the good conduct of the citizen, the son, the husband, the father, the brother, the tradesman, be only so many operations of true piety, so many acts of this animating soul, so many developements of this hidden life.

Though there is much in this book which, properly understood and followed, would, in connexion with other parts of Scripture, guide the reader to heaven, and prepare him for its enjoyment, it must be confessed and remembered, that it principally aims to form the social character for the present world. What I have already said on this subject I repeat, that for a clear and explicit knowledge of the way of pardon and eternal life, we must read the New Testament. There we learn how Christ is made of God unto us "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." And there also we learn the great moral principles on which all the transactions of this world's business should be founded: but in this book of the wise king, principles of wisdom and virtue are given in detail for every relation of social life. It is the commercial man's vade mecum. It may lie upon his desk by the side of his ledger, and that in a thousand instances would have been in a better state, had this been more constantly consulted. It is my firm belief, that no man who reads this book through with close attention and earnest prayer, once a year, will fail, either in this world, or in reference to that which is to come. It is designed and adapted to form the industrious, prudent, honourable, and successful man of business, and is therefore eminently suited to this great commercial country. Napoleon Buonaparte, when in the zenith of his power and pride, called this country, more in a spirit of mortification and envy than of contempt, a nation of shopkeepers. If in that term he comprehended our merchants and manufacturers, he did not inaptly describe us. We are not ashamed of our commercial character and greatness; and provided our merchandise be carried on upon the principles of this book,

and we thus inscribe upon it Holiness to the Lord, it is our glory and defence.

In this book is disclosed the secret of true happiness, which, if really put into practice, will make happy individuals, happy families, happy neighbourhoods, happy nations, and a happy world. All the errors which men have fallen into on this subject, all the delusive shadows, the polluted springs, the deleterious ingredients, which have misled and injured so many, are here detected and exposed; while the nature, the source, and the means of true felicity, are as clearly pointed out. Here in the favour of God, in the mortification of our corruptions, in the restraint of our passions, in the cultivation of our graces, in the performance of our duties, in promoting the good of our neighbours, and in the hope of immortality, are the materials of human blessedness. Here happiness is set forth, not in the heathen forms of Bacchus, Venus, or Momus; not by such descriptions as those of Horace, Ovid, and Anacreon; not in such riot and revelry as the lovers of pleasure in every age would recommend. Quite the contrary. In this book, happiness is seen descending from heaven, her native place, and lighting upon our orb in the seraph form of religion. She is clad in the robe of righteousness, arrayed in the garment of salvation, and adorned with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Like the king's daughter of old, she “is all glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold." Joy sparkles in her eye, and peace reposes upon her brow. Her conscience is rendered easy by a sense of pardon, and her heart is light through purity. The song of the seraphim is upon her lips. Her hand is alternately lifted up in adoration to God, and stretched out in mercy to his necessitous creatures. Her feet ever carry her with willing steps either to the house of prayer, or to the abodes of sorrow. Her excellences are described, and her praises are sung, not in the odes of licentious poets,

;

at sensual orgies, in strains inspired by lust and wine but in the hymns composed by prophets and apostles, resounding in the temples of devotion, or chanted by good and holy men in the circles of their friends, or the homes of their families. Such is the happiness set forth in this book, the only thing which deserves, the only thing that can prove itself worthy of, the name. That seraph form alights, Young Men, in your path, and with her own angelic, divine, and heavenly smile, beckons you to follow her to the well-springs of delight, repeating, at every step, the beautiful language of this book, “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom."

CHAPTER VIII.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE IN BUSINESS.

He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. PROVERBS x, 4. In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider. ECCLESIASTES vii, 14.

THINK not, Young Men, that in selecting subjects for the last two chapters and a previous one, from the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, I am drawing your attention away from the New to the Old Testament, and investing the latter with an importance superior to that of the former. By no means. Both the portions of the sacred volume belong to the one divine system of revealed truth, and they stand related to each other as the two great lights of the moral world, the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night. The Old Testament, with lunar effulgence borrowed from the yet invisible orb of spiritual day, shone forth upon the Jewish Church during the night season of its existence; while the New, with its own brightness, constitutes the day of our Christian dispensation. But though the sun of righteousness has arisen, the moon is still a valuable member of our spiritual system. Let us then hold fast both parts of the Bible, not neglecting the Books of Moses, David, Solomon, and the Prophets; but delighting most to study the gospels and epistles, because of their clearer revelation of everything that stands connected with the moral character of God, the person and work of Christ, the way of salvation and the glories of immortality.

The book of Ecclesiastes, when properly understood, is an important portion of Sacred Scripture. It is on good grounds ascribed to Solomon, and is supposed as I stated in the last chapter, to have been composed after his recovery from his deplorable apostacy, and to have been intended by him to be a record of his own experience, and a warning, or at any rate a lesson, to mankind. Its chief design seems to be to answer that momentous inquiry, prompted at once by the misery and the ignorance of fallen humanity, “Who will shew us any good?" Man is made for happiness, and is capable of it: but what is it, and how is it to be obtained? To possess and enjoy it, he must be furnished with some good, suited to his nature, adapted to his condition, and adequate to his capacity and desires.

The nature of the chief good has been, in every age, the interesting subject of most earnest philosophic inquiry. But how various and opposed have been the conclusions at which the inquirers have arrived on this important subject. Varro, a learned Latin writer, who died about thirty years before Christ, reckoned up more than two hundred different opinions on this subject; thus plainly evincing man's ignorance of his own nature, circumstances, and wants. Not perceiving what it is that has made him miserable, he cannot know of course what will make him happy. Unacquainted with, or rather overlooking, the disease, he cannot know the remedy. He feels an aching void within, an unsatisfied craving after something, but knows neither the nature nor the source of the food adapted to meet and satisfy his hungry appetite. What human reason is thus proved to be too ignorant and too weak to decide, the Bible undertakes to settle; that which no human authority can adjudicate upon, the oracle of God explicitly, imperatively, and infallibly, determines for all and for ever. Precious Bible, if only for this! The vagrant spirit of man is seen wandering from God, the fountain of bliss, roaming