RELIGION IN THE MARKET-PLACE CONTINUED.
Enough has been said to show that there is no incongruity between
the religion of Jesus and the most comprehensive enterprise, if that
enterprise be characterised by wisdom, as well as extent. The Bible
may reign in the counting-house, as well as in the church; nay, where
its power is felt at all, its most signal triumphs are not found amid
the scenes where only the Omniscient is our witness, but amid those
public proceedings where dangler is rife, because the current of the
world sets in against the soul at once with the greatest rapidity
and the greatest volume. By example after example, it is proved, both
in the Word and the providence of God, that His truth embodies the
religion of activity. One man, for example, is raised up to take
possession of the promised land. He has seven nations to conquer,
as well as a numerous people to guide, and amid the manifold
engrossments of that position, how is Joshua employed? Had he adopted
the maxims merely of the world, he would have drawn the sword, he
would have thrown away the scabbard, and in the common language of
mortal boasting, he would have determined to conquer or die. But the
first sword which Joshua drew was the sword of the Spirit, which is
the Word of God. The verse which directed his steps was this, "Thou
shalt meditate on this book day and night ... for then thou shalt
make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." That
was the secret of Joshua's victories--amid the cares of a camp, he
had his God to guide him.
JOSHUA--DAVID.
And the man after God's own heart acted in the same spirit. Monarch
as he was, and compassed about with all the cares of a kingdom, David
made the Word of God a lamp to his path. He could picture no greater
self-deception than to suppose that man can find a better guide in
difficulty than God--a better Counsellor in doubt--a better Defence
in danger. He could not even invent a more flagrant kind of folly
than to set aside the wisdom of God, and prefer the wisdom of man;
to adopt some human device for remedying man's ills, for soothing
man's sorrows or lifting him from his degradation, while we despise
the sovereign specific of the eternal God. The climax of all that
is irrational is found in superseding God's revealed will, and
substituting for it the opinions, the speculations, the dreams of
mortal man. David, therefore, placed the Word of God upon his throne
beside him. Guided by it, the king was steadfast and unmoveable:
Forsaking it, he became one of the chief of sinners; he sullied one
of the fairest names.
LUTHER.
Or turning from inspired men, to those who had to spread the sacred
page before them, and pray to God to shed light upon it, we may
glance at the man whom God raised up, about three hundred years
ago, to emancipate a large portion of Europe from Popery, that dark
superstition which ever crushes man to the dust. Luther stands alone
before the crowned, the mitred, and the lordly. A bigoted emperor
holds that solitary man's life in his hand; and had he doomed him to
die upon the spot, millions would have rushed to applaud him for the
deed. "Recant," that is, deny the Word of God, was in substance the
demand made from Luther; and was the demand conceded? Nay; the Bible
was to him something better than a collection of syllables and words.
The Spirit had made it a power, a life, a soul to that man's soul;
and, "I cannot recant, so help me God," was in substance his reply
to the crowned, and the lordly before him.
But there is a glare and a grandeur about cases such as these, which
may dazzle yet more than instruct. Let us pass then to a different
scene, and seek some abode of poverty. We are, perhaps, afraid to
enter, so repulsive, or unpleasing is all that meets the eye. In that
rude home, which every wind of heaven can penetrate, we find a dying
one. Perhaps for a quarter of a century, she has been the inmate
of that abode; for all that time, she may have had no hand but the
hand of God, and of charity, to feed her. What, then, is it that has
sustained her spirit, amid trials which we almost shudder to see?
She has lived, and is now preparing to die, upon the Word of her God.
She is strong in the strength which it supplies, and the home which
looks so cheerless to others, has been to her a home of hymns and of
rejoicing. The God of the Bible has made her glad in the house of her
pilgrimage by means of his Word. She has learned to regard it as God
himself does; and it is visibly magnified in the effects which it
thus produces in souls by nature weak, wavering, and ungodly.
But we have not nearly exhausted the illustrations of the power of
truth in the Market-place. We have looked at some proofs of its power
where it is honoured and obeyed: let us now glance at some of the
results of neglecting it. If some men are of opinion that their main
business upon earth is to "buy and sell, and get gain;" the Holy
One has, on the other hand, made it plain that there is another God
besides "the Mammon of unrighteousness."
MERCANTILE MANIA.
We have referred to the crashes, and the failures, the gluts and
stagnations which occur in trade, with a periodicity which can almost
be calculated--they can at least be easily foreseen as they approach.
