Excerpt: ...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 sentiment so hurtful should be eradicated from the public mind. It should be discarded from the individual breast. The toils of pecuniary gain must be pervaded by a loftier motive. It should be sought, not as a gratification to avarice; but, in the fear of the Lord, by industry, by economy, by frugality, by forecast, by the most profitable investments of capital, and with a heart full of mercy, as an instrument to enlighten the ignorant, and relieve the sorrows of human-kind. This idea has not taken so firm a hold of the christian public as its importance deserves. How useful might some, who have...