exactly on the line, to him invisible, where the right ends. and the wrong begins. He feels himself entitled to the legitimate fruits of his enterprise and diligence, but he would not ask or accept more. But what is legitimate, just, right, morally, not conventionally or legally? This is the question with which he often finds himself puzzled, and put to silence.

But it is precisely in these circumstances that the man of high moral principles, the immovably upright man, shows himself. He has a safe rule for all cases of this sort. Never to do any thing, never to engage in any transaction, respecting the moral character, or the perfect justice of which, he is in doubt. He thinks it better to err by being too strict in his moral code, than by being too loose. If he does it, he may not do right, but if he does it not, he is sure he shall not do wrong. He may lose a good bargain, and great profits; but this is better, he thinks, than to lose his peaceful conscience, his serenity of mind, and in their place get doubts, uncertainty, and perpetual uneasiness lest his gains are unlawful.

When, therefore, any business transaction opens, in its results, two different paths, one leading to what may be wrong, and the other to what is certainly not wrong—the the one leading to great profits which may be unjust, and the other to smaller profits, not unjust, or even loss-he decides at once which to take. He may hesitate and be in doubt as to whether a certain thing is right; but he never hesitates to refuse doing that respecting the rightness of which the doubt exists. This is his rule, in obedience to which he is always secure of his integrity and conscience. He will be satisfied with himself, whatever it may cost. In all difficulties of this sort, he will keep conscience on his side, even though it costs him the difference between a profit of ten per cent. and one of thirty or fifty per cent.

And it is exactly here we see the difference between the man of principle and the man of no principle. The last never has any difficulty of this sort. He is never perplexed with the moral aspect of a mercantile transaction. Business is business with him. This moral code, as applied to traffic, is that of the old miser to his son"Get money, get it honestly if you can, but get it," — or even shorter, omitting the middle clause. The case of

the corn merchant of Alexandria is plain enough to him. So all questions of like sort; they never puzzle him, or get from him a moment's thought. Pigeon expresses; cutting telegraph wires; the buying up of news, and purchases or sales on the strength of this, at a price which he knows to be very far from the real value; cornering stocks; and in true gambling style "plucking" his victims, and beggaring their families; buying houses and lands at tax sales, and wringing from the poor, the widow and fatherless, their hard earned pittance; forcing the sale of property in mortgage or bond, and with a Shylock's hardness demanding the pound of flesh; one per cent., two per cent. a month; concealment and deception in selling; the most labor for the least pay; all these questions, which stagger others, have not the least difficulty for him. His motto is, "all is fair in trade." Get what you want cheap as you can; sell what you have dear as you can; no matter who suffers. That is their lookout and no business of his. It is a fair game, he says, and they may catch him, if they can.

To be sure, some declare that all traffic or trade is gambling, a game of loaded dice on the one side or the other, a system of respectable frauds and tricks. It is often said, that an honest man cannot sustain himself, cannot do a living business; that he is compelled to abandon the golden rule of doing as he would be done by, and to descend to the tricks and traps and frauds of trade, or he will fail, be driven off the track by those who will descend to them. But what honest man believes it, for all that? If it were so, one might seriously doubt if this were God's world. And it is painful and mortifying to hear one, himself engaged in business, making speech of this sort, dishonoring his own calling, and not very indirectly accusing himself, and the large class to which he belongs, of dishonesty and knavery. It is not good to speak in this broad manner; for, first, it is not true; and second, if it were true, he is bound, as a protest against the fraud, to abandon it, and with honest sweat and toil to dig his bread from the earth.

But it is not true. All trade is not fraud, nor gambling; and an honest man, the man of principle, can live, and be successful, in a business conducted according to

the severest laws of integrity, truth, and value received. I know such as these, and noble men they are, God's noblemen. And when I see them standing amid the uproar of traffic and worldliness, amid the ceaseless din of the street and the wareroom, and the keen encounter of buying and selling-standing there with serene countenance, with clean hands and a pure conscience, with garments unsoiled and not even the dust of trade upon their sandals-it seems to me that this whole broad earth has no fairer sight. And when I consider the manifold temptations with which they are daily beset, and the infirmities of human nature; the loose morality which prevails in regard to this subject, and the powerful influence of corrupt example in high places, I feel for these men not only the warmest admiration, but a sort of involuntary reverence. I honor them, first and foremost of all; for they honor, make honorable, and give dignity to, the name not only of the Merchant, but also of the Man and the Christian! They are the fixed stars, the suns in the commercial, moral and social systems, around which your mean men, your men of cunning, of tricks, and sharp trading, so called, revolve, in orbits eccentric enough, but still in a way to illustrate the power and influence of the strictly just and righteous man.

