The southern press., 1851-11-21
Sermon for Merchants.

In Hunts Merchants Magazine we find ex-
tracts from a sermon delivered at Newburyport,
by Rev. Mr.. Higgnson. OF the general posi-
ton of the merchants, he says:-
"The day is long passed when commerce was
considered in its very essence and theory, frau
dulent; and the day is past here, when it was
regarded as an ignoble calling. Yet the wsest
man of ancient Rome once wrote that "they
who buy goods that they may sell them again,
are base and dcspicabe men, since they can
only make profit by practising some decep-
ton" And again, when pronouncing all retail
traffic contemplate, he seems to think it great
admission to allow that commerce on a large
scale may MOI be altogether base "A law pre-
vailed in Thebes, (says Aristotle in his Potics,)
which forbade any tradesman from holding a
public Office unless he had shut up shop for more
than ten years
And in the monarchical countries of Europe
at this time, even in England, we suppose thlt
no merchant. as such, (hat is, none unless de-
irving rank from some other source,) could be
admitted into the highest social circles
Now, all these abstract objections to COM
merce, as an employment whether the prejudice
be moral one, or conventional one, do seem
manifestly unjust In the theory Of commerce
Even the popular objection, moro current among
us than any of these-that the merchant pro-
duces not iing-seems to me unfair. For when
society is unorganized, and each man no longer
creates and prepares his own food and clothing,
and laborisl lightened by being distributed
the products of labor must be distributed also,
and that is new labor. The merchant is not
a producer, but he is distributor of products,
which may be equally laborious, or more so, and
is certainly as legitimate an occupation. Goods
must be carried from place to place--tea from
China, cotton from New Orleans, gold dust from
California-and there must be somebody to at
tend to this transportation and delivery and as
it must be done Systematically, accounts must
be kept-and so every merchant, be it on the
largest smallest scale, is in fact either porter
or book keeper, or boil
So there must always be merchants in every
state of society beyond the simplest. But it
may easily happen that as commerce may be out
of its true position in one state of society, and
underrated, rs it may be out of its place in
another state of society, and overrated this
may happen in several ways, and several evils
flow from IT," n
There is the danger of too great absorption
in the details of trade. Doubtless a man must
be willing TO labor for his bread but as it is
unhealthy to the body to think too much of our
bread as we eat it, so it is bad for the soul to
think too much Of it as we earn it. Disguise it
as we may, there is something in the divine
spirit of man so utterly foreign from day books
and ledgers, that it refuses to be all concentra-
ted on them, and the attempt to enforce such
concentration, ends in spiritual suicide. 1t is
safe and right to trade in order to live; but if
we live only in order to trade, we die. After
all there is certain point beyond which human
virtue of prudence ceases to be a virtue, and be.
comes penuriousness There is a certain noble
generosity and indifference in the use Of money
which commerce does not love, and success
may not follow, but which nature loves and God
loves
The world judges man by what he has re-
ceived, but God and nature ask always what he
has given. A man gains house, lands, fame,
wealth, station, power, and the world calls him
successful in his life's bargain. But suppose
he has sold his virtue, sold himself to obtain
these things, and then where is the gain and the
success Suppose his heart, ard his manness
and his great thoughts and principles are all gone
to pay for these things, then what are the posi-.
bic returns that can make that bargain a success
fu onel We do not say, that the world is not
good Judge, according to its own standard. We
do not say, for instance, that man who sells
first his time, and then his freedom, and then his
soul, for million dollars, does not make better
bargain than he who sells his time. and his free
dom, and his soul for fifty; but ] do say that
either of them makes a bargain to which the
honest bankrupt is n millionaire-and that the
poorest outoast who lies lonely, and sick, and
starving, in some bleak hut by the hillside, with
every wind of heaven sweeping through upon
his bed of straw, may lead noble and beaut
fu life in comparison with either.
We know this is not the current prejudice of
our time and place. "The first thing to teach
boy" said once an honest sincere minded father
to me, in the presence of his son, six years old
=" the first thing 10 teach boy is the value of
a dollar that's what | call the corner stone.
The satire is not mine, but his. lie was gentle
and kind-hearted man, bat that was his theory,
at least on week days, at his place of business
nor did it occur to him that he had said anything
which Adam in Eden might not have remarked
to Eve. Practically It is the philosophy of
many or most We think It il essentially the
philosophy Of Benjamin Franklin, whom we
should long since have canonized, if we canon
ized anybody in these parts. A recent English
writer, after placing franklin at the head of
those who believe in living by bread alone,
sketches the whole American people as standing
behind one long counter, from Maine 10 Texas,
trading against the rest Of he world, under the
auspices Of his guardian saint. "a penny saved
is penny got" Thompson calls good scoun.
dre maxim