Form habits of accuracy. It will add to your happiness, your usefulness, your prosperity, and your piety. You can depend upon yourself, and others can depend upon you. A text of Scripture which you will want to use, commit carefully to memory, and quote it as it is. Do not misstate nor exaggerate any facts you may relate. If you make allusions to any of the arts or sciences, see that you do not get things mixed or wrong end to.
At a camp-meeting in Minnesota, we referred to a Presbyterian brother in the East, on whose land a railroad station was located. In every deed he gave he stipulated that the property should be forfeited, if intoxicating liquors or beer were sold upon the premises. A man opened a saloon on a lot which he had bought. The Presbyterian brought suit in the courts. The case was carried to the Court of Appeals, the lot declared to be forfeited, and liquor kept out. The occurrence took place a thousand miles away, and twenty years before the relation of it here referred to. We had no thought that any one present knew anything about it.
To our surprise a resident of the community, a gentleman well known, who made no profession of religion, confirmed all we had said, and stated that he himself “was the victim” — the man who made the attempt to run a saloon and was defeated. This little incident seemed to add greatly to our influence with the congregation. People appeared to think they could rely upon our statements.
It greatly cripples one’s ability to do good, when those who hear him feel that they must make allowance for what he says. Be accurate in your statements. Keep accurate accounts.
–B.T. Roberts
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