RELIGION IN THE MARKET-PLACE.
Let not the design of these chapters be forgotten.
There are few opinions more prevalent among men, than that religion
is to be attended to only at certain places or on set occasions.
While some entirely neglect it, and live from day to day without one
solemn thought of God or the soul, others would attend to it only at
fixed seasons, or when established usage calls them. At other times,
religion is reckoned an intruder. It interferes with the pursuits,
or it interrupts the pleasures of men. It must therefore be kept
in its proper place, without venturing to appear in the ordinary
business or the common intercourse of life.
The Romanist, accordingly, hurries to Mass; and that over, he
hastens away to his holiday, his folly, and his sports. The
formalist, whether Protestant or Romanist, complies with his
routine, appears at church, or tells his beads, and then dismisses
religion from his thoughts. The young leave religion to the old.
The old often postpone its claims, till attention to it is useless,
unless it could operate like a charm; and thus the one thing needful
is the last thing that some will permit to obtain any ascendency
over their minds.
THE ALIMENT OF THE SOUL.
But instead of adopting such maxims, all who are in earnest about
the world to come have felt, that just as the body needs the vital
air at all times, the soul at all times needs the guidance of
truth; or as the body may die, in the twinkling of an eye, if it
be deprived of that which is appointed by God to keep it in life,
so the soul cleaves to the dust--it becomes dead to the noblest of
all objects, even to God and eternity--when it is not constantly fed
or constantly stimulated by the truth which connects us with Him in
whom we live, and move, and have our being.
Under the deep conviction of that, we have tried to show how the
truth which the Spirit teaches in the Word of God, should be mingled
with all that we do. Far from leaving it out of view for a breath,
it is a party to all our transactions; it should be a counsellor in
all our difficulties, and a guide in all the relations of life. The
heart, the home, the workshop; the place of public resort, as well
as the place where no eye sees, and no ear hears, but God's, should
find us evermore accompanied by the truth, evermore subject to
its control, while it directs our thoughts, our words, and deeds,
according to the will of God.
We are now, then, to contemplate Christianity in the Market-place,
or the place where business is wont to be done. Epithets of
contempt have been applied to us as a nation, because of our busy
engrossments in the countless departments of buying, and selling,
and getting gain; and it cannot but be important to consider the
maxims which should guide us in such pursuits.
Now, it is one of the glories of our faith, that it makes ample
provision for all the activities of life. Yet, under pretext of
being devout beyond the standard of ordinary men, there have been
some who fled to deserts, and dwelt in dens and caves of the earth.
Professing to seek a closer walk with God, or more ample scope for
the culture of the Christian graces, they have forsaken the duties
of life, and made themselves useless to society, as if indolence
were a virtue, or inactivity a fruit or a proof of true religion.
THE MERCHANT PRINCES.
But any one who will merely glance at the Word of God, may see
that such opinions find no sanction there. Far from encouraging
inactivity, or exhorting us to forsake the post of duty, and retire
to loneliness and seclusion, that Word expressly prohibits such a
course. It tells us not to be slothful in business. It says that
what our hands find to do, we should do it with all our might. It
assures us that we must study to be quiet, and do our own business,
and work with our own hands. It adds, that if any man will not
work, neither shall he eat. It sets a brand upon those who "learn
to be idle, who wander about from house to house, not only idle, but
tattlers also." In short, religion, as it lies in the Bible, stands
at our side in the place of business, and says, "Be not slothful
here;" and adds, "It is the hand of the diligent which maketh rich."
--While we gaze on the merchant princes on the Exchange of London,
when some exciting rumour has arrived, some war been proclaimed or
threatened, or while some mercantile crash is impending, or some
millionaire bankruptcy just announced--we cannot but feel that if
men retain their religion amid these excitements, they are religious
according to the highest standard that earth can ever know. Not the
recluse, not the man whose life is idle, and whose duties are tame
and domestic, can display the loftiest style of Christianity; but
the man who holds fast his integrity amid the activities of life,
and embodies in his practice the scriptural injunction, "Be not
slothful in business."
THE ENTHRONEMENT OF SELF.
True, this maxim is often more than obeyed; business absorbs,
business agitates, business ruins millions. Surrendering themselves
without a check to its engrossments, they are swallowed up by
overmuch care, and socially and religiously become wrecks, though
they may pile up gold in heaps. How many in this land are making
gold their god, and fine gold their confidence, we need not try to
tell. But to correct that tendency, the word of truth has commanded
our men of busy lives not merely to be active, but, moreover, to
be "serving the Lord" by their activity. It is not activity for the
sake of amassing wealth; it is not activity merely that we may stand
among the foremost in the market-place, or be able, as some have
been, to give laws to kings and empires, to make peace or to declare
war. That is not religion; it is the enthronement of self. We are
to serve the Lord even in our business. His will is to be our will
there, as much as when we are upon our knees before him. The objects
to which he points are to be pursued by us; and thus, amid the
scenes of busiest occupation, where much that is secular may tend
to disturb, or much that is sordid to debase, the man of activity is
also to be the man of piety and of Christian principle. Religion is
/not/ to be kept for set times and set occasions; it is not to be
left behind us when we leave our homes: nay, as the Lord is in every
place, the fear of him should everywhere preside.
MAMMON.
When the Saviour said, "I pray not that thou wouldst take them out
of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil that
is in the world," he not merely uttered a prayer, but, moreover,
announced a rule for regulating duty; and they who have imbibed the
spirit of His words, understand the religion of Jesus--a religion
most exquisitely adapted to man on earth, a religion at once of
ever-doing activity, and of faithful serving the Lord amid it all.
