THE
>-dit in  te    3un IR-    3ur 
A COURSE OF
LECTURES
TO
M E Ri C H A N T S.
BY
H. A. BOARDMAIAN, D.D.
PHILADELPHIA:
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.
1853.
I I
:.1
~   ~.
.  -e*   s  
*:..'
* Catered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
STEREOTYPED BY J. FAGAN.         T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS. 
TO THE
Jrrtlntg  f:!jinai tpfi,
THESE LECTURES
ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,
BY THEIR FRIEND
AND FELLOW-CITIZEN,
H. A. BOARDIMAN.  
'
PRE F ACE.
MERCHANTS have had too little help from
the Pulpit. They have been left, very much,
to frame their own ethics, and to grapple,
as they might, with the temptations and
trials of business.   There is no  lack of
sermons and books on the vices of great
cities. Able treatises on the formation of
character, enter largely into the conservative
literature of the  age.   But an adequate
Hand-book on the moralities of Commerce,
is yet to be supplied. The present volume
does not aspire to this elevated function:
it is merely an humble essay in that direction. It has been prepared as a companion
to the "BIBLE  IN  THiE  FAMILY";  and is
(vii) 
PREFACE.
offered to the Mercantile classes with the
hope, that, through the Divine blessing, its
suggestions may afford them some assistance
in adjusting the casuistries of trade, and
subordinating its aims and implements to
the higher ends of life.
To the ten Lectures comprised in the
series, there is appended a discourse delivered
on a funeral occasion, before the Young Men
attached to the "Jobbing- Iouses" in this
city.
PHILADELrPHIA, May, 1853.
*,.
vnl1 
C O N T E NT S.
LECTURE I.
THE CLAIMS OF THE MERCANTILE PROFESSION UPON
THE PULPIT.
PACLE
FIFTY YEARS AGO-SOURCES OF DANGER-GROUNDS OF HOPE CRUDE CONCEPTIONS OF THE PULPIT-THEOLOGY AND MORALITY
INSEPARABLE-PRACTICAL GODLINESS-DUTY OF THE MINISTRY
-A WORD FOR AGRICULTURE- CO0MMERCE AND THE PUBLIC
MORALS- OUR TRUE REPRESENTATIVES- THE TRIUMPH OF
TRADE- ORIGIN OF THESE LECTURES............................ 13-38
LECTURE II.
THE RULE OF COMMERCIAL RECTITUDE.
EQUIVOCAL PRACTICES-EXPEDIENCY - MACHIAVELLIANISM -A
SHIIYLOCK - THE OPIUM-TRADE - BRITISH RAPACITY - MUTUAL
ASSIMILATION - CONVENTIONAL MORALITY - MISGIVINGS SUP PRESSED - THE DIALECT OF SHOPPING - TOO HONEST FOR A
MERCHANT-SPURIOUS ETHICS-PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY A PERFECT CODE —NEED OF THE HOLY SPIRIT............... 39-69
LECTURE III.
THE TRUE MERCANTILE CHARACTER.
A MODEL MERCHANT - DR. JOHNSON - ADVENTURERS - SORDID
VIEWS - THE MORAL DISCIPLINE OF TRADE - COMMERCE AND
CHRISTIANITY - THE THREE MERCANTILE VIRTUES - DOING
(ix) 
CONTENTS.
PAGE
rIG [IT - I,OVING MER.CY - MEN IN MAIL - VIGILANCE - FRAUDULENT ESTABLISHIMENTS - RIGHTEOUS SEVERITY - A SAFE
CHART...................................................................... 70-98
LECTURE IV.
HASTING TO BE RICII.
MUTUAL DEPENDENCE-AN AGRARIAN REFORMATION-A CHRONIC
MALADY- ANTICIPATION AND FRUITION- FACILITY IN TRUST ING - OVER-TRADING - ENDORSING - DISASTROUS FRUITS OF
THE SYSTEM - RUNNING IN DEBT - THE DEBTOR'S PENALTY -
RETIRING AT THIRTY - WHILST WE LIVE, LET US LIVE -
SELFISH PRIOFUSION - AVARICE, A BAR TO HEAVEN - A
PORTRAIT...............................................................  99 -130
LECTURE V.
SPECULATING.
THE SOUTH-SEA COMPANY- A COMMUNITY CRAZED- A FINANCIAL
CRISIS- PRACTICAL ATHEISM- AN ISHMAELITE - ROBBERY AND
CHARITY- SANCTITY OF TRUSTS - COLLATERAL SPECULATIONS
LIABILITY OF CO-PARTNERS - BANKS - DUTIES OF DIRECTORS
- PERVERTED INSTITUTIONS - TRUE POSITION OF BANKS -
USE AND ABUSE  OF POWER - DEALING  IN STOCKS - CON TRACTS ON TIIME- GAMBLING IN STOCKS- VICE MADE REPUT ABLE- FICTITIOUS MERCHANDIZE- DANGERS OF COVETOUSNESS
-A SUMMONS FROM ETERNITY................................... 131-172
LECTURE VI.
BANKRUPTCY.
LUXURIES - THE QUESTION OF LABOUR - SHOW AND SUBSTANCE
- THE LIBRARY - UNCONSCIOUS TEACHIING - LIABILITY TO
FAILURE - MORAL TESTS OF BANKRUPTCY - TESTIMONY OF
JUDGE HOPKINSON-A NATION DEBAUCHED BY SPECULATION THE DEATH-STRUGGLE-DUTY OF INSOLVENTS-SWINDLERS VALUE OF A LEGAL DISCHARGE- PERMANENT OBLIGATION OF
DEBTS - BANKRUPTCY A COMMON CALAMITY- INTEGRITY OF
THE DUIJTCH-REGALIA OF COMMERCE-THE ONLY SURE EQUIIP MENT..................................................... 173-208
x 
CONTENTS.
LECTURE VII.
PRINCIPALS AND CLERKS.
PAGE
DIFFERENT PHASES OF COMMERCE - RESPONSIBILITY OF PRINCI PALS -THE DOWNWARD PROCESS-LAFITTE- VALUE OF SUN SHINE-DIALECT OF TRADE, IN THE PARLOUR-THE MORAL LAW,
NO PHANTASM-DRUMMING-USE AND ABUSE OF THE PRINCIPLE A HUMAN SACRIFICE-PATERNAL SUPERVISION-STEPHEN ALLEN
-DUTIES OF A CLERK-EYE-SERVICE-TEMPERS AND MANNERS
-LEARNING TO STOOP-DISSIPATION-INTEMPERANCE LEGAL IZED-DEMAND FOR LEGISLATIVE ACTION-APPEAL TO COUNTRY
MERCHANTS -PARTNERSHIPS- UNDESIRABLE ASSOCIATES-THE
FRIENDSHIPS OF COMMERCE....................................... 209-254
LECTURE VIII.
DOMESTIC LIFE, AND LITERARY CULTURE, OF THE MAN
OF BUSINESS.
A COMPLAINT -A REPLICATION- CLAIMS OF HO3fE-CAUTIONS
AFFECTIONS RUSTED-MISERY AND HAPPINESS-WOMAN'S RIGHTS
-INTUITION-TOO WISE FOR ADVICE-A FAITHFUL COUNSELLOR THE PATTERN HOUSEWIFE-A DOMESTIC WOMAN-TASTE AND
NEATNESS-A GRAVE INDICTMENT-HOW TO SET OUT IN LIFE
-THE LAW OF KINDNESS-LITERARY OPPORTUNITIES OF MER CHANTS - CRAMPING TENDENCIES OF TRADE - ADVANTAGES OF
SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE - PROSERS - OCTAVOS IN MARCH - THE
INDESTRUCTIBLE COINAGE - NEWSPAPERS - WHERE THE LOST
TIME GOES - HINTS ON READING - A SHIELD AGAINST TEMPTA TION-THE BOOK OF BOOKS...................................... 255-308
LECTURE IX.
THE CLAIMS OF THE SABBATH UPON MERCHANTS.
TESTIMTONY OF A CLERK-DR. FARRE-THE SABBATH FOUNDED IN
NATURE - DESIGN OF THE LAW - ALLOWED SECULARITIES -
EVERY MIAN S RIGHT TO A SABBATH-TYRANNY OF AVARICE THE LABOURER S COTTAGE-RAILWAY-TRAFFIC-THE PLATFORM
OF CHRISTIANITY - THE PALLADIUM OF LIBERTY - HOSTILE
AGENCIES -THE LONDON POST-OFFICES - INSANITY - SAVING
A DAY - MENTAL CULTURE - BROADER VIEWS OF LIFE -
DOMESTIC RE-UNIONS- A MIUNIFICENT GIFT.................. 309 - 346
xi. 
CONTENTS.
LECTURE X.
THE TRUE RICHES. -LIVING TO DO GOOD.
PAGE
RETIRING FROM BUSINESS- FATAL IMPROVIDENCE - ERROR IN A
SPECIOUS GARB- NO SALVATION BY THE LAW- THE TRUE
PLACE OF GOOD WORKS - THE INALIENABLE HERITAGE - ATHE ISTIC TENDENCIES-A FIELD, WHITE TO THE HARVEST-PHILAN THROPY AT LARGE- CORPORATE AND PERSONAL CHRISTIANITY
-SHIP-OWNERS AND SAILORS-HUMANITY ABOVE MERCHANDIZE
-OUR GREAT EXEMPLAR-EVANGELICAL MOTIVES-FREELY YE
HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE- SUBTLETY OF AVARICE- THE
OBLIGATIONS OF PROPERTY- A MAN TO BE REMEMBERED BENEVOLENCE AND SELFISHNESS, REWARDED -THE ONE THING
NEEDFUL............................................................... 347 -385
LECTURE XI.
SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN ENGAGED IN MERCANTILE
BUSINESS.
A FUNERAL PAGEANT - THE VOICE OF PROVIDENCE - LIFE AT A
HOTEL - RURAL INFLUENCES - METROPOLITAN SEDUCTIONS ABORTIVE STRUGGLES - PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY - ENTER
INTO THY CLOSET - THE DAY OF REST - GOOD POLICY TO KEEP
THE SABBATH - CHURCH-GOING HABITS - PATHS OF DANGER COSTLY CUSTOMERS - THE GREAT ALTERNATIVE - A LAST AP PEAL.................................................................... 387 -420
u 
THE CLAIMS OF TIlE MERCANTILE PROFESSION UPON
THE PULPIT.
AN intelligent gentleman, a partner in an opulent
commercial house, once said to me-  "We could,
without the least difficulty, increase our annual profits
to the extent of several thousand dollars, if we were
willing to conform to usages which are practised by
many firms around us." This observation made the
deeper impression upon me, because I had just been
reading a small volume,* the object of which was,
not precisely to discuss, but by means of a fictitious
narrative to illustrate, the question - "Is it possible,
in the present state of things, to do a mercantile
business successfully, on Christian principles?" The
author of this work, "A Counting-Hoouse SIan,"
without replying to the question categorically, incorporates his answer with the facts of the narrative.
I-his hero, an incorruptible young merchant, after a
* lHerbert Tracy.
(13)
T~t ft tit e  fi rsts
2 
14     THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
brief commercial career in New York, fails; and the
book leaves him driving his plough, a cheerful farmer,
surrounded by a happy family, at Tarrytown.
Why are such books written?  Why such observations made? If they were the fruit of pique, or
sprang from mere transient impulses, they would
merit little attention. But they have a different
origin, and are clothed with a much deeper significance. They betray a pervading anxiety and dissatisfaction among the mercantile community. They
disclose the workings of the conscience which underlies the commercial world. They show that men of
principle are not at rest; that they distrust the
received methods of business; that there are current
frauds and dishonesties in the impetuous rivalries of
trade, which it takes all their equanimity to keep
them from denouncing in the market-places and at
the corners of the streets; and that they themselves are often harassed with questions of casuistry,
which it requires a mature skill in the ethics of the
New Testament to bring to a ready solution. The
change which has come over the world within the
last half-century is felt in the thoroughfares of commerce even more than in legislative halls and ecclesiastical synods.  The moderation, the composure,
the gradual, spontaneous expansion of trade, the
rational hours, and tranquil sleep, which belonged to 
FIFTY YEARS AGO.
a mercantile life fifty years since, have given place
to universal and prolonged excitement, restless activity, a competition which would not have disgraced
the Isthmian games, an unquenchable passion for
wealth, a subjugation of all the achievements of
science and all the implements of art to the purposes
of traffic, and a sacrifice of personal ease and
domestic comfort which our fathers would no more
have dreamed of than they would of spending life
in a railroad car. Whether this revolution could
have been prevented, or whether it is not, on the
whole, beneficial, is not a question now before us.
We must take things as they are; and in this view,
the perplexities and perils incident to a mercantile
career are such as no intelligent and upright man
can contemplate without emotion. The subject is
certainly one of profound and growing interest to all
who are concerned for the morals of the country.
That it has a claim upon the sympathy and the
friendly co-operation of the PULPIT, which has as yet
been recognized only in a very inadequate. degree,
must be too apparent to require any special demonstration. It may be doubted whether there is any
work more imperatively needed, or one which would
be more useful, than an able, judicious, and popular
treatise ON THE APPLICATION OF CHRISTIAN MORALITY TO THE AFFAIRS OF COMMERCE. The admi
15 
1 6    TIHE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
rable volume on this subject by the late Dr. Chalmers can never become superannuated.   But, luminous and eloquent as it is, like every thing which
bears the impress of his great mind, it needs to be
supplemented by a corresponding work, devoted to
certain topics which it did not fall in his way to
discuss, and adjusted to the modern usages of the
trading world. It may require another Chalmers to
supply this desideratum, but whoever shall furnish it
will confer a lasting obligation, not only on the commercial classes, but on society at large. For, in
truth, under our institutions, we are all implicated in
the character of that profession.   Reticulated as
they are, from their numbers, their intelligence, their
wealth and enterprise, with every political and every
ecclesiastical institute, it is impossible to segregate
them from the mass of the people- to put the
merchants on one side and "society" on the other.
In the United States, society must be virtually what
the merchants are. It reflects their morality, and
uses their axioms in working out its cases of conscience. Every community has a stake in keeping
up the barometers in its Counting-houses to the
highest possible point. ( A downward tendency there
is certain to be felt in every limb of the social structure; and whenever the mercury, by a simultaneous
and rapid depression, indicates a general deterioration 
SOURCES OF DANGER.
of commercial integrity, ten thousand secret sluices
begin to discharge their deadly poison around the
roots of all public and all private virtue.)
Allusion has been made to the difficulty of maintaining an inflexible honesty in mercantile pursuits.
This is no imaginary difficulty. The business of
buying and selling involves a constant appeal to the
principle of self-interest. There is danger in this
even under propitious circumstances, as in the simple
barter which is carried on amongst the inhabitants
of pastoral districts; and the temptations to dishonesty are indefinitely multiplied in large manufacturing or trafficking towns. Not to expatiate now
on a topic which will frequently recur as we proceed,
let it suffice to refer to the intense competition which
prevails in every branch of business; to the number
of unprincipled persons who betake themselves to
merchandise for a livelihood; to the inexperience
of multitudes who embark in trade; to the common
effect of interest in misleading the conscience; and
to the facile subserviency with which most individuals
acquiesce in existing customs, without stopping to
inquire whether they are sanctioned by the morality
of the Scriptures. The dangers flowing from these
and other sources are thickly strewn in the paths of
commerce. They are subtle and imminent. They
are permanent and cumulative. They are aggravated
2*
17 
18     THIE BIBLE IN TIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
by the risks and hazards from without, which are
bound up in a business-life. The merchant's motto
is, and must be, "Nothing venture, nothing win."
Hle must trust his property in the hands of others,
who are often strangers to him and living hundreds
or thousands of miles off. He must send his ships to
explore distant oceans, and to seek out untried
markets.   He must expose his goods to the perils
of land and sea, and to the capricious changes of
winds and climates. A political revolution abroad
may fall with crushing force upon his house. A
popular tumult, or a hasty act of legislation, at home,
may thwart his plans and blast his prospects. And,
amidst these varied hazards - under the pressure of
reverses, successes, disappointments, unlooked - for
contingencies, fluctuating markets, and fluctuating
hopes -he is all the while dealing with questions
not merely of loss and gain, but of right and wrong
- questions frequently of an intricate nature, and
really demanding mature study, but which he is
obliged to dispose of on the spur of the moment.Do we err then, when we say that the Countingroom is a crucible to character? Or, are we at fault
in contending that the great and influential class
who are cast into this fierce alembic, are entitled to
the sympathy of all who can lend them a helping
hand? To relieve them of their anxieties, to exone 
GROUNDS OF HIOPE.
rate them from all their risks, to transform the
rugged path they are treading, into a broad, smooth,
level causeway,  is of course impracticable.   The
primeval curse is not to be annulled, and man must
still live by the sweat of his brow. But the case
of the merchant is not, therefore, a hopeless one.
If we cannot remove all the obstructions from his
path, we may a part. If we cannot shield him from
every danger, we may from some. If we cannot
clothe him with infallibility in resolving questions of
duty, we may place in his hands a standard to which
he can refer such questions with the confidence that
it will not deceive him. The equipment he needs,
the only equipment which will at all meet the exigencies of his position, is true religion. The chart
he requires, the only chart which defines with accuracy the reefs and quicksands, the treacherous shoals
and vagrant currents of the sea which he is traversing,, is, the word of God.   THiE  BIBLE  IN THE
COUNTING-HIOUSE:-this is the only specific which
will at all meet the moral necessities of the businessworld, or which can make it expedient for men to
plunge into the perilous excitements of a life of
traffic, who have any serious purpose of ever getting
to heaven. To bring about this end, to inaugurate
the BIBLE as the controlling authority in the marts
of commerce, the acknowledged arbiter in matters of
19 
20     THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
casuistry, and the test by which every usage is to
stand or fall, this, surely, is an object worthy of the
best exertions of all who desire the prosperity of
religion and the welfare of their fellow-men. The
humblest effort in this cause may claim to be received
with indulgence; nor will it have been put forth in
vain, should it serve only to call the attention of abler
moralists to this luxuriant and neglected field of
practical Christianity.
There may be those who will regard this as delicate
ground. The pulpit has itself moulded a public sentiment by which it is watched with a jealous eye, lest
it should' venture upon themes that lie beyond its
jurisdiction. Curiously enough, the territory which
it is sought to sequester from all the aggressions of
the sanctuary, is that which embraces the actual application of the Gospel to no small portion of the daily
avocations of men. Upon the paths which men are
treading for six days out of every seven, upon their
husbandry and their handicraft, their shops and their
warehouses, their hoarding and their disbursing,
their legislation and their jurisprudence, there is
impressed the brand of a secularity so flagrant that
the pulpit cannot venture into this arena, without
contracting the taint of a grievous defilement! A
pastor may, indeed, so far approach the boundary of
this quarantined region, as to lanch the denuncia 
CRUDE CONCEPTIONS OF TIIE PULPIT.
tions of the violated law against all and singular of
its busy tribes who transgress its high requisitions;
but he must not go to them, to explain what the law
demands of them, and how they are to keep within
the line of its prescriptions. He may arraign the
manufacturer or the trader on the broad score of dishonesty, and set forth the penalty a retributive justice
has attached to his misdeeds; but the sacredness
of his office forbids him to take the Gospel and go
with it into their mills and their counting-rooms, and
aid them in applying its divine precepts to their
respective avocations.  And so it comes to pass, that
when a Christian minister propounds for discussion
one of these tabooed topics, he is quite likely, on the
one hand, to wound the sensibilities of certain sincere
and excellent people, who tremble to think of his
degrading the Gospel into a mere scheme of morals;
and, on the other, to disturb the equanimity of certain
careless and somewhat unscrupulous devotees of mammon, who think he had better confine himself to his
own sphere and leave them to theirs.
Now, if the occasion called for it, it would be easy
to show that these views proceed upon a radical misconception of the functions of the ministry. Undoubtedly, the main office of the pulpit is to illustrate
and enforce the great doctrines of revelation, and the
duties of repentance towards God and faith in the
21 
22     THE BIBLE IN. THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
Lord Jesus Christ. There is a pregnant meaning in
that declaration of the apostle, "I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him
crucified." A crucified Saviour - redemption by the
blood of Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit
- as it is the grand, central theme of the New Testament, so it must be the burden of every preacher who
would save the souls of men. Nor is this essential
only in respect to its connexion with forgiveness and
spiritual renewal. It is no less indispensable as supplying the only solid basis and effectual guarantee of
a holy life. Those persons who, in their prejudice
against theological disquisitions, would restrict the
pulpit to the inculcation of charity, forget that you
cannot build a house without a foundation, or that if
you do, it will as certainly tumble down as do so
many of the fragile structures which cupidity and
recklessness run up in our cities.  The XatpIas of the
Bible- that divine love which clasps the whole
human family in its embrace, and would wellnigh
emulate the Saviour's benevolence and "lay down
its life for the brethren" - draws its being from the
TRUTH, lives upon the truth, rejoices in the truth,
conquers by the truth, and will yet bring the nations
back to their allegiance to Christ through the truth.
To attempt to array it against the truth, to argue in
favour of preaching love as contrasted with preaching 
THEOLOGY AND MORALITY INSEPARABLE.   23
doctrine, is as preposterous as it would be to contrast
a stream with its fountain, or the fruit of a tree with
its roots and sap. You may garnish over a bad
character, or embellish an amiable one, by inculcating
charity; but to expect in this way to transform a
man into "a new creature," is as unphilosophical as
it is contrary to Scripture. There can be no intelligent piety where the understanding does not lead
the way. Believe, and thou shalt be saved.
But if morality is not to be preached without
theology, neither is theology without morality. If
Christianity makes its first appeal to the understanding, it does not rest there. If it reveals a heaven, it
does not, like the god of the Epicureans, hold itself
aloof from all fellowship with earth. It is a religion
to live by, as well as to die by. As it challenges the
homage of all mankind, so it exerts its prerogative
over all human pursuits, and proffers its benign
assistance to men of every character and occupation.
The New Testament is one of the most practical of
all works. Those who are so zealous for confining
the pulpit to a stereotype round of subjects, to what
may be defined as religious subjects, would do well to
consider the generous commingling of moral precepts
with the doctrinal utterances of the Saviour and his
apostles. It may be worthy of their inquiry whether
the Sermon on the Mount would fall within the sweep 
24     THE BIBLIE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
of that canon which they are anxious to impose on
the ministrations of the sanctuary; and whether the
closing portions of the Epistles, in the directory they
present for the conduct of persons in the different
relations of society, mnight not, under the same canon,
lie open to a charge of legalism. Without illustrating
this point in detail, take the following citations by
way of example:
Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute
is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour
to whom honour. Owe no man anything but to love one
another.
We beseech you that ye study to be quiet, and to do your
own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that
are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever
follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all
men.
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you,
that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we
hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly,
working not at all, but are busy-bodies. Now them that are
such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that
with quietness they work and eat their own bread.
Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down
your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and
the cries of them which have reaped, are entered into the ears
of the Lord of Sabaoth. 
PRACTICAL GODLINESS.
Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not
high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living
God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
In this way the principles of religion are carried
out and applied to the affairs of every-day life.
Men are not only exhorted in general terms to
honesty, sobriety, and industry, but there is a specific
adjustment of the perfect morality of the decalogue
to their several relations and employments.   It is
reasonable  to presume that if the world had been as
conei)ercial then as it is now, or if any large portion
of those to whom the Saviour and his apostles immediately addressed themselves had been engaged in
trade, the New Testament would have abounded still
more than it does, in counsels, cautions, admonitions,
and encouragements, appropriate to mercantile matters. As it is, there is prominence enough assigned
to this subject to warrant, and even enjoin, the
ministers of religion to go directly into the abodes of
Commerce, and publish to the great army of traffickers,
the high requisitions of Christianity. This, indeed,
is no less a work of philanthropy than a work of
professional duty; for the field here contemplated
has been a most disastrous one to human virtue. If
its chronicles could be written, they would furnish as
well some of the saddest, as some of the brightest,
chapters in the annals of the race. To an eye gifted
3
25 
TIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
with spiritual discernment, it is a field strewn with
memorials of the dead, surpassing as much in their
sorrowful significance as in their numbers, the bones
which have whitened the soil of Leipsic or of Water loo.  Where War has slain its thousands, Commerce
has slain its ten thousands:- with other weapons,
indeed, and with a more terrible and far-reaching
mortality.  It presents to us no batteries and bayo nets, no blood and carnage.  It strikes not at the
l)ody, although this sometimes falls, but at the soul.
It smites with a secret leprosy, which spreads its
fatal virus through the arteries, even where there is
every outward indication of health and happiness.
The victims it has sealed for destruction are, by turns,
young men who constitute the flower of society;
capitalists who are conspicuous in the circles of
fashion; merchants whose names are a synonym on
'Change for intelligence and efficiency; financiers
who are treated with deference, because by their tact
and shrewdness they have amassed a sudden fortune.
These, and such as these, not unfrequently carry
about with them the seeds of this moral plague,
when they are for years together priding themselves
on their good estate, and elated with the flatteries
the world is so ready to bestow upon its successful
votaries.  Is it not a,work of philanthropy to go and
apprize them of their danger? Are these appliances
26 
DUTY OF THIE MINISTRY.
and symbols of prosperity, which not only blind them
to their real condition, but serve as inlets to the
noxious mn(alaria that is consuming them, to deprive
them of the succour we would extend to sick or
suffering poverty?  And is the Christian ministry,
whose express mission it is to do good to all men, to
withhold its salutary counsels from the multitudes,
who, though not yet seized by these insidious mala dies, are breathing an infected atmosphere and in
jeopardy every hour? You cannot take the affirma tive of these questions, without virtually impeaching
the conduct and teachings of the inspired penmen.
If we would tread in their steps, we must lend a
helping hand to all who are making their way through
the dense, chapperel-like temptations of a commercial
life; and the very best thing we can do for them, the
thing which they all need, the shrewdest and thriftiest
even more than the dullest, is to aid them in install ing the BIBLE IN TIIEIR COUNTING-IIOUSES.  There
is no talismanic power in this to charm away tempta tion; no "Open Sesame," to disclose subterranean
vaults of bullion which may be had for the asking;
but there is a repository from which they may draw
* light and strength and patience and hope, to fit them
for their duties, and bring them through all changes
with a conscience void of offence towards God and
towards man.
27 
28    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
It may give weight to these suggestions to reflect
on the strong predilection for a mercantile life by
which our countrymen are distinguished.  To no people has so fine a field been presented for the culture
of rural tastes, nor such opportunities for enjoying
the substantial comforts of a country-life: but this is
not to their liking. Agriculture is tame and passionless. Our young men must have more scope for
ambition, more society, and, above all, employments
which will bring in quicker and ampler profits. It
is no objection with them that the hazards of commerce are far greater and its temptations more insidious; that they may drudge like slaves, and have
little or nothing to show for it; that a very large
proportion of the merchants in every city fail, and
they may fail too. They admit all this, but it is
more than counterpoised by the spectacle of huge
fortunes made in a day. The tales of sudden wealth,
which go out from our Atlantic cities, are rehearsed
in the hamlets of the interior with something of the
fascination excited in the olden time by the feats of
crusaders and knights-errant. The brilliant speculations we so often see chronicled in the newspapers,
have, no doubt, decided the question of duty with *
many a youth, who was considering to what occupation he should devote himself. In any event, there
is no village in the land which does not contribute its 
A WORD FOR AGRICULTURE.
recruits to that vast array of clerks and junior partners which constitutes so important a part of the
effective force of commerce. If a foreigner, curious
in such matters, wished to compare the natives of
the different portions of the Republic, down to the
remotest savannas and the most secluded valleys, the
best thing he could do, would be to attend a general
meeting of one of our "Mercantile Library Associations." From every quarter the tide sets with a
steady flow towards the depots of commerce. And
so powerful is this current, that we must make up
our minds, for the present, to see the greater part of
our children drawn into it. Here and there a young
man of metropolitan birth astonishes his friends by
turning farmer.  And it is gratifying to see that
retired merchants are beginning to wake up to the
fact that the globe is not all covered with rows of
houses and stores, and that there are some sources of
rational enjoyment beyond the pavement. This feeling ought to be fostered.  It will promote that attention to husbandry which is already elevating agriculture amongst us from the debasement of a mere
handicraft to the dignity of a science.  It will develop
our resources.  It will embellish the country with
those well-tilled farms and  tasteful homes,  wlhich
make the rural districts of England so delightful to
the traveller.  It will help to correct the earthly. and(
o*
29 
30     THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
sordid tendencies in our national character. It will
give position and stability to our farming population,
and invigorate those virtues on which the prosperity
of States mainly depends, and which have usually
found their most genial home among the cultivators
of the soil.
"Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay:
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade:
A breath can make them, as a breath has made:
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supply'd."
We are not in immediate danger, certainly, from
this source; but it will be of no ultimate advantage
to the country, if our children are trained, whether
by precept or example, to disparage agricultural
pursuits as inferior in respectability, in usefulness,
or in true independence, to a life of traffic. And
every indication of an opposite kind is to be hailed as
a conservative and patriotic movement in the right
direction. - Still, commerce will continue to assert
its claims, and they will be acknowledged. Merchants
may become bankrupt; banks and insurance companies may fail; financial crises may ever and anon
spread disaster and ruin through all the world of
trade; capitalists may remonstrate, and moralists
admonish; but the mass of our young men will flock, 
COMMERCE AND THE PUBLIC MORALS.
as they have done, to the marts of business. And,
dealing with this as a practical question, we are not
merely to inquire into the wisdom and expediency of
their course, but to lend them such help as we may
in meeting the perils and difficulties before them.
These considerations may suffice to show that the
mercantile body have a real and urgent claim upon
the pulpit for all the assistance it can render them -
a claim based upon their numbers, their dangers, and
the essential difficulty of applying the principles of
Christian morals to the endless and abrupt contingencies of a life of traffic. But it must further be
taken into the account, as already hinted, that this
is not a mere class-question, a matter affecting simply
the commercial interest. The whole country has a
deep stake in the character of its merchants. It is
they who regulate in a great measure the current
morality of our cities, and our cities in turn make
their mark upon the nation at large. HIow potent
this must be, may be seen by any one who will reflect
upon the boundless resources of every kind, physical,
financial, and intellectual, which are employed in
mercantile business. Look at the imposing array of
banks, insurance companies, loan offices, and general
agencies, concentrated in every large city; look at
the daily newspaper press; look at the fleets of ships
and steamers at the wharves, the railroads clasping
31 
32    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
distant States together with bands of iron, the telegraphic wires along which the subjugated lightning,
"tamed by one of our countrymen, and taught to
speak by another," flies with its news, outstripping
time itself:    all these are the implements of commerce, and have their share in giving tone and direction to the moral sentiment of the country. To this
must be superadded the entire mercantile transactions
of a nation like ours - the exchanges, the credits,
the buying and selling, the contracts of every type
and grade, involving the daily transfer from hand to
hand of millions of dollars - all wich goes, however
imperceptibly, to fix the general standard of morals.
And this view derives additional force from the
reflection, that the people are identified with the
government. The agency which fashions their morality, decides the moral tone of our legislation.
Comparatively few mercantile men are seen in our
legislative assemblies: they are otherwise employed,
and cheerfully relinquish to others the honour of making and administering the laws. But their influence
is there, and tells, often with a plenary, though noiseless, influence, upon the general course of administration.  The purity of our government could not long
survive the extinction or radical decay of commercial
integrity throughout the Union.
We mav take still another step. The character 
OUR TRUE REPRESENTATIVES.
of our merchants is so far from being a mere question
of caste, that it involves our national reputation for
,1)oblity, all over the globe.  The Imports of the
Uiited States for the last fiscal year amounted to
6207,000,000, and the Exports to $150,000,000; to
which must be added, foreign merchandise re-exported
$17,000,000, and $42,000,000 of specie. This enormous traffic was, of course, in the hands of our
merchants. It carried them, or their deputies, to
every accessible country. It brought them in contact with people of every government and religion,
firom Norway to the Cape of Good IIope, from Turkey, through the Pillars of Hercules, to Cape Horn
and China. Our flag floated from the masts of their
majestic clippers, in the harbours of Sydney and Valparaiso, of iMacao and Monrovia, of Trieste and Tahiti, of Bombay and Archangel. In these, and hundreds of ports besides, they were the chief, not to say
the only, representatives of our great confederation.
By them were we to stand or fall, in the judgment
of these numerous tribes and governments, as an
honourable or a profligate nation. What we might
be as to our political institutions, our schools and our
churches; how opulent we might be in material or in
intellectual wealth; who were our leading statesmen
and jurists, our physicians and divines, our manufacturers and agriculturists; these were points about
33 
THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
which they would give themselves little concern. But
could they rely upon the men they were trafficking
with?  Did their goods answer to the labels?  Were
their bills of exchange genuine?  Were they men of 
substance, trading on an actual capital, or men of
straw, trading on craft and effrontery? These are
the questions that would interest them, and by the
solutions to which they were brought, would the sentiment go forth through their respective communities
and countries, that the nation to which it is your boast
and mine to belong, was a fraternity of sharpers, or
a fraternity of high-minded men. It were idle to
protest against such conclusions.   Sweeping they
may be, and unwarranted by the premises; but to
so lofty a pitch of dignity and power has commerce
attained in the progress of modern civilization, that
every trading nation must count upon being judged
by its merchants. The world is ruled by money.
The real Colossus that presides over Cabinets, and
sways the fleets and armies of the world, is GOLD.
The gravest questions of state in European diplomacy, are not unfrequently determined by private
capitalists. Mlany a Cabinet has been obliged to
postpone favourite measures, until they had been
canvassed in a certain small parlour at Frankfort-onthe-Mlaine, by a firm, the heads of which belong to
a proscribed religion. The spectacle of Kings and
34 
THE TRIUMPH OF TRADE.
their ministers awaiting the nod of a Jewish Banker,
presents us with the finest possible illustration of that
gradual, but mighty, revolution which has taken the
SPIRIT OF TRADE out of the mire, and enthroned it
over crowns and sceptres. The sun and the moon and
the stars of the political firmament, doing, obeisance to
a subject who has neither political place nor power!
Who can wonder, after this, that nations should be
gauged by what they are in the market? That the
inquiry should be, not, "Ilave they a fruitful soil,
populous cities, ample wealth -are they brave and
enterprising, intelligent and efficient, polite and
refined?" but, "Do they pay their debts?  Can you
trust them?  When you sell them a bill of goods,
will you ever see the money for it?"  These are
the probes which are now used by the commercial
nations; implements somewhat coarse, it may be, and
not always handled with the delicate manipulation of
scientific surgery, but likely, after all, to reach the
vital parts, and detect the actual state of things there.
And, whether we relish it or not, we must acknowledge that this ordeal is the natural appendage of a
system which has substituted cotton-mills for cannonfoundries, schoolhouses for barracks, and the autocracy of the purse for the despotism of the sword.
The inference to be drawn from the fact here
stated, is a very obvious one. You have, I believe,
35 
36    THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUINTING-HIOUSE.
as a common medium of trade, what are called
Pattern-cards, by which you buy  and sell large
quantities of goods, without ever seeing the goods
themselves.  Our importers, with their army of mercantile and nautical subalterns, are our Patterncards.  It matters not that they may not bear our
brand, and that, as to some of them, we might
scruple a long while before we could consent to
stamp them. They will be accredited abroad in the
function they have assumed, and we shall be bought
and sold by them, whether the samples happen to
accord with the goods in bulk or not.  We have,
therefore, a broad, national interest in their character.
It behooves us, as we value our good name as a
people, or as we wish to propagate the principles of
republican freedom, to look well to the training and
conduct of our merchants.  If we can maintain a
universal and unsullied reputation for commercial
integrity, it will not only be deemed by the nations
to compensate for our admitted frailties, but go far
to retrieve the prejudices which might be excited
against our institutions by the occasional mal-administration of our public affairs.
Such are some of the grounds which seem to entitle
Commercial topics to a place in the ministrations of
the sanctuary. It would be the height of presumption 
ORIGIN OF TIIESE LECTURES.
in me to undertake a comprehensive and thorough
exposition of the morals of trade.  It is with no
affected humility I say it, I have no capacity for that
task. But having lived now for many years in the
bosom of a mercantile community, I wish to acquit
myself of an obligation to you which has long pressed
upon my conscience.  Without essaying any elaborate discussion of principles, there are various matters lying on the surface of the subject, which it
may serve a useful purpose to consider. I aspire to
nothing beyond hints and suggestions.   On some
points, it may devolve upon me to express opinions
at variance with the received doctrines in the walks
of commerce. But it will be my aim to test every
sentiment and usage by "the law and the testimony."
And I shall esteem myself amply rewarded, if these
Lectures should be at all instrumental in fostering a
healthy moral sentiment in our business circles, or in
assisting you to establish TIIE BIBLE IN YOUR COUNTING-HOUSES.
A single word in conclusion. I have just spoken
of installing the Bible in your Counting-Houses.
There is but one method in which this can be done
effectually. It must first be enthroned in your hearts.
if you do not love its morality, you will not practise
it. And to love its morality, you must first love its
SAVIOUR.  If you trust in Him as your Redeemer,
4
37 
38     TIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HIIOUSE.
you will cheerfully serve Jim as your King.   Loyalty to Christ flows from faith and love, as naturally
as light from the sun.  And all who are united to
HIim, not in the way of a mere formal profession, but
with a true and constant affiance, are certain to have
his own gracious words verified to them, "lIy yoke
is easy, and my burden is light." 
TIIE RULE OF RECTITUDE.
Itf ft      t    +
THE STANDARD OF COIMMIERCIAL RECTITUDE.
PEOPLE who  frequent the Philadelphia  market,
are in the habit of meeting there an important personage, who passes from stall to stall and waggon to
waggon, and with a magisterial air, casts certain of
the products of the dairy into his scales, which, if
they be found wanting,, he confiscates to the public
treasury.  What would be the result, if an official,
clothed with the authority of thie government, and
supernaturally endowed wvith the requisite penetration and firmness, could go through all the haunts of
commerce, equipped with the balances of the sanctuary, the WORD OF GOD, and subject every fabric
and every usage of the trading world to this unerring
test? Is it possible to conceive of any greater revolution in the wide realm of merchandise, than that
which would be involved in adjusting the totality of
its customs and its transactions to this, the only
righteous, standard? What reformations would there
39 
40     TIIE BIBLE IN TIHE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
be in weights and measmures and labels, in service and
in salaries, in the stereotype dialect of trafficking,
ill the endless expedients for entrapping the ignorant
and misleading the unwary, for injuring rival houses,
for depreciating goods in the buying of them and
enhancing them in the selling, for creating a factitious credit and oppressing upright insolvents! What
activity would there be in extricating  trust-funds
from illegal and perilous investments!  What revisions of invoices!  What remodelled instructions to
captains and supercargoes! What retractions of
custom - house  oaths!  What  an  augmentation of
duties!  What commotion at the stock-exchange!
What a gathering up of bank-capital, to restore it to
its legitimate channels
This is not to say that truth and honesty have
been ostracised out of the domain of commerce. It
is not to admit that the Roman mythology assigned
Mfercury his proper place in making him the god of
merchants, orators, and thtieves. This may have been
apposite enough among them; and the merchants of
Rome doubtless had their own reasons for observing
an annual festival in honour of their patron, on
which occasion they offered sacrifices in his temple,
and besought him to forgive whatever artful measures, false oaths, or falsehoods, they had used or
uttered in the pursuit of gain. But the imaginary 
EQUIVOCAL PRACTICES.
scene just sketched, carries with it no impeachment
of the general integrity of the commercial classes:
that, happily, is beyond the reach of suspicion.  It
recognizes, however, the prevalence, more or less
extensive, of practices which are as freely admitted
as they are deeply deplored, by upright and intelligent merchants. These practices are not covertly
hinted at, or talked of ini a whisper. They are
among the common-places of the street and the
Exchange, too notorious to be denied, and too mischievous not to be felt. That they are not met with
a more decisive reprobation, and scourged out of the
arena of honourable traffic, as the buyers and sellers
were driven out of the temple, is to be ascribed, in
some measure, to that lax morality which has so
entrenched itself in the business-world as to hamper
the freedom even of those who abhor it. And this,
in turn, is to be traced to the substitution of false
standards of virtue, for the law of God. This law
has suffered no abatement in consequence of the
coming of Christ. It is as much a rule of duty to us
as it was to the generations that lived before the
advent.  He came, not to destroy, but to fulfil it.
And, in his exposition of it, he has not only ratified
every jot and tittle of the decalogue, but added a
new commandment."   " Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and
4*
41 
42    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
with all thy strength and with all thy mind; and thy
neighbour as thyself." "All things whatsoever ye
would that men should do to you, do ye even to
them: for this is the law and the prophets." This
is the Scripture code. It is no local or temporary
enactment. It extends to all times, all countries, all
classes, all transactions.  It is no chameleon-like
scheme, which takes its hue from the interests with
which it may happen to come in contact. It knows
no variableness, nor shadow of turning. It speaks
the same language in the palace as in the cottage,
on the banks of the Ganges as on the banks of the
Delaware. It is a stranger alike to fear and favour,
to pity and resentment. Creation has not wealth
enough to bribe it.  The most evanescent emotion
that flits across the human breast, is not subtle
enough to elude it.  The threats of power  and
reveng,e, are shivered upon it, like spears upon a
granite rock. The appeals of interest and affection
recoil from it, like the waves which break and die at
the base of Carmel.
Tthis is the august and immutable standard of
morality, which demands the homage of the eager
tribes of commerce, of whatever clime, or tongue, or
occupation.  Impressed with the image and superscription of the only Lord of the conscience, it claims
to be installed in every counting-room, and whereso 
EXPEDIENCY.
ever men may meet for traffic.  And if the claim
were as universally conceded as it is urged, that
auspicious transformation would pass over the wide
domain of Commerce, which was described in the
opening of this Lecture.  But this code is too pure
and too just to suit the masses in any country. And
there is a constant disposition to substitute for it
some other, which will bend to men's passions and
interests.
There are, for example, in every great trading
community, individuals whose only rule of conduct is
Expediency.  Right and wrong are with them mere
professional technicalities. Questions of casuistry are
as regularly ciphered out as the details of a balancesheet.  If a transaction promises to promote their
interest, it is right; if not, it is wrong. If a lie will
answer a better purpose than the truth, it would be
effeminate not to use it.  If they can take the advantage of a customer, without being detected, they
would be faithless to themselves to let the opportunity
slip."} I say, " without being detected:" for it must
not be supposed that this class of persons have cast
off all outward decorum. Far from it. It is one of
the elements which enter into their current calcula.
tions, how far they can go in this or that d.irection
without being exposed, andl whether any proposed
measure can be adopted without a sacrifice of their
43 
44    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
reputation. They are so graphically delineated by
the great Coryphcus of the school to which they
belong, that I am tempted to quote his own words.
In considering the question, "whether Princes ought
to be faithful to their engagements," Machiavelli
observes, "It is not necessary for a Prince to possess
all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is
indispensable that he should appear to have them.
He should earnestly endeavour to gain the reputation
of kindness, clemency, piety, justice, and fidelity to
his engagements. Ile ought to possess all these good
qualities, but still retain such power over himself as
to display their opposites whenever it may be expedient.  He should habituate himself to bend easily
to the various circumstances which may from time to
time surround him. In a word, it will be as useful
to him to persevere in the path of rectitude, while he
feels no inconvenience in doing so, as to know how
to deviate from it when circumstances dictate such a
course. lie should make it a rule, above all things,
never to utter anything which does not breathe of
kindness, justice, good faith, and piety: this last
quality it is most important for him to appear to
possess, as men in general judge more from appearances than from reality."*
* The Prince, chap. xviii. 
MACHIIIAVELLIANISMl.
The cool atrocity of this deliverance may at first
suggest a doubt, whether the system it defines really
has its disciples as well among merchants as politicians. But the distinctive characteristic of the
system, is, policy as opposed to principle. In this
view there are, it is to be feared, as many Machiavellian merchants as politicians.  They are men who,
at heart, sneer at the " precision" and " scrupulosity"
of firms which are controlled by Christian integrity.
They have no conception of a virtue which brings no
cash with it. " Honesty, like every other commodity,
has its market value.'Too much honesty won't
pay.' What reason is there in being so very'upright,' when your neighbours are all outstripping
you? If it is lawful to traffic at all, it must be
proper to resort to such expedients as will insure you
success in  your operations.   The  main  thing at
present is to'make money.'   The  sooner that is
accomplished the better. And then it will do to talk
of'doing to others as you wish others to do to you.'"
- These are the maxims,
-" uttered or unexpressed,"
of the class of men we are speaking of. The only
authority of which they have  any dread,  is the
statute-book.  If they can-keep out of the hands of
the Grand Jury, and carry a fair exterior among
45 
46     THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
men of honourable sentiments, they are satisfied.
And this they are frequently able to do, by means
of proxies. The machinery of commerce and finance
is now so complete, that the mechanism itself is all
that appears: the power that moves it is out of sight.
You may stand behind the curtain, nay, you may
even sit among the audience, and work the ropes and
pullies that control the shifting panorama, without
seeming to have any more agency in the exhibition
than the spectators around you.   This is constantly
done by men of integrity: it promotes despatch, convenience, and efficiency. But of course, it is very
liable to abuse. Unprincipled operators wield it to
good purpose. Many a Shylock sits in his quiet
office, during business-hours, with his hands upon the
lever which is crushing his neigl-hbours' hearts.  They
writhe under the terrific engine, and look one way
and another for help.   But no help comes.   The
fatal hour of three draws on, and another turn of the
thumb-screw tells them what mercy they are to
expect.   "Mercy?"
"You might as well go stand upon the beach,
And bid the main flood bate his usual height;
You might as well use question with the wolf,
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;
You might as well forbid the mountain pines
To wag their high tops, and to make no noise,
When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven; 
A SIIYLOCK.
You might as well do anything most hard,
As seek to soften that, (than which what's harder?)
Ihis mercenary heart."
He has but one passion, one principle, one end,
one god, HIMSELF.   What is it to him that hearts
are crushed; that deserving men have in desperation'
thrown themselves into his machine of torture, and
that with every turn of the wheel, not only they, but
a wife and children, are wrenched and racked.
This is their misfortune, but not his fault. He is no
more to blame for it, than is the fire or the water
which drives the enginery, for the death of the man
Mhio is drawn into the whirling  mass  and killed.
They were seeking their own  advantage.  He is
doing no more.  Their reverses cannot be charged
upon him. The propositions hlie now makes, they are
not bound to accede to; nor can he be required to
forego an opportunity for a profitable bargain. It
is an every-day transaction, too simple and too
common to raise scruples or excite feeling in any
quarter.
If this is a strong case, it is none the less apposite
for ilustrating the true working of the principle of
Expediency, when thoroughly carried out as a rule
of conduct in commercial life. It may be hoped that
the number of individuals who have wedded themselves to it with all this recklessness of moral obliga
4T 
48     TiHE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HOUSE.
tion, is very small: but whether few or many, they
must be regarded, whenever known, as the opprobrium of the mercantile profession.  They prove, at
least, that Commerce has its racks and inquisitors, no
less than the Church.
If an illustration of this topic on a broader scale
be needed, there is one at hand, which has too often
engaged the attention of the Christian world not to
be familiar to you all. I refer not to the slave-trade,
but to a traffic which is second only to that in atrocity,
to wit: the British opium-trade in China. "In putting down the slave-trade," says a very intelligent
English writer, "it was not considered too much to
maintain a naval force on the coast of Africa; and,
to abolish slavery in the British dominions, the sum
of twenty millions was willingly sacrificed; yet slavery was not productive of more misery and death
than the opium  traffic, nor were Britons more implicated in the former than in the latter."*-TThe facts
are in a nutshell. The Chinese are passionately fond
of opium. It is at once the most fascinating and the
most destructive poison they could use, greatly surpassing intoxicating spirits in both these respects.
"In proportion," says Mr. Medhurst, "as the wretched
victim comes under the power of the infatuating drug,
* Medhurst's China. 
TIIE OPIUMI-TRADE.
so is his ability to resist temptation less strong; and,
debilitated in body as well as in mind, he is unable
to earn his usual pittance, and not unfrequently sinks
under the cravings of an appetite which he is unable
to gratify. Thus they may be seen, hanging their
heads by the doors of the opium shops, which the
hard-hlearted keepers, having fleeced them of their
all, will not permit them to enter; and shut out from
their own  dwecllings, either by angry  relatives or
ruthless creditors, they die in the streets, unpitied
and despised."  "Every opium-smoker may calculate
upon shortening his life ten years firom the time when
hlie commences the practice: one-half of his physical
energies are soon gone; one-third of his scanty earning,s are soon absorbed; and, feeling strength and
income both diminishling,, vwhile the demands upon his
resources are increased, he seeks to obtain by duplicity what he cannot earn by labour; and thus his
moral sense becomes blunted and his heart hardened,
while he plunges into the vortex of ruin, dragging
with him his dependent relatives and all within the
sphere of his influence.  Calculating, therefore, the
shortened lives, the frequent diseases, and the actual
starvation, which are the result of opium-smoking in
China, we may venture to assert that this pernicious
drugt annually destroys myriads of individuals." The
Emperors have steadily refused to legalize the traffic.
5
49 
50     TIlE BIBLE IN THIE COUNTING-HOUSE.
Animated by a paternal regard for their subjects
and an enlightened estimate of the true prosperity
of the realm, they have by repeated edicts prohibited
its introduction into the country, under the most
rigorous penalties. Bribery, however, nullifies these
edicts; and the infamous traffic goes on under the
very eyes of the government officials around Canton.
The extcnt to which the nation is becoming debauched
by this poison, may be inferred from the rapid increase in the trade, as appears from the following
statement:
1816.... Chests, 3,210....
1825....        9,621....
1896....   "   27,111....
1850....   "   60,000....
It has now reached, it will be seen, the enormous
sum of $40,000,000 (of which $15,000,000 goes into
the British Exchequer), and this amount is annually
withdrawn from China in solid silver. The opium is
raised in India, where the natives in certain districts
are compelled, under pains and penalties, by their
British rulers, to cultivate the poppy for the sole
benefit of the government. The government sells it
to merchants, at a large profit, who, in turn, ship it
to China.  The most urgent remonstrances have been
from time to time addressed to the East India Com
$3,657,000
7,608,206
17,904,248
40,000,000
Value,
11
11
11 
BRITISHI RAPACITY.
pany, the India Government, and the British Parliament, against the traffic, but without the least avail.
So little sympathy, indeed, have the imperial autliorities with these remonstrances, that they actually
engaged in a war with the Chinese, some years since,
because the latter undertook to enforce their own
ordinances against the opium-trade;  and  several
millions of dollars were wrested from them, at the
cannon's mouth, in payment  for opium  they had
caused to be destroyed.  Here is Christianity on one
side, and Paganism on the other. Paganism is trying to shelter its subjects from one of the worst
curses which can light upon a nation, and Christianity
insists upon  blasting and destroying them,  even
though it cost a war to accomplish its purpose. This
is an edifying spectacle to the unevang,elized worldand happily a unique one. WVith a single exception,
no similar example of rapacity disgraces the history
of modern commerce. That exception was the magnanimous attempt made by the Cabinet of the late
Louis Philippe to force French brandies and Popish
missionaries upon the poor Sandwich Islanders, by
means of powder and ball.  This was not much out
of character for a government which was covertly
swayed by the Jesuits.  But surely something better
might have been expected of a great Protestant
nation, which boasts of its Christianity, and rebukes
51 
52     TIIE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HOUSE.
with so magisterial an air, the real or supposed
delinquencies of other nations.
This case is a pertinent one, in illustration of the
topic we are considering.  The sole principle reco,gnized in this contraband traffic, is expediency. The
question of its moral rectitude, seems not to have
disturbed the complacency either of the merchants
engaged in it, the East India Company, or the British
government.  It is " expedient" that they should get
thirty or forty millions of dollars annually out of the
Chinese, over and above the liberal profits on their
lawful trade; and the right or wrong of the thing is
not to be listened to. If the Chinese were a powerful
nation, it might be "inexpedient" to press this traffic
upon them.  England very well knows what would
follow, if a French fleet should enter the Thames and
demand a free ingress yearly for several millions of
French wines and laces.  But China is very weak,
and England is very strong; and as England wants
the silver, this settles the morality of the question.
The sufferings inflicted upon the wretched natives,
are nothing to the purpose. Poverty, emaciation,
starvation of families, premature and horrible death,
wide-spread misery and ruin-these are no more to
the dealers in the pestiferous poison, than are the
anguish and desperation of the unfortunate debtor
to the relentless creditor, who is resolved upon 
MUTUAL ASSIMILATION.
his "pound of flesh." Their standard is expediency;
and expediency is as much a stranger to sensibility
as to true integrity.  It has no heart, as it has no
conscience. And, whether you encounter it in Cabinets or in individuals, it will facilitate your negotiations with it to remember, that it has but one sense,
recognizes but one standard, aiims at but one end,
and is swayed by one motive - self-interest.- Beware of the morality which has policy, not principle,
for its foundation.
Your great danger, however, lies in another direction. The social element in our nature occasions
more or less of mutual assimilation in every organized
community, from the family to the commonwealth.
No sooner are we brought into intimate fellowship
with other persons than we begin reciprocally to
mould each other's characters. A variety of collateral agencies may contribute to retard or accelerate
this process: where self-interest comes to reinforce
it, it is usually carried forward with energy. The
beneficial results of this principle are numerous and
decisive. Providence employs it in many ways for
the well-being of individuals and the general improveincit of society.  But it has also its adverse results.
And among these must be reckoned, the disposition to
make the community itself the arbiter in questions
of morals. This is not done of deliberate and set
5*
53
-f 
54     THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
purpose.  It is the spontaneous effect of the assimilating element in humianity -the tendency to do
what others do, and to takle it for granted that what
has the general sanction must be allowable. Considering what man is, it would be a marvel, if codes
of morals formed in this way were not radically
defective: for the stream cannot rise higher than its
fountain. In some communities they are, of course,
better than in others.  There is scarcely any class
or association which is without its peculiar code, its
body of unwritten maxims and usages, which, like the
common law, has been handed down from one generation to another, and is clothed with all the authority
of regular statutory enactments. Even among thieves
there is a law of honour.  And Mr. Borrow tells us
of a gipsy mother, who said to her child, "Now that
you have said your prayers, you may go and steal."
The Spartan code made the sin to consist, not in the
stealing, but in the detection. The gipsy-code made
the sin to consist in stealing without prayer. Some
Diogenes might be cynical enough to insinuate, that
there are civilized people who act upon the maxim,
"Say your prayers, and then steal."  Schools have
thieir decalogue.  It is apt to be one which is very
tolerant of idleness and of equivocation.  Straightforward honesty in dealing with a master, is not one
of its provisions. In many schools, if a boy is skilful 
CON\'VENTIO\AL MORALITY.
in deceiving his teacher, he is applauded for his tact
and smartness. If they acknowledged the Biblecode, such a boy would lose caste: as it is, the youth
may lose caste who rigidly conforms to that code.
The flexible morality of politics has passed into a
proverb, which is used to sanctify all sorts of craft
and falsehood. The man who in the midst of an
exciting canvass, should insist upon a literal adherence to the high morality of the Scriptures, in all
the details and with all the agents of the contest,
would be regarded very much as a guest who should
appear at a social entertainment in the costume of
the age of Queen Elizabeth.  "All's fair in politics:"
how preposterous, then, to bring out the antiquated
ethics of Moses, to control the elections of a great
nation in the nineteenth century! The Bar, it is
alleged, has a traditionary code not coincident in all
respects with the Sermon on the MIount, and tolerant
of some customs which an advocate like Paul would
hardly have resorted to, either before the Sanhedrim or
the Areopagus. That this standard should be frowned
upon by the better portion of the Profession, is honourable to them and conducive to the ends of justice.
But there are many things nestling under its shade,
which, if the BIBLE could be brought to bear upon
them, would speed away like a fleet of Malay pirates
on the approach of a steam-frigate.
55 
56    THE BIBLE IN THIE COUNTING-HOUSE.
In asserting that Commerce also has its conventional standards of morality, it is not meant that
there are no merchants who adhere to the true
standard. This would be a gross calumny. But
merchants who bear this character, will be the last
to deny the fact (for they feel the pressure of it in
maintaining their own principles), that the "custom
of trade" goes far in every business-community to
supersede the law of God. Every man who embarks
in business, encounters, at the outset, a most insidclious temptation "to put his conscience in commission."
He finds various practices, more or less current, which,
if tested by "the law and the testimony," must be
condemned.  But they have the sanction of the commercial body; and does it become him, a tyro in
trade, to set himself up as more righteous than his
neighbours, and to censure usages which are interlaced with the whole modern system of merchandize?
