if good Chris- 

 tian men have really drifted out of the way, 

 and got into trouble by having large property 

 on their hands, why should I expect to be an 

 exception V I know I am on delicate grounds 

 here, friends, and I know I am laying my- 

 self open to charges that have been made a 

 great many times ; biit all ray old tried 

 friends will understand me, and make allow- 

 ance for what weakness they m;i\ see in what 

 I have been saying. Tlie (piestion still rings 

 in my ears, " Has a CIiri,'<tia)i any right to 

 fail in business V" It just now occurs to me 

 that I replied to the friend of whom I have 

 been speaking, something to this effect : 



"A man can never fail in business, Snd 

 never become l)ankrupt, so long as he is al- 

 ways prepared to pay all he owes in the 

 world to anybody, whenever they ask for it, 

 or on very short notice." 



And this brings me back to my little rule 

 of action in regard to the matter of debt and 

 credit. It has been this : To l)e prepared 

 at all times to hand over all I was -owing to 

 anybody whenever it is asked for, or when 

 they seemed to want it badly ; or, to put it 

 in another way, I determined that the world 

 should know that they could always have 

 what money or any thing else I was owing 

 them whenever they wanted it. You may 

 urge, that there are times when circuni- 

 stances make it very difficult or absolutely 

 impossible to do this. My reply is, that you 

 should take into consideration circumstances 



before you get in debt ; that you should de- 

 termine beforehand to go without things 

 rather than incur risks ; and Avhen you have 

 tried repeatedly to borrow money, and your 

 friends do not seem to want to lend you will- 

 ingly, take it for granted that God thinks it 

 best that you should not have it— or, if you 

 choose to "put it in another way, decide in 

 your own mind it is best for you not to have 

 it, and go without it, no matter what the 

 circumstances may be. To follow out the 

 little rule I have given you, of course you 

 will need to have resources at hand of some 

 kind. These resources should be ])lanned so 

 as to meet any contingency. Perhaps I 

 should define niy position here by saying, 

 that when you borrow money for a certain 

 length of time you do not owe it until that 

 time has expired ; and if the one to whom 

 you owe it should want it before that time, 

 if he can persuade you to pay it sooner, well 

 and good ; but, of course, he has no right to 

 demand it sooner than the time agreed upon. 



An old lawyer once made the remark when 

 a circle of people were severely criticisingan 

 absent brother, "Everybody ought to do all 

 he agrees to do ; and when "he has done this, 

 he is a pretty good man, and you have no 

 right to find fault with him or "abuse him." 



I have often thought of this, and it is a 

 pretty good rule, I believe. We all have 

 right's. ^Ve have the privilege in this free 

 country of ours of doing what we please 

 with our own property, or with what we have 

 honestly earned ; but every one who pro- 

 fesses to be a Christian, or even a gentleman, 

 should try very hard to keep all his promises 

 good. What IS to be done, then, when one 

 can't keep his promises V Why, get a release, 

 of course. One can ordinarily get a release 

 from a promise by presenting a good reason 

 why he should be released. But, of course, 

 he should make application for release at the 

 very earliest moment possilile. I once heard 

 another lawyer friend of mine make the re- 

 mark, that to get an honorable release from 

 a promise is virtually keejjiug a promise. 



Now, in this matter of deV)t and credit it 

 were well to keep the above points in mind. 

 Suppose you owe money, and it is demanded 

 of you, and you can not pay it ; what is to 

 be done ? I am afraid Ave are in too much 

 of a hurry to use this word can't. Before 

 telling anybody that I could not pay money 

 I honestly owed, I would make soine pretty 

 great sacrifice. I would sell proi)eity at half 

 its value ; in fact, I have done this already, 

 thinking it better to lose my property than 

 to lose my good name. A gi eat many times, 

 after having tohl the one I owed what I was 

 going to do in order to pay him, he has often 

 relented, and told me not to do so badly as 

 that. Of course, if you can get such a re- 

 lease as that, all right ; for the whole point 

 at issue, friends, is to conduct yourself in 

 such a way that you shall not dishonor the 

 name of Christ, whom you profess to follow, 

 and that you shall not dishonor your own 

 name by doing such things, or have any one 

 feel that you are not as good as your word, 

 and are not to be relied upon. I tell you, 

 friends, this is a very great thing in this 

 world, to earn a reputation of being good 

 in spirit as well as letter. What I mean is, 