There are, no doubt, snares and perils beyond what can be counted
to the souls of men, in the engrossments of business. In commerce,
through all its branches, as it appears in our land and day, there
is much to deaden the soul, much to eraze the very thought of God;
and hence Mammon is the only god of many. But the reason of that is,
not that business is essentially godless, but that men prefer God's
gifts to himself. Because he is forgotten, thousands are ensnared;
they are as completely entombed in worldliness, as the corpse that
was yesterday interred is entombed in the deep grave where it lies.
PRINCIPLE.
On the one hand, then, some are diligent in their business; but they
forget to serve the Lord, and so their business becomes the grave
of the soul. On the other hand, some would serve Him; but they keep
that service apart from their business: they are as worldly there,
as selfish, as ready to grasp and to amass, as if responsibility
to God could be shut up in the Bible after a passage of it has
been formally perused. But the Christian merchant comes in between
these two. In the one hand he takes the clause, "Be not slothful in
business;" in the other he takes the words, "Serving the Lord." He
unites them in his life; that is, he takes religion from the Bible;
and instead of separating what God has joined--namely, diligence and
godliness--that man is perfectly convinced, because the Spirit of
God is his teacher, that success would be a curse, that thousands
added to thousands would only augment his woe, were he to leave
the will of God out of view in the place of public resort.
With this general truth before us, then, /if we be Christians
at all, we must be Christians everywhere/, let us consider some
Counsels tending to make us Christians, according to the standard
of the Bible. How may I assuredly retain my Christianity in the
Market-place, in the haunts of Commerce, or among its busy men? An
answer to that question may serve as a guide through what is, in
truth, a deep and dangerous morass.
WICKEDNESS AND FOLLY, ONE.
THE WOE OF THE WICKED.
And the first Counsel we would announce is this: /God is a party
in all our transactions in the Market-place/; we are either serving
him or sinning against him in all that we do. It is to be feared,
indeed, that many forget this simple truth amid their manifold
engrossments. They forget that the God of justice is a party in
men's unjust proceedings; that the God of truth is a witness to
all their falsehood; that He who cannot look on sin is present at
every act, detecting fraud and deceit wherever they appear. In very
emphatic language, men thus make the Holy One "serve with their
sins;" He supplies the power, the skill, the reason, which they
pervert into instruments of iniquity against him and fraud upon
their fellow-men. But shunning all this, it should be our rooted
maxim in the Market-place, and everywhere besides, that that Holy
One is a party in all that we do; he is either served or sinned
against. We cannot swerve from truth, we cannot violate justice,
we cannot let go our integrity, without forsaking Him. It should,
therefore, be as firmly rooted in our convictions as the most simple
moral truth, that whatever dishonours God cannot benefit us. It
should be written on the conscience as with a pen of iron upon a
rock, that the man who expects true success in violating the eternal
principles of right and wrong, is not merely wicked, but foolish.
The man who expects to prosper by "glossy fraud," has already
inflicted a sore degradation on his moral nature. Even though he
may be lifted up by wealth to sit among princes, he is, in the eyes
of God, a degraded and an outcast creature. He has sold his soul for
what must soon be wrung from his grasp. He has bowed down to an idol
as senseless, and as unable to bless him, as the stone god of the
Hindoo devotee. Though a world were in league to prove the contrary,
ungodly gain wraps up a curse in it; and the larger the pile, the
more deadly or crushing are its effects. Those were solemn words
which Eliphaz spoke to Job: "I saw him taking root, but I cursed
his habitation."[16]
Let God, then, be recognised as a party in all that is done. Be it
our maxim, in the market-place as well as on our knees: "Thou, God,
seest me;" and it will at once fortify and warn us. He who forgets
that simple principle in our busy day, is like one who casts the
pilot overboard when the tempest is rising.
The suggestion now offered would at once sweep away those petty
encroachments which pass in the world almost without rebuke, but
which are an offence to the Holy One. It seemed a small and venial
thing to Eve to do what she did, and to Adam to follow her example;
but that little thing dragged the world to ruin. And so before God,
offences deemed venial by man are seen in the defilement and the
hatefulness of sin. Hence the call to act under the divine eye
--to adopt the divine standard--to make God a party in all our
proceedings. His holiness, his justice and truth, should at once
repress the unprincipled and encourage the pure; and man would then
be made upright towards man by being made right with God.
* * * * *
MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH.
But side by side with that, we must place a second Counsel, not less
needed than the other--Watch with care, /lest the engrossments of
business should so accumulate as to overlay and crush the godliness
of the soul/. Amid the pressure of times like ours, this is one of
the greatest perils of the market-place: it is destroying its tens
of thousands. Men eagerly plunge into speculation after speculation.
They try to extend, to ramify, and engross, till you might suppose
they have a home in city after city; nay, in kingdom after kingdom.
Not contented with the gains, the competency, or the honest rewards
of what they can easily overtake or personally control, many make
such haste to be rich, that an empire is too limited for their
plans. In their zeal, they embark in scheme after scheme; they wrap
themselves round with entanglement after entanglement, till, in some
cases, the ends of the earth are not too remote for their desires to
reach.
TRUE ENTERPRISE:
Now, far be it from us to place restrictions where the only wise God
places none; far be it from us to limit enterprise, as if all should
be domestic, or run in the channels of home. It would be hindering,
not helping Christianity in the Market-place, to define and
circumscribe where its Author has not defined. The very sea--that
"highway of the nations" which surrounds our island--would rebuke
the attempt. Godliness is not to be confined in monasteries, or even
to the domestic circle; for if that were the case, then godliness
could not be designed for man as man. It would apply only to a
fragment of his nature, instead of diffusing the wisdom of Heaven
over it all. But if it be that godliness which is the result of
grace, and not that which is only a phase of monasticism, there
is not a scene, however homely, where it may not preside; nor an
enterprise, however grand, which it may not direct. It is only a
fragment of religion, or of the truth as it is in Jesus, which would
leave the counting-house, or any sphere, without heavenly direction.