This question meets him under the most unpropitious
circumstances. For, in the first place, the party
concerned will, not improbably, have become familiarized with these usages in his previous training. IHis
clerkship brought him into contact with them; and
he will still recall at times the feeling of astonishment
and revulsion excited in his mind when, fresh from
his father's house, with all the iig,enuLousness of a
virtuous youth, his employer first laid some service 
MISGIVINGS SUPPRESSED.
upon him which he felt to be an infraction of the
Divine law.  The mental struggles of his novitiate
may have been painful and protracted; but in the
end, he will be apt to regard these early misgivings
as the promptings of a too scrupulous conscientiousness, and to acquiesce in the customs which awakened
them as, on the whole, indispensable to the prosecution of business. And, then, in the second place, his
stand-point is one of the worst he could occupy for
looking at the question in  all its bearings.  The
demon of self-interest is at his elbow,
"well stor'd with subtle wiles,"
and plying him with such arguments as the Serpent
used when,
"With burnish'd neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant,"
he whispered in the ear of our first mother, " Ye
shall not surely die." It takes a clear-sighted man
to see that his duty lies one way when his interest
seems to point another. And this difficulty is increased with merchants, not only by reason of the
haze which the "custom of trade" has thrown around
such questions, but by the necessity they are often
under of deciding them without time for deliberation.
It is not surprising, therefore, that so many should
57 
58     THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
content themselves with taking business as they find
it, and falling in with the established routine of
traffic, without going to the trouble of investigating
the morality of every practice.
To illustrate the working of the artificial code thus
quietly inaugurated over the realm of commerce,
would be to anticipate topics which may come up in
future Lectures.  But, by way of example, does not
the establis]ted phraseology of the trading classes betray the existence and the potential efficacy of such
a code? That trade should have its peculiar dialect,
is perfectly natural. But how different it is in its
principles from the dialect of social life! There is,
it is true, a language prevalent in fashionable circles,
which may be traced to a similar origin.  It deals
largely in compliments and flatteries, aims to make
you think well of yourself by assuring you of the
esteem your shining virtues have awakened in the
bosoms of others, and abounds in generous promises
and proffers of service. But no one is so simple as
to interpret it literally.  It is well understood that
these fine phrases mean no more than is conveyed by
the expressions of courtesy, in the winding up of a
letter. Asidle, however, from the mere complimentary
intercourse of society, we  are accustomed to take
people at their word. We confide in one anothler's
veracity and candour as a matter of course. For 
TIIE DIALECT OF SHOPPING.
mutual confidence is no less the cement which holds
society together, than the bond of friendship.   But
how is it when you enter the arena of business?
WTill the same dictionary answer, or is it like going
from London into Yorkshire? Does the endless smalltalk of " shlopping" keep within the broad domain of
truth, or has it the equivocal reputation of a bordertenantry, who do not scruple, as occasion serves, to
make forays into the adjacent territory? That there
are in our own city and elsewhere many retail stores
where you may rely upon every word spoken, as safely
as you can upon the conversation in your own parlour, is most certain.   But,  allowing for all just
exceptions, is there not, the world over, a facility
and a latitude of expression indulged in the matter
of buying and selling, which requires every one to be
on his guard against deception?  In some countries
this is carried to a provoking extent. You do not
expect an Italian shopkeeper to tell you the truth.
The received code, in that country, sanctions the
most wholesale lying; and no man forfeits the esteem
of his fellows for using truth or falsehood indifferently,
on Machiavelli's plan, according as the one or the
other will best serve his turn. And there are lands
this side of Italy where a person may spend a day in
shopping, and on sitting dclown to review its incidents
at evening, feel a considerable degree of uncertainty
59 
60     THIE BIBLE IN THIE COUNTING-HiOUSE.
as to whether every fluent and graceful utterance
heard across the counter, was framed with legal precision, and whether every purchase is exactly what
it was taken to be.  If you were simply thrown upon
your own resources, and left to judge of the quality
of goods for yourself, there might, as to many articles,
be little reason to complain on finding that you had
made a poor bargain. But it is the ready endorsemcnt of the goods as reaching a certain standard,
and the concealment of defects which must elude the
sagacity of the purchaser, that impress so disagreeable a character upon this minor trafficking. Let an
example illustrate this, and, with it, the factitious rule
of morals on which we are commenting: -
A gentleman from the country placed his son with
a merchant in our sister-metropolis. A lady came
one day to the store, and having agreedl with the
young man for a silk dress, he was about cutting it
off when he discovered a flaw in the silk.  " Iadamn,"
said he, pointing to the place, "I deem it my duty
to tell you there is a fracture in this silk."  She
declined taking it. His employer, having overheard
what passed, immediately wrote to the young man's
father, to come and take him home, as "he would
never make a merchant."   Hastening to the city, he
called at the store, and begged to be informed of his
son's delinquencies.   "Why  will he not make  a 
TOO HONEST FOR A M{lRCIIANT.
merlchant?"   "Because lie has no tact," was the
reply.  "Only a day or two ago, he told a la(dy
voluntaril#, who was buyiing silk of him, that the
goods were dama,gedl; and I lost the bargain. Purchasers must look out for themselves.  If they cannot
discover flaws, it would be foolish in me to point
them out."   "And is that all his fault?"  "Yes."
"Then," said the father, with a glow of parental
pride, "I love my son better than ever; and I would
not have him another day in your store for the
world."
Now, I shall not stop here to define the limitations
of the principle which requires a man to specify to a
buyer the defects in his goods, nor to enlarge on the
idea that room must be left, in the prosecution of
commerce, for the exercise of skill and sag,acity.
The case just stated is clearly one where the clerk
was right and the principal wrong.  And yet the
merchant himself had been trained to think otherwise.  The "custom of trade" had, with him, supplanted the Scriptures. I-e could set his foot upon
the morality of the Bible without compunction; and,
what is still more to the purpose, without the slightest
prejudice to his mercantile standing. There would
be nothing in this transaction repeated from day to
day, as it is daily repeated in thousands of stores, to
damage him as an honourable and upright man.  lIe
6
61 
62     THE BIBLE IN TIlE COU2NTING-lIOUSE.
has kept within the sweep of that conventional virtue
which presides in the thoroughfares of commerce, and
his integrity is not to be gainsayed. - Have we not
here a proof that there is a mor'ty of trade, which
differs essentially from the morality of the Bible?
'And on what principle, but the "custom of trade,"
can we explain the use of fictitious labels, and, in
general, the habit of selling things for what they are
not? I have no wish to explore the workshops and
laboratories of commerce. I lay claim to no special
familiarity with the mysteries of trade. But if merchants themselves are to be believed, there are inexhaustible quantities of European goods manufactured
in this country. It is deemed no ground of reproach
to a manufacturer to furnish such goods, nor to merchants to deal in them. If a customer prefers French
broadeloths to American, what harm is there in calling
your cloths French, especially if you know them to
be a good article? If he wants wines in the original
casks, why should you hint to him your suspicions
that the casks are more genuine than the liquor?
If he wants some patent drug from Boston, wvhy
should you not supply him with a better article from
nearer home, with all the requisite vouchers and certificates under the proper New England imprint?
You must know better than I do, whether practices
like these are passively acquiesced in by the mercan 
SPURIOUS ETIIICS.
tile  body.   Appearances  warrant  the  conviction
that they are;  that while there are many houses
which have no fellowship with them, the public sentiment of the profession extenuates and shelters them;
and that the numerous respectable firms which give
them their immediate and efficient sanction, do it
without feeling that they are traversing any rule of
morality.   Assumling,  then,  what  may safely  be
assumed in tIlis place- what, indeed, it would be
very ominous not to be able to assume- that all
usages of this description are in contravention of tlhe
law of God, we are furnished with another decisive
proof of the repugnance between this law and the
"custom of trade," another illustration of the lengths
to which commerce has gone in substituting its own
theories of virtue for the only legitimate standard.
There may be those who will deem it a very superfluous and a very puritanical procedure to undertake
to set up the BIBLE as the grand regulator of commerce.  But how is commerce to be exempted from
its jurisdiction?  lvho is emnpowered to say, "WIe
will have the Bible in our houses, our schools, our
churches, our charities, but it shlall not comen into oem
stores.  AVe are quite wilin, to live bv it, and to die
b1y it, and to go to heaven lby it, but as to traffickiing
by it, tlihat is out of the question."   It may well
happen that to subject tlhe entire business-wold(l to
63 
64     TIHE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
this regimen, to replace prescription, usage, expediency, and every spurious rule, with the precepts of
Scripture, would lead to inconveniences and losses.
It milght require some persons to abandon the business they are engaged in, and abridge the profits of
others.  But what alternative is there?  "I had
rather be right," said one of our great statesmen a
few years since, and the remark is quoted oftener
than anything he ever said-  "I had rather  be
RIGHT, than be President." You all applaud the
sentiment. You honour the memory of Ilenry Clay,
because he uttered it. We do but apply it to your
own profession, when we insist upon your enthroning
THIIE BIBLE IN YOUR COUNTING-HOUSES. WVe press
it upon you as the one controlling, unalterable, indispensable, rule of life, that you do RIGHT. It may
demand sacrifices; it may cost you many a trial of
feeling; it may separate you from friends; it may
expose you to reproach.   These are serious evils.
They are to be shuLnned, if they can be, with a good
conscience.  But if you have to choose between them
and a good conscience, you cannot be at a loss
w+here truth and duty lie.  It is not necessary that
you should escape trouble, but it is necessary that
you should do right.
This may seem to imply a doubt as to the profitableness of high-toned( integrity.  It is put in this 
PERSOXNAL ACCOUNTABILITY.
form only to ginve the statement the greater strength.
A host of merchants could be cited to show from their
own books that honesty is, in the long run, the best
policy, and that godliness hath the promise of the
life that now is, as well as of that which is to come.
But waiving this, the question of right must always
take precedence of the question of interest: and the
Bible is, therefore, just as much entitled to be heard
in the Exchange as in the Sanctuary, in the manufactory and the warehouse as in the nursery and the
library.
It may well impress this conviction upon your
minds, and abate any disposition you may have felt
to make expediency or the custom of trade your rule
of conduct, to reflect that neither these nor any other
earth-born codes will be recognised in the final judgment.  It may serve the purpose of men  to mix
themselves up in the crowd here, and to merge their
individuality in professions and corporations. But
there will be no professions and corporations at the
bar of Christ.  These  alliances will be dissolved.
The parties that constitute them will be arraigned
singly and individually. The criminality of those
numerous transactions which even "men of character"
so frequently sanction in their corporate or collective
capacity, while as private persons they would scorn
them, will then be traced to its souices, and charged
6*
65 
66     TIIE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
upon their active originators and their passive abettors, according to a just rule.  No one before that
tribunal will be so foolish as to imagine that he can
transfer his own responsibility to his neighbours, or
vindicate his delinquencies by pleading general connivance and example. To his own Master, he must
stand or fall. And the LAW OF GOD is the inflexible
rule by which he must be judged.
The sooner, therefore, we get rid of all hallucination on this subject, and admit into our hearts the
full, strong, abiding sense of our personal accountability, the better for our business and the better for
our souls. Because the world is full of people who
are selling their souls for a mess of pottage, that is
no reason why we should do it. They are no law to
us, as they certainly will be able to extend us no
relief, if we find ourselves ruined by following their
example.   The chart prescribed to us is not, it is
true, a scheme of salvation, in the sense of making
our own obedience the meritorious ground of our
acceptance with God. That way to heaven was for
ever barred up when our first parents were driven
out of Paradise. If saved at all, we must be saved
through the atonement of Christ. But an upright
and useful life, a life conformed in its aims and
motives and habitual endeavours, to the Divine law,
is no less indispensable, as a part of our personal 
A PERFECT CODE.
meetness for heaven, than is genuine faiith as the
bond of our union with the Redecemer.  God Las
joined faith and works together, and we put them
asunder at our peril. Nor will any other scheme of
morals besides this, meet the exigencies of the cornmercial body. Whatever name they may bear, all
other codes are radically deficient in precision, in
comprehension, and in authority.   They have no
solid basis, no uniformity, no adequate sanctions.
They tolerate in one place what they prohibit in
another. What they concede to-day they withdraw
to-morrow.   By  sending  every  man  to his own
interest, or to the custom of his neighbours, for his
rule of conduct, they sap the foundations of integrity,
and make the morals of commerce as variable and
capricious as the waves which float its ships.
In majestic contrast with these fluctuating and
arbitrary codes, the morality of the Bible asserts its
sovereignty, and challenges the homage of the world.
Emanating from the throne of the Deity, and radiant
with supernal splendours, it demands the obedience
of every human being, in every act and moment of
his life. It waits upon us with the first dawn of
moral agency, and cleaves to the disembodied spirit
as it wings its way up to the throne of God and
onward into the unknown depths of eternity. Endowed with the ubiquity of its Author, if we ascend
67 
68     TIIE BIBLE IN THiE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
up into heaven, it is there; if we make our bed in
hell, behold it is there; if we take the wings of the
morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there will it lay its immutable behests upon us,
and sit in judgment on our most unguarded actions
and our most subtle thoughts. There is no spot in
the universe, where we can elude its jurisdiction: no
finite arm, which can shelter from its anathema the
man who fails in the least jot or tittle of its requirements.  But there is a spot where we can learn to
love this sublime and holy law, even while it condemns
us; and a Power which can absolve us from its curse
and enfiranchise us with its rewards, without abetting
disloyalty or encouraging ingratitude.  That spot is
Calvary. That Power is the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who "so loved the world that he
gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
The blood of the cross is the only safe-guard against
the penalty of the law. And it is the mysterious
property of that blood, when sprinkled upon the
heart, not only to avert from it the descending bolt
of Divine justice, but to inspire it with the same
affectionate veneration for the holiness, which it has
for the mercy, of God.  This truth, whichll we are
all so slow to understand, it is the gracious office of
the SPIRIT to impress upon the conscience.  Under 
NEED  OF TIIE IIOLY SPIRIT.
His administration, we gratefully receive the Gospel
as our ground of hope, and the law as our rule of
duty. Let it be your care to invoke, with earnestness
and importunity, that help which lie alone can affor(d
you. Transformed by Him into the Divine image,
you will view even your secular employments in their
higher relations, and endeavour to conduct them on
Christian principles. It will be no irksome task to
set up the Bible in your Counting-Houses, when the
God of the Bible is once admitted to his rightful
place in your hearts.
4
69 
70     TIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
THE TRUE MERCANTILE CHARACTER.
As I was about writing the closing paragraphs of
my last Lecture, I received a letter from a gentleman
of the highest social and commercial standing in one
of our principal cities, which contained the following
paragraph: -
"It gives me pain to inform you that our friend, Mr. -,
is in a very critical state of health: he is confined to his
house, and forbidden even to see his intimate friends. No
man could be taken from this community, whose loss would
be more severely felt: for everywhere his influence has been
exerted for good. Such a liberal outlay of money, combined
with unwearied personal exertions, in the cause of benevolence, we have never seen here- the whole directed by intelligence and sound judgment. In the mercantile community,
he stands without a peer, while he is the delight of the social
circle, in which, however, he mingles with great moderation.
Added to all, he is a conscientious Christian. lie observed
to a friend of ours, a few days since, that he regarded his
present illness as a blessing that had been sent to snatch him
izrtturt  TI)it~. 
A MODEL MERCIIANT.
from the whirlwind of a life he was leading, and afford him
the opportunity of paying some attention to his more important interests."
Sad as this intelligence was, I felt that there was
a providence in its reaching me at the moment when
I was casting about for some method of bringing
before you a suitable exemplar of the TRUE MERCANTILE CHARACTEPR. The gentleman referred to in this
extract, is at the head of a house which is known
in every leading port of the globe.  No wind can
blow which will not waft one of their ships homeward.
Their counting-rooms have more the aspect of a great
banking establishment than a mercantile house.  The
admclinistrative capacity requisite to conduct their
affairs, would be more than sufficient to endow the
entire cabinet of many a European principality.
But the business is in the hands of one who is quite
equal to the position. Possessing a ready and sagacious mind, stored with ample professional knowledge
and embellished with general reading, energetic, prudent, systematic, conscious of his own resources, and
thoroughly conversant wit,h every department of their
operations, his whole character reposes on a basis of
inflexible integrity, is pervaded with a spirit of
enlightened piety, and garnished with a serene and
cheerful temper, which sparkles like a fountain in the
sunshine. Enter his private office when you may, be
71 
72    THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IiOUSE.
it "Steamer-day, "  Packet-day," or any other " day,"
be it when hlie is surrounded by the captains and supercargoes of their fleet, or absorbed with negotiations
inv-olving a half-million of money, you are certain to
be met with a manly smile.  Despatchl, you will find,
and promptitude: but no flurry, no imperiousness,
no gruffness.  Refinement and courtesy preside there
as visibly as in his private mansion. And if your
errand be one of philanthropy, you are quite as sure
of a cordial greeting as though you called to charter
a ship for Canton or to buy a thousand bales of cotton. Indeed, it is one of the singular excellencies of
this accomplished merchant, that while conducting an
extended commerce with every part of the globe, he
is known as one of the most efficient managers in
various charitable institutions, and devotes a large
amount of time to personal exertions for the relief of
the suffering poor.
Rlaving hung up this portrait, crudely sketched as
it is, where we can all see it, we are prepared to say
that the true mercantile character comprises, as one
of its essential elements, a'comprehensive and liberal
conception of the dignity and utility of commercial
pursuits.
Boswvell relates that he one day asked Dr. Johnson,
"What is the reason that we are angry at a trader's
having opulence?"   "Why, sir," he replied, "the 
DR. JOlINSONX.
reason is (thou,gh I don't undertake to prove that
there is a reason), we see no qualities in trade that
should entitle a man to superiority.   We are not
angry at a soldier's getting riches, because we see
that he possesses qualities whichl we have not.  If,t
man returns from a battle, having lost one hand, and
with the other full of gold, we feel that hlie deserves
the gold; but we cannot think that a fellow by sitting,
all day at a desk, is entitled to get above us."
Boswvell. " But, sir, may we not suppose a merchant
to be a man of an enlarged mind, such as Addison
in the Spectator describes Sir Andrewv Freeport to
have been?"  JoItlsont.  "Why,  sir, we may suppose any fictitious character. We may suppose at
philosophical day-labourer, who is happy in reflecting
that by his labour he contributes to the fertility of the
earth, and to the support of his fellow-creatures; but
we find no such philosophical day-labourer.  A  merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind;
but there is nothing in trade connected with an
enlarged mind."
This is a very characteristic growl; but even Johnson would hardly have emitted it, had he lived a half
century later.  Commerce has fought its way (if this
phrase may be used of a pursuit which is proverbially
the patron of peace) to a position in which it can
afford to treat cynical sneers, from whatever quarter,
7
73 
TIlE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HOUSE.
with contempt.   And yet, with all the opulence and
power it has attained, there is still but too much
occasion given for strictures like those we have quoted.
Croswded to repletion as the mercantile profession is
ill this and some other countries, it is not surprising
that there should be found in its ranks a large cornmixture of the precious and the vile. No inconsiderable portion of the traffickers of our land have gone
into business, without the slightest preparation. The
lli   rel.)iutaltion of the merchants of Great Britain
throughout the globe, is to be ascribed in a great
measure to the thorough training involved in their
novitiate.  The long and rigorous apprenticeship to
which they are subjected corrects their extravagances,
disciplines their powers, and forms them to habits of
caution and to principles of integrity, before they
have a counting-room of their own.   And then, the
whole spirit of their institutions, not to say the very
genius of the nation, coalescing with this system of
tutelage, goes to foster the various practical virtues
for which the commercial  body in England is so
honourably dListilt,guished.
This wise and salutary process is as much in conflict withl the genius of our people, as it is in harmony
with that of our respected relatives across the water.
ANWhile the substance of it is retained by our leading
comulerclal houses, it is quite too tedious to suit the
74 
ADVENTURERS.
temper of the trading classes generally.  They cannot brook its restraints.  Preparation for business, is
not vlwhat our young men want: they must have business itself.  WhVly waste their time in learning in the
abstract, what they could so mluch sooner and better
learn from actual practice?  While they are getting,
ready to do something, they might be making a fortune.   Plodding and moiling may  do  " in an old
country:" the only motto whichl befits an American,
is, " Go ahead!"
Such is the feeling which hurries multitudes into
the various branches of trade, or starts them on bold
and hazardous speculations. To say that their theory
of mercantile life is a very erroneous one, would be
doing them too much honour. You might as well
talk of the geological theory of the China-man who
is flourishing his pick in a California ravine.   The
only "theory" they have, is, that they want a fortune, and that " nerc7tandizing" is the way to get it.
What they mean by "merchandizing" is not particulitrly clear to their own minds; but they have a vague
notion that the whole scheme of trade is a sort of
scramble, where every man is to clutch all hlie can,
regardless of the rights and interests of other people.
Taking their departure from this point, one of two
results is apt to follow:  they are either "lucky"
enough (Luck and Mammon are the only gods in
75 
7(l   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HIIOUSE.
their mythology) to capture some  richi  prizes, or,
missing their reckoning, they run upon the rocks and
fotunder-if, indeed, that can be called " foundering,"
which admits of a speedy refitting, and a fresh start,
as often as the disaster occurs.
It would be a mistake, however, to attribute this
view of mercantile pursuits to those only who embark
in trade without any experience. It unhappily enters
into the creed of too many persons who have served
at least a partial apprenticeship, and acquired considerable tact in the management of business.   Proceeding on the maxim that "each man must take
care of himself," they see nothing, and  care for
nothling(r, beyond their own immediate interest. They
want customers:  why should they not decoy into
their warehouse, men who have for years been dealing with their neighbours?  Their neighbours can
do the same, if they choose, with other people's customers.  They have goods to sell: why should they
expose their defects to buyers, when every buyer is
presumed to be ab)le to juLdg,e for himnself?   They
have goods to purchase: whly should they not avail
themselves of the known or suspected embarrassments
of the seller, to force him to part with his comnod(ities below the market price?  They have a bill of
merehanclize to pay: why should they use good money
lwheni they can, with a little legerdemain, induce their 
SORDID VIEWS.
correspondent to take "country paper" or depreciated bank-notes?  They require a book-keeper, and
one offers whose qualifications are of the highest
grade; but his family are in distress, and they knowv
he will sooner take a meagre compensation than miss
the place: why should they tender him the usual
salary? - These hints will suffice to identify the class
of dealers I have in view, and who are cited here for
a single object. I would have you note the low,
sordid, pitiful conception which these men must have
of a mercantile life. They may, if you will, be rich
men, successful men, men who have a potential influence in bank-parlours, and who are treated with great
outward respect on'Change. But if your profession
were made up of such men, it would concentrate
within itself more meanness than could now be sifted
out of all the other trades and callings put together.
Commerce, as it lies before the mind of a true
merchant - like him described in the opening of this
Lecture, and like others we could all name, if required- has no affinity with these base principles.
They see in it a system of interchanges founded on
the organic structure of the globe, and mercifully
designed by the Author of our being, to subserve the
most salutary ends in our physical and moral training.   Not, indeed, that they discard the ideas of
profit and accumulation, or disparage prudence and
7*
77 
THIE BIBLE IN THIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
energy in the buying and selling of goods, and in
every other department of business; or deem it amiable and exemplary to let themselves be imposed upon
by unprincipled rivals or adventurers.   There are
very few such transcendentalists  in the walks of
traffic. But they are men who believe in the homely
maxim,'LIVrE, AND LET LIVE."  Instead of grasping at every thing within their reach, on the mercenary principle that " to the victor belong the spoils
of the vanquished," they would not that there should
be any "vanquished," but that all should receive a
fair remuneration for their skill, their risks, their
enterprise, or whatever they may have brought into
the teeming arena of traffic. They welcome the propitious venture which fills their own lap with ingots;
but they also rejoice in the prosperity which reaches
their neighbours, and spreads over the whole community the ensigns of thrift and happiness. Aiming,
as they are, to make a fortune, they are far from dwarfing a commercial life into this as its only or its highest
function.  They see it also in its nobler aspects, as
looking to the well-being of individuals, the improvement of States, and the diffusion of Christianity. It
supplies, in their view, one of the best of all schools
for the culture of integrity, canldour, moderation,
decision, generosity, and other elevated qualities.
These qualities are not the growth of a day. Luther
78 
THE MORAL DISCIPLINE OF TRADE.
specified temptation as one of the three things requisite to make a minister. It is equally indispensable
to make a merchant; and a business-life involves a
perpetual trial of one's principles. It furnishes incessant openings for the suggestions of avarice, falsehood, extortion, and jealousy.   It daily invites to
indolence or to rashness. And no man can, year
after year, repel the Protean-like enticements to
wrong-doing, which lurk along the avenues of trade
and make their way into every counting-room and
insinuate themselves into every business-transaction,
without becoming both a wiser and a better man.
IHis virtue will grow apace. IHis probity will strike
its roots deeper and deeper into the foundations of
his character. And he will be garnering up strength
to resist future assaults of a similar kind.
The very errors and reverses of commerce conduce
to the same end. One of the proper fruits of indiscretion and disaster, is, to make men prudent. A
little experience of the fluctuations of mercantile
affairs, may teach an impetuous temper the value of
that wholesome maxim, " Hasten slowly." A careful
observation of the causes which have produced the
downfall of others, may prompt  to a cautious and
moderate policy. The disappointments to which even
the most sagacious are liable, are adapted to impress
the mind with a becoming sense of God's universal
79 
80     TIIE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
Providence and our absolute dependence upon Ihim
for success in every undertaking. In fine, even the
ordinary events of a commercial life are fraught with
moral lessons, no less instructive than those our
Saviour has taught us to gather from the fowls of the
air and the lilies of the field.
Looking at the subject in another of its aspects,
whatever promotes the physical or the moral wellbeing of individuals, is a substantial benefit to
society: so that the salutary discipline just described,
to which so many characters are constantly subjected,
is enlarging the moral wealth of a country, as really
as the processes of trade are contributing to its material resources. If commerce multiplies our wants,
it augments both our capacity and our opportunity
for useful labour.  It encourages industry, stimulates
skill, rewards  enterprise, diffuses knowledge,  and
developes those capabilities of exertion which slumber
in the bosom of every community.
There is a still higher view than this- that which
affiliates a commercial life with the welfare of Christianity. This connection may be seen in that process
of self-discipline, already adverted to, which is going
forward in the shop of many an humble tradesman.
In the tedious toil with which he enlarges his scanty
stock of goods, in the vigilance with which he watches
for opportunities of traffic, in the firmness with which 
COMMIIERCE AI) CIIPISTIANITY.
hlie repels the suggestions of fraud and covetousness,
in the patience with which hlie submits to his privations, in the alternate hopes and fears, the mingled
cheerfulness and anxiety, which fill up his days and
too often his watchlful nights, there is a gradual
mnaturing of his character in integrity, self-command,
contentment, and trust in Providence.   And when
we consider upon what masses of population, distributed among the various grades of mercantile life,
this training is brought to bear, it can excite no surprise that we find numerous examples of a perennial
and robust Christianity along the thoroughfares of
trade.
On a broader scale, commerce proves itself the
friend and ally of true religion, by supplying means
and opening channels for its diffusion.  To this result,
indeed, it unconsciously contributes, even while conteinplating only pecuniary gains.   This was  once
beautifully expressed by a late illustrious advocate
and statesman, who was justly esteemed as one of
the chief ornaments of our city, and whose death has
been felt as a national bereavement:* -"The ship
whichl, in quest of profitable traffic, seeks out the
a,bode of barbarian ignorance, covered with the thick
darkness of inhuman superstition, is like the first rajy
* The lion. John Sergeant.
81 
82     THIE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IlOUSE.
of the norning upon creation.  Feeble it may be,
and insufficient of itself, but it is the earnest of
approaching day, growving and growing, until at
length the message of piety is borne by the winds in
the same ship upon the unfurrowed bosom of the
ocean, and the Missionary of the Gospel comes to
plant the Tree of Life in the wilderness, humbly
trusting to his Almighty Master to give the increase."
In this way, it may be added, Commerce has conveyed
the Book of Life to many a pagan land, the harbinger
of peace and freedom to the benighted nations, the
emblem of approaching amity among all the tribes
of earth.
These are topics which can only be glanced at here.
They open to the eye a very inviting field, but we
cannot enter it. The end I have in view is simply
to illustrate by these hints, the elevated and generous
conception of a commercial life, entertained by a true
merchant, as distinguished from the narrow and
debasing notions of the mere adventurer.   It is satisfactory to know that in all our great centres of business, there are influential men who have formed this
liberal estimate of their profession, and who habitually
contemplate it in its powerful and beneficent bearings
upon the best interests of individuals, and the improvement of nations in intelligence, virtue,  and
rational happiness.  It will commonly be found that 
TIlE THREE MERCANTILE VIRTUES.
merchants of this stamp, are no strangers to the
BIPLE.  It is from the study of the sacred records,
that they have come to regard business, not as a
mere matter of personal subsistence or of political
economy, but as an essential paYt of that great scheme
of Providence by which men are to be trained to the
practice of virtue, and the remotest nations drawn to
each other in the bonds of a common brotherhood.
With these views of a commercial life, there are
associated certain virtues which may be regarded as
indispensable to the true mercantile character.   On
this point, an eminent authority* has said: "Analyze the true qualities of a man of business, and you
will find them reduce themselves to fairness, vigilance,
and steadiness: fairness, exemplified in declaring his
terms at once, and in never deviating from an engagement; vigilance, in superintending his assistants, his
clerks, and his workmen; and steadiness, in following
up his proper line, year after year, without turning
to the right or left in pursuit of mere speculative
advantages.  These, plain as they are, form the true
virtues of mercantile life: the man who is known to
possess them will be at no loss for connections, and
may safely leave to others the task of seeking a
reputation for hospitality by their mode of living, of
* The Encyc. Brit.
83 
84     TIHE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
activity by the frequency of their solicitations, or of
liberality by an unusual prolongation of credit."
No one could be disposed to abridge this catalogue
of the radical mercantile virtues: many would enlarge
it.  But all parties would unite in assigniing the first
place to what this writer terms "fairness," meaning,
no doubt, INTEGRITY. It is proper here to be more
specific.  There are higher and lower grades of this
as of the other virtues.   The integrity which belongs
to the best type of mercantile character, is evangelical
integrity; that which is based upon an intelligent and
hearty reception of Scripture truth, nurtured by Divine influences, and swayed by motives drawn from
revealed religion.  I utter not one word in disparagement of the honesty which is so often found apart
from personal godliness. It is well for the world
that men are honest from intercst, from habit, from
general custom, from a sense of future accountability,
from what is called "goodness of heart," and from
various other motives.  But it will not be denied that
the integrity which springs from religious principle,
is in all respects a nobler and a more reliable virtue,
and that this constitutes, in fact, the only adequate
panoply for a man who means to expose himself to
the perils and hazards of a commercial life.
The integrity of a merchant, to be of any avail,
must have some well-known, immutable, and readily 
DOIN\G RIGIIT.
accessible standard.  Christian integrity has such a
standard, clear, precise, authoritative, and always at
hand-the WAORD OF GOD.   his integrity must be,
not a matter of calculation, of constraint, of appearances, but a matter of principle and of disposition.
ie must be resolved to do right; and he must find
his happiness in doing, right.  Ile must do right as
well in the smallest matters as in the greatest.  Ile
must do right where there is a moral certainty that
by some slight deviation from the line of rectitude,
he could add to his immediate gains without the least
hazard of detection. He must do right when pressed
on every side by an eager competition, and when a
refusal to conform to the equivocal expedients which
his neighIbours employ to increase their business,
promises to involve him in losses. lIe must do right
in those junctures when he is tempted by an inviting
combination of circumstances, to embark in schemes
which neither the amount of his capital nor his existing financial obligations would warrant him to meddle
with. le must do right in those fearful crises when
the omens of ruin are gathering thick and fast around
him, and his breast is haunted day and night with the
horrible spectre of bankruptcy.'his is the integrity
you need.  And if there be any virtue which is equal
to these requisitions, it can be no earth-born endowment.  It would be going, quite too far to say that
8
85 
THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
even men of undoubted Christian integrity never fail
in these scenes of peril.  They have often fallen;
and truth and righteousness have fallen with them.
But Christian integrity is, under God, the best possible protection you can have against these insidious
and serried dangers. No other equipment could do
so much to shield you. If you are without it, you
cannot escape the moral contamination so incident to
a business-life. You certainly will not attain to the
dignity and purity of the true mercantile character.
We must go further still. There is a style of
excellence in the world of commerce, beyond that we
have described.   The merchant referred to in the
opening of this Lecture, is a man of scrupulous
integrity; but if this were all, he would not fill the
place he does now in the affectionate regards of that
community. I have known men- you must have
known men-whose rectitude was without a stain;
men rigidly punctual and exact in all their transactions; whom you would not have hesitated to entrust
with all your property or to name as your executors:
and yet men in whom there was a something wanting
to awaken in the breast emotions of reverence and
affection. The truth is, a man may do right, and
yet come far short of his duty. We are not satisfied,
and the Bible is not satisfied, with a man's "doing
justly,"  Ile may "do justly," according to the letter
86 
LOVING MERCY.
of the law, and yet do some very unamiable things.
Ile may abstain from the slightest invasion of the
rights of others, and "render to all their dues," and
still leave undone many offices of kindness which it
was in his power, and he should have felt it to be his
pleasure, to do. The true merchant will not only
"do justly," but "love mercy."   The realm he lives
in is one where Mercy has the amplest opportunities
to exert her mild prerogative.  Such are its uncertainties, its fluctuations, its hidden dangers, its frequent disasters, that its busy tenantry are all liable
to need, and should therefore all be ready to perform,
offices of sympathy and kindness.  It will not answer
for one of them to go to his fellows indiscriminately,
and take them by the throat and say, " Pay me what
thou owest!"  There may be those among them who
richly deserve this treatment. But for the mass, he
must remember who has said, " le shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy." I-e
must consider - and if he is what a merchant should
be, he will consider-that he may perpetrate grievous
wrongs in the name of law and justice. lIe will
never strike until he has heard.  lie will reflect, that
the being who stands before him, deprecating his
severity, is not simply his debtor, but his fellowcreature, his brother; that his inability to meet his
engagements may be the effect of unavoidable mis
87 
88     THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HIIOUSE.
fortunes; and that even if they are attributable to
rashness or inmprovidence, it does not become him to
visit these infirmities with a too rigorous retribution
- "considering himself, lest hlie also be tempted."Nor is it in this way only that his kindness of heart
will show itself. A merely just man may isolate
himself from the community around him. I-e is
among them, but he is not of them.  lie buys and
sells with them, pays them their dues and requires
them to pay his; and this is all. IIe is not an
excrescence.  He is not an ineumbrance.  his capital
is an advantage to the common traffic.  Ihis example
is useful in so far forth as he is an upright man.
But he is bound to the community by no ties of sympathy.  Hle takes no interest in anything outside of
his own warehouse.  He is not the man, if he hears
of a worthy neighbour who has been overtaken by
some sudden emergency, to go to him and say, " Itere
are funds: take them until you fhave weathered this
cape!"  IIe is not the man to turn business hle does
not want or cannot do, into the hands of a young,
firm  across the way, who, commercially speaking
might be gladcl to get the crumbs firom his table.
If men want counsel, his couinting-rooim is not the
one whelre they will instincti.vely go to seek it.  Every
one confides in his fairness, and respects hmn for his
skill and capacity; but tihe general feeling( about him 
MEN IN MAIL.
will be, that le is a coldI man; that w-ithout being(r a
mnaiser, he is still a selfish man, vwho has no generous
impulses; and that to ask a favour of him is too dis agreeable a service to be undertaken, except under a
strin,gent necessity.- This is not a type of character
peculiar to mercantile life. iMen of this description
are to be found in the learned professions and among
civilians.  Great men they may be, erudite scholars,
eloquent, judicious, influential, and quite accessible
where they are consulted offieially; but in their ordinary bearing, wrapped in a cloak of dignified selfishness, which makes you feel that their proper place
would be in the Armory of the Tower of London, or
with some other collection of nmailed heroes of the
Miliddle Ages.
The true merchant is cast in a very different mould.
Ihis bosom is the home no less of genuine sensibility
than of inflexible justice.  I-e understands that his
relations to his fellow-men  are not all summed up in
butying and selling with them.   IIe remembers that
life has other and higher ends than the mere exchanges
of commerce and the profits which accrue firom them.
ie esteems it as his privilege to do good according
as God may have givenl him thle ability.  Ile will be
oundl among the supporters of those noble religious
institutions which constitute the brightest ornaments
8*
89 
90     TIiLE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTl1NG-IIOUSE.
of our age, an(l are doing more for the ameliorationI
of the race than all other agencies combined.  But
his benevolence will not begin and exit in the sanetualy.  It will be his pleasure to help forward every
prudent scheme, lwhich promises to contribute to the
general welfare.  Ile will be ready to assist with his
advice, and as far as circumstances may warrant it,
with his means, firmnns of tried character whlich need
suecour.  IIe will have his eye upon young men of
real merit, and at the proper time put them in the
way of doing something for themselves.  If a vacancy
is about to occur in a bank or an insurance office, lie
will have some unfortunate, but deserving and competent, man to nominate for the place.  If he sees
the affairs of some remote firm going to ruin through
the dissipation or dishonesty of their agent in his own
city, he will in a delicate way cause a hint of it to
be given them.  If a widowed mother invokes his aid
in behalf of her sons, he will do what he can to obtain
situations for them. In a word, a merchant of this
sort will make it the guiding principle of his life, to
end(learour to do unto others as he would have others
(lo to him; he will cultivate no less in his business,
than in his social intercourse and his religious duties,
the spirit of Christian candour and Christian kindness; and the whole texture of his life will go to
illustrate the benefits which would accrue to Com 
VIGILANCE.
merce, if the BIBLE could once be fairly established
in all her COU-NTING-IIOUSES.
Let it not be inferred from these remarklls that the
merchant who draws his ethics from the Scril)tul'es,
and carries the benevolent spirit of Christianity into
his business, must expose himself to imposition, or,
in any event, will be likely to forego frequent advantag,es of which he might fairly avail himself in prosecuting his plans.  There is nothing in the Bible to
discountenance that "vigilance" which the writer we
have quoted, specifies as one of the essential mercantile virtues.  Its whole tenor, on the contrary, goes
to make men earnest, watchful, and sagacious, in their
secular callings. It were, indeed, an ill omen for Christianity, if a faithful adherence to its precepts should
reduce men to a state of amiable imbecility, and make
them, according to the Italian proverb, "so good that
they would be good for nothing." Religious principle
is of somewhat sterner stuff than this. A Christian
merchant is even under special obligation not to be
remiss in any appropriate means for promoting his
business. Ile will shrink from no honourable coinpetition. He will put forth all his powers in deciding
how he may best apply his resources. He will be as
resolute as his neighbours in getting up new fabrics,
in cheapening the cost of production, in seeli:g out
fresh markets, in calculating the contingencies wihich
91 
92     TIHE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
may affect prices at future periods or in distant ports,
and turning these to some useful account, in guarding
against accidents and losses, in meeting the convenience of his customers, and, generally, in devising
measures which, without involving unwarrantable risks,
may enlarge his business and his profits. HIe will
resist to the utmost, the schemes and tricks of unprincipled traders, who may essay to make capital out of
his good nature. Ile will show himself as resolute
in bringing knaves and sharpers to justice, as he is
lenient to those whose only crime consists in their
having been unfortunate. Nor will his moral courage
exhaust itself in meting out a righteous retribution to
piratical adventurers from the interior. If there are
firms in his own line of business, however wealthy
and prosperous, which set at defiance the common
maxims of integrity and the established courtesies of
commerce, which circulate slanders against their neighhours, inveigle away their customers, and do other
things which no honourable merchant would do, he
will, on all fitting occasions, manifest his abhorrence
of their conduct.   Ie will unite with his brethren in
suspendillng all professional intercourse with such firms,
and treating them as marauders, who have no legitimate place within the domain of commerce.   It is
the opprobrium  of the mercantile  class that there
should be men of this description among them.  If 
FRAUDULENT ESTABLISIIMENTS.
new men rise up along the street, who simply excel
them in enterprise and skill, who beat them in energy
and tact, and through these means outstrip them  in
business, they cannot complain. But there can Le
few things more trying to a mercantile body than to
have an establishment planted among them which
thrives at their expense, on principles that ought
never to be found outside of a Penitentiary. The
craft with which these concerns are managed, is a
great aggcravation of the evil.  Like  other freebooters, they sail under false colours.  They bear
all the outward emblems of respectability and integrity. HIere is the warehouse, stocked from basement
to attic with seasonable goods. The principals and
clerks are as bland and polite as possible. There are
porters and draymen and packers and piles of boxes
and the usual paraphernalia of a driving business.
But the honeyed words which are spoken there in the
ears of the country merchant, who has just been
enticed from the firm he has always traded with, are
words of falsehood. The sly insinuations he hears
about "other houses" are calumnies.  The alleged
superior facilities for making purchases, enjoyed by
his new friends, are a sheer fabrication.   The extrermely liberal terms on which they are willing to
sell to "a gentleman of his standing," are a decoy
for the time being, or, if anything more, will be found
93 
TIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
no more liberal than hie could obtain elsewhere. And
the voluble commenidations lavished upon the goods,
are reliable just so far as his own experience and tact
will enable him to verify them, and no further.   For
the whzole establi-shltent is a deeep)tion and a lie.
There is no moral principle there, except that shallow, thriftless, counterfeit integrity, which is based
on policy.  From  the cellar to the dome, truth and
falsehood are used indifferently. The very invoices
and labels are taught to lie. Where it will serve a
purpose, a neighbouring firm is largely complimented;
and where it will serve a purpose, the same firm is
prodigally abused. Character has no intrinsic value
there. Virtue is nothing. HIonour is nothing. The
esteem of the community is nothing. Religion, as a
system of practical godliness, is less than nothing.
]MONEY is everything.  The one paramount aim of
the concern, its only code, its only care, is, to make
money. And if in prosecuting this object, it seem
expedient to repudiate the recognized  comities of
trade, and to make open or secret war upon other
houses, why the end will justify the means- for
money must be made at all hazards!
Now it is not only compatible with religious duty,
but every merchant of true Christian integrity is
bomund to unite with his neighbours in treating establishments of this sort as beyond the pale of honour
94 
RIGIITEOUS SEVERITY.
able traffic. This is precisely a case for the application of the apostolic injunction, "H I-ave no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them: for it is a shame even to speak of
those things which are done of them in secret."
And this is important, as on other and lower grounds,
so because it ought to be seen in the realm of trade,
what the genius of Christianity is.  It should be seen
that the Bible, though the friend of meekness, is not
the patron of pusillanimity; that in fostering benevolence, it no where inculcates acquiescence in fraud
and falsehood; and that while it bids us forgive an
erring brother, on his repenting, to the extent of
"seventy times seven," it requires us to withstand
and rebuke obdurate offenders, who are trampling
truth and righteousness under their feet.
It would exhaust your patience to delineate the
other mercantile virtues with the same detail. And
it will be both a more summary and a more satisfactory expedient to lay before you, in concluding this
Lecture, a sample of the teachings of the Bible on
this subject. You may judge for yourselves, whether
Commerce would not be the gainer by having enthroned in its expanded empire, and over every, even
the minutest, of its traffickings, an authority which
ablounds in utterances like these: -
95 
96     TIlE BIBLE IN THIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
Ile that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man.
Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty.
ie that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a
great waster.
Ile that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.
Be patient toward all men.
The meek will He guide in judgment.
Before honour is humility.
A man's pride shall bring him low.
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard,
in weight, or in measure.
Just balances, just weights, and a just ephah, and a just
line, shall ye have.
This is the will of God, that no man go beyond or defraud
his brother in any matter; because that the Lord is the
avenger of all such.
Hle that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, shall
surely come to want.
Ile that makethl haste to be rich shall not be innocent.
Trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who
giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
IIe that giveth to the poor shall not lack.
Say not to thy neighbour, "Go, and come again," when
thou hast it by thee.
Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neigh
bour.
A poor man is better than a liar.
Seest thou a man hasty in his words? there is more hope
of a fool than of him.
Iceddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.
"It is naught, it is naught," saith the buyer; but when
he is gone his way, then hlie boasteth. 
A SAFE CHART.
There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there
is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.
By humility and the fear of the Lord, are riches and honour
and life.
A man void of understanding striketh hands, and becometh
surety in the presence of his friend.
lie that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he
that hateth suretyship is sure.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth
to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be
given him.
Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience,
meekness.
All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,
do ye even so to them.
Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify me.
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be
content with such things as ye have; for Ile hath said, I
will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
Such are the counsels of inspired wisdom; such
the ethics of the Word of God.  It is a safe and
reliable guide. It meets all the exigencies of your
profession.  It provides for every duty and every
danger.   Its principles are as immutable as the
throne of the Deity.  Its precepts are written as
with a sunbeam.  Its promises breathe the benevolence of heaven. The character which is formed
upon its model, will command universal homage.
The life that draws from it its inspirati;on, will enrich
9
97 
98    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
and bless the community which embosoms it. Let
Coimmerce take the BIBLE as its chart, and throughout all its teeming thoroughfares, the primeval curse
of labour will be despoiled of half its severity.
Enthrone the BIBLE in your COUNTING - IIOUSES,
and the God of the Bible will bless you and make
you a blessing. 
IHASTING TO BE RICIH.
i       rttir   Iurlt.
HASTING TO BE RICH.
SOME few years since an ingenious manufacturer
of porcelain, in Persia, acquired a celebrity which
reached the court, and brought him a message from
the Shah, that he might make china for the royal
household. Under any constitutional or just government, such an intimation would have been a fortune
to a man. But what did the artisan do? Mustering
all the money he could, he took it to the prime
minister, and bribed him to report to the king, that
hlie was not the person who made the china, and
that the real workman had run away, nobody knew
whither. The ruse succeeded. The man was discharged, and vowed that he would never make a bit
of china; nor attempt any other improvement, as
long, as he lived.
Ilow is this conduct to be explained?  The government of Persia is a pure autocracy, and the kings are
99 
100   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
for the most part insatiate tyrants.  They have the
absolute control of life, liberty, and property, throughout the empire. They can degrade, and even decapitate, the highest nobles, at pleasure.  They can seize
and confiscate any estate. For a mechanic to display
any remarkable ingenuity, is only to expose himself
to be coerced into the service of the crown without
compensation. For a merchant to accumulate property, is to invite the most merciless exactions from
the myrmidons of the throne. The mechanic just
mentioned, knew that he would be compelled to spend
the rest of his life in working for the king and his
court, without requital; and not relishing the prospect, devised the scheme I have described to escape
from it. The necessary tendency of this despotic
system, is, not only to foster deceit and falsehood
among the people, but to repress the efforts of industry and paralyze the powers of invention; for no
man will sow where he has no prospect of reaping.
Security of life and property is one of the essential
elements which distinguish true civilization from a
state of barbarism. There can be no real liberty in
a country, the inhabitants of which are debarred from
the legitimate exertion of their powers, or not protected in the possession of the property they have
fairly acquired.
And if these things are so, then the agrarian 
MUTUAL DEPENDENCE.
reformers of our day, who declaim against the accumulation of fortunes, and demand a distribution of all
large estates among the poor, have mistaken their
country.  They are the types and representatives of
barbarism, a foul excrescence on the fair face of
Christian civilization; and their proper place is with
the horde of extortioners who do the bidding of the
Shah of Persia or the Grand Mogul.   The attempts
which men of this stamp put forth, to array the poor
against the rich, to make them feel that the rich are
their oppressors and the enemies of society, are of
such flagitious wickedness, that any legislature would
be warranted in making them a penitentiary offence,
The interests of a community, certainly of any community in this country, are too firmly interlaced to
be torn asunder, without inflicting irreparable injury
upon the body politic. There is a reciprocal interdependence of the various classes and professions
upon one another. The same principles which guard
the ample wealth of the capitalist from invasion,
secure to the weaver his loom, to the shoemaker his
bench, to the drayman his cart, to the labourer his
dollar-a-day and the little furniture which adorns his
attic. The very capitalist, whom some blustering
Fourierite may stigmatize in his harangues as a useless and rapacious leech whose resources ought to be
thrown into a common stock, once sat, perhaps, at
9*
101 
102    THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
his loom, or hammered at the anvil, or served as
proof-boy in a printer's office. Living in a land of
law, where the strongest motives impelled him to
exertion, and the whole power of the State guarded
his humble earnings, he has risen, by the favour of
Providence, to his present honourable position. Is
there an honest weaver or blacksmith or printer to
be found, who will say that his fellow-craftsman is to
be blamed, or that our institutions are to be denounced
as unjust and oppressive, because they admit of such
results as this? Unjust to whom? Oppressive to
whom? Surely not to the poor. They, of all classes,
have the least reason to complain of a system which
makes it practicable for them, which even makes it
an every-day thing with them, to emerge from their
condition of dependence, surround themselves with
the comforts of life, and bestow upon their families
the advantages which a competence can always command.
This, however, is not all. The capitalist is so far
from being an incubus, that he is quite indispensable
to the vigorous and healthy working of the great
social machine. Let the entire property of Philadelphia be thrown into a common stock, and divided
pro rata among its population: and what would be
the effect? At one blow, the banks, insurance offices,
savings-funds, and other financial institutions, would 
AN AGRARIAN REFORMIATION.
tumble to the ground.   The large mercantile houses,
which give employment to so many clerks, porters,
draymen, coopers, carpenters, and the like, would
dwindle into small retail shops. All the business which now rests on a credit-basis would cease. Not
a hammer would be heard in the ship-yards. The
silence of death would replace the intolerable, but
productive, clatter of the foundries and machine-shops.
All the spindles in the factories would stop at once,
and those in private tenements would soon follow
them. Dismantled ships would deform the wharves.
Idlers and vagabonds would throng the streets. Fresh
prisons and alms-houses would be needed, and there
would be neither funds nor credit to build them.
Our noble array of religious and charitable associations would be shorn of their efficiency, if not annihilated. And, in fine, this proud metropolis would
disclose the symptoms of a universal and remediless
decay, and the multitudes, as they passed by, "would
say, every man to his neighbour,'Wherefore hath
the Lord done thus unto this great city?'"
While, however, this prejudice against capital,
whether personal or associated, is a shallow and
hateful feeling, and while the absolute security of
property and the accumulation of riches are admitted
to be essential to the prosperity of States and the
diffusion of Christianity, it is quite possible for indi
103 
104   THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HOUSE.
viduals to aspire after wealth with an inordinate passion, and to pursue it by unwarrantable and pernicious
methods.  In vindicating the established institutions
of society against the revolutionary doctrines of
pseudo-reformers, we by no means assume the championship of the commercial classes, in respect either
to all their usages, or to the animnus by which they
are so largely controlled. In particular, if the BIBLE
is to be recognized as an authority in the COUNTINGHOUSE, the stamp of a stern and decisive reprobation must be put upon that PASSION FOR SUDDEN
WEALTHI which has long been one of our prominent
national characteristics. This, indeed, is no new sin
in the world. It is, in any event, as old as the time of
Solomon. And it is curious to trace its diagnosis in
his day. Thus he says, " He that maketh haste to
be rich, shall not be innocent." Again: "An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but
the end thereof shall not be blessed." And ag,ain:
"He that hasteth to be rich, hath an evil eye, and
considereth not that poverty shall come upon him."
(Proverbs, 28: 20, 22. 20: 21.) This appears to be
the identical disease which has come down to our
day - identical, even if we combine with the symptoms noted by Solomon, the consequences pointed
out by the apostle a thousand years later: -  " But
they that will be rich, fall into temptation and a 
A CHiRONIC MALADY.
snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which
drown men in destruction and perdition. For the
love of money is the root of all evil: which, while
some coveted after, they have erred from the faithli
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."
(I. Tim. 6: 9, 10.) The malady and its effects are
the same now as of old, and it is at least as common
and as malignant in this country as in any other.
I am aware with what jealousy remarks from the
pulpit on this subject are likely to be listened to.
You are apt to feel that when the pulpit denounces
the lust of prompt and eager accumulation, it touches
upon ground beyond its jurisdiction, and betrays an
ignorance of the legitimate ends and methods of
traffic. You are ready to ask, somewhat tartly,
"Whether it is not one of the proper objects of trade
to make money?" and "Whether there is any more
sin in clearing five hundred dollars a day, than fifty?"
But these are mere cavils.  They are rarely uttered
in good faith, and therefore they require no answer.
Every merchant worthy of the name, understands the
nature and the pernicious working of the passion I
have spoken of, as distinguished from the genuine
commercial spirit. The strength and prevalence of
it in this country, are to be ascribed to a variety of
causes, among which may be enumerated, the genius
and tendency of our liberal institutions, the extent
105 
106    THIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IOUSE.
and variety of our physical resources, the absence of
all aristocratic distinctions and the consequent social
importance and influence which follow the distribution
of wealth, the enterprise and ambition developed by
the peculiar circumstances of our country, and the
lmomenitum impressed upon the age by the discovery
of new mechanical powers, fresh inventions in the,
arts, and the unexampled concentration of the talent
and the science of the world, upon matters pertaining
to the practical improvement of society and the economrical well-being of the individual man.  These and
other agencies have combined to stimulate the love
of money to a very unhealthy degree, and to inoculate the nation at large (it may almost be said) with
a restless hankering after wealth.
In the Countinlg-room, this passion displays itself
in an intense eayerness for large and quick profits.
The ordinary profits of business are neither very
quick nor very large.  It is one of the most common
of all errors with young merchants to over-estimate
them. The prospective results they cipher out, with
all imaginable skill and pains-taking, are rarely, if
ever, realized.  MLIany a man of undoubted sagacity
and tact, has been astounded with the retrospect of
his first year's business.  Such an excess of personal
and domestic expenses above his calculations- such
remissness or dishonesty among his customers - such 
ANTICIPATION AND FRUITION.
unforeseen vicissitudes in the markets- so many incidental chinks and crevices through which his profits
have percolated, -he can scarcely credit his own
senses, when hlie lays his truthl-telling Balance-shlect
along-side of the magnificent scheme he adjusted with
so much precision a twelve-month before. The appropriate remedyin a case of this kind, any prudent
merchant  could  suggest:  but  prudence is not  a
favourite counsellor with ardent and ambitious men
in any department of life. And the too common
effect is, to put the disappointed parties upon a course
of policy, which may enlarge their sales, indeed, but
will in a greater degree multiply their perils. Traders in these circumstances not only, but others who
are more advantageously situated, are apt to revolt
at the idea of spending a long series of years in the
"drudgery" of business.  Their profits 9nust in some
way be increased.   This may  be tried by  taking
advantage of the distance or the ignorance of customers, and selling them goods above the market value,
or antiquated goods for fresh ones. Firms that attempt this, may succeed in it for a while; but it is
preposterous to suppose they can carry it on long.
Buyers are of course on the alert to learn the actual
state of the market; and whenever they discover that
their confidence has been abused, they will feel no
scruple in stigmatising the offending house far and
107 
108    THE BIBLE IN THE COUN'rING-HOUSE.
near as as a dishonourable concern.- TAis expedient
for securing large profits is not to be commended.
As little can be said in favour of selling to parties
without due inquiry as to their commercial standing.
It might be supposed that self-interest would be a
sufficient restraint on this point, but the fact is quite
otherwise.  Such are the zealous rivalries of trade,
that goods enough to stock a score or two of small
towns, are annually sold to men of no responsibility.
The embarrassment and difficulty inseparable from
investigations on this point, must constitute one of
the chief trials of a mercantile life, a source of anxiety
akin to that of the paying-teller of a bank, who must
be all day haunted with apprehension lest some of
the checks received at his counter may be forgeries.
But no desire for business will justify recklesness in
trafficking with men who are without satisfactory
credentials. It will not do to say, that if you are
willing to assume the risk, no one else can have any
reason to complain. There is a question of morals
here as well as a question of dollars and cents. The
ethics of the BIBLE certainly will not sanction your
running this hazard.  Imprudence may amount to a
sin. And what right have you, even though you might
afford to lose your whole venture, to set an example
of rashness, which can hardly fail to have a hurtful
influence upon other houses? What right have you 
FACILITY IN TRUSTING.
to put your ii)zpri)azttir upon shiftless adventurers,
who will make the bill of goods you have soldl them
a I)assport to the confidence of the firms around you?
The body to which you belong, has a common interest
in shutting out from the walks of trade all unsound
and( fraudulent dealers.  iMlany of this description
must come up with the spring and fall freshlets from
the South and AVest, which pour themselves into our
larg,e cities. To countenance them, is to inflict a
double wrong: it is a wrong to the metropolitan merchant, and an equal wrong to their customers from the
country.  The buvers are no less concerned than the
sellers, in hlaving, their ranks purg,ed of unreliable
men: for the misdemeanors of these men operate to
the disadvantage of the body at large, by raising the
market and impairing that confidence which lies at
the basis of successfull commerce.   On these grounds
we affirm the immorality of that facility in trusting
parties of no ascertained responsibility,. which so often
goes along with a craving for sudden wealth.
