Discourse Upon the Influence of Christianity upon Commerce.
By Thomas Chalmers DD. LLD.
THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY IN AIDING AND AUGMENTING
THE MERCANTILE VIRTUES.
"For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable
to God, and approved of men. " - ROM. xiv. 18.
We have already asserted
the natural existence of such principles in the heart of man, as lead him to
many graceful and to many honourable exhibitions of character. We have further
asserted, that this formed no deduction whatever from that article of orthodoxy
which affirms the utter depravity of our nature; that the essence of this
depravity lies in man having broken loose from the authority of God, and
delivered himself wholly up to the guidance of his own inclinations; that
though some of these inclinations are in themselves amiable features of human
character, and point in their effects to what is most useful to human society,
yet devoid as they all are of any reference to the will and to the rightful
sovereignty of the Supreme Being, they could not avert, or even so much as
alleviate, that charge of ungodliness, which may be fully carried round amongst
all the sons and daughters of the species; that they furnish not the materials
of any valid or satisfactory answer to the question, "What hast thou done unto
God?" and that whether they are the desires of a native rectitude, or the
desires of an instinctive benevolence, they go not to purge away the guilt of
having no love, and no care, for the Being who formed and who sustains
us.
But what is more. If the virtues and accomplishments of nature are
at all to be admitted into the controversy between God and man, instead of
forming any abatement upon the enormity of our guilt, they stamp upon it the
reproach of a still deeper and more determined ingratitude. Let us conceive it
possible, for a moment, that the beautiful personifications of Scripture were
all realized; that the trees of the forest clapped their hands unto God, and
that the isles were glad at His presence; that the little hills shouted on
every side; and the valleys covered over with corn sent forth the notes of
rejoicing; that the sun and the moon praised Him, and the stars of light joined
in the solemn adoration; that the voice of glory to God was heard from every
mountain and from every waterfall, and that all nature, animated throughout by
the consciousness of a pervading and a presiding Deity, burst into one loud and
universal song of gratulation. Would not a strain of greater loftiness be heard
to ascend from those regions where the all- working God had left the traces of
His own immensity, than from the tamer and the humbler scenery of an ordinary
landscape? Should not we look for a gladder acclamation from the fertile field,
than from the arid waste, where no character of grandeur made up for the
barrenness that was around us? Would not the goodly tree, compassed about with
the glories of its summer foliage, lift up an anthem of louder gratitude, than
the lowly shrub that grew beneath it? Would not the flower, from whose leaves
every hue of loveliness was reflected, send forth a sweeter rapture than the
russet weed, which never drew the eye of any admiring passenger? And, in a
word, wherever we saw the towering eminences of nature, or the garniture of her
more rich and beauteous adornments, would it not be there that we looked for
the deepest tones of devotion, or there for the tenderest and most exquisite of
its melodies?
There is both the sublime of character, and the beauteous
of character, exemplified upon man. We have the one in that high sense of
honour, which no interest and no terror can seduce from any of its obligations.
We have the other in that kindliness of feeling, which one look or one sigh of
imploring distress can touch into liveliest sympathy. Only grant, that we have
nothing either in the constitution of our spirits, or in the structure of our
bodies, which we did not receive; and that mind, with all its varieties, is as
much the product of a creating hand, as matter in all its modifications; and
then, on the face of human society, do we witness all the gradations of a moral
scenery, which may be directly referred to the operation of Him who worketh all
in all. It is our belief, that, as to any effectual sense of God, there is as
deep a slumber throughout the whole of this world's living and rational
generations, as there is throughout all the diversities of its mute and
unconscious materialism; and that to make our alienated spirits again alive
unto the Father of them, calls for as distinct and as miraculous an exertion of
the Divinity, as would need to be put forth in the act of turning stones into
the children of Abraham. Conceive this to be done then - and that a quickening
and a realizing sense of the Deity pervaded all the men of our species - and
that each knew how to refer his own endowments, with an adequate expression of
gratitude to the unseen author of them - from whom, we ask, of all these
various individuals, should we look for the halleluiahs of devoutest ecstasy?
Would it not be from him whom God had arrayed in the splendour of nature's
brightest accomplishments? Would it not be from him, with whose constitutional
feelings the movements of honour and benevolence were in fullest harmony? Would
it not be from him whom his Maker had casc into the happiest mould, and
attempered into sweetest unison with all that was kind, and generous, and
lovely, and ennobled by the loftiest emotions, and raised above his fellows
into the finest spectacle of all that was graceful, and all that was
manly?
