By Os Hillman
October 12
"Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place" (Ps 51:6).
History reveals that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes popular mystery series once played a practical joke on 12 respected and well-known men he knew. He sent out 12 telegrams with the same message on each: "Flee at once. All is discovered." Within 24 hours, they had all left the country!
Each of these men obviously had something to hide. Suddenly, though only in jest, the cover had been pulled away to reveal their true nature - and they fled. Such a lifestyle is not a legacy you want to leave behind.*
Around 1923, the most powerful men of the day ruled the world of money:
• Charles Schwab, president of the largest steel company in America.
• Samuel Insull, president of the largest utility company.
• Howard Hopson, president of the largest gas company.
• Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange.
• Albert Fall, Secretary of Interior in President Harding's cabinet.
• Jesse Livermore, the great "bear" on Wall Street.
• Ivan Krueger, head of the world's greatest monopoly.
• Leon Fraser, president of the Bank of International Settlements.
These men were "movers and shakers," the kind many people envy and wish to be like. Yet something went terribly wrong with these men's lives. Twenty-five years later:
• Charles Schwab, left behind an insolvent estate with debts and obligations totalling 1.7 million.
• Samuel Insull, died of a heart attack in a Paris subway station with 20 cents in his pocket.
• Howard Hopson, died in a sanitarium
• Richard Whitney had just been released from Sing-Sing prison.
• Albert Fall died at home, broke.
• Jesse Livermore committed suicide a week after Thanksgiving in 1940.
• Ivan Krueger committed suicide.
• Leon Fraser committed suicide.
Something went wrong during the process of their lives. It began in the inner man. Truth in the inner man is where the integrity battles are won or lost.
Pray that God allows you to live a life of integrity and honesty before the Lord.
*Paul J. Meyer, My Work Is My Ministry, Paul J. Meyer Resources, Waco, Texas., p. 18, http://www.snopes.com/glurge/fortune.asp
Contact Os Hillman at www.marketplaceleaders.org.