On the same principles, it may be observed here
in passing, every community is liable to sutffer more
or less from instances of fraudulent bankruptcy.
If one wished to select an emblem of timidity from
the commercial  world, he would fix upon  credit.
:Notlling is more easily firighltened; nothing so keen
in scenting danger.  To its car the world is a great
10
109 
110    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
whispering-gallery, which transmits every note of
alarm, whether emanating from the council-chamber
of a distant cabinet, the cotton-fields of Mississippi,
the gold mines of California, or the crash of a mercantile establishment. Every example of this latter
kind, especially if stamped with dishonesty, creates
distrust, sets capital upon demanding fresh securities,
increases the difficulty of getting discounts, occasions
mischievous conjectures as to the stability of other
houses, and in various ways damages the whole trading interest. On the low ground of self-protection,
therefore, every merchant has a stake in keeping up
the morals of trade to the highest standard, and in
setting his face as a flint against every form of dishonesty.
It is a natural transition from the topics with which
we have been occupied, to over-trading. And it will
not be inappropriate to consider in this connexion,
the subject of contracting debts, whether with or without a morbid passion for exorbitant and speedy gains.
The word "over-trading" has a vagueness of meaning
for which some persons may like it all the better.
The lexicographers do not recognize it; and if they
should, they would be obliged to substitute a periphrasis for a definition. And yet for all practical
purposes it is sufficient to say, that it denotes the
doing a business disproportionate to one's capital. 
OVER-TRADING.
The just relation, it is true, between capital and business, is not immutable.   The same capital would
perhaps warrant a business of a half-million now,
which would not have warranted a quarter of a million a few years ago - such is the general prosperity
of the country, and so favourable, in a commercial
view, the condition of the world at large. These,
however, are the seasons when men are tempted to
be imprudent. Disregarding the contingencies involved in so auspicious a state of things, and borne
onward upon the current of a redundant success, they
are induced to assume new engagements and to extend
their transactions, until it would startle them, could
they pause long enough to see upon how slender and
fragile a base they have reared their imposing superstructure. They did not mean to be imprudent.
But it requires a more than Fabian virtue for a merchant to be moderate and tranquil when all his neighbours are flying towards the goal of Fortune with a
telegraphic velocity. Few men can, in these circumstances, resist the tendency to do indiscreet things.
Not only is the dividing line between prudence and
imprudence obscured, but the landmarks of right and
wrong glimmer before them as they would if their
eyes were smitten with the cataract. They do not
see- they are not anxious to see- where they ought
to stop buying goods, nor where they should stop
111 
112   THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
selling. They are not in a mood for examining
Ledgers and Bank-boolks.   Figures have lost their
fixed, mathematical significance.  They look at them
through a combination of cross-lights, which makes
another thing of them. All their estimates and calculations tend in one direction, because they exclude
from them any proper consideration of the hazards and
uncertainties incident to their extravagant operations.
And if ever some experienced friend ventures to hint
that they may be going too fast, the monition is
treated as the well-meant, but womanish, fear of one
whose ideas quite antedate this sublime era of locomotives and electric telegraphs.- This imperial style
of doing business might answer, if it were not for one
trifling consideration, to wit, the necessity, so much
insisted upon, of a mail's paying his debts; for
" creditors are a superstitious sect, great observers of
set days and times."  Absolution from this practice,
would put it in the power of our adventurous traffickers to replenish their warehouses with an inexhlaustible stock of goods, and to do an amount of
business commensurate with their largest ambition.
But in defitult of such exemnption, the period of settlrement will by and by come round, wvhen the cataraets Will be removed, and the figures will stand out
in all their colossal proportions, and nothingl will
answer, in place of the profoul(nd calculations al 
ENDORSING.
brilliant day-dreams of the business-season, but vulgar
cash- sober, substantial money, that can be weighed
like lead, and with as little poetry in it.  The scenes
which are apt to follow, need not be described: there
will be occasion to refer to them hereafter. Enough
for the present, to have glanced at the usual windingup of a career of over-trading.
Improvidence in contracting debts, is but a part
of the same system. An excessive business demands
excessive means, and these means can be obtained
only by borrowing. Borrowing, again, requires endorsing, and endclorsing becomes a reciprocal thing.
A. endorses for B., and B. endorses for A.; and,
keeping their accounts in different banks, to say
nothing of loans from private bankers, they are able
to get all the money they want, and, possibly, a great
deal more than they ought to have. It may seem
presumptuous to impugn a principle which has the
general sanction of the commercial world; but no one
can deny that the practice of endorsing is peculiarly
liable to abuse.  In the first place, the security it
affords is very often of no real value. Such are the
mutual responsibilities of endorsers, that the failure
of one is the failure of all: when one link gives way,
the chain is gone.  In the second place, the custom
encourages imprudence. It is hazardous to put a
man in a position to feel that if his plans succeed, all
10 *
113 
114    THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
the gains will be his own, and if they fail, hle can
share the loss with his neighbours.  lWhy should you
lend your name to a man to do that which he would
not feel it safe to do if he were going to risk only his
own capital? This, I am aware, is not always the
case in endorsing, but it is frequently the case. And
the conviction that an endorser is at hand, will bring
up questions before the mind in a very specious and
illusive aspect.  To contract a debt is a serious matter; but it loses half its gravity when half its responsibility is cancelled.   The feeling is, "I will go into
this operation if you will stand by me; if not, I will
let it alone."  To say that this is necessarily a wrong
feeling, or that the transaction must be an unwise
one, would be going too far. But will it be denied
that very many of the transactions undertaken in this
spirit, might better be let alone? that they even
trench on the line of strict honesty? IIonesty forbids
that we should assume obligations without having, on
a fair and reasonable estimate of things, the ability to
discharge them. The moment a man is assured of
an endorser, he is in danger of over-estimating his
resources.  Mistaking the nature of the arrangement,
hle even regards the endorsement as pro tanto an
accession to his capital; whereas not one dollar is
added to his capital, but his liabilities are increased
to the full amount of the sumL borrowed.  I say "11 his 
DISASTROUS FRUITS OF TIIE SYSTEM.    115
liabilities," because in morals they are his in a sense
in which they are not his endlorser's.   Thie law may
hold them to a joint responsibility; and integrity
will exact payment of the endorser if the drawer fails.
But the drawer is bound to the endorser. -ie has no
more moral right to procure an endorsement without
adequate means of protecting it, than he has to order
a bill of goods without the means of paying it. Just
in proportion, however, to the facility with which
endorsements can be obtained, will men of limited
capital, who are impatient for the profits or the
lonour of a large business, be tempted to use them.
It is on this ground -as an enticement to rashness
and a bait to dishonesty - that a teacher of morals
is authorized to remonstrate against the prevalent
abuse of this principle of endorsing in the commercial
world.
There is a third objection, viz.: that it is a firuitful
source of financial disaster and ruin.  It ruins, frequently, the very parties who resort to it, by seducing
them, in the way just specified, into mercantile extravaganees wholly incommensurate with their means.
It ruins endorsers. And among these, too often, are
men whose improvident kindness reduces their families to penury. Inquire of the decayed merchlants
of any city, go through the teeming ranks of seamstresses, school-mistresses, and boarding-house keep 
116    TIE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
ers, go to the widows' asylums and other kindred
institutions, and see what an amount of suffering and
sorrow you can trace to this vicious principle of
endorsing. It is a perennial fountain of trouble, the
bitter streams of which have desolated thousands of
once happy homes. One is sometimes almost ready,
in surveying a wreck of this kind, to denounce the
principle itself, which has been the occasion of the
disaster, as unworthy of a place among the implements of honourable commerce. Nor is this feeling
abated by the suggestion, that no one is compelled
to endorse for his fiiend, and that it is wrong for
men to assume responsibilities of this sort disproportioned to their property. It is wrong. No man has
a rigyt to imperil the comfort and earthly happiness
of his family for the sake of accommodating his
neighbour.   Good neighbourhood has its claims, but
this is not one of them. And it is a sad thing that
men should so often lack the firmness to refuse
favours which they cannot grant without jeoparding
the interests of their own households. Still, men will
do these things.  They will put their names on paper
which they ought no more to touch than they would
dally with a rattle-snake.  And the process will go
onl as it has gone; other families will be ruined, and
widows and orphans without number will continue to
swell the ranks of the unfortunate victims of endorsing. 
RUNNING IN DEBT.
It should not, therefore, excite surprise that persons
who look at the working of the principle from a distance, take up the conviction that there is something
wrong in it; that the alleged commercial necessity for
retaining it, if not of the most stringent character,
ought to give way to the numberless social and moral
evils it produces; and that, in any event, some further
efforts should be mnade in the way of legislative enactments or otherwise, to abate the intolerable abuses
now incident to the system.
These observations can scarcely be deemed out of
place in treating of the contracting of debts. Unhappily, the laxness which' prevails on the subject of
endorsing, is not confined to that mode of running in
debt. The current tone of the business-world on this
point, is quite below the proper standard. No one
would wish to see all the trafficking of the world
reduced to cash payments.   Credit is one of the
beneficent fruits of Christian civilization, and, though
itself an effect, is in turn a most powerful agent in
developing the resources of nations and accelerating
their progress. But to contract debts without a reasonable prospect of being able to pay them when they
become due, is both a sin and a sure source of perplexity and trouble.  That is a very pregnant aphorism, "the borrower is servant to the lender." D1r.
Franklin has expanded this thought in one of his
117 
118    TIIE  RIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HIIOUSE.
pithy essays.  "Think what you do when you run
in debt: you give to another power over your liberty.
If you cannot pay at the time, you will be ashamed
to see your creditor, you will be in fear when you
speak to him, when you will make poor, pitiful excuses, and by degrees come to lose your veracity and
sink into base, downright lying: for'the second vice
is lying, the first is running in debt,' as poor Richard
says; and again, to the same purpose,'Lying rides
upon debt's back:' whereas a free-born Englishman*
ought not to be ashamed nor afraid to see or speak
to any man living." These are among the ordinary
effects of recklessness in contracting debts.  It puts
a man in bondage to his creditors, and makes him
shun them. It drives peace from his bosom, and
brings down a cloud upon his brow. It fills him with
harrowing apprehensions of disaster.  It puts him, or
may put him, upon shifts and expedients for averting
the dreaded storm which he once would not have
resorted to, and which the Bible in his countingroom (if he have one there) will not sanction. Understand -  this is not said indiscriminately of men in
debt, but of those who have been culpably improvident
in contracting debts.  There is no necessary disgrace
attached to being in debt, nor to being unable to
* Written before the Revolution. 
TIIE DEBTOR'S PENALTY.
meet one's engagements. Such are the contingencies
of commerce that the most honourable and prudent
men may find themselves in this situation; and they
have no cause to feel abashed, no reason to shrink
from meeting their creditors as freely as they have
always met them. The creditor who in a case of
this sort would not treat his unfortunate neighbour or
correspondent with courtesy and kindness, is unworthy
of a place among upright merchants.   But these
examples, it is to be feared, are the exceptions. A
large portion of the debts which involve mercantile
houses in embarrassment, are to be traced to a grasping after sudden wealth, to the ambition of doing a
great business, or to extravagance in living. Impelled by these causes, men of moderate means commit themselves to the resistless current which sweeps
through the channels of commerce, and are too much
regaled with the omens of an opulent prosperity to
observe whither it is bearing them.   When the enchantment is at length dissolved, they learn how
much easier it is to contract liabilities than to meet
them. And they have ample opportunity to consider
ilether a transient eclat for enterprise, or an evanescent notoriety for splendid entertainments, is any
adeq(uate recompense for a ruined business, the displeasure of creditors, and a wounded conscience.
I am acquainted with an estimable young man who
119 
120    TIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HOUSE.
remarked one day, "If I cannot make money enough
by the time I am thirty years old, I don't wish to do
business."  What would his grandfather have thought
of a youth who had made that observation in his day?
What would our senior merchants have thought, forty
years ago, of a system of business which contemplated
a man's retiring on a fortune at thirty! This, to be
sure, may not prove that the feeling is a wrong one.
Nor, as a matter of fact, is the plan without some
actual examples to illustrate it.  But the sentiment I
have quoted, is useful as showilng the ideas of business which prevail in our day. It was the view my
young friend had imbibed while a clerk in Market
street, and which, it must be conceded, fairly reflects
the spirit of the times.  It is the identical spirit I
have been combating in this Lecture, and which
every one must resist, who would have the BIBLE
established in our COUNTING-HOUSES.   It is, in a
word, a craving after sudden wealth.  It ignores all
the moral uses of a frugal and industrious life. It
overlooks all the contingencies of trade. It proceeds
on the assumption that "a fortune" can certainly be
made within a specified period. So visionary a theory
might at first be deemed very harmless; but while it
is powerless for good, it has a great capacity for evil.
Aspiring to the fulfilment of its own prophecy, it
must predispose those who embrace it, to adopt the 
RETIRING AT TIIIRTY.
very measures we have been reprobating as devices
for rapid and excessive accumulation. It is a danger ous thing for a man to set out in business with the
feeling, that his work is to be done in at most ten years,
and then he is to enjoy his wealth for the rest of his
days. He will need, on this plan, to insure something
besides his property. For it will be a miracle if he
runs through his brief, but tumultuous, circuit, with out compromising his integrity and debasing his con science. And aside from this, whence comes the
vagrant notion that you can "enjoy" life only when
you shall have earned a discharge from business?
Business certainly has its cares and its anxieties; but
it were a curious classification of things, to array business and happiness against each other - to assign
business to one portion of life, and enjoyment to another.  Good and evil are not arranged in these
massive strata, but intermixed throughout the whole
of life. There are no happier men than some whom
you could find among the busiest of our busy merchants; there are none more miserable than some
whose ample patrimony or acquired wealth has exonerated them from the necessity of labour, and left
them to die of ennui. Viewed as classes, the balance
is strongly in favour of the working, as distinguished
from the retired, men. The latter not unfrequently
find the vacuity of a leisure life so intolerable, that
11
121 
122    THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HIIOUSE.
after a few years they put on the harness again, and
go back to the counting-room.* You must have
observed how much deeper and more enduring is the
interest your children take in a toy or play-thing
which is to be thrown or turned or worked in some
way, than in one which is simply to stand under a
glass vase and be looked at. We are but grown
children. You may renounce Mlarket street at thirty,
and build your elegant mansion and adorn it with
objects of luxury and taste, but unless you have some
employment with it, you will soon tire of looking at
the beautiful toy, and long for something on which
your powers can exert themselves. I need not dwell
upon a topic which will recur again; but rely upon
it, any theory of life must be wrong which disparages
* "Every one knows the story of the tallow-chandler, who,
having amassed a fortune, disposed of his business, and taken
a house in the country, not far from London, that he might
enjoy himself, after a few months' trial of a holiday-life,
requested permission of his successor, to come into town and
assist him on meltiig days. I have heard of one who kept a
retail spirit-shop, and having in like manner retired from
trade, used to employ himself by having one puncheon filled
with water, and measuring it by pints into another. I have
also heard of a butcher in a small country-town, who, some
little time after he had left off business, informed his old customers that he meant to kill a lamb once a-week, just for his
amusement!" - THE DOCTOR. 
WHILST WVE LIVE, LET US LIVE.
reputable labour, or neglects the sources of present
enjoyment in visionary anticipations of future good.
"All earthly comforts vanish thus;
So little hold of them have we,
That we from them, or they from us,
May in a moment ravished be.
Yet we are neither just nor wise,
If present mercies we despise;
Or mind not how there may be made
A thankful use of what we have."
The future is not ours; and should it ever become
ours, it will bring its own cares more certainly than
its own pleasures. What we are concerned with is
present duty. It is a sad and foolish mistake to
spend life in getting ready to live. There is a sense
in which the famous Epicurean  apothegm,  "Dum
vivimus vivamus," "Whilst we live, let us live," expresses a wholesome truth. Dr. Doddridge, whose
family motto it was, has paraphrased it in what Dr.
Johnson justly terms "one of the finest epigrams in
the English language."
"Live while you live, the Epicure would say,
And seize the pleasures of the present day.
Live while you live, the sacred Pr)eacher cries,
And give to God each moment as it flies.
Lord, in my views let both united be;
I live in pleasure while I live to thee."
If you cultivate this spirit, making the Bible your
123 
124    TIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
daily chart and text-book, and trusting in Christ for
pardon while you walk in the way of his precepts,
you will neither find a business-life such hopeless
dcudgery, nor be impatient of the day when you are
to exchange the bondage of the Counting-room for
an Elysium of idleness.
Nor let it be supposed that a retirement from business will necessarily deaden that excessive passion for
wealth, which has been rebuked in this Lecture. The
Ethiopian does not so readily change his skin, nor
the leopard his spots. The covetousness which has
ruled a man through all the activities of his working
days, will not let go its mastery on his ceasing to
work. It may assume a new form. The essential
principle or core of avarice, is selfishness. And no
man need bless himself that he is a stranger to the
worship of Mammon, who is spending all his revenues
in self-irndulgence.   " His hand, like a channel, may
be ever open; and because his income may be perpetually flowing through it, the unreflecting world,
taken with appearances, may hold him up as a pattern of generosity; but the entire current is absorbed
by his own selfishness. That others are indirectly
benefited by his profusion, does not enter into his
calculations; he thinks only of his own gratification.
It is true, his mode of living may employ others;
but he is the idol of the temple -they are only 
SELFISH PROFUSION.
priests in his service; and the prodigality they are
empowered to indulge in, is only intended to decorate
and do honour to his altar. To maintain an extensive establishment, to carry it high before the world,
to settle his children respectably in life, to maintain
a system of costly self-indulgence, - these are the
objects which swallow up all his gains, and keep him
in a constant fever of ill-concealed anxiety; filling
his heart with envy and covetousness at the sight of
others' prosperity; rendering him loath to part with a
fraction of his property to benevolent purposes; and
making him feel as if every farthing of his money so
employed were a diversion of that farthing from the
great ends of life. New channels of benevolence may
open around him in all directions; but as far as he
is concerned, those channels must remain dry; for,
like the sands of the desert, he absorbs all the bounty
which HIeaven rains on him, and still craves for more.
What but this is commonly meant by the expression
concerning such a man, that'he is living up to his
income'?"*
This is one type of covetousness among the men
who have given up business. Its more vulgar form,
that of hoarding, is no less familiar. It is a curious
and instructive fact, that rich men are usually more
* Harris.
'11 *
125 
106    THIE BIBLE IN TIlE CO'UNTING-IIOUSE.
disposed to hoard after relinquishing business than
before. What with the constant handling of money,
the ceaseless barter of commerce, and the excitement
kept up in a career of trafficking, their hearts have
little opportunity to get steeled against all generous
impulses. But when they exchange the counting-room
for the snug domestic office or the library, and have
nothing to do but receive their rents and interest and
dividends, every dollar stands out in its own importance, and it becomes a serious matter to divert this
money from new investments. To contribute a hundred dollars to a charity, would be to'1lose" or
"throw away" the interest on more than sixteen
hundred!  A donation of a thousand dollars, would
swallow up the interest of nearly seventeen thousand!
If they had less leisure, they might consent. But to
look such "sacrifices" deliberately in the face, and
then submit to them, is more than their virtue is
equal to. This revenue too, once in hand, is no
longer, in their view, of the nature of interest; it
belongs to their principal; and they have a profound
reverence for the maxim which requires a man to
keep his principal intact under all circumstances.!
Thus they reason: the swelling income passes, from
one six-months to another, into the body of the
estate: and the love of money grows apace with
every fresh investment. Most other vices find a 
AVARICE, A BAR TO IIEAVEN.
partial corrective in the gradual decay of the physical
powers; but avarice is proverbially the vice of old
age, and
"rarely venturing in the van of life,
While nobler passions wage their heated strife,
Comes skulking last, with Selfishness and Fear,
And dies collecting lumber in the rear!"
Worse than "lumber" it is apt to prove -worse for
themselves and for their heirs. For what can be
more adverse to a man's spiritual good, more unfavourable to serious thought, more hostile to all adequate preparation for eternity, than to sell himself,
as he is growing old, to Mammon?   Those are very
solemn words, "No covetous man, who is an idolater,
hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
of God."   The "covetous shall not inherit the kingdom of God." How is it possible for men to elude
this doom who are basely betraying their stewardship,
and making it the chief end of life to enlarge an
already overgrown fortune?- And, then, as to their
children, for whose "benefit" they are denying themselves the true enjoyment of this life and hazarding
all prospect of the life to come, what is more common
than to see such a property become a curse to its
inheritors?
But, happily, among those who retire from business,
there are men who have no affinity with either of the
127 
128    THIE BIBLE IN THE COUINTING-IIOUSE.
classes that have been mentioned. They are among
the brightest ornaments of our social state, and
worthy of all the honour which is so uniformly
accorded to them. It is one of their principles that
accumulation has its moral limits, and that beyond
these (varying, however, with men's circumstances) a
fortune ought not to be increased. It is another
principle with them, that wealth has its duties no less
than its privileges. It is a third principle with them,
that in managing and disposing of an estate, every
man is bound to govern himself by the teachings of
the BIBLE. -I can picture to myself a merchant,
who, having relinquished business after a long and
honourable career, has addressed himself to the
remaining duties of his stewardship, under the guidance of these elevated principles. I see him the
tenant of a stately and beautiful mansion, furnished
in a manner suitable to his fortune and position. I
censure not the works of art I find there. As long
as Jubal's skill is perpetuated in "such as handle the
harp and the organ," I dare not proscribe these
instruments of music. While God continues to raise
up Bezaleels and Aholiabs, and to "fill them with
wisdom and knowledge to devise cunning works, to
work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in
cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of
timber, to work in all manner of workmanship," I 
A PORTRAIT.
dare not say, these sculptures and paintings and porcelains and mosaics are prohibited indulgences, and
should have no place here. Still less should I presume to ask, Why is not this needless conservatory
sold, and the proceeds given to the poor? The proprietor of this mansion has, in my view, a riyht to
indulge himself in these elegant tastes: and it is
pleasant to meet them, combined with sterling religious principle and Christian refinement. If this
scene defined the sum of his being, the ease were
different. But he is one with whom these studies
and objects are the mere fringe and ornament of life,
not its end or substance. Remembering his stewardship, he cares not to augment his ample estate. No
dollar of interest with him ever petrifies into principal.
His entire income, after deducting personal and household expenses, goes to promote the happiness of his
fellow-creatures and the prosperity of religion. He
exercises a sound discrimination in his benefactions.
The poor have in him a liberal and judicious friend.
He is wont to aid deserving young men in obtaining
an education.  He secretly assists meritorious families that have experienced reverses, and struggling
individuals whom most persons would pass by as being
too well off to be entitled to help.   He keeps his eye
upon the progress of Christianity at home and abroad,
and a munificent, though unostentatious, benevolence
129 
130   THE BIBLE IN THIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
attests his cordial interest in whatever pertains to the
kingdom of Christ and the salvation of men. And,
to his other offices of kindness, he superadds such
personal services as it may be in his power to render
to useful public institutions, or to individuals requiring
counsel or succour.
Men of this sort there are among our retired merchants. You will not be long in forming your estimate of them, as contrasted either with those who are
consuming all their income in a lavish self-indulgence,
or with their compeers whose hoarding propensities
increase with their gold and their years. Let it be
your care, should Providence ever place you among
them, to shun the extremes of prodigality and penuriousness; to dedicate yourselves and your property to
the service of God and the good of mankind; and to
illustrate the excellence of that practical godliness
vhich fits men to enjoy their earthly riches, and
secures to them an inalienable portion beyond the
grave. 
THE SOUTH-SEA COMPANY.
I T trttit  fifth
SPECULATING.
AN impression prevailed in England a century and
a half ago, that the wealth of South America was
inexhaustible. This led to the chartering, in the
year 1711, of the famous "South-Sea Company," on
which was conferred the exclusive right of trading
with that country, together with other important
privileges. Visionary as were the professed objects
of this association, the most extravagant statements
were circulated respecting its prospects. The managers declared enormous dividends from their alleged
profits, and by this and other means not unknown in
the financial world, the scheme was crowned with
unparalleled success. The stock rose until in the
year 1720, it was eagerly bought at 1000 per cent,
premium. As the natural effect of this gigantic
experiment, the country was soon filled with speculating projects of all sorts. Innumerable joint-stock
companies started up everywhere. Every day brought
131 
132   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
its fresh "bubble."  Some of these were of so pre posterous a character that their titles could not be
recited here without exciting an unbecoming merri ment. One of them was styled, "A company for
carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but
nobody to know what it is."  The projector of this
bold appeal to the public credulity, required a deposit
of ~2 on each share of ~100 each, and engaged to
each depositor a return of ~100 per annum. I-e
opened his office, and the first day received suLbscriptions for 1000 shares, with the requisite deposit of
~2000. With this sum, he quietly withdrew that
evening to the continent, and was never heard of
again.  This well-authenticated transaction may illustrate the mania which had seized upon the public
mind.  "From morning until evening, Change Alley
was filled to overflowing with one dense moving mass
of living beings, composed of the most incongruous
materials, and in all things, save the mad pursuit
wherein they were employed, utterly opposed in their
principles and feelings, and far asunder in their stations in life and the professions they followed. Statesmen and clergymen deserted their high stations to
enter upon this grand theatre of speculation and
gambling; and churchmen and dissenters left their
fierce disputes, and forgot their wranglings upon
church-government, in the deep and hazardous game 
A  COMMIUNITY CRAZED.
they were playing for worldly treasures, and for
riches which, even if won, were liable to disappear
within the hour of their creation. Whigs and tories
buried their weapons of political warfare, discarded
party animosities, and mingled together in kind and
friendly intercourse, each exulting as their stocks
advanced in price, and murmuring dissatisfaction and
disappointment when fortune frowned upon their wild
operations; and lawyers, physicians, merchants, and
tradesmen, forsook their employments, neglected their
business, and disregarded their engagements, to whirl
giddily along with the swollen stream, to be at last
engulphed in the wide sea of bankruptcy.   Men of
the highest rank were deeply engaged in stock-jobbing
transactions; and investments in the most worthless
bubbles of the age were made by them in heavy
sums, and without the least hesitation or previous
inquiry. Females mixed with the crowd; and forgetting, the stations and employments which nature
had fitted them to adorn, dealt boldly and extensively
in the bubbles that rose before them, and like those
by whom they were surrounded, rose from poverty to
wealth, and from that were thrust down to beggary
and want -and all in one short week, and perhaps
before the evening which terminated the first day of
their speculations. Ladies of high rank, regardless
of every appearance of dignity, and blinded by the
12
133 
134    TIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
prevailing infatuation, drove to the shops of their
milliners and haberdashers, and there met stockbrokers whom they regularly employed, and through
whom extensive sales were daily negotiated. In the
midst of the excitement, all distinctions of party and
religion, circumstances and character, were swallowed
up. Bubbles were blown into existence on every
hand, and stocks of every conceivable name, nature,
and description, were issued to an incredible extent."*
It is superfluous to add, that by and by the crash
came -a crash which shook the land like an earthquake. Some of the leaders of the South-Sea scheme
fled the country, and others were thrown into prison:
while tens of thousands of people sat them down in
their poverty, to bemoan the quick and terrible retribution their folly had brought upon them.
This is a cursory glimpse of a nation bewildered
with a spirit of SPECULATION.   It is not, unfortunately, so remote from our own experience, that we
shall find any difficulty in appreciating it.  Similar
crises occur at irregular intervals in the history of
every commercial nation; and the mercantile men
who listen to these Lectures, can recall a period when
our own land reeled and staggered under one of these
catastrophes, as if struck by the hand of Omnipotence.
* IIunt's lerchant's M1agazine. 
A FINANCIAL CRISIS.
You have seen the whole process from beginning to
end. A superfluity of capital - facile credits - inflated prices - all classes maddened with the lust of
money - Mammon put in the place of God - new
projects for sudden wealth broached every day - new
banks, new land-companies, new railroads, new cities,
new joint-stock associations of all sorts - over-trading
- shrewd and successful operations - trust-funds invested in bubbles -banks covertly trafficking at the
stock-board - fortunes made without time or trouble
- splendid mansions, equipages, entertainments -
bubbles bursting-banks breaking-merchants breaking- stagnation in the streets - silence among the
spindles - ships rotting at the wharves - defalcations
- forged certificates of stock - debtors absconding -
States repudiating - sheriff's sales - crowded almshouses- interminable dockets - impoverished widows
-impoverished orphans- general despondency and
wo! Such are the ensigns of one of these crises,
which meet the eye: they have blacker shades, and
more fearful results, which need not be indicated.
Those who have seen for themselves, as you have,
will require no daguerreotype sketch: the least outline will recall the whole.
And now, if I undertake to found upon facts like
these, a remonstrance against unbridled speculation,
you may try to parry it by reminding me that "all
135 
136    THE BIBLE IN TIHE COUNTING-HOUSE.
business is a speculation, so that you must either
speculate or give up business altogether." This is
not candid. There is no merchant here who does
not know the difference between the usual workings
of a speculating mania and the sober methods of
legitimate commerce. Every one who is capable of
moral distinctions, must perceive, that while these
seasons of redundance and inflation last, wealth is
taken out of its proper place, and invested with
adventitious and illusive qualities. Men come insensibly to regard it as the chief good- as indispensable
to the true enjoyment of life. It takes precedence
with them of mental culture, social happiness, and
even moral excellence. They will sacrifice to it comfort, health, books, domestic affection, and the very
ordinances of religion. They hear more talk of
money and fortunes than of all other topics together.
The crowds that rush by them on the side-walks are
fierce after money.   They listen to the plaudits
bestowed upon successful operators. They find that
the world sets a much higher value upon wealth than
upon merit. And they become possessed with the
feeling, that whatever may be neglected, it will never
do to incur the indignity of not being rich.
Of course in this eager race after wealth, there
can be no proper recognition of an overruling Providence. There is the greatest possible incongruity 
PR,ACTICAL ATIIEISM.
between the reigning spirit at one of these periods,
and that cordial, implicit, cheerful reliance upon God,
which the Bible bids us cherish no less in all our
secularities than in our spiritual services. The apostle
has remonstrated with them on this point.  "Go to
now, ye that say,'To-day or to-morrow we will go
into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy,
and sell, and get gain': whereas, ye know not what
shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It
is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and
then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say,' If
the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.' But
now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing
is evil." The temper of mind here inculcated, every
consideration of modesty, of piety, and even of selfinterest, bids us cherish: for how absolute is our
dependence upon God; and what will all our tact
and energy avail, without his blessing? But who
among the hosts of speculators, thinks of God in
fi'aming his plans, or seeks his help in prosecuting
them? Who would presume to invoke his aid in
consummating schemes of which He has said, "He that
maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." "Ye
cannot serve God and mammon." It is not the least
of the multitudinous evils bound up in these seasons
of excitement, that they turn men into practical
Atheists. They at least have the decency to abstain
12 *
137 
138    THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
from a pretended reliance upon God, when their real
feeling is that every thing depends, not upon his
favour, but upon their own activity and skill in calculating chances and taking advantage of circumstances.
The antagonism of this passion to the genuine
mercantile spirit has been adverted to. The end of
honourable commerce is to exchange equivalents for
mutual advantage. Speculation (using the term in
its technical sense) looks only to its own good. Like
a rapacious military chieftain, it aims at self-aggrandizement; and this object it pursues, reckless of the
consequences to others. In the view of a confirmed
speculator, the aggregate property of a community is
but the stake in a game of chance; the people at
large are the players; and each man is to get what
he can, without caring, or even asking, who loses.
Such a man must necessarily regard every one around
him with a jealous eye, especially those in his own
profession. They are not to him associates and honourable competitors, whose generous rivalry is to
stimulate their mutual sagacity and enterprise: they
are his opposers, almost his enemies. What they
gain, he loses; and he must lay his plans so as to
make them lose, that he may pocket their losses. If
an extreme type of his class, he will not confine his
hostile demonstrations to his fellow-traders or co 
AN  ItSI3IAELITE.
financiers.  Like Ishmael, his hand is against every
man; and, worse than Ishmael, even against those
whose hand is not against him. He would as soon
speculate upon the property of the widow and the
orphan, as upon any other. It is not a question with
him in arranging his projects, " How will this affect
the interests of others?"  He does not, except on
selfish grounds, even take the trouble to inquire whose
interests his manoeuvres are likely to damage. HIis
motto is, "Each one for himself;" and if in carrying
out this very honourable and humane principle, he
happens to ruin a few families of females and children,
he comforts himself with the reflection, that "he was
not aiming at their ruin, but only at his own advantage; and that if they have lost their property, it is
an incidental evil, for which their guardians are
responsible, not himself."
The base sophistry taught in this school, is in
keeping with its hardening effect upon the sensibilities
of men. There are few more loathsome characters
in society, than the shrewd, cold-blooded operator,
who will speculate the fortune of an innocent family
out of their possession into his own, and then have
the audacity to attempt to soothe the victims of his
villany by telling them that it was a "fair businesstransaction." This is as though a highwayman should
plunge his knife into you, and console you, while you
189 
140    THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HiOUSE.
were bleeding to death, by telling you that he had severed the arteries scientifically. The sort of operations
in question may be styled "fair business-transations,"
but it can only be in deference to that flagitious code
of morals already spoken of as having supplanted, in
some business-circles, the law of God. Tried by the
Scriptural standard of morality, there is nothing
"fair" about them.  That standard forbids covetousness; it prohibits the injuring of the property of
others; it requires us to do as we would be done by.
In each of these points, the speculator has contravened
it. Possibly he has infringed no human law. But
that must be a very lax integrity, which has no higher
standard of right and wrong than the statute-book:
for by far the greater part of the daily dishonesties
of trade and finance, are too subtle to be caught by
the meshes of any human legislation. And of what
force can it be to allege that the sort of transactions
he has been engaged in, are current in the businessworld, and have the sanction of "men of character"?
"Men of character" will sometimes do very strange
things; and questions of morals are not to be decided
by a show of hands. There is another tribunal by
which these cases are to be adjudicated. Let the
parties implicated consider, whether the paltry pleas
by which they would gloss over their avarice and
oppression, will avail them there. 
ROBBERY AND CIIARITY.
The confidence withl which the confirmed speculator
adduces arguments of this kind, shows how callous
his master-passion has made him to the claims of
justice and humanity.  And yet, inconsistent as it
may seem, this same man may be found in private
quite accessible to the appeals of misery.  It is in
his business that he is so unfeeling. Convinced by a
vicious sophistry that his schemes are no more reprehensible than a staid and prudent traffic, he will strip
a neighbour of his property by a few dexterous operations, without seeming to know that he is violating
the plainest principles of integrity- that corresponding conduct in a prince, would make him a tyrant,
and in a peasant, would make him a robber. And
of the very fruits of this grasping covetousness, lihe
will perhaps contribute to works of charity, while his
bosom knows nothing beyond a transient feeling of
regret for the individuals he has ruined. This, however, is really in keeping with his character. Professed gamblers are proverbially prodigal in dispensing their funds, though they are dead to the sufferings of their victims. The spirit of speculation is one
type of the gambling-spirit. Like that, it grasps at
sudden wealth; it aims to secure it, not by industry
and legitimate traffic, but by sleight of hand; and it
is indifferent as to who suffers, or to what extent, by
its acquisitions.  It is no strange thing, then, that it
141 
142   TIIE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HIOUSE.
should also display a similar profusion in disposing
of its gains.
It is too apparent to require argument, that
wherever this spirit enters the walks of trade, it
must tend to degrade commerce to a system of
shuffling and trickery. All traffic carries with it
some degree of insecurity. And yet the established
laws of trade are on the whole so uniform in their
operation, that where a community faithfully adhere
to them, the hazards of business are comparatively
small. Every intelligent merchant understands its
chief contingencies; and if he takes these into the
account in making his contracts, he will not ordinarily
encounter any great losses.   But impregnate this
same community with the delirium of speculation, and
it is like withdrawing the balance-wheel from a massive piece of machinery. Its movements, before harmonious and regular, become spasmodic and untractable, until in the end it may destroy itself and every
thing within its reach. A people in this condition
have lost their regulator. Their mutual confidence,
the foundation of all healthful traffic, is supplanted
by general suspicion and distrust. The unprincipled
and the indiscreet plunge into one extravagant scheme
after another; and thoughtful men prepare, as they
may, for the fearful collapse which is so certain to
follow one of these violent paroxysms. 
SANCTITY OF TRU,STS.
The temptation with which merchants are beset in
times like this (aside from over-trading), is, to engraft
speculative projects upon their stated business.  It
would be going too far, to say that this ought never
to be done. There are houses which have so ample
a capital, that they can, without imprudence, employ
a part of their means in judicious enterprises, collateral to their main business. But as a general rule,
it is unwise and even unwarrantable - unwise, because
the issue must in every case be doubtful, and, in any
event, the practice fosters an evil habit of mind:
unwarrantable, because it is unjust to creditors. It
is a very specious bait which Satan throws in your
way, when he invites you to put a few thousand
dollars temporarily into some brilliant project, which
is "certain to succeed" - when he whispers in your
ear, "Why not accept the boon that Providence offers
you, and make more money in a month than your
broadcloths and muslins will bring you in years?
Why surrender all these golden opportunities to your
neighbours who are rapidly getting rich by them?"But consider, have you a right to do this?  You may
purpose to use for it, instead of your own capital,
certain trust-funds in your hands, which will not
impair your mercantile resources. But whence do
you derive your authority? Unless the terms of the
trust clearly convey this power, you have no right to
143 
144    THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HOUSE.
touch those funds. They are not yours. You cannot borrow them. You have bound yourself legally
and morally, in accepting the trust, to hold them
exclusively for certain specified objects. You could
not take them even to keep yourself from breaking.
You could not take them to supply your family with
bread. Much less can you use them for a single day
to carry on a speculation. It is a most dangerous
thing to invade the sanctity of a trust. The man
who does it, although from no unworthy motives and
with the full intention of replacing soon the means he
"borrows," has weakened his own sense of obligation
and put his integrity in imminent jeopardy. He may
even have in view the good of the party whose trustee
he is, but if he acts without warrant, this will not
exculpate him.  "To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken, than the fat of rams." Our courts
and those of England are justly rigorous in enforcing
fidelity to trusts. And notwithstanding this, the inexperienced and the helpless are continually falling
a prey to recklessness or cupidity on the part of their
financial guardians. Times of speculation especially
make sad havoc with the consciences of trustees.
Thousands of widows and children have had reason
to mourn these disastrous seasons, so fatal to the
virtue or the prudence of the custodians of their
little property. 
COLLATERAL sPECULATIONs.
But irrespective of trust-funds, a merchant, I have
said, is not authorized, in ordinary circumstances, to
employ his capital or credit in speculations aside fromnt
his proper business. Thile reason is, because this was
not contemplated by his creditors in their transactions
with him, and it would be unjust to them. They
loaned him money, or sold him goods, with the clear
understanding that he was to confine himself to
the business he was engaged in. They knew the
usual risks of trade, and were willing to trust him.
Had he said to them, "I intend also to speculate
in stocks," they might or might not have trusted
him: - -(somewhat remarkable men if they had.)
In any event, they would have acted with their eyes
open. But now that he has their property in his
hands, he has no right to subject it to hazards which
they never sanctioned.  If you add a new flue to
your store without notifying your insurers, it absolves
them from all responsibility in case of loss.  You are
violating the same principle, and on a much broader
scale, when you secretly embark in these foreign
speculations. You are augmenting the risks of your
creditors manifoldly, without increasing yourpremium.
The original contract is vitiated by the introduction
of a new element; and they might justly complain
of you as deceivers and covenant-breakers. You certainly will not attempt to vindicate this conduct by
13
145 
146    THiE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
the morality of the Bible: the very least of your
children, if old enough to grasp the terms of the
statement, would tell you that you had done wrong.
And morality aside, this is madness for a firm, even
on the score of policy. A habit of this sort is pretty
certain to become known; and this will give the deathblow to the credit of any house of limited means. Banks
and importers will not trust a house which is known
to be dabbling in stocks or other "extra-hazardous"
commodities. A year or two since, one of the partners in a wealthy New-York firm lost a large sum of
money at a watering-place by gambling. The newspapers reported the occurrence, and the firm was soon
dissolved. This was their only alternative. Who
would trust them, after it was known that they had
a confirmed gambler among them? The same principle applies in the other case. Credit and responsibility are correlative terms. Where there is no presumed responsibility, there will be no credit. And
the responsibility of a mercantile house, whose position is such that the daily bulletins of the Board of
Brokers are of more interest to it than the "PriceCurrent," is like one of the unknown quantities in an
algebraic formula. Such a house has no moral right
to borrow money for pretended commercial purposes,
and apply it to the purchase of fresh scrip or to the
liquidation of its losses on previous speculations. This 
LIABILITIES OF COPARTNERS.
is practically conceded by the very men who are
guilty of it. It is consciousness of wrong-doing which
makes them conceal these things from their creditors:
for they well know that on giving the least hint of
them, the loans now so generously granted, would be
as peremptorily refused.
It might abate the ardour of those financiers who
are so eager to entice merchants (or their capital) into
the Stock Exchange, to consider, that if a member
of a firm embarks in these speculations without the
knowledge of his partners, the firm is not bound by
his engagements.  "The legal authority of the partners" (I use the language of one of the first commercial lawyers in the United States*) "takes its form
and shape from the ordinary scope and objects of the
partnership-business, and is limited to their contracts;
and acts done by each copartner in the ordinary or
fair prosecution of the ostensible business of the firm,
are obligatory on it; beyond this, they are not binding on the partnership; they are unauthorized, and
can only be made to affect the copartnership by showing the actual consent of all its members. Thus, a
house dealing in dry goods, would not ordinarily be
bound by the purchase, by one of its partners, of a
ship, unless the purchase were sanctioned by his co
* Daniel Lord, Jun., Esquire, of New York.
147 
148    THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HIOUSE.
partners.  So, a house running a line of packets to
another port, would not ordinarily be bound by a purchase of hardware by one of its partners.  A house
dealing in hardware would not be bound by a purchase of dry goods, nor would any mercantile firm be
charged with stock-speculations. - The principle is,
that by openly pursuing a specific kind of business,
the copartnership limits are announced, and the copartners are not to be deemed authorized to transact
other kinds on the credit of their firm. The common
purpose of the union being specific, the acts and conduct of the parties having reference to this purpose,
must conform to the contemplation of the parties;
nor have the public reason to hold it otherwise."
The speculating eras of which we have been speaking, are so associated in the public mind with BANKS,
that it may be proper to make a few observations at
this point on the management of those institutions.
Their vital connection with the general prosperity of
nations, must be too apparent to admit of argument.
The State has delegated to them one of its highest
prerogatives, that of creating a currency. The course
of events has made them not simply conveniences, but
indispensable implements to the prosecution of coirmnerce. Politicians may find it useful to decry the
entire policy, but no man whose character and experience are such as to entitle his opinions to respect, 
BANKS.
would think it expedient to annihilate the present
banking system of the world. Then, again, the extent
of its operations shows how closely it is identified
with all the substantive interests of commerce. The
transactions of the fourteen banks in this city, amount,
on the lowest estimate, to five hundred millions of
dollars per annum, and may reach twice that sum.
It will be seen at once, when the number of banks in
the United States is taken into the account, that
every citizen, however secluded his situation, has a
stake in the proper management of this colossal
enginery. That there is much misconception abroad
respecting the legitimate functions of these corporations; that they are often expected to perform offices
which have not been confided to them; that the jealousies and prejudices directed against them are frequently the fruit of private spleen or political craftare points which do not admit of a question; but it
is not my province to discuss them. There are things
which the moralist may insist upon. And one of these,
is, that the directors of a bank or other corporate
institution, are obviously bound to be faithful to their
trust.
This seems a mere truism. But there is a prevalent impression that as a practical matter, it is greatly
neglected. It is alleged, that gentlemen are in the
habit of seeking a place in the Direction of these
13*
149 
150    THIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
institutions, whose qualifications are quite apocryphal,
and whose aims are purely personal. It is further
alleged, that many gentlemen holding these situations,
take no pains to keep themselves informed of the
actual state of the business entrusted to them; that
they remit the whole control of things to the executive
officers, with, perhaps, one or two of their own number; and that thus they are directors who direct
nothing, or, as we say in the church of a certain
class of the clergy, "ministers without charge."
If these things are so, the parties implicated may
well be admonished of their error. They are the
administrators of a Trust. They have engaged to
administer it wisely and faithfully, according to their
ability. They stand before the stock-holders and
before the public, as the guardians and sponsors of
important vested rights. Their names inspire confidence in the trust, and invite operations based upon
its presumed security. This responsibility cannot be
transferred. They have no moral right, as they have
no legal authority, to perform their duties by vicar.
If they are not competent, or if they have not the
time, to attend to these duties, let them resign.
While they retain the office, they will be held accountable for diligence and fidelity in meeting its requisitions. This does not imply that they are to usurp
the functions of presidents, cashiers, and secretaries. 
DUTIES  OF  DIRECTORS.
Still less does it exact of them such a supervision as
shall preclude all possible fraud and forgery on the
part of unprincipled officials. No human sagacity
can counterwork villany in all cases. But it does
import that they shall know what their institution is
doing, how its funds are employed, and whether it is
honestly carrying out the ends contemplated in its
charter. A little more fidelity on the part of Boards
of Direction, would have prevented some of the
worst financial "explosions" which have disgraced
the country.
Another principle (just hinted at) which a teacher
of morals may insist upon, is, that these institutions
shall confine themselves to the objects for which they
were chartered, and prosecute these with integrity,
prudence, and impartiality. This they have agreed
to do in accepting their charters; and it is an immorality, more or less marked, if they come short of it.
Various questions might arise here, on which casuists,
no less than financiers, would differ. Declining all
debateable topics, it is evident that a corporation may
contravene the spirit, if not the letter, of its charter,
by wielding its power for political purposes. It is a
supposable case, for example, that the railroad companies of a State might combine to effect a revolution
in its politics: or that a bank might employ its funds
in promoting the election of particular candidates to
151 
152   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
public offices. This would be a breach of trust: their
charters were given for no such purposes as these.Equally apparent is it, that an institution which loans
its money at a usurious interest, is guilty of an immorality. Of the expediency of the usury laws, I am
not called upon to speak. While they exist, all corporations are bound to respect them- bound, not
simply by the obligation which rests upon private
citizens, but by a specific compact which they have
entered into with the Commonwealth, and the violation of which, directly or indirectly, is a crime against
society.
There is an opinion somewhat prevalent, that banks
ought to confine their loans to "business-men," and
that, among these, they should rarely lend money to
their own directors. We may dissent from this doctrine in both its parts, without sanctioning the acknowledged abuses from which it has sprung. The business-men of a community may in general be allowed
a precedence in the way of bank-accommodation, but
there seems no reason, in the nature of things, why
all other classes should be excluded. If a physician
requires a loan for the purchase of a horse, or a lawyer in buying a library, why should they be denied?
And if a merchant becomes a bank-director, possibly
at a sacrifice of his personal convenience, why should
this circumstance deprive him of the aid the bank has 
PERVERTED INSTITUTIONS.
been in the habit of according to him?  But there
are -at least there have been in former times -
usages which are justly to be reprobated. In the
annals of American finance, examples are not want ing of institutions which have employed their entire
resources in illegitimate schemes.   The capital which
should have gone to the promotion of commerce, has
gone into the hands of favourites, to be used in speculttion, or in building up a few houses at the expense
of their neighbours. Notes which have been refused
at their counters, have been "done" with the identical
means elsewhere and at usurious rates. Merchants
who had an equitable claim upon their help, have
been left to "make or break" as they might, while
the funds they should have received, have been secretly used to carry on some magnificent operations
on private account. What commerce has lost, the
stock-exchange has gained. And however it may
have fared with the plodding traffickers, the speculators have had no cause to complain.
It is pleasant to think that in so far as our own
city is concerned, institutions of this sort, if they ever
had a place amongst us, belong to the province of the
historian;* and that if one of them should re-appear
* This opinion has been called in question. If it be erroneous, the compliment is of course cancelled. But I choose
to hope for the best.
153 
154   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
here, it would meet with no sympathy from the banks
which now adorn our metropolis. Such an institution,
wherever found, is, in fact, a nuisance. The men
who control it, faithless to every trust, and swayed
by the basest motives, are chargeable with a criminality so much the more flagrant than that of private
offenders, as they have prostituted to a mercenary
self-aggrandizement, a more generous confidence and
more ample resources. They have used the seal of
the government to sanctify their treachery, and abused
the confidence of the commonwealth to aim a serious
blow at its prosperity. To attempt to screen themselves behind the impersonality of "the bank," is
only another proof that cupidity and cowardice are
twin sisters. The "bank" is but an alias for themselves. Human jurisprudence may fail of establishing their identity; but it may be worth their while
to consider, whether it is the "bank" that will be
called upon to answer for these delinquencies at the
Great Assize.
No crisis ever occurs in the money-market, that
"the banks" do not come in for a lavish amount of
censure. The usual assumption is, that they have
had a controlling agency in inflating prices to a dangerous extent, and are therefore responsible for the
reaction which follows. That this may have been so
in any particular case, is quite certain. But it ought 
TRUE POSITION OF BANKS.
to be considered that banks, in their legitimate character, are not the regulators, but the implements of
trade; and that while they may influence the tides
which bear the great flotillas of commerce, they are
themselves swayed by those tides. It is not their
prerogative to decide whether a merchant shall extend
his business beyond prudent limits or embark in an
insane speculation. That is his concern. And if a
community choose to do those things, and find themselves after a while, as the natural consequence, drifting towards the shoals of insolvency, they should at
least suspend their maledictions against the banks,
until they learn whether the fault may not lie nearer
home. It is one of the invariable contingencies of
business, that the financial institutions of a country
may be obliged abruptly to reduce their discountline, and, to borrow a nautical phrase, shorten sail
in every practicable way. The money and the commerce, the husbandry and the politics, of the world,
are so reticulated, that a failure of the crops in
Turkey, or a civil revolution in Spain, might seriously
affect the condition of every bank in Missouri or
Iowa. A wise merchant will consider this in laying
his plans, and beware of so entangling himself with
banks that a change in their policy will subvert his
foundations. The spirit of this observation is also
applicable to the banks. Subordinate as they are to
155 
156    THIE BIBLE IN THIE COUNTING-HOUSE.
higher agencies in the trading and political world, it
should be a point of morals with them, no less than a
rule of practical wisdom, so to conduct their affairs
as to reduce the amount of disturbance they may
suffer from these extrinsic causes to the lowest possible
degree. The very best quality in the working of a
bank, next to inflexible honesty, is steadiness. If I
may recur again to the sea for an illustration, when
a vessel is in tempestuous weather, or traversing an
intricate channel, one's ear is saluted with the constant iteration of the cry to the helmsman, "Steady!"
"Steady!" I know not that there is any word in
the language which better deserves to be hung up in
large capitals in our bank-parlours, than this homely
Saxon dissyllable, "STEADY!" "STEADY!" The crew
that can keep a financial ship steady through all the
conflicting winds and currents of the business-world,
is deserving of as much honour as the intrepid navigators who thread their way in safety through the
ice-fields of the Northern circle. And, it may be
added, the crew that do not aim at this, and strain
every nerve to accomplish it, should be discharged
on the first opportunity.
I have not intended by any remarks which have
been made, to exonerate banks from all responsibility
in bringing about commercial panics. In too many
instances they have had a leading part in producing 
USE AND ABUSE OF POWER.
these calamities. It may be unreasonable to require
them to "regulate the trade" of a country, but they
can abstain from a policy which will engender a speculating mania, and tempt houses to be imprudent.
Indeed, there is a question of morals, as well as a
question of expediency, involved in the loaning of
their funds, whether with or without reference to a
crisis. They are neither to feed the fever of speculation by "doing" the paper of firms already, as may
be currently understood, beyond their depth in rash
adventures; nor are they to abet dishonesty by sustaining men who have made a fortune by failing.
Honourable men who have experienced misfortune,
have a claim upon them. Nor is there among all
their functions a single one more beneficent and
praiseworthy, than that of assisting to set on their
feet, individuals of tried integrity, whose disasters
have only revealed to their creditors fresh grounds
for respect and confidence. But they have no right
to treat a swindler thus. A man who has notoriously
defrauded his creditors, and is by common consent
branded as a rogue, it is not their province to restore
to his former standing. They might as well put their
seal on a forged draft, and send it out as genuine.
It matters not that the party concerned may tender
them ample securities. His paper is tainted; and if
they touch it, the profits they make upon it, go into
14
157 
158   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
their vaults as the "wages of unrighteousness." They
are not a mere money-making corporation.  They are
trustees. They have no more right to debauch the
morals of the community, than they have to circulate
counterfeit notes. And they are doing this whenever
they employ their great powers to reinstate an unprincipled man in the public confidence.
The only qualification to be appended to this statement, is, that the principle shall not be extended to
cases of merely alleged fraud.  Almost every failure
brings out a charge of fraud from some quarter.
And a majority of failures certainly involve indiscretions which cannot be deemed innocent.   But
these are usually treated with lenity, where a man
bears himself frankly and ingenuously at the time of
his catastrophe. Banks must beware how they allow
themselves, in dealing with examples of this sort, to
imbibe the resentments of creditors, and oppress firms
which are trying to retrieve their former errors by a
judicious and upright policy. It is one of the benign
principles of the Divine government, " Ie that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy." We
are bound to adopt it in our intercourse with one
another. But neither individuals nor corporations
can be required to countenance those who, having
defrauded their neighbours once, give no evidence
that they will not, should occasion offer, do it again. 
DEALING IN STOCKS.
The bank which violates this rule for the sake of
securing an advantageous account, invades the rights
of society, and tramples the moral code of the Bible
in the dust.
I have had repeated occasion to refer to STOCKS.
To preclude any misapprehension in what I am about
to say further on this subject, I wish to observe, that
as stocks have become one of the essential means of
commercial and political progress, so they are as
legitimate an article of traffic as any other commodity. It is highly proper that there should be a
distinct class of men devoted to this business. Nothing shall be uttered here in derogation of the respectability and utility of the profession as such. It
comprises many gentlemen, in all our cities, of the
highest standing for integrity. If it also embraces not
a few individuals of equivocal honesty, this is no less
the misfortune of other professions. Indiscriminate
censures are always unjust. No profession is to be
judged by its unworthy members, nor any usage by
its abuses. But neither should the personal excellence of individuals, nor the honourable nature of
their calling, prevent us from arraigning the abuses
which may have crept in among them, and which
they may be supposed to deplore equally with candid
observers from without. It is, indeed, impossible to
avoid this topic in the  most  cursory notice of a
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160    TIlE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
passion for speculation: for the stock-board is, more
than any other point, the focus where this passion
concentrates itself, and which has the chief agency
in inflaming it.
If this business were confined to bona fide stocks
and bona fide investments, the moralist might have
little ground of complaint. But this is not so. Many
of the stocks which are bought and sold, have no real
value, and are thus excluded from the sphere of honourable commerce, which, as already observed, consists in "the exchange of equivalents for mutual
advantage."  What  "exchange  of equivalents" is
there when you sell a man one of these "fancies"
worth five dollars, for a hundred dollars? Have you
given him the worth of his money? You will say,
the man should know his own business, and if he
chooses to buy a worthless article, it is no fault of
yours.  But have you a right to deal in "worthless
articles" -that is, have you a right to set an exorbitant fictitious value upon them, and so put them off
upon your neighlbours, who, as you know, can make
no use of them, and, to recover their outlay, must
treat some one else as you have treated them? You
will meet this by saying, that transactions of this
kind are perfectly understood: no one is deceived
by them: the stocks are neither sold nor bought for
investments; they are not even transferred: the whole 
CONTRACTS ON TIME.
object with both parties is to make a profit on them.
If you add, these contracts are usually on time, we
shall have the whole case before us. And a very bad
case it is.
For, in the first place, you are trafficking in a
mere fiction. As this class of transactions is commonly managed, the scrip would answer your purpose
just as well if it ostensibly represented so many lots
at the North Pole or in the moon. It is no part of
your real object to sell the stock at all, nor of the
buyer's to purchase it. You do not, probably, own
it: and he does not want it. And at the stipulated
period for consummating the transaction, you will
part with no stock, and he will receive none. You
sell your neighbour, for example, 100 shares of some
fancy stock, deliverable in thirty days, for $11,000.
