ole world is a grave-yard. Countless
millions lie beneath our feet. Most of our earth, too, is at this moment
a chamber of dying souls. Can we have _any relish_ for luxuries, folly
and needless expense, amidst the teeming millions commencing the agonies
of eternal death?

I erect a splendid mansion; extend about it a beautiful enclosure;
furnish it with every elegance; make sumptuous entertainments, and live
in luxury and ease. In the midst of it, the woes and miseries of my
ruined race are brought vividly before me--their present wretchedness
and eternal agonies. And it is whispered in my ear, that these woes
might have been relieved by the expense I have so profusely lavished. O!
how like Belshazzar must I feel, and almost imagine that the groans of
lost souls are echoed in every chamber of my mansion, and their blood
seen on every ornament!

Let us have the love of Christ in our hearts, and then spread distinctly
before us _the world as it is_--calculate the sum total of its present
wretchedness and eternal woes. In such a world and as God's stewards,
who can be at a loss in regard to the course of duty? When twenty
millions of men every year are entering upon the untold horrors of the
second death, and we are stewards to employ all means in our power for
their salvation, O, away with that coldness that can suggest the
necessity of _conforming_ to the expensive customs of the world. May we,
in heaven, find one of these souls saved through our instrumentality,
and we can afford to forego all we shall lose by a want of conformity.
There is a nobleness in taking an independent stand on the side of
economy, and saving something to benefit dying souls. There is a
heavenly dignity in such a course, infinitely superior to the slavish
conformity so much contended for. It is an independence induced by the
sublimest motives; a stand which even the world must respect, and which
God will not fail to honor.

But how shall those possessing _large capitals_ best employ them as
stewards of God? I speak not of the hoarding of the miser; that would be
a waste of breath. I speak not of property invested in stock that
habitually violates the Sabbath. No remark is necessary in so plain a
case. But I speak of large capitals, professedly kept to bring in an
income for the service of the Redeemer. The subject is involved in many
practical difficulties; and they who are business men have some
advantages of judging in the case which I have