Surely, if the possession of these moralities he just another
theme of acknowledgment to the Lord of the spirits of all flesh, then, if the
acknowledgment be withheld, and these moralities have taken up their residence
in the bosom of him who is utterly devoid of piety, they go to aggravate the
reproach of his ingratitude; and to prove, that, of all the men upon earth who
are far from God, he stands at the widest distance, he remains proof against
the weightiest claims, and he, of the dead in trespasses and sins, is the most
profoundly asleep to the call of religion, and to the supremacy of its
righteous obligations. It is by argument such as this, that we would attempt to
convince of sin those who have a righteousness that is without godliness; and
to prove, that, with the possession of such things as are pure, and lovely, and
honest, and of good report, they in fact can only be admitted to reconciliation
with God, on the same footing with the most worthless and profligate of the
species; and to demonstrate, that they are in the very same state of need and
of nakedness, and are therefore children of wrath, even as others; that it is
only through faith in the preaching of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ that
they can be saved; and that, unless brought down from the delusive eminency of
their own conscious attainments, they take their forgiveness through the blood
of the Redeemer, and their sanctification through the Spirit which is at His
giving, they shall obtain no part in that inheritance which is incorruptible
and undefiled, and which fadeth not away. But the gospel of Jesus Christ does
something more than hold out a refuge to the guilty. It takes all those who
accept of its overtures under its supreme and exclusive direction. It keeps by
them in the way of counsel, and. exhortation, and constant superintendence. The
grace which it reveals, is a grace which not merely saves all men, but which
teaches all men. He who is the proposed Saviour, also claims to be the alone
master of those who put their trust in Him. His cognizance extends itself over
the whole line of their history; and there is not an affection of their heart,
or a deed of their visible conduct, over which He does not assert the right of
an authority that is above all control, and that refuses all rivalship.
Now, we want to point attention to a distinction which obtains between
one set and another set of His requirements. By the former, we are enjoined to
practise certain virtues, which, separately from His injunction altogether, are
in great demand, and in great reverence, amongst the members of society - such
as compassion, and generosity, and justice, and truth; which, independently of
the religious sanction they obtain from the law of the Saviour, are in
themselves so lovely, and so honourable, and of such good report, that they are
ever sure to carry general applause along with them, and thus to combine both
the characteristics of our text - that he who in these things serveth Christ,
is both acceptable to God, and approved of men.
But there is another set
of requirements, where the will of God, instead of being seconded by the
applause of men, is utterly at variance with it. There are some who can admire
the generous sacrifices that are made to truth or to friendship, but who,
without one opposing scruple, abandon themselves to all the excesses of riot
and festivity, and are therefore the last to admire the puritanic sobriety of
him whom they cannot tempt to put his chastity or his temperance away from him;
though the same God, who bids us lie not one to another, also bids us keep the
body under subjection, and to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the
soul. Again, there are some in whose eyes an unvitiated delicacy looks a
beauteous and an interesting spectacle, and an undeviating self-control looks a
manly and respectable accomplishment; but who have no taste in themselves, and
no admiration in others, for the more direct exercises of religion; and who
positively hate the strict and unbending preciseness of those who join in every
ordinance, and on every returning night celebrate the praises of God in their
family; and that, though the heavenly Lawgiver, who tells us to live
righteously and soberly, tells us also to live godly in the present evil
world.
And lastly, there are some who have not merely a toleration, but
a liking for all the decencies of an established observation; but who, with the
homage they pay to sabbaths and to sacraments, nauseate the Christian principle
in the supreme and regenerating vitality of its influences; who, under a
general religiousness of aspect, are still in fact the children of the world -
and therefore hate the children of light in all that is peculiar and
essentially characteristic of that high designation; who understand not what is
meant by having our conversation in heaven: and utter strangers to the
separated walk, and the spiritual exercises, and the humble devotedness, and
the consecrated affections, of the new creature in Jesus Christ, shrink from
them altogether as from the extravagancies of a fanaticism in which they have
no share, and with which they can have no sympathy - and all this, though the
same scripture which prescribes the exercises of household and of public
religion, lays claim to an undivided authority over all the desires and
affections of the soul; and will admit of no compromise between God and the
world; and insists upon an utter deadness to the one, and a most vehement
sensibility to the other; and elevates the standard of loyalty to the Father of
our Spirits, to the lofty pitch of loving Him with all our strength, and of
doing all things to His glory. Let these examples serve to impress a real and
experimental distinction which obtains between two sets of virtues; between
those which possess the single ingredient of being approved by God, while they
want the ingredient of being also acceptable unto men - and those which possess
both these iugredients, and to the observance of which, therefore, we may be
carried by a regard to the will of God, without any reference to the opinion of
men - or by a regard to the opinion of men, without any reference to the will
of God. Among the first class of virtues we would assign a foremost place to
all those inward and spiritual graces which enter into the obedience of the
affections - highly approved of God, but not at all acceptable to the general
taste, or carrying along with them the general congeniality of the world. And
then, though they do not possess the ingredient of God's approbation in a way
so separate and unmixed, we would say, that abstinence from profane language,
and attendance upon church, and a strict keeping of the sabbath, and the
exercises of family worship, and the more rigid degrees of sobriety, and a
fearful avoidance of every encroachment on temperance or chastity, rank more
appropriately with the first than with the second class of virtues; for though
there be many in society who have no religion, and yet to whom several of these
virtues are acceptable, yet we must allow, that they do not convey such a
universal popularity along with them, as certain other virtues which belong
indisputably to the second class.