WVhen the day arrives, you may be able to purchase
the       requisite amount of scrip for $10,000.  Or, the
market having advanced during the month, it may
cost you $11,500. The other party does not want
the scrip, and you never meant to buy it. All
you  were aiming at, was, the "differences."   So
the operation is closed, in the former case, by his
handing you his check for a thousand dollars, and in
the      latter, by your handing him your check for five
hundred dollars- the market-price on the day of
settlement regulating the balances. This is substan       14*
161 
162 THE BIBLE IN TIHE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
tially the nature of these transactions: with their
endless modifications we are not concerned. The
briefest possible glance at the thing will show that
this is not commerce, but gambling -sheer, downright, unmitigated GAMBLING. If you sell a cargo
of flour or of cotton, a case of merchandize or a
dwelling-house, deliverable at the end of a month,
you expect, as a matter of course, to transfer the
property, and the other party expects to receive it
and pay the money. This is legitimate commerce.
There are responsible parties, a contract, and an
actual exchange of equivalents. In the other case,
the parties may be responsible men, or irresponsible.
Any individual who is able to get together a few
hundred dollars (if even this is necessary), can operate
in these gambling stocks on a large scale. All he
requires is cash or credit enough to meet the amount
of his bet, in the event of his losing. For, stripped
of its technicalities, this selling "on time" is simply
a wager that the stock in question will be worth a
certain sum on a specified day. The principle is
identically the same with betting on a battle or a
horse-race. So the laws of England and those of
some of our own States regard it. In England, a
penalty of ~500 is laid upon every person who makes
a "time-bargain," and the same penalty upon every
one contracting for the sale of stock of which hlie is 
GAMBLING IN STOCKS.
not possessed at the date of the contract. In Pennsylvania, all sales of stocks to be delivered more than
five days after the contract, are prohibited, under a
penalty of from one hundred to a thousand dollars;
and the amount of the "differences" paid under any
such contract, with an additional penalty of twenty
per cent. on the said payment, may be recovered at
law by the losing party, his heirs or assigns. In New
York, the statute prohibits all contracts for the sale
of stocks, and declares them absolutely void, unless
the party contracting to sell or transfer the same,
shall, at the making of such contract, be in the actual
possession of the certificates thereof, or otherwise entitled in his own right, or acting for others so entitled,
to sell or transfer the same.   It also prohibits and
declares void all wagers concerning the present or
future price of stocks, and provides that money paid
or goods delivered by way of premium or difference,
in pursuance of contracts or wagers so made, may be
recovered back from the party receiving the same
and his personal representatives.    It is quite immaterial to our purpose, whether these laws are enforced
or not.  Enough that this sort of traffic is pronounced
by the public authorities of different countries, to be
an immorality.   Like other kinds of gambling, it
requires but little capital, and holds out great enticements to mere adventurers and fortune-hunters. The
1.63 
164    TIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
most honourable men may amass a sudden fortune by
dealing in stocks. There is no reason why they should
not employ their sagacity, experience, and capital, in
watching for favourable investments and opportune
transfers, in the Funds- provided only they shun
contracts on time, and do a real, not a fictitious,
business.  But it is a great social evil that speculators
who have neither means nor moral principle, should,
by a few reckless wagers at the stock-board, roll up
a princely estate, and then use it to dazzle the town
with their extravagance. These examples are adapted
to have a pernicious influence upon the tribes of
young men who are engaged in mercantile and manufacturing occupations. They are apt to enkindle in
the minds of clerks a disgust at the tedious processes
of commerce, and to allure them from the solid paths
of industry into the treacherous realm of speculation.
Mlany of them venture upon this without counting the
cost, and end by robbing their employers and blasting
their own characters.  Scarcely a year passes that
does not bring to light some melancholy instances of
this kind; and there are doubtless very many others
which are never revealed to the public.
The whole evil has not been stated. It results from
the nature of these transactions, that where any great
amounts are pending, the market will not be left to
the control of natural or legitimate causes.  It is the 
VICE MADE REPUTABLE.
interest of one party to enhance, and of the other to
depress, it. Each, therefore, will employ all available
agencies to accomplish his own end. Reports favourable or prejudicial to the stock; false rumours about
public affairs; "money-articles" in venal newspapers;
combinations and counter-combinations  among the
dealers; these are familiar implements in carrying
forward the contests of the stock-exchange. Whatever generalship the operators may have, is sure to
be put in requisition. No other form of gambling
opens a wider field for strategy and deception, or one
which is more thoroughly cultivated.  To say that
the necessary effect must be to sear their feelings and
debauch their principles, is only to repeat what may
be heard every day in the street. But the mischief
is not confined to themselves. Such a system as this,
is like a cancer at the heart of a community. Very
many are drawn in and actually infected with the
poison. Then, again, the enormity of the practice is
lost sight of in the numbers and the respectability
of the parties who countenance it.  It goes to diffuse
lax notions of moral obligation; to elevate craft and
cunning to a level with integrity; to inspire the feeling that success will sanctify fraud; and to stimulate
still more the predominant passion for speedy accumulation. This is not conjecture, but history. The
public sentiment in all our great cities is so vitiated
165 
166   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
on this subject, that there is very little hope of correcting it.   " Gambling in stocks" is as current a
phrase, as gambling at cards or at billiards. But the
public sentiment tolerates and shelters it. It even
lavishes its respect and its honours upon the men who
win the most bets and carry off the largest stakes.
The moralist who ventures to point the maledictions
of the decalogue against the system, is viewed as a
well-meaning, but simple, man, who  might  as well
spare his strength, or apply it to the removal of some
more tractable evil. And neither the remonstrances
of the pulpit, nor the frequent disasters which overwhelm men engaged in these pursuits, and leave them
with blasted fortunes and characters and with ruined
families, have hitherto sufficed to arouse the community to the demoralizing tendencies of this traffic.
This is the more ominous, because there seems to be
no theoretical difference of opinion on the subject.
All persons not engaged in these speculative schemes,
concur in branding them as immoral in their very
principle. If the immorality lay in the adjuncts or
incidents, the antidote would be, reformation.   But
it lies in the essence of the thing, and the only effectual remedy, therefore, is excision.
Every consideration of virtue and of social prosperity demands that the traffic in stocks should be
regulated by the same general rules which govern the 
FICTITIOUS MERCHANDIZE.
other branches of commerce. Why should it not be?
What is there in the nature of the commodity itself
which is bought and sold, or in its relations to the
public interest, to entitle this traffic to an exemption
from the established laws of trade? Yet such an
exemption is conceded to it. Let an association of
merchants attempt to introduce the usages of the stockexchange into the business of Market street or Pearl
street- to buy and sell " on time" worthless or fictitious fabrics - fabrics of which there was not, and
never would be, a piece in their stores -for dealing
in which neither clerks, nor porters, nor packing
boxes, would be required - and which would only
pass from hand to hand in a supposititious transfer,
by the payment of "differences" on the prescribed
day of delivery. Is there a city in the Union that
would tolerate such a bare-faced system of gambling
for a single month?  Would there not be a universal
burst of indignation, at the audacity and profligacy
of the thing? Yet wherein would it differ from that
class of transactions in stocks on which I am animadverting? The commodities are unlike, but that is
all. The principle is the same. And the question
for merchants and financiers to settle, is, why a practice should be openly fostered and encouraged in one
department of commerce, which would be hooted from
any other department of commerce as a disreputable
167 
168    THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IOtUS2.
immorality? This question derives increased significancy from the fact, already noted, that the true
character of the practice is not denied. All men
(those interested excepted) agree in pronouncing it,
not only a violation of the Scripture code of morals,
but a huge fountain of social corruption.  Why, then,
is it not suppressed?  Why do not the large and influential body of upright men belonging to that profession, wipe off this stain from their escutcheon, and
bring back at least the official business of the stockboard to its legitimate channels? Private transactions they cannot control, although by a moral influence they might reach even these. But their inability
to prevent private gambling, does not absolve them
from the obligation to discountenance, and, if possible,
abolish, public gambling. If they have not the courage to attempt this, the officers of the law should
supply their lack of service. And if these are disposed to wink at the evil, measures should be adopted
to form a more healthful public sentiment, which
might suppress this iniquity, and protect society from
its multifarious mischiefs.
In dismissing this subject, I must once more disclaim any intention to impugn the ordinary traffic in
public and corporate securities. The stock-broker is
as indispensable as the merchant, and his legitimate
business every way as respectable and useful. I will 
DANGERS OF COVETOUSNESS.
not say that there are no evils to be corrected within
the sphere where his business lies, and to which, if
he is a true man, he confines himself. But I have
not chosen to speak of them in this Lecture. Every
word of censure I have uttered, has had respect to a
system which is beyond the pale of lawful commerce,
the opprobrium of the stock-exchange, and a plaguespot upon the face of society.
Logical exactness might demand, in deference to
the main design of this Lecture, some further notice
of stock-jobbing in its connection with periods of
excessive speculation. But the length of this discussion admonishes me to close -which I do by reminding you of a saying of our Lord's, which is extremely
apposite to our own age and country. The motive
power which propels the vast machinery of commerce,
its iniquitous no less than its beneficent agencies, is
the desire of wealth. This desire takes its moral hue
from its motives and its implements. Its perpetual
tendency is to excess; and we cannot, therefore,
ponder too often or too seriously the admonition,
"Take heed, and beware  of covetousness:  for a
man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the
things which he possesseth." You may accomplish
all that you have set your hearts upon, and compass
the utmost limits of accumulation with which your
15
169 
170    TIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IHOUSE.
fancy has loved to decorate your future consequence,
and still be without any solid happiness. Nay, the
more you surrender yourselves to the mastery of this
passion, the more certain are you to miss the true
enjoyment of life. Nor is this all. Amidst the cares
and aspirations of your Counting-rooms, there is a
process going on which involves your profoundest
interests. Business may thrive or languish, success
or disappointment may attend your plans, wealth or
poverty may be standing at your doors- it is all one
as to your ftteure destiny. Every hour is bearing
you on towards the judgment-seat of Christ; every
transaction in which you engage, every calamity that
sweeps over you, every auspicious venture that helps
to fill your coffers, is helping to mould your characters for endless blessedness or eternal wo. Whether
you are oppressed by the leaden stagnation of trade,
or elated by the ensigns of a luxuriant prosperity,
there is one interest that never droops, one mighty
Trafficker whose work never intermits. Invisible to
mortal eyes, hlie is gliding about among you, alike
active and unsparing in your seasons of depression,
and in the palmiest days of your commercial triumph.
While he keeps at a distance, you heed him not: he
may mow down his victims by thousands without disturbing your composure.  But sometimes he crosses
your path so near you- he strikes down a partner, 
A SUMMONS FROM ETERNITY.
a neighbour, a friend, so dear to your heart or so
closely affiliated with you in business, that you are
startled: you feel like one who sees the ground torn
up at his feet by a thunderbolt. For the time, you
feel that life's misnamed realities are airy nothings.
You are ready to exclaim, with the great British
statesman, "What shadows we are!  What shadows
we pursue!" But how transient, too often, are these
impressions! You miss that familiar form in your
walks, but the crowd closes in, and, after a few days
fills up the void produced by his removal; and though
he may not be at once forgotten, the solemn and
tender reflections awakened by his death, are soon
merged in the absorbing secularities of your profession. -Is this to act as becomes your rational
nature?   Can  you appeal,  in its vindication,  to
those maxims of prudence which govern you in
your business - arrangements. While you are contriving how you may increase your property, you
may be summoned to that world where all'the gold
that was ever mined, could not purchase a drop of
water to cool your parched tongues. While you are
lhanging with suspense upon the mails and the telegraph, for intelligence which is to consummate or
blast your earthly hopes, the voice of God may
fall upon your ear, "This night thy soul shall be
required of thee!" -I speak  as to wise  men.
171 
172    TIFlE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-IOUSE.
You need a portion which is satisfying and inalienable; which neither life with its temptations, nor
death with its disruption of all mortal ties, can take
from you. Such a portion is to be found only in
the Gospel of Christ.
"This is the field where hidden lies
The pearl of price unknown;
That merchant is divinely wise,
Who makes the pearl his own."
To secure it, is to have God for your Father, Christ
for your Saviour, and heaven for your heritage. To
neglect it, is to peril your everlasting felicity on the
uncertainties of every fleeting hour. Yield, while
you may, to the strivings of the Spirit, and accept
the proffered mercy: for "the redemption of the soul
is precious, and it ceaseth for ever!" 
LUXURIES.
BANKRUPTCY.
THERE is one invariable feature of a speculating
era, which, though alluded to in previous Lectures,
has not been set forth as its importance demandsI mean, luxury and extravagance. These are terms
of variable import, and it is not always practicable
to use them without the hazard of being misunderstood. Nor is it the easiest thing in the world for a
Christian teacher to expound the utterances of the
Bible on this subject, in a way which shall meet
satisfactorily the exigencies of every case that may
demand a solution. To say, for example, that the
Bible prohibits all indulgence in luxuries, would be
taking very ambiguous and very dangerous groundambiguous, because the term "luxuries" is of apocryphal and mutable signification; and dangerous,
because, rigidly carried out, this rule might take the
bread out of some millions of mouths. To our ancestors at different periods, most of the articles which
15 *
173
il  rt Ur  Sixty 
174    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
we reckon among the indispensable conveniences, if
not the necessaries of life, would have been luxuries
- our houses, food, clothing, equipages, and the like.
Down to the fourteenth century, houses were built
without chimneys. Glazed windows were so rare in
England, that so late as 1567 the glass casements at
Alnwick Castle were taken down in the absence of
the family, to guard them from accident. It is re corded as a special proof of the munificence of the
pompous Thomas a Becket, when Lord Chancellor
(A. D. 1154), that "he caused his servants to cover
the floor of his dining-room with clean straw or hay
every morning in winter, and green branches of trees
in summer, that those guests who could not find room
to sit at table, might sit on the ground without spoiling their fine clothes." The first watches were made
in the fourteenth century. Linen and cotton and
silk were luxuries among the Romans: and the families of tradesmen are now more finely attired than
were the wives and daughters of the Ceesars.-And
the thing that has been, is that which shall be.
Many of our luxuries will in turn become commonplace comforts.
The term, too, has another relative meaning of
more practical importance than this. The station
and circumstances of individuals must be taken into
the account. That may be a luxury, certainly an 
THE QUESTION OF LABOUR.
extravagance, to one family, which is not to another.
It is not for a censor of morals to denounce every
private picture-gallery, or every elegant mansion, as
an extravagance, because these possessions are beyond
the reach of most persons: "for why is my liberty
judged of another man's conscience?" It is neither
argument nor apology, to say, "My neighbour has
done thus; therefore, I may do it." Where there is
an element of right and wrong, questions cannot be
settled in this way. There is another standard, "the
law and the testimony."
In another view, the absolute prohibition of luxuries might have a most disastrous influence upon the
well-being of mankind. The question of labour, it is
often said, is the great question of this age. What
shall be done with the masses? How employ them?
Itow remunerate them? How elevate them? Idleness has always been fatal to them. And if they
were restricted to the production of the mere conveniences of life, whether by agriculture or the mechanic
arts, the great body of them would soon have to
abandon their occupations, and either go into almshouses or betake themselves to hunting and fishing
for a livelihood. Nothing is more certain than that
the traffic in articles of taste and fancy, is one of the
chief sources of support to the working population of
the globe. How many deserving families would suffer
175 
176   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
by a sumptuary law forbidding the citizens of this
country to use coaches, or gold watches, or books in
costly binding; or by a statute like that of England
in 1337, restricting even the wealthy to two courses
at a meal and two dishes to a course; or like one in
Ireland a century later, prohibiting gilt bridles and
harness, under pain of confiscation. That cannot be
a Scripture code of ethics which would turn thousands
of industrious artisans adrift upon the world without
occupation. Nor could society sustain itself under
such a regimen. Its means of wealth and progress
would be seriously abridged, and a general decline
would ensue, no less in its intellectual and moral,
than in its material interests.
The evil, however, is, that these principles are
grossly abused and perverted in seasons of speculation. The money which is hurriedly made, is wastefully expended. The contest for gain in the arena
of business, is carried forward as a race for ostentation in social life. Profusion becomes the order of
the day with those who can, and those who cannot
afford it. Luxury is made, not the exception, but
the rule. Houses vieing with palaces in splendor, a
style of dress suited to a Court, entertainments which
would not discredit an imperial "Reception,"  day
turned into night and night into day, artificial manners, artificial characters, and the endless trumpery 
SHOW AND SUBSTANCE.
which goes to make up a life of fashionable dissipation,- such are the familiar concomitants of one of
these periods of commercial inflation.   The entire
social structure assumes by degrees a type corresponding with the prevailing idolatry of Mammon. The
current talk is of money and fortunes. The flow of
adulation is in the channels money has dug, and toward the points where new-made wealth holds its
levees. People are gauged, not by their worth, but
by what they are worth;* or rather by what they
seem to be worth. For these are times of show more
than of substance. It is one of the foolish and unwarrantable expedients for maintaining credit, to keep
up an expensive domestic establishment; and you
know not from any outward symbols, whether such
an establishment is an evidence of wealth, or simply
a device to preserve the appearance of wealth. We
will put the most charitable construction, however,
on all that meets the eye, and assume that the examples around us are those of men who have really
amassed great riches by a brief career of earnest and
daring speculation. Let us trace them a step or two
further.
It is apparent (to repeat a thought already ex
* "For what in worth is anything
But so much money as'twill bring."-BUTLER.
177 
178   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
pressed), that they have lost the advantages which
are bound up in a business-life. They have reached
the goal, but by a side-road. Their hopes are turned
into golden fruition; but they have missed that personal training which would have outweighed all their
gold.
"What men most covet, wealth, distinction, power,
Are baubles nothing worth, that only serve
To rouse us up as children in the schools
Are roused up to exertion. The reward
Is in the race we run, not in the prize;
And they, the few that have it ere they earn it,
Know not, nor ever can, the generous pride
That glows in him who on himself relies,
Entering the lists of life."
The parties we are contemplating, are most happy to
relinquish these advantages to others. The road to
fortune by which they have travelled, has conducted
them to the rewards of business without its cares
and anxieties. Their garners are filled, without the
trouble of sowing and reaping. What remains but
to address themselves to the duties of their new position, and to enjoy the fruits of their good fortune?
One of the visions which flitted before them in their
days of speculation, was a well-stocked Library. The
vision is realized. There is the library, very rich and
very beautiful -books, cases, lounges, pictures, all 
TIIE LIBRARY.
arranged with skill and splendour. One thing only
is wanting- a taste for reading. They wonder that
the great lights of literature should be so very dull.
They pass from History to Philosophy, from Philosophy to Biography, and then to Politics, Travels, Divinity, Romance, Painting, but "'tis all barren."
Paradise Lost is nothing to the "money article" in
the morning paper.-Literature is taking its revenge.
They discarded her for years, and now she discards
them. They surrendered themselves to one passion.
The chief end of man, in their creed, was to get rich.
And they talked and planned and dreamed of money,
until the world was, to them, nothing but a great
money-shop. They won the race, but came out of it
altered men.   "Can a man take fire in his bosom,
and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon
hot coals, and his feet not be burned?" Neither can
a man sell himself to avarice, without having every
refined and generous sentiment of his nature weakened
by it. They may have the library; but it will be to
them very much what the great libraries of the Dark
Ages were to the monks who kept the keys of them.*
* Some other persons have bought literature "by measure,"
besides the English steward who wrote to a bookseller in London, for books to complete his master's library, in the following terms: -" In the first place, I want six feet of Theology,
the same quantity of letaphlysics, and near a yard of old
Civil Law, in folio."
179 
180   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
Another of their visions was a quiet and elegant
Iome, with ample leisure for the training of their
children and the fruition of domestic comfort. During
their few years of business, their houses have been to
them rather like taverns, where they have taken their
meals and lodgings, than their homes. When ostensibly there, it has been their physical presence merely,
their thoughts have been on'Change or at the Board
of Brokers, with a cotton speculation at Liverpool,
or a land speculation in Illinois, or a flour speculation
at San Francisco. As to educating their children,
they have indeed transferred them to a larger house,
and thrown around them the glare of luxury; but
the whole responsibility of forming their principles
has been left to other hands. This hard necessity
has now passed away, and they will hasten back
(so they think) to their firesides as a bird to its nest.
But home, somehow, is not what they expected to
find it. They dispensed with it so long, that it ceased
to be essential to them.   The master-passion which
consumed their early literary tastes, made sad inroads
upon their domestic affections. They learn, to their
surprise, that going abroad, which has ceased to be
a necessity, has become a matter of choice, and that
the financiers and traffickers of the town, are better
company than that around their own hearth.
Their children they can instruct in the mysteries 
UNCONSCIOUS TEACIING.
of trade and finance, in the most lucrative kinds of
traffic and the best investments; but they would be
at some loss how to imbue them with enlarged views
of their relations and duties, and to inspire them with
those pure principles and exalted aims which are
alone worthy of an intelligent and accountable race
of creatures. In one aspect, they may have done
more to educate them than they were aware of. A
family of children accustomed to hear money made
the standing theme of conversation, the gauge and
measure of all other values, will be likely either to
inherit the father's covetousness, or to plunge into
the vortex of fashionable frivolity. And in the latter
case, he may find it as hopeless to bring them back
to the simple tastes and habits which preceded his
first successful speculation, as he would to reduce a
forest of giant oaks to a nursery.
Another duty which has been all along assigned to
this golden era, is, preparation for death and eternity. But the same incapacity or indisposition waits
upon them in this office as in the others. They discover that there are other obstacles between their
souls and heaven, than "the claims of business."
They have "made haste to be rich," and they must
bear the consequences. A career of speculation has
a peculiar tendency to make men both selfish and
proud, not to speak of its searing the conscience and
16
181 
182   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
multiplying the cords which bind them to the world.
And where covetousness and inordinate self-esteem
join together in taking possession of a man, he is
about as well fortified against religion as any character to be met with in society.  "With God all things
are possible," and such men are sometimes changed
into humble and liberal Christians. But it is, unhappily, no fancy sketch which the poet has drawn of
gold and its worshippers, who
" on its altar sacrificed ease, peace,
Truth, faith, integrity; good conscience, friends,
Love, charity, benevolence, and all
The sweet and tender sympathies of life;
And, to complete the horrid, murderous rite,
And signalize their folly, offered up
Their souls and an eternity of bliss,
To gain them - what? an hour of dreaming joy,
A feverish hour, that hasted to be done
And ended in the bitterness of we."
The best side of this picture is not very promising.
If such are the common issues of a career of successful speculation, what are its opposite issues? It
would be useless to portray in its details the collapse
which usually follows one of these eras of commercial
bewilderment; but this seems a proper place to make
a few observations on the general subject of mercantile EMBARRASSMENTS AND BANKRUPTCIES.
Nearly twenty years ago an aged gentleman of 
LIABILITY TO FAILURE.
large experience in business, said to me, "Almost
every merchant fails." The remark startled me;
and he immediately repeated it, with emphasis:
"Almost every merchant fails once."  Most persons
might be disposed to qualify it. And yet there are
some very striking statistics published on the subject.
The testimony of the late General Dearborn, who was
for twenty years Collector of the Port of Boston,
must be familiar to most merchants. In the course
of an agricultural address delivered in 1840, he said"After an extensive acquaintance with business men,
and having long been an attentive observer of the
course of events in the mercantile community, I am
satisfied that among one hundred merchants and
traders in this city (Boston), not more than three
ever acquired an independence. It was with great
distrust that I came to this conclusion; but, after
consulting with an experienced merchant he fully
admitted its truth."
The following communication subsequently appeared in the "Farmer's Library:"
"The statement made by General Dearborn appeared to
me so startling, so appalling, that I was induced to examine
it with much care, and, I regret to say, I found it true. I
then called upon a friend, a great antiquarian, a gentleman
always referred to in all matters relating to the city of Boston,
and he told me that in the year 1800, he took a memorandum
183 
184    TIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
of every person on Long Wharf, and that in 1840 —which is
as long as a merchant continues in business-only five in
one hundred remained. They had all, in that time, failed,
or died destitute of property. I then went to a very intelligent
director of the Union Bank, a very strong bank. Ie told me
that the bank commenced business in 1798; that there was
then but one other bank in Boston, the Massachusetts Bank,
and that the bank was so overrun with business that the clerks
and officers were obliged to work until twelve o'clock at night
and all Sundays: that they had occasion to look back, a year
or two ago, and they found, that of the one thousand accounts
which were opened with them in starting, only six remained:
they had, in the forty years, either failed or died destitute of
property. Ihouses whose paper had passed without a question, had all gone in that time.'Bankruptcy,' said he,'is
like death, and almost as certain; they fall single and alone,
and are thus forgotten: but there is no escape from it, and
he is a fortunate man who fails young.'
"Another friend told me that he had occasion to look
through the Probate Office a few years since, and he was
surprised to find that over?tisiety per cent. of all the estates
settled there were insolvent.   And  within a few days, I
have gone back to the incorporation of our banks in Boston.
I have a list of the directors since they started.  This is,
however, a very unfair way of testing the rule, for bankdirectors are the most substantial men in the community.
In the old bank, over one-third had failed in forty years,
and in the new bank, a much larger proportion."
Allowing that these facts represent even approxi
mately the general coouse of things in our great cities, 
MORAL TESTS OF BANKRUPTCY.
there is matter in them for serious consideration on
the part of young men who are about selecting their
occupation for life.   Those who have inherited an
aminple patrimony especially, may well ponder them;
for it has. come to be an axiom, that if a young man
of fortune goes into business, he will fail of course.
Our present concern, however, is with the moral, not
the economical, aspects of this subject. And on this
point, it is proper to observe that there are many
failures which involve no dereliction of principle, and
leave no stain upon the character. The most upright
.,men sometimes fail. Men of tried prudence and of
great experience fail. Although no man of proper
sensibility can fail without feeling deeply concerned
on account of the losses others may suffer by him,
the circumstances of the disaster may be such as to
remove all ground for self-reproach.
But, on the other hand, we must except from this
category, bankruptcies brought about by causes like
those we have been dwelling upon in this and the
previous Lectures. A merchant who would recognize
the authority of the Bible in his Counting-House,
must consider carefully the proper tendencies of his
measures.  Habits and usages which ha?ve usually led
to bankruptcy, have a taint of immorality. There is
a line beyond which firms have no moral right to
16 *
185 
186    TIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
extend their business. It may not always be easy
to adjust this line, but no house will get far beyond
it without some misgivings; and when these begin,
they had better retrace their steps. Failures may be
brought about by sheer neglect and self-indulgence.
A prosperous trader may grow weary of the routine
of his warehouse. His clerks are competent and
faithful: there is no necessity for confining himself
as closely now as he did for the first year or two of
his business: why should he not devote a portion of
every pleasant day to sporting, or driving out, or
some other recreation? He tries it - and fails. Is
there no delinquency here? The case is still stronger
with the insolvencies occasioned by rash speculations
and domestic extravagance. A late eminent jurist
of our city has expressed himself on this point in
terms of eloquent indignation.   "Money so easily
got is as lightly spent, and brings us to another dark
and deep stain on our commercial reputation. The
proud splendour, the reckless extravagance, thie boundless luxury, in which these ephemeral princes indulge
themselves, is shockingly immoral, when, at the conclusion of the pageant, it appears that it was got up
at the expense, perhaps on the ruin, of their creditors.
Magnificent mansions in town and country, gorgeous
furniture, shining equipages, costly entertainments at
which five hundred or a thousand dollars are squan 
TESTIMONY OF JUDGE IIOPKINSON.
dered in an evening; in short, a style of living, an
exuberance of expenditure, which would be unwise in
our country with any amount of fortune, and is absolutely criminal in the actual circumstances of the
spendthrift. When the blow falls that prostrates this
grandeur, what efforts are made upon the good-nature
of the creditors, to retain as much as possible of these
gaudy trappings for the family, instead of casting
them away as the badges and testimonies of deception and dishonour! Little sympathy is shown for
the iniuries and losses of those who have fed with
their substance the bloated folly of the delinquent;
little regard to public opinion is manifested by him,
and scarcely a sense of decorum or shame: but every
thing is hurried to a conclusion, that he may resume
what he calls his business, be trusted, and- betray
again." *
It needs to be more deeply impressed upon the
conscience of the commercial world, that improvidence
in contracting debts, especially where this is associated with speculations and luxurious living, is itself
a palpable violation of the law of God. And the
question, whether a failure involves-immorality, will
admit of a speedy solution, if it can be shown that
this was the cause of it. The statistics on this point
* The HIon. Joseph Ilopkinson.
187 
188    TIlE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-H1OUSE.
relating to our last commercial crisis, are frightfulas will be seen by the following table: —
Number of applicants for relief under the gen   eral Bankrupt law, 1841................
Number of creditors returned...............
Amount of debts stated......................
Valuation of property surrendered...........
According to these returns, a capital of forty-three
millions was made to sustain an indebtedness of four
hundred and forty millions! And the real facts were
much worse. The dividends actually paid were, in
the Southern District of New York, one cent on the
dollar; in the Northern District, thirteen and onethird cents; in Connecticut, a half cent; in Mississippi, six cents to one thousand dollars; in Maine, a
half cent, in Michigan and Iowa, a quarter cent, in
New Jersey, four cents, to the hundred dollars- and
so on, throughout the Union. These figures are
pregnant with meaning. And they concern the moralist, no less than statesmen and legislators. They
display, as in a mirror, the reckless mania for speculation and prodigality, which brought about the crash
of'37. Four hundred millions of dollars swallowed
up, and nothing to show for it! Nothing? Alas,
there was too much to show for it. A paralyzed
commerce -stagnation in all the marts of business -
33,739
1,049,603
$440,934,615
$43,697,307 
A NATION DEBAUCIIED BY SPECULATION.  189
thousands of families ruined - comfort an'l opuleice
succeeded by penury and suffering - wrecks of fortunes and, far worse, wrecks of character, strewn all
over the land - faithlessness, dishonesty, treachery,
in every direction - crime enough to blast a nation
for this world and ruin them for the next: these
were the avails of that four hundred millions wasted
in riotous and wicked speculation. I mean what I
say -"wicked speculation."  It was wicked, inexcusably, flagrantly wicked. And its criminality is
not extenuated by the fact that through the favour
of a benign Providence, the recuperative energy of the
country has in a measure retrieved our pecuniary
losses. The most revolting features of that period
are ineradicable. History has engraved them upon
her tablets, and will hand them down to all coming
generations, as an illustration of the profound moral
debasement to which an unbridled passion for wealth
will reduce even the most powerful and prosperous
nation.
It has been aptly observed, that "directly above
the great cataract of insolvency, lie most dangerous
rapids." A boatman whose shallop has been drawn
into the whirling tide above Niagara, would supply
no inapposite exemplar of an embarrassed merchant
sweeping on towards the final catastrophe. Those
who have seen and shuddered over the spectacle, tell 
190   TIIE BIBLE IN THIE COUNTING-IHOUSE.
us that the struggles of a waterman caught in the
"Rapids," the superhuman energy with which he
tugs at his oars, the spasmodic grasp with which he
snatches at every projecting rock, the frenzy with
which he flies from one end of his frail skiff to the
other, and the commingled horror and despair depicted in his countenance, as the remorseless waves
hurry him on to the verge of the cataract, constitute
a scene which neither pen nor pencil could delineate.
You have its archetype among you, too often presented amidst the fluctuations of commerce not to be
familiar to every merchant. For who has not seen
the corresponding process enacted over and over again
in the walks of trade- an embarrassed house striving
to elude the demon of bankruptcy, which is hovering
over them,
"Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell."
With what anxiety and desperation do they labour to
stave off the impending calamity, which they see, and
yet will not see. What a rallying of their resources!
What skilful and rapid transmutations of their precarious credit into successive shapes, adjusted to fresh
exigencies!  New purchases and forced sales-  usurious loans - notes offered at untried banks - fresh
drafts upon  neighbouring houses -proceeds which
should have been remitted to their principals, applied 
THE DEATH-STRUGGLE.
to cancel paper - one piece of property after another
sacrificed- urgent appeals to private friends for succour- money raised on borrowed securities - and all
this while, appearances kept up -mind and body on
the rack - candour giving way to concealment - integrity breaking down - earnest and unsuccessful
efforts to regard wrong actions as right, and to believe there is no real danger- conscience reclaiming
the whole character deteriorating - and the house
driving on toward the abyss, until, at length,
"all unawares,
Fluttering their pennons vain, plumb down they drop
Ten thousand fathom deep."
This is no picture of the imagination. There is not
a large city in Europe or America where it has not
been realized in all its fulness, too often to attract
attention any longer by its novelty. All failures are
not of this kind, but so many are - this is so much
the usual course of things -that every merchant
ought to make up his mind as to its policy and its
morality. Viewing it from the stand-point we now
occupy, and testing it by the morality of the BIBLE,
there can be but one estimate formed of it. Its rashness, its folly, its (must I say it?) immorality, must
be known and read of all men. We may sympathize
with men who are brought into these most trying circumstances; we may honour their deep solicitude to
191 
192   THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HOUSE.
save themselves and their creditors: but we cannot,
as Scripture casuists, nor even as upright men, commend the course they have pursued. The universal
feeling will be, that they  ought to have stopped
SOONER.  They should not have shut their eyes to
their real condition. HIowever painful the conviction,
they ought to have yielded to it, that their resources
were inadequate to carry them through the storm,
and that it would be far better to succumb at once
than to consume their remaining assets in waging so
hopeless a contest.  These assets, they should have
remembered, were not theirs.   They belonged to
their creditors. And it was a double wrong, not
only to withhold from them what they had already
in hand, but to procure of them or of others, fresh
loans to be absorbed in paying off third parties.
There can be few things in mercantile experience
more vexatious, than to find that the paper your
neighbour obtained from you, was used by him, as he
was about breaking, to liquidate the claim of some
other house; or to see the iron or the produce you
sold him on credit last week, on the eve of his bankruptcy, stored away in the lofts of another firm, who
were as clamorous in demanding their money, as you
were generous in lending yours. It is too much to
expect that transactions of this kind should be borne
with equanimity. They are of a class of provocations 
DUTY OF INSOLVENTS.
which will set a passionate man on fire, and stir up
the displeasure of the very meekest spirits.
When the blow has fallen, other errors are frequenrtly committed no less serious.  If the property
of the bankrupt belongs to his creditors, it should be
handed over to them -promptly, entirely, without
concealment, without unjust preferences.  It is not
for him to say how it shall be disposed of, nor to
divide it at his discretion. The least he can in reason
or justice do, is, to surrender it to them, and let them
say what shall be done with it. If he does this, he
will have his reward.  Ilis own conscience will ratify
it, and his creditors, if they are high-minded men,
will be indulgent to his mistakes, and aid him, in so
far as he is worthy of their help, in resuscitating his
business. But instead of this honourable conduct,
many a bankrupt conceals a portion of his property,
submits a deceptive statement to his creditors, clogs
his surrender with unwarrantable  conditions, compromises on terms much below his true capacity, or
otherwise contravenes the first principles of morality.
You may even find men who grow rich by failing.
They have the tact and the audacity to regain confidence in financial circles, break as often as they may.
Every body believes them to be rogues, but they have
money, and "money answereth all thiings."  They
are trusted, therefore; and when the most eligible
17
193 
194    THIE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HOUSE.
moment in their stock-jobbing or other speculations
arrives, they "stop."   And the oftener they stop,
the wealthier they get. If they were poor, the law
might notice them.
"Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
Arm it in rags, a pigrmy's straw doth pierce it."
This surely is the reason- there can be no other
- why every great community embraces more or less
of these unprincipled bankrupts, who look out superciliously from their ceiled houses or their gorgeous
equipages, upon scores of industrious men whose
property their pretended "failures" have absorbed
into their estates.*  "This is a sore evil under the
sun:" happily for the mercantile body, it is less
common amnong them than in the ranks of professed
* These men belong to the class for whom bankrupt laws
were originally designed. "The first bankrupt statute, 34 &
35 Icen. VIII., c. 4, begins with this preamble:'Whereas
divers and sundry persons, craftily obtaining into their hands
great substance of other men's goods, do suddenly flee to
parts unknown, or keep their houses, not minding to pay or
restore to any their creditors their debts and duties, but at
their own wills and pleasures consume the substance obtained
b)y credit of other men, for their own pleasure and delicate
living, ag,ainst all reason, equity, and good conscience."
CHRISTIAN's BLACKSTONrE. 
SWINDLERS.
financiers.   But the baseness of such a career, may
well admonish every merchant of the importance,
should misfortune  overtake  him,  of  avoiding  the
remotest appearance of equivocation or dishonesty.
Bankruptcy is not necessarily linked with disgrace.
It is one of the noblest characteristics of the commercial profession, that they are so ready to succour a
brother in adversity. If he is really a competent
and deserving man, who has kept his integrity untarnished, they are certain to come to his relief.
And even if he has fallen into serious errors, there
is no class of men in society who will treat his frailties
with so much lenity, or be so ready to give him their confidence again, as his fellow-traffickers. But the shameless insolvent whose "misfortunes" are real crimes,
whose money is the wages of fraud, whose frequent
bankruptcies are the signals of his subtlety and avarice, and whose very offers of kindness, often, are but
piratical lights to decoy his neighbours upon the
rocks -this man can not expect to be admitted to
the fellowship of true merchants. They may use his
money in pressing emergencies when they can get no
other, but they will be likely to say of it, as has been
said of treason, " While we like the loan, we despise
the lender."
The great importance of this subject, will justify
me in fortifying the views which have been expressed,
195 
196   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
by an eminent authority, quoted in a former Lec
ture: -
'"In the protracted agony, it has been said, the greatest
errors are committed. Can they be avoided? Integrity demands that they should, and it never demands what is impossible. The first thing a man has to do in such circumstances,
is to take honest counsel with himself; to state the case firmly,
to examine it deliberately, and decide it justly; to go through
with it as a work he is bound in conscience to perform; not
slightingly, not carelessly, not deceitfully, but thoroughly, as
if he were upon his oath to make a true inventory and appraisement.  He is to look at his books, not to see the figures
there set down, but whether the value is what they represent.
Such a work is hard, very hard. Many a man closes his eyes,
because he knows what he would see if they were opened.
He perceives, but he voluntarily makes his perception indistinct, and persuades himself, or tries to persuade himself,
that the truth is obscure, when he knows it is clear. Ile cannot plead ignorance. He is therefore laying up for himself a
store of self-reproach, for finally he will be compelled to confess that he sinned against knowledge. The next thing to be
done, is to take counsel with judicious friends. If it be hard
for a man to look steadfastly at a painful and humiliating
truth, still harder for him is it frankly to make it known to
others. Yet it must be done, if we would profit by the advice
of friends. And lastly, it is the duty of a man in these circumstances, to counsel with his creditors, for it is their interest
that is to be dealt with. Safe counsellors they will be found,
and generous ones too, if they are honestly treated. This
measure, however, is seldom resorted to, and in these few
cases is too long postponed. In the mean time, that is, 
VALUE OF A LEGAL DISCHARGE.
between the first warning of coming calamity and its final
consummation, the ill-directed struggles of the failing man
plunge him deeper and deeper into embarrassments and injustice. But we need not attempt to follow him. Let us
only add, that the duty of integrity in such circumstances,
may be comprehended in a few words -a fair disclosure, a
full surrender, and an equal distribution."*
All this, we will now suppose, has been effected,
and the debtor, after paying his creditors the stipulated dividend, has received a legal discharge, and
is once more a free man. Is he still morally bound
for the residue of their claims? I answer without
hesitation, he is. The argument on this point is
very short.   Why is a man bound to pay his debts?
Not simply because the law of the land requires it.
We might suppose a company of emigrants to land
on a desert island, and commence trafficking among
themselves, prior to the adoption of any civil constitution. Every one must feel that they would be
bound to fulfil their contracts. There is, then, a
ground of obligation underlying all human legislation, and which that legislation, in fact, tacitly recognizes. Men are bound to pay their debts because it
is right. The law of God requires us to fulfil our
engagements: to do what we have promised to do.
Legislation may, within certain limits, prescribe the
* The Hon. John Sergeant.
17 *
197 
198   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
methods in which this principle shall be carried into
effect, but the principle itself is beyond its jurisdiction.
Nor is it any sufficient answer to say, that in the
case contemplated, the creditors have voluntarily
absolved the debtor from their demands against him.
In one sense, it is true, their act was voluntary.
They compounded with him, and gave him a release
because it was, under the circumstances, as they
thought, the best thing they could do for themselves,
and an act of kindness towards him. But it was not
"voluntary," if by this term it be intended to denote
that they would have preferred this course to the
full liquidation of their demands, or that they would
have acceded to it had there been any prospect,
through other means, of collecting their dues. They
did it, as it were, under constraint, certainly under
the constraint of benevolent feeling, and not with
any admission that they regarded their debtor as
having complied with his engagements.* It was no
part of their design to discharge his conscience, to
cancel the moral obligation of his dues. They have
simply given him a legal acquittance. Is it in his
power to change the essential nature of this transaction, from a legal into a moral absolution? Can he
* See Dymond on this point. 
PERMANENT OBLIGATION OF DEBTS.
take advantage of his own wrong, and make this act
of settlement to mean what they never intended it
should mean? Has he the authority to take the
awards of a human jurisprudence, and enrol them
among those moral judgments which constitute the
unalterable decrees of "heaven's chancery" -  to
confound the dicta of an earthly magistracy, or the
concessions extorted by his own errors or misfortunes
from his fellow-men, with the decisions of that august
tribunal, which reflects, in all its acts, the inviolable
rectitude of Jehovah? Because his creditors have
absolved him, has GOD absolved him?  Because the
statute-book obliterates his debts and annuls his
promises, does the BIBLE discharge him?  No one
will maintain this, who has not adopted that sordid
theory of virtue, which makes it a commodity to be
bought and sold at the shambles. The moral obligation of a debt continues until the debt is paid in full,
that is, until payment is tendered to the creditor.
If h,.ees fit to decline it, he may do so. The debtor
has d,1:harged his duty by making the offer. Henceforth he is free in morals and in law.
It is easy to account for the misgivings we may
feel on finding ourselves impelled towards this conclusion.  We picture to ourselves a deserving man,
overtaken by reverses, surrendering his property, and
discharged by his creditors;  and it seems at first
199 
200   THIE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
sight a hard case that hlie should still be bound for
his old debts, and obliged to appropriate his future
gains to their liquidation.  And the picture appeals
to our sympathies with an irresistible pathos, when
we reflect that there are, perhaps, thirty thousand*
of our countrymen in this situation. Not one syllable shall be uttered here in disparagement of the
hardship and suffering involved in very many of these
cases.  There are few earthly trials more difficult to
bear than some which come in this shape: to be insensible to them, were to be not more, but less, than
human. But principles are immutable. Like the
magnetic needle, which points steadily to the pole in
all latitudes and in all weathers, indifferent alike to
the calms which retard and the storms which shatter
the ship, they are unaffected by circumstances. And
whenever a people begin to let their circumstances
mould their principles, they will become speedily debauched. It is in this way, precisely, that the commercial character of our own country has at some
periods suffered a lamentable deterioration. To guard
against this danger, we must beware how we blunt
the public sensibility on the subject of bankruptcies,
or encourage the feeling that a "failure" is a trivial
matter, which involves the parties concerned in a little
* See the statistics already cited. 
BANKRUPTCY, A COMMON CALAMITY.   201
temporary inconvenience, without producing any further ill effects.  The prevalence of this sentiment
would be far more disastrous to a people, than all the
personal and social distress which marks a commercial
"crisis."  It ought to be felt -wherever there is a
healthy mercantile constitution, it is felt- that it is
a very serious thing for a house to fail. Such an
event, instead of being reported as part of the gossip
of the day, ought to send a thrill through the whole
community.   It should  be viewed as a common
calamity.   It should be treated as an occurrence
affecting more or less the interests and reputation of
the entire mercantile body, and demanding their calm
and considerate attention. I do not say that they
should visit the suspending house with their displeasure. But they have an interest in knowing how
and why it has stopped; whether through uncontrollable misfortune or through fraud; whether by some
" act of Providence" or by gross imprudence. And
according as they find the facts to be, should they
frame their judgment on the case and shape their
conduct.
It is easy to perceive how potent the moral influence of a state of feeling like this would be in preventing failures. Merchants would be more wary of
those habits and risks which define the highway to
insolvency. There would be less over-trading and 
202   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
speculating, less borrowing and endorsing, less of
regal state in the style of living, and less extravagance among the wives and daughters. Fewer fortunes would be made in a day, but the fortunes that
were made, would have some solidity. Fewer men
would retire "at thirty," but when they did retire,
they would be apt to sleep with a quiet conscience.
Fewer families might revel in luxury, but those who
had been raised to affluence, would be less likely to
wake up of a morning and find the sheriff taking an
inventory of their gorgeous drawing - rooms. - All
these and many kindred results, would be promoted
by the prevalence of correct views on the subject
of bankruptcy. Wherever they have prevailed, other
prudent maxims have been combined with them, and
failures have been extremely rare. Our older merchants can recall such periods in our own history.
The annals of Holland will supply other examples. No
nation can point to a commercial career so untarnished
as that of the Dutch. Their system of small profits
and short credits would not suit the mercurial energy
of our countrymen; but, combined as it was with the
most sterling practical virtues, it conducted them to
the very apex of commercial opulence and renown.
"Failures among them were rare even in so distressing an era as the occupation of their country by the
French, which began in 1795, and involved, from the 
INTEGRITY OF THE DUTCH.
outset, a stoppage of maritime intercourse with all
their posessions in India and America. The consequence of this stoppage was a decay of trade, a suspension of various undertakings, a scarcity of work,
miserable dulness in the sale of goods; all leading,
in the first instance, to diminished income, and eventually to encroachment on capital: but amidst this
distress, the failures were surprisingly few, fewer
indeed than occur in Britain in any ordinary season."*
There is nothing in all the maritime enterprise and
prosperity of the Dutch, which reflects so much honour on them as facts like these. And the extraordinary results here recorded, are to be ascribed in no
inconsiderable degree, to the just sentiments they
cherished on the subject of bankruptcy. If we would
emulate them in their commercial glory, it must be
by fostering similar sentiments among our mercantile
classes. We must do nothing to subvert the great
moral principles which are the buttresses of all honourable commerce, and the decay of which is the sure
precursor of embarrassment. Among these principles,
are, the inviolability of contracts, the permanent obligation of debts, and the imperative duty of restricting one's pecuniary engagements to what would be
deemed, on a candid and prudent survey of things,
* Encyc. Brit.
203 
204   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
a just relation to the actual capital at command. A
general adherence to these principles, would leave
room for but few failures. Most of the paths which
lead to insolvency would be closed up. The stoppage
of a house would produce the same sensation in Philadelphia or New York, which it occasions in Amsterdam. And while the dishonest bankrupt might look
for general reprehension, men of real merit, overwhelmed by misfortune, would experience the most
generous sympathy, and be promptly aided in recovering their position.
It would be both easy and pleasant to illustrate
this last remark, by an appeal to the history of any
of our commercial cities. Numerous examples have
occurred, and are annually occurring, of mercantile
disasters, which have given occasion for the display
of some of the noblest qualities which can dignify our
nature.  It is one of the finest moral spectacles ever
presented in the progress of social life, that of a meritorious merchant struck down in his business by some
paralyzing blow, which has left him penniless, surrounded by a generous band of creditors, who come,
not merely to soothe him with words of sympathy,
but to employ their capital and influence in retrieving
his misfortune and placing him on his feet again.
And if there is any scene which surpasses this in true
pathos, it is to see this smitten merchant, now restored 
THE REGALIA OF COMMERCE.
by the blessing of Providence to thrift and comfort,
reassembling his benefactors, and requiting their munificence by a cheerful liquidation of all their claims.
Transactions of this kind have a value above all gold
and silver. They make us think the better of human
nature. They belong to the regalia of commerce.
They augment the moral power of the community
they adorn, and form, every one of them, a glorious
cynosure to the tribes of youth who are pressing on
amidst the conflicts and perils of a business-life.
This discussion will hardly be deemed unseasonable
at a period when the unparalleled prosperity of the
country is alluring so many persons into the very
practices we have been censuring. A philosophical
French writer has observed, that "the whole life of
an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle." This is no inapt description of the present state of the country. The
tendencies to inordinate speculation in real estate,
stocks, merchandize, and other commodities, are too
palpable to be mistaken. New schemes are broached
with a facility and an assurance which would not
have discredited the memorable era of'37. Of these,
some doubtless have a substantial basis, while others
rest upon thin air; and the last are at such junctures
quite as likely to take as the first. The adventurers
18
205 
206   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
who manage them, are never lacking in effrontery or
tact. They know under what auspices to propound
a project, and how to conciliate in its favour a community already inflamed with the fever of speculation.
They put in requisition the whole machinery of private circulars, newspaper laudations, telegraphic despatches, combinations, fictitious sales, and other appliances; and thus
"With air and empty names beguile the town,
And raise new credits first, then cry'em down;
Divide the empty nothing into shares,
And set the crowd together by the ears."
The signs of the times forebode an approaching
crash. It may not come next week, nor next year.
But if the present inflation of prices continues, and
wealth bewitches all classes with its sorceries, and
speculation runs riot through the land, the catastrophe
must come. Let it be impressed upon your minds,
then, that this is the season of danger. It is at such
periods that, "by little and little, circumspection
gives way to the desire and emulous ambition of
doing business, till, impatience and incaution on one
side, tempting and encouraging headlong adventure,
want of principle and confederacies of false credit on
the other, the movements of trade become yearly
gayer and gidldier, and end at length in a vortex of 
THE ONLY SURE EQUIPMENT.
hopes and hazards, of blinding passions and blind
practices, which should have been left, where alone
they ought ever to have been found, among the
wicked lunacies of the gaming-table."*
If you would escape these calamities, you must
stand by your principles now. And those principles
must be drawn from the WORD OF GOD, and written
by his own finger upon your hearts. There is no
other adequate safeguard for you. Human wisdom
cannot cope with the insidious dangers which beset
you. Human virtue is too weak to stand before
them. If they imperilled your property merely, it
were of less moment. If they put in jeopardy your
reputation or your lives, even this might be borne.
But they threaten, with the blasting of all your
earthly prospects, to destroy your souls -to "DROWN
YOU IN DESTRUCTION AND PERDITION!"  This it is
which makes your situation so fearful, and which
invests with such transcendent importance, the demands of the BIBLE upon your instant and lasting
homage. Open your hearts to the devout and grateful reception of the precious truth, that "Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners," and a
new passion will spring up within you capable of
subordinating to itself every adverse sentiment and
* Coleridge.
207 
208    TIIE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
habit. Clad in the panoply of the Gospel, you will
have the best possible protection against the dangers,
and the only adequate support under the trials, of a
business-life. Difficulties and losses you may still
encounter; but you will be sustained by an Almighty
arm, and cheered by the prospect of acceding in the
end to a crown of glory and a kingdom which shall
never be moved. 
DIFFERENT PHASES OF COMMIERCE.
Itfturt  tuti it.
PRINCIPALS AND CLERKS.
THiERE are two very different aspects in which a
great mercantile establishment may be contemplated.
You may enter one of these establishments, and as
you pass from room to room and loft to loft, and
survey the enormous piles of goods, the regiment of
clerks, porters, and packers, the throng of customers,
the activity and commotion and amicable strife of
tongues, which meet you on every side, your whole
impression of the scene may concentrate in the feeling -" What a display of enterprise! What a generous capital!  What a thriving business!"  While
the friend who is at your side, with far other eyes
penetrating the materialism of the spectacle, may be
wholly engrossed with the reflection, "What a school
is this for the training of the heart! I-ow rapidly
must the tenantry of this busy hive, principals and
subordinates of every grade, be ripening for glory or
for shame!"  These views are not incompatible: one
18 *
009 
210   THE BIBLE IN THIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
does not necessarily exclude the other. But with
very many merchants, unfortunately, the secular quite
neutralizes and absorbs the spiritual view.  It is the
habit of the commercial world to look at the little
community which peoples one of these great warehouses in its exclusively business relations. The tie
which binds the inmates together, is simply a tie of
convenience or of interest. The principal employs the
requisite staff of men to do his work: the work is done,
and they receive their wages: and this is the whole of
it. But if the BIBLE is to have a voice in the matter, there must be elements recognized in the organization which impress upon it a much higher character.  You cannot, with "the law and the testimony"
in your hands, sink the man in the merchant. There
is nothing in your avocation to absolve you from such
divine enactments as these: - " Whether, therefore,
ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the
glory of God."  "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself."  "As we have, therefore, opportunity, let
us do good unto all men."  "To him that knoweth
to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
These precepts are as binding in the Counting-room
as in the homestead; in your commercial, as in your
domestic, households. And if you will but allow
them their just weight, they will impregnate your
trafficking with a leaven of righteousness, and make 
RESPONSIBILITY OF PRINCIPALS.
it no less a ministration of usefulness than a means
of wealth.
It will be no strange thing, if this should prove, to
many merchants, an unwelcome topic. The idea of
assuming a responsibility over the moral training of
their subordinates, has scarcely occurred to them.
They have cares and anxieties enough already: how
can they find time to look after the morals of their
young men? - But let it abate the displeasure awakened by this suggestion, to reflect that you are
moulding the characters of these young men, whether
you will or not. Providence has placed them, for
the time being, under your roof, and you are shaping
their principles. They will no more leave your establishment as they entered it, than your sons will come
home from Yale or Princeton, the same unsophisticated youths they were when their mother, four years
ago, imprinted her farewell kiss upon their cheeks,
and sent them forth to share the advantages and the
dangers of a college-life. The process of education
is going on in the one case with as little interruption
as in the other; and the question for you to ponder,
is, not whether you will direct this process in your
counting-house, but how you will direct it.
And here it is very affecting to consider how many
mercantile firms there are, under whose administration the wholesome principles which the young men
2,1 1 
212    THE BIBLE IN THiE COUNTING-HiOUSE.
in their employ brought with them from their homes,
undergo a sad deterioration. It is not that these
firms have any deliberate purpose of corrupting the
morals of their clerks; but the commodious virtue
which presides in their warehouses, makes this result
unavoidable. "You must assuredly know that a certain quantity of what has been called shuffling, has
been introduced into the communications of the
trading-world- insomuch that the simplicity of yea,
yea, and nay, nay, is in some degree exploded; there
is a kind of understood toleration established for certain modes of expression, which could not, we are
much afraid, stand the rigid scrutiny of the great
day; and there is an abatement of confidence between
man and man, implying, we doubt, such a proportionate abatement of truth as goes to extend most
fearfully the condemnation that is due to all liars,
who shall have their part in the lake that burneth
with fire and brimstone. And who can compute the
effect of all this on the young and yet unpractised
observer? Who does not see, that it must go to
reduce the tone of his principles; and to involve him
in many a delicate struggle between the morality he
has learned from his catechism and the morality he
sees in the counting-house; and to obliterate, in his
mind, the distinctions between right and wrong; and
at length, to reconcile his conscience to a sin which, 
THILE DOWNWARD  PROCESS.
like every other, deserves the wrath and curse of
God; and to make him tamper with a direct commandment in such a way, as that falsehoods and
frauds might be nothing more, in his estimation, than
the peccadilloes of an innocent compliance with the
practices and moralities of the world?" * The first
stage in this downward process, is, to familiarize the
mind of a youth with the conventional deceptions of
trade -with its flexible dialect and its equivocal
usages. Then let him begin to practise these lessons
himself. And, finally, let him undertake, as he will
be prepared to do, to initiate his juniors into the
mysteries of this artificial code, under which words
are no longer the signs of ideas, and veracity becomes
a mere item of the Price-Current. This point attained,
and he will be qualified to assume the functions
of a principal, and direct the moral training of as
large a corps of clerks as his own business may
require.
I come at once to this topic, because it is no part
of my plan to discuss in detail the reciprocal duties
appertaining to this relation. I cannot, for example,
enlarge on the subject of wages -a very important
subject surely, and one which it belongs to the character of a true merchant to consider and adjust, with
* Dr. Chalmers.
213 
214   THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HIOUSE.
the utmost prudence and liberality.  "The labourer
is worthy of his hire." And if there are firms which
requite the services of faithful and diligent clerks
with a reluctant and niggard compensation -a compensation below the usual tariff of salaries and quite
disproportionate to their business - such firms would
do well to ponder that apostolic monition, "Behold,
the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your
fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth:
and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered
into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." (James 5: 4.)
It is in allusion to the context of this passage, that
Fuller, the quaint historian, says, "The same word
in the Greek (lo;) signifies rust and poison; and some
strong poison is made of the rust of metals, but none
more venomous than the rust of money, in the rich
man's purse, unjustly detained from the labourer,
which will poison and infect his whole estate." -
It is undoubtedly good policy, as well as sound principle, to pay the full stipends prescribed by general
custom, augmenting them, from time to time, according, to some equitable scale, and rewarding signal
merit with appropriate  testimonials.   To  do this
wisely, a merchant will require to keep his eye upon
the persons in his employ. Indeed, it will be both
to his credit and his advantage, to note the peculiar
traits of each one of his clerks- their faults, their 
LAFITTE.
virtues, their habits, their adaptations, and everything
pertaining to them. If he is a good judge of character, he will soon learn what they are from those
little things which are apt to be deemed of no account.