The adventurous "traffickers," are sometimes seized with a mania
which turns the counting-house into a gambler's den, involving
results and disasters from which the most judicious can with
difficulty escape; so powerful is the current, so ingulfing the
suction. Let us glance at some of these seasons.
THE TULIP MARTS OF HOLLAND.
And the first which we mention is, the mania for dealing in Tulips,
which engrossed even so calm and sedate a people as the Dutch, about
two centuries ago. It began about the year 1634, and, like a violent
epidemic, it seized upon all classes of the community, leading
to disasters and misery such as the records of commerce, or of
bankruptcies, can scarcely parallel. In their "haste to be rich,"
one of the most temperate and self-possessed of all the nations
of Europe rushed upon a ruin which affected thousands, and plunged
multitudes into penury for life. In the year 1636, Tulip Marts had
been established at Amsterdam, at Rotterdam, Haarlem, Leyden, and
other towns in Holland.[21] As happens in all gambling transactions
many were speedily enriched. Their fortunes, it has been said, rose
like exhalations from the earth, but in many cases they vanished
as speedily. Nobles, citizens, farmers, mechanics, seamen, footmen,
maid-servants, even chimney sweeps--all caught the fever for tulips
and gold. Houses and lands were either sold for what they would
bring in the market, or pledged, and bartered, that men might
get possession of the coveted bulb or blossom. Amid these things,
the prices of food, and other necessaries of life, rose to an
unprecedented extent; and so complex, so ramified and pervasive did
the tulip trade become, that special laws were passed to regulate it;
special functionaries were appointed to direct it; in a word, amid
the activities of Holland, then perhaps the foremost nation in the
commercial world, a frail, ephemeral flower became literally the
representative of man's wealth, or the object on which the hearts
of thousands doated.
THE SHADOW GRASPED.
Nor were these negotiations confined to the great central emporiums.
Every village had its market-place for tulips; festive meetings were
held when sales were effected; and the universal favourite--a tulip,
was the constant decorator of such festivities. The learned and the
ignorant, the cautious and the eager, men of all classes and all
temperaments, were infected; it seemed as if the commerce of the
world were henceforth to run in one exclusive channel--the sale and
the purchase of tulips. The eagerness with which men embarked in
these wild speculations may be best explained by a statement of
simple facts.[22] Property to the value of 100,000 florins[23] was
invested in the purchase of a few roots. One kind of tulip, the
/Admiral Leifken/, was reckoned worth 4,400 florins. A /Semper
Augustus/ was deemed cheap, if purchased for 5,500 florins. At one
period there were only two roots of that rare species in Holland;
and so intense was the passion to possess them, that a merchant
offered twelve acres of building lots for one of them, which was at
Haarlem, while its neighbour of Amsterdam was purchased for 4,600
florins, a carriage, a span of grey horses,[24] and a complete suit
of harness. A /Viceroy/ was worth 3000 florins. An /Admiral Vonder
Eyk/ was rated at 1,260 florins; and the whole were sold by weight
as carefully as jewel merchants weigh the diamond. But to name no
more, there was a single root which cost two lasts[*10] of wheat, and
four of rye; four fat oxen, eight fat swine, and twelve fat sheep;
two hogsheads of wine, and four tuns of beer; two tons of butter,
one thousand pounds of cheese, a complete bed, a suit of clothes,
and a silver drinking cup, valued in all at 2,560 florins.
Such is a glimpse of the tulip mania--such the effect of man's
extraordinary haste to be rich--such the condition into which men
proverbial for their sobriety of judgment were precipitated, when
they pushed their speculations beyond their legitimate channels.
THE SUBSTANCE THROWN AWAY.
And what was the result? How did a passion so extraordinary affect
those who had been impelled by its power? The bubble burst at length,
and though a fierce tornado had swept over Holland, the devastation
could scarcely have been more complete. The hopes which had been
so unnaturally inflated began to collapse. Panic seized upon the
speculators, and bankruptcy followed panic, as rapidly as the house
which is built of cards is demolished by a blow. It soon appeared
that tulips were neither gold, nor houses, nor lands; neither bread
for the hungry, nor clothing for the naked, nor a home for the
friendless; and the worthlessness of the flower in itself, became the
emblem of the delusions which it had fostered. Every town in Holland
felt the blow. Multitudes were precipitated into poverty, at least,
their only possessions consisted in a few bulbs--the representations
at once of the speculator's thoughtlessness and his woe. The result
of the folly was now manifest, and the madness of what was nothing
but gambling, showed its bitter fruits. Merchants and their families
who had lived all their lives in independence and luxury, were
reduced to beggary by this mania for gold.
