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5. Christ And Commerce



" O, while you live, tell truth, and shame the devil."
- Shakespeare.

If there is anything which Christianity needs to-day it is the practical and sagacious help of business men. Christianity has suffered more from the dense stupidity of some of its followers than from the venomous opposition of all its enemies. A lazy, half-hearted, careless Christian can do more harm to Christ's cause than the most unscrupulous atheist. And if there is anything which commerce needs to-day, it is the cleansing.ennobling influence of Christianity. The men who are immersed in the burning excitement and relentless whirl of business will be almost surprised if you tell them that Christianity is of far greater importance than all their commerce. They will laugh with a scornful incredulity, but it is a simple fact nevertheless. And for this reason, that commerce builds a fortune, but Christianity builds a character ; commerce gives you a bank balance, but Christianity gives you an unfailing fund of happiness ; commerce makes money, but Christianity makes men. And it makes what Carlyle used to call, "upright, downright, straightforward, all-round men." It smashes the unjust weights, breaks in pieces the fraudulent measures, banishes all trickery and cunning, kills the ready and plausible lie, and enables weak, imperfect, tempted men to practice the highest truthfulness and the sturdiest honesty.

I fear it must be admitted that these are days of great commercial corruption. There is, for instance, a despiciable system of bribery which is cleverly and conveniently disguised by such terms as " commissions " and " presents." It is time that all this trickery should be abolished, so that the polished rogues who have for so long waxed fat on the " usual commission," may be compelled to give up their secret spoils and enjoy the refreshing novelty of honest work. Then there is the scandalous and revolting system of " sweating," and many other foul systems of oppression and injustice, which indicate that the commercial atmosphere sadly needs the purifying influence of a living Christianity.

The Churches have been greatly to blame for much of the anti-Christian character of present-day commerce. They have busied themselves with theological sham-fights, and have played at conflicts in the clouds, when they ought to have descended into the actual throbbing, palpitating life of the people and fought a stern battle for uprightness and rectitude. And they have smilingly and gratefully accepted the haughty patronage and substantial checks of their wealthy supporters, without a single inquiry as to the glaring immoralities by which these men had heaped up their ill-gotten spoils. Henceforth the battle of Christianity will, to a large extent, have to be fought out in the counting-house and the ware-house. And the victory will not have been won so long as it is possible for men to be received with ringing cheers in religious assemblies, while they are grinding the life out of their unhappy employes, and indulging in practices which may be regarded in the city as commercially expedient, but looked at in the light of Christ's gospel are absolutely antagonistic to truth and righteousness.

There is one lie which needs to be promptly and publicly exposed. I refer to the miserable delusion which supposes that a man cannot be at once honest and successful in business. The best answer to this debasing theory is to be found in the lives of such men as the late William E. Dodge, of New York, and Samuel Morley, of London. They were as unswervingly upright as they were enormously prosperous. It is an undeniable fact that the principles of the sermon on the Mount, when faithfully carried out, form the surest guide to genuine success in the market-place of to-day. The man who gains a reputation for scrupulous fidelity is the man everybody will want to do business with. Let him guard the most trivial details of his business with tender jealously, let him discharge every obligation with rigorous exactness, and then when success crowns his efforts, he will have maintained what is worth far more than countless fortunes, an unstained name, an unsullied record, and a conscience void of offence.

" But," says a young man, " I have been honest, but I have not been successful." Of course not ! Merely negative virtues are absolutely valueless. The office boy is not promoted because he never stole the stamps, but on account of his energy and vigilance, his ability and intelligence. The post assigned to you now may seem woefully small and unimportant, but it is just the way in which you do or neglect these apparently trifling duties that will make or mar your future. Never be discouraged because your present position is humble and obscure. If you sit down and mourn you will never get on. Do you want a better place ? Then outgrow the one you are in. Do your present work - lowly and monotonous as it may seem - with as much vigor and care as if it were of crowning importance. Fit yourself by strenuous culture for the opportunity which will surely come. But never dream that you can be a success because you abstain from downright evil. You have got to do something, and what is more, you have got to do it well, do it better than you have ever done it before, and do it better than anybody else can do it. Then success is sure to follow.