It is said that the fortune of M. Lafitte, the opulent
French banker, was made by his picking up a pin.
Arriving in Paris (A.D. 1788), a young provincial,
poor, modest, and timid, he called with a letter of
introduction upon MI. Perregeaux, an influential Swiss
banker. " It is impossible for me," said Monsieur P.
to him, "to admit you into my establishment, at least
for the present; all my offices have their complement.
If I require any one at a future time, I will see what
can be done." Turning away with a downcast look,
as the disappointed youth traversed the court-yard,
he stooped to pick up a pin, which he stuck in the
lappel of his coat.  The banker was watching him
from the window of his cabinet, and with a sagacious
eye, not unaided, we may suppose, by the previous
interview, saw in this trivial occurrence the index of
qualities which a financier would know how to appreciate. That evening, young Lafitte received from
M. Perregeaux a note to the following effect:
"A place is made for you in my office, which you may
take possession of to-morrow morning."
The banker was not deceived.  From simple clerk,
215 
216   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
Lafitte soon rose to be cashier, then partner, then
head of the first banking-house in Paris; and aftervards, in rapid succession, a Deputy, and President
of the Council of Ministers, the highest point to
which a citizen can aspire. And what is still more
to his honour, he was a generous friend to the needy
and unfortunate, and employed his princely wealth
in doing good.*
These are large results to flow from the picking
up of a pin. And the narrative, suggestive as it
must be to every thoughtful clerk, may illustrate the
importance of a merchant's observing closely the
characters of the young men he has gathered around
him.
Another topic on which it might be pertinent to
dwell, is, the proper carriage of a principal towards
his clerks. The Counting-House is no less a school
of manners and temper, than a school of morals.
Vulgarity, imperiousness, peevishness, caprice, on the
part of the heads, will produce their corresponding
effects upon the household.   Some merchants are
petty tyrants.  Some are too surly to be fit for any
charge, unless it be that of taming a shrew. The
coarseness of others, in manner and language, must
either disgust or contaminate all their subordinates.
* HIunt's Merbchants' Magazine. 
VALUE OF SUNSIIINE.
In one establishment you will encounter an unmanly
levity, which precludes all discipline. In another, a
mock dignity, which supplies the juveniles with a
standing theme of ridicule. In a third, a capriciousness of mood and temper, which reminds one of the
prophetic hints of the weather in the old almanacs"windy" -" cool"-" very pleasant"-" blustering"
" look out for storms" - and the like. And in a
fourth, a selfish acerbity, which exacts the most unreasonable services, and never cheers a clerk with a
word of encouragement. - These are sad infirmities.
,len ought not to have clerks until they know how
to treat them. Their own comfort, too, would be
greatly enhanced  by a different deportment.   In
turning over a magazine, my eye once fell upon a
paragraph headed, "The Daily Value of Sunshine."
I was at a loss to conjecture what this could mean.
On reading it, I found that the writer had employed
his ingenuity in calculating the average pecuniary
value of each day in ripening the crops of the United
States. Thus, suppose the aggregate worth of these
crops to be $500,000,000 annually, as the thorough
maturing of them depends essentially on the sunshine
of the four warmest months, its daily value must be
about four millions of dollars. It instantly occurred
to me to ask, if sunshine in the fields is worth four
millions, what would its daily value be in all the
19
217 
218    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
Couunting-IJouses of the United States?  It might
require an adept in the higher calculus to solve this
sum, but I apprehend there are clerks in some establishments who would set about it with some feeling.
Certain it is, that there is the greatest possible difference in the working of establishments, the heads of
which are men of a serene temper, whose cheerful
and friendly manner inspirits all their subalterns,
and those which are managed with a cold reserve or
a petulance which extinguishes all vivacity, and adds
fresh clogs to the leaden feet of labour. A wise
merchant even from policy, and a Christian merchant
from principle, will keep all the sunshine they can in
their counting-rooms.
But I am wandering from the higher theme, the
morals of this relation. Points of casuistry are sometimes obscured by unessential concomitants.   Let us
transfer the morality of trade to another theatre.
You return from your store, we will suppose, of an
evening, and, sitting down in your Library, hear your
son in the adjoining parlour describing to some inquisitive visitor various objects of utility or fancy deposited there.  "These lounges, sir," (he might say,)
"which are of a novel pattern, were made in Boston.
The lustres are from the ancient glass-manufactory
on the island of Mlurano, near Venice. This mosaic
table my father ordered on his last visit to Florence: 
DIALECT OF TRADE, IN TIIE PARLOUR.  219
it cost him a thousand dollars. That beautiful waterscene which you admire so much, was painted for himrn
by Horace Vernet, at an expense of seven hundred
dollars. It is the only painting we have in the house;
as my father does not choose to have his walls disfigured with mere daubs. This ivory cabinet fiom
China is the only one of the kind ever sent to this
country." And so, he might go on until the catalogue was finished. On the departure of his guest,
your son comes to you, and you meet him with an
outburst of surprise and displeasure.   " I-ow was it
possible, sir, for you to tell that gentleman so many
lies? You know very well that you have given him
an incorrect account of these articles. The lounges
were made in Chestnut street. The lustres are from
New England. The table is from Matlock, and cost
a hundred dollars. The painting was by Cole; I
paid him three hundred dollars for it: and besides,
there are a dozen other paintings up-stairs. And as
to the cabinet, the Chinese send them here by scores.
How could you utter such falsehoods?"  "Father,"
we may suppose this promising son to reply, "why
do you speak so harshly to me? I have done nothing
but what we are constantly doing at the store, and I
had no reason to believe that you disapproved of it.
I knew that this stranger was not a judge of these
objects, and that it would greatly enhance not only 
200   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
his astonishment, but his pleasure, to be told these
wonderful tales about them. Wherein does this differ
in principle from our customs at the counting-house?
For example, we clerks are sometimes directed to put
French labels on English goods. We sell American
cloths for English-just as good, no doubt, but still
they never saw England. We are not reproved for
calling old goods the'newest styles,' nor for telling
a man that the piece he is looking at, is the only one
we have in the store, or the only sample which has
been brought to the city. If an article cost twentyfive dollars a bale, we do not think it wrong, in trafficking, to say it cost thirty- which is only five
more. We are in the habit of saying that goods are
'all woollen' or'all silk,' when there may possibly
be a little cotton in them. And we take it for granted
this sort of dialect is justifiable, because we have observed that the members of the firm do not avoid it
in their intercourse with customers. Why, then, should
I not talk at home as I do at the ware-rooms? Certainly you will not say that a mode of speaking which
is wrong in Walnut street, may be right in Market
street; or that there is one system of morality for
business, and another for domestic life? Indeed, it
strikes me, that of the two, there is less harm in
dealing in a little exaggeration at home than at the
counting - house; because here we do it simply to 
THE MORAL LAW, NO PHANTASM.
increase the pleasure of our friends and make their
time pass agreeably; whereas we employ it there to
get money out of our customers."
Such might be your son's vindication of himself.
And I confess, I do not very well see how it could
be refuted.  In any event, I should be sorry to have
the task of answering him, devolved upon me. For
I can imagine nothing more embarrassing to a casuist,
than to be called upon to prove that the law delivered
in the midst of that majestic scene at Sinai, is, after
all, nothing but a mere "dissolving view," which
vanishes into a totally different thing as a man passes
from his dwelling-house to his counting-room.
The idea of so reforming the vocabulary of trade
as to make it harmonize with the only true standard,
may appear to some persons very chimerical. But
there are many firms whose example goes to dispel
the mischievous delusion, that some measure of fraud
and falsehood is necessary to the successful prosecution of business. With these houses, it would be a
grave offence for a clerk to tell a lie. And as to
encouraging them in this practice, they would sooner
abandon business altogether than do it. They would
regard it as a crime to tamper with the conscience of
an ingenuous youth who had been confided for the
time to their guardianship. It were no trivial wrong,
to deny him the proper facilities for obtaining a
19 *
221 
222   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HIOUSE.
knowledge of the business, or to refuse him an equitable compensation for his services. But deliberately
to subvert his moral principles, by teaching him to
ignore all distinction between truth and falsehood, is
an atrocity they would shrink from as they would
from putting the drunkard's cup in his hands.* And
they are right. Among all the contents of their
spacious warehouses, and all the interests committed
to their management, there are none of higher value,
none for their treatment of which they will be held
to a more rigid responsibility, than the consciences
of these young men. Let them beware how they
neglect or abuse so sacred a deposit.
This caution may be extended further. There is
one practice, in particular, very current, as it is
alleged, in our commercial cities, which deserves to
be noticed in this connection. I have been repeatedly requested to speak of it in these Lectures, and
the impressions which prevail about it are of the most
decided and painful character. The following communication has been sent to me on the subject: -
* I am acquainted with a most estimable gentleman in this
city, who was dismissed from a clerkship some years ago,
because he positively refused to tell a lie on his employer's
requiring him to do it. The principal broke, and went to
ruin: the clerk is now a successful and honoured merchant. 
DRUMMING.
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 21, 1853.
To the REv. DR. BOARDEfAN.
Dear Sir: — Will you allow an auditor to ask your attention to a certain usage of commercial men, with the hope that
it will not be passed in silence in your public Lectures. The
allusion is to what in professional cant, is called drumming
or boring. A young man, on entering into the service of a
commercial house, soon learns that his compensation, encouragement, and aid, from the the firm, will depend, not merely
upon his urbanity, activity, and address, as a salesman, but,
in an equal or greater degree, upon his success in drawing
custom to the house.  This requires him, when  the business
of the day is closed, to resort to places of entertainment with
strangers and acquaintances who come to the city for trade.
To mature a mercenary acquaintance and secure his custom,
he calls to his aid the cigar and the social glass, and tarries
long, it may be, at the wine; he goes in company with him
to places of public amusement, or pilots the unprincipled
stranger to more hidden scenes of vice. In this service, a
young man soon learns to put away a good conscience from
him, and barters his fair fame and his immortal interests for
the poor profits of another's unrighteous gain.
This evil may be illustrated by a single example. Some
time since, a young man in one of our large cities fell under
the censure of his employer, when he returned upon his reprover this terrible retort: -" Sir, I came into your service
uncorrupt in principles and in morals. But the rules of your
house required me to spend my evenings at places of public
entertainment and amusement, in search of customers. To
accomplish my work in your service, I was obliged to drink
with them, and join with them in their pursuit of pleasure.
228 
224   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
It was not my choice, but the rule of the house. I went with
them to the theatre and to the billiard table: but it was not
my choice.  I did not wish to go; I went in your service.  It
was not my pleasure so to do; but I was the conductor and
companion of' the simple ones,' void alike of understanding
and of principle, in their sinful pleasures and deeds of deeper
darkness, that I might retain them as your customers. Your
interest required it. I have added thousands of dollars to
the profits of your trade, but at what expense you now see,
and I know too well. You have become wealthy: but I am
poor indeed. And now this cruel dismissal from your employ,
is the recompense I receive, for a character ruined and prospects blasted, in helping to make you a rich man!"
This may be an extreme case; but of the multitudes who
crowd our hotels and hover around the places of public resort
as drummers for their respective houses in the season of active
trade, who can doubt that many are led into temptation, and
drawn unto death, encouraged by the principal, who, if
he does not directly require the service, smiles approbation,
with a masterly unconsciousness respecting the iniquitous
means by which his trade is increased.
Very respectfully, yours,         -.
This letter may serve both for text and commentary. It is not for me to say how far the usage prevails, of which it speaks, nor to what extent its details
are sanctioned by the mercantile body. Among the
expedients for increasing custom, generated by the
competition and enterprise of the times, it is not,
perhaps, surprising that young men, answering to the
" commercial travellers" of some of the European 
USE AND ABUSE OF THE PRINCIPLE.    225
countries, should be sent out to traverse our distant
States, and that others should be charged with the
duty of waiting on merchants from abroad as they
arrive in the great cities. In themselves considered,
these practices involve no principle of morals, and
every merchant must judge for himself as to the
expediency of adopting them, or either of them. But
the latter of them is clearly liable to great abuse;
and if we may credit what we hear, is actually abused,
to an extent which demands the serious attention of
the entire mercantile profession.
I shall not be deemed to take ground adverse to
commercial tact and vigilance, if I maintain, that any
system of which the case presented in the letter just
quoted may be regarded as a fair exposition, must be
radically wrong. If any one chooses to assert the
indefeasible right of a city jobber to employ young
men in "boring" country merchants, it would  be
quite absurd to argue that question here. So the
country merchants are willing to be "bored," it were
very officious in a third party to come in and say
they should not be gratified. But I venture to take
my stand between these young men and their principals, and to say, that you have no right to commission them to use such arts as the letter sets forth,
for the purpose of bringing customers to your stores.
Nor (that I may forestall any evasion of this proposi 
226   THE BIBLE IN THiE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
tion) have you a right to connive at their doing the
things which ai-e therein described. It will not avail
to say, "I have never instructed my salesmen  to
'drink' with strangers, and take them to the theatre
and other places of vicious amusement." Salesmen
may not be "instructed" on this head at all; but
unless the public are at fault, they rarely engage
in these practices, that their principals do not know
of it, and too commonly they are supplied with
extra funds for the very purpose. I see no difference in morals between sanctioning the thing directly, and winking at it.* -Nor is it any justification, to urge, that strangers naturally wish to participate in the amusements of a large city, and it is
but common courtesy to supply them with a guide.
Of the abstract right of strangers or citizens to sustain such amusements as are contemplated in these
remarks, I shall not now speak. They have their
own responsibility in the premises: let them see to
that. But whence comes your obligation, or even
your authority, to send, or theirs to employ, your
* A gentleman of New York who heard this Lecture, subsequently stated to the author, that he knew of houses in
that city, claimiitg to stand in the first rank as honourable
firms, which kept a private money-drawer from which the
clerks supplied themselves with funds to be expended in the
manner described in the text. 
A HUMAN SACRIFICE.
clerks on this business? If you choose to go yourselves, very well. I do not say that you would be
innocent, but you would escape the criminality which
attaches to the existing usage.  "Criminality," I
say; and I mean it. Take the example in the letter.
Can there be two opinions as to the criminality of
that firm?  "To accomplish my work in your service, I was obliged to drink with them, and join with
them in their pursuit of pleasure. It was not my
choice, but the will of the house. I went with them
to the theatre and to the billiard-table: but it was
not my choice; I did not wish to go: I went in your
service."-Why, if you could poll the civilized world,
you would have a verdict of guilty pronounced against
them by acciamation. The ruin of their clerk lies at
their door. They thrust him into a thicket of temptations, which they had every reason to believe would
destroy him.  They knew what was the common result of the career in which they started him. Tens
of thousands of young men in their own city, had
gone to destruction in the same way: how was he to
escape? This, unhappily, was not the question with
them. They wanted customers; and if customers can
be got by offering up to Mammon, one of their clerks,
the son possibly of a widowed mother, they are willing to sacrifice him. And when they have so debauched him that he is no longer fit even to be the
227 
228   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
minion of their avarice, then they consummate their
huge iniquity, by branding him with disgrace, and
sending him forth to break the heart of the mother
that bare him, and, unless saved as by miracle, to go
down to a drunkard's grave and the drunkard's hell!
Ye ruthless devotees of MIammon! drive on your
eager traffic. Roll up your ample profits. Rejoice
in your expanding business. Array your households
in purple and fine linen. And revel in the gratulations of a sycophantic world.  But there is a curse
in your prosperity. Your gains are the price of
BLOOD.   There is blood upon  your  merchandize;
blood upon your coffers; blood upon all your wretched
pageantry; blood upon your souls! The blood of
that betrayed and immolated youth, cries to heaven
for vengeance; the anguish of that broken-hearted
mother, pierces the ear of the Lord God of Sabaoth;
and sooner or later, except ye be sprinkled with the
blood which turns vengeance into mercy, you must
confront your victim before a tribunal where the rust
of your cankered gold "shall be a witness against
you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire!"
It cannot be that this colossal iniquity is chargeable upon many of the firms which challenge an honourable standing in the commercial world; but there
is a principle here which may require to be enforced
upon merchants of every class. Your responsibility 
PATERNAL SUPERVISION.
as to your clerks is not restricted to the hours they
spend in your warehouses.   The same  obligation
which forbids your sending them into scenes of dissipation in quest of custom, makes it incumbent upon
you to know where they are living, and what are
their usual evening avocations. A merchant, certainly, who means to fulfil his duties to his clerks in
the spirit of the Bible, will see that they are not
boarding at unsuitable places. Ile will interest them,
if practicable, in some library company or other institution, which may offer them attractive and rational
relaxation. He will caution them against vicious
companions and corrupting amusements.   He will
counsel them to a due observance of the Sabbath,
and a regular attendance at some evangelical church.
And whenever his quick eye detects about them
symptoms of negligence or wrong-doing, hlie will
interpose his friendly aid in a private and judicious
manner, to arrest the evil at the outset, and reestablish their goings. These arc offices which every
merchant would wish to have his own sons enjoy at
the hands of a brother-merchant: why, then, should
you not all extend them to the entire corps of your
clerks? Inexperienced, as many of them must be,
absent from their homes, and beset with snares, they
need, not merely an employer, but a friend. Who
so fit to be their friends as their employers? You
20
229 
230    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
cannot, if you would, avoid moulding, more or less,
their plastic characters: is it not an object worthy
of a generous ambition, to exert your power over
them for their highest good; to train them to integrity and respectability as merchants, and to surround
them, as far as you can, with influences which are
favourabIe to their eternal well-being? It will be a
pleasant reflection on your death - bed, that your
Counting-House has been a school of virtue to your
assistants; that no young man ever learned there to
be sordid or deceitful; that you bestowed a paternal
care upon your clerks, and uniformly endeavoured as
well to protect their morals and promote their salvation, as to educate them to an honourable commercial
life.
I know not that I can better introduce the few
suggestions to which 1 must limit myself in addressing CLERKS, than by quoting a paper which is interesting in itself and from its history. You will all
remember the burning of the steamer Henry Clay on
the Hudson River last summer - one of those wholesale murders with which we have become familiar in
this country, and which show how little removed we
are as a nation, in our practical estimate of the value
of human life, from a state of downright barbarism.
Among the numerous victims of that flagitious crime, 
STEPHEN ALLEN.
was the Hlon. STEPHEN ALLEN, an aged and opulent
merchant of New York, who had filled the Mayoralty
of that city and various other public offices, with credit
to himself and satisfaction to his constituents. On
recovering the body of this venerable man, a day or
two after the disaster, a well-worn newspaper-slip
was found in his pocket-book, of which the following
is a copy: -
Keep good company or none.
Never be idle.
If your hands cannot be usefully employed, attend to the
cultivation of your mind.
Always speak the truth.
Make few promises.
Live up to your engagements.
Keep your own secrets, if you have any.
When you speak to a person, look him in the face.
Good company and good conversation are the very sinews
of virtue.
Good character is above all things else.
Your character cannot be essentially injured, except by
your own acts. 
If any one speaks evil of you, let your life be so that
none will believe him.
Drink no kind of intoxicating liquors.
Ever live (misfortunes excepted) within your income.
When you retire to bed, think over what you have been
doing during the day.
Make no haste to be rich, if you would prosper.
231 
232   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
Small and steady gains give competency with tranquillity
of mind.
Never play at any kind of game of chance.
Avoid temptation, through fear you may not withstand it.
Earn money before you spend it.
Never run into debt, unless you see a way to get out again.
Never borrow, if you can possibly avoid it.
Do not marry until you are able to support a wife.
Never speak evil of any one.
Be just before you are generous.
Keep yourself innocent, if you would be happy.
Save when you are young, to spend when you are old.
Read over the above maxims at least once a week.
This was MIr. Allen's Vade Mecum, his pocket-companion and chart. The maxims were embodied in
his life, and, by the favour of Providence, conducted
him to wealth and honour. You will readily see that,
excellent as they are in the main, they are very defective, some principles and duties of prime importance being omitted altogether. It is pleasant to
know that these had engaged, more and more, the
attention of this upright and useful citizen during
the closing years of his life, and that he expressed
to his friends, not only his firm belief in the doctrines
af Christianity, but his personal reliance upon its
SAVIOUR.
The counsels are not cited here as being exclusively applicable to young men: some of themrn con 
DUTIES OF A CLERK.
template rather the merchant than the clerk. But
both classes may consult them with advantage.
Having set them before you, I go on to observe,
in the spirit of these hints, that
Rvery clerk should identify himself with the house
he is engaged in. This is one of the most obvious
principles appertaining to this relation. From the
moment you enter the service of a firm, their interest
must be yours. You sustain a relation to them, which
you hold to no other house. While you are not to
stoop to any immorality for the purpose of serving
them, you are to guard their property and their
reputation, as though they were your own; you are
to avoid whatever may injure them, and do all in
your power to contribute to their prosperity. If it
is incumbent upon your principals to take a friendly
interest in you, the correlative obligation rests upon
you to promote, as you may be able, both their business and their personal comfort. It is not always
the fault of the principals, that the tie which binds
the tenantry of a commercial establishment together
is of a mere mercenary character: the most liberal
policy on their part may be thwarted by a set of perverse or selfish clerks.
It is only a modification of the principle just
affirmed, to insist upon the strictest fidelity in discharyin,C all the duties proper to the position you
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234    THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
occupy. It cannot be necessary to repeat here the
familiar adage, that "whatever is worth doing at all,
should be well done." But let every clerk remember, that there is no department of the work entrusted
to him, which is not embraced in the obligation, to
serve his employers to the very best of his ability.
There are many ways in which he may violate this
rule, short of going to the safe and thrusting his hand
into the money-drawer. He may fail in punctuality.
He may so exhaust his energies with an evening's
dissipation, as to be unfitted for the next day's duties.
He may perform his work in a listless, drowsy manner, not only unjust to the house, but provoking to
his fellow-clerks, since their toil will have to bear the
brunt of his laziness. He may see goods suffering
from exposure or other causes, without protecting
them. He may alienate customers by the gruffness
of his manner or his offensive volubility. He may
disappoint others by failing to have their goods or
their bills ready at the stipulated time. lie may
arrogate an unauthorized responsibility in the opening of new accounts, and thus involve the firm in
vexatious and mortifying negotiations.    He  may
neglect to forward goods as per agreement, without
writing to apprize the owner of the reason. I-e
may turn town-crier, and publish far and near those
private matters concerning the business of the house, 
EYE-SERVICE.
which every sentiment of honour should restrain him
from breathing outside the ware - rooms.  Ile may
recommend for a clerkship some inefficient or unreliable crony, who wants a place, but does not deserve
one. - These, and very many other things like these,
which a clerk may do, are incompatible with fidelity,
and in derogation of his employers' just claims upon
him.
The essential quality for a young man in this position, is that sound moral principle which is at once
the best monitor to duty and the surest guarantee of
confidence. I can picture to myself the daily routine
of two clerks, one of whom is swayed by principle,
and the other by policy. The latter is of that class
the apostle had in view when he said -  "not with
eye-service, as men-pleasers." His performances are
all summed up in the phrase, "eye-service."  When
his employers are present, he is extremely diligent.
Behind their backs, he is a model of sloth and unfaithfulness. So it can be concealed from them, he
cares not how late he comes to his work, how little
of it he does, nor how much he slights it. Whatever
time he bestows upon labour, is so much lost: he finds
his life in lounging and trifling, in idle gossip and
trashy novels. - His fellow is of a widely different
type. The power which controls his movements, is
not in the eye of his master, but in his owvn breast.
235 
236    TIIE BIBLE IN THiE COUNTING-HOUSE.
It matters not with him, who is present, or who absent. His work is to be done, irrespective of all outward circumstances. The interpretation he puts upon
his articles of agreement, makes him do for his employers as he would do for himself. Always at his
post, he pursues his avocation with an unfaltering
step. Impelled to diligence and constancy, not by
the fear of a discharge, but by the consciousness of
right, he enjoys a serenity of mind to which his companion is a stranger, and is as steadily advancing
towards honour and usefulness, as the other is sinking into disgrace and contempt.- It cannot be too
often reiterated in the ears of our young men, that
this is the true path to success. "Wait not for great
occasions before you begin to act; wherever your lot
may be cast, the sphere of duty lies immediately
around you. Fill it up with an example of the kindness that attracts, the sincerity that can be seen
through like crystal, the diligence that anticipates
duty, the trustworthiness that defies suspicion, the
openheartedness that opens other hearts, the manly
character that commands esteem, the Christian character that arms its possessor with a power more than
earthly. Defer not to a distant time the intention
to begin." "One to-day is worth two to-morrows."
Only treat duty as a sacred thing, and you will find
that " in keeping His commandments there is great
reward." 
TEMIPERS AND MIANNERS.
Among the minor causes of failure with young
men in this relation, the subject of tempers and
manners deserves a prominence which cannot be
conceded to it in these brief discussions. That a
clerkship is frequently a severe school of discipline
for the temper, cannot be denied. But this is a part
of the necessary training of a merchant. Let it encourage those who are subjected to the caprices of
unreasonable employers, who are found fault with
when they are guiltless of all wrong, scolded when
they have done the best they could, and denied indulgences which others enjoy, that the self-control
they are acquiring under this rough tutelage, may be
of more value to them hereafter than all the smiles
their masters could lavish upon them. And beware
of cherishing tempers which might give just occasion
for reproof. It is not enough that you be honest and
industrious and intelligent. A clerk may be all this,
and yet neutralize the impression of his good qualities
by a levity which makes him seem a mere trifler.
Or he may repel people by his sulkiness or his irritability. He may be foolishly sensitive to affronts.
lie may be a slave to envy and jealousy. He may
be utterly deficient in that good feeling which would
make him willing to lend a helping hand to his fellows
in time of need. He may be too proud for his station, and deem it an indignity to perform offices which
237 
238    TIlE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
better and wiser men than himself have often performed without scruple.  "A man's pride shall bring
him low, but honour shall uphold the humble in
spirit." Let me quote on this point, a paragraph
from a very pleasant letter of Dr. Franklin's (written
in his seventy-ninth year) to Dr. Mather of Boston:
"It is now more than sixty years since I left Boston; but
I remember well both your father and grandfather, having
heard them both in the pulpit, and seen them in their houses.
The last time I saw your father was in the beginning of 1724.
He received me into his Library, and on my taking leave,
showed me a shorter way out of the house through a narrow
passage, which was crossed by a beam over-head. We were
still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind, and
I turning partly towards him, when he said hastily,'Stoop,'
'Stoop.' I did not understand him till I felt my head hit
against the beam. He was a man that never missed any
occasion of giving instruction; and upon this he said to me,
'You are young, and have the world before you: STOOP as
you go through it, and you will miss many  hard thuimps.'
The advice thus beat into my head, has frequently been of
use to me, and I often think of it when I see pride mortified,
and misfortunes brought upon people by their carrying their
heads too high."
People of every avocation may profit by this lesson; and the clerk who is disposed to take it voluntarily, will fare better than he who waits to have it
"beaten into his head" by some mortifying occurrence or positive loss. Rely upon it, if you do not 
LEARNING TO STOOP.
know how to "stoop," you have a rugged path before
you - very much such a path as a platoon of soldiers
would find who should undertake to march with military precision, carriage erect, eyes straight forward,
and muskets a-shoulder, through a tangled and swampy
forest.  Sooner or later, you will have to "stoop";
and you will do it with more grace and more comfort
if you practise the art now, than if you let your muscles acquire such a rigidity that when the infiexion
becomes unavoidable, the performance will be certain
to savour of the awkwardness of a rustic on his first
introduction at court.
One of the common sources of danger and disaster
with clerks, is, extravagance in their mode of living.
The usual scale of mercantile salaries in our cities, is
adjusted to the most economical habits. It is, therefore, a perilous thing for those who depend upon
these salaries to become smitten with a passion for
display. How is a young man to rent a suite of
richly-furnished rooms, keep up an elegant wardrobe,
decorate his person with costly jewelry, and indulge
in expensive amusements, on a stipend of a few hundred dollars? It is natural that the employers of a
young man who is seen to be attempting this, should
have their eyes upon him. And if the experiment
goes on, they will be curious to learn whence he derives his income. It may come from legitimate quar
239 
240   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
ters: he may have collateral resources of which they
are ignorant. Or it may come from their warehouse.
The love of dress and company may have mastered
his integrity, and put him upon a system of peculation. Possibly, he has become a speculator. If he
occupies a "confidential" position, and has free access
to the finances of the firm, some intriguing operator
may have enticed him into a course of stock-gambling.
Once committed to this nefarious business, the checks
of the house are dealt out freely to his partner in
iniquity, and for a while, he has no lack of revenues
to sustain his luxurious habits. Ordinarily, however,
"the triumphing of the wicked is short:" his dishonesties are brought to light, and he is either driven
out of society in shame, or consigned to a penitentiary.
If any are disposed to argue that in cases of this sort,
unhappily become so common, the burden of guilt
lies upon the receiver of the funds abstracted, I shall
not quarrel with them. The man who will encourage
a clerk in such a career, who will stimulate him to
obtain by robbery the moneys requisite to carry on
one speculation after another, is a hundred-fold more
deserving of the State-prison than the wretch who
breaks open your store and carries off your goods.
The defects inseparable firom human jurisprudence,
make it difficult to convict this class of offenders; and
so it happens that they are apt to go "unwhipt of
justice." 
DISSIPATION.
justice." But there can be no difference of opinion
among honest men as to their moral turpitude. Still,
this does not excuse the allies and instruments of
their villany. The clerk who allows himself to be
drawn into a plot of this kind, richly deserves the
reprehension which his treachery and fraud are sure
to bring down upon him: -and he deserves it all
the more, because his own extravagances are usually
the remote spring of his derelictions.
Closely affiliated with the errors just adverted to,
are the habits commonly indicated by the word, dissipation.  This topic has been mentioned already in
connection with the custom known amongst us by the
technical appellations of "drumming" and "boring."
The observations addressed to principals, imply what
is the duty of clerks, in respect to that particular
usage.  But their dangers extend quite beyond this.
Ilow varied and imminent they are, must be apparent
to every one who has lived for any length of time in
a large city, and who considers that the greater portion of the young men in our mercantile establishments, have been brought up in the comparative quiet
and purity of the country. The serried temptations
of the metropolis come upon them all at once. They
have had no opportunity to become familiarized with
them by degrees, and fortified against them. They
encounter them en masse, and at the very moment
21
241 
242   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
when they are deprived of the sheltering influences
which are bound up in a cherished home. The day
which transfers them from the paternal fireside, with
its wholesome restraints and elevating associations,
to a great metropolitan hotel or boarding-house, sees
them exposed for the first time to a host of dangers,
each one of which has slain its tens of thousands.
The wonder is, not that some should fall, but that so
many escape. And in so far as our own city is concerned, no thanks will be due to the public authorities
of the Commonwealth, if the proportion of those who
escape, shall not be diminished from year to year.
You will readily understand this allusion. The vice
which destroys more of our young men than any
other, is Intemperance. And the course of recent
legislation in Pennsylvania has been such as to multiply indefinitely the facilities and inducements to
intemperance in this city and county. When the
Emperor of China was urged to legalize the opiumtrade, and thus derive a revenue from it, the answer
he made (and it is worthy to be inscribed upon the
throne of that empire in perpetuity), was this: -  " It
is true, I cannot prevent the introduction of the
flowing-poison: gain-seeking and corrupt men will,
for profit and sensuality, defeat my wishes; but
nothing will induce me to derive a revenue from the
vice and misery of my people." A voice like this 
INTEMPERANCE LEGALIZED.
from a pagan throne, might well make the ears of
Christian legislators to tingle. But the State of
Pennsylvania stoops to put into its treasury the fee
of every man who chooses to pay a paltry fifty dollars
for the liberty of retailing liquid poison to its citizens.
The consequences are equally notorious and appalling.
Since the enactment of this law, dram-shops of every
grade have sprung up all over our city. The most
fashionable avenues are disfigured with genteel groggeries; and at certain hours of the day and evening,
you cannot pass along the streets without meeting
groups of young men and boys in a state of partial
inebriation, sauntering from one of these establishments to another. It is affecting to see what numbers
of our youth are, in this way, hastening to disgrace
and ruin, each one, perhaps, drawing a cluster of
broken hearts in his train. - On the proper remedy
for this frightful evil, opinions are divided. All are
agreed - all, certainly, who are not implicated in its
pecuniary profits - that it ought to be abated. Some
would rely upon moral means only. Others would
invoke legislation. There is no reason apparent, why
the same legislative power which has opened this
flood-gate of vice upon society, should not be exerted
to close it. Nor should any distrust of the wisdom,
the constitutionality, or the efficacy, of one proposed
set of enactments, preclude other statutes which would
243 
244   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
be open to no valid objection.  I shall not be drawn
into a discussion here of specific prohibitory measures.
I will give no adversary an opportunity to declaim
about "sumptuary laws, "oppression," "tyranny,"
"persecution," and the like. I stand upon higher
and broader ground -upon the ground occupied, as
I suppose, by the great mass of intelligent and respectable citizens in this community, of all trades and
professions, of all faiths and forms. With all these,
I maintain, that the existing license-system is a disgrace to the statute-book; that it is at war with the
best interests of society; that its legitimate tendency
is to promote pauperism and crime; that it is debauching the morals of our youth, and hurrying them
to premature and dishonoured graves; that while it
is killing men's bodies, it is destroying their souls;
and that on these and many other grounds, it ought
to be thoroughly revised and made tenfold more
stringent. Very far am I from supposing that this
alone would exterminate intemperance. But a suitable law- such a law as should be satisfactory, not
to people of extreme views, if any such there are, but
to the most considerate and liberal-minded of our
citizens -could not fail to check the progress of this
gigantic evil, and relieve us of a part of its intolerable
burdens. This is the demand we make of our legislators. I make it as a Christian pastor, whose office 
DEMAND FOR LEGISLATIVE ACTION.
it is, in however humble a way, to seek the social and
moral well-being of the community. And you make
it, Gentlemen, (for I cannot err in believing that we
are at one on this point,) not only as individual citizens, but as the guardians of a vast body of young
men whose morals are in jeopardy every hour from
this legalized system for making drunkards. If we
cannot stand together upon this ground, if we are
not agreed in pronouncing this a fit subject for legislative and judicial action, I know of no platform on
which the humane and moral portion of society can
meet together to petition for the redress of any social
grievance whatever.
I may appear to you to have wandered from my
subject. But, certainly, every word of this seeming
digression, is adapted to warn the young men in our
Counting-Houses of the snares which are spread for
them. In all ordinary cases, you may date the ruin
of a youth from the period when he begins to frequent
one of these tippling-shops. For if he begins here,
he will not end here. The vices are gregarious. The
" gin-palace," the Sunday-drive, the theatre, and sensual pleasure, though not inseparable, are usually
linked together. The passions which any of them
gratifies, will be apt to court indulgence in the others.
The principles undermined by one, are damaged by
all. To surrender to one, is to throw down your
21 *
245 
246   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
ramparts and open your gates to the remainder.
The merchant who sends you into these scenes to
find business for him, need not be surprised, if after
a few years he has to dismiss you because you are
unfit to do business. The clerk who frequents them
spontaneously, may with still greater certainty lay
his account for an early discharge. By far other
means than these corrupting amusements, are young
men to be trained to the toils and the rewards of
honourable commerce.
Nor can I refrain here from addressing a word of
remonstrance to those country merchants who are in
the habit of accompanying our young men into scenes
of vice or of drinking wine with them. If any such
were within the reach of my voice, I would say to
them - Reflect for a moment on the course you are
pursuing.   These young men  are, most of them,
absent from their homes. They are sent here to
earn a support and to acquire a knowledge of business. Many of them are without pecuniary resources
or influential friends.  ChIaracter is everything to
them. Even those who have property are dependent,
under God, on the reputation they establish for integrity, sobriety, diligence, and capacity. To corrupt
their morals, is to ruin them. When their principles
give way, their prospects for life are blasted. Their
employers will discharge them, and they will be thrown 
APPEAL TO COUNTRY MERCHANTS.
upon the world as adventurers and outcasts.   You
would not willingly be accessory to their destruction.
You wish them to become upright and successful merchants, an ornament, not a disgrace, to their families.
And yet, what are you doing? You allow them to
"treat" you.  You accept their invitations to the
theatre, to go on a ", Sunday Excursion," possibly tA
visit a gambling-house, or worse places. Is not this
to ensnare and deprave them?  But, "it is their own
proposal," you may say. What then? Are you
bound to accede to it? If they are already disposed
to go astray- if they have actually entered upon the
downward way- that enhances your obligation to
refuse their overtures.  If you comply, you accelerate
their ruin. If you decline not only, but remonstrate
and admonish them of their danger, you may " save
a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins."
Deal with them as you would have others deal, in
similar circumstances, with your own sons or brothers.
You purchase pleasure at too dear a rate, when it
costs the reputation, the virtue, the prospects, perhaps the eternal well-being, of a fellow-creature.
Thousands of clerks have been destroyed in this way:
when inquisition is made for their blood at the last
day, see that it be not found upon your heads!
These remarks on certain kinds of amusements,
are made with the more confidence, because the clerks
247
I 
248   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
in our cities can never want for means of innocent
relaxation. There are always open Exhibitions of
various sorts which combine instruction and entertainment. There are Evening Lectures, and Galleries of Paintings. There is social visiting, with its
refining influence upon the mind and manners. There
are the public Libraries; especially the Institutions
provided for the express benefit of mercantile men,
and whose well-stocked shelves and spacious readingrooms open to them a source of elevated and inexhaustible enjoyment. - Surely there is something
wrong with the clerk who, in the midst of scenes like
these, can find no way of consuming his few leisure
hours, without resorting to demoralizing amusements.
There is another topic of vital importance to clerks,
as well as merchants, which I had intended to consider at some length; but this would quite exhaust
your patience. I refer to PARTNERSIIIPS. I will
simply refer to the two mistakes which young men
are most apt to commit on this subject. The first, is
that of entering into a copartnership prematurely.
Impatience and ambition are common characteristics
of youth; and they show themselves, in your department of life, in an unwise haste to assume the responsibilities of business.   A  more  thorough training
would insure a wiser and safer control. The best 
PARTNERSHIPS.
captains are those who have seen most service before
the mast. It is natural for a clerk to feel flattered
by the proposal to exchange his subordinate position
for a place in the firm, and his salary for a participation in the profits.  "These are generally advantageous offers, designed simply to reward assiduous
industry, to attach a valuable assistant, or to lay hold
of useful business connections. But they are too
often accepted with the impatient eagerness of youth,
showing off the spirit of the young horse, feeling his
strength, activity, and fire, panting and neighing for
the dangers of the field, without the training for its
duties or a knowledge of its dangers. Such offers
are often embraced because the youth would feel himself beginning business, interested in the profits; because he wishes, in his moments of vanity, to boast
among his companions of being a member of such a
great house. He may be induced, too, by motives
the most generous, involving the bettering of the
condition of a dependent mother, sisters, or wife.
Thousands of motives- not even suspicious and
adapted to his every virtue and every vice - recommend his acceptance of such offers. Let him, however, examine well his steps. Let him judge without
illusion. Let him here remember that he becomes a
partner so far as that relation can be disastrous,
while he may in fact be a mere clerk so far as it
249 
250   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
might be advantageous. Such offers are not to be
lightly declined, nor suspiciously received, but they
are to be coolly considered: and here the wisdom of
age, the advice of cautious friends, become indispensable guides; and patience, not to be too eager to
get rich, a necessary virtue. Such offers are very
often openings to wealth, character, and influence;
also are they sometimes avenues in early life to irretrievable ruin."*
Let these judicious counsels suffice as to the first
point adverted to. The second error common with
young men, is that of forming partnerships with unsuitable persons.  We see this continually in matrimonial alliances. People are joined together whose
characters and tastes have so little congruity, that
every body around is from the outset predicting trouble: and these are among the few uninspired prophecies which are apt to be fulfilled. Similar mistakes
in business would be less frequent, if parties duly
considered the very delicate and confidential nature
of a copartnership.  Except in the case of "special
partners," for which the wise legislation of modern
times has made provision, the power you confer upon
your associate, is "nothing less than a power to ruin
you." All your pecuniary interests are entrusted to
his hands. He can speedily make an insolvent of
* Daniel Lord, Jun., Esquire. 
UNDESIRABLE ASSOCIATES.
you, and reduce your family to beggary. He may
be a visionary man, who will plunge into one wild
project after another. He may be an imperious man,
who will treat you, not as an equal, but as a servant.
He may be an obstinate man, so set in his way, that
neither argument nor entreaty will make any impression upon him. He may be an irritable man, or, what
is still worse, a sullen man, who, if disturbed in his
temper, will go about with a lowering countenance,
like a spoiled child, for a whole day or week. lie
may be a proud man, who will feel himself above doing things which may be essential to the prosperity
of the firm, and which other merchants do without
any sense of humiliation. He may be an idle man,
who will leave you to do the work while he drives out
with a "fast horse" in business hours, or roams over
the country in quest of pleasure. He may be an
extravagant man, who will impair the means and
injure the credit of the house, by his luxurious style
of living. He may be an avaricious man, who will
mortify and vex you beyond measure, with his attempts at a sordid economy, and his penurious higgling with clerks, porters, and every body who has
any transactions with him. He may be an ignorant
man, who will purchase cotton to ship to Mobile, or
oil to send to New Bedford.* He may be a dissi
* It is not every venture of this class which turns out as
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252   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
pated man, who will secretly gamble at cards and
billiards; or a grasping man, who will still more
secretly gamble in stocks. He may be a dishonest
man, who will filch away your property, break
down the concern, and retire on a fortune.- These
are but samples. The catalogue might be largely
extended: but this list may suffice to convince you
that there is some reason for care and caution in
choosing as well a business-mate as a mate for life.
A partnership lightly formed may move on pleasantly
for a time. But commerce has its honey-moon no
less than matrimony; and it is well in both relations
to consider beforehand, how the mechanism will work
when days of darkness and peril come. Sagacious
observers have conjectured, nay some satirists (disappointed celibates no doubt) have ventured to assert,
that the more intimate of these alliances is sometimes
marred by very unconjugal disputations.  Without
pausing to refute this ungenerous calumny, it is safe
to assume, that the ill-assorted unions of mercantile
life, must occasionally convert the counting-room or
the commercial parlour, into an arena of painful controversy. Perhaps no precaution can guard against
well as that famous one of a late opulent Boston merchant,
whose cargo of warming-ans shipped to the West Itmdies,
supplied the planters with capital ladles for their sugarhouses. 
THE FRIENDSHIPS OF COMMERCE.
contingencies of this sort. But they would seldom
occur if parties should take pains to know eachI other
well before yoking together: -and if (it may be
added) the articles of agreement should prescribe
with an unambiguous explicitness, how they were to
become unyoked, and what should be done with the
assets in case of misfortune or embarrassment. Proper
attention to these points has made many copartnerships a source of great social enjoyment and a bond
of lasting friendship. It is, indeed, refreshing to
find, in this region so little adapted to the sentiment
and poetry of life, instances of a noble and ardent
attachment decorating the rigours of an expanded
traffic, and maturing in strength and beauty amidst
the cares of a great commercial establishment. Such
examples take one's thoughts into those lofty Alpine
regions, where the traveller sees, here and there,
majestic forest-trees whose spreading branches and
exuberant foliage contrast strangely with the savage
rocks and glaciers all around. They impart a certain
dignity to trade, and keep alive in liberal minds that
respect for it which there is so much in the current
usages and developments of business to impair. Let
your copartnerships be formed upon this liberal basis,
and fostered in this spirit, and they will yield you
peace and honour, where they might otherwise put a
cup of gall and wormwood to your lips.
22
253 
254    TIlE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HOUSE.
A single suggestion more, and I have done. You
may adopt all the measures commended to you in
this Lecture, in respect to your training, your habits,
your social arrangements, your mercantile plans, and
yet lie open to the friendly reproach once addressed
to a young man as blameless and as lovely as the
best among you-" One thing thou lackest!" What
can all these precautions and efforts do for you without the blessing of God? Guard you, perhaps, from
premature ruin; secure you the esteem and confidence
of your fellow-men; possibly load you with wealth.
But you will have lived to little purpose, if you have
lived "without God in the world."   Your earliest,
greatest, most constant, most lasting, necessity, is,
the favour of God. It is to be obtained only through
the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ. If
you are already immersed in the cares of business,
his friendship will do more than anything else to
shield you from its snares. If you are standing at
the threshold of a business-life, every consideration
of duty, of gratitude, and of interest, bids you supplicate his mercy, and invoke his aid in the framing
of your plans. Whatever your age, position, or employment, the exhortation comes to you with equal
authority and wisdom-" Seek first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness, and all other things
shall be added unto you." 
A COMPLAINT.
'trtutr   fights+
DOMESTIC LIFE, AND LITERARY CULTURE, OF THE
MAN OF BUSINESS.
IN an old number of the Merchants' Magazine,
there is a communication headed, "COMPLAINT OF A
MERCHANT'S WIFE," the writer of which, after protesting against the "unnatural, slavish devotion to
business," which characterizes the merchants of the
present day, discourses in the following strain: -
"It seems to me, at times, as if there were no more men
left in the world:  they have all become citizens.  Their
humanity seems merged in some presidency or secretaryship.
They are good trustees, directors, cashiers, bankers;  but
they are very indifferent husbands and fathers. They are
utterly without social chat; they read no pleasant books;
they hate the sound of music; they visit nobody; they
scarcely deign to look at the face of nature; and for their
unhappy wives, they must put up with cold looks and cold
words. This is all wrong, Gentlemen. It is a sad perversion
of life; it is cruelly unjust to us and our daughters; and it
is the too certain source of deep and lasting misery to those
255 
256   THIE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
who indulge in it. Home is no longer the garden of the
heart, watched over by love, its roses kept in perennial
bloom; but thorns and briers cumber its beauty. But I feel
this matter too deeply to speak in metaphors. My own domestic circle is fast losing its charms, and becoming more
dismal and formal than a hotel. I am beginning to lose all
pride in my household. I am growing daily more unsociable.
My health and temper are both giving way. In a word, I
bitterly feel and lament the want of that sympathy and communion of heart, which are so liberally promised us in the
marriage-vow. Come, then, Messrs. Editors, to our relief.
Here is a cause worthy of your pens. Exhort, frighten, ridicule, if you can, our erring husbands into a return to their
allegiance, and to a more rational and happy life."
I can well imagine with what a zest the merchants'
wives and daughters who may be present, will listen
to this earnest and intrepid appeal. Whatever else
in these discussions may have been dry and distasteful to them, this will have their commendation: they
will be ready to exclaim with a common impulse, "A
word fitly spoken, is like apples of gold in pictures
of silver." I could wish it were in my power to defend the tribes of commerce from these grave imputations. They have assaults enough to bear from
other quarters, without encountering volleys of arrows
(tipped with anything but poison, however) from their
own castles. But historic verity demands a qualified
admission of the truth of these allegations. It must 
A REPLICATION.
be conceded that the "men" have, to a great extent,
been transubstantiated into "citizens," the husbands
and fathers into merchants, the wives, though wives
still, into widows, and the children, though not fatherless, into orphans.- But let us hear before we condemn.
You will urge, in arrest of judgment, that "the
modern methods of business render this abandonment
of your homes unavoidable: that the very processes
detailed in this course of Lectures, show how imperative and exclusive are the claims of commerce upon
the men engaged in it: that the least intermission of
vigilance and activity on your part, must involve you
in losses: that a mode of life which severs you from
your domicils, is not your choice, but your rigorous
necessity: and that when the inconveniences experienced by your families, are compared with the hardships they would ultimately suffer should you neglect
your business to attend to them, you will be deemed
more worthy of praise than of censure for the selfdenial you are practising."-Even the wives and
daughters must allow that this is an ingenious plea;
and parties more disinterested, will feel that it has
real force. Within certain limitations, it is impregnable: but, then, it is those unheeded limitations,
which impart weight and pungency to such "Complaints" as that we have quoted.
22 *
257 
258   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-JIOUSE.
It may turn out, for example, that the alleged absorbing demands of merchandize are restricted to
certain portions of the year, and that at other periods
there is no invincible necessity laid upon you to be
such strangers at your own firesides. With the
greater part of the merchants in our large cities,
business, instead of being diffused over the year, comes
in two mighty torrents or avalanches, of a few weeks
or months each. While these last, they have no
resource but to surrender themselves, body and soul,
to traffic. They have no time for domestic enjoyments. Books, friends, visiting, correspondence, everything must give way. Even the essential functions
of eating and sleeping are dwarfed into the most fragmnentary performances. Like one of Dr. Johnson's
over-busy characters in the Idler, whom he compares
to the dogs of Egypt, which, when driven to the Nile
by thirst, run as they drink for fear of the crocodiles,
they "dine at full speed."  And long after midnight,
the watchmen find themselves jostled by troops of
wearied clerks and packers making their way homeward to catch a little repose before the rising sun
recalls them to their toil. If it were not for the
beneficent provision of a DAY OF REST, they would,
many of them, finish in a Lunatic Asylum or an early
grave. -For all this, there seems no help. The
causes which are at work, no merchant, nor body of 
CLAIMS OF IIOME.
merchants, can control. And it were a most unreasonable thing in a wife to complain of her husband
for not neglecting his plantation in the harvest-season,
in order to wait upon her. Let her, rather, do what
she can to relieve him of all domestic burdens, and
to soothe and cheer him, as many a wife knows how
to do, under his exhausting labours.
But these periodical excitements are followed by
protracted calms. Not such calms as would justify
remissness in superintending your counting-houses,
but periods which, if managed economically, might
leave some intervals for the domestic circle. It may
fairly be required that these opportunities shall be
improved; that when no paramount engagements
supervene, your time and thoughts, no less than your
affections, shall be given to your homes; and that
you shall omit no practicable means for forwarding
the education and contributing to the happiness of
your households. It will not do to forget that the
responsibilities which attach to the head of the family,
are intransferable; and that while you occupy that
position, you must be held accountable for the proper
discharge of its duties. This consideration must at
times press with great solemnity upon the minds of
thoughtful men who are much separated from their
children. The training of those children is going
forward alike in your presence and in your absence.
259 
260   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
Day by day, their faculties are maturing, their principles becoming established, their habits forming, and
their whole characters assuming the essential type
they are to bear through life - possibly, through
eternity. This is your trust - the most sacred, the
most momentous, trust, God has confided to you. To
fulfil it wisely and well, is of more importance to you
than the acquisition of a fortune or the attainment
of any other secular end. Nor is it within the compass of any human abilities to do this, unless aided
by the Spirit of God. That source of help is, happily, open to you.  "If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God, and it shall be given him." Every
parent who appreciates the relation, will gratefully
avail himself of the assistance so freely tendered him
in this delicate and difficult duty. But he will not
rest here. The temper of mind which sends you to
the throne of grace for succour, will put you upon
using all the appliances within your reach, to multiply the attractions of home to your families, and to
keep their affections in a fresh and healthful state.
To do this, you will need, not only to give them as
much of your society as you can, but to make your
intercourse with them pleasant and improving. For
example, it cannot fail to injure them if the whole
burden of your conversation at home, is about business, and stocks, and money, and the like; or if they 
CAUTIONS.
see that you have no relish for any pursuits except
those which derive their value from dollars and cents.
If this is to be the sum and substance of your companionship with them, it is of little moment that you
hurry home from your counting-rooms to see them:
your absence will do them no harm. Or if, again,
you habitually carry into domestic life a fretful or an
imperious temper, if you are lavish of harsh words or
cross looks, it would be as well to remit the training
of your families to other hands. Neither these, nor
any other, practical errors on your part, will be harmless. Such is the authority impressed upon the headship of the house, that your every act and word and
look and gesture - and what you leave unsaid and
undone, no less than what you say and do- will go
to fashion the moral lineaments of those deathless
beings around you. This would be a serious matter,
if it was for this life only they were to be trained.
But we cannot limit our parental responsibilities thus.
Our obligations extend alike to the bodies and the
souls of our children. And they who consider the
difficulty of extricating one soul from the bondage of
sin and the snares of the world, will understand something of the charge involved in preparing a household
for heaven. Surely, your children have a claim upon
you for all the help you can afford them in combating
the temptations of life: and it is neither generous
261 
262   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
nor just to withhold from the mothers that co-operation they are entitled to in the education of your
offspring.
It is another weighty consideration bearing upon
this point, that unless you avail yourselves of present
opportunities, you may miss altogether that endearing and salutary intercourse with your families which
I am inculcating. The period you are anticipating,
when a discharge from business is to leave you full
scope for the culture of domestic pleasures, may never
arrive. How many of your contemporaries and neighbours have been arrested by death in the midst of
their cares and their traffickings! While you are
preparing to enjoy the society of your families, the
relentless reaper, who spares no age nor condition,
may cut you down. At the very moment, possibly,
when your plans have been brought to a successful
consummation, and you are ready to begin to live, a
vacant seat at your table may mark the transitoriness
of all human expectations.
Nor is this the only contingency. Should your
life be spared, your release from business may come
too late both as to your families and yourselves. Too
late for them: because their training may be completed. In the education of your children, it is "now,
or never."  You may bend the sapling, but you cannot bend the oak. You may mould the clay, but you 
AFFECTIONS RUSTED.
cannot mould the pottery. Your seed will germinate
if cast into the genial lap of Spring, but it will get
no sustenance from the rugged bosom of Winter. If
you mean to have any useful agency in fashioning
the characters of those children, this is the time to
exert it. -Your prospective season of leisure may
come too late for yourselves. When the time arrives
for domestic enjoyment, your domestic sympathies
and attachments may have become so blunted, that
you will be insusceptible of this kind of happiness.
There are other things besides iron, which will rust
from want of use: other attributes of humanity besides bone and muscle, which depend upon exercise
for healthful vigour. A neglected home is apt to
become an undervalued home. The bird that is long
away from its nest, may not care to return to it. And
it is somewhat hazardous for a man to discover that,
after all, he can "get on" and really enjoy life, without being dependent upon the pure and simple pleas
sures of his own fireside. The way to shun such untoward discoveries, is to keep the flame burning
brightly upon your domestic altars, from the time it
is first kindled, until death; to let nothing but the
damp of the grave extinguish or enfeeble it. To
neglect this, is to forego the purest felicity which the
fall has left us. Those who have practised it, have
found that life was too short to exhaust the stores of
263 
264   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
elevated enjoyment bound up in the domestic constitution; too fleeting for that sacred fellowship of home,
"So friendly to the best pursuits of man,
Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace!"
This is not, unhappily, as well understood as it
ought to be. There are no adequate pains taken to
perpetuate the freshness of early affection, and to
cherish, as time wears on, the sentiments and habits
which consecrate the earlier experiences of married
life. "A person may be highly estimable on the whole,
nay, amiable as neighbour, friend, housemate, in short,
in all the concentric circles of attachment, save only
the last and inmost; and yet from how many causes
be estranged from the highest perfection in this!
Pride, coldness, or fastidiousness of nature, worldly
cares, an anxious or ambitious disposition, a passion
for display, a sullen temper, one or the other, too
often proves'the dead fly in the compost of spices,'
and any one is enough to unfit it for the precious
balm of unction. For some mighty good sort of
people too, there is not seldom a sort of saturnine,
or, if you will, ursine vanity, that keeps itself alive
by sucking the paws of its own self-importance.  And
as this high sense, or rather sensation, of their own
value, is for the most part grounded on negative
qualities, so they have no better means of preserving 
MISERY AND HAPPINESS.
the same but by negatives, that is, by not doing or
saying any thing that might be put down for fond,
silly, or nonsensical, or (to use their own phrase), by
never forgetting themselves, which some of their acquaintances are uncharitable enough to think the most
worthless object they could be employed in remembering. The same effect is produced in thousands, by
the too general insensibility to a very important truth;
this, namely, that the MISERY of human life is made
up of large masses, each separated from the other by
certain intervals. One year, the death of a child;
years after, a failure in trade; after another longer
or shorter interval, a daughter may have married unhappily;   in all but the singularly unfortunate, the
integral parts that compose the sum total of the unhappiness of man's life, are easily counted, and distinctly remembered. The HIAPPINESS of life, on the
contrary, is made up of minute fractions, the little
soon-forgotten charities of a kiss, a smile, a kind look,
a heartfelt compliment in the disguise of playful raillery, and the countless other infinitesimals of pleasurable thought and genial feeling."*
These suggestions will commend themselves to
every truly cultivated mind; but it would be unsuitable for me to enlarge on a topic so engrossing, and
* Coleridge.
23
265 
266   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
which I have had occasion to discuss at some length
in a previous course of Lectures.*
There is a second point pertaining to the domestic
life of the merchant, which may claim a passing
notice here. It is a question often agitated and variously decided, "Should a merchant consult his wife
about his business?"  We  cannot answer it categorically. It may be the misfortune of a man to have
a wife of so giddy and trifling a character, that the
very mention of business would be an offence to her.