THE ONLY SAFE GUIDE.
Amid these calamities, the help of man was found to be signally
vain, and those who had forgotten to take the Bible into the
Counting-house, and the Market-place, were left to reap as they
had sowed. Every effort was made to arrest the tide of ruin. Law was
appealed to. The governing power of the nation was addressed, but
all in vain. The gourd had withered, the refuge of lies had fallen,
and not a few were buried in the ruins. The trade of Holland was
prostrated for a time, and some of its merchant princes never
recovered from the shock.
THE REAL SOURCE OF WEALTH.
It was by such a mercantile crash, then, that He who rules among
the nations protested against the folly, or the sin of such gambling.
It was proved, upon a national scale, that men cannot trample
on the wisdom which comes from above, and prosper; and over the
whole transaction, the eye of faith can read many a text inscribed
in letters of light, we learn how much Commerce would be aided
throughout her extensive empire, were her measures regulated by the
mind, and directed to the objects of God. "He that makes 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." "Ye shall
do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, and in
measure." "By humility and the fear of the Lord, are riches, and
honour, and life." "Let your conversation be without covetousness,
and be content with such things as ye have; for He hath said, 'I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee.'"--These and many other passages
of the Word, proclaim the folly of extinguishing the lamp, and yet
hoping to walk in the light. He who shall really prosper in such
a path, will be the first in all the world's history; but his
prosperity will rest upon the ruins of truth, and justice--of all
that is pure, and lovely, and of good report.
THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME.
But this appears after all, to have been a mere hallucination. It
may be reckoned the dictate of capricious fashion, rather than a
manifestation of the true mercantile spirit. Let us turn, then, to
another illustration, and we find it ready in the Mississippi Scheme
of France, which was begun in 1716, and continued till 1723. Of all
the wild speculations which have first duped and then ruined men,
this ranks among the foremost. It was projected by a man who spent an
ample fortune by his prodigality, and then adopted a gambler's life,
the last resort of many a fallen spirit. He first ruined a young
English lady and then slew her brother in a duel, for which he was
obliged to flee from his native country. Amsterdam, Venice, and
Genoa, became in succession his asylum. From each of these, however,
he was banished as a dangerous adventurer; and after fourteen years
of friendless wandering, he at last secured the patronage of the
Duke of Orleans, while Regent of France, about the year 1716.
Such was the unprincipled and profligate man employed to launch the
Mississippi Scheme. He began his career in Paris by establishing a
bank, which aided in restoring the drooping commerce of France to
some measure of activity. Success in one enterprise[*11] prepared the
way for another, and Law devised the scheme which has given such bad
notoriety to his name, and was the occasion of a ruin so wide-spread
that only Omniscience knows it. A French colony at the mouth of the
Mississippi occupied lands which were supposed to teem with gold;
and, on that supposition, men who knew of no better riches than
those of earth, rushed into a wild and visionary scheme. The Regent
sanctioned the undertaking, and notes were issued to the amount of
one thousand millions of livres.[25] One hundred and twenty /per
cent./ of profit were promised upon all investments; and the
baseless proposal so captivated men who were willingly fascinated,
that at least three hundred thousand applications were made for fifty
thousand shares. The titled, from the right hand of royalty downward,
engaged in the scramble; and their equipages blocked up the streets
from day to day, as they waited in feverish anxiety to know the
result of their application for a chance of sharing in the fabulous
wealth.--It is known that when one maniac has committed suicide in
any particular way--for example, by precipitation from the summit of
a tower--others morbidly follow his example; and one is irresistibly
reminded of that development of mania while tracing the history of
the Mississippi Scheme.
THE POWER OF PASSION.
But, after all, it was still only in its infancy. The Regent created
three hundred thousand additional shares;[26] and so grasping were
even the coroneted gamblers of Paris, that three times that number
would have been purchased had the scheme been extended so far. The
pressure for shares became so great, that a number of persons were
crushed to death in the crowd. Property suddenly rose in value, till
it was worth twelve or fifteen times as much as it had been a brief
period before; and so unwearied were these devotees of Mammon, that
the streets had to be cleared at night by the soldiery. For a time,
even the gaieties of Paris were suspended; and all the energies, the
earnestness, and ardour of its people, were turned into one absorbing
channel--the passion for gold lying buried, they believed, in the
lands around the mouth of the Mississippi!
CORONETED GAMBLERS.