Do you think that business life is humdrum and prosaic ? That shows how little you know about it. I tell you it is full of sublimest romance and deepest interest. You may look back longingly to the days when men could make a valiant stand for the right, and prove their faithfulness to God by going manfully to the stake. But circumstances make no difference to the true hero. If you cannot fight the battle of purity and virtue in a city office, you would never have braved the faggot-fire in the old days of martyrdom. There is a holy war to be waged to-day. Never were self-sacrificing, heroic young men so greatly needed as they are now. You have to preserve your own manhood chaste and pure in the midst of flaring enticements to evil. You have to promote a nobler spirit in commerce, a more brotherly and righteous spirit, which shall lift business into a sweeter atmosphere and turn the factory into a sanctuary. Never believe that business is a dull, bald, grey, uninteresting thing. It simply glows with poetry and romance. Let us peep into a little city office. There is a young man, with a pale and haggard countenance ; he sits on a high stool counting checks. He earns barely two dollars a day, and yet a year or two ago he had the temerity to marry a fair, sweet girl. He loved her, and laughed at the warnings of stern, logical, social economists. Now, she is thin and weak and ill ; and as he left her bedside this morning the doctor remarked in commanding tones, that wine - " port, sir, good port " - was absolutely necessary, and that a change of air would soon be advisable. And on twelve dollars a week I A fifty dollar bill is in the young man's hand. How he trembles ! Dare he do it ? Three months hence the amount can be repaid and no one will be the wiser. Ijt is just the amount he needed I Oh, the desperate conflict ; but he is gloriously victorious. He jumps from his stool, defies the tempting devil, locks the money in the safe, and whispers, in a voice broken with tears, " Lord, help me !''

Ah! the race of heroes is not extinct. There is plenty of romance in the apparently dull routine of business life. Men who toil cheerily and live celibate lives in order to care for a dear old mother who has no other helper; great-hearted fellows who might rise to wealth if they would stoop to trickery, but who keep their hands clean and their hearts pure in spite of all the chicanery and cunning of the city - these are earth's truest heroes. And you can do the same if you put your trust in the unfailing help of a living Christ.

Beware of mere cleverness. There is a superficial kind of shrewdness which is extremely dangerous. The man who is only clever is always in peril of becoming a trickster - ever dodging, shifting, and deceiving. In these days of shallow knowledge and empty boasting, men need to be restrained and guided by the great example of the Christ life. In the Master we have all the best qualities of the ideal manhood combined in a perfect model. He had a mind quick to perceive, and a soul pure and clear as the noonday sun. It is for this lofty character that we must strive and pray. We want intellectual alacrity, but we also want unflinching rectitude. " There is only one post for you," said Carlyle to a bad man, " and that is - perpetual president of the Heaven and Hell Amalgamation Society." There are many men in commerce of whom that would be true. They are engaged in a hopeless attempt to serve God and mammon - to increase their wealth by the maximum of swindling, while they try to deaden their conscience by the minimum of empty and formal pietism. It will never do. The attempt can only end in failure and dishonor and endless shame. But the man who by the power of an ever-present Christ has been able to conquer himself, who has calmly ignored the sneers of the cynic and resolutely withstood the wiles of the tempter - that man has in his heart the sublime consciousness of having done right, and his path is bathed in brightness. He is governed by principle instead of passion, by truth instead of trickery. His soul is possessed by an unspeakable peace, his heart is filled with an unfaltering trust in God, and he has no damning recollection of cruel wrong or foul injustice to darken his outlook and destroy his rest. He may not be followed by the fawning adulation of men, but with the pure in heart he will see God. And that will be far better than if he had gained the whole world and lost his own soul.