WEEK-DAY RELIGION.

Evening Star, Issue 3858, 6 July 1875, Page 2

WEEK-DAY RELIGION.

Tho course of lectures on the above sub ject was continued by Dr Roaeby on Monday in the Congregational Church, Moray Place, the subject of lecture the being “ Buyingand The lecturer chose for his text Proverbs, XX., 14. He begau by speaking of the necessity of occupying pulpit exhortations with subjects of practical religious interest. By drawing the worker-day me of men into the discourse of the Sunday, the sacredness of the Sunday might be scattered over the worker-day life of the week. He complained that religious people were chary of giving the pulpit this liberty. A certain set of religious phrases had been formulated, and the minister was supposed to take his flail and thrash fresh grain out of these every Sunday for the feeding oi his flock. It mattered not that meanwhile the entire field of divine truth was white unto the harvest ; it matterdnofc, for the bread enough and to spare which lay stored up in the bursting granaries of Scripture, of History, of Nature, ■f Conscience, of Experience, of Week Day

life; he was forbidden td see any troth but what was visible to the narrow polemical theology seven teenth century; he whs forbidden to pluck any ears of com upon the Sabbath day, excepting those of the accustomed ecclesiastical sheaf. The minister discoursed about one thing; the days and rights of hia people were occupied in thinking about another. To this tyranny .of Church etiquette he \the lecturer) would give place by subjection not for an liorr, and therefore invited the attention of his hearers to tno bearing of Christianity upon buying and selling. Thercv. gentleman then ppoke (- •) i l of .the nonorablo character of trade. (2.) Of its moral and spiritual risks. (3.) Of its Christian pursuit. He vindicated trade from the reproach of unproductiveness, by showing how important as an element of value was distribution; and from the reproach of selfishness, by showing that the value of goods were less dependent upon the mere higgling of traders that many imagined. The great laws of supply and demand were laws of God, and wonderful was the balance which, quite independently of the hubbub of the market place, they -maintained between purchase and sale. The opposition of interests was superficial only ; there was the same divine harmony apparent here as in every department of God’s providence—the harmony, viz,, between want and supply. Speaking of the moral risks of trade, the lecturer said tiade was not singular in that. Every occupation, every profession had its moral risks, lie thought, for example, it was as dangerous to be a Christian minister ns to be anything. To preserve oandor of mind in investigating religious truth, and honesty, fearlessness, kindliness in its expression, wai no light matter. There was no such special risk about buying and selling that the integrity of the trader had need to bo of firmer fibre than others to enable him to escape it. Yet it had its risks. The temptation to take advantage of the ignorance of a customer, or of another’s necessity, poverty, or difficulties, was then dwelt upon. A man might be able to do these things, hp_ might stand within his legal rights in doing them, but they were alike forbidden by that simple sentence : —“ Thou shalt nut steal. ' Another risk to which trade exposed the conscience was mentioned in the text; “It is naught, it is naught, saith the haver, but when lie goeth his way then be boastetn ’’—the practice of varying prices according to c.roumstances. An example of this mentioned in the daily Press was noticed. The incident seemed to point out some of the small meannesses to which men descend in order to turn a dishonest penny. Let them distinctly understand that this was, to all intents and purposes, theft. He could find men in our local gaol whose offence was morally no greater, and whose petty larcencies were a very groat deal smarter. The last example cited by the rev. gentleman was the periodical employment by business men of those alarming stock-phi ases by which thh attention of the community was sought to be arrested. There could be no doubt that these sensational catchwords often covered very shaky moral transactions. The lecturer, speaking of the Christian pursuit of trade,'urged business men distinctly to recognise that their business was a divine call. Let them ennoble their occupation by regarding it, in a true sense, as a divine vocation. Let them make up their minds to be religious in business, and they would be as well able to keep a conscience amid the ciances and changes of trade as a Simeon Stylitcs upon his column, or a monk in his cell. Finally, inasmuch as buying and selling were common operations of human life, let all try to preserve the lofty ideal of Christian I iscipleshipwh—atsoever things were true, honest, just, pure, and of good i eport, let them “think on these things.”