--ITS LIMITS.
The exhortation, "Be not slothful in business," then, opens a wide
door for active energy; and we make no attempt to shut it. But
still, there is only a certain length to which any man can proceed
without sinning, amid these engrossments and accumulated cares. Bear
witness families neglected--family altars thrown down--early hopes
blighted--early religion erazed from the soul--as speculations and
engagements increase. We have no right to laden ourselves with a
multitude of cares such as shall overlay, or supplant, or endanger
the truth of God in the heart. Every moment may be one of high-toned
integrity between man and man; every transaction may be presided
over by purest equity: in the market-place, a merchant prince might
blush to be even suspected of the mean, the fraudulent, or the
deceptive. But what if these moments and these transactions, so
pure in appearance, be so numerous or so engrossing, as to prevent
attention to the high concerns of eternity and the soul? What if
my mind and my body be so worn out or worn down by these protracted
hours of merchandise, that the things which belong to my eternal
peace are neglected, or pushed from their proper place, which is
/the first/? Am I not sinning against my soul and my God, by such
exhausting engrossments? O! how many are ruined--ruined not by
dishonesties in business, but by over-devotion to it! not by
defrauding a neighbour, but by defrauding their own soul alike
of all time and all taste for attending to the one thing needful!
THE PERILS OF BUSINESS.
We plead, let it be remembered, for no inactivity, for there are
perils in idleness as well as amid the cares of business. If the
latter destroy by crushing, the former wastes by rusting. But
our urgency converges upon this point--men ought not so to plunge
into this world's engrossments--so to be entangled by this world's
cares--so to laden themselves with this world's clay--as to leave
neither liking, nor time, nor strength, for fervour of spirit in
serving the Lord--"Inasmuch as ye did it not unto me," will tarnish
the glory of all such doings. Every moment as it passes, in the life
of some busy men, may be a moment of high-souled integrity between
man and man; and yet there is danger, /lest all the moments summed
together/ should be one long act of complicated robbery--a robbery
of God, because he was forgotten--a robbery of the soul, because
it was neglected for things which often melt as we grasp them--a
robbery of those dependent on us for religious guidance and example,
because we are strangers at home, or, when we appear there, it is
rather as the careworn speculator or the hoarding miser, than as
the kindly, genial, sympathizing husband, father, brother, friend.
THE PERILS OF BUSINESS.
We know that it is the golden maxim of some, that religion must give
way to business. We have been told by one who could stand unabashed
on the Exchange, that "/God did not expect us to be too strict in
these things/;" and swayed by that maxim, if religion do not give
way at the bidding of cupidity, its control is boldly disowned. Now,
we need not add, that the man who has adopted such an opinion has at
once dismissed the Word of God from his counsels, and consented to
forego the use of reason in the highest of all its spheres--he has
laid his soul, a manacled victim, on the altar of Mammon. That man
is not seeking /first/ the kingdom of God and his righteousness;
that is, he is deliberately setting aside one of the simplest,
plainest, and most unequivocal injunctions contained in the Word
of the Supreme.--It is well known that, among the ancient heathens,
the god of traffic was also the god of fraud. The Romans, moreover,
had a goddess of thieves, whom one of their poets thus addresses:--
O fair Laverna, grant me power to cheat,
And yet appear arrayed in saintly guise;
Let sable night enshroud my deep deceit,
And clouds conceal my fraud from prying eyes.[17]
--And is there no reason to fear that that spirit has been
perpetuated to modern times?
Now, in these remarks, we have just been enforcing a trite, but
profound maxim, "What is a man profited, though he could gain the
whole world, if he lose his own soul?" Surely men buy gold at too
high a price, when their immortal spirits are given in exchange for
it. Success in such a case is a terrible disaster, and far better
a mercantile crash than eternal ruin. To give ourselves up to the
devoted pursuit of the world, and to secure what we pursue, while
God and heaven are forsaken, is a calamity to be deplored through
all eternity. Better far the cross and the disappointment; better
far the shattered hope and the world's neglect, than to sit with
princes and to forfeit heaven--to rank among those whose gold cannot
be counted, and yet to be poor, and wretched, and miserable in the
high estimate of eternity--There is an animal which strikes the arm
with feebleness the moment it is touched. The muscles are benumbed,
the sense of feeling is for the time destroyed, and the affected
parts are as if they had been struck by lightning, and in a similar
way, do this world's cares benumb or stupify the soul. Its desire
for the good and the pure, and its power to enjoy them, are at once
destroyed by intense engrossment with the world's cares; and he who
has not felt and lamented the effects of such engrossment, should
beware, lest his want of feeling be the result of his want of life.
* * * * *
THE PREVALENCE OF THE FALSE:
INSTANCES.
