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BUSINESS AND RELIGION.

And shall the ministers, the priests, in this divine service, carrying out the great Creator's bountiful designs, transmitting the rich provisions of which they enjoy the best part themselves,-shall they be prayerless men, thoughtless of the rock from which they, with all their means and instrumentalities, are hewn? Shall they do any thing inconsistent with prayer ? Shall they say, "It is my ship, and my capital, and my own right arm, that has done this, and not Almighty God"? Shall they not carry piety, a perpetual respect to the laws and attributes of the Almighty, to his truth, his justice, his mercy, into all their words and dealings? If they do not, how much of fancy or ingenuity will you say there is in intimating that they, too, sin against God and against the Holy Ghost?

Is any thing lacking to make out the apostle's case of carrying religion into business? And yet there is unquestionably, in the minds of some business-men, a lurking scepticism in this matter. Nay, it has been expressed repeatedly to ministers of the gospel, that Christian principles cannot strictly be applied to all the affairs of business, and that he who should attempt to apply them must fail. Business may be done on a wrong system; but, to do any thing in it, one must stand upon the platform upon which it has universally settled down. A man must compromise somewhat the rigor of religious principles, or starve. I pronounce this plea calumnious. There are men, I am sure, who have succeeded, not at this expense of their principles. There are men now succeeding, religiously too! How nobly their foreheads, pale

BUSINESS AND RELIGION.

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with toil, shine out from the dust and sweat of the shop or the office, on the crowded and noisy highway of life; more nobly, to my eye, than the fronts of brave warriors, through the smoke and din of the battle-field; for they are doing their duty to their God in the exposed and dangerous places of the great field of humanity.

"Honor to whom honor" is due! But, if it be true, as I will not say it never may be, that a man must cheat or starve, why, the case is a plain one, the religious man will starve. A few authentic martyrdoms in the cause of honesty, if the world's custom will drive us to that, would do as much good, I verily believe, as ever the same number of martyrdoms in the cause of religion. Nay, in the cause of religion, I maintain they would be. A Polycarp, a Latimer, a Servetus, burning bound at the stake, because they would not recant their fidelity to God and to Jesus, is clothed with no more honor, and accomplishes, for aught I can see, no more good in sensibly raising and purifying the world we live in, han that man now, in whatever place or circumstances, of whom it could truly be said, "He pershed, because he would not deceive. He embraced Doverty, because he would not commit fraud. He bequeathed want to his children, because he would not, even though he could without the least peril to his good name, leave them gold stained with a secret rust and canker." I know of no great expounder of moral principle, I know of no eloquent teacher of divine ruth, who is more useful in God's world than a business-man that carries his religion into his business.

2

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BUSINESS AND RELIGION.

I ask your patience only to give in addition an emblem, covering the whole ground of my subject. As, now some years since, I walked the streets of the most famous commercial city of this continent, I found that I had insensibly approached into the avenue on which the greatest operations of business transpire. I admired the massive pillared structures, thickly closing in together on either side, that seemed built to endure with the world. I saw the clustering gilded signs of every mode and shape of negotiation, bond and mortgage, property and life insurance, lending and borrowing; the Briareus of credit stretching his hundred arms into foreign towns; the barterer of money offering every species of value, anywhere current, at sale; and the great net of business, with all its golden links, spread out and shining as I had never marked it before. I noted the faces of the passers-by, and observed what clear and sharp outlines these active pursuits had given to every feature. There was pleasure with anxiety, a sunbeam or a shadow, the gleam of prosperity and the cloud of adversity chasing each other along, or mingled together in the conversing group. The white sails of ships that had arrived from distant ports, or were hoisting canvas for Europe or the Indies, opened and furled before my eyes, at the foot of this magnificent passage.

Here, thought I, is the concentration of the powers of this world; here the visible and mighty throne of Mammon; here, all by itself, and too much given up to itself, the spirit of gain, the love of riches, the devotion of the human body and the human soul to

into ev

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one earthly end. As I lifted my eye from the maze of granite walls and marble columns, and hurrying troops of men, I beheld at the head of the street a broad and bold tower piercing the sky, on whose then unfinished shaft recent blocks of stone had been laid; and in that I saw the most costly and splendid church of this country, arches and Gothic pinnacles, and curious alcoves, and carved ornaments, as though the spirit of reverence, as though the fear of God, the very genius of prayer, had built a monument to swell above the wide roofs below, to preside over every transaction on the worn pavements beneath, and to gaze with searching aspect into every face that appeared there, and the heart under that face. Such again, I thought, is the true relation of religion with business, to rise above and command it, and be ever present before it, in full, majestic sight. Oh, my friends, that this could be for us and for all a true emblem of the actual connection of religion with business! Then business would have a higher office than to provide for this passing world. It would educate us even for heaven. In our Saviour's own sublime language, we should "make to ourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness; so that when we failed, as we must all and for ever fail on earth," they would receive us into everlasting habitations."

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DISCOURSE II.

WORKING OUT OUR OWN SALVATION.

Phil. ii. 12, 13.

WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING; FOR IT IS GOD WHICH WORKETH IN YOU TO WILL AND TO DO OF HIS GOOD PLEASURE.

But

GOD is the author of salvation, and Christ is the way of salvation; but salvation never can be ours, unless "we work it out. It is not a thing to be seized in some happy moment, to be reached by a spasm of exertion or a thrill of compunction. It is not an unconditional gift, or a mere mysterious influence, an instantaneous transformation, but a work. it is very important that we take no narrow idea of what this working is. Some Scripture-passages, as you know, contrast works with faith, declaring their worthlessness without it; but by works, in this connection, is commonly meant the ceremonies of the Jewish law or the decencies of morality. How can these avail with God, without the living principle of sincerity?

Again, other Scripture-passages set forth the worthlessness of faith unattended by works. "The devils believe, and tremble." "Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my