February 1, 1865. there are no resources so likely to render them good service as those which are of a moral nature. Every man should be-because God has required it-diligent, virtuous, temperate, high principled; but what he should be out of reverence to divine authority is precisely that which will prove the most powerful auxiliary in forwarding even his temporary interests. But on this we need not dwell, as it is obvious to every one. 2. In this free country there is nothing absolutely to prevent the poorest lad from rising to opulence and influence. We have read romantic Oriental stories of slaves rising to hold the chief offices of state, and even, sometimes, to occupy the throne itself; but the East never presented greater facilities-no, nor any near so great-for improving a man's position in life, than the City of London does at this moment. Patronage and interest are of course still at work, and sometimes they push a favourite youth a few rounds up the ladder, but it has so often been found that he stood still, or was in danger of falling back when the hands of his patron were withdrawn, that the peers of commerce are shy of patronage, and prefer the bold youth who has nerve enough to mount the ladder without aid, and to ascend to its top without turning giddy. The days of feudalism are past; and if British commerce were shackled by the absurdities of the feudal system, Cheapside, Gresham-street, Cannon-street, and St. Paul's Churchyard, would not be darkened by the shadows of those magnificent warehouses which have their correspondents and customers on every shore of the great globe. Education is the liberator of bondmen. The merchant wants no serf. He wants men who know their business and will attend to it; not human machines to do their task-work while he stands over them, but free, energetic, intelligent, well-instructed men who will help him to turn his capital to profit, that that profit may in its turn increase his capital, and thus extend his business to any limit. Such young men are invaluable to him. It is the moral and mental qualities he relies on in his assistants; by these only can the vast machinery of his business be kept in smooth working order; and if he can find these in the stone-breaker's or the tinker's son, they are just as welcome as if introduced by the noblest persons in the land. This is one of the unspeakable social advantages of a commercial country, that it opens doors for mental aptitude and moral worth, for their own sake, and without the slightest reference to clan, caste, tribe, or kindred. One of the most remarkable biographical chapters could be written about some of the great London merchants. It would illustrate, far more forcibly than mere statements, the fact that the peerage of merchant dom shuts not its golden doors in the face of the peasant's child. Let him prove himself worthy, and in due time he may take his seat beside them under the symbol of the cornucopia. 3. But the possessor of wealth must remember that it is a sacred deposit for God. It is not his, but the Lord's. He is but a steward of the divine gifts; and "it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." We must render an account of our stewardship at the coming of the Lord, and those who have had much intrusted to them are, according to every law of proportion, placed under corresponding responsibility. "Away on the very horizon of sacred history," says an eloquent and admirable man,' *"in the glory of its dawn, we seeshall I say a group ?-three personages: the first shrouded with that excellent light which no man can approach unto; the second dark with that darkness which, thank God, neither our words nor our imagination can picture; the third, a man of like passions with ourselves. To this man the Maker of all points the tempter of all, and says, 'Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil?' And who is this of whom we have such testimony as never was borne to other man-who is held up to the accuser of saints, as a triumphant instance of the redeeming power of grace? He is one whose wealth is almost countless, who has distanced every contemporary, and is the greatest of all the men of the East. It is plain that his immense possessions were no stain upon his 'record,' which was 'on high.' But ere you exult in the belief that you may innocently accumulate to an indefinite amount, carefully mark how he employed his wealth. While his children were holding family feasts, and the joy of abundance was in all their homes, he was 'continually' rising early, going to the altar of God, and offering up offerings in large number. And how did he live among his neighbours, while thus honouring his God? 'When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me: because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me; and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not I searched out.' thou and do likewise. Thus continually and liberally offer unto God; thus bountifully and actively distribute unto man; and so long as we see you so doing, ' may your garners be full, affording all manner of store!' I, at least, will cheerfully leave it to Providence to fix the limit of your increase. But one word, as you proceed upwards, one earnest word: walk warily on those heights! Heads are often turned up there; and fearful gulfs yawn under you if you fall!" Go Again: "I plead for man's sake, that men may learn that commerce is benevolent. It is not more hurtful than wonderful how generally even good men look on commerce merely as an engine for fortunemaking, and a field of battle for all the selfish passions. Even grave divines may be found calling commerce 'the god of this world,' with just the same propriety and truth as they, professing to quote Scripture, call money 'the root of all evil.' 