As a Counsel which we believe to be pre-eminently needed, we observe
next, that the man of integrity and Christian principle, will, in
the Market-place, /comply with none of the conventional maxims of
business which are based upon the false/.--Were it our object to
enter into these things in detail, it would not be difficult to show
to what an amazing extent the false, the pretended, the deceptive,
now enter into the business of our commercial or mercantile
community. It must be enough to say, that the father of lies has
taken possession of ten thousand points in business, and often holds
them all at the expense of integrity and truth. Lies are spoken; lies
are acted; deceptions are practised; and conscience is all the while
prevented from lifting any effectual protest, by the fact that such
things are common. Even those channels of public opinion which do
not usually adopt the Scriptures of truth as their standard, confess
their amazement at the Jesuitical want of ingenuousness, or the
incredible amount of dishonesty, which signalizes even those who move
in the highest spheres. Descending, that spirit has taken possession
of other classes--it has actually come to pass, that he is deemed
simple who is upright, or punctilious who is honest. Nay more, in
defending this state of moral degeneracy, there are some who do not
scruple to quote the Word of the God of truth. "Be not righteous
overmuch," is a favourite passage with some, as if it gave any
countenance to him who seeks wealth by disreputable means--by calling
that all silk which he knows to be partly made of cotton, or that
genuine which he knows to be adulterated, or that perfect which he
knows to be defective.--Would that it were superfluous to dwell upon
such subjects--that we never had occasion to refer to them and to
the Church of God in the same breath! "/Serving the Lord/"--that
clause should banish for ever all such things from the practice and
the ways of men professing to be Christians, and if they are not
banished, we can picture nothing so likely to make religion an
offence, and a Christian profession a subject of scorn, to honest
worldly men.
Farther, we have been told that there are some in business who will
not credit those who make a profession of godliness. They deem that
profession a cloak, and they either tear it off or despise it. Now,
we reckon that, to a great extent, just a display of the worldly
man's hatred to the restraints and the sanctities of religion. He
knows that such a profession upon /his/ lips would be hypocrisy, and
he ignorantly deems it the same in others. Hence his contempt for a
religious profession--his distrust of all who make it. Yet, is there
no pretext afforded to that worldly man for the opinions which he
holds? If those professing religion are known to imitate examples,
or to adopt practices, and act upon maxims which religion repudiates
--if they be as grasping as those who make no such pretensions as
they do, are they not cheering on the ungodly in their unchristian
career? Are they not doing all that they can to assure the worldly
man that his views of religion are correct--that it is a pretence,
hypocrisy, and a name?
THE BELIEVER'S OBLIGATIONS.
For these reasons, we return to say, that all compliance with
customs founded upon what is known to be false, should be shunned
in business by a man of God. All should be transparent as sunlight
with him. He should never forget, that to escape detection is very
different from being honest; and that the man who has committed
himself to some course opposed to what is pure, or lovely, or of
good report, must either trample conscience out, or endure its
gnawings, as fable says Prometheus endured the vulture. There /are/
temptations, we grant, in a state of society like ours, where gold
is not merely a standard of value in the market-place, but often
the standard of character among men. Withal, however, I am not
bound to be rich; but I /am/ bound not to bring an evil report upon
the Christian name. I am not bound to remain in a certain sphere,
and there draw a certain revenue; but I /am/ bound not to sin. I am
not bound to retain my position at the expense of conscience; but I
/am/ bound not to cheer on a covetous world to ruin by sharing its
ungodliness or smiling upon its falsehood. Nay, by the grace of God,
we are to hold fast our integrity. We are to say, "Get thee behind
me, Satan," to the most plausible pretext for sinning; and if there
be few among our merchant princes who act on such maxims--if they be
uncommon in the Market-place--that is because few go to the Word of
God for their standard of duty--few, with meekness and reverence to
the Holy One, combine in action these three clauses: "Not slothful
in business"--"Fervent in spirit"--"Serving the Lord." "One is your
master, even Christ." To him we are responsible in every relation;
and that responsibility is discharged only when we remember the
words: "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of
the Lord Jesus."
But we have only broken ground in regard to Christianity in the
Market-place.
THE STANDARD.
It is a universal law, that every soul of man must have an object to
pursue. The ambitious man has his object: he pursues it; and if he
succeed in his pursuit, he sinks into the grave, crushed perhaps,
like Tarpeia of old, by the weight of his success. And the covetous
man has his object: he embarks his whole soul in the pursuit; and
while a thousand who strive with him fail or are beggared, he who
succeeds is perhaps the most signally wretched of them all. And the
lover of pleasure has his object of pursuit: he dismisses the fear
of God, and, like one who is ambitious of wretchedness, he drinks up
iniquity, though along with it he drinks up poison to his soul. In a
word, the fool and the wise man, the young and the old, the ignorant
and the learned, all have some master object to pursue. That object
may involve destruction, for it may be sinful; or it may tend to
dignify and ennoble, for it is pure and holy; but whatever be its
character, it is a law in man's nature, that, from the child amused
with its toy, up to the hoary patriarch tottering forward to the
grave, man must have something to fill and to engross his mind.
THE BIBLE'S LIGHT.
Now, the Word of God, which is so exquisitely adapted to man, takes
that great law fully into account; and we advert to that again,
because it furnishes an opportunity for repeating, that that Word
does not repress man's activity--it only tries to give it a right
direction: it does not leave man without a pursuit--it only presents
him with one which is worthy of his immortal nature. Knowing that man
wishes to advance or to rise, the Bible puts a light into his hand,
and tells him to be the heir of God, a joint-heir with Christ.
Knowing that man seeks to accumulate and amass, the Bible tells
of unsearchable riches and treasures in heaven. Knowing that man's
strongest impulse is to seek his own happiness, the Bible perfectly
responds to that, and offers the very peace of God: it points to a
home of everlasting sunshine, without a tear, without one solitary
want. There is thus no attempt to suppress, but only to direct, man's
aspirations. Nothing that God gave to man is to be extinguished: all
is to be sanctified and sublimed.
THE UNIVERSAL LAW.
