and American. It has ever had the blessing of God upon it. If properly sustained by the prayers and the contributions of the churches, it may be for the salvation of the land! The teeming millions of this land shall yet belong to Christ, and be trained for heaven; and this is one of the chief instrumentalities, we believe, that God means to employ to bring about so glorious an end. Let, then, the love we bear our country, so full of promise, and rising to such a commanding eminence among the older nations of the world-and the love we feel for souls, precious and immortal, crowding on in such masses to the judgment--and the love we cherish for the name and cause of our ascended Saviour, to whom we owe so much, and who has raised us to such spheres of influence and usefulness, for so important and holy an end, receive a full and appropriate expression in our energetic and untiring devotion to this work of missions. NATIONAL PREACHR. No. 7. Vol. XXII. JULY, 1848. SERMON CCCCLXXVIII. Whole No. 259. BY REV. TERTIUS S. CLARKE, DISCRETION IN WORLDLY AFFAIRS. "A good man showeth favor and lendeth; he will guide his affairs with discretion." PSALM CX., 1, 5. If this were truly done by all who profess to be good men, a great reproach would be removed, and they would indeed shine as lights in the world. Yet just such business men, Christianity would have all who profess to be guided by its principles. Why are they not? May not the fault, in part, at least, be ascribed to defective instructions from the pulpit? Impressed with the vast importance that believers should be sound in the faith, may not ministers dwell so much on the form of sound words, as often to fail in showing the relations of Christian principle to the daily business of life, and thus make Christianity appear rather as a system of cold abstractions, than as a thing of spirit and life, as intended to direct us, whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do? Is a sound faith of any practical importance, except as it touches the springs of life, and gives a right direction to the conduct? "Faith without works is dead, being alone." What this faith, then, requires of business men, in the conduct of their affairs, is a question of great practical importance to all who wish to give currency to the Christian religion in this selfish world. And all that is needful for the settlement of this question is suggested by the text, "A good man showeth favor and lendeth; he will guide his affairs with discretion." "With discretion"-wisely fitting the means in his power to the accomplishment of desirable ends, and conducting his affairs, not only as one that must give account of himself to God, but on principles which will commend himself to the confidence and favor of his fellow-men. Discretion does for the business man what wings do for the bird; it enables him to give the desired direction to his affairs: it puts his business, as the sailor would say, in shipshape, and keeps it so. And indeed what is man or woman without its guiding influence? "As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so," says Solomon, "is a fair woman without discretion.". On the other hand, according to the same wise man, "When wisdom entereth into thy heart, and knowledge is pleasant to thy soul, discretion shall keep thee from the way of the evil and the froward." The text, it will be observed, makes the unqualified statement, that, "a good man will guide his affairs with discretion." But will he? Does he? Are there not some shiftless good men, who say one thing and do another; who often make promises which they fail to redeem; and who guide their affairs as if their great object were to produce confusion, and every evil work, and yet are professedly good men? But how can the text be true, it may be asked, and yet any good man guide his affairs with indiscretion? There is, we answer, no more of a contradiction here, than there is between the statement, that Christians "are the light of the world," and the fact that their conduct is sometimes anything but light. The truth is, that though the living epistles of Christianity are the light of the world, still the letters of those epistles, through the fault of the heart, may not all yet be legible; or remaining evil may now and then so blot the page, as to give a false impression. Yet just so far as Christianity comes out in the conduct, it is the light of the world; and destined to shine more and more unto the perfect day. So a good man will guide his affairs with discretion, just in proportion as he is good. Shiftless now he may be; but by giving him line upon line, precept upon precept, Christianity hopes and expects to cure at length all his inconsistencies, and to make him a discreet and energetic business man. And here let it not be thought, that the principle which we have undertaken to illustrate, is applicable only to such as are called business men. Has not every man affairs that need to be guided with discretion? Some, indeed, are doing a greater business than others; still every man is, or ought to be, doing something; and if he has but one talent, he needs such discretion in the use of it, that it shall be made to yield a lawful interest to God, and the world. Be it so, that he is a mere drop in the ocean of needed industry and benevolence; still if that drop shall fall just where a sound discretion would have it, it fulfils its mission as truly and as honorably as the plentiful shower, that refreshes far wider districts. With the conviction, then, that the text suggests a principle of universal application, let us proceed to state what discretion demands in