SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT-AMERICA.

41

in conduct is discarded. to be honest," was a maxim avowed at least by one man; and deceived by such views, the daughters of the horseleech become the model of many-a conspiracy all but world-wide is formed against the rights of the Supreme. "We cry out against the Jews," exclaims a Christian merchant, "for selling the Lord of glory for money, yet every covetous worldling plays the same game over again.'

'When I get rich I can afford

But to speed on the improvement just glanced at, some of the noblest minds of our age have given their days and their nights. Some of the Churches-especially in America, where vigorous efforts have been made to rouse men to a sense of responsibility on the subject of money-have become earnest regarding it, because they are alive to the worldliness which has long been eating out the core of godliness. To that enterprise they have been roused by the sad spectacle of some who are self-martyred on the altar of Mammon, and of others sacrificed there by the grinding oppression of some of Mammon's high-priests. Men have seen the needlewoman- -“that slenderest and most shadowy of slaves" -wasted, emaciated, dying at her toils, and drudging for a pittance which serves only to make her life a longer death; and while a million hearts have bled at the " tale of her woe, men can better understand how deadly is the grasp of the golden oppressor. Other classes are not less ground down by toil spread over long pro

*See The Life of Joseph Williams, by B. Hanbury; a very precious Volume for Christian men in business.

42

MERCANTILE CRASHES.

In

tracted hours their life also is a burden, and the taskwork of Egypt needs no explanation for them. London alone, and in a single department of trading, it is asserted that at least one thousand annually perish, while eight thousand are annually enfeebled, by disease, in consequence of protracted toil. The worshippers of Mammon grind them or goad them on; human hyenas fatten upon the muscles, the sinews, and the life of emaciated victims; and all these things have helped to rouse men's attention, and fix it more intently on the iron bondage of covetousness, till we seem at length to be approaching the reflux of the tide.

Yet no sight of misery can long or really check the headlong pursuit. From time to time men are made painfully familiar with commercial crashes, bankruptcies, and distress. Riches hastily acquired melt more hastily away. It costs the toil and the struggle of many weary hours to ascend the rapids on the St Lawrence—but fifteen hurried minutes suffice for the descent. It is a picture of the labour of getting, the facility of losing, money. Glutted markets, over-trading, eager competition, and often over-reaching, spread desolation and gloom.* Men's hearts fail them for fear. Families are impoverished; characters are blighted; hearts are broken. What has happened to our neighbour to-day, may be our lot to-morrow; and surely all this might tame men's haste to be rich. Yet, unwarned by all

*

"Covetousness sets on work the tongue, to lie; the hand, to defraud; the understanding, to plot; the judgment, to suspect and doubt God.”— Rev. Sydrach Sympson on "Covetousness."

that can happen, they rise from their fall and rush forward as before; the providential protest against devotedness to lucre passes away like water through a sieve. The tulip mania in Holland and its disastrous results, the Mississippi scheme in France, and the South Sea bubble in this land, with their crashing ruin, will at once occur to many as illustrations.—According to some accounts, the sacred vessels of the temple of Jerusalem were carried to Rome by Titus, when he sacked and razed the city, and were deposited in the temple of a Roman god. That structure was eventually destroyed by fire, and the vessels, it is said, were never seen again; and, if that be true, it well represents the lot of much that man deems precious. Amid all such demonstrations, however, he obstinately clings to his golden confidence, and hopes that it will prove a god indeed. It was thus that some,

"To signalise their folly, offered up
Their souls and an eternity of bliss,

To gain them-what? An hour of dreaming joy;
A feverish hour, that hasteth to be done
And endeth in the bitterness of woe."

Still, however, in the hope of fixing men's thoughts upon all this evil, or of helping forward the improvement which is gladly recognised, we submit the following suggestions. He to whom the silver and the gold belong, may lead another and another to welcome all his truth regarding wealth and its uses, to listen to the earnest love of him who "speaks from heaven," and

hearing, to obey. For the most part, wealth just does for its owner what ivy does for the oak to which it clings-it adorns only to destroy; but by following the mind of God that peril is averted.* Let us make the

attempt.

* In connection with this subject, see "The Great Audit," by Sir M. Hale.

THE POWER OF CUPIDITY.

45

CHAPTER III.

MONEY AND ITS USES, ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE.

"The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts."HAG. ii. 8.

An experiment-Dr Franklin-"My mite"-The poor widow's-Man's tenure of God's gifts-Scriptural rules-Texts-The Jewish tythe not the Christian standard-Reasons-Deductions-The Bible's placeSummation-Examples of the ruined-"Tom of ten thousand "

Beacons.

In order to make an experiment upon man's inborn cupidity, Dr Franklin once presented a little child with an apple, and thus engrossed one of his hands. A second apple was offered, and that filled the other. But a third apple was presented to the child, and then began his trial-he could grasp no more-and what was he to do? He dropt one of those which he already held, seized upon the third, and wept because he could not enjoy all the three at once.

Now, "that child was father to the man," and ten thousand things meet us in life which that experiment vividly illustrates. In the ingot among the rude, and the guinea among the civilized; in the apples of the little child, and the hoarded store of the capitalist still