To make this plain, we observe that all are familiar with the power
exercised over the soul by any new object or new pursuit. Begin with
the earlier years of infancy. See a little child engrossed with his
toy. His whole soul is absorbed by it; for a time it is his world.
But present him with some new object; the former is speedily
discarded, while the new engrosses the mind as the old had done. Or
pass onward from childhood to youth. There also you see the same law
prevailing. Mind is never left a blank. The old is discarded, but
it is for the sake of the new; and man thus flits from object to
object, the last being always the ascendant. Or pass upward to still
graver years, and there also the same law prevails. One pursuit,
one passion, one object of interest after another sways the heart,
alternately expelled and expelling from the soul. The love of God
in a converted soul supersedes the supreme love of the world. The
pleasures of godliness take the place of the pleasures of sin. The
power of the world to come overmasters the power of a present evil
world; and thus a wise and exquisite law guides us in religion--a
law as simple in its operation as that which keeps the planets in
their orbits.
REASON AND RELIGION AT ONE.
Now, in accordance with that law, our next Counsel is, that the
Christian in the Market-place, should never forget that he is not
forbidden to seek earthly things /at all/; he is only forbidden to
seek them /first/. The Saviour just wished man to prefer what should
be preferred--to put eternity before time, and God before man, and
the soul before the body; and wherever men have escaped from the
control of blind passion, such a maxim must be approved for its
wisdom. To believe that there is both a God and a soul, and yet seek
some ephemeral thing before either or both, is surely to outrage
reason, as well as to turn aside from the plainest maxims of
religion. On the other hand, he who sets the Lord before him has
adopted a course which will more than realize the fable of Midas,
who turned all that he touched into gold.
And who can doubt that confidence placed or preference given
anywhere but to God, will blight and wither all at last? Who can
doubt that the accumulated thousands of many who name Christ's
name are their god? They seek happiness there. They find all their
enjoyment there. These thousands are their rock, their confidence,
and their high tower. They not merely seek them /first/, they seek
them exclusively. The portion of their heart is there as completely
as the confidence of the Hindoo upon Shiva, or of the Romanist upon
Mary. It is thus that God is dethroned, and thus that man's blossom
often goes up like the dust from the midst of his idolatrous
confidence.
* * * * *
EQUIVOCATIONS.
But another maxim which should guide us in business, may be thus
expressed.--In the Market-place, /never forget what is due to your
Christian profession/. /We/ may forget it, but the world will not;
nay, we have seen how prompt men are to condemn us for our oblivion.
We may plunge into the world as other men do. Deceived by our own
hearts or by the hollow maxims which prevail around us, we may lose
sight of the distinction between the frauds of men and the truths of
God. But though we may forget to seek first the kingdom of God, the
world does not forget that we /profess/ to seek it first. Nay, it is
lynx-eyed to detect our pretences, and eager to point the finger of
scorn at our unmasked inconsistency if we be inconsistent. The world
feels that it needs some countenance in its oblivion of God; and it
is cheered, encouraged, or a little more at ease, when Christians
are oblivious like itself. As we have already seen, there are words
spoken, there are deeds done, in many departments of business, which
are unequivocally false--describe them to an unsophisticated little
child, and he will tell you at once "it is a lie." Yet it is well
known that gentle names are current for such forms of deception, as
well as for some of our household arrangements. Glozing pretexts are
employed to cover and conceal them, and the uneasy conscience, in
spite of common habit, is betrayed by the fetches which are thus
made. Even a worldly man's conscience would start, at least at
first, were such things distinctly called fraud, or over-reaching,
or a lie. Palliating epithets are therefore thrown over them, like
gaudy trappings upon a coffin; and, then, as if a gentle name could
conceal an unprincipled thing, men barter for gain the concerns of
the kingdom of God. They often value that kingdom at less than Judas
did, when he sold its King for thirty pieces of silver.
CONSISTENCY.
Now, all who would be Christians in the Market-place should dismiss
and frown down such practices. Remembering what is due to our
Christian profession, they should beware lest a stumbling-block be
laid in the way of those who watch for a believer's halting, and are
happy when he falls. The progress of missionaries in foreign lands
is often impeded by the ungodliness of men called Christians; and
care should be taken lest similar impediments exist at home. Let no
man say that his conversation is in heaven, while he is manifestly
grovelling in the dust. Far rather disown the holy name, than drag it
down into the fearful pit and the miry clay. Be it remembered again,
we do not plead for inactivity; we would limit no enterprise which
pure religion sanctions. But neither would we forget for a breath,
that the man who names Christ's name must adopt Christ's holy maxims,
or that man is at once deceiving the world and betraying the truth
of God. Unjustly to benefit ourselves at the expense of another, is
to prove that we have not yet learned God's holy law, and still less
the Saviour's pure and perfect gospel. The world-side of our religion
should therefore be watched with the utmost care; and, amid our daily
doings in the market-place, it should often be our thought, /I am a
Christian/, and cannot act upon the world's unholy maxims. /I am a
Christian/, and must love my neighbour as myself; I must do to others
as I wish others to do to me. /I am a Christian/, and can smile no
connivance upon that which nailed my Redeemer to a tree. No matter
though the transgression be small; a small sin ruined the world. No
matter though it be common; so is eternal ruin. No matter though men
reckoned upright do it; their uprightness is a pretence before Him
who looks on the heart; and it is because few act upon these plain,
decided maxims, that Christ's people are still but a little flock
compared with the teeming myriads of world-adoring men.
THE CHRISTIAN.