These are the virtues which have a
more obvious and immediate bearing on the interest of society - such as the
truth which is punctual to all its engagements, and the honour which never
disappoints the confidence it has inspired, and the compassion which cannot
look unmoved at any of the symptoms of human wretchedness, and the generosity
which scatters unsparingly around it. These are virtues which God has enjoined,
and in behalf of which man lifts the testimony of a loud and ready admiration -
virtues in which there is a meeting and a combining of both the properties of
our text; so that he who in these things serveth Christ, is both approved of
God, and acceptable unto men.
Let a steady hold be kept of this
distinction, and it will be found capable of being turned to a very useful
application, both to the object of illustrating principle, and to the important
object of detecting character. For this purpose, let us carry the distinction
along with us, and make it subservient to the establishment of two or three
successive observations.
First. A man may possess, to a considerable
extent, the second class of virtues, and not possess so much as one iota of the
religious principle; and that, among other reasons, because a man may feel a
value for one of the attributes which belongs to this class of virtues, and
have no value whatever for the other attribute. If justice be both approved by
God, and acceptable to men, he may, on the latter property alone, be induced to
the strictest maintenance of this virtue - and that without suffering its
former property to have any practical influence whatever on any of his habits,
or any of his determinations: and the same with every other virtue belonging to
this second class. As residing in his character, there may not be the
ingredient of godliness in any one of them. He may be well reported on account
of them by men; but with God he may lie under as fearful a severity of
reckoning, ae If he wanted them altogether. Surely, it does not go to
alleviate, the withdrawment of your homage from God, that you have such an
homage to the opinion of men, as influences you to do things, to the doing of
which the law of God is not able to influence you. It cannot be said to
palliate the revolting of your inclinations from the Creator, that you have
transferred them all to the creature; and given an ascendancy to the voice of
human reputation, which you have refused to the voice and authority of your
Lawgiver in heaven. Your want of subordination to Him is surely not made up by
the respectful subordination that you render to the taste or the judgment of
society. And in addition to this, we would have you to remember, that though
other constitutional principles, besides a regard to the opinion of others,
helped to form the virtues of the second class upon your character; though
compassion, and generosity, and truth, would have broken out into full and
flourishing display upon you, and that, just because you had a native
sensibility, or a native love of rectitude; yet, if the first ingredient be
wanting, if a regard to the approbation of God have no share in the production
of the moral accomplishment - then all the morality you can pretend to, is of
as little religious estimation, and is as utterly disconnected with the rewards
of religion, as all the elegance of taste you can pretend to, or all the
raptured love of music you can pretend to, or all the vigour and dexterity of
bodily exercise you can pretend to. All these, in reference to the great
question of immortality, profit but little; and it is godliness alone that is
profitable unto all things.