Or a wife might happen to have so many "confidential friends," that every intimation her husband conveyed to her of the state of his affairs, would be
gazetted far and near in the course of a day or two.
Again, the answer must be modified by the import
of the question.  If the inquiry be, "Shall a merchant confer with his wife, as with his copartners,
about all the details of his commercial transactions?"
the question answers itself. A woman might just as
well annoy her husband with all the minutiae of her
household concerns.   But in the sense which the
question usually bears, it must be answered with a
qualified affirmative. Involving, as the matrimonial
union does, an identity of interest and fortune, it
seems reasonablo that a wife should be kept apprized
* "THE BIBLE IN THE FAMILY." 
WOMAN'S RIGHTS.
of any events in her husband's business, having an
important bearing upon their mutual well-being. If
a benign Providence is bearing him on towards wealth
and honour, why should she not share with him the
pleasure and the gratitude it inspires? And if he
is threatened with reverses, why should he withhold
the knowledge of it from her who, of all human beings, will enter into his anxieties with the deepest
sympathy? The wife who has no sympathy in her
nature, mistook her vocation when she assumed the
bonds of wedlock: the husband who will deny a wife
the luxury of sympathizing in his trials, has forgotten
that memorable day when she stood up with him, a
lovely and blushing bride, and he promised before
God and man, to "love, honour, and cherish" her
till death. It is a poor commentary on this vow, to
deprive her of a privilege which, if she have true conjugal affection, she would prize more than all his
wealth, or all the conventional attentions he may
lavish upon her "to be seen of men." The country
is just now ringing with a coarse, unseemly clamour
about " Woman's Rights" -  a mere quarrel of certain Amazons with Providence, for making them
women instead of men. Here, however, we have an
incontestable woman's right, the right of a wife to
sympathize with her husband in his joys and in his
sorrows. A wife refused this right, may well exclaim,
267 
268   THE BIBLE IN THE COUITING-HOUSE.
"Within the bond of marriage, tell me,
Is it excepted I should know no secrets
That appertain to you? Am I yourself,
But, as it were, in sort, or limitation;
To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed,
And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs
Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,
Then am I not your wife!"
Nor is this the only ground on which the duty may
be urged. He knows but little of the weaker sex,
who will venture to deny that, as a general characteristic, they are sagacious counsellors on practical
matters. I may quote again* on this point, an admirable observation once made to me by an eminent
divine of our church: —"We will say nothing of the
manner in which that sex usually conduct an argument, but the intuitive judgments of women are often
more to be relied upon than the conclusions which we
reach by an elaborate process of reasoning." It may
not suit our pride to expatiate too often in domestic
life on this fact, but there can be no use in denying
it, and it is only standing in our own light to refuse
to take advantage of it. I can conceive of a merchant's returning home at evening, after a day of
profound and anxious consultation with his partners
about a projected speculation in lands, merchandize,
* See "BIBLE IN THE FAMILY," Lecture II. 
INTUITION.
or stocks.   You have ransacked your newspaperfiles, pored over your commercial dictionaries, reviewed your former operations, examined into your
resources, looked abroad upon the state of the world,
and canvassed all the agencies, political and financial,
which are likely to influence the markets for some
time to come, and, after hours of discussing and
ciphering, have been obliged to postpone a decision
till to-morrow. In this state of mind you meet your
wife, and submit the vexed problem to her: and
although she hears but the merest outline of it, her
mind is instantly made up as to what you ought to
do, and she gives you her opinion with the explicitness of a judge upon the bench. Or, your firm is
in trouble. Fresh claims are pressing upon fresh
embarrassments. You have no conception to - day
how the notes of to-morrow are to be paid. Loans
and discounts are becoming more difficult to negotiate.
You have made sacrifices until you are startled at the
chasm created in your late assets. HIaunted with
apprehensions you scarcely dare breathe to yourself,
and oppressed with a burden which is drinking up
your spirits, you, at length, in broken accents, lay the
case before your wife. What is veiled in impenetrable
darkness to your eye, is all luminous to hers. She
sees, as by intuition, what you ought to do; and has
the mingled courage and kindness to tell you. Un       23 *
269 
270   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
impeded by the endless array of "Whys" and "Wherefores," of "Ifs" and " Hows," which have confused
your calculations, and unsustained, it may be, by any
tangible series of Baconian inductions, a single spring
has brought her to a conclusion, which she enunciates
with as much confidence as though she had received
it by revelation.-And in both these cases, the probability is, the wives will be right. If you do not get
the counsel you would prefer, you will get that which
will be best for you, and which it will be unsafe not
to follow. How many firms would this course have
restrained from hurtful speculations! How many
bankruptcies would it have relieved of their most
painful features! Why, then, is it not more frequently adopted? I will tell you.
With one class of men, the reason has already been
hinted at: they feel that it is a sort of indignity to
consult a wife on matters of business. This is their
department, and they are presumed to know how to
manage it: to ask counsel of a wife, is to confess
their insufficiency. If their pride could stoop to seek
advice in any quarter, it would not be from a woman.
- This feeling is not only wrong, but ridiculous. It
proceeds on the assumption, that they are competent
to deal with questions which, by their own admission,
have baffled them. And it further assumes, what is
notoriously false, that in married life all the wisdom 
TOO WISE FOR ADVICE.
and sagacity are necessarily on the side of the husband. A man of large and comprehensive views will
be above these littlenesses. Such a man will have
no fear of compromising his own dignity by conferring
with an intelligent wife. Inferior to himself, she may
be, in strength of mind and in information; and yet
she may have qualities which will make her a safe
Mentor. The most learned and acute jurists often
derive the greatest assistance, in resolving complex
cases, from the suggestions of their associates on the
bench, although they may be men of only second or
third rate talent. And the man who is above asking
counsel of any body whom he believes to be a shade
below himself in intellectual vigour or various knowledge, merits the penalty which his superciliousness
will be sure to bring upon him. In the conjugal
relation this is the more censurable, because the
preponderance of character may be really with the
"weaker vessel"; while the Solon to whom  she is
wedded, only exposes his own imbecility in denying
her any share in his deliberations.
This course may be adopted from a very different
motive - an unwillingness on the part of a merchant
to harass the mind of his wife with his troubles.
This is an amiable and honourable sentiment, and, to
a certain extent, it may properly influence the conduct. But it should not be carried too far in those
271 
272   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
emergencies so often mentioned, when a house is tottering to its foundations. When such an exigency
occurs, it is due to a wife that she should be apprized
of it. This would preclude the revolting incongruity
of which any of our cities could supply examples, of
a commercial firm struggling on for months together
with impending bankruptcy, while their domestic
establishments, the while, were the centres of the
most prodigal luxury and extravagance. It is further
due to a wife because she is a wife, and as such must
share her husband's allotments.   They took each
other "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer";
and if either is in trouble, the other is entitled to
know it and participate in it. Nor is any other
policy, in the cases we are considering, compatible
with true kindness. When the blow falls, you can
no longer conceal the state of things. Your wife will
have to know it and to feel it. Through your mistaken tenderness, it comes upon her suddenly, "like
a thief in the night": whereas, had you dealt frankly
by her, she would have been in a measure prepared
for the stroke. If you were to submit the question
to ten thousand wives in succession, "whether of these
two courses would be the more acceptable to them,"
you would probably hear but one response -"By all
means let me know when there is danger threatening,
without waiting for the calamity to fall!" -Nor must 
A FAITHFUL COUNSELLOR.
it be lost sight of, that the course here recommended,
might either avert or mitigate the disaster.   The
timely advice of a discreet wife, might, by the blessing of Providence, save you from insolvency; or,
failing of this, it might keep you from those acts
which impart to insolvency its keenest sting. The
observations formerly made on this subject,* show
how important faitiful counsel is to embarrassed
merchants. This you would get from your wives.
The thought of your poverty might be distressing to
them, but it would be nothing to the idea of your dishonour. They would see and appreciate the danger
to which your principles were exposed, and caution
you, with all firmness and affection, against bringing
the least stain upon your integrity. They would
remind you that an untarnished name would be a
better legacy to them and their children, than millions of money. They would remonstrate against
your postponing the crisis until all your resources
were consumed, and encourage you to meet at once
the blow which had become inevitable. They would,
possibly, soothe your chafed and agitated spirits, not
only by the assiduities of affection, but by the higher
ministrations of a genuine piety -bringing oil and
wine from the Gospel to cheer you, and directing
your hopes to Him who is the Refuge of the afflicted
* LECTURE VI.
273 
274    TIE] BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
and the Hlealer of the broken-hearted.-These, surely,
are objects of some moment to a man harassed with
commercial difficulties: a faithful adherence to a simple rule of three syllables, would ordinarily secure
them to you - TELL YOUR WIFE.
Will it be out of place to add here, that there are
certain correlative obligations answering to these domestic duties of the merchant? If he is bound to
bestow all the time he can upon his family, they are
bound to make his home as agreeable as possible. If
it behooves him to cultivate the household affections,
they must not neglect it. If he is to confer with his
wife on matters of merchandize, especially in seasons
of embarrassment, it will not answer for the wife to
manifest an indifference to his affairs, still less to do
anything which may increase his difficulties. Examples have no doubt occurred of conjugal officiousness,
in which either party has been disposed to intermeddle with the functions proper to the other- the husband with the "house-keeping," the wife with the
counting-room. A woman may easily shun this extreme, and yet take that sort of interest in her husband's business, which has been indirectly inculcated
in the observations just addressed to merchants. And
whatever her tastes may be on this point, she cannot,
if she would, avoid having a great deal to do with his
business. What he is in his warehouse, in his prin 
THE PATTERN HOUSEWIFE.
ciples and plans, in his temper and manners, will
depend very much upon what his home is. And his
home, again, will be very much what his wife sees fit
to make it. There are homes such as Milton had in
his eye (his own, unhappily, was not one of them,)
when he wrote the lines -
"For nothing lovelier can be found
In woman, than to study household good,
And good works in her husband to promote."
A greater than Milton had, upwards of two thousand
years before his time, drawn the portraiture of one
of these very wives with the skill of a master-limner.
It is a well-known picture, better known even than
the most celebrated "Madonnas" of any of the old
painters; but as there is some disposition now-a-days
to deposit it in the antique Galleries, as a mere historical gem, I feel inclined to hang it up before your
eyes: -
Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above
rubies.
The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that
he shall have no need of spoil.
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her
hands.
She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food
from afar.
She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her
household, and a portion to her maidens.
275 
276      THE BIBLE IN THE  COUNTING-HOUSE.
She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of
her hands she planteth a vineyard.
She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her
arms.
She perceiveth that her merchandize is good: her candle
goeth not out by night.
She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold
the distaff.
She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth
forth her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her
household are clothed with scarlet.
She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is
silk and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among
the elders of the land.
She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles
unto the merchant.
Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice
in time to come.
She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue
is the law of kindness.
Sihe looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth
not the bread of idleness.
Her children arise up and call her blessed: her husband
also, and he praiseth her.
Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest
them all.
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that
feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works
praise her in the gates. 
A DOMESTIC WOMAN.
There is a mercehlait's wife worth having! An
Oriental woman, it is true, but there is nothing in her
essential attributes and habits which would not grace
the Occident as well -the wives of Philadelphia and
Boston, as those of Jerusalem and Bagdad. It is the
picture, for example, of a domestic woman. And is
not this meet in a merchant's wife? I do not mean
that she should make her house a cloister, and never
stir abroad. But let her know what the word IIOME
means. Let her cherish it until every letter in it
becomes precious to her. Let her understand that
her empire is there. And let her find her happiness,
next to religion, in administering its affairs and augmenting the felicity of its subjects.  This need not
preclude her from the interchange of social courtesies
and the fellowship of friends. But it will certainly
present a life in striking contrast with that of some
wives, whose houses are to them, from Christmas to
Lent, very much what they are to their husbands in
the "business-season" -  mere hotels.
This is the portrait, again, of an industrious woman -always occupied with her maidens or her vineyard, her distaff or her merchandize, her in-door or
her out-door cares. Is this unseemly in a merchant's
wife? The same occupations may not demand her
care, but useful occupation of some sort will have a
claim upon her.  That must be a strange household
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277 
278   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
which supplies the head of it with no employment:
and that a curious scheme of life, which permits a
woman to surrender herself to her slothful propensities, and while away her years in doing nothing. In
a very characteristic letter, poor Burns says of the
Muses, "the Nine have given me  a great deal of
pleasure, but, bewitching jades! they have beggared
me: for, like Solomon's lilies, the idle creatures' toil
not, neither do they spin.' " It might be ungenerous
to hint that there may have been merchants who were
in circumstances to use this identical language respecting their wives.  Certainly, a wife who will "neither
toil nor spin," nor do anything, except dress and visit
and lounge and read novels, miyht "beggar"  her
husband, even though she "gave him a great deal of
pleasure" - and this last would not always happen,
for it is only men that have received "one talent,"
or a fraction of a talent, who take "pleasure" in a
wife's spending the same sort of life as a portrait or
a doll. Employment is a homely but important element in the cup of domestic happiness: where either
party lacks or neglects it, trouble is apt to follow.
"The field of the slothful," find it where you will, is
more likely to be covered with "thorns and nettles"
than with flowers. Even the flowers of affection, the
hardiest of all plants, will die out there, or attain
only a stunted growth, which will make the spectator 
TASTE AND NEATNESS.
exclaim, as one does involuntarily in looking at a
cluster of tiny Alpine roses peering through the frost,
"Poor things!"
Another obvious feature in the picture we are studying, is, taste and neatness. "All her household are
clothed with scarlet.* She maketh herself coverings
of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. Her
husband is known in the gates when he sitteth among
the elders of the land" - known, not simply by his
worth, but by the costly robes her fingers prepare for
him. And the whole sketch suggests the image of
a domestic establishment impressed throughout with
cleanliness, order, and beauty. Our merchant's wife
will of course understand this. If she should not, it
will be doing her a kindness to say, that these "trivial matters" are of moment with the other sex. Men
think a great deal of neatness and taste in a wife.
It will not satisfy them that you look very imposing
when arrayed in your laces and jewelry for a party.
This is well enough; but it may be more than neutralized by a careless attire and an untidy house in
your ordinary arrangements. Time will gradually
blanch your personal charms; and there is, therefore,
the greater reason why you should give heed to those
* "Scarlet"- or, rather, as the margin has it, "double
garments."  So Coverdale -"For all hir householde folkes
are duble clothed."
279 
280   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
"little things" in dress, and manner, and household
dispositions, which have a wonderful, though imperceptible, effect in fostering mutual affection, and the
neglect of which will be certain to eat like a subtle
cancer at the core of your domestic peace. -This is
not to encourage extravagance. You may be ready
to appeal to the "tapestry" and the "silk and the
purple," of this model housewife, in vindication of
your own expensive habits. But have you considered
where she procured these elegancies? I do not find
that she went to her husband, and got him to draw
some thousands of dollars from his business to purchase them for her. As I read the passage, they
were her own handiwork. And I venture to express
the opinion, that no merchant's wife will be, or ought
to be, impeded, in decorating her rooms with all the
"tapestry," or her person with all the "silk and
purple" - which she shall weave herself. You may
think it unreasonable to suggest this restriction; and
perhaps it is. But it is not more so than the luxury
and extravagance which have reduced so many merchants to poverty. The key to no inconsiderable
portion of the bankruptcies which occur, is to be
found, not in the counting-room, but in the drawingroom, and there as often in the wife's hand, as the
husband's. If truth could give way to courtesy, this
might be spared. But truth will give way to nothing; 
A GRAVE INDICTMIENT.
and it is too important in this connexion to be suppressed. An old writer, who has given us a revelation of domestic life not peculiar to his own age,
brings forward one of his characters as reproaching
his wasteful wife with her "change of gaudy furniture," her
"mighty looking-glasses, like artillery,
Brought home on engines; the superfluous plate,
Antique and novel; vanities of tires;"
and other articles.  He proceeds:
"I could accuse the gayety of your wardrobe
And prodigal embroideries, under which
Rich satins, plushes, cloth of silver, dare
Not show their own complexions. Your jewels,
Able to burn out the spectator's eyes,
And show like bon-fires on you by the tapers.
Something might here be spared, with safety of
Your birth and honour, since the truest wealth
Shines from the soul, and draws up just admirers."
Whether there were any merchants at the disastrous era of'37, who had occasion to use language
of this kind, I shall not inquire; nor would it become
one who is no seer, to predict whether there will be
any at the next financial crisis which may overtake
the country. But there are opinions abroad on both
these points, which it might be useful to some people
to ponder.
24 *
281 
282   THE BIBLE IN TIHE COUXTING-IIOUSE.
The ready replication to this will be, that "it is ungenerous to impute all the sin of extravagant living to
the wives, since they are in many instances but passive
instruments in carrying out plans to which they are
bound to conform." This would do if "all" the blame
were laid at their door. But it is not: where no censure is deserved, none is intended. It is not enough,
however, to exonerate a wife, that she has simply
acquiesced in a system of luxurious expenditure far
beyond her husband's income. It is for her gratification in a good measure, that he has gone into these
excesses. In any event, she might have prevented
or abridged it. Her influence, always potential at
first, could have been exerted to induce a more rational
and becoming style of living; and she would not have
pressed this point in vain. But the woman who would
do this, especially the bride who would do it, is one
of a thousand. The prevailing passion with people
just setting out in married life, is for a pomp and
display wholly unsuited to their means. Young merchants have no conception of the drain such an establishment will be upon their profits. They are apt to
suppose that if the original outfit is provided (as it
may be by a marriage settlement), all subsequent inconvenience is precluded; that the ship once launched
will take care of itself. But this conceit is soon dispelled. What with rents and wages and wardrobe, 
HOW TO SET OUT IN LIFE.
amusements and equipage and entertainments, the
charges to private account on the books of the firm,
swell with an ominous progression, until the business
itself reels under the rapid depletion, and betrays
symptoms of an approaching syncope. If they have
the moral courage to curtail their expenses and adjust
themselves at once to their actual position, they may
escape the catastrophe. But when a ship is on her
beam-ends, the least delay may be fatal. And the
imprudence which brings about a crisis of this sort,
is too often combined with a pride and an effeminacy
of principle, which will hold back from a manly,
straight-forward discharge of duty, until the opportunity is lost and the blow falls. How much better
to have studied all these contingencies at the commencement! HIow much better to begin with moderation, and end with honour and affluence; than to
begin with splendour, and end with premature insolvency! If the husbands will not consider this, let
the wives think of it. They may miss the hollow
flatteries which circulate among the gay and the
frivolous, but they will secure the respect of that
portion of society whose friendship will be of real
advantage to them. And what is of greater moment,
they may experience the protection of that benign
Being, who alone can crown their plans with success,
and make their prosperity a blessing to them.
283 
284    THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HIOUSE.
It is another characteristic of the "virtuous woman"
set before us, that "she opens her mouth with wisdom,
and in her tongue is the law of kindness;" and she
makes it her business to "do her husband good, and
not evil, all the days of her life."  "She shows her
love to him, not by a foolish fondness, but by prudent
endearments, accommodating herself to his temper,
and not crossing him, giving him good words, and
not bad ones, no, not when he is out of humour;
studying to make him easy, to provide what is fit for
him both in health and sickness, and attending him
with diligence and tenderness when any thing ails
him; nor would she, no, not for the world, wilfully
do anything that might be a damage to his person,
family, estate, or reputation. And this is her care
'all the days of her life;' not at first only, or now
and then, when she is in a good humour, but perpetually; and she is not weary of the good offices she
does him. She does him good, not only all the days
of his life, but of her own too: if she survive him,
still she is doing him good in her care of his children,
his estate, and good name, and all the concerns he
left behind him."*
And herein also is she a fit pattern for our merchant's wife. For the cares and perplexities of business are very great; and when men come home from
* Matthew Henry. 
THE LAW OF KINDNESS.
their counting-rooms, jaded and oppressed with toil
and anxiety, they need some one to speak to them
in words of kindness and to "do them good."  And
it is a sad and pernicious thing if, instead of this,
they are met with harsh tones and chilling looks, or
have the load upon their aching backs increased by
a huge accession of petty domestic grievances. This
is "in no sense meet or amiable."
"Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance: commits his body
To painful labour, both by sea and land;
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
While thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands,
But love, fair looks, and true obedience: Too little labour for so great a debt."
And to refuse even this requital, is to come short, not
merely of conjugal duty, but of the magnanimity
proper to your sex in general.
It is mentioned as the crowning excellence of the
character we are contemplating, that she "fears the
Lord." "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain:
but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be
praised." In man or woman, there is no adequate
foundation for true and lasting esteem but this. Personal beauty, which has so much to do with making
marriages, is no infallible index of real worth, and no
285 
286   THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HOUSE.
sure pledge of domestic happiness.  It is exposed to
the inroads of time, sickness, sorrow, and decay;
and may wither at the very meridian of life. The
"beauty of holiness," on the other hand, is as indestructible as the soul itself. Earthly vicissitudes produce no impression upon it. It flourishes alike in the
shade and in the sunshine. Disease and suffering,
trials and losses, only clothe it with fresh lustre.
The more it is crushed, the sweeter is the fragrance
it emits. The character it embellishes, enshrines the
elements of the very highest style of excellence known
to created beings. And if there is any attribute which
is to be prized above all others, whether in single or
in married life, it is undoubtedly genuine religion. I
say not that this alone will make a wife what she
ought to be: but this is the most essential quality
for a wife; and no assemblage of virtues and accomplishments can compensate for the absence of it.
Those merchants may well esteem themselves happy,
whose homes are lighted up with the beams of a
perennial and cheerful piety.
It will be no very violent transition, to pass from
the domestic life of the merchant, to his LITERARY
OPPORTUNITIES. The subject is one of large extent;
but it did not fall within the scope of these Lectures,
to discuss it in detail. Some reference to it, however, 
LITERARY OPPORTUNITIES OF MERCHANTS. 287
especially as it may be connected with the morals of
trade, will be deemed indispensable.
In the glimpses we have just had of a merchant's
household, as it should be, one of the scenes which
must have passed before the eye of every auditor, is
that of the man of commerce enjoying an occasional
hour with the great authors in his Library, or seated,
book-in-hand, with his family around the centre-table.
This is a refreshing sight. It is worthy to be pondered by the restless throng of traffickers who have
gradually repudiated all books except Journals and
Ledgers, and by the crowds of young men who are
just embarking in a mercantile career. There are
those, it may be, in whose breasts the scene would
only excite emotions of contempt.  "Practical men,"
as they are termed, are apt to despise "book-learning." It was one of these sages, who, having advertised for a clerk, asked each applicant, as he appeared,
"whether he understood Latin," and on receiving an
affirmative answer, dismissed him without further inquiry.  The feeling is, that "learning" tends to disqualify a person for business, that it makes him
speculative and "notional," and blunts his wits for
scenting out customers and driving bargains. Examples are readily cited, of illiterate individuals who
were celebrated for their shrewdness, and made great
fortunes. And "if they got rich without books, books 
288   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
would be more of a hindrance than a help, to others
who are aiming at the same end."-This is merchandize with a witness. The loftiest conception of human life these people are capable of forming, is that
of a machine for making money. The nobler part
of their nature is not recognized in their theory.
They seem not to know that they have souls. They
scarcely know that they are endowed with reason.
Certainly they ignore all the higher functions and
uses of reason, and degrade it, as far as possible, to
the level of the better sort of brutes. I disparage
not a business-life. I look with no disfavour upon
legitimate accumulation. I greatly honour the man
who secures, by honest means, a competent or opulent estate, and employs it in doing good. But look
at MAN, the crown and glory of this lower creation,
the wondrous mechanism of his frame, the more wondrous mechanism of his mind, his capacious intellect,
his imagination, his conscience, his immortality, and
say whether the end, the paramount end, for which
he was sent into this world, was, "to buy and sell
and get gain!" Nature, if she were allowed to speak,
would rebuke this sordid theory. She would tell you
that you were enslaving the understanding to the
senses, the man to the animal.  She would remonstrate against your setting earth above heaven, and
time before eternity. She would remind you that 
CRAMPING TENDELNCIES OF TRADE.
your trafficking must in any event be abandoned, and
your gold and silver relinquished after a few days or
years, and that if all your training and your happiness were summed up in hoarding, you would be
miserably unprovided for a world where trade and
its implements are unknown. And she would admnonish you, that these faculties, the culture of vhlichli you
now hold in such contempt, would constitute an essential part of your being for ever, and be a perpetual
means of the purest enjoyment or of the keenest
suffering, according to your treatment of them here.
It is, in fact, the tendency of trade to cramp the
intellect and inspire these mercenary views, which
makes it proper even for the pulpit to protest against
your neglect of liberal studies.  The learned professions are not exempt from this bias.  An exclusive
devotion to any one of them, will make a narrow,
stereotype character, vigorous, perhaps, in certain
faculties, but deficient in that amplitude and symmnetry which belong to truly great minds. And in
your avocation, the danger fiom this source, is, for
obvious reasons, much more imminent. If this consideration were without force, the prejudice against
literary studies, more or less prevalent in your ranks,
might be refuted on strictly commercial grounds. For
there is no kind of knowledge which may not be useful to a merchant in a pecuniary way. The man
25
289 
290    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
who is conducting an extensive business, should be at
home in the history, geography, and politics, of the
leading nations of the globe.  He should be familiar
with the staple products of every clime, with the principles of political economy and finance, with revenue
and quarantine laws, with the commercial usages of
different countries and their modes of intercommunication, wvith the manufacturing processes pertaining
to his own branch of traffic, with the adaptation of
various articles to land and marine transportation, and
with the moral traits of every people whose ports his
ships may visit. I know an earnest and accomplished
scholar who has said in one of his books, that if he
could learn how the topmost stone on Chimborazo lay,
he would deem it an item of information worth possessing.  A merchant should, in the same spirit, pick
up knowledge in every direction and on all subjects.
He must " sow beside all waters:" for he cannot tell
what he may want.  There is a story told of a young
man who, when at a university, refused to attend lectures on Euclid, because he was a man of fortune,
and never likely to become a carpenter! And nothing is more common than for college-students to
proceed upon the same vicious principle, picking and
culling among the studies, so as to confine themselves
to such as will be of service to them in after-lifean error for which "after-life" often makes them pay 
ADVANTAGES OF SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE. 291
very dearly. -Superior knowledge would give you
an advantage over competitors; and save you from
those disastrous mistakes into which firms are so often
led by a blind confidence. It would help to guard
you against disasters: and if disasters came, it would
assist you in retrieving your losses, or in turning your
attention to some new avocation. It would enhance
your personal influence in the community.   "Knowledge is power." The very capitalists who affect to
despise it, are made to feel this, when they contrast
the respect which is paid, in commercial circles, to a
really intelligent merchant, with the mere ceremonious
homagte rendered (not to themselves, but) to their
wealth. -On strictly professional grounds, thenon the scale of dollars and cents- it becomes merchants to "give attention to reading."
In our day this has become more important than
ever, by reason of the general diffusion of knowledge.
Education is no longer the prerogative of the great.
It has put off its purple robes and silver slippers, and
come down to tabernacle with the masses. The world
is waking up to the pregnant fact, that man is composed of something besides bone and muscle. The
universal clamour is for "Education."   The labouring classes are still willing to work, but they are not
willing to be mere spinning-jennies and dredgingmachines. And science, with a noble philanthropy 
092   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HIOUSE.
which outshines all the jewels in its radiant coronet,
is stooping to their necessities, and popularizing itself
to satisfy these passionate cravings of humanity.
This movement is too broad and too powerful for any
class or profession not to be affected by it.  It has
told upon the forum and upon the pulpit, as well upon
the politics and the jurisprudence of the world, as
upon its literature and its "socialism."  The  commercial body cannot, if they would, escape its influence. If merchants will not fall in with it, it will
leave them high and dry upon the shoals of ignorance, a warning and a by-word to the crowds who
sweep past them in the eager strife for knowledge.
Nor will it suffice that you set out with an education.
It is as indispensable to feed the mind as the body.
You might as well expect the meals of to-day to keep
up your physical strength and elasticity for a fortnight to come, as to rely upon your original stock of
ideas to nourish your intellectual faculties through the
rest of your life. Men often try this - merchants,
perhaps, oftener than any others - and you know
how they succeed. You must have seen specimens
of the sort - individuals who have trafficked for a
score or two of years on their primitive stock of
ideas; reading no useful books, shunning all public
discussions and lectures, making no efficient use of
their powers of observation, adding nothing to their 
PROSERS.
modicum of information except, as a sponge gathers
moisture from the atmosphere, by unavoidable absorption, and for ever harping upon one string, and
pestering all companies on all occasions with the same
petrified topics: —why, what is this better than
heading pins for a life-time, or harnessing one's self
to the horse who is doomed to the endless gyrations
of a bark-mill? This is no life for a human being,
certainly not for one who aspires to a respectable
place in society and expects to be the companion of
cultivated men. And the only way to elude it, is, to
keep pouring truth into the mind, and recruiting its
stock of ideas from every available source. Truth is
the soul's aliment, and it is a worse crime against
nature to starve the soul, than to famish the body.
"It is not the mere cry of moralists and the flourish
of rhetoricians; but it is noble to seek truth, and it
is beautiful to find it. It is the ancient feeling of
the human heart, -that knowledge is better than
riches; and it is deeply and sacredly true!   To
mark the course of human passions as they have
flowed on in the ages that are past; to see why nations have risen and why they have fallen; to speak
of heat and light and winds; to know what man has
discovered in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath; to hear the chemist unfold the marvellous
properties that the Creator has locked up in a speck
25 *
293 
294    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
of earth; to be told that there are worlds so distant
from our sun, that the quickness of light travelling
from the world's creation, has never yet reached us;
to wander in the creations of poetry, and grow warm
again with that eloquence which swayed the democ racies of the old world; to go up with great reasoners
to the FIRST CAUSE of all, and to perceive in the
midst of all this dissolution, and decay, and cruel
separation, that there is one thing unchangeable, in destructible, and everlasting; -it is worth while in
the days of our youth to strive hard for this great
discipline; to pass sleepless nights for it, to give up
to it laborious days; to spurn for it present pleasures;
to endure for it afflicting poverty; to wade for it
through darkness and sorrow and contempt, as the
great spirits of the world have done in all ages and
all times."
"All this," I can fancy I hear some of my auditors
saying to themselves, "is very true and very fine:
but why tantalize us in this way?   We  are overtasked now: how is it possible for us to find time for
reading?" This question is fairly put, and shall be
as fairly answered.
I should be extremely sorry to have the merchants
or clerks before me suppose, that I am insensible to
the disadvantages they labour under in repect to
literary culture. At certain seasons of the year, 
OCTAVOS IN MARCI.
particularly, to exhort them to reading, would be
about as rational as to ask them to fly. It would be
worth while, for example, to see the look with which
a corps of clerks in one of our jobbing-houses, would
receive a philanthropic citizen who, on any day of
th7is coming week, should make his way into their
establishment through draymen and porters and coopers and packers and messengers, and the throng of
impatient customers from the "far West" and the
far South and all the sub-cardinal points between,
and blandly request them "to peruse the very interesting and valuable" octavo he might tender to them.
I am sure they would say nothing rude in reply to
him. The ludicrousness of the thing would banish
every harsh feeling, and light up their shrewd and
care-worn faces with a smile of blended astonishment
and incredulity which would at least do them)n good,
even if it failed to enlighten their benevolent visitor.
But Ilarch does not take up the whole Calendar.
You are no more buried amongst bales and boxes
during the entire year, than is the husbandman employed from January to December in harvesting his
crops. During most of the months, a just sense of
the value of time, combined with a well-arranged
system, would secure you frequent opportunities for
study. You may not think so if you consult simply
your present habits, or inquire of your associates and
295 
296   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
neighbours. But go, when you have a breathingspell, to that noble monument of Christian philanthropy, the "INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND," in the
north-western part of our city, and learn whether your
path up the hill of science, is a rougher one, than that
which these children, who dwell in perpetual darkness, are treading with so elastic a step. Or, take
up the volumes entitled, "THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE  UNDER  DIFFICULTIES,   and see what  was
accomplished by Arkwright and Ferguson, Saunderson and Heyne, Franklin and Fulton, and hosts of
others whose names shine in the glorious galaxy of
self-made men. If they did, why may not you?
There can be few among the young men in our
Counting-Houses, whose situation in respect to intellectual improvement, is not superior to that of any
one of the six individuals just mentioned in their early
days. One great secret of their success lay in the
profound art of economizing time. You have stood,
doubtless, by one of the ingenious machines in our
Mint, and seen the brilliant and beautiful coin dropping into the receiver at the rate of a hundred to the
minute, and your feeling has been, "HIow happy
should I be if I could coin money for myself at this
rate!" But you are all coiners- and that, of something which might be worth more to you than all the
deposits at the Mint.  Every fleeting second receives 
THE INDESTRUCTIBLE COINAGE.
from you a brand more indelible than any which the
die imparts to the metal; and if you are careful to
have every impression what it should be, you will, in
the end, be richer in intellectual and moral wealth
than Croesus ever was in the gold that perisheth. It
was by taking care of these seconds, "the gold dust
of time," that the men we have named and their fellows, rose to eminence and honour.  I have styled
this "a profound art," and so it is. Not one in a
thousand understands it. Franklin himself declares
that in carrying out his curious scheme for "arriving
at moral perfection," his rule of Order, which ran
thus, " Let all your things have their places: let each
part of your business have its time," gave him more
trouble than any other part of it. By perseverance,
however, he mastered it in some good degree; and
we may all do the same.
AIany of those who imagine that they cannot possibly find leisure for useful books, actually devote a
great deal of time to certain kinds of reading. It is
one of the incidental results of the science and enterprise of the day, that our country is flooded with a
"cheap literature,' native and exotic, no small portion of which is very trashy or very pernicious.
Young men are apt to resort to publications of this
sort for pastime. The latest French or German novel
(pamphlet edition, double column, and miserable pa
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298    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
per), or the last volume of "Capital Trials" or "Awful Murders," might be found lying upon the small
table in their dormitory, or tucked away on one of
the shelves of the warehouse, to be devoured by
snatches when the principals "are not about." As
a natural consequence, they have no relish for substantial reading. The palate pampered on highlyseasoned dishes, revolts at simple and nutritious food.
The more the imagination is indulged with these
stimulating doses, the stronger will be its cravings.
It is a well-authenticated fact, that "the inveterate
thieves of London make it a practice to attend all the
executions, not so much for an opportunity of picking
pockets, as for the pleasure of excitement, which,
through the very exciting nature of their lawless pursuits, they become incapable of deriving from any
ordinary source."   And  on the same principle, a
mind accustomed to such reading as has been referred
to, will collapse unless supplied with overwrought narratives and extravagant fictions.
But light literature has an accomplice, which must
also be arraigned here. Dr. Franklin, in writing
from Philadelphia to the Bishop of St. Asaph, in
1786, complains that "the reading,-time of most people was so taken up with Newspapers and periodical
pamphlets, that few now-a-days ventured to attempt
any solid reading." So far as I have been able to 
NEWSPAPERS.
ascertain, there were at that period printed in Philadelphia, two small weekly newspapers, and one daily,
commenced two years before. I think it must have
been this last paper, the "Pennsylvania Packet,"
(which finally ripened into that sedate, time-honoured
journal, "Poulson's American Daily Advertiser,")
that did the mischief the venerable sage so feelingly
deplores. However that may have been, if the newspaper press of that day laid itself open to this grave
censure, what must be said of it now?- This is delicate ground. Who stands upon so proud an eminence
that he can rebuke his neighbours for their devotion to
the newspaper, without exposing himself to the retort
"- Physician, heal thyself!"   I frankly confess,
not I. My house is of glass, I fear very thin glass,
and it is not safe for the tenant to be too forward in
throwing stones. There are few bills I pay more
cheerfully, than those for my newspapers.
"This folio of four pages, happy  work!
Which not ev'n critics criticise; that holds
Inquisitive attention, while I read,
Fast bound in chains of silence, which the fair,
Though e]oquent themselves, yet fear to break;
What is it.but a map of busy life,
Its fluctuations and its vast concerns?"
And yet I cannot in my heart approve of the prevailing passion for newspapers: nor endorse at all
299 
300    THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HOUSE.
the common plea of mercantile men that they have
"no time for books."  In particular cases, this is no
doubt true. But look at one of these gentlemen as
he goes home to his tea: what is that huge roll in
his hand or projecting from his surtout pocket?
Newspapers. And if it happen to be a Friday or
Saturday evening, when the "Weeklies" are superadded to the "Dailies," he will have typography
enough in his parcel to make a large octavo volume
or a pair of them. And what is more, he will go
through with it.  This "very busy" merchant, who
is so oppressed with care that he has not " a moment's
time for reading," will travel through one folio page
after another until he has mastered the contents of
his entire pacquet. Not satisfied with the articles
pertaining to commerce, and a general survey of the
affairs of the world, he has acquired a sort of morbid
taste for the endless miscellany that makes up an
ordinary journal, even down to the "Police Reports,"
the broken arms, the collisions of omnibuses, the "accidents" in distant cities, the state of the " weather"
on the other side of the globe, and, when these items
are exhausted, the " Lost and Found" and other
weighty matters in the advertising columns. Now, I
will not retract the sentiment, that "knowledge of
every kind may be useful," but, really, one cannot
see this process going on, day by day, with thousands 
WIIERE TIIE LOST TIME GOES.
of merchants, without having two reflections forced
upon his mind. The first is, that these gentlemen
are under a strange delusion when they imagine tha,
they have "no time for reading." And the other is
that newspapers are great moths. One of the familia
headings they present to city readers, is, "Bewar
of Thieves!"  What is this but the cry of the pilfere
who runs away from the scene of his depredation,
shouting, " Stop thief!"  Certainly, if a man make
inquisition for his lost time, he will be very apt t
find that his favourite newspapers have robbed him
of a good share of it.  Thley are the culprits: and
it is only half their criminality, that they have stolen
his time.  They have broken up his early habits of
reading, perverted his taste, impaired his mental discipline. and indisposed him to all vigorous thought
and patient research. He can scarcely summon energy enough to sit down to one of the Quarterly Reviews, or to listen while his son or daughter reads to
the family circle from any standard History or Biog raphy. His literature and his resolution have disap peared like Pharaoh's fat kine, and there is nothing
but the newspaper to show for them!
Thus much for the supposed "want of time," which
reconciles so many merchants and clerks to the neg lect of all instructive literature. The common effect,
as just intimated, is, to generate a distaste for solid
26
301 
302   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
reading. It becomes a formidable thing to grapple
with a book: to overcome the vis inertix which oppresses the mind on the very suggestion of such a
task. If the habit has been matured by time, it may
be invincible. No one expects to see the merchant
betaking himself to Bacon and Milton and Irving and
Prescott, who has had the ominous interdict inscribed
over the gates of his mind for forty years, "No admittance, except on business."*  Authors (in print,
at least) are proverbially benevolent and courteous.
You may have hundreds of them together in your
house without being disturbed by them. They neither
quarrel with each other, nor break the peace of the
family.  They are tolerant of dust and neglect and
all kinds of harsh treatment. They stay where they
are put, and never come except when they are called.
The only case in which they show any spirit, is the
one just hinted at, where an individual undertakes to
dally with them who has passed by them every day
for a score or two of years, without deigning to speak
to them. This they do resent. And the offender is
apt to find them so punctilious about a reconciliation,
that after a few advances he gives it up in despair.
But this is an extreme case. A simple indifference
to books, may usually be conquered, if you but will
* See the Iton. George S. Ilillard's admirable Address before the Boston Mercantile Library Association, 1850. 
IIINTS ON READING.
to do it. For example (I quote from Sydney Smith),
"sound travels so many feet in a second.  Nothing
more probable: but you do not care how light and
sound travel. Very likely; but make yourself care;
get up, shake yourself well, pretend to care, make
believe to care, and very soon you will care, and care
so much, that you will sit for hours thinking about
light and sound, and be extremely angry with any
one who interrupts you in your pursuits, and tolerate
no other conversation but about light and sound, and
catch yourself plaguing every body to death who approaches you, with the discussion of these subjects. I
am sure that a man ought to read as he would grasp
a nettle: - do it lightly, and you get molested; grasp
it with all your strength, and you feel none of its
asperities. There is nothing so horrible as languid
study; when you sit looking at the clock, wishing the
time was over, or that somebody would call on you
and put you out of your misery. The only way to
read with any efficacy, is to read so heartily that
dinnrer-time [or bed-time] comes two hours before you
expect it." And many a young man, at first very
shy of books, has learned the art of reading in this
way so well, that he now counts the hours of business
which keep him from his favourite nook at the Mercantile Library or from the few chosen authors that
grace the shelves in his chamber.
303 
304    THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
Others might rouse themselves to a similar course,
but they "know not how or what to read." The
very magnitude of the public libraries to which they
have access, bewilders them.  "What can they do in
such a wilderness of books? With what subjects shall
they begin?  Which are the best authors?  What is
the most profitable method of reading?"  Questions
like these crowd upon them, and extinguish the halfformed purpose to set about the culture of their minds
and aspire to something more worthy of their rational
nature than the character of mere money-makers.
The difficulty is real, but it is not serious. The topics
to which it points, it is not my province to discuss;
but I may say, in a single sentence, that satisfactory
information on these topics, is within the reach of
every person who desires it. There are gentlemen
connected with these libraries, and others in your own
profession, who would cheerfully aid you in arranging
a course of reading.  Or better still, perhaps, there
are books on this very subject, containing ample information respecting every department of letters, and
designed to meet in a judicious and competent manner, the very wants which have been described.* No
* See, especially, "A Course of English Reading, adapted
to every taste and capacity, with Anecdotes of Men of Genius.
By the Rev. Jamnes Pycroft, B. A., Trinity Colleg,e, Oxford."
(A. IIart, Philad.) A most instructive and entertaining book. 
A SHIELD AGAINST TEMPTATION.
young man, with such helps at hand, need be at a
loss what to read, nor how to read to good purpose.
The importance of this habit in a simply professional view, and as going to counteract the influence
of a too exclusive devotion to merchandize, has already
been adverted to. It is no less useful to young men
in our cities, as a shield against temptation.  "The
ruin of most men," says Mr. Hiillard, "dates from
some vacant hour. Occupation is the armour of the
soul, and the train of Idleness is borne up by all the
vices. I remember a satirical poem, in which the
Devil is represented as fishing for men, and adapting
his baits to the taste and temperament of his prey;
but the idler, he said, pleased him most, because he
bit the naked hook. To a young man away from
home, friendless and forlorn in a great city, the hours
of peril are those between sunset and bed-time, for
the moon and stars see more of evil in a single hour
than the sun in his whole day's circuit. The poet's
visions of evening are all compact of tender and
soothing images. It brings the wanderer to his
home, the child to his mother's arms, the ox to his
stall, and the weary labourer to his rest. But to the
gentle-hearted youth who is thrown upon the rocks
of a pitiless city, and stands'homeless amid a thousand homes,' the approach of evening brings with it
an aching sense of loneliness and desolation, which
26*
305 
306   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
comes down upon the spirit like darkness upon the
earth. In this mood, his best impulses become a
snare to him, and he is led astray because he is social,
affectionate, sympathetic, and warm-hearted. If there
be a young man thus circumstanced within the sound
of my voice, let me say to him that books are the
friends of the friendless, and that a Library is the
home of the homeless. A taste for reading will always
carry you into the best possible company, and enable
you to converse with men who will instruct you by
their wisdom and charm you by their wit, who will
soothe you when fretted, refresh you when weary,
counsel you when perplexed, and sympathize with
you at all times. Evil spirits, in the Middle Ages,
were driven away by'bell, book, and candle'; -you
want but two of these, the book and the candle."
It is another consideration of great moment, that
merchants, in this country, are often called to high
public stations. They may be found among our Legislators. They have graced the Cabinet, and represented us at European Courts. A profession thus
identified with our national affairs, should be no less
distinguished for its general intelligence than its integrity and enterprise.
The importance of literary culture as a preparation for retiring from business, has been adverted to
on former occasions, and the length of this Lecture 
THE BOOK OF BOOKS.
forbids me to enlarge upon it here. But the argument may be seen in its best form, if those who are
curious on the subject, will take the trouble to estimate for themselves, the intellectual and moral resources, and the honour and comfort, of a merchant
who carries into his retirement a well-disciplined
mind and established habits of reading, as compared
with the closing years of another who, on bidding
adieu to his Counting-House, is ready to say, with
Micah, "Ye have taken away my gods which I made,
and what have I more?"
The paramount reason, however, why mercantile
men should bestow this care upon mental culture,
grows out of its connexion with their spiritual interests; - and that, not simply in those indirect
methods which have already been mentioned. The
argument drawn from the conservative and elevating
influence of literary occupation generally, is sound
and forcible. But the higher bearings of this habit
will be understood at once, when I mention the BIBLE
as the book which must of right claim a precedence
in every scheme of reading. Regarded simply as a
means of intellectual discipline, no other work can
be studied to equal advantage.   Its themes  are
the sublimest and the most ennobling which can be
contemplated; and the mind which is brou,ght into
reverential and habitual contact with them, will grow
307 
, 03    TIlE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HIIOUSE.
rapidly in strength and comprehension.   But not
only does the Bible speak to us of God: it is God
who speaks to us in its sacred pages. And, therefore, while other books may be read, this book must
be read. Not to read it, is to contemn its Author.
Not to read it, is to miss the manifold blessings, and
to incur the fearful retributions, it reveals. There
alone is the WAY OF SALVATION laid open, and that
question, the most momentous which can engage the
attention of a rational being, authoritatively answered, "What must I do to be saved?"  Whatever may
be neglected then, neglect not the faithful, systematic,
devout study of the Sacred Scriptures. Ignorance
of the Bible were not merely disreputable to you as
men of intelligence: it would jeopard, and might destroy, your souls.  And "what shall it profit a man
if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul!" 
TESTIMAONY OF A CLERI.
THE CLAIMS OF THE SABBATH UPON MERCHANT$.
A  FEW days since, stepping into one of our great
commercial houses, the floor of which was covered
with boxes of merchandize awaiting transportation, I
said to one of the clerks, calling him by name, "What
would you young men do without a Sunday?" "What
would we do?" he replied, "we could not do at all.
It would be impossible for us to get on without Sunday in the other portions of the year; and not to
have it at this season, would break us right up at
once.  It is indispensable to us," he added, "for
physical rest, and a great deal more so that our
mind(s may get repose from this care and anxiety
which are so crushing to us." IIis appearance gave
emphasis to every word he uttered. I had seen him
at the commencement of "the season," and marked
his fine, bright countenance and his elastic step.
Again, in the interval I had seen him, and heard hint
say, on a Saturday afternoon  "I have not been in
-09
Iterttlrt - 30illit. 
910    TIIE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HIOUSE.
my bed until one or two o'clock, a single night this
week." And now his cheek was blanched, he had
become very thin, and his whole aspect and gait were
stamped with lassitude and exhaustion.-I have cited
him as a witness on this subject, because while he is
a very estimable young man and a most faithful and
efficient clerk, he is not, I believe, a professor of religion: and with a certain class of persons, this circumstance may impart additional weight to his testimony.
But in truth, it would not be requisite to select witnesses in order to establish the necessity of a weekly
rest. You would be safe in going at random into any
of our Counting-Houses, or in polling the entire mercantile community on this question: - there could be
but one response to the question, "Is Sunday essential to the proper prosecution of commercial business?"
This, however, is but a partial statement of the truth.
The Sabbath is not essential to the merchant only, but
to men of every occupation, and of all climes and
kindreds. This is the teaching alike of the Bible, of
science, and of experience.
Our Saviour has affirmed it in that much-perverted
saying, "The Sabbath was made for man,  and not
man for the Sabbath."  (Mark 2: 27.)  As the word
Sabbath means a rest, this language implies that man
requires a day of rest. Ile who "knew what was in
man," foresaw that he would need a weekly respite 
DR. FARRE.
from labour. Had he been differently constituted, or
differently situated, this might possibly have been dispensed with; or instead of one-seventh, some other
portion of his time might have been demanded for
repose. But as hlie is, he must have a "rest-day";
and so his bountiful Creator has given him one. To
quarrel with the Sabbath, therefore, is for a man to
quarrel with his own constitution. And the people
who declaim so much about this institution as an
invention of "priestcraft," would be more rationally
employed in inquiring how and why they came to be
created with a physical and moral frame-work which
would soon shiver to pieces without a Sabbath. If
"priestcraft" has invented the Sabbath, it deserves
for once their thanks rather than their maledictions.
Let us hear an eminent scientific authority on the
subject: -
"As a day of rest," says Dr. Farre, in his testimony before
a Committee of the house of Commons, "I view it as a day
of compensation for the inadequate restorative power of the
body under continued labour and excitement. A physician
always has respect to the preservation of the restorative
power, because, if once this be lost, his healing office is at an
end. If I show you from the physiological view of the question,
that there are provisions in the laws of nature which correspond with the divine commandment, you will see from the
analogy that' the Sabbath was made for man' as a necessary
appointment.  A physician is anxious to preserve the balance
311 
312    TtIE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HOUSE.
of circulation, as necessary to the restorative power of the
body. The ordinary exertions of man run down the circulation every day of his life; and the first general law of nature
by which God (who is not only the -giver, but also the preserver and sustainer, of life,) prevents man from destroying
himself, is the alternating of day with night, that repose may
succeed action. But although the night apparently equalizes
the circulation well, yet it does not sufficiently restore its
balance for the attainment of a long life. IIence one day in
seven, by the bounty of Providence, is thrown in as a day of
compensation, to perfect by its repose the animal system.
Take that fine animal, the horse, and work him to the full
extent of his powers every day in the week, or give him rest
one day in seven, and you will soon perceive, by the superior
vigour with which he performs his functions on the other six
days, that this is necessary to his well-being.  Man, possessing a superior nature, is borne along by the very vigour of
his mind, so that the injury of continued diurnal exertion and
excitement on his animal system, is not so immediately apparent as it is in the brute; but in the long run he breaks
down more suddenly; it abridges the length of his life and
that vigour of his old age which (as to mere animal power)
ought to be the object of his preservation. I consider, therefore, that in the bountiful provision of Providence for the
preservation of human life, the Sabbatical appointment is not,
as it has been sometimes theologically viewed, simply a precept partaking of the nature of a political institution; but
that it is to be numbered amongst the natural duties, if the
preservation of life be admitted to be a duty, and the premature destruction of it a suicidal act. This is said simply as
a Physician, and without reference at all to the theological
question: but if you consider further the proper effect of 
THE SABBATII FOIUNDED IN NATURE.    313
real Christianity-namely, peace of mind, confiding trust
in God, and good-will to man-.you will perceive in this
source of renewed vigour to the mind, and through the mind
to the body, an additional spring of life imparted from this
lhigher use of the Sabbath as a holy rest."
The principle elucidated in these philosophical
observations, has been recognized by the worst enemies of the Sabbath. So thoroughly satisfied were
the French Theophilanthropists, of the necessity of a
day of rest, that when they abolished the Sabbath
they replaced it with a decade, making every tenth
day a holiday.
It follows from the argument just presented, that
the Sabbath could have been no mere local or transitory enactment.  The  nature of man remaining
unchanged, a restorative "rest-day" would be equally
essential under all dispensations and among all
nations.  Accordingly, there are distinct traces of
such an institute from the creation to the exodus:
under the theocracy it was formally incorporated in
the decalogue: the Saviour confirmed its authority:
and from his ascension until now, Christendom has
recognized it as an ordinance of God. The change
from the seventh to the first day of the week (a point
which the limits of this service forbid my entering
into here), does not affect the essence of the institution. The vital thing - that which was originally
27 
314    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
appointed -that which was republished with fresh
sanctions at Sinai- is, the "Sabbath," the "restday." That which the human constitution demands,
and has always demanded, is, a weekly rest extending,
in the a;cggregate, over one-seventh part of man's
allotted period upon earth. To use a familiar illustration, we might suppose a company of Christian
tourists to start from Pittsburg and travel westward,
until they had compassed the globe and returned to
some isolated spot on the mountains within a few
miles of their former home. If they had kept each
Sabbath as it came, avoiding all intercourse with
other Christians, and should now settle in their new
abode without communicating at all with their neighbours, they would have lost a day by their journey,
and we should have the anomaly of two adjacent
communities, of the same faith, keeping the Christian
Sabbath on different days. Can any one deny that
the observance of these travellers would be a substantial accordance with the Sabbath-law, or doubt that
it would be acceptable to God?  It is not, then,
incompatible with the original enactment, that the
day should be changed -especially by the Lord of
the Sabbath himself.
All this may be conceded by individuals who will,
nevertheless, argue, that "as the Sabbath'was made
for man,' man must have a right to do what he 
DESIGN OF THE LAVW.
chooses with it.  If he sees fit to open his store and
sell goods on that day, to send his mowers into the
field with their scythes, to run his stages, to keep his
journeymen at tanning, marble - dressing, building,
weaving, or whatever his trade may be, no one may
resist it as an infraction of the Sabbath. And if
governments and corporations choose to keep canals
and railways in operation, as well on the first day of
the week as on the other six, they are not contravening the Sabbath-law."
This, however, will depend on the design of the
law. No sweeping conclusions like these can be
deduced from the proposition that "the Sabbath was
made for man." You may say to your son: "H I-Iere
is a watch which I have had made for you." Would
that authorize him to throw the watch into the sea,
or to take it to pieces and use the machinery in
patching together his broken toys? You may erect
a costly mansion, and say to your bridal daughter:
"I have built and furnished this house for you, as a
wedding-present." Would this justify her in setting
fire to it, or in renting it for a grocery-store? You
may say to one of your clerks: "I have had this
additional ware-room constructed expressly for you,
and I wish you to take charge of it." Would this
warrant him in storing other people's goods there, or
in trafficking  in articles which you disapproved of
315 
310    TIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IHOUSE.
and which might damage you in business and reputation?- Neither does it follow, because God has made
the Sabbath for you, that you may do what you
please with it;-especially as he has in fact made it
over to you in trust only, and without divesting himself of his own right in it. In the deed by which He
has conveyed it to you, the general uses to which it
is to be applied, are carefully specified.  It is to be
a holy rest -a day of religious worship-a day
specifically dedicated to God and the soul. Yet not
so rigidly spiritual as to preclude any and all nonspiritual offices in all conceivable circumstances. There
are secular matters which may be attended to on the
Sabbath. But what they are, it is His prerogative,
not ours, to decide. And He has decided. Hle has
settled the principle, by his teaching and his example,
that works of necessity and mercy are not in derogation of the sacredness of the day. Beyond this, no
man can go without usurping a control over the whole
institution, and impugning the right of the "Lord of
the Sabbath," to say how it shall be kept. There is
no intermediate ground. If the Bible is not to be
recognized as the paramount authority, as well in
respect to the exceptions as to the rule itself, then
the rule is a nullity and the Sabbath a figment. For
what does the command, "Remember  the  Sabbathday, to keep it holy," amount to, if each man may 
ALLOWED SECULARITIES.
bend the day to his own caprices? The principle
which would sanction your trafficking on that day,
would no less legitimate the military reviews and
public amusements to which Sunday is appropriated
in most of the European capitals. Any one who has
spent; week in Paris, must know what we might
expect if this mode of interpreting the declaration,
"the Sabbath was made for man," should become
prevalent in this country. But the Bible has not
thus stultified itself by ordaining a law, and then
allowing every individual to put what construction
upon it he chooses. The Lawgiver has expounded
his own statute. And under this authority, our secularities on that day are restricted to the two classes
of offices just specified. Whether any proposed service be a work of "necessity" or of "mercy," we
must decide for ourselves, under our responsibility to
God. To abuse this liberty by turning the Sabbath
into a day of pastime or of needless toil, is to practise
a paltry deception upon our own consciences, and to
insult the Deity. The spirit of the divine legislation
on this subject, any candid inquirer will readily comprehend; and the more such an one investigates it,
the clearer will become his conviction of the unbounded
wisdom and goodness involved in this whole economy
of a perpetual weekly Sabbath.
There is another serious error in the reasoning of
27 *
317 
318    THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
the plea I have quoted.   Because "the Sabbath was
made for man," if your interest as individuals or as
corporators in a joint-stock company appears to require it, you may exact of your clerks and journeymen, your steamboat crews and railroad servitors,
any amount of Sabbath labour which you see.fit. So
you argue: but with bad logic and worse humanity.