And the same maxim should guide us in all respects as well as in
regard to gain. Am I one of the merchant princes whose ample stores
are crowded with youth dependent on me for bread, and helping to
enrich me by their industry or skill? Then I am to remember my duty
to ward off, as far as is in my power, all that would corrupt or
debase them. Not merely a regard to my own interests, but a regard
to the souls of those to whom I stand related, should constrain me
to this; and if one among these crowds be dishonest or disreputable,
I am to take care that his contagion do not spread; that neither
my property on the one hand, nor the souls of my dependants on the
other, suffer at his hands. I may be deceived, but I dare not connive
at deception. To raise the moral tone, I must give time for personal
culture and for the training of principle. I must myself set the
example. I must countenance and encourage it. Instead of grinding the
faces of the dependent, I am to do them good in the highest sense of
all. Instead of amassing wealth by the sacrifice of consciences and
souls, I am to honour all men.--The man who acts thus is a benefactor
to society: he is elevating his fellow-mortals: he is blessed, and
made a blessing.
* * * * *
THE CONSECRATION OF GAIN.
/Consecrate all your gains to God/--is another maxim enforced by
Christianity in the Market-place. The silver and the gold are his.
His is the power which enables us to collect them, and they are all
to be laid, along with ourselves, upon his altar. The wisest man our
world ever saw said, "Honour the Lord with thy substance."
Now, this suggestion touches one of the topics which stand most in
need of enforcement in an age and a community like ours.--It were
needless to tarry to tell how the sin of covetousness is eating into
the hearts of men, how greedily they run after gain, and make haste
to be rich. The wrestler's arena, or the racer's circus of old,
never was crowded with more eager or more panting competitors than
our marts of merchandise now. Nor need we pause to tell again what
degrading disclosures are made, from time to time, and that in the
highest spheres, regarding the withering effects of this headlong
pursuit. In cases not a few, our boasted mercantile honour, and our
integrity as a nation of merchants, have been proved, with painful
plainness, to be as weak to restrain man's passion for gold as a
thread of gossamer to bind a ravening lion.
THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA.
Such exposures, then, and such scenes, are well fitted to warn us to
consecrate all we have to God, both in the getting and the using. If
the riches of the world have the image and superscription of Cæsar,
the Christian's should bear the stamp of the King of kings. There is
no scriptural anathema against riches--nay, every gift of God is good
in itself; but there are countless anathemas against riches acquired
by fraud, or spent without seeking the direction or the blessing
of God. The Christian in the Market-place is thus taught to use the
world as not abusing it, or not to grasp at what may bite like a
serpent and sting like an adder. He thus learns to verify what was
said of Tyre of old, "Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness
to the Lord; it shall not be treasured nor laid up." While many never
think of God--for one solemn thought of him would dash all their
schemes; while self is the centre, the alpha and the omega, the first
and the last, of many an adventurer, the Christian will try to gather
wealth as his God directs, in channels which his God can bless.
A SCRIPTURAL CONTRAST.
We repeat it; we are permitted to use the world; for there is
nothing unnatural, or extreme, or ascetic in the Word of God. We are
permitted to /use/ the world; but it is only upon the condition that
we do not abuse it; and surely he abuses it who defers to the world
more than to God; who adopts the world's maxims, and discards God's;
who grasps the world's riches, but is poor toward God; who trembles
at the world's frown, but mocks the majesty, the truth, and the
justice of God. O, never let the Christian fear to be resolutely
honest--his God will provide. He should be encouraged by thinking
that, amid all our moral distemper, the world /is/ under the control
of a king who will make his laws respected. Baffled we may sometimes
be in the world's headlong career; but it is well, it is /best/,
that we should be so. He who sees the end from the beginning, and
who brings order out of confusion, is doing all things well. He
says: "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself
like a green bay-tree: Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not; yea,
I sought him, but he could not be found." That is one side of the
picture: the other is, "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright;
for the end of that man is peace."
And who has not seen this verified? Men whose hearts the Lord has
opened, so that they gave their silver and their gold in thousands,
tell us that the more they give, when it is to the Lord, the more are
they blessed. That is, "they cast their bread upon the waters, and
find it after many days." "They honour the Lord with their substance,
and their barns are filled with plenty." "They scatter, and yet
increase." "The liberal soul is made rich." "They lend unto the
Lord," and receive it back with usury.
FINANCIAL CRISES.
On the other hand, from time to time the Mighty One protests, in
his providence, against the headlong and unprincipled pursuit of
wealth. What are our financial crises, our commercial crashes, our
bankruptcies in stunning succession and surprising amount, what
our unemployed labourers, what our beggared merchants, but just a
providential corrective to our cupidity? These things occur almost
with the precision of system. They can be predicted like an eclipse;
their causes are seen and read of all men; and yet, unwarned and
untaught, they make haste to be rich, till airy structures and
nominal treasures melt away into air, leaving only poverty, perhaps
shame and disgrace, as their residuum. The God who has, with a
wisdom as unvarying as it is profound, made sin self-corrective,
thus vindicates his own laws. Were his Sabbaths observed, our
production would be less, and stagnation prevented. Were our
merchandise holiness to the Lord, our periodical gluts would be
prevented by wiser measures than now prevail. Godliness would
thus be great gain. The widow's cruse and barrel would be a better
portion, because blessed by God, than the riches which, ever on the
wing, are ever fluttering for their flight.[18]
ABRAHAM AND LOT.
It is thus, then, that God over all proves, to our sad experience,
that we forsake our own mercies by forgetting Him in the Market-place
--but take an example. Abraham and Lot his nephew, are in their tents
near Bethel. A strife arises between their herdsmen, because the
grazing grounds were not sufficiently ample for the herds and flocks
of both. But Abraham, the man of peace, disliked contention; and
though he was the elder, he gave the younger his choice of the
country, that they might separate without strife. With primitive
simplicity, but also with true greatness of soul, he said, "If thou
wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou
depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left."