It is upon this consideration that we would
have you to open your eyes to the nakedness of your condition in the sight of
God; to look to the full weight of the charge that He may prefer against you;
to estimate the fearful extent of the deficiency under which you labour; to
resist the delusive whispering of peace, when there is no peace; and to
understand, that the wrath of God abideth on every child of nature, however
rich he may be in the virtues and accomplishments of nature. But again. This
view of the distinction between the two sets of virtues, will serve to explain
how it is, that, in the act of turning unto God, the one class of them appears
to gather more copiously, and more conspicuously, upon the front of a renewed
character, than the other class; how it is, that the former wear a more
unequivocal aspect of religiousness than the latter; how it is, that an air of
gravity, and decency, and seriousness, looks to be more in alliance with
sanctity, than the air either of open integrity, or of smiling benevolence; how
it is, that the most ostensible change in the habit of a converted profligate,
is that change in virtue of which he withdraws himself from the companions of
his licentiousness; and that to renounce the dissipations of his former life,
stands - far more frequently, or, at least, far more visibly, associated with
the act of putting on Christianity, than to renounce the dishonesties of his
former life. It is true, that, by the law of the gospel, he is laid as strictly
under the authority of the commandment to live righteously, as of the
commandment to live soberly. But there is a compound character in those virtues
which are merely social; and the presence of the one ingredient serves to throw
into the shade, or to disguise altogether, the presence of the other
ingredient. There is a greater number of irreligious men, who are at the same
time just in their dealings, than there is of irreligious men, who are at the
same time pure and temperate in their habits; and therefore it is, that
justice, even the most scrupulous, is not so specifical, and, of course, not so
satisfying a mark of religion, as is a sobriety that is rigid and
unviolable.
And all this helps to explain how it is, that when a man
comes under the power of religion, to abandon the levities of his past conduct
is an event which stands far more noticeably out upon him, at this stage of his
history, than to abandon the iniquities of his past conduct; that the most
characteristic transformation which takes place at such a time is a
transformation from thoughtlessness, and from licentious gaiety, and from the
festive indulgencies of those with whom he wont to run to all those excesses of
riot, of which the Apostle says, that they which do these things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God: for even then, and in the very midst of all his
impiety, he may have been kind-hearted, and there might be no room upon his
person for a visible transformation from inhumanity of character; even then, he
may have been honourable, and there might be as little room for a visible
transformation from fraudulency of character.
Thirdly. Nothing is more
obvious than the antipathy that is felt by a certain class of religionists
against the preaching of good works; and the antipathy is assuredly well and
warrantably grounded, when it is such a preaching as goes to reduce the
importance, or to infringe upon the simplicity, of the great doctrine of
justification by faith. But along with this, may there not be remarked the
toleration with which they will listen to a discourse upon one set of good
works, and the evident coldness and dislike with which they listen to a
discourse on another set of them; how a pointed remonstrance against sabbath
breaking sounds in their ears, as if more in character from the pulpit, than a
pointed remonstrance against the commission of theft, or the speaking of evil;
how an eulogium on the observance of family worship feels, in their taste, to
be more itnpregnated with the spirit of sacredness, than an eulogium on the
virtues of the shop, or of the market-place, and that, while the one is
approven of as having about it the solemn and the suitable characteristics of
godliness, the other is stigmatized as a piece of barren, heartless,
heathenish, and philosophic morality?
Now, this antipathy to the
preaching of the latter species of good works has something peculiar in it. It
is not enough to say, that it arises from a sensitive alarm about the stability
of the doctrine of justification; for let it be observed, that this doctrine
stands opposed to the merit not of one particular class of performances, but to
the merit of all performances whatsoever. It is just. as unscriptural a
detraction from the great truth of salvation by faith, to rest our acceptance
with God on the duties of prayer, or of rigid sabbath.or a striçt and
untainted sobriety, as to rest it on the punctual fulfilment of all our
bargains, and on the extent of our manifold liberalities. It is not, then, a
mere zeal about the great article of justification which lies at the bottom of
that peculiar aversion that is felt towards a sermon on some social or humane
accomplishment; and that is not felt towards a sermon on sober-mindedness, or a
sermon on the observation of the sacrament, or a sermon on any of those
performances which bear a more direct and exclusive reference to God. We shall
find the explanation of this phenomenon, which often presents itself in the
religious world, in that distinction of which we have just required - that it
should be kept in steady hold, and followed in all its various applications.
The aversion in question is often, in fact, a well-founded aversion, a topic,
which, though religious in the matter of it may, from the way in which it is
proposed, be altogether secular in the principle of it.
It is resistance
to what is deemed, and justly deemed, an act of usurpation on the part of
certain virtues, which, when unanimated by a sentiment of godliness, are
entitled to no place whatever in the ministrations of the gospel of Christ. It
proceeds from a most enlightened fear, lest that should be held to make up the
whole of religion, which is in fact utterly devoid of the spirit of religion;
and from a true and tender apprehension, lest, on the possession of certain
accomplishments, which secure a fleeting credit throughout the little hour of
this world's history, deluded man should look forward to his eternity with
hope, and upward to his God with complacency while he carries not on his
forehead one vestige of the character of heaven, one lineament of the aspect of
godliness.