If "the Sabbath (the rest-day) was made for 9: an,"
who gave you the right to monopolize it? These
book-keepers and salesmen and packers and porters
-are they not men?   These engineers and conductors and stokers and switch-tenders and baggagemasters and machinists and depot-keepers -are they
not men? And if they are, was not the day of rest
made for them as well as for you? It is nothing to
the purpose that you are rich and they are poor; or
that you are principals and they subordinates. With
God, there is no respect of persons. And if Ile made
the Sabbath for "man" -for every man, and for
one man as much as for another- it is to be presumed He will not regard with indifference any
attempt on the part of the opulent or the powerful
to intercept from the poor, the boon He has intended
for them. Their right to it is as indisputable as your
own. They do not receive it from you. It is not
yours to give; and if you cannot confer it, you cannot take it away. God has bestowed it upon themn 
EVERY MAN'S RIGIIT TO A SABBATH.    319
and upon you alike, as he has the atmosphere and
the light; and it is an invasion of His prerogative,
to deprive them of their chartered rest.  The title
under which they hold it, is paramount to all human
compacts: older than any patent of nobility, above
all crowns and constitutions. The image and superscription upon it, are those of the KING OF KINGS
AND LORD OF LORDS; and, as if to impress upon it
a sacredness still more awful, it is sealed with "BLOOD
DIVINE." By such an instrument is a weekly rest
guaranteed to all your helpers and subordinates, from
your confidential cashier down to your errand-boy.
By such an instrument is it secured to all the tribes
of labour - to the men who wheel upon the wharves,
to the operatives in every mill, the mechanics and
apprentices in every shop, the clerks in every Postoffice, the working staff of every canal and railroad.
The Sabbath is no gratuity bestowed upon them by
their employers.  Their employers have it for themselves by virtue of their being men, but it is not
theirs to give away. GOD has given it to every
man; and they would do well not to interfere with
IhIis gift.
The pretension against which I am arguing, is,
indeed, monstrous. It is the deliberate assumption of
a right to invalidate a Divine grant! to wrest from
a large portion of the human race, a priceless posses 
320    THiE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
sion which they hold directly from God himself! I
say, "from a large portion of the race," and it is
even so. For if the principle contended for be admitted, that the affluent and the great may constrain
(and moral means may be so used as to amount to
coercion) the dependent classes to work for them on
the Sabbath, where no office of "necessity or mercy"
is involved, then the weekly rest which was "made
for man," may come to be the exclusive appendage
of those who are blessed with wealth or station; and
these are a mere fraction of any community. Nor is
this all. The motive which prompts to this oppression of the poor - the entire basis upon which this
usurpation of the Divine prerogative rests- is, a
sordid self-interest. It is to inflame still more the
feverish excitement of commerce and increase its
gains, to make the rich richer and the poor poorer,
that large bodies of deserving men are to be robbed
of the rest-day which God made for them. Avarice
is never satisfied. It might have been supposed, that
when science and art had brought the remote portions
of a country like this into juxta-position, and, in the
matter of travelling and transportation, well-nigh
condensed days into hours, the trade-spirit would be
content to pause for one day out of seven, and let all
its servants enjoy the repose the Creator had provided for them. But so far from this, the disposition 
TYRANNY OF AVARICE.
is to make every new railroad a fresh instrument of
Sabbath - desecration.   The faster goods travel, the
faster they must travel.  The traffickers from the
country, who would certainly reach the city or their
homes on Monday, are not satisfied with this: they
must "save a day" by travelling on Sunday.   With
a similar economy of time, the metropolitan merchant
takes Sunday for his transit to or from a contiguous
city.  "Business requires it."  Excuse me for telling
you, that you are mistaken. As a general rule, business does not require it. Legitimate business never
can require that you should habitually desecrate the
Sabbath, and deprive some scores or hundreds of
your fellow-men of their chartered rest. It is cupidity
that requires it. It would make more money, or make
it faster: and in this greediness after gain, it does not
scruple to tyrannise over those whose circumstances
place them at its mercy, and to wrest from them the
only day of the seven which they can call their own.
I would press home upon you, your own favourite
text, "the Sabbath was made  for man."   It was
made for man; and if you consider how invaluable it
is to those who are consigned to a life of toil, you
will feel that it must be a flagrant wrong to despoil
them of it. The human constitution, as has been
shown, demands this periodic rest. Men who have
to labour without it, are sure to break down and die.
321 
322    THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
I do not ask, will Christian principle, but, will common humanity, justify us in prosecuting business on
any plan which must be fatal to the health and the
lives of our fellow-creatures? And if you take away
the Sabbath, what time has the labourer for his family?
It may be a light thing for you to go off on a Sunday
from your homes.  But look out of your window of
a morning, and see these men, after a hurried breakfast, before their children are up, hastening to their
work, each one carrying a basket or kettle with his
noon-day lunch; and see them again returning, after
sun-down, fagged and weary, and much fitter for bed
than for the companionship of their families:-and
say, whether such men ought to be denied the only
day they can devote to domestic affection and househlold joys. The Sabbath is, under God, one of the main
ramparts which guard the poor-man's habitation from
the exactions of power and the rapacity of avarice.
And to subvert this, is to rob him of his HOME.
"HIIail, Sabbath! thee I hail, the poor man's day.
On other days the man of toil is doom'd
To eat his joyless bread, lonely, the ground
Both seat and board, screen'd from the winter's cold
And summer's heat by neighbouring hedge or tree;
But on this day, embosomed in his home,
He shares the frugal meal with those he loves;
With those he loves he shares the heartfelt joy
Of giving thnltiks to God." 
TIlE LABOURER'S COTTAGE.
This scene has been described by a "Labourer's
Daughter" as no one could depict it except from
experience. I will quote from her sketch but a single
paragraph, as the volume is within the reach of all,
and eminently worthy to be read of all.*
"What a delightful scene of tranquil enjoyment is to be
met with in the family of the labourer where the Sabbath is
properly appreciated and actively improved! Has the reader
ever spent a Lord's day in such a family? hIas he seen the
children, awaking from the light slumbers of the morning,
glance round on the more than usual order, cleanliness, and
quiet of the humble apartment, and then ask,' Mother, what
day is this?' and heard the reply,'This is the Sabbath, the
best of all days, the day which God has blessed!'  Has he
seen their father dandling the baby, till their mother should
finish dressing the elder children, and then, when all were
ready, heard the little circle join in the sweet morning hymn,
and seen them kneel together, while their father offered up a
simple but heartfelt thanksgiving for life, health, and reason
preserved, through the toils of another week; and for the
privilege of being again all permitted to enjoy, in each other's
society, the blessed light of the first day of the week; that
morning light which brings to mind an empty grave and a
risen Saviour; those peaceful hours, which, undisturbed by
the labour, hurry, and anxieties of the week, they can devote
to the advancement of that spiritual life in their souls, which
* See "Prize-Essays on the Temporal Advantages of the
SabbathT," by TVorking Men: which also includes the "Pearl
of Days, by a Labourer's Da'tghter." Presb. Board of Pub
lication.
323 
324    TIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HIIOUSE.
shall outlive the destruction of death itself?  Has he heard
the words of prayer, the questions of the father, and the
replies of the children; and has he not felt assured that the
mnind-awakening influences of such subjects of thought, and
such exercises, would be seen in the after-years of these
children?"
This last thought would bear to be expanded"the mind-awakening influences" of the Sabbath,
not only in its domestic, but in its public, religious
services. For it is no less the chief means of mental
improvement to the labourer, than his indispensable
season of physical repose. But above all these, it
supplies him with his only adequate opportunities for
spiritual culture and preparation for eternity.   This
is so apparent, that it would be a waste of words to
prove, that to subject the labouring classes, or any
class, to habitual toil on the Lord's day, is, to cut
them off from the sanctuary, to deprive them of the
requisite leisure for the study of the Bible, to subvert
their religious principles, and, under ordinary circumstances, to corrupt their morals and destroy their
souls.
But some one may be ready to exclaim     "What
is all this to us?  Why address -Ierchatlts on the
importance of the Sabbath to the poor?" I answer,
because most of the usages which go to deprive the
poor of their Sabbath, have the sanction of the commercial body. To advert to a topic repeatedly men 
RAILWVAY-TRAFFIC.
tioned- the railroads of the United SNtates are, for
the      most part, controlled by its merchants.  It is at
your bidding that the Post-office is made an exception
to the rule which regulates every other department
of the government, and its incumbents deprived of
the rest enjoyed by all other public servants. It is
your merchandize (I address the profession as a whole)
which sends these long trains of freight-cars along
the      rails on the Sabbath.   It is your patronage,
beyond that of any other class of citizens, that sustains the "passenger-trains" on Sundays.  Whenever
an effort is made to suspend the Sunday-traffic on
any particular road, it is commerce that remonstrates
against it. It has even claimed in some instances,
that a road should be kept in operation on that day,
although, on its own concession, the passenger-trains
would have to be run at a positive pecuniary lossthe pretext being, that the suspension of the trains
might divert travel to other lines.  The only medium
through which this great moral question is contemplated, is that of business and profits. The improvement and comfort of the working people and their
families, go for nothing.   The authority of GOD
goes for nothing.  Commerce, uninstructed by religion, has but one standard of value, and casts all
commodities, from iron and cotton up to ethics and
devotion, into the same scales,
28
325 
326   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
"Nor is it well, nor can it come to good,
That through profane and infidel contempt
Of Holy Writ, she has presumed t' annul
And abrogate, as roundly as she may,
The total ordinance and will of God,"
and to degrade the Sabbath, in so far as "business"
may seem to demand it, to a mere secular day. This
"cannot come to good" even as regards her own
affairs. It is demonstrable that the general and
permanent prosperity of any country, in a simply
commercial view, will be promoted by a due observance of the Sabbath. This is implied in the argument already presented on the Sabbath-law as being
founded in the very structure of the human constitution. It is no less evident from the intimate connexion between the business of a people and the state
of the public morals, and the dependence of this,
again, upon the respect paid to the Sabbath. It is
of the last importance to the mercantile body, that
the country should be pervaded with a healthful
morality. Whatever lowers the tone of integrity,
multiplies the discomforts of trade and augments its
losses. If you do anything to impair the general
reverence for the Supreme Being and for his law,
you are counterworking your own pecuniary interests:
and, sooner or later, unlooked-for delinquencies and
frauds among your customers or clerks, may remind 
THE PLATFORM OF CIIRISTIANITY.
you of your error. But the desecration of the Sabbath is a measure of this sort- and one of the most
decisive you could put your hands to. For the preservation of religion and virtue among a people, depends essentially, under Providence, upon the Sabbath. Christianity has her Bible, her sanctuaries,
her systems of religious education, her munificent
array of benevolent institutions: but what are all
these without a day of rest? The Sabbath is the
PLATFORM on wh7ich this whole machinery stands;
and to strike that down, would be well-nigh to paralyze the agencies by which the Gospel is carrying
forward its sublime mission of regenerating the world.
If men loved Christianity, the case were different.
But they do not love her. They will not of themselves seek her out and supplicate her blessings.
She must come to them, as her Divine Founder came
from heaven to "to seek and to save that which was
lost"; and to do this, she must have a season appropriated to the purpose, a day set apart by authority,
when business shall intermit its traffickings and pleasure its frivolities, and politics its debates, and housewifery its toil, and all the tribes and conditions of
humanity be allowed to pause and listen to the vYoice
of God as Hle speaks to them in HIis Word.  The
Sabbath supplies this opportunity. It is in itself a
most wholesome and impressive memorial of a super
327 
328   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
intending Providence. The tranquil wharves of a
Sabbath-keeping city, the long rows ef closed warehouses, the peaceful streets, the silent Banks and
Exchange, all proclaim that THERE IS A GOD. This
weekly rest is a Witness for Him in a world which
is perpetually prone to forget Him.  It is a Witness
to his power, in the work of creation and in the
resurrection of Christ; to his wisdom, in ordaining
this season of repose; to his goodness and grace, in
providing its manifold benefits; and to his sovereignty,
in the right he herein challenges to control our time
and all our affairs.- If just conceptions of the Deity
are essential to sound morality, then must it be admitted that the Sabbath is one of the main buttresses
of the public morals.
Again, experience has shown, that Sabbath-keeping
is friendly to all the virtues, while Sabbath-desecration
readily affiliates with all the vices. Dealing with
men in masses, those who observe this day in the
spirit of the institution, will usually be found on the
side of industry, frugality, honesty, intelligence, and
good citizenship; while those who habitually profane
it, will generally be more or less addicted to idleness,
fraud, prodigality, swearing, intemperance, or other
vices. The true way to secure trust-worthy clerks
and faithful warehouse-men, to gather around your
great establishments a body of subordinates and 
THIE PALLADIUM OF LIBERTY.
helpers who can be relied upon in all exigencies, and
who will do your work thoroughly and cheerfully, is,
to encoura,ge all in your employ to honour the Sabbath. Loyalty to God is the best guarantee of fidelity
to man. And he who can trample upon a Divine
command, has weakened, if not subverted, the principle which binds him to be upright in his dealings
with his neighbours.
On a still broader view, this "rest-day" has an
imperative claim upon the citizens of this country.
It is scarcely a figure to characterize it as the palladium of our liberties. The historical fact is of pregnant import, that despots, whether political or sacerdotal, have always been hostile to the evangelical
Sabbath. It was in logical harmony with the whole
genius of the Stuart dynasty, that James I., and,
after him, Charles I., should attempt to break down
the Sabbath by imposing the "Book of Sports" upon
the British people. It is in keeping with the spirit
which controls, and has always controlled, the European despotisms, that they should encourage their
subjects to turn the Sabbath into a day of amusement.  A nation that moils for six days and frolicks
the seventh, is about as fit material for a tyrant as
could be desired. But a tyrant could do nothing
wvith a people who had free access to the Bible, and
assembled every Sunday in their sanctuaries to listen
28 *
329 
330   THE BIBLE IN TIHE COUNTING-HIOUSE.
to the faithful preaching of the Gospel. Such a
people would have too much intelligence to wear the
yoke of an oppressor. They would understand their
rights and have the courage to assert them. Neither
crown nor mitre could terrify them into a servile submission to wrong, nor put off their demand for their
proper franchises with a sop of beggarly amusements.
This is but too well understood in the countries
referred to. In Spain, in Austria, in France, in
Italy, the grand policy of the reigning authorities,
civil and ecclesiastical, is to keep the people in ignorance of the Bible; to deny them all instructive
preaching, prevent even the private study of the
Scriptures, and make the Sabbath (after the morning
service!) a scene of mirth and dissipation. If we
are to preserve and transmit to other times, a government the reverse of all these - a government, free,
just, enlightened, beneficent in all its tendencies, and
supported, not by the bayonets of a standing army,
native or foreign,* but by the generous affections of
its citizens, we must reverse the means and implements
of their policy, and secure to our entire population an
OPEN BIBLE and a SCRIPTURAL SABBATH.   This will
be no precarious defence against domestic usurpation
and foreign aggression, against the turbulence of
faction and the violence of anarchy, against the
* Look at the Papal throne. 
HOSTILE AGENCIES.
subtleties of priestcraft and the ravings of atheism.
That all these evil agencies should be hostile to the
Christian Sabbath in its true import, is a fact which
deserves to be pondered by candid and patriotic men
of whatever sect or party: it might help to open the
eyes of some who have inconsiderately discountenanced measures designed to rescue "the Lord's
day" from desecration. In every aspect in which
the question can be viewed, they will find that this
invaluable institution is identified no less with all our
material interests as a nation, than with the improvement and happiness of individuals and families.
I know not how these general views may impress
the minds of the Merchants whom it is my privilege
to address, but it will be proper to show that the
Sabbath has other and more direct claims upon your
homage: - I mean, a Sabbath kept in the true spirit
of this divine ordinance. You might yield a vague
assent to the reasonings which have been urged, and
reckon yourselves among the friends of the Sabbath,
while, nevertheless, you would deem it no infraction
of the fourth commandment, to appropriate the day,
or a considerable portion of it, to the posting of books,
to your commercial correspondence, to the revision
of your plans or the projecting of new ones, or to a
journey to some neighbouring city. But this is not
keeping the Sabbath.  The command is, "Remiember
331 
332    TIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HIIOUSE.
the Sabbath-day to keep   it holy."  This surely imports something more than that you are not to open
your Counting-Houses and require the attendance of
your clerks and porters, and make that day in all
respects like the other six. No merchant can do this
in our cities without losing caste among his brethren.
It is not deemed respectable to do it; and it were,
therefore, a very equivocal sort of compliment to
applaud a man for abstaining from it. The commercial sentiment still sanctions the transaction of Postoffice business on the Sabbath, although without any
adequate reason.  In particular cases this is, of course,
proper: "necessity or mercy" may demand it, and
to proscribe it in such instances, were to be "righteous
over-much."   But there is no sufficient reason for
converting the exception into the rule.  If there is
any city in the world which requires a general delivery
on Sunday, it must be the financial centre of the
world, London. It is preposterous to claim in behalf
of any community, an extent of Post-office accommodation beyond that which satisfies the two millions of
that great capital. And they are satisfied with having
their Post-office closed on the Sabbath. This was
demonstrated three years ago in the most conclusive
manner, by the memorials sent up to Parliament from
the metropolis, in favour of closing all the Post-offices
throughout the United Kinngdom on that day. These 
THE LONDON POST-OFFICES.
petitions, which were very emphatic in their language,
were signed by many thousands of citizens, including
nearly all the principal bankers and merchants. If
the commerce of London thrives under an arrangement of this kind, that of Philadelphia or New York
would not suffer from a similar one.*
* As a specimen of the papers alluded to, I subjoin one
which was circulated among the London BANKERS.  Similar
"Declarations" were signed by the leading Mercantile firms,
the principal Surgeons and Solicitors, and the Aldermen, of
the Metropolis. This honourable example of a great commercial community coming forward to secure to the public
servants in the numerous Post-offices of the realm an unbroken
Sabbath7, is in striking contrast with the spirit displayed on
the same question in some of our own cities. May it not be
hoped that something of this magnanimity will yet be exhibited on this side of the water?
DECLARATION.
LONDON, January, 1850.
We, the undersigned,  being strongly impressed  with a
belief that there exists no greater necessity to justify the
transaction of the ordinary business of receiving and delivering letters on the Sabbath-day, in any of the Post-offices of
the United Kiugdom, than in those of the Metropolis, do
hereby earnestly request her MaIjesty's Government to take
into immediate consideration, the expediency and propriety
of causing the same to be discontinued, by ordering the Postoffices in the country to be altogether closed on that day.
This belief is grounded on the following facts:1. That the Metropolis, containing a population of 2,200,000
souls, has never experienced any necessity for the open    ing of the Metropolitan Post-offices on Sundays.
333 
334   TIIE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
But I have no intention to discuss this topic. I
am simply insisting upon a faithful dedication of the
Sabbath to its legitimlnate uses, as an object of the
greatest moment to the commercial body. Mly young
2. That the great acceleration which has recently taken place
in the postal communications throughout the empire, must
necessarily diminish, to a very great extent, any inconve    nience which it might otherwise be supposed would arise
from closing the Provincial Post-offices on Sunday.
And believing that the effectual preservation of a seventh
day of rest from their ordinary labour, is a principle of vital
importance to the physical and social well-being of the poorer
classes of society, whilst the due observance of the Lord's day
is a duty of solemn obligation upon all classes of the community, we agree to take such measures as may appear best calculated to press the foregoing considerations on the attention
of the Government and the Legislature.
Baring Brothers,              Fullers & Co.
Williams, Deacon & Co.        Barnard, Barnard & Dimsdale,
HIlankeys & Co.               Drewett & Fowler,
Barclay, Bevan, Tritton & Co. Cunliffes & Co.
H. E. Gurney,
Samuel Gurney, Jun.
A. & G. W. Alexander & Co.
Charles Iloare & Co.
Goslings & Sharpe,
Child & Co.
Praeds and Co.
Dixon, Brooks & Dixon.
Strahan & Co.
R. Twining & Co.
Iterries, Farquhar & Co.
Ransom & Co.
Bouverie & Co.
Charles Iiopkinson & Co. 
INSANITY.
friend whom I quoted in the opening of this Lecture,
spoke of its absolute necessity to the merchant and
his coadcljutors as a season of physical rest. But it is
(as he, indeed, intimated) far more than this.  It is
an institution demanded by our intellectual nature.
Repose is as essential to the mind as to the body. A
British writer has observed, "We never knew a man
work seven days in a week, who did not kill himself
or kill his mind." The records of our Insane Asylums will supply painful confirmation of this remark.
Scores of merchants have paid, in these Institutions,
the penalty of a devotion to business which robbed
them of their weekly rest. The brain will not bear
the continued tension of the Counting-room - the
feverish excitement of an insatiate craving after
wealth. It gets dizzy with looking for ever at figures
and calculations, flitting from one speculation to another, counting its losses, anticipating its gains, contriving new schemes, plotting and counter-plotting
against competitors, all its energies on the stretch,
all its time swallowed up, its whole being concentrated
in the one inexorable passion of accumulation;-how
is it possible that the brain should stand all this?
"I should have been a dead man," said a distinguished
financier and capitalist, referring to the memorable
epoch of'37, "had it not been for the Sabbath.
Obliged to work from morning till night through the
835 
336   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
whole week, I felt on Saturday, especially on Saturday afternoon, as if I must have rest. It was like
going into a dense fog.  Everything looked dark and
gloomy, as if nothing could be saved.  I dismissed
all, and kept the Sabbath in the good old way. On
Monday it was all sunshine.  But had it not been for
the Sabbath, I have no doubt I should have been in
my grave." There was sound philosophy as well as
piety in his course. Some men would have said he
"lost a day" every week by it.  Hle knew that a
clear head for six days, would be of more value to
him than an additional twenty-four hours with an
overtasked and distracted brain; and he took the
only way to secure it. The common mistake lies in
overlooking this. Amidst the whirl of business, confounded with the magnitude and variety of the cares
which are pressing upon you, the only want you are
conscious of, is "more time."  And so, when you
have used up all your own days, you seize upon that
day which your beneficent Creator has reserved to
Himself, (or, which is the same thing, given to you
in trust,) and appropriate this also to your purposes.
The Sunday you have taken to mature an "operation," to write some important financial letters, to
hold a conference with certain friendly brokers, to
make a trip to New York or Ilarrisburg- is jotted
down in your memoranda as so much " clear gain." 
SAVING A DIAY.
But no good ever comes, in the long run, of taking
what does not belong to us.  WNhat you have "gained"
in time, you have more than lost in the violence done
to your mental frame-work, and your consequent incapacity (comparatively speaking) to administer wisely
the interests you have in hand. The point does not
admit of proof, but if a guess may be allowed, the
failure of many a firm is to be charged to the Sundaylines on our railroads.   I do not allude to those
"Excursion-trains" so needful, as certain  philanthropists contend, to the "relaxation" of the workingclasses, which often bring back their passengers at
evening, draggled and worn out, and all the worse in
health, purse, and morals, for their day's " pleasuring."  I speak of the strictly business-jaunts of mercantile men, who, to " save time," turn the Sabbath
into a day of travel. It must frequently happen with
others, as with the financier just quoted, that Saturday afternoon finds their affairs all in a "fog," or, in
any event, finds them so weary or so excited, as to be
quite disqualified for the calm solution of any commercial problem. If they were content to use their
"rest-day" as a rest, its hallowed influences would
recruit their strength, allay their perturbation, restore
their powers to their proper balance, and prepare
them to grapple with difficulties on Monday in a very
different condition from that in which they retired to
29
337 
338    THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HOUSE.
their homes on Saturday evening. But suppose they
carry their perplexities (or their brilliant projects of
self-aggrandizement, as the case may be,) to their
pillows, pore over them all their Sabbath morning,
with the same servile and absorbing devotion they
lavished upon them through the week, and, in the
afternoon, throw themselves into the cars and hurry
off to New York to consummate on the morrow, the
measures they have digested: -will it be a strange
thing if, in the sequel, a policy thus begotten shall
prove an opprobrium and a vexation to its authors?
And can it be doubted, that this precise form of Sabbath-breaking has had a potential agency in the ruin
of very many of the firms which have become bankrupt in our cities?  A  candid investigation of our
commercial disasters, could not fail to set in its true
light this too popular expedient for "saving a day."
It would show our merchants, that in the long run,
all the days thus "saved," were pretty certain to gravitate to the debit side of the Profit and Loss Account.
And it might satisfy them of what they are so "slow
of heart to believe" on the authority of the Bible,
that success and failure even in temporal matters, are
closely interwoven with the manner in which the Sabbath is observed. (See Isa. 56: 2. 58: 13, 14. Neh.
13: 15-   2, and various parallel passages.)
This, however, is but a part of the truth. A well 
MENTAL CULTURE.
spent Sabbath does much more for the mind than
secure to it needful rest and refreshment.  It helps
to counteract that cramping and mercenary tendency
so often alluded to, as incident to a life of trafficking.
It supplies in a measure those opportunities for intellectual culture, the want of which merchants so frequently deplore -and that, without their resorting
to any pursuits which are incompatible with the
sacredness of the day. A simple change of scene or
occupation is useful to all the powers. Our perceptive and reasoning faculties, if kept to a monotonous
routine of subjects, lose either their vigour or their
symmetry. You can well understand what sort of a
mind a boy would have, who should study nothing
but arithmetic, or nothing but orthography, from
one year's end to another. And the case must be
still worse with an individual whose whole time and
thoughts are absorbed from New Year's to Christmas
in buying and selling. Every merchant knows the
relief derived from a summer's excursion into the
country or to the sea-shore. You return from these
rambles not simply with improved health, but with a
sensible increase of mental activity and energy.
Fresh air and exercise have done their share of this;
but they have not done it all. Instead of looking
for ever at Ledgers, and counters, and shelves of
ginghams and calicoes, and packing-boxes, and drays,
339 
3'40   THE BIBLE IN THE COUINTING-HOUSE.
you have been looking upon the green fields, and the
ocean, and the starry firmament. You have been sauntering through the woods, climbing mountains, displaying your awkward equestrianism on country horses,
riding in waggons without springs over country roads,
making hay with the farmers for amusement, shooting, angling, sailing, bathing, sleeping-  watching
the endless phases of human life at a watering-placethe grave, the gay, the consequential, the profound,
the taciturn, the flippant, the choice few whose sterling worth and attractive manners make a ready place
for them in every group and coterie - and you have
come back from your rustication, all the better for
the very trifles which have served to amuse you.
The secret of this, is, that you have thrown off for a
while the drag-chain of business, and given mind and
body a holiday. Your established trains of thought
have been broken in upon. Goods and customers
and discounts and bills payable, and the other common-places which constitute your daily intellectual
rations during so large a portion of the year, have
been replaced, for the time, with condiments of a
very different character. New objects have called
dormant powers into exercise. The indomitable tradespirit has been mitigated by a larger development of
the social sympathies. Taste and imagination have
begun to flutter their pinions. And you have returned 
BROADER VIEWS OF LIFE.
to your Counting-Hiouses, with broader views of life
and a juster consciousness of your powers, than you
had before you took this vacation.
Let this illustrate what the SABBATEI will do for
you -what it actually is doing for all who keep it
properly.   One  of its most obvious and uniform
effects, is to enlarge one's horizon. As you sit from
day to day in your counting-rooms, or make your
diurnal visit to the Exchange, or lose yourselves in
abstruse calculations, or hurry through one transaction after another with your customers and agents,
you are very apt to suppose that what you see and
hear and feel around you, is the world; that this
great domain of commerce, ("great," as you view it,)
comprises the centre and circumference of your being;
and that, so matters prosper here, you need not concern yourselves about objects and interests which
"lie beyond." The day of rest dispels this illusion.
It takes you to an eminence which shows you how
insignificant a portion of "the world" the realm of
merchandize is, and how fatally you wrong your own
intellectual nature, by shutting it up among the ships
and spindles of commerce. Not only does it suspend
the current of secular thought and feeling which is
wearing such deep and jagged channels into your
moral being through the week, but the themes it
offers to your contemplation, are the noblest to which
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342   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
the human mind can be directed.  "The instruction
dispensed on this day" (I use the eloquent language
of a WVorking-man) "is of a character calculated to
expand, refine, and sublimate the mind. It embraces
a boundless range of topics, from the simplest elements
of knowledge appreciable by the dullest intellect, to
the most recondite mysteries that baffle the highest
reason.  It unseals the fountain-head of truth in the
nature of God. It unlocks the treasures of divine
philosophy in creation, in providence, and in redemption.  It impresses into its sacred service whatever
is beautiful in nature, grand in science, and instructive in art; whatever is pure in ethics, lovely in
virtue, and sublime in revelation; whatever is monitory in the past, perilous in the present, and inspiriting in the future. It leads the mind backward to the
ages before the flood, to the paradisaical state of man,
to the origin of the universe, and thence to the vast
solitudes of a past eternity; or it urges the shrinking
spirit forwards through the valley of the shadow of
death- through the dark and populous empire of the
grave -into the august presence of the Judge of all
the earth - to the home of the beatified - to the
pandemonium of the wicked- and outwards into the
immensities of the everlasting future! It addresses
itself to all the faculties and passions of the soul; it
illumines the understanding, sobers the judgment, 
DOMESTIC RE-UNIONS.
thrills the heart, softens the feelings, energises the
conscience, and sanctifies the deepest affections of our
mysterious nature." *
It is impossible for any person of the least candour
to contemplate this process, without feeling that a
well-spent Sabbath is of the highest value in promoting the intellectual culture of individuals and the
general diffusion of knowledge among a community.
Its importance to the mercantile classes in another
view, as restoring them for one day in seven to their
families, and giving them, even at the busiest seasons,
opportunities for those domestic duties and enjoyments
of which they are much of the time deprived, must be
too apparent to escape notice.  This is, in fact, one
of the most interesting and grateful aspects in which
the Jlerchant's Sabbath can be viewed. No man
need be a stranger in his own house, nor a cipher in
respect to the training of his children, who has his
periodical day of rest at his control. Nor are there
any families bound together by such tender and
enduring ties, as those which appreciate these weekly
"re-unions," and keep the day in a spirit of cheerful
piety and true household fellowship.
But I must waive this theme for another still more
important. The danger which waits upon you in all
* "Heaven's Antidote to the Curse of Labour": the First
of the "Prize-Essays on the SLbbath."
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344   THlE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
the walks of trade -the sin which spreads its toils
around your feet, and beguiles you onward in the
road to ruin- is that of neglecting your salvation.
The tempter plies you with the insidious plea, that
you have "no time" for religion, until you come at
length to believe this with a confidence which repels
alike the solicitations of the Gospel and the warnings
of Providence. It would be very easy to expose the
fallacy of this notion even as regards the six working
days: for it were wiser and better to neglect business,
property, family, everything earthly, than to neglect
the soul. But it is not necessary to do this. Christianity does not demand it: its tendency is, rather,
to make men better merchants, better husbands and
fathers, better citizens, and more thoroughly qualified
for the duties proper to these relations. And, then,
as if to meet this very difficulty of a "want of time"
for your spiritual concerns, it has given you the
weekly rest to be appropriated primarily to these
interests. Foreseeing that business, if permitted,
would monopolize your whole time, and cheat you
out of all opportunity to prepare for heaven, God was
pleased to put the seal of a peculiar sacredness upon
every seventh day, and to convey it to you in trust
for this specific purpose. He "made the Sabbath"
for you, that you might not have it to say, "I have
no time to repent and make my peace with God." 
A MUNIFICENT GIFT.
TIe shut it in from the encroachments of avarice,
from the usurpations of ambition, from the seductions
of sensual pleasure, from the exactions of authority,
from the turbulence and impiety of a selfish, grasping,
atheistic world, from all the multitudinous influences
which are combined to keep man in an interminable
subjection to sin and Satan - he shut it in by his
own omnipotence, that you, and all his creatures,
might be able constantly to recruit your strength for
the duties and temptations of life, and to prepare for
death, judgment, and eternity. So munificent a gift
should be faithfully applied to its prescribed objects.
To pervert or neglect it, is to superadd the guilt of a
base ingratitude, to the criminality of a most perilous
neglect of your own souls. The Sabbath comes to
you as a messenger of mercy, as the harbinger of
peace and hope and heaven. It spreads before you
those sacred pages written all over with words of
truth and grace, and supplying the only chart which
can conduct you to the skies. It brings you to the
Sanctuary that you may hear of God and redemption,
of heaven and hell, of the "great white throne" and
the awards of eternity. It leads you into your chambers, that you may "commune with your own hearts,"
and invoke the Divine Spirit to cleanse you from sin
with the blood of the cross and make you sincere and
humble followers of Christ. It places you in the
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346   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
midst of your households, and, while it enkindles
your mutual affection, revives the impression of your
responsibility as well for their spiritual as their secular
training. It admonishes you of your stewardship,
and shows you whose hand it is that has prospered
you, and to what uses it behooves you to appropriate
your wealth. It deadens your grovelling attachments, refines and elevates your feelings, brings you
into fellowship with the wisest and best of the race,
and makes you "co-workers with God" himself in
saving and blessing a lost world.- All this the Sabbath does for every one who remembers it, " to keep
it holy." MIany among you have found it so in your
own experience. Let those who have hitherto neglected it, make the trial, and they will learn, as they
never learned before, the import of that saying,
" TIE SABBATHI WAS MADE FOR MAN!" 
RETIRING FROM BUSINESS.
Ttrftirt  (ttit +
THE TRUE RICHES. - LIVING TO DO GOOD.
IN the progress of these Lectures, I have had
frequent occasion to refer to the subject of retiring
from business. This phrase has a definitive signification, which is well understood.   As a practical
question, it is frequently involved in great embarrassment; but there are few Merchants who would willingly give up the hope of being one day released
from the cares and responsibilities of the CountingHouse. To prepare for this change is, with many
of you, the grand employment of life; and you are
impatiently reckoning the years which must elapse,
before you can have amassed a fortune which will
justify you in renouncing the bustling domain of
commerce, for the repose and comfort of a genial
Home. I censure not these longings. I see but one
thing to condemn in your calculations. It is, that
you are apt to restrict your views of "retiring from
business," to so narrow a compass, and to make your
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348 THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HIIOUSE.
arrangements for the thing itself on so meagre and
insufficient a scale. You think of it only as a matter
of choice -  as the privilege of the favoured few who
may rise to affluence - and as comprising merely the
evening of an active life. But the words may fairly
be taken to mean a great deal more than this. You
are all to "retire from business" - whether you
desire it or not -and your season of respite will
have no measurement short of the cycles of ETERNITY!   When it is added, that this discharge from
the pursuits which now engross you, may come at
any moment- long before you may be "ready" to
give up business -the question will be set before
you in something of the grandeur and solemnity
which really belong to it.
If this be sober verity, and not fiction, it is the
most obvious and urgent duty of every individual,
to inquire into his state of preparation for the
scenes before him. You have known men give
up merchandize prematurely, leaving their affairs
involved, or with resources quite inadequate to their
support: and you have had your own opinions as to
their prudence and sagacity. But what would be
your condition, if an unseen power should now interpose and withdraw you from life itself? Are you
equipped for that realm to which life is the mere
vestibule? IHave you laid by a competence of those 
FATAL IMIPROVIDENCE.
"TRUE RICHES" which will avail for your support
and comfort there? Or, are you guilty of the neglect
you rebuke in others, the only difference being that
their improvidence has respect to this transitory state,
yours, to the endless future of the soul?
You will not, in reply to questions like these, point
to your capacious warehouses, your well-filled coffers,
your elegant mansions, and your honourable position
in the community. This might answer, if the inquiry
were, "Shall we now'retire' for the few remaining
years or days that may remain to us of life?" But
what have these matters to do with retiring for
ETERNITY?  Who  is so visionary as to think of
transferring the implements and avocations of commerce to that world? or of resuming there the strife
for the gold which perisheth? Our great Epic Poet,
in his sketch of that sublime spectacle, the Council
in Pandemonium, has, indeed, made Mammon say,
"This desert soil
Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold;
Nor want we skill or art from whence to raise
Magnificence; and what can Hleaven show more?"
But the only Teacher empowered to speak of that
world, has presented us with another portraiture
eminently affecting and suggestive - that of a man
once "clothed in purple and fine linen," lifting up
his eyes in torment, and pleading in vain for a drop
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349
I
i 
350    THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
of water!  This spectacle may stand in place of
a thousand homilies, to illustrate the madness of
living merely to acquire wealth and revel in luxury.
There can be no greater folly than for a man to
place his happiness in objects and interests from
which he must soon  be for ever ravished.   The
loss of his idols, painful as that may be, is
but a small part of the inevitable penalty of his
error.   The blow which strips him  of his possessions, leaves his whole moral being under the sway
of those evil passions which have long tyrannised
over him. Hie goes into eternity, the wretched minion
of avarice, or at least the bond-slave of a sordid secularity -all his principles, all his habits, all his aims,
susceptibilities, and desires, adjusted to this world,
and utterly alien from the constitution of things in
the spiritual empire of which he is henceforth to be a
denizen. Could he destroy his identity, or annihilate
his memory, existence might be tolerable. But this
cannot be. The passions he has nurtured into such
gigantic strength, are a part of his being; and now,
deprived of their proper external objects, and energized by an avenging conscience, they will turn upon
the soul with unmitigable fury, and "their torment
will be as the torment of a scorpion." For it is no
arbitrary decree, but a law of humanity, that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."  Nor 
ERROR IN A SPECIOUS GARB.
does it furnish any ground to impeach the justice, or
even the goodness of the Deity, that ie should abandon men hereafter to the retributive mastery of those
appetites, which were permitted to usurp His authority
over them while here.
In an enlightened community like our own, the
grossness of the conception, that mere wealth can
prepare a man for that final abdication of business
of which we have been speaking, may go far to
prevent its obtaining currency. But there is another
sentiment fraught with equal peril to the soul, which
comes clad in the garb of an angel of light, and is
certain of a cordial greeting among the mercantile
classes.  The opinion to which I allude, may, not
improbably, have fortified itself, in some minds, from
the very discussions that have occupied us in these
Lectures; for it can readily pervert to its own purposes, arguments designed to expose its fallacy.
My object has been, to get the BIBLE installed in
the COUNTING-HOUSE, as the only arbiter of duty,
and the regulator of all the diversified concerns of
Commerce. The domain we have been traversing
together, is that rather of morality than of theology.
The whole burden of these discourses has been in the
direction of practical godliness-the actual exemplification of veracity, integrity, diligence, moderation,
and kindness, in the daily routine of traffic. And
351 
352    TIIE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HOUSE.
the ready conclusion which some auditors may deduce
from these premises -the speculation too rife in the
walks of commerce wherever her masts or her warerooms are to be found - is, that a compliance with
these precepts, is all that is required in or(der to
SALVATION: " this do, and thou shalt live." We
derogate nothing from the intrinsic excellence nor
the indispensable importance of these virtues, when
we admonish you that this is a most serious and fatal
error. The Bible challenges a control over all your
relations and occupations, and exacts a rigid conformity to its pure ethics in every transaction, and even
in every word and thought, of your lives; but it is
careful to apprize you of two things which are fundamental to the Gospel system. One is, that all obedience, to be acceptable, must be animated by faith in
the Redeemer and love to God: and the other is, that
by no possibility can our own works avail to our
pardon and salvation.  "By the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified." Our integrity may be
unimpeachable, our lives may be radiant with acts of
unostentatious charity, a whole community may unite
in applauding our virtues; but if our hope of heaven
have no better foundation than this, it is built upon
the sand. For we must be saved either by works or
by grace: the two cannot coalesce. "If by grace,
then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no 
NO SALVATION BY TIIE LAW.
more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more
grace: otherwise work is no more work." If we elect
to try works instead of grace - to get to heaven
through the merit of our own obedience - then,
clearly, we must obey the Divine law perfectly: for
an imperfect obedience can entitle no one to its
rewards. But who can meet the full requisitions of
a law which extends to the thoughts and intents of
the heart, forbids the slightest improper feeling or
emotion, and enjoins a holiness as immaculate as that
of the seraphim before the throne? The thing is
impossible. We can make no remote approximation
to it.   Human  nature is radically diseased,  and
demands  as radical a cure.   The  very examples
which seem to approach nearest to the Scripture
standard of morality, are not infrequently vitiated
by a latent element of self-righteousness which must
make them "an abomination in the sight of God."
His eye is upon the heart; and that it is His own
prerogative to renew.
"The transformation of apostate man
From fool to wise, from earthly to divine,
Is work for him that made him."
This work the SPIRIT OF GoD accomplishes. It is
an essential step in that free salvation which is the
only alternative to the delusive and hopeless scheme
of salvation by works.   Simultaneously  with this
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354    TIIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
change, the Spirit convinces the sinner of sin, shows
him the corruption of his heart, the imperfection of
his obedience, the criminality of his unbelief; wakes
up in his bosom an ingenuous sorrow for his sins;
and constrains him, as an humble penitent, to cast
himself upon the mercy of God in JEsus CHRIST.
Trusting in the atoning blood and the finished righteousness of Christ for salvation, he obtains as a free
gift, that plenary pardon which he never could have
earned by his obedience, and that peace of mind
which can be found no where in the universe but at
the Cross. Henceforward he "loves much" because
he has "much forgiven." He carries the spirit of
true religion into his life, and faithfully, though still
imperfectly, endeavours to keep the law of God. His
integrity, truthfulness, and benevolence, now rest upon
an impregnable basis. And the sentiment which animates his conduct, is no longer the mercenary temper
of a servant, but the loving gratitude and loyalty of
a child. He serves God, not that he may be saved,
but because he is saved.  And his obedience, consequently, is impressed with a breadth and a comprehension, a generosity and a cheerfulness, as remote
as possible from the penurious homage he formerly
rendered, while trying to mnerit salvation by his own
works - a fellow-labourer therein, though of a more
dignified character, with the ascetic iterating his 
THE TRUE PLACE OF GOOD WVORKS.
parrot-like devotions in a damip cell, with the Mohammedan on his burning pilgrimage to Mecca, and with
the Hindoo  swinging through the air by  a hook
inserted in the sinews of his body.   This is the true
place of practical morality in the Christian schemenot the foundation, but the superstructure; not the
roots and the trunk, but the foliage and the fruitthe effect and evidence of salvation, not its procuring
cause. A due apprehension of this truth would dispel
the precarious hopes to which very many are now
trusting, and turn off their thoughts from their own
imaginary or superficial goodness, to Him  who is
equally able and willing to "save to the uttermost
all who come unto God by him." Just in proportion
as the mercantile classes are brought under the influence of a genuine faith in Christ, will the Bible exert
its sacred prerogative in their Counting-IHouses, and
their current secularities effloresce with the graces
which cement and embellish the social state. Herein
too consists the panoply they require for an exchange of worlds- that preparation for "retiring"
ultimately and for ever from business, and all that
pertains to it, which every man should make, who
shrinks from going portionless into eternity. There
is nothing in eternity - nothing in the dark and
chill passage which leads to it - to intimidlate the
soul that is united to Christ. It is all one empire;
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356   THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HOUSE.
its several provinces acknowledge the same Sovereign; that Sovereign is "THE LORD OUR RIGHITEOUSNESS," who has all power in heaven and on earth;
and the pillars of his throne must fall, before he will
suffer a soul that has trusted in Him to perish.  How
well His people are fortified against all possible want
or suffering for the future, can be known only to
those who have considered the resources of Omnipotence. In receiving them into a vital union with
himself, Christ endowed them with his own inexlhaustible wealth: they became " HEIRS OF GOD AND
JOINT-HEIRS WITH JESUS CLIRIST" -  language which
overpasses our comprehension, and makes one exclaim,
in thinking of the believer's heritage,
"Mly soul, with all the powers I boast,
Is in the boundless prospect lost!"
These treasures, comprising, as they do, the hopes
and consolations of the Gospel here, and its ineffable
and eternal rewards hereafter, may well be styled
the "TRIUE RICIES."  Unlike earthly riches, they
have a substantial and indestructible character. They
never deceive. No one is ensnared by them. No
one is disappointed.   No  one who  has trusted in
them, is liable to have his property wrested from
him. They satisfy the soul. They fill its utmost
capacities. No moth nor rust can corrupt them.
No thief can break through and steal them. They 
TIIE INALIENABLE IIERITAGE.
resist the corrosion of time.  They survive all changes
-even death itself. The departing spirit, compelled
by an inexorable law to relinquish everything else,
even to the very tabernacle in which it has dwelt,
soars aloft, bearing its treasures in triumph to the
skies -not merely retaining all it has previously
owned, but invested, at that moment, with fresh honours and estates as much transcending in extent and
splendour the proudest demesnes of earthborn royalty,
as these excel the veriest hovels of barbarism. And
as it hastens to join the white-robed company of the
ransomed, and to cast its crown at the Redeemer's
feet, those pregnant words in its charter, just begin
to disclose their profound and wondceprful significance
— " ALL THINGS ARE YOURS!"
I may possibly seem to you, in this glance at the
only inalienable portion of the soul, to have wandered
quite away from the range of topics which immediately concern you as 3JIercllants. I might answer,
that although Merchants, you are men, and, as such,
heirs of eternity, and vitally concerned in the acquisition of a heritage beyond the grave. But I choose
rather to avail myself of the state of feeling just
hinted at, as an indication of the repugnance, or at
least the want of congeniality, there is, between the
prevailing tone of the commercial world, and the
spirit of true Christianity. That religion of which I
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358    TIIE BIBLE IN THIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
have been speaking, as indispensable to prepare you
for "retiring" from all sublunary affairs, is not a
loose garment, to be caught up and gathered hurriedly around you in the moment of your dissolution.
If we would be sustained by the consolations of the
Bible in death, we must live by its precepts. And,
in particular, as regards yourselves, its paramount
authority must be recognized in all the departments
of commerce, and the settled feeling of the trading
classes must be   " I am not ashamed of the Gospel
of Christ." Business is not to be prosecuted for its
own sake.  Commerce is one of GOD'S agencies for
governing and blessing the world.  Its silver and
gold, its mills and'factories, its canals and railways,
its fleets and cities, are all His. The multitudinous
tribes of human beings occupied in its various callings,
"live and move and have their being in Hiimn." The
allegiance they owe Ilim, comprehends all their powers, property, plans, time, influence. The just requisition Hie lays upon thlem, is, that they make  His
glory the ultimate end of their lives; that they regulate their conduct by His Word; and that they carry
the spirit of genuine piety into all their transactions.
What less could He require? What other code would
comport with our relations to IIim and to our fellowcreatures?  What other principles would consist with
our own happiness? These elements are the only 
ATHEIIISTIC TENDENCIES.
proper corrective to the debasing effects of commerce.
Dignified and controlled by religious principle, it is
one of the most beneficent institutions which adorn
the globe. But divorced from this alliance, it is surcharged with mischief.   The majestic tides which
sweep through its crowded thoroughfares, bear men
away from God. The constant tendency is to nourish
their inferior appetites, to make them set an inordinate value upon money and the objects money will
procure, to impair their reverence for the Deity, to
weaken their sense of moral responsibility, to blunt
their consciences against the reproofs of Scripture,
and, in a word, to shut out eternity from their thoughts
and degrade them into practical Atheists. No human
power or skill can cope with this evil. The current
wvill overwhelm your dykes, as the ocean does the
puny structures of children on the strand.
The STILL S3fALL VOICE iS wanted.  He must speak,
wVhose word leaps forth at once to its effect;
VWho calls for things that are not, and they come."
He has spoken. And his word, lodged in the heart,
raises the only successful barrier against the encroachments of the monopolising trade-spirit. Let it, then,
have free course. In theory at lcast, we have a principle in religion, the principle of faith, which can
master the strongest passions of the human breast.
It has mastered them all -fear, love, revenge, lust,
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360    TIlE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUISE.
pride, avarice, have yielded to it in instances without
number. Its benign influence is felt in all the great
centres of commerce. And there are firms in every
city which might be cited as most honourably exemplifying its ben;ign results, when admitted to its legitimate place in a business-life.   But these are the
exceptions. The Bible is only beginning to make its
way into the Counting-HIouse. Many who imagine
themselves to be quite ready for it, who even suppose
they have long ago received it, have a very crude
conception of what this involves. They think simply
of conducting their establishments with integrity,
avoiding every approach to deception and falsehood,
requiring all their subordinates to be truthful and
courteous, fulfilling their engagements with scrupulous
fidclelity, and shunning all collateral speculations. This
is well, very well, as far as it goes. But if they pause
here, the Bible is not yet "enthroned" in their counting-rooms.  Nothing will satisfy it but an earnest,
aggressive Christianity, which shall be ever intent
upon doing good, to the utmost measure of its capacity. It is as much the law of the "true riches" to
diffuse themselves, as it is of cupidity to hoard. And
the more a merchant possesses of this incorruptible
wealth, the more he will be inclined to share it with
others. The opportunities for this, in an extensive
business, are equally varied and important. 
A FIELD, WHITE TO TIIE IIARVEST.
To revert, for example, to a topic formerly discussed- you have, in each of your great establishments, a numerous tenantry, sustaiuing to you a
relation analogous to that of your own families;
constituting, in fact, a second household. Your Bible
will remind you that this is the ordering of Providence. In the successive steps which have conducted
you to your present position, you may have been
chiefly influenced by selfish motives. But an invisible
hand has led you on, until you find yourself the centre
of a little community, who are your daily and intimate companions, who go and come at your bidding,
and whose exertions are contributing to your wealth.
As a Christian man, you will not fail to ask, "Why
is this? For what end has Providence committed this
large and growiing business to my hands, and gathered
around me this group of Young Mlen?   How is it
that one youth from Tennessee, another from Kentucky, a third from Ohio, a fourth from Missouri, a
salesman from Virginia, a book-keeper from MAaryland, have all been guided to my counting-house and
confided to my  tutelage?"  These are grave  and
interesting questions. The longer you ponder them,
the more you will be disposed to say, " This is the
finger of God!"  And the less will you be disposed
to decline the mission to which the dispensation so
obviously calls you. A base cupidity might thrust it
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362   THE BIBLE IN THIE COUNTING-HOUSE.
upon you as the one predominant and daily inquest,
" How can I turn the services of these clerks to the
best advantage, and make the most money out of
them?"  But your inquiry will rather be, " Iow can
I do the most good to these young men?" It is,
certainly, a noble field of usefulness which God has
opened to you; and if you cultivate it as you ought,
you will not regret your fidelity, when you come to
see the sheaves gathered into the garner. How you
are to do this, must be left to your own enlightened
discretion.  With a clear impression of your obligations and an abiding sense of the love of Christ, you
will not be at a loss for means and occasions to commend religion to them.  Whatever agency you may
employ, a consistent example must be combined with
it; for young men are shrewd observers, and disposed,
beyond any other class in society, to insist upon a
rigid congruity between profession and practice. But
a really consistent example will rarely be alone. The
spirit which insures that, will prompt you to kind and
judicious efforts, as occasion may offer, to bring the
claims of religion before their minds; and efforts of
this sort rarely fail of a blessing in the end.
If the inmates of a commercial house have a
peculiar claim upon the Christian sympathies of its
principals, it is not an exclusive claim. Your profession introduces you to a great variety of persons, 
PHILANTHROPY AT LARGE.
many of whom it might be possible to reach with a
wholesome moral influence. We are apt to disparage
and neglect familiar and incidental opportunities of
doing good. Great occasions we can improve: they
have a palpable shape and magnitude: we know how
to lay hold of them: and they seem worthy of our
care. But the opportunities which occur in the ordinary routine of life, in buying and selling, and in the
trivialties of social intercourse, are allowed to glide
away while we are considering whether it is worth
our while to improve them. - There has always been
a class of reformers in the world, whose philanthropy
confines itself to grand achievements. They are happily hit off by Mrs. More in her "Ilistory of lfr.
Fantonm,"' a London tradesman, who turned philosopher, and set about rectifying the world at large, with
a zeal that left him no heart for cases of individual
suffering.  He would "alter all the laws, and do
away all the religions, and put an end to all the wars
in the world."  I-e would "abolish all punishments,
and not leave a single prisoner on the face of the
globe." But when applied to by a benevolent neighbour to contribute a trifle towards liberating an unfortunate debtor from prison, he "had no attention to
spare to that business, though he would pledge himself to produce a plan by which the national debt
might be paid off in six months." When asked to
363 
364    THIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
co-operate in bringing a tyrannical workhouse-keeper
to punishment, he excused himself on the ground,
that "the wrongs of the Poles and the South Americans so filled his mind, as to leave him no time to
attend to such petty grievances." A poor man's
house in his vicinity having taken fire and burnt
down, he justified his neglect in not going to the
help of the sufferers, by alleging that he was just
then "engaged in a far nobler project than putting
out a fire in a little thatched cottage" -he was
"contriving a scheme to extinguish the fires of the
Inquisition!"  Mr. Fantom has his proper archetype
only amongst the infidel socialists of the day; but
in the feature of his character presented in these
extracts, he may stand for the representative of many
wiser and better men. Perhaps we are all too much
disposed to make our Christianity a matter, if not of
Sundays and sacraments, at least of times and seasons,
and still more of systems and societies.  The imperative demand of the age, is, for organized benevolence,
for "Institutions"; and it is a demand which must
be met, unless the Church would see a large part
even of the territory she has wrested from heresy
and barbarism revert to its former masters. But we
must guard against the subtle feeling, that these combined efforts are to supersede private philanthropy;
that our contributions to Societies, can absolve us 
CORPORATE AND PERSONAL CHRISTIANITY. 365
from the obligation of personal exertion. Better to
abolish all Societies, than that they should absorb
the benevolence of the Church, and become the sole
medium of intercommunication between the people of
God and a perishing world. Christianity will not
bear to be swathed and splinted up in this fashion.
You will either crush its life out, and leave it a worthless mummy; or it will rend your compresses asunder,
and reassert its inalienable freedom. It is cause for
thankfulness that we can do good by proxy in so
many ways; but it would soon stifle our religion to
do good only by proxy. It will never do to remit to
Boards and Associations the exclusive prerogative of
deciding how, and when, and to what extent, our
Christianity shall go forth on errands of mercy.
This were scarcely better than to commit the whole
business of our salvation to a priest. Our own souls
would famish under this vicarious sort of piety. It
is good for us to be brought into contact with the
errors and wants, the dangers and sufferings, of
humanity. Our SAVIOUR did this; the apostles did
it; all the early Christians did it; the whole genius
of the New Dispensation presupposes it. The very
lowest conception of the Christian system which can
be formed, must embrace, as one of its radical elements, the obligation to relieve the necessities and
contribute to the well-being, of others, in every
31 * 
366    TIHE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
practicable way. And any wish to be released from
this obligation, must discredit the sincerity of the
profession with which it is allied.
In your case, it is not "suffering" which appeals
to you in the ordinary course of your business; but
there must be many persons thrown in your way
whom you might benefit by an occasional friendly
word or kind office- by placing a Bible in their
hands, by encouraging them to a due observance of
the Sabbath, by a timely caution against profaneness,
drinking, or idle habits, by manifesting an interest in
their families. Something, too, might be done in the
way of reaching your customers.   The CountingHouse, I am aware, is not a place for "preaching";
nor is there anything more disgusting than that
loquacious, pharisaical religion, which is for ever
spreading its tawdry plumage, and mixing up the
most sacred themes with the common topics of business. But there seems no sufficient reason why a
Christian merchant should meet with a set of gentlemen from different parts of the country, year after
year, without opening his lips to them on the most
important of all subjects; still less, why he should
permit them, season by season, to spend one or more
Sabbaths in the city without tendering them the hospitalities of his pew in the house of God. And what
hinders but that our opulent importers should have 
SHIP-OWNERS AND SAILORS.
an eye to the crews of their ships, and try to do some
good among them?  This, it is true, is "the Captain's charge." But it is your office to select your
Captains, and to decide whether your vessels shall go
to sea under the care of debauchees and tyrants, or
of men of sound morals and humane tempers. And
it were not unworthy of your position to see that
their sailors are supplied, each of them,  with a
Bible; and to take some pains, on their return to
port, to have them directed to proper boarding-houses,
and told where they might find a mariners' chapel on
a Sunday.
All these are, properly speaking, professional duties: they come in your way as Merchants, and you
cannot well pretermit them, without a positive repression of your religious instincts. But there may be
scenes and objects outside of your beaten thoroughfares, which have a claim upon your sympathy.
Every great city embraces a vast amount of degradation and wretchedness- heterogeneous hordes that
are  but  a step removed  from  savage  life.  In
close agglomeration with its wealth, refinement, and
intelligence, its splendid mansions and luxurious
entertainments, are masses of ignorance, poverty,
vice, and suffering, such as can be found no where
else within the verge of civilization. Indeed, the
very magnitude of the evils to be provided for, and
367 
368   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
the frequency with which examples of crime and
misery pass under one's notice in such a community,
have a tendency to check the flow of benevolence.