the management of our affairs, and some of the reasons by which it is enforced. Without pretending to exhaust the subject, we give four items, which clearly enter into a discreet guidance of business, viz.: I. The good man will know the state of his affairs: II. He will keep them so managed that others will understand them when he is dead: III. He will not assume responsibilities, which he cannot, in all probability, meet: and, IV. He will at least guide his affairs, according to law. I. Discretion requires, that he know the state of his affairs. This would seem to be a self-evident proposition; yet it is more than can be said of not a few men in the conduct of their business. Are there not many, who know not how or where they stand; who, though they hope that somehow all will come out well in the end, yet how precisely, as the result of deliberate calculation, they cannot tell, merely because they have no well-digested plan of enterprise, nor any thorough understanding of their position. Hence they are often in deep waters, and seldom sure of their footing. There are minds of such capacity and forecast, that they can and do act amidst the complicated machinery of their affairs, like the great wheel of a manufactory, driving every subordinate wheel, with a force and precision that render certain the desired result. Such men see the end from the beginning, of what they undertake to do, and are seldom disconcerted, except by that Providence which no power or forethought of man can guard against or resist. They have a reach of thought, that seems to take in at once the main and subordinate parts of their business, making them quick to detect and prompt to correct any irregularities. That this should be true of every man in the conduct of his business, no one surely will doubt. They should know the state of their affairs, and be the master-spirits in their direction. But how many posthumous developments show an ordering of business widely different from this, resulting not only in the ruin of the actors themselves, but also of their bondsmen, and others sustaining near business relations. So little did they know of their affairs, desperate though they were, that not content to go alone, they contrived to attach their friends also to the engine, which they professed to be able to guide and control, but which in fact was driving blindly and furiously on to destruction. The only safe course, then, is for every man to know the state of his affairs, and to be as sure as possible of his footing. Such knowledge is essential to success, keeping the mind clear, and the hands strong, and the resolution vigorous. Misgiving and timidity can never succeed. Ignorance of the state of one's business must, in the end, as a general rule, result in the ruin of his property, and the irreparable injury of his character. II. A discreet guidance of one's affairs requires that they be so arranged, that others can understand them when he is dead. His books and papers should be kept in such order, that all interested shall be able to give a clear account of all his transactions. "Set thine house in order," said a prophet to a man of business, "for thou shalt die and not live ;" an admonition suited to every man in a world like this, where we know not what a day may bring forth. In such circumstances, discretion would seem to require, that he keep such a record of his business from day to day, as to save those who come after him from injury. Such an ordering of business will give a man greater confidence in himself, because it gives the calm mind, and the consciousness of honorable aims. What he prepares so that others can understand, he will most surely understand himself; and this, being the method of his thoughts, will increase his fitness for business by adding to the clearness of his apprehensions, and the discipline of his mind. It is taking out of the way whatever can make him stumble. "He, that walketh uprightly, walketh surely." He who lies down at night, as Washington is said to have done, with every important entry made, as if he should not live to make another, we cannot doubt, guides his affairs with discretion. Let any one who doubts the practicability of this plan, reflect what more he would do, if he knew that his last night on earth had come, and he will be a doubter no longer. III. A discreet management of his business forbids a man to assume responsibilities, which he cannot in all probability meet. We say in all probability; because it is impossible for any man to foresee, and thus guard against the many contingencies which sometimes thwart the best concerted plans. He may promise to meet an engagement, or to pay a debt a few days hence; but be fore the time arrives, he may die, or some unexpected event may put it beyond his power to redeem his pledge. But what we mean is, that no man should promise to do what, at the time, he does not really mean to do, and what he knows the probabilities of the case are against his performing. Yet, unless we greatly mistake, there are men, who, to get rid of an importunate creditor, will promise to pay his claim on a certain specified day, when it is obvious to their own minds at the moment, that the pledge will not, because it cannot, be redemed; and thus they live, from year to year, making promises only to break them, till at length their character for truth becomes absolutely infamous. Such a case need only to be stated to secure for it a universal condemnation. And yet it is a case of no unfrequent Occurrence. Are there not men, also, who seek for renewed pecuniary accommodations at Banks, or other sources, while the great pro |