vated by communion with the King of kings, he could tread the courts of royalty without servility or ambition. If we examine the lives of those individuals who have been equally great and excellent, we shall find that communion with God was the secret of their excellence. They knew the attractiveness of the closet. Business, however pressing, did not engross the whole of their time; they were "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Their minds were strengthened by devotion; their judgments acquired greater clearness by being accustomed to contemplate spiritual objects; while, by the same process, they were saved from that absorbing passion for worldly things which often blinds the mind to danger, and conducts it into ruinous errors.

The common excuse for the neglect of prayer is the want of time; but this excuse cannot pass muster with those who find time enough for everything else. In the day most crowded with engagements, what merchant would not find time to confer with a person likely to become a large purchaser? How few would allow a first-rate bargain to slip away on the plea that they had no time to attend to it! It is too evident that such an excuse borrows all its validity from the nature of the duty it is contrived to shun. It would be regarded as insufficient in any case in which our interest or inclination stood concerned: the person has no time for religion, no time for the soul, no time for eternity, though quite enough for every

thing he truly cares about!

But if business is

really so extensive as to leave no time for devotion, then business must be curtailed. To a wise and prudent person no other choice would seem to be left. Some time must be saved from secular cares to be devoted to our everlasting interests; to the cultivation of spirituality, piety, godliness; to replenish the soul with water from the springs of life. Time thus expended would be time gained. Yes, in sober truth, the separation of a portion of the day for purposes of devotion would be found in the highest degree conducive to the physical, mental, and pecuniary welfare of the man of business. The more pressing his occupations, the more extensive and important his transactions, the more benefit would he draw from seasons of retirement. The closet has no antipathy to the counting-house; the two should go together, just as religion should be allowed to blend with and hallow all the pursuits of life. A clear head is needful in business. A man who will succeed must not allow his brain to be dizzied by a score of plans, all jumbled together in pell-mell confusion. He should see them all in clear outline, as we see a town traced on a sheet of paper, or as a general surveys the field of battle. Some very cool intellects may do this without any moral aid, but devotional habits supply to all the best means of doing it. Few persons comprehend all the bearings of a bargain so well as a disinterested spectator, and he approaches the nearest to such a

character who uses the world without being enslaved by it, and in whose mind the interest of present things is properly balanced by the interests of futurity.

One reason why private prayer is so little resorted to by men of business is, that its observance is seldom made a matter of arrangement. It is left to chance, and is generally deferred to the end of the day, when both mind and body are ordinarily so enfeebled as to render it of little use. But this should not be. Independently of evening devotion and that ejaculatory prayer which ought to be interwoven through the whole business of life, a part of the day, in which the mind and body are freshest, should be set apart for communion with God. What season could be more appropriate for this than early morn? What more beautiful than, before the intrusion of worldly cares and temptations, to fortify the mind by the perusal of the Divine word, and supplication for grace to help us in the hour of need? Business is irritating; mistakes, disappointments, losses, are daily occurring to task the temper; how wise, then, before entering upon it, to ascend the mount of celestial fellowship, and seek strength from Christ to honour him through the day! Such a course would make our piety burn brighter, and Christians, through the medium of business, would be the means of recommending religion most powerfully to the common sense and common sympathies of mankind.

CHAPTER VI.

MODELS FOR MONIED MEN: BENEVOLENCE SPEAKING BY EXAMPLE.

We have spoken of the fallacies and failings of monied men; but a more pleasing duty remains now for us, namely, the contemplation of money as a talent laid out upon right principles for the service of the Great Creator. The possession of money has been often coveted even by men destitute of religious principles, who recognised it as a powerful instrument for the amelioration of society. How much more, then, must this great talent commend itself to the Christian, as the agency by which his Master's cause may be largely advanced! Let the worldling long for affluence, that he may gratify avarice, sensuality, luxury, political ambition, or a fastidious taste-the Christian blessed with wealth can show him a more excellent way. By the aid of this talent, he knows that he may make war against ignorance, intemperance, ungodliness, and the monster evils that infest society. At home there is disease to heal, modest merit to reward, struggling industry to foster, and above all, the glorious gospel

F

to diffuse. "By money," to use the language (slightly modified) of a vigorous American writer, "he may open a set of books with heaven, becoming the Lord's steward for man's redemption from suffering and crime, laying up his treasures where neither moth, nor rust, nor thieves can approach them. Not a cultured imagination alone, but reason, conscience, religion-all have taught him that the finest and most elegant of all the arts is to paint smiles upon the wan cheeks of suffering infancy; to quench the demon fire of passion that blazes from the eye of precocious wantonness, and kindle in its stead the serene light that radiates from a fount of inward purity; to hang round and pre-occupy the chambers of the juvenile mind with all types and images of loveliness and excellence; and to build up all the glorious faculties, as in colossal architecture, to some nearer resemblance to the Divine original. Reason, conscience, religion-all have taught him that when starving babes shall no longer wail for sustenance upon the starving mother's breast; when blasphemy and obscenity shall no longer be the lullaby with which the intemperate father or mother lulls infancy to sleep; when parental wickedness shall no longer teach falsehood to the youthful tongue, and theft and violence to the youthful hand; when the infinite woes and agonies of earth, which its superfluous wealth and its wasted time might largely prevent, shall cease to be-then may opulence seek its gratification in festivity, or in capricious