undervaluing money. I know that the gentleman who used to _skip_ his
silver dollars on the fair bosom of the Connecticut for the amusement of
his friends, and he who freely tosses around the social glass to his
boon companions, may be pronounced generous fellows. But such may be as
entirely destitute of all true benevolence as the most determined miser,
and, what is more deplorable, as offensive to Infinite Love. Property
is God's gift, and he does not require us to undervalue his gifts, but
to use them with his own good-will to men. To be willing that our labor
or capital should be unproductive is no indication of a faithful
steward. 2. There is a difference between the design of becoming rich,
and that of acquiring property. The latter, under certain restrictions,
is a duty incumbent on all. One may have a peculiar talent in this
direction;--a turn for business, a sagacity to lay plans, to foresee the
favorable changes in the commercial world, and all that shrewdness so
essential to success in the career of opulence. It is an endowment of
heaven, and should be used in such a way as heaven will approve. While
regulated strictly by the principles of Revelation, it should be
employed in the acquisition of property, as a means of usefulness. But
it is a common opinion, that money may be made solely for the sake of
accumulation. Parents instil the idea into the minds of children, so
that they grow up with the conviction, that the great end of life is the
procuring of wealth. Implanted in the tender mind, and nurtured with
its strength, it assumes the tenacity of a first principle. But it is
altogether erroneous. It is the product of the selfish heart. No
sentiment is more fertile in covetousness, or more blighting to that
generous humanity, which it is the first object of the Christian to
cherish. It is a sentiment grovelling in its tendency, bowing
multitudes, it is feared, even of professedly good men, to a species of
slavery, over which devils smile, and angels weep; knowing that it
obstructs the flow of thousands into the treasury of the Lord. A