'Well, but is not commerce a hatefully selfish thing?' Is not weather a selfish thing? Both are appointed by Providence for the same end; both perverted by man to the same abuse. For the threefold purpose of provisioning, clothing, and adorning this world and its inhabitants, the Lord has made a great unconscious machinery of sky and sea, soil and air, and appointed intelligent workers to watch its processes, and complete the result. Neither weather nor commerce separately will suffice for the provisioning, clothing, and adorning of our world. Without the mechanical agents, the intelligent workers are impotent; without the intelligent "The Duty of Giving Away a Stated Proportion of our Income." By William Arthur, A,M. February 1, 1865. workers the mechanical agents revolve in vain. The covetous underwriter makes the storms the servant of his greed; the greedy corn speculator turns the blessed sunbeams into tools of gain; the bloodthirsty buccaneer makes the genial breeze serve as charger in his murdering onset. Looking at these disgusting perversions of the Lord's instruments, are we to forget that, above evil eyes and unholy hands, One is guiding the weather for the good of all? And coming into commerce the providential play of intelligent agents for our comfort are we to look at the lower side, the motives of traders, and forget the higher side, the design and actual result wrought out by Providence? It is like the web of a cunning weaver: on the lower side you find only tangled threads, on the upper only blooming flowers. Look at commerce as regarded by the hearts of buyer and seller, and selfish indeed is the scene; look at it as designed, ay, as actually wrought out, by the Ruler above, and you see every man in a city provided by the hands of others with all things which earth can offer to his convenience, in such proportions as his means will command. Rise up, then, ye Christian men, ye who know a God, and bless a Providence; rise up, and testify that this commerce, that busies your masses, is not a lawless scramble, but a beneficent appointment whereby every one may become a co-worker with heaven in plenishing and provisioning the powers of men! Let all see that, when well-won gains come into your hand, you have a joy in scattering them abroad, to spread temporal and eternal happiness among that race for whom all winds blow, and all markets are opened. "I plead for man's sake, that practical benevolence may be increased. Of all sources of happiness in a community none acts so gently and so pervasively as a spirit of true benevolence. Nothing would so much assuage private griefs, or so greatly smooth the relations of class with class, as the general spread of that sacred brother-love, that true fellow-feeling, which breathes so sweetly in our Christian Scriptures. That widows may not weep unconsoled; that orphans may not roam friendless; that wayward men may not pass a lifetime within sound of church bells, without ever hearing inside their own door a word of loving exhortation; that the poor may not be set against the rich by envy; that the rich may not be estranged from the poor by contempt; that real heathens may not live and die in the heart of Christendom; that nations of pagans may not sit on and on in the darkness of their fathers;-in a word, that this cold world may be warmer and this troubled race have more joy, open your hand and give; for man's sake, give!" That systematic beneficence is a great scriptural doctrine, although strangely overlooked and forgotten by almost every one until earnest men recently called attention to it, no man who will intelligently read the Sacred Book can fail to see. When we look steadily at that generous and profoundly significant principle, on the one hand, and on the other, at what has actually been done for God, the Giver of all, by the rich actors in the great commercial enterprises of England, we are struck with amazement, consternation, and shame. Commerce has contracted a debt of inconceivable magnitude to Him whose is "the earth and the fulness thereof;" and it will redound but little to her honour to have acknowledged the fact of His proprietary upon the 1, 1865 façade of her Royal Exchange, if she do not speedily think of doing something towards the discharge of that debt. If she had consecrated her gain to the Lord, and her substance to the Lord of the whole earth (Micah iv. 13); if she had devoted to Him and His cause in this earth, which has so long groaned under its heavy burden of darkness, sin, and sorrow, say one-tenth of her annual income, surely the light of the Gospel would have long ago penetrated many regions still covered with the night of paganism. God has lavished prosperity upon the commerce of this country. "Her merchants are princes, her traffickers are the honourable of the earth.” (Isa. xxiii. 