And lastly. The first class of virtues bear the character of
religiousness more strongly, just because they bear that character more singly.
The people who are without, might, no doubt, see in every real Christian the
virtues of the second class also; but these virtues do not belong to them
peculiarly and exclusively. For though it be true, that every religious man
must be honest, the converse does not follow, that every honest man must be
religious. And it is because the social accomplishments do not form the
specific, that neither do they form the most prominent and distinguishing marks
of Christianity. They may also be recognised as features in the character of
men, who utterly repudiate the whole style and doctrine of the new Testament;
and hence a very prevalent impression in society, that the faith of the gospel
does not bear so powerfully and so directly on the relative virtues of human
conduct. A few instances of hypocrisy amongst the more serious professors of
our faith, serve to rivet the impression, and to give it perpetuity in the
world. One single example, indeed, of sanctimonious duplicity, will suffice, in
the judgment of many, to cover the whole of vital and orthodox Christianity
with disgrace. The report of it will be borne in triumph amongst the companies
of the irreligious.
The man who pays no homage to sabbaths or to
sacraments, will be contrasted in the open, liberal, and manly style, of all
his transactions, with the Iow cunning of this drivelling methodistical
pretender; and the loud laugh of a multitude of scorners, will give a force and
a swell to this public outcry against the whole character of the sainthood.
Now, this delusion on the part of the unbelieving world is very
natural, and ought not to excite our astonishment. We are not surprised, from
the reasons already adverted to, that the truth, and the justice, and the
humanity, and the moral loveliness, which do in fact belong to every new
creature in Jesus Christ our Lord, should miss their observation; or, at
least, fail to be recognised among the other more obvious characteristics
into which believers have been translated by the faith of tbe gospel. But, on
this very subject; There is a tendency to delusion on the part of the disciples
of the faith. They need to be reminded of the solemn and indispensable
religiousness of the second class of virtues. They need to be told. that though
these virtues do possess the one ingredient of being approved by men, and may,
on this single account, be found to reside in the characters. of those who live
without God yet, that they also possess the other ingredient of being
acceptable unto God; and, on this latter account, should be made the subjects
of their most strenuous cultivation.
They must not lose sight of the
one ingredient in the other; or stigmatize, as so many fruitless and
insignificant moralities, those virtues which enter as component parts into the
service of Christ; so that he who in these things serveth Christ, is both
acceptable to God, and approved by men. They must not expend all their warmth
on the high and peculiar doctrines of the New Testament, while they offer a
cold and reluctant admission to the practical duties of the New Testament. The
Apostle has bound the one to the other by a tie of immediate
connexion.
Wherefore, lie not one to another, as ye have put off the old
man and his deeds, and put on the new man, which is formed after the image of
God, in righteousness and true holiness. Here the very obvious and popular
accomplishment of truth is grafted on the very peculiar doctrine of
regeneration: and we altogether mistake the kind of transforming influence
which the faith of the gospel brings along with it, if we think that
uprightness of character does not emerge at the same time with godliness of
character; or that the virtues of society do not form upon the believer into as
rich and varied an assemblage, as do the virtues of the sanctuary, or that,
while he puts on those graces which are singly acceptable to God, he falls
behind in any of those graces which are both acceptable to God, and approved of
men. Let, therefore, every pretender to Christianity vindicate this assertion
by his own personal history in the world. Let him not lay his godliness aside,
when he is done with the morning devotion of his family; but carry it abroad
with him, and make it his companion and his guide through the whole business of
the day; always bearing in his heart the sentiment, that thou God seest me; and
renembering, that there is not one hour that can flow, or one occasion that can
cast up, where His law is not present with some imperious exaction or other, it
is false, that the principle of Christian saiictification possesses no
influence over the familiarities of civil and ordinary life. It is altogether
false, that godliness is a virtue of such a lofty and monastic order, as to
hold its dominion wily over the solemnities of worship, or over the solitudes
of prayer and spiritual contemplation. If it be substantially a grace within us
at all, it will give a direction and a colour to the whole of our path in
society. There is not one conceivable transaction, amongst all the manifold
varieties of human employment, which it is not fitted to animate by its spirit.
