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VOLUMI THREE
NUMBER THIRTY-FIVE
THE GOLDEN AGE HONORED!
Is Tlade the Official Organ of "The Knights of the Golden Age”
At the last meeting of the Grand Lodge at Abbeville, Ala., this brotherhood of chivalrous men,
standing for those same principles for which THE GOLDEN AGE has stood since its incipiency,
and with that grand man, Dr. Clarence Julian Owens, President of the State Agricultural College, as its
Leader, thus honors us.
One of the interesting features of our opening number in the “Land of Texas” will be a broader and
fuller story of this inspiring organization. Until then we lift our hats and make grateful obeisance to our
royal friend, President Owens and his chivalric “Knights of the Golden Age.”
"Thou Shalt Not Steal”— The "Eighth Commandment
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. "Broughton, D. D.
Stenographlcally reported for The Golden Age. —Copyright applied for
“Thou shalt not steal.’’ —Ex. 20: 15.
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N discussing' this commandment I want
us to look first at the moral basis of
property. I do this in order that we
may have a foundation to stand upon.
The question is often sprung, “Is
a. man entitled to what he wins?”
If I were called on to answer this ques
tion, I should say, only in a limited
sense. He is entitled to what he wins,
provided he wins it upon a legitimate basis. The
idea which seems to prevail with many that “what
is mine is mine, it makes no difference how I got
it,” is false. Here is a sharper who, by some hook
or crook, obtains that which belongs to his neigh
bor. He may not have violated any principle of
law in order to obtain it, and hence, legally, it is
his. But according to the moral law it is not. So
in dealing with the question of property ownership,
whether it be real estate, money, knowledge or char
acter. We are to conclude upon the basis upon
which it is obtained and this basis is to be deter
mined not by a code of so-called business principles,
but by the principles of the Bible.
Stealing, as defined by the law, is maliciously or
feloniously taking that which belongs to another.
Two divisions or classes are recognized by law, petit
and grand larceny. But we are not here to discuss
law, only as it conforms to God’s law. Stealing,
in the light of the Bible, is obtaining that which
belongs to another without recompense. With this
view before us, we see somewhat the vast extent of
our subject.
ATLANTA, GA.,*OCTOBER 15, 1908.
EXAMPLES OF STEALING.
What, then, are some of the examples of popular
stealing or respectable roguishness which come in
the scope of this definition ?
First, taking advantage of ignorance in a so
called bargain. Sam Jones says: “No man will
know the amount of devil there is in a good horse
trade till he gets to the other world.” I agree
with him, and yet his satanic majesty is not going
to be all the time occupied in punishing horse trad
ers. There are business men, employers and em
ployes, who will be only too glad to swap places
with horse traders and give boot.
THE SHARPER AND THE FOOL.
Every man who knows anything about business,
knows that the average merchant has two prices
upon his goods, a sharper’s price and a fool’s price.
When a comes along that is ignorant of goods
and prices, he quotes the fool’s price.
I shall never forget my first experience in the
business world. T was clerking for a Jew. One
day a young man from the country came in hastily
and said: “I want a suit of clothes.”
I quickly turned to a pile of clothing, got out a
suit costing about $4, and began my little speech.
“What will you take for it?” he said.
“Well,” said I, “I will put that suit to you at —
at—at $10.”
Said he: “Wrap it up; I must catch the train.”
Just as he was clearing the door I looked around
and saw my boss, his eyes looking red and “snap
py.” I knew something was to pay.
Then he began: “I am a good mind to bump
your thick head against the wall, because you did
not ask enough for those clothes. Why didn’t
you ask sls? You ought to size up a man better
than that; won’t you ever learn any business
sense?”
Some of you smile at this, and yet I ask you busi
ness men, is not this the rule of business? It is,
however, nothing more nor less than stealing.
IN THE SUBURBS.
Yes, yes, we shall never know what good business
is until the light of judgment is turned on. I was
talking the other day with a city broker, and he
said to me: “You would be surprised to know the
tricks in trade.”
“Tell me some of them,” said I.
“Well,” said he, “we brokers, for instance, have
what is known as a code of ciphers by which we
telegraph the prices of the market, without letting
the trade get on to it. For instance, when we find
that meat is going to drop, ‘the house’ wires u.- in
ciphers and tells us to hustle.”
“But,” said I. “I should think the large nit -
chants would smell a mouse.”
“Yes, but we do not go to them: we go off around
the suburbs and in the country and pack it off on
those fellows. They do not keep well up.”
•Said he, “No, it is business, we are bound to do
it.”
“Well,” said I, “that is stealing, man.”
I said no more, but I say now, business or no
business, that tricks by which the ignorant are de-
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