If it were possible to take up a small section of one
of the worst courts or lanes of Philadelphia or New
York, and transplant it with its miserable tenantry
in their rags and filth and vices and sicknesses, into
some quiet rural town of two or three thousand inhabitants, it would become at once the paramount object
of interest there: every family would feel concerned
to do something for their relief, and every bosom
would thrill with emotions of pity or of horror. But
we can pass these very objects on the side-walks by
scores, without noticing them. We can traverse whole
squares lined with their dwellings, and be conscious
only of some transitory feelings of sadness and disgust which we are but too happy to throw off by
hurrying away from the neighbourhood as fast as
possible. Yet these are our fellow - mortals, with
minds as susceptible of cultivation, and souls as
precious, as our own. They are more than this:
they are our neighbours, constituent parts of the
same community with ourselves, living within sight
of our schools and sanctuaries, and therefore committed, in some sort, by Providence, to our guardianship. To say that they are your charge specifically
- that it belongs to the mercantile body to look after 
HUMANITY ABOV"E MERCIIANDIZE.
all the vagrancy and depravity of the cities- would
be very unreasonable. But considering that these
cities are essentially commercial in their character,
that they owe their growth and opulence and power
to trade, it is certainly equitable that the mercantile
classes should assume a liberal share of this responsibility. In any event, Christianity requires that you
should bestow upon this work whatever personal
attention and labour you can command; and that
the abstruse social problems forced upon us by these
aspects of pauperism, should have the benefit of all
the experience and sagacity you can bring to the
solution of them. It will not answer to become so
engrossed with traffic as to lose sight of the claims
of humanity; so absorbed with questions of finance
and merchandize, as not to see the throngs of deathless and accountable beings around you, who are
hastening to eternity without God and without hope,
and preparing, it may be, to confront you at the bar
of Christ, for your neglect of their souls.  What is
all your merchandize, all your riches, all your social
influence, compared with the meanest and unworthiest of these objects!  There is not a vagrant in
the vilest haunt of the vilest vicinage of the city,
whose salvation would not be worth more than all
the ships and warehouses of our metropolis, nor
whose perdition, a more terrible catastrophe than the
369 
370    THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HOUSE.
destruction of all the implements and ensigns of your
commercial greatness.  This will fall upon your ears,
doubtless, as a trite sentiment.   You  "know  it
already. No sane man would think of proposing
money, or diadems, or anything earthly, as an equivalent for the soul." But while every one "knows"
this, how few have risen to the point of treating it as
a reality -of living as though they knew it!  How
rare are the Counting-Houses in which it is felt with
the force of an inwrought, practical conviction! Even
those in your ranks who are most fully imbued with
the spirit of the Gospel, must be painfully conscious
of a tendency to let the things which are seen, blind
them to the things which are unseen -of allowing
business to blunt their spiritual sensibilities, and chill
their zeal in seizing upon opportunities of usefulness.
And so it comes to pass, that while Commerce can be
charged with neither indifference nor parsimony in
this matter, her aggregate efforts in behalf of the
mendicancy of our cities, are as incommensurate
with her resources, as they are with the evils to be
removed. What she lacks, is, TIIE BIBLE IN 1IER
COUNTING-ROOMS.
The great lesson I have wished to enforce in these
discursive remarks, is, that we should live to do good.
We are not to confine our exertions to one set of
objects, nor to periodical occasions, but be always 
OUR GREAT EXEMPLAR.
ready, as we can find or make opportunities, to
minister to the well-being of our fellow-creatures or
to the prosperity of religion. It is one of the most
beautiful pictures the inspired writers have given us
of the Founder of our holy religion -a biography
in a single sentence -  " IE  WENT  ABOUT  DOING
GOOD." And if we would approve ourselves to be
iHis disciples, we must cherish His spirit and tread
in His steps. There is no incompatibility between
the two great classes of interests which solicit our
benevolence, the physical and the spiritual, the necessities of the poor and the salvation of souls.  "Experience demonstrates that the heart which responds to
the cries of a world perishing through lack of knowledge, is the heart which most readily thrills at the
cry of bodily want; that those who care most for the
souls of the heathen, are among the most active agents
of patriotic and local charities; that genuine Christian
charity, while it leaves no object unattemptedcl on
account of its vastness, overlooks none on account of
its minuteness. Copying, in this respect, the example
of Him who, in his way to the cross to save a world,
often stood still to give health to the sick, and to wipe
away the tears of the mourner; sowing, at each step,
the seeds of'those various institutions of mercy, which
are still springing up in his church; and who, while
suspended on the cross in the crisis of human redemp
371 
372    THE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
tion, still thought of his filial relation, and tenderly
provided for a mother's comfort." *
Imbued with this spirit, you will find a genuine
satisfaction in performing those philanthropic offices
upon which the Saviour has, both by precept and
example, impressed so hi,gh a value. And the same
feeling which sends you forth upon these ministrations among the poor, will lead you to write "IlIoliness to the Lord," upon your PROPERTY. There is
no lesson which the Church is slower to learn, than
the true doctrine on this subject; no duties which
the mass of Christians are more backward in discharging, than those involved in the scriptural idea
of stewardship. I have dwelt too much in these Lectures on the sin and danger of covetousness, to warrant me in expatiating on that topic here.  And yet
I cannot bring the Course to a close, without again
reminding you, that God has committed your property
to you in trust for Him, and will hold you to a strict
responsibility in the management of it. There are
few themes of higher moment to you, than the moral
limits of accumulation, and the true use of riches;
and you will be brought to one or another conclusion
on these points, according as you examine them by
the current maxims of commerce, or by the infallible
utterances of revelation. If you are willir)ng to rely
* Harris. 
EVANGELICAL MOTIVES.
upon the teacltings of the Bible, it will not prescribe
the precise arithmetical proportion of your gains which
shall be set apart to religion. Discarding this principle of the old economy, it will reveal to you, rather,
the character of the DEITY, in the plenitude of its
matchless perfections, as the only rightful and adequate object of your homage. It will unveil to you
that munificent Providence which has watched over
you through life, defended you in danger, healed
you when sick, extricated you firom embarrassments,
retrieved your losses, crowned your business with
success, gathered around you the endearments of
your cherished homes, and bestowed upon you the
institutions and ordinances of a pure Christianity.
Above all, it will take you to the CRoss, and bid you
look upon that wonder of wonders, the SON OF GOD
bearing our sins in his own body on the tree, and
dying an accursed death that.we might live. It will
show you how, for His sake, your iniquities have
been blotted out, and your hearts renewed. It will
remind you of the long-suffering and patience of your
Heavenly Father in bearing with your provocations;
of His faithfulness in reproving your errors, and His
tenderness in recovering you from your falls; of the
fortitude with which he has nerved you to bear
reverses, and the consolations with which hlie has
assuaged your sorrows. It will conduct you to the
9qo
373 
374   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
verge of the fathomless abyss, and to the borders of
the land of promise, and afford you some transient
glimpses of the unutterable misery you have escaped,
and the everlasting glories in reserve for you. And
having done all this, it will leave it to your own
grateful and adoring hearts, to answer the question,
"H ow much owest thou unto my Lord?." This is
the spirit of the New Dispensation; and it is under
the pressure of motives like these, you are to decide
what proportion of your revenues shall be laid at the
Saviour's feet. He needs, as He has a claim to, the
utmost resources you can bring to his support. The
contest He is waging with the powers of darkness,
Ile might terminate by an exertion of his omnipotence; or He might commit the prosecution of it exclusively to His angels. But as our globe is the theatre
on which it is waged, and the soul of man its object,
He has chosen to employ our unworthy agency in
carrying it forward. And the question for you to
decide, is, how far your obligations to the Redeemer
require you to go, in assisting Him in this conflict
with His and our enemies. By what form of personal service, by what measure of pecuniary contribution, are you called upon to attest your loyalty to
Christ and your sympathy for a perishing world?
There are no ends to which money can be applied,
so honourable and so beneficent as these. The uni 
FREELY YE IIAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE. 375
versal spread of the Gospel, is an object impressed
with true moral sublimity, and fraught with blessings
for our race, surpassing all the visions of poetry. It
will be a greater distinction at the last day to have
borne even the humblest part in promoting it, than
it will to have owned a province or wielded a sceptre.
And, other considerations aside, it is every way worthy
of the dignity and the opulence of Commerce, that
she should repay, in a measure, the manifold obligations she owes to Christianity, by dedicating her exuberant resources to this work. It is meet that the
merchant-princes of our land and of other lands,
should identify themselves with those great Institutions which are engaged in evangelizing the nations.
To a certain extent, you have done this. But it
would be trifling with your intelligence, to suppose
that you regard the prevailing spirit of Christian
liberality in business circles, as fully up to the Scripture standard. Allowing for numerous exceptions,
the disposition is, to appropriate to religion, simply
the crumbs which fall from overloaded tables; to give
the pounds to earth, and the farthings to heaven;
to lay up imperial fortunes for children, and put off
with a pittance the nmillions who are clamouring for
the bread of life. To complain that there are no
sacrifices made for the Gospel's sake, would, in this
connexion, seem scarcely serious-so far away from 
376    THiE BIBLE IN TIHE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
the, actualities of the case, is anything approximating
to a "sacrifice."  We need not even, at this point,
speak of retrenching superfluities.  The reigning type
of benevolence may be carried up many degrees without molesting "superfluities."  In truth, the very
foundations are out of joint. The elementary principles of Christian stewardship are not recognized.
Let these be once lodged in the great heart of Commerce, and energized by a baptism of the Spirit, and
there would be no occasion to go among the merchants
to solicit funds: the silver and the gold would flow
into the Lord's treasury as did the offerings of the
Hebrews for the building of the tabernacle, until Ihis
servants might be obliged, with Moses, to bid the
people desist.
But the Christian casuist who propagates sentiments like these, is certain to have a text of Scripture
thrust at him from some quarter, to admonish himn
that "if any provide not for his own, and specially
for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith,
and is worse than an infidel." It is a wholesome
sign that there should prevail, in any community, a
horror of being classed with "infidels." But it must
be deemed a little curious, that nothing in nature or
in art should excite this emotion to such a pitch, as a
subscription - paper or a collection - box. There are
many  men  to whom  skepticism  never appears so 
SUBTLETY OF AVARICE.
atrocious, as when they are approached for means to
drive skepticism out of the world. Nor will any other
incident stir them up to such paroxysms of parental
affection, or make them so resolute in the purpose of
"providing for their own."   Let us not quarrel with
this feeling. The Bible is friendly to all the domestic
sympathies; and the tighter the bonds of household
love are drawn, the better. But there is still something to be said on the subject mentioned in this
much-abused admonition of the apostle.
It is a striking illustration of the insidious nature
of avarice, that not one rich man in a hundred, perhaps not one in a thousand, is disposed to stop
hoarding. The point of acquisition which constitutes
"wealth," is pushed along as men approach it; so
that the amount of property which, at setting out in
business, supplied their definition of "opulence," and
at which they meant to forbear further accumulation,
comes, in time, to dwindle into a paltry "competence,"
with which "no one ought to be satisfied."  A simple
change in the definition keeps conscience quiet, and
allows the beguiling process to go on.   The more
they get, the more they want. And even when an
estate has swelled to colossal proportions, the idea of
arresting its growth, or of giving away a generous
part of the revenue it yields, is almost as painful as
that of losing a child.   Singularly  enough, this
2*
377 
378    THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
morbid tenacity of income prevails where there is a
distinct purpose of making a posthumous appropriation of large sums to charitable uses. The Will is
already drawn up to this effect, and duly signed and
sealed; but the Testator, entranced by the mysterious power of gold, cannot summon the resolution to
become his own Executor. lie has seen many a Will
broken, and many an inheritance alienated from its
proper destination; and he knows this may happen
in his own case also. But, again, "it may not hap;
pen"; and he will run the hazard. If it were not
for the spell which is upon him, the pleasure of applying his bounty and witnessing the benign effects of it,
would outweigh the sordid satisfaction he derives from
seeing his huge heap of gold dust growing larger and
larger. But the hallucination cannot be thrown off:
the glittering treasure will assert its mastery against
any rival power except the universal Conqueror.Or, he is, possibly, one who is guiltless even of any
prospective benefactions.  His sole aim is, to "provide for his own"; to go on turning revenue into
capital as long as life lasts, that when his eyes are
closed in death, his mammoth estate may descend to
his heirs unimpaired.
I shall not be suspected of deprecating the accumulation of property even up to the most generous
limits, or of discouraging a becoming foresight and 
THE OBLIGATIONS OF PROPEIRTY.
liberality on the part of parents tov-m'ds their families, if I ask you to consider how irrational all this
conduct is, and how incompatible with the precepts
of the Bible. Assuredly, it proceeds upon a most
mistaken theory of the proper uses of wealth, and a
practical denial of the Scripture doctrine of stewardship. To argue these points, would imply that the
arbitrators of the cause were themselves under the
sway of the same enchantment upon which they were
called to pronounce judgment. But the facts may be
employed to caution you against the wiles of this
imperious passion, and to impress upon your minds
the importance of administering your affairs, on the
wise and safe principles of Christian duty. Property
is as much a trust, as intellect or learning, and is
equally to be consecrated to the glory of God and
the good of man. One of the prime questions connected with it, is that referred to by the apostle in
the verse which has been quoted-providing for one's
household: and this must be adjusted, neither under
the impulse of blind affection, nor at the bidding of
pride and cupidity; but with an earnest and prayerful
desire to know the will of God, and a faithful use of
all the helps He may proffer us in ascertaining IIis
will.  It would be very unwarrantable to say that an
overgrown estate ought never to be bequeathed to a
child: such a step might be demanded as a simple
379 
380   THIE BIBLE IN TIIE COUNTING-HIOUSE.
act of justice, or ratified by an enlightened piety on
grounds of expediency. But as a general rule, experience and observation combine to discourage this
practice. The course of things perpetually going on
in this country, and which nothing but the re-enactment of the laws of primogeniture could arrest, is for
one generation to collect a fortune, and the next (one
or two) to disperse it.  WVhere are the estates of the
leading Philadelphia, New York, and Boston merchants, who died half a century ago? Gather up
the fragments, if you can find them, in the hands of
their children and grandchildren; and see what there
is to show for all the planning, and toiling, and saving,
those fortunes cost! You have but to look around
our own city, to see even contemporaneous patrimonies melting away like a March snow, almost before
the mansions once tenanted by their frugal owners
have put off their erape. Whether this parental
munificence is commonly requited with a corresponding gratitude, and men are held in filial honour in
proportion to the ingots they leave, and the time and
pains they have taken to fabricate them, each one
must decide for himself. But if it entered at all into
the aims of these parties to establish a reputation
which their fellow-citizens, or even their own descendants, should cherish as a sacred legacy, a very
brief return to the scene of their former toils, would 
A MAN TO BE PEMEMBERED.
probably satisfy some of them, that they had sadly
mistaken the means for eompassing their end.  There
are men who have judged more wisely. The grave
has lately closed upon one of this class in an Eastern
city. A venerable and successful merchant, hlie had
for many years before his death, left off accumulating,
and made it his inflexible rule to give away the whole
of his large surplus income. Now he was endowing
a college Professorship; now founding an Academy;
now bestowing a princely benefaction upon some
judicious Charity; and now another upon some noble
religious enterprise. One of his favourite methods
of doing good, was to purchase, and put in circulation, hundreds of copies, or perhaps whole editions,
of any useful book which happened to commend itself
to his taste and judgment. And after his death, a
memorandum among his papers was found to contain
the names of a large number of village pastors, whose
scanty stipends he had been in the habit of supplemenlting from year to year.  These are but hints and
samples of his life: but they may suffice to show that
he was not a man to be forgotten. It is something
for a private citizen so to live that when he dies, the
whole community to which hlie belonged, and other
distant communities vying with them, shall take up
his name and breathe a blessing upon it. It is for
yourselves, under Providence, to decide (I speak
-381 
382    TIIE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
especially to the wealthy among you), whether your
memories shall be thus embalmed, or handed over to
a speedy oblivion. And in making this observation,
I am far from commending it to you as a becoming
object of your ambition, to purchase a posthumous
fame by your charities. I have in view simply the
ordinance of heaven, that "the righteous shall be
held in everlasting remembrance."   "The memory
of the just" (and this epithet includes the idea of
benevolence) "is blessed."  Whether you take the
case of a secluded female, who employs her leisure
hours, like Dorcas, in making coats and garments for
the poor, or the faithful missionary, who wears himself out in distributing the bread of life along the
lanes and alleys of a city, or the paternal landlord,
who, like the "7Ian of Ross," puts the impress of
his kindness upon all the homes of his neighbourhood,
and associates his name with every measure which
can augment the common comfort, or the generous
capitalist whose benefactions are a sure reliance to
the great religious charities of his age -it is alike
the ordering of Providence, that their memories shall
be blessed. You may not aim at this result. Your
humility may shrink from the thought of having your
names repeated firom one to another, even by friendly
and grateful lips. But you cannot well avoid this,
if you are faithful to your trust, and employ your 
BENEVOLENCE AND SELFISIINESS-REWARDED. 383
property, or a reasonable portion of it, in doing good.
Sooner or later, many will "rise up and call you
blessed." It is meet that it should be so. And the
marvel is, that you do not all perceive how superior
in dignity and worth, in honour and influence, is a
scheme of life regulated by these principles, to one
which looks only, or mainly, to indefinite accumulation. You must perceive it. It is forced upon you
in the current intercourse of society. It is impossible
not to observe the widely different positions occupied,
respectively,  by individuals belonging to the two
classes of which we  are speaking.  They may  be
equal in intelligence, social standing, and wealth;
but there is no equality in the general respect and
esteem accorded to them. No right-minded community will admit a purely selfish person, one who lives
for himself and his own exclusively, to the confidence
and gratitude they bestow upon a man who shows
himself a lover of his kind, and a ready helper where
there is any good to be done. They have, each of
them, their reward; and the rewards are, very properly, as unlike as their characters. These are facts
as patent as the sun at noon-day. They run all
through the annals of every city. They meet us as
we pass along the streets.  They find quiet but significant utterance at many a funeral. And if tombstones would speak the truth, the cemeteries would
fairly bristle with them. 
384   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
Why, then, are they not more operative in society?
How is it, that Commerce is still so much under the
sway of selfishness? that there are so few in any
walk of life, who have learned the true use of money?
Let those who ask these questions, ponder them.
They are not to be answered in a breath. To do
justice to them, we must go back to the fountain of
corruption in the human heart. We must dissect our
school - books.   We  must  analyze our systems of
domestic training. We must inquire into the maxims
and usages which determine the proper place of
wealth in the social economy. We must weigh the
course of our legislation and our jurisprudence. We
must gauge the tone of the popular press. We must
revise the teachings of the pulpit. We must ascertain whether the prevalent Christianity of the Church,
is in all things coincident with the Christianity of the
New Testament. -Let these sources of information
be explored, and some light will be thrown upon the
problems we have to cope with. This office I cannot
enter upon. I have detained you too long already.
But whatever may be the secondary causes which have
invested the love of money with so fatal an ascendancy in our country, there is but one effective antidote for it. The sorcery of wealth can be dissolved
only by the BLOOD OF THE CROSS. And for yourselves- unless you are prepared to barter the 
THE ONE TIHING NEEDFUL.
"'TRUE RICIIES" for the "mammon of unrighteousness," that disastrous error which has consigned so
many  Merchants to irretrievable and eternal bankruptcy, you must admit the Gospel of Christ to its
legitimate supremacy in the realm of Commerce, and
ENTHRONE  THE  BIBLE  IN  ALL  YOUR  COUNTINGHOUSES.
33
385  
SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MIEN
ENGAGED IN
MERCANTILE BUSINESS:
A DISCOURSE OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF MR. ARCHIBALD
SLOAN, AT THE MERCHANTS' HOTEL, PHILADELPHIA,
OCTOBER 9TH, 1851.
(387)
I'trturte lteuntat 
CORRESPONDENCE.
PHILADELPHIA, ~VOV. 1, 1851.
Dear Sir:- iHaving listened, with great interest, to the sermon
you delivered on Sunday evening last, addressed to "the Mercantile
Classes," and desiring that its usefulness may be extended, by affording an opportunity for its perusal to the community at large, we
respectfully request, on our own behalf and on that of many others
who heard you, that you will furnish us with a copy for publication.
With much respect, your obedient servants,
T. G. MOSS,
W. R. CASON,
G. M. PROCTER,
H. J. SMITH.
Rev. Dr. BOARD3fAt.
PHILADELPIIA, NOV. 1st, 1851.
To the Rev. IT. A. BOARDMAN, D. D.
Dear Sir: -The undersigned listened with great satisfaction to the
sermon delivered by you on Sunday evening the 26th ult., occasioned
by the death of one of our companions, Mr. ARCHIBALD SLOAN, and
are deeply impressed with the belief that its publication and general
circulation would be productive of much good in this community, more
particularly to that class to which we belong, and to whom it was
especially addressed. With that view, we most respectfully ask from
you the manuscript for publication.
FRANCIS SQUIRE,           LAMNBERT THOMAS,
LAM.VBERT THOMfAS,
J. ALLISON EYSTER,
ALEX. T. LANE,
H. T. M'VEIGH,
GEORGE T. HEATHER,
SAML. P. DARLINGTON,
(;)S88) 
CORR-ESPONDENCE.
E. C. HUNTINGTON,
C. D. RUSSELL,
HENRY C. LAUGHLIN,
LOWBER BURROWS,
BENJAMIN F. GROVE,
S. H. SMITH,
HARRY A. GLEIM,
GEO. W. WANAMAKER,
JOS. S. BROWN,
JOS. WEBSTER,
W. M. RECKLESS,
JOHN C. RALSTON,
J. W. WHITEMAN,
FRANCIS A. FERRY,
WM. T. DORTCH,
JOHN JORDAN,
A. EMSLIE NEWBOLD,
HUGH P. SCHETKY,
WM. J. BARR,
HENRY LELAR, JR.
J. M. TAYLOR,
H. A. LEAVITT,
GEO. S. TOBES,
W. AUG'S ANDREWS,
WHARTON GRIFFITTS,
HARRY STILES,
WAI. H. NICOLS,
ALEX. OMENSETTER,
JAS. W. VEAZEY,
JAMES H. COCHRANE,
W. N. ASHM3AN,
FRANK COOKMAN,
ISAAC W. WEBB,
RICHD. PARKER,
JOHN B. PENN,
H. D. LAWRENCE,
GEORGE C. B.ARBER,
J.  MN. CA RSKAIDDEN,
E.  S. H OWEL L,
L. LEAVITT,
HUGH B. -U'CAULEY,
J. H. MEEHAN,
DAVID I. HAUN,
JAMES W.  WROTH,
EDMUND B. ORBISON,
H. HADDOCK,
JAMES W. LINVILLE,
WILLIAM CHAFFEE,
J. W. STOUT,
SA.ML. H. STERETT,
CHAS. D. HURLBUTT,
WM. P. ROCKHILL,
M. JNO. MOORE,
A. W. NASH,
GEO. S. SCOTT,
C. B. SLAGLE,
JOHN C. WEBER,
SAML. SPARHAWK,
THOMPSON RITCHIE,
EDWIN A. MERRICK,
J. P. BURROUGHS,
GEO. W. GILL,
JOHN S. WENNER,
F. C. POTTER,
B. A. BUCK,
WM. F. WILKINS,
C. W. YARD,
C. W. SYDNOR,
SA-'L. MILLIKEN, JR.
WM. H. GREGG,
D. M. SWARR,
C. J. SHOWER,
DAVID E. OAK,
WASIIN-GTON DANNERt
ALFRED NESMITIIH.
33*
389 
.COR RESPONDENCE.
PIIILADELPIIIA, iYov. 3d, 1851.
Gestle)).en: - Having been led by the lamented death of Mr. SLOAN
to reflect on the position and relations of the large body of Young
Men in our commercial houses, the unwelcome conviction was forced
upon me, that our Pastors generally, myself included, had scarcely
recognized them as a distinct class in the community, much less put
forth any suitable efforts for their welfare. Under the influence of this
feeling, the discourse you have in such kind terms requested for publication, was written. You will need no assurance from me that it
was prepared without the slightest reference to the press; but I do
not feel that this is a sufficient reason for withholding it, if, as you
seem to suppose, its suggestions are adapted to be useful to those who
listened to it from the pulpit. The manuscript is herewith placed at
your disposal.
I am very truly and faithfully yours,
H. A. BOARDMAN.
To Messrs. T. G. Moss,
W. R. CASON,
FRANCIS SQUIRE,
W. M. F. MAGRAW, and others.
390 
A FUNERAL PAGEANT.
ittrturt c~tunt1I+
SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN ENGAGED IN MERCAN                 TILE BUSINESS.
BUT SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGIHTE OUSNESS; AND ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED UNTO
YOU.- MATT. VI. 33.
FUNERAL pageants are too common in large cities
to attract notice, unless they are marked by some
peculiar circumstances. About two weeks since, on
a mild and serene afternoon, a procession passed
along our streets to a cemetery in the southern part
of the city, which did for the time bring the eager
throng in the thoroughfares to a pause, and excite at
least a transient feeling of interest.  It was a train
of YOUNG MEN following the remains of a friend and
companion to the grave. He came here from Tennessee three or four years ago, as a clerk in an eminent commercial house. His integrity and capacity,
his fidelity and diligence, his modest demeanour and
391 
39J2   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
generous disposition, secured him the confidence of
his employers, the cordial esteem of his associates,
and the respect of all who met with him. No one
will be found to gainsay the assertion that he was a
general favourite; and that any of his contemporaries
may esteem themselves happy, who are as much
beloved as he was.  He retired to rest of a Saturday
night in his usual vigorous health- his athletic form
and manly countenance betraying no indication of
the insidious foe which had entrenched itself in the
very citadel of life.  Before the morning  he was
seized by an impetuous and unconquerable malady,
which, after four brief days and nights of dreadful
suffering, left him a pallid corpse. All that medical
skill and faithful nursing (such nursing, perhaps, as
is rarely enjoyed in a great hotel) could do, was
done to save him.  If sympathy and affection could
have averted the blow, the kind ministrations  and
the tears of the young men  who were constantly
around his bed, and who supplied, as well as might
be, the place of relatives, must have insured a reprieve.
But his hour had come. lIe died - died with the
flush of health upon his cheek, before disease had
wasted his flesh, and, as it were, in the fulness of
his strength -as a noble ship, her timbers all sound,
her spars complete, and all her canvass spread, has
sometimes disappeared suddenly beneath the sea. 
THE VOICE OF PROVIDENCE.
The startling severity of the blow sent a thrill through
many hearts. A large concourse of his companions,
with many of our merchants, assembled to do honour
to his remains; and as the sad cortege passed on with
a slow and solemn tread to the place of sepulture, it
was honourable alike to the living and the dead to see
how many hearts were touched by this spectacle -
the funeral of a young man!
If God speaks to us in his providence as well as by
his Word, an event like this should not be treated
with indifference. It is charged with a mission which
it deeply behooves us to understand. We shall not,
probably, misinterpret one of its lessons if we make
it the occasion of considering, for a little, the position
and relations of the class of young men to which our
deceased friend belonged, and the importance to them
of personal religion.
I speak of them as a class by themselves, for such,
in fact, they are. The young men in our mercantile
establishments- those particularly in our "jobbing
houses"-are, most of them, from abroad. They are
neither natives of this city, nor are they here for a
year or two simply as students. They have come
here to reside, and are ultimately to become merchants themselves. This is one circumstance which
marks them as a distinct class.
393 
394   THE BIBLE IN THIIE COUNTING-HOUSE.
Another is that they usually board at the hotels.
Commercial ends are secured by this, which are
thought to be of much importance.
They have, again, a common occupation. They
are in the same, or similar, kinds of business. The
received methods of our inland commerce impart a
substantial identity to their duties, their temptations,
their pleasures, and their general mode of life, and
separate them, in a measure, from the rest of the
community.
These attributes of the class, as such, must suffice
to show that their position is not altogether favourable
to the cultivation of virtue and religion. There is a
great deal involved in taking a young man from his
home, and setting him down to do for himself in a
large city.  The mere removal of a youth from a
good home to any other situation - to a school or
college, to the house of a friend or relative, to a shop
or a store- brings with it a serious trial of character.
But here the case is a very strong one. Compare a
modest, tranquil dwelling in a small town or hamlet
of Kentucky or Tennessee, with one of our mammoth
HOTELS, and you will begin to understand the ordeal
which some thousands of young men in our city have
passed through.  It is not easy to conceive of any
greater social change which they could have experienced, than this. At a single bound they have 
LIFE AT A HOTEL.
passed from all the genial influences which sheltered,
restrained, and nurtured them in such a home, into
a scene which contains scarcely an element of domestic life. Instead of sitting down at a snug family
board with the same little group from month to
month, they sit at a table with two or three hundred
guests, and these changing every day. In place of
the sympathy, the tenderness, the mutual confidence
and refining fellowship of a mother and sisters, they
are surrounded by men-respectable and worthy persons, no doubt, but all mnen-and as such, no adequate
companions to replace the circle they have left. For
an atmosphere of love, where there was some one to
share in every joy, and divide every trouble; where
their every want was promptly supplied, and every
indication of pain or anxiety was made the occasionfor fresh offices of affection; they have been transplanted into one which, though not destitute of this
element, savours far more of indifference and selfishness. They are in a throng who are thrown together
by interest or convenience, business or pleasure; the
most of whom are not stationary long enough to form
any attachments; and who sever the precarious tie
which constitutes their transient bond of union, with
as little feeling as they formed it.
This change in their domestic relations is emblematical of that which has taken place in their situa
o"95 
396    TIE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HIIOUSE.
tion at large. They have relinquished the seclusion
and simplicity of the country, for life in a great
metropolis.   Everything  here is widely different.
The outward face of things is so unlike the country,
that a young man is often bewildered when he is first
dropped in the heart of a city, with its multitudinous
streets and lanes, its interminable ranges of houses
and shops, its imposing public buildings, the rapid
succession of vehicles of every pattern which sweep
along the avenues, and the endless crowds of human
beings that jostle each other on the sidewalks. It is
to such a youth a new world- stranger and more
exciting even than it would be to an intelligent and
travelled American or European, to be put down in
the streets of Pekin or Jeddo.  Nor is the exchange
very advantageous on the score of morals. Natural
scenery, it is true, will never renew the heart. Voltaire wrote many of his infamous libels upon Christianity, and some of his most licentious tales and
essays, while looking out from his villa at Ferney,
upon as glorious a panorama as mortal eyes ever
gazed upon. And humanity has few more degraded
specimens of its handiwork to present to the sympathy
of the philanthropist, than some which can be found
among the most picturesque regions of the globe.
Still, there is much in nature, as contrasted with a
great city, that is adapted to refine and improve the
character - 
RURAL INFLUENCES.
Scenes formed for contemplation, and to nurse
The growing seeds of wisdom; that suggest,
By every pleasing image they present,
Reflections such as meliorate the heart,
Compose the passions, and exalt the mind."
It is certainly a material advantage that in the
country, the objects which meet the senses speak of
GOD, while in the city we are reminded only of man.
Not only do the mountains and forests, the valleys
and rivers, illustrate the wisdom and majesty of the
Deity; but "the spectacle of active nature is no less
favourable to the cultivation of religious feeling than
the contemplation of its passive scenes; every bird
and every animal has its habits of life independent
of man; it has a sagacity which man never taught;
and propensities which man could not inspire.  The
growth of all the plants and fruits of the earth,
depends upon laws over which man has no control:
out of great cities there is everywhere around and
about us a vast system going on utterly independent
of human wisdom and human interference; and man
learns there the great lesson of his imbecility and
dependence, not by that reflection to which superior
minds alone can attain, but by those daily impressions upon his senses which make the lesson more
universal and more certain. But here everything is
man, and man alone; kings and senates command us;
34
397 
398    THE BIBLE IN TIlE COUNTING-HOUSE.
we talk of their decrees and look up to their pleasure;
they seem to move and govern all, and to be the providence of cities; in this seat of government, placed
under the shadow of those who make the laws, we do
not render unto Cesar the things which are Cesar's,
and unto God the things which are God's; but God is
forgotten, and Caesar is supreme; all is human policy,
human foresight, human power; nothing reminds us
of invisible dominion and concealed omnipotence; we
do nothing but what man bids; we see nothing but
what man creates; we mingle with nothing but what
man commands; it is all earth and no heaven." *
In the letter, this pertains to London; in its spirit,
it applies to all great cities. Nor does it state the
whole truth. Not only have we to do here with
mnan's works, man's laws, man's projects, with everything that is of man and that is fitted to fasten the
attention upon man, but we "live and move and have
our being" amidst a crowd- and it must be a robust
integrity which can stand this. We are admonished
against the danger from this source on high authority.
"Be not ye the servants of men."   "Thou shalt not
follow a multitude to do evil."  The best of us need
to have these warnings frequently sounded in our
ears. And how essential are they to the class whom
I am addressing! No man can be blind to the whole
*Sydney Smith. 
METROPOLITAN SEDUCTIONS.
some restraints which are imposed on vice, in a city
like this, nor to the powerful agencies which are here
originated for the support of real religion.  It is in no
small measure through metropolitan capital, energy,
intelligence, and piety, that the mighty conflict with
sin is carried forward, which is, by the blessing of
God, to result in the general diffusion of Christianity.
But it cannot, on the other hand, be denied, that a
perfect torrent of worldliness is perpetually pouring
itself through all the streets and marts of such a city.
The multitudes have their eyes fixed, not on heaven,
but on earth. Their employments, their conversation,
the motives which drive them on in the fierce race of
competition, the institutions and implements of commerce, the whole network of their daily associations,
are secularizing in their tendency. And when you
superadd to these influences, the fascinating amusements and gilded vices which impregnate the atmosphere with their grateful but deadly malaria, and
infuse a new and most effective element into the
reigning levity and hardihood of the crowd, you cannot fail to see what imminent peril waits upon every
young man who places himself within the reach of
these potent seductions. The strong impulse of those
who come here from the interior especially, and are
severed from their homes, must be, to fall in with the
current and let it bear them where it will.  It is
399 
400    THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTINC-HOJUSE.
natural and easy to do as others do around us -to
conform to the popular usages and fashions..Men
cease to be nice casuists when they are mixed up in a
crowd. The practical verdict of the multitude supersedes their inquiries into the right and wrong of
actions, and sweeps away their scruples- or, at least
sweeps them away, even though their scruples remain. The motives which induce this passive acquiescence in the ways of the majority, may be commendable. It may spring from modesty, or from a
dread of singularity. " Who am I, that I should set
myself up as wiser and better than those around me?
Why am I called upon to condemn practices and
habits which have the sanction of so many older and
abler men? Can that be wrong which has so general
an approval? I am but an humble individual; can
any harm result from my living as other people
live?" With such specious sophistries as these,
young men too often persuade themselves to barter
their independence and their rectitude, for a listless
and unworthy subserviency to the opinions of their
neighbours. On any other subject they might dare
to be singular.  On questions of politics, of trade, of
education, of literature, they venture not only to
think for themselves, but to utter their sentiments
with manly freedom, and shape their conduct accordingly.  But where morals and religion are concerned, 
ABORTIVE STRUGGLES.
they are either seized with a timidity which makes
them suppress their convictions, or paralyzed by an
apathy which produces a servile assent, where there
ought to be a fearless resistance. If we could cull a
few leaves from the private journals of mercantile
life, such as are filed away, not in the pigeon-holes
of an escritoir, but in the recesses of the heart, it
might appear that no small portion of the young men
of this class have brought themselves to fall in with
one practice and another of the commercial world,
only through a tedious series of unavowed misgivings
and remonstrances; while many others have been
content to take things as they were, without inquiry
or reflection. It cannot be disguised that, as a body,
their morals are exposed to more or less danger firom
the preternatural excitement which pervades the whole
realm of commerce. This excitement may be detected
wherever there is trafficking on a large scale; but it
has its foci in our great cities; and these young men,
like the angel in the sun, are just at the burning
point. Allowing that the rivalries and conflicts which
occupy them are of a generous nature, still they are
a crucible to character, and it is well if they come out
of them unscathed. In the customary routine of their
duties, they are selling goods to men of every type,
seeking customers at their hotels for the houses they
represent, carrying on a large correspondence, taking
34 *
40l 
402   THE BIBLE IN TIHE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
long and hazardous journeys, repelling what they
regard as calumniatory statements from adverse
sources, sometimes brought into immediate collision
with the agents of counter-interests, and tempted, not
unfrequently, with a view to mere mercantile ends,
to accompany strangers to places of vicious amusement;   and it were a marvel if their principles
should suffer no damage in a life like this. Let it be
recorded to the lasting honour of the profession to
which they have devoted themselves, that amidst
these hostile influences there are constantly moulding
characters of noble strength and symmetry; and that,
in the aggregate, they maintain in their proper sphere,
the high reputation of the commercial class for candour and probity. Still, there are disasters. This
is a coast where too many fine barques have been
wrecked, and too many shattered, not to put us on
our guard against its dangers. How these can be
eluded or surmounted must be a question of absorbing
interest with every young man engaged in mercantile
pursuits. It is a question quite too comprehensive to
be answered in a single sermon. A few suggestions
must, in the present service, supply the place of a
formal dissertation on this subject.
Nothing effective can be done in the right direction,
until a young man awakes to his PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. So long as we move in a crowd, swayed 
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
to and fro by its eddies -like the twig entangled in a
mass of rubbish on the bosom of a running streamwe cannot but miss the proper end of our being. The
servitude of caste must be broken. We must think
and act for ourselves. We must be impressed with
the conviction that there is not only a fitness and
an unfitness, an expediency and an inexpediency, a
beauty and a deformity, in our specific actions and
our general plans and aims, but also A RIGHT AND
A WRONG; that this is, beyond all comparison, their
most important relation; and that the standard by
which it is to be adjusted is not usage, but the LAW
OF GOD. It may very well happen that your principles and life are in harmony with those of the great
commercial brotherhood to which you belong, and
that they justly secure to you the respect and confidence commonly awarded to such virtues as adorn
your characters. But is there not another tribunal
to which you are amenable?   With me," says the
apostle Paul, " it is a very small thing that I should
be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge
not mine own self, but he that judgeth me is the
LORD." This is as true of each one of us as it was
of Paul. We need not disparage the opinions of our
fellow-men; we may, within proper limits, court their
approbation. But it is a fatal error to confound their
commendation with the Divine sanction, to mistake
403 
404   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
the vox populi for the vox Dei, the voice of the people
for the voice of God. The balances in which motives
and actions are weighed, are hung high above the
tumults of commerce- beyond the reach of all those
influences which beguile our consciences and bias our
judgments. And he alone is likely to go on in the
path of rectitude, with an unfaltering step, who has
his eye steadfastly fixed on them, and labours to poise
his motives and conduct by their unerring decisions.
This cannot be done by one who lives only in the
crowd. It is indispensable, if we would attain it,
that we HAVE OUR SEASONS OF SELF-COMMUNION AND
COMMUNION WITH GOD.   If our Saviour found it
needful to retire frequently for prayer, how essential
must secret meditation and devotion be to us! The
very circumstance oiwithdrawing for this purposethe consciousness of being alone with God -is peculiarly adapted to foster that feeling of personal
responsibility of which we have just spoken. There,
in that solitary chamber, the noisy world shut out,
the tramp and hum of the crowd heard only as a
distant murmur, the cares of business and the enticements of sin left behind - there, with your Bible
open before you, and your thoughts going up to the
throne of the Omniscient, you cannot well help feeling that you have an existence of your own, an individuality which cannot be merged in the activities of 
ENTER INTO THY CLOSET.
the surrounding multitude, but which is as complete
and intransferable as though you were the only
rational tenant of the globe. The legitimate effect
of these seasons of seclusion is to restore those impressions of the invisible and the spiritual, which continual commerce with the world tends to efface. They
supply us with a new stand-point from which to survey
the world at large, and our own particular relations
to it. You must sometimes have noted in travelling,
how different are the views you get of a region of
country, as you stand upon a lofty ridge, and retrace
your route, from those which beguiled you by the
way. And the difference will be far greater in the
estimates you form of yourself and of the world in
your own dormitory, with the Scriptures for your
guide, as compared with those which have engrossed
you while actually pursuing your daily avocations.
It is here you will be likely to get a fresh sight of
that immutable standard of right and wrong, which
is so often obscured or distorted by the mists of passion and prejudice. here you will measure yourself,
not by your fellow-worms, but by the perfect Exemplar proposed to us in the Gospel. Here you will
detect the unworthy motives of some of your actions
which have elicited the applause of your friends, and
be led to see that you have less cause to be exalted
before men, than you have to be abased before God.
405 
406   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
Here, in a word, you will have those momentous
themes presented to you which we are all so apt to
lose sight of, and a due appreciation of which is
essential both to our present comfort and our eternal
well-being. Whatever is neglected, then, let provision
be made, in the adjustment of your time, for a daily
season of devotion.
From private to public devotion, the transition is
easy and natural. Look again at your position.
Immortal, accountable, and dying creatures, you are
placed in circumstances where you are in imminent
danger of being swept away by the torrent of secularity which breaks over you with all its force during
six days of every week.  Duty, interest, happiness,
your everlasting salvation, are all involved in your
escaping or repelling it. What are you to do? To
breast it in your own strength, would be like attempting
to breast the rapids of the Niagara, and must equally
lead to a fatal catastrophe. But our heavenly Father
has not left us to so hard a fate. He has offered us
his own Almighty arm for a support, and taught us
how to avail ourselves of it. Pre-eminent among his
merciful arrangements for this end, stands the CHRISTIAN SABBATH - an institution so fraught with blessings of every kind, that to contemn it would argue a
mind dead to all sense of gratitude, and to all proper
consideration for the improvement of the race. In 
THE DAY OF REST.
your situation, the Sabbath has a value which no
words can express. It comes to you with its sweet
repose, to refi'esh you from your toil and weariness.
It comes to turn the current of your associations; to
repeat for you the miracle of the Red Sea, and roll
back, for a few hours, the swelling tide which threatens to submerge you; to take you out of the beaten
track in which you are treading your ceaseless rounds,
and open to you the green pastures and still waters
of paradise; to change the scene for you, from warehouses and customers, merchandize and trafficking, to
the house of God, the reverence and the solemnity of
a worshipping assembly, the songs of Zion, and the
sublime themes of revelation. An alternation like this
is invaluable, in a mere intellectual view. The mind
dwarfs and rusts if it is kept to a stereotype routine
of functions. To give breadth and comprehension to
its powers, the subjects on which they are employed
must be diversified. It were better to change sometimes to trifling objects, than not to change at all.
And if this principle be sound, the advantage, simply
in the way of mental culture, must be incalculable,
when the subjects presented for consideration are at
once the most majestic and the most urgent which can
engage the attention of rational beings. The time
forbids me to go into this inquiry now, but the fact
must be apparent to every hearer, that you render an
407 
408   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
individual a most useful service, aside from any moral
benefit he may receive, when you replace, even for an
hour or two, the mass of earthliness which fills his
heart and monopolizes his faculties from day to day,
with ideas of God and eternity, the soul and its
destiny, redemption and perdition. You startle him
from his torpor. You wake up his powers. You
open to him a new creation. You send off his
thoughts into regions he had scarcely dreamed of.
You enlarge the grasp of his faculties, and qualify
him to pass with a discrimination and an acuteness
previously undeveloped, upon the common pursuits
and familiar topics of life.  So true is it, that "the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," even
taking "wisdom" in its lowest signification.
But the Sabbath has a much stronger claim upon
you than this, and it is insisted upon here because
this is precisely the pivot upon which the career of
thousands of clerks in our cities hinges.   Tlte Sabbath is the point in their scheme of life at which
the road forks; one track leading on to honour,
success, and usefulness; the other to ultimate ruin,
and frequently to premature failure and disgrace.
If you consider the matter (for I can do little more
than state the fact), you will find that the proper
observance of the Sabbath is affiliated with every
virtue and every good habit, with all the agencies 
GOOD POLICY TO KEEP TIIE SABBATH.   409
which are favourable to self-improvement and solid
happiness, and all those which go to prepare men for
heaven; while the habitual desecration or neglect of
this day is as closely interlaced with the evil propensities of the heart, with vicious habits, and with those
pestiferous influences which subvert men's principles
and destroy their souls.   The profanation of the
Sabbath implies a want of reverence for the Divine
authority, and of gratitude for the Divine goodness,
which is itself an evil omen. There is a flaw already
in the character or the conscience of the man who
can permit himself to invade the sanctity of that day
which Jehovah claims as his own, and upon which Ie has
impressed his image and superscription. This conduct
denotes an absence of that plenary integrity towards
God which is the best guarantee of inflexible integrity
towards man. Honesty may co-exist with irreligion
and with downright infidelity. But its only immutable and adequate basis is faith in Jesus Christ. A
merchant who looks only to his own interest, and who
is as indifferent to the spiritual welfare of his clerks
as he is to the thrift of the dray-horses in the street,
would nevertheless pursue a wise policy by encouraging them to a faithful observance of the Sabbath.
The more they feel their obligations to God, the more
conscientious will they be in serving their employer;
for, it is the same principle which puts a man upon
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410   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
fearing God, and upon rendering to all their dueswhich makes one loyal to heaven, and upright in all
that pertains to earth.  The neglect of the Sabbath
involves a disreputable  neglect of the Bible.  It
fosters a disrelish for serious things. It blunts the
conscience. It promotes indolence and instability.
It frequently contributes to nourish a taste for demoralizing books. It leads to bad company - Sundaydrives - drinking - theatres -  and other pernicious
recreations. It lays men open to the subtle approaches
of skeptics and scoffers. While, on the other hand,
it removes from them the restraints, and deprives
them of the helps, which we all require in our warfare with sin, and which they certainly require, who
rush unbidden into all these temptations. A volume
would scarcely suffice to discuss this topic. But the
occasion precludes my doing more than to exhort you
by every motive which can be addressed to your
interest, your duty, or your desire of happiness, to
guard your Sabbaths from desecration.   God has
given you this day as your own: "The Sabbath was
made for man."  The world has no  right to it.
Business has no lien upon it. Friends may not
deprive you of it. Ile has bestowed it upon you
for your own use and benefit; and, if your eyes are
not holdenii, you will see that it is a more munificent
gift than if he had imade you a grant of all the ships 
CHURCH-GOING HABITS.
that float on our waters, or all the gold they have
brought here for coinage.   Dedicate it to its high
and holy purposes-to the worship of God, to your
preparation for eternity, and to philanthropic labours
for your destitute or suffering fellow-creatures.  HAVE
A PLACE IN SOME EVANGELICAL CHURCi -  a place
which shall be your own. This will make you feel
like occupying it, and take away that illusive and
fatal pretext, which keeps so many young men from
the sanctuary, that they "have no place to go to."
It will do more. By identifying yourselves with a
congregation, you become sharers in their sympathies
and their prayers. You participate, more or less, in
their spiritual blessings. The very relations you
sustain towards them will become fresh incentives to
virtuous conduct. You will be conscious of occupying a more conspicuous, and, I may add, a more
honourable, position in the community; of having
friendly eyes turned upon you, and friendly expectations cherished concerning you; all which will be
wholesome props and stimulants in the race of life.
Above all, this will bring you within the sound of the
Gospel. It will set home upon your consciences at
stated intervals, those lessons of our mortality and
responsibility which we are all so prone to forget,
keep you admonished that it is your duty to "seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," and
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412   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-IIOUSE.
supply you with the aids essential to the achievement
of this great end. Let nothing, then, prevent you
from attaching yourselves, not by the precarious tie
of caprice or fashion, but by the firm bond of principle
and duty, to some evangelical congregation.
It will not do, however, to rest here.  "The kingdom of God" must be sought until it is found. By
nature and by practice we are alienated from God,
and rebels against him. Our prime duty, our most
urgent necessity, is to be restored to his favour, and
transformed into his image. We must be pardoned
through the blood of Christ, and renewed by the
Divine Spirit, or we are lost for ever. We require
this, as already intimated, on other grounds.   It
were a theme well worthy your attention- true
religion as an element in the commercial charactera subject of peculiar interest, and happily illustrated
in numerous examples around us, of accomplished
merchants whose lives are transfused with the spirit
of genuine piety. It would be a grateful office to
trace the influence of a steadfast and intelligent faith
both upon the intellectual and the moral powers -to
see how it operates in imparting strength and symmetry to the character - how it fosters integrity,
prudence, sagacity, and industry -how it excites to
the cultivation of all the faculties- how it represses
evil tendencies and wards off temptations - and how 
PATHS OF DANGER.
it inspires general respect and confidence. These
are important bearings of personal religion as regards
mercantile character and success. But we have no
time to consider them in detail.
To a single one of them I may be allowed to advert briefly; I refer to the temptations incident to
your peculiar vocation. What these are, you know
a great deal better than I can tell you. That they
are neither few nor small, might be inferred from the
sketches already given of your general mode of life.
You have your homes in those great establishments
(conducted, often, let it be said, with admirable skill
and efficiency) into which steamboats and railway
trains are constantly pouring crowds of travellers.
Imbued with a becoming zeal for the success of your
respective houses, you adopt all honourable measures
to extend their business. Among the eager and shifting multitude with whom you are thus brought in
contact, are men who are curious to see the sights of
the city, and others who are bent on amusements and
indulgences which the small towns and villages they
reside in do not supply. Your aid is invoked as
guides and companions-possibly, sometimes, tendered where it is not invoked. You will not thank
me, perhaps, if I go further. But how can I do you
good unless I tell you the truth? Let me remind
you, then, that this very process has brought many a
35 *
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414   THE  BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HIIOUSE.
promising young man to ruin. It too often conducts
them to the theatre, and other places of vicious amusement. It carries them out on Sunday excursions.
It leads to drinking and card-playing. It makes
them acquainted with gamblers and profligates- the
marauders that may be seen at almost all hours of
the day, lounging about some of the most conspicuous
corners in our city, and who, if tolerated, will entrench
themselves in the hotels. A salesman will vindicate
this policy to his own conscience, on the ground that
it is designed to subserve the interests of his principals. This it may do for a time, and in a limited
degree; but it seldom works well in the end. Business may be increased at too large a cost. Guncotton was at first hailed as a wonderful achievement
in the arts, and one likely to be of high public utility.
But it has been found that the process of preparing
it is attended with imminent hazard to the operatives,
and that when manufactured, it is a very dangerous
tenant: the risk of it is greater than its value.
Custom that is got by treating and frequenting scenes
of dissipation, is very like gun-cotton. It jeopards
health and character to get it, and when secured, it
is very apt to blow up and scatter your property to
the winds.*  How can it be otherwise?  No  man
* I have heard one of the most accomplished and influential salesmen in this city, say, that in the whole of his 
COSTLY CUSTOMERS.
can be an eligible customer, who is not a man of correct principles and habits. If he lacks this requisite,
the larger his purchases the more perilous for the
house that sells to him. What reliance, then, can be
placed upon a man whose morals are already so
debauched that he spends his time while in the city,
in sensual pleasures? or upon one of so little intelligence and energy, that a bottle of wine or a complimentary visit to some place of amusement, will control
him in buying his goods? It is suicidal for a house
to countenance any measure which may tend to
weaken the moral sense of a customer, or foster his
inferior appetites. How many have been inoculated
in our Atlantic cities with the fatal virus of intemperance or gambling, who have gone back to their
distant homes and indulged these propensities for a
while in secret, until at length, after a few more
visits to the seaboard, they have been mastered by
their evil passions, and ruined in health, fortune, and
character.  "Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished." There is a Providence as much in commerce as in religion: and it can excite no surprise
in a reflecting mind, that a traffic which it has
corrupted the morals of clerks and customers to gain,
experience, he never knew a customer secured by the course
alluded to, who did not prove, in the end, a scourge to the
house he dealt with.
415 
416   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
should sooner or later entail losses, if not dishonour,
on all concerned in it.
Let not these observations be misunderstood. They
involve no impeachment of the mercantile body, as
such. The character of this profession, whether in
the city or the country, for general intelligence and
probity, is beyond reproach; as is the reputation of
the young men, as a class, who are charged with the
endless subordinate (or, in one sense, primary) agencies in the world of trade. But no profession is free
from unworthy members. And even if there were
fewer of this sort than there are, engaged in mercantile pursuits, your situation would still be one to
demand for you the restraints and safeguards of true
religion. Not that religion would infallibly preserve
you either from error or sin. But you would be far
safer with it than you can be without it. It would
hold you back from many a scene of peril, and blunt
the edge of many an enticement to evil. It would
come to the help of your good purposes, when borne
down by a formidable array of numbers, or giving
way under some sudden temptation. It would establish your moral principles on a solid basis, and insure
you those Divine succours, without which, all our
strength is weakness, and our wisdom, folly.
But there is the still weightier consideration to be
pondered by you, already mentioned. The one great 
THE GREAT ALTERNATIVE.
alternative demands our care, "Except ye repent, ye
shall all likewise perish" - REPENTANCE or PERDITION. Here is a sufficient, an unanswerable argument why you should all "seek the kingdom of God"
without delay, viz., that this is the only way in which
you can be prepared for death and eternity. Some
of you have had this argument presented to you lately
with a solemnity and a tenderness which the pulpit
cannot emulate. Who that stood by the bed-side of
the lamented SLOAN, can forget his testimony! There
he lay, his manly form writhing under paroxysms of
intense suffering, and his generous nature pierced with
the deeper anguish of a reclaiming conscience, and
an anticipated judgment -there he lay, lamenting
with bitter sorrow that he had postponed his preparation for death until the hand of death was upon him.
It is not for us to draw aside the curtain, and learn
whether those anxious prayers for mercy which engaged so large a portion of the last forty-eight hours
of his life, received a gracious answer. We may hope
that they did.   We  may cherish the alleviating
thought that the confidence he expressed was well
grounded, a confidence reposing not on his own works
or merits, which he so emphatically disclaimed, but
wholly on the true foundation, the righteousness of
Christ. This will not abate the force of his admissions, or the urgency of his appeals. It was his
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41b   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
dying testimony, that it is most unwise to neglect the
claims of religion in the season of health. It was his
earnest and affectionate admonition to some of his
kind and sympathizing friends, "See that you do not
defer your preparation, as I have done, until you are
laid upon a death-bed." What can I add to this?
If we could revoke him from yonder cemetery, if we
could call back his immortal spirit from the unseen
world, and he could stand for a brief space where I
stand, and you could hear again the tones of that
familiar voice, think you he would cancel the confessions and expostulations of his death-scene?   You
cannot believe this. You cannot doubt that with the
experience he has now had of the eternal world, he
would plead with you, trumpet-tongued, to be reconciled to God; that he would warn you against all
delays; and entreat you with tears to " seek first the
kingdom of God." Do you not owe it to his memory,
as well as to yourselves, to heed this counsel?
"Smitten friends
Are angels sent on errands full of love;
For us they languish, and for us they die:
And shall they languish, shall they die, in vain?
Ungrateful, shall we grieve their hovering shades,
Which wait the revolution in our hearts?
Shall we disdain their silent, soft address;
Their posthumous advice and pious prayer;
Senseless, as herds that graze their hallow'd graves,
Tread under foot their agonies and groans;
Frustrate their anguish, and destroy their deaths?" 
A LAST APPEAL.
Under any circumstances, an appeal from an individual who is just passing into eternity, must be
regarded with seriousness.  But in this case it derives
great force and solemnity from the character of the
man. It is no barren, posthumous compliment, when
it is stated, that he was a man of generous impulses
and untarnished honour, one who scorned all meanness
and chicanery, and who would rather do no business
at all, than not do it on principles of straightforward
honesty.* Here, in the judgment of very many
intelligent persons, he had a foundation upon which
he might have rested with safety: "If virtues like
these do not insure salvation, who can hope to be
* Mr. Sloan's disposition may be inferred from an anecdote
which I have received on the best authority.   Before he
came to this city to reside, he had been in business in Tennessee. His property was entirely absorbed in discharging
the liabilities contracted by the firm of which he was a member. He went out several months since to collect some money
from a person who was largely in debt to him, and returned
without it. "Why did you not get your money?" said a
friend to him.  "Because," he replied, "I went to the house,
and found them all packed up, just about removing to Texas.
And when I looked at his wife and little children, and considered that if I insisted upon my claim, it might be taking
the bread out of their mouths, and breaking up their plans,
I couldn't do it. I chose rather to lose the money myself;
and so I turned about, and came back, without even mentioning the subject to him."
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420   THE BIBLE IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE.
saved?" And yet, when the hour of trial came,
SLOAN did not feel that he could trust to this founda tion. He well knew that his character was about to
be subjected to the scrutiny of that immaculate Being
in whose sight the very heavens are not clean, and
that the graceful qualities which had procured him the
esteem of his fellow-men, might prove a very insufficient
equipment to fit him for the presence of a holy God.
IIis testimony on tlis vital point, corroborated as it
is by the whole tenor of Scripture, may well put you
upon a careful examination of your principles. If
he could not trust to his morality, can you? If,
when the icy fingers of death came to grasp his hope,
it shrivelled and vanished, what will become of yours?
If he found it needful to fly to the blood of sprinkling
and the righteousness of Christ for pardon, how can
* YOU escape if you neglect this great salvation? May
that Almighty Spirit whose succour he so anxiously
implored, seal upon your hearts his dying counsels,
and lead you all to the Lamb of God, who taketh
away the sin of the world!
THE END.