8.) They are the untitled aristocracy of our land, who have gathered treasures such as lordly barons never dreamed of, and many of them could buy the broad estates of our richest nobles without missing the purchase price. Alas! we sometimes fear the doom of ancient Tyrus when we think of all this in connection with the diffusion of the Gospel of the kingdom in our world. The distinguished liberality of a few of our affluent merchants only indicates, as the herald drops of a blessed summer shower, what might be done if they were all equally loyal to the principle of obligation to the Divine Owner of the silver and the gold. We sometimes think of the Lord's touching question to the man who, healed of his loathsome leprosy, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified his Healer "Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine ?" Were there not thousands of English merchants enriched as never private citizens of any nation were before, by the kindness of an overruling Providence; but why are there so few who come with their grateful offerings, their hearty tribute of loyalty to the great King? People are astonished when they hear of a donation of £1,000 from a single individual to send the Gospel of salvation to the heathen. Alas! such astonishment tells a tale of severe rebuke in innumerable directions. If God's portion were not withheld from Him by those who believe that the Church is to convert the world, we should see not an occasional £1,000 to excite our wonder, but thousands of subscribers for that amount, and very many for twice, thrice, four times, five times, ten times that amount, to excite our thankfulness, and to encourage us to hope that the Lord would soon accomplish the number of His elect, and introduce His glorious kingdom. But whilst men with incomes of £2,000, £5,000, or £10,000 a year, are satisfied with giving a miserable guinea annually to three or four of our leading societies which aim at an object no less magnificent than "the evangelization of the human race," we can but hold down our heads in sorrow, and think of the Lord of heaven robbed by His own creatures, and of the poor inhabitants of pagan lands plunging on in deep darkness until they sink out of sight beyond the reach of man, without the knowledge that a divine Redeemer has actually died to save all who believe in Him. The terrible rebuke occurs to us, when we think of what the wealthy men of the British isles could have done and should have done compared with what they have done "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings." And, oh! that now in this crisis of the world's history, when all nations are ill at ease, and every thoughtful man is expecting great changes, they would obey the precept and F 66 MEMOIR OF THE REV. C. G. BARTH. February 1, 1865. secure the promise which follow that terrible rebuke: "Bring ye all the tithes into the store house, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." One thing is clear: the right of the Lord to all the treasures of the world is unchallenged and untransferable. However tenaciously a man may hold the wealth with which the Lord has intrusted him, with the solemn charge, "Occupy till I come," he will never have the hardihood to deny in so many words that it is the Lord's. He may spend it in luxury and splendour, faring sumptuously every day, unmoved by the wailings of the widow and the orphan, and unstartled by the cry of agony which rises from a groaning creation, but he will not dare to look up to heaven and say to God, "Thou hast no right to a penny of it; it is all mine own!" Yet, what is refusing the Lord's money but a practical declaration that He has no right? Men do every day what they will not say. To give a name to their actions would shock both themselves and their neighbours; yet, without any shock, they daily live as if there were no God, pass through life receiving the homage which wealth secures, and quite forget that the day hastens when the King will take account of His stewards. A BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE REV. CHRISTIAN G. BARTH, D.D. PART II. THE firmer he felt himself grounded in the truth, the more he devoted. himself now to the practical development of his calling. He made himself acquainted with the most important and pious authors of the last century; and in the year 1827 he published the "Originalien des Sud-Deutchlands" (Originalities of South Germany), which invarious ways were made instrumental for good. The pastoral care of his flock was not neglected. He had a peculiar trial with a possessed person in his congregation; and the instruction of a Jew, whom he baptized, occupied him likewise considerably. At about the same time he was the means of establishing an institution for destitute children. This establishment formed part of his care to the last. But the missionary work among the heathen engaged him all along very particularly. Since the year 1821 he regularly visited the Missionary, Bible, and Jews' Societies' anniversaries at Basle, and made personal acquaintances with returned missionaries, and diligently read the various missionary periodicals. The formation of an auxiliary Missionary Society at Calw satisfied him not; wherever he went, and found it practicable, he formed associations, in order to promote the kingdom of God. And because there were in those days not generally adapted missionary periodicals, he conceived a plan of publishing one himself; and |