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, than that man now, in whatever place or circumstances, of whom it could truly be said, "He perished, because he would not deceive. He embraced poverty, 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 truth, who is more useful in God's world than a business-man that carries his religion into his business.

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 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, would receive us into everlasting habitations."

they

DISCOURSE II.

WORKING OUT OUR OWN SALVATION.

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Phil. ii. 12, 13. — WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION WITH FEAR TREMBLING; FOR IT IS GOD WHICH WORKETH IN YOU TO WILL AND TO DO OF HIS GOOD PLEASURE.

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, or an instantaneous transformation, but a work. But 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

works."

But there is no contradiction. Here the word is used in a higher sense, meaning the substantial deeds of justice and humanity, which must be added to the forms of piety, to prove the reality of the religious principle.

But working, even in this sense, does not seem to answer the precise intention of the text. There is a higher working than in outward observance, or even visible conduct. It is a working which includes and enlivens both, -unites both with the heart's faith; making religion neither mere formality, nor mere morality, nor mere spirituality; but binding spirit, morals, and forms in one living whole. And it is this sincere working of the soul, in which all its powers of thought are involved, to which all its energies of will are devoted, this inward, all-embracing, ever-acting, and unconquerable resolution, that Paul enjoins. But men have preferred any other method of salvation to this divinely commanded one. They have greatly preferred, for instance, to wait for a miraculous renewal. In the fable, one hindered by the way implores help of Hercules; but the answer is, that he must first try to help himself. And so, as I read, does the true God teach us in that book which is no fable, but the rule of our destiny.

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Do we, then, make void the influence of the Holy Spirit in man's conversion? By no means. The presence of this Spirit in the soul, offering salvation, is set forth by the apostle as the very reason why we should work our own salvation out: "For it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his