Lot accordingly chose. Captivated by the rich pastures of the valley
of the Jordan, he selected them. His eye was fixed only on what was
good for his herds; it was Eastern wealth, in short, which attracted
the nephew of Abraham. He did not think of the character of those
who dwelt where he was to dwell; and in his hot pursuit of riches,
he fared exactly as those who do as he did are faring still. The
inhabitants of that garden-like valley were "wicked exceedingly," but
Lot threw himself among them without forethought, and as the result,
his righteous soul was vexed from day to day. Their "grievous sins"
harassed him; and if we may judge from his own conduct, he did not
escape contamination. He had at last to haste and flee for his life,
lest he should perish in the common overthrow.
EVIL COMMUNICATIONS.
And when was it otherwise? Who ever tasted, touched, or handled what
pollutes, and yet continued pure? Who ever threw in their lot with
godless men, without incurring the risk of sharing their doom? Do
not worldly engrossments steal the heart from God? When we have goods
laid up for many days, is it not our instant thought, unless a double
portion of grace be sought, that we are less dependent now on the
Author of every good and perfect gift? The soul thus withers and
pines; and if a child of God escape, it is as Lot did from Sodom--"so
as by fire." Just as a dislocated limb gives pain to the body, or
just as one member wrenched by violence from the rest makes the whole
physical frame quake and quiver, the dislocation of a single precept
of God does violence to our moral nature. It has been often noticed
that the men who are deprived, by whatsoever cause, of the Sabbath
rest, soon become the most degraded in a community, they have
perished sometimes by their own right hand; and the remark may be
generalized so as to include all the laws among the Ten. The man
who runs greedily after gain and forgets to consecrate it to God, is
thereby self-degraded, and self-ruined in the end.
COUNSELS.
But perhaps all that we have argued might have been more briefly and
more emphatically urged in a few words: "They first gave themselves
to the Lord."[19] That is the true order of procedure on the part of
Christian men, and that is the certain prelude to heavenly guidance.
All that we have will be dedicated to the Great Proprietor, if we
have first learned, as the Spirit teaches, to "present our bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."
* * * * *
THE ONLY RULE.
Were it our object to exhaust this subject, instead of merely
offering some general counsels, we should now proceed to other
aspects of the Christian in the Market-place--that place where
temptations are so rife, because the world's current is at the
strongest. We might refer to the necessity of excluding the
engrossments of the Market-place from our hours of relaxation or
our home duties, and press such examples as that of Him who left
it as a counsel to others, that, they should leave all thoughts of
business in their counting-house on Saturday, till their return on
Monday.--But enough has been said for our purpose. And now, let it
not be forgotten that all we plead for has been actually done in the
Market-place by not a few. We urge nothing Utopian, nothing beyond
what is written in the Word of God. A man can be both a student of
the Bible, so as to regulate his business by its maxims, and yet
prosper, as far as any Christian can care for prosperity; and that
is proved by many examples. If a man, indeed, supposes that his life
consists in the abundance that he has, or that the kingdom of God is
meat and drink, then the Bible will be discarded; another god than
it[*8] will be worshipped. But if it be the rooted conviction of a
soul, that it can be rich only in so far as it enjoys the blessing of
Jehovah, His word will be found at once a pleasant and a profitable
guide. And even though poverty may assail us for abiding by God's
simple truth, we must still abide by it. Man lives not by bread
alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God; and
though that maxim may provoke a smile from the devotees of the world,
it is the maxim of eternal wisdom notwithstanding. Some whose life
was spent in the place of business, of care and speculation, have
left it upon record, that such a maxim is the only remedy for the
woes of a groaning world.
We know that men cannot live upon their knees, especially in the
market-place; but we also know that, in the most crowded mart, the
way to the throne is open, if we have acquired a taste for walking
in it. Have we not found some, and these among the busiest of men,
who knew how to retreat into the secret place of the Most High's
pavilion, so as there to feel the truth of his promise, "My people
shall dwell in quiet resting-places and peaceable habitations?" Have
they not found a recess for communion with God, where no eye saw,
and no ear heard, but his? If there be first a willing mind, a way
to the throne will be found, even in the Market-place, and they who
find it are blessed.
THE POWER OF GRACE.
Amid all this, we do not forget the difficulties of a merchant's
sphere, in an age so bent upon amassing as ours. We are not
unfamiliar with his anxieties, his cares, and crosses--crosses
which often come upon him mainly because he would set the Lord
before him. But just the more on that account, and surely not the
less, do we urge him to carry the Lamp of Life. On the one hand, if
these anxieties and cares drive us from our steadfastness, and if
God be left out of sight, will that diminish our cares? On the other
hand, if we hold fast our integrity, is it to be feared that we shall
be put to shame at last? Nay, all that we plead for /has been done/:
the grace of God can accomplish it, and more. There have been men
surrounded with many cares, who yet served the Lord amid them all.
They found that Christianity in the Market-place is as much provided
for, as Christianity in the place where prayer is wont to be
made. All that was needed was to seek the God and the grace of
Christianity; they sought Him, and they triumphed. Cheered by the
words, "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled
their garments," they held fast their integrity as drowning men cling
to the cable which is cast for their rescue; and in holding it fast,
they secured the heritage which the gold of Ophir could not buy.
STEADFASTNESS.
