or they consciously suffer profits to be made over to them which they know are not their due. They let others make mistakes against themselves without setting them right; they leave them under false impressions of the value of things which pass between them by way of sale; they let mistaken notions, arising from their own words, remain uncorrected; or by acts they imply, in matters of business, what they would not say. They are willing to be parties, if it so happen, to unequal bargains; or they are not considerate of the quality of those they treat with, or of their ability to protect themselves; or they conceal knowledge which would change the whole intention of those they deal with, while they themselves act upon it. Many of these things have no distinct names. They are practised -I will not say, permitted-in commerce and trade by a sort of lax interpretation of duty; and though not pronounced to be fair, are nevertheless treated as if they were the necessary fortunes of offensive and defensive warfare, which the buyers and sellers, and merchants, and money-changers, and traffickers of this world are compelled to carry on and to submit to. The market, and the exchange, and the receipt of custom, are perilous places, having an atmosphere of their own; and in it things are strangely refracted: precepts and obligations are often seen edgeways, or sideways,

or inverted altogether. Or, again, the finer forms of integrity are dimly seen, and treated as visionary, unpractical, inapplicable to the affairs of the world; and a peculiar sort of character is formed, which is long-sighted, far-reaching, ready, sharp, dexterous, driving, successful. All things seem to turn in their direction; and they are prepared for every fluctuation, reaction, and change. Now it is very seldom that such men persevere in strict integrity. The temptations to make great gains by slight equivocations, and the manifold and complex nature of the transactions they are engaged in, give so many facilities for turning things unduly to their own advantage, that many fall.

The same may be said, also, of those who obtain the means of life by compromises of opinion and of principle, by slight suppressions of conscience, and tampering with their own sincerity. All these are so many forms of commanding stones to be made bread. They are a withdrawal of trust in the providence of God, who never forsakes those who look simply to Him, and persevere in their own pure intention of heart, in spite of golden opportunities and alluring offers of gain. We read in the book of Proverbs, "He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." And why, but because a precipitate following of wealth makes 1 Prov. xxviii. 20.

men bold, speculating, unscrupulous? They are not nice in their measures if there seems a chance of success. They follow up their points with an urgency that leaves them too little time to scrutinise the means: indeed, the means seem to force themselves upon their hands. Many a great fortune will bear little scrutiny or retrospect. It must be looked at only on the outside, and under the fair aspect of its present appearance.

But we may dismiss these examples, hoping that they, though too often seen, are not of very frequent occurrence, and go on to a more common temptation.

2. We may learn, then, further, the sin of seeking our living in any way which implies mistrust of God's care for us. It is most certain that, in our lawful calling, we may be exposed to this temptation. We may be tempted not only to mistrust the providence of God, but also to endeavour to secure ourselves, by our own foresight and management, against the surprises of want and the changes of worldly fortune.

And this we may do, for instance, by hoarding. Now here is an acknowledged difficulty. Holy Scripture says, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise;" which seems to teach us that it is a duty to be both diligent and

1 Prov. vi. 6.

foresighted to lay up for dark days and wintry seasons. So, indeed, it is; and all the more as we have others to care for. Yet it is plain that this must have its limit. Holy Scripture, while it sends us for wisdom to the ant, forbids greediness, warns us against love of riches, condemns covetousness. We read: "They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows;" again: "No covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God;" and our Lord teaches the same in the awful parable of the rich man, who said, "I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided ?" Now that which is condemned in these passages is a hoarding spirit, which is excited and kept alive by a desire 2 Eph. v. 5.

1 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10.

3 St. Luke xii. 18-20.

to secure ourselves against all contingencies of God's providence; as if men should lay in stores, and provision a stronghold, against the invasions of God. This is the "trusting in uncertain riches, and not in the living God," which St. Paul condemns. Men that leave all thought of God out of their calculation when they are making a fortune, inevitably shut out all thought of His future providence in their schemes for securing the fortune they have made. They begin in an unthankful, self-trusting way, and they end in relying upon their own prudence and worldly wisdom. This is a mere trying to make stones into bread. They are no safer from poverty than the poorest: no more secure from hunger, nakedness, destitution, than the man that cannot reckon pence against their thousands of gold and silver. Both rich and poor depend for the morrow equally upon God. It is not in the power of man to make himself more secure. He will have just so much as God wills, and he will hold it just so long. A frugal man who lives of what God gives him, and disposes wisely of the rest, distributing part to others, and laying up such a proportion as may remain, subject to such uses and demands as God may design-he is safer far than the richest, whose yearly hoardings cannot be told: for a trust in 1 1 Tim. vi. 17.