So ceaseless was the murmur of these speculators, and so loud, that
the Chancellor of Paris, whose court was in the neighbourhood of
the bank, could not hear the advocates as they pled. About five
hundred pavilions were in consequence erected at some distance, for
conducting the business. The ingulfing tide rolled on. Peers and
peeresses continued among the suitors for Mississippi stock, and
sometimes stood for six hours in succession, waiting for an interview
with an agent. In truth, all classes were seized with a mania similar
to that which reigns paramount in the mind of a gambler, and which
often goads him on to ruin. Amid the excitement, society became more
and more distempered. The ignoble, who had become suddenly rich,
purchased alliances with the titled. Robberies and murders took
place, and a Count D'Horn was tried and condemned to be broken
on the wheel for one of these deeds of blood. Such was the influx
of strangers into Paris, that houses could not be found for
their accommodation. Tents and stables were transmuted into
dwelling-houses, and an artificial prosperity was produced, which
quadrupled the cost of some articles. In a word, it appeared that
Louis XIV. had been succeeded by Midas, a prince who turned all
that he touched into gold.
THE REACTION.
But this bubble also burst. The scheme was too baseless, and the
prosperity too artificial to last; and again it was seen in one of
the greatest nations of the earth, that "he who makes haste to be
rich shall not be innocent," as he certainly is not safe. To all the
golden visions of France there succeeded a period of confusion, of
bankruptcies, of beggary and ruin, deep and piteous in proportion as
the excitement had been high. Those who were trembling on the verge
of ruin, or actually precipitated into it, surrounded the palace of
the Regent, and holding up the worthless bills of Law, which were now
all the property they possessed, exclaimed against the injustice with
the vehemence of beggared men. The projector of the scheme was exiled
to Pontoise. A few realized wealth by the speculation, but it is
computed that millions were utterly beggared: many "laid violent
hands upon themselves, and sought a doubtful refuge in the grave."
And thus, by another providence, did the only wise God protest
against the burning passion for gold which had eaten into the souls
of multitudes. Men
"Abrogate as roundly as they may,
The total ordinance and will of God,"
but in spite of their attempts, he accomplishes all his purposes, and
all his pleasure stands. He who loves silver shall not be satisfied
with it. He who says to the fine gold, "Be thou my confidence,"
sooner or later finds that he has pierced himself through with
many sorrows. Wherever the will of God is violated by nations or
by individuals, a day of retribution comes, as surely as rivers
which have burst their banks carry devastation wherever they rush.
It is well known that the channel of the Po, as it approaches its
embochure, is considerably elevated above the surrounding country.
The earth which it washes down from the Alps is gradually deposited
where the river runs more slowly. The banks, in consequence, require
to be periodically elevated; and were that neglected, the river
would soon sweep them all away, and render some of the most fertile
portions of Italy a wide and noxious marsh, a focus of malaria and
fever. Now, it is the same wherever man's cupidity has thrown up
artificial mounds in Commerce. They are always attended with danger,
and sooner or later they are swept away. It is the sure decree of
God: "He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor
he that loves abundance with increase."
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE.
DELUSIONS BELIEVED.
One such illustration may suffice for all: but there is another
memorable Scheme to which it seems proper to refer--that which is
known in this country as the South Sea Bubble. About the beginning
of last century, an opinion generally prevailed that the wealth of
South America was exhaustless. A privileged Company to trade with it
was accordingly formed, and though the genius of the French and the
English are widely different, a passion for speculation and gold
seized upon our countrymen, as violent and absorbing as that which
appeared in connection with the Mississippi Scheme of France. By
various devices, in which the principles of the Word of God were
outraged, the managers of the South Sea Scheme excited expectations
of the most visionary kind. The mania seized upon the nation through
all its borders. The stock of the Company rose till it was eagerly
bought at a premium of 1000 /per cent./ Catching the general
spirit, joint-stock companies sprang up everywhere as rapidly as
the Prophet's gourd; and so willing were men to be deceived, that
schemes which should have been put down on their first appearance
were eagerly embraced. One of these was denominated, "A Company for
carrying on an Undertaking of Great Advantage, but nobody to know
what it is;"[27] and yet Englishmen, proverbially calculating and
cautious in their financial affairs, actually embarked in that
transparent deception, like men infatuated by their haste to be rich.
The projector of the scheme asked a deposit of £2 on each share of
£100, and the promised return was £100 /per annum/. On the first
day of his scheme he received about 1000 deposits, or nearly £2000,
and with that sum he immediately and for ever disappeared. In this
manner, the original South Sea Scheme branched out into eighty-seven
cognate speculations, each of which was eventually a fountain of
misery to multitudes.