It will readily be believed that, in a nation signalized like ours by
commercial enterprise and mercantile activity, some have been found
among our merchant princes whose proceedings have been presided over
by purest Christian principle. If multitudes have sacrificed rather
to Mammon than to the Holy One and the Just, some, on the other
hand, have held fast their integrity, and sought to keep themselves
"unspotted from the world."--Among those who belong to the class
who have thus exemplified the loftiest Christian principle in the
Market-place, there are few whose name and memorial stand higher
among men than the late Joseph Hardcastle of London. Early impressed
with religion in its living and energetic form, he made it his guide
and close companion through life. The Scriptures were to him the
supreme and sovereign standard. He was led by their light to the
Saviour of the lost, and, constrained by his love, he rejoiced
in every opportunity for promoting His cause and glory. A life
of dependence on his Redeemer was only another name for personal
holiness; and to personal holiness he added abilities of a superior
order, which appeared at once in the world-wide business which he
conducted as a merchant, and the efforts of a directly religious
nature which he put forth. Among the objects to which Hardcastle
was devoted, the London Missionary Society was perhaps the chief. In
the capacity of its treasurer, he laboured for many years with zeal
in the service of Him who has the heathen for his heritage. To the
duties of that office he brought the same sagacity and soundness
of view, the same unbending uprightness and lofty integrity, which
signalized him as a member of the greatest mercantile community in
the world. Even amid the contentions of debate, Hardcastle was calm
and gentle: his Christianized nature raised him above the influences
of those shocks which ruffle and discompose more common minds;
and though nothing could ever sway him to act against truth and
principle, his mildness and benignity rendered him the friend of all.
JOSEPH HARDCASTLE.
But not merely were Hardcastle's time and energies thus largely
devoted to the Saviour's cause. His ample liberalities from year to
year, "entitled him to the rank of the first pecuniary benefactor
of the London Missionary Society." In short, faith unfeigned was
the basis of what he did, whether in the Market-place or amid scenes
whose duties appear to some to be incompatible with the assiduities
of business. With commercial relations which touched the ends of
the earth, Hardcastle spread his influence for good as widely as his
merchandise. He proved by his example that it is possible to be at
once active in business, and serving the Lord; and our commercial
enterprise[*9] would rest upon a more solid basis, or be more richly
fraught with blessings, were that godliness which is the only solid
foundation of true dignity and /completeness/ of character cultivated
by all, as it was by Joseph Hardcastle.
THE DYING BELIEVER.
But his own history was spoken, and his principles were described
by himself, in some of the last sentences which he ever uttered.
To illustrate these, the following selections may suffice:--
"Lord Jesus, thou hast said, 'He that believeth in me shall never
die; and he that believeth, though he were dead, yet shall he live.'
I believe this; I believe I shall never know what death is, but pass
into life."--This is the triumph of faith.
"Thou hast said, 'Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.'
I come to thee; thou wilt not cast me out."--This is God honoured,
and man made happy.
"Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life,
and I am going to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. I am
infinitely indebted to him for his conduct of me from infancy to
the end of my life. He took me by the hand in a wonderful manner,
and brought me into connection with the excellent of the earth. Most
gracious God, I commit my children to thee, and I charge them to
walk in thy fear and love."--This is the death of the righteous.
"He has drawn me with the cords of mercy from my earliest days. He
gave me very early impressions of religion, and enabled me to devote
myself to him in early life; and this God is my God for ever and
ever--for ever and ever. I said to him when I was a young man, 'Thou
shalt guide me by thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.'
'Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth whom
I desire besides thee.'"
THE DYING PARENT.
"No principle can enter the mind so sublime as the doctrine of the
cross, which, with infinite majesty, speaks peace in heaven, on
earth, and throughout the universe. Let every one of my children
glory in the cross of salvation--it is the power of God to every one
that believeth. The /power/ of God; what feeble ideas do I attach to
such expressions!"
"I am, in some respects, like the old patriarch Jacob, on his dying
bed, with all his sons about him. Live in love, and the God of
love will be with you. This is my last farewell; this is our last
interview till we meet in a better world. My flesh and heart are
failing. I hope I have not been deceiving myself. My children
seek for an interest in Christ--seek for an interest in Christ. I
earnestly exhort you to be decided, and to be very useful. He is
your best friend: manifest your regard for him to the world; avow
your attachment; be not ashamed of him; he is the glory and the
ornament of the universe."
"I hope I shall be favoured, when my spirit is departing, with
some intimations of approaching glory. I will trust in him--I will
trust in him. In the meantime, I possess a sweet peace, calm and
undisturbed. I will go to God, my exceeding joy, as the psalmist
says. It is an awful thing for a human spirit, deeply depraved as
it is, to appear before the tribunal of so mighty a Being. He placeth
no trust in his servants; the heavens are not clean in his sight."
"If I am to live,[20] I welcome life, and thank its Giver; if I am to
die, I welcome death, and thank its Conqueror. If I have a choice, I
would rather depart and be with Christ, which is far better."
"My last act of faith I wish to be to take the work of Jesus, as
the high priest did when he entered within the vail; and when I have
passed the vail, to appear with it before the throne."
"I have just finished my course; I hope also I may say, 'I have
fought the good fight, I have kept the faith; and henceforth there
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous Judge, will give me at that day.'"
"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit when it leaves the body: thou hast redeemed it--I have waited
for thy salvation."
ALMIGHTY GRACE.
--There /is/ much in the life of men whose home is chiefly in the
Market-place, to deaden and secularize their spirits; but examples
like that of Hardcastle tell that grace is almighty even there--even
there, were men to honour God, he would honour them. It would be made
manifest to all, that even the life of a merchant prince may be spent
in the ways of God, and conduct to his eternal home.