Yes; one just man, one man of unbending moral principle, is mightier than all the hosts of dishonest and fraudulent knaves; and in his majestic presence they feel their littleness, and weakness, and shame, and are ready to slink away lest they blush beneath the gaze of his calm clear eye. It is a noble sight, worth going far to look at, the man who stands erect and serene, with his heel upon the red dragon of temptation, its seven heads and ten horns crushed and trodden down into the dust! In all the world there is no sight so lovely, so grand as this. He is nobler than any coronet can make him. He is richer than gold or precious stones can make him. He is mightier than kings, and one of the greatest of conquerors, for all men rejoice in his victories. Even those who have not courage to follow him in his conflicts, are glad to see him come forth from the life-battle-field unscarred, and silently, in their hearts, they bless him.

Look at him in the daily turmoil of business, with shift.

sea.

ing waves of buying and selling, building, stocks, mortga ges, loans and interest, profit and loss, tempting bargains promising speculations, fortunes made at a single throw of the dice-look at him as he stands there amid the ebb and flow, the rush and roar, firm as a rock in the stormy The waters gather upon him, and howl around him, but he cannot be shaken. His foundation is below the waters, reaching down into the very roots of the earth. He cannot be moved from the eternal rectitude of his soul. He cannot be swept from the unalterable moral principles on which the massy and symmetrical structure of his character rests, as on the centre of the solid globe. No temptations are strong enough to overthrow him, or to make him waver for a moment. Conscience is supreme with him. Her slightest touch is responded to quick as thought. He never debates for an instant of time whether it is not best to do a little wrong for the sake of a great gain. His cheek would redden with shame, he would feel degraded, if the thought of such a thing got lodgement in his heart so long as it went from one beat to the next. He does right, as if it were a kind of instinct with him. He sees what is true, and speaks it. He sees what is just, and does it. His counting-room is the sanctuary of justice; and her altar is never naked nor cold. His account-books are a beautiful daily paraphrase of the laws of honorable trade and mercantile integrity. They are a kind of ten commandments, a book of proverbs, a business-bible, which your cunning, sharp, all-is-fair-intrade men would do well to read a lesson out of every day, and then go away and pray in secret..

He listens as reverently to the voice of justice when she speaks for another, as when she speaks for him. He can see the rights of another as clearly as his own; and he would sooner cut off his right hand than wrong another man. You might put a hundred fortunes in the scale against his conscience, and they would be lighter than so many feathers. He would not sell his truth and honor to gain the whole world.

His

Who buys of him, gets what he bargains for. goods are better than his samples. Who sells him is sure of his pay. His word is better than your shrewd man's bond or note. His clerks and laborers get a fair compen

sation for their work; and get it when it is due, without asking. The baker, the grocer, the tailor, all who deal with him, are straight up and down. They have but one price. They know him, and know that the first approach to higgling would be the signal for non-intercourse.

He stands on change, under the great dome, undisturbed by the ceaseless hum, and roar, and reverberation. He walks through State Street, and Wall Street, without being infected by its atmosphere. Even the bellowing bulls and bears, and other wild beasts, that meet him seem awed in his presence, and get done with their discordant howlings. They unconsciously acknowledge the majesty and supremacy of a Man! and he stands in their midst unharmed, like Daniel in the lion's den. God protects the righteous man, and as of old sends his angels to stop the mouths of the devouring beasts-that angel is his divine, spotless, incorruptible integrity! his inflexible, unbending moral principle! This is ever his guardian angel, and delivers him from all the perils of riches and traffic, of the city and the wilderness. Other men who have no such angel, confess she is beautiful when they see her, and acknowledge the power of her presence. All men, even the worst, feel the dignity, and confess the majesty and the power of virtue.

Such is the "Man of Principle in Business." Such his position, character, and influence. It would be a work of supererogation after this description, to enter into an exhortation respecting the importance of following him as a guide; or, in other words, the importance of maintaining the most sacred allegiance to truth, honor, moral principle; and heeding the first promptings of conscience. As said, sometimes she does not speak clearly; yet if she speak at all there is danger. As a man thinketh so he is. Even though all things be pure, as Paul says, yet it is evil to that man who eateth with offence, and he that doubteth is damned if he eat. Better not go within an hundred steps as far as one might law. fully go, than go one step farther. Better to err on the right side than on the wrong.

What is right clearly, do it, though the heavens fall. What is wrong clearly, do it not, though you could thereby grasp the wealth of a Croesus. In the presence of