There is nothing that meets us too homely, to be beyond the reach of obtaining,
from its influence, the stamp of something celestial. It offers to take the
whole man under its ascendancy, and to subordinate all his movements: nor does
it hold the place which rightfully belongs to it, till it be vested with a
presiding authority over the entire system of human affairs. And therefore it
is, that the preacher is not bringing down Christianity, he is only sending it
abroad over the field of its legitimate operation, when he goes with it to your
counting-houses, and there rebukes every selfish inclination that would carry
you ever so little within the limits of fraudulency; when he enters into your
chambers of agency, and there detects the character of falsehood, which lurks
under all the plausibility of your multiplied and excessive charges; when he
repairs to the crowded market-place, and pronounces of every bargain, over
which truth, in all the strictness of quakerism, has not presided, that it is
tainted with moral evil; when he looks into your shops, and, in listening to
the contest of argument between him who magnifies his article, and him who
pretends to undervalue it, he calls it the contest of avarice, broken loose
from the restraints of integrity.
He is not, by all this, vulgarizing
religion, or giving it the hue and the character of earthliness. He is only
asserting the might and the universality of its sole pre-eminence over man. And
therefore it is, that if possible to solemnize his hearers to the practice of
simplicity and godly sincerity in their dealings, he would try to make the
odiousness of sin stand visibly out on every shade and modification of
dishonesty; and to assure them, that if there be a place in our world, where
the subtle evasion, and the dexterous imposition, and the sly but gainful
concealment, and the report which misleads an inquirer, and the gloss which
tempts the unwary purchaserare not only currently practised in the walks of
merchandise, but, when not carried forward to the glare and the literality of
falsehood, are beheld with general connivance; if there be a place where the
sense of morality has thus fallen, and all the nicer delicacies of conscience
are overborne in the keen and ambitious rivalry of men hastening to be rich,
and wholly given over to the idolatrous service of the God of this world then
that is the place, the smoke of whose iniquity rises before Him who sitteth on
the throne, in a tide of deepest and most revolting abomination. And here we
have to complain of the public injustice that is done to Christianity, when one
of ostentstious proffessors has acted the hypocrite, and stands in disgraceful
exposure before the eyes of the world.
We advert to the readiness with
which this is turned into a matter of general impeachment, against every
appearance of seriousness; and how loud the exclamation is against the religion
of all who signalize themselves; and that, If the aspect of godliness be so
very decided as to become an aspect of peculiarity, then is this peculiarity
converted into a ground of distrust and suspicion against the bearer of it.
Now, it so happens, that, in the midst of this. world lying in wickedness, a
man, to be a Christian at all, must signalize himself. Neither is he in a way
of salvation, unless he be one of a very peculiar people; nor would we
precipitately consign him to discredit, even though the peculiarity be so very
glaring as to provoke the charge of methodism. But, instead of making one man's
hypocrisy act as a drawback upon the reputation of a thousand, we submit, if it
would not be a fairer and more philosophical procedure, just to betake one self
to the method of induction to make a walking survey over the town, and record
an inventory of all the men in it who are so very far gone as to have the voice
of psalms in their family; or as to attend the meetings of fellowship for
prayer; or as scrupulously to abstain from all that is questionable in the
amusements of the world; or as, by any other marked and visible symptom
whatever, to stand out to general observation as the members of a saintly and
separated society.
We know, that even of such there are a few, who, if
Paul were alive, would move him to weep for the reproach they bring upon his
Master. But we also know, that the blind and impetuous world exaggerates the
few into the many; inverts the process of atonement altogether, by laying the
sins of one man upon the multitude; looks at their general aspect of sanctity,
and is so engrossed with this single expression of character, as to be
insensible to the noble uprightness, and the tender humanity, with which this
sanctity is associated. And therefore it is, that we offer the assertion, and
challenge all to its most thorough and searching investigation, that the
Christianity of these people, which many think does nothing but cant, and
profess, and run after ordinances, has augmented their honesties and their
liberalities, and that, tenfold beyond the average character of society; that
these are the men we oftenest meet with in the mansions of povertyand who look
with the most wakeful eye over all the sufferings and necessities of our
species and who open their hand most widely in behalf of the imploring and the
friendlessand to whom, in spite of all their mockery, the men of the world are
sure, in the negotiations of business, to award the readiest confidenceand who
sustain the most splendid part in all those great movements of philanthropy
which bear on the general interests of mankindand who, with their eye full upon
eternity, scatter the most abundant blessings over the fleeting pilgrimage of
timeand who, while they hold their conversation in heaven, do most enrich the
earth we tread upon, with all those virtues which secure enjoyment to families,
and uphold the order and. prosperity of the commonwealth.
THE END
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