THE RULING PASSION.
The following sentences graphically tell the state of London and
this kingdom at the period referred to:--"From morning till 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 of life and the professions which 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 this deep and hazardous game 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 ingulfed 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 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."[28]
THE FOLLY OF MAN'S WISDOM.
But this also came to an end; and disasters followed which rent
society like an earthquake. The leaders in the scheme were consigned
to prison, or compelled to seek refuge in exile; while their deluded
victims were left amid poverty, and its attendant woe, to gather
the native fruit of the thorns and the thistles, from which they
had expected grapes and figs. It was miserable comfort to reflect,
that their own baseless expectations had abetted the delusion, and
made the ruin complete.
RESULTS.
And such is another illustration of the effects which follow the
infatuation of putting Mammon in the place of God, or delivering
up the whole soul to the pursuit of what the Holy One declares to
be unsatisfying as a dream. It is thus that he warns men, in his
providence, against that lust of speculation, which is often as
ruinous as the lust of power, or any passion which drives men
headlong upon misery.
The very titles of some of the schemes which were projected at the
period now referred to, stamp them with infatuation. The nation had
become an aggregate of gamblers, and the following are some of the
stakes:--
A Company for Increasing Children's Fortunes.
A Company for Furnishing Funerals in any part of Great
Britain.
A Company, already mentioned, for carrying on an Undertaking
of Great Advantage; but nobody to know what it is.
A Company for Making Looking-Glasses. Capital, £2,000,000.
A Company for Improving Malt Liquors. Capital, £4,000,000.
A Company for Insuring all Masters and Mistresses against
Losses by Servants. Capital, £3,000,000.
A Company for Importing Walnut Trees. Capital, £2,000,000.
A Company for Erecting Hospitals for Illegitimate Children.
Capital, £2,000,000.
A Company for Erecting Loan-Offices. Capital, £2,000,000.
--But we need not enumerate more. In that scramble for riches,
reason appears to have been befooled. Departing from the law of
God, men were left to starvation: "They that did feed delicately,
are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet,
embrace dunghills." What though one, or two, or a few realized
wealth, and withdrew in time from the ingulfing vortex? The
wide wail--the desolating explosions which followed, were poorly
compensated for by these exceptions. What though some might be
charioted to-day, who yesterday lived by the sweat of their brows?
To-morrow will see them more wretched than before. What though
artificial standards have elevated a nominal wealth to the value
of Potosi or Golconda? Broken fortunes, broken characters, broken
hearts, are the sad realities which close the vista. And thus, would
men learn, they might; it is written in light above us, according
to the words already quoted: "He that loveth silver shall not be
satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase."
If covetousness be idolatry, and Mammon the idol, his devotees are
taught that disaster and woe are their lot.
THE IDOL AND THE WORSHIPPER.
Yet men have not been warned by all these things; nay, the same
spirit has revived in very recent years; and could we unveil the
misery which has been endured by thousands as the result of recent
crashes, the impression might be deepened as to the madness of
"making haste to be rich." Men have said, "To-day or to-morrow we
will go into such a city, and continue there for a year, and buy and
sell and get gain;" but ere the year was closed, their gains have
taken to themselves wings. The will of God was left out of view in
their plans, and they were baffled.
THE END.
We must repeat--we have no controversy with commercial enterprise,
when conducted in accordance with the wisdom of the Word of God. It
is one of the means of binding nation to nation, and bringing back
the alienated children of men to one wide family circle, according
to the purpose of our Father who is in heaven. But that is not to
be accomplished by outraging his laws; and the man, the company,
the nation, which extinguishes the lamp, will be left to walk in
darkness.--When the butchers of the first French revolution were
leading their victims to death, some of those who were doomed to
die, were conducted, by a refinement in cruelty, along an alley into
a garden of flowers, where only fragrance and beauty greeted their
senses; but at a certain spot, inevitable doom awaited them, at the
hands of men who thirsted for their blood--and we need scarcely apply
the illustration. In their haste to be rich, men seem, for a season,
to walk amid fragrance. Their path is all luminous with hope--such
hope as man's devices can inspire; but sooner or later they are
hurried into misery.
"When infamous venality, grown bold,
Writes on his bosom, 'to be let, or sold,'"
men have laid a snare in which, by God's decree, they will be
entangled; they have dug a pitfall, in which, by God's decree,
they will be taken.