grain and fruits that are converted into intoxicating drinks to be made into bread, and we should have more than twice the quantity of bread that we have at present. In consequence of the use of this one luxury, intoxicating drink, the people of this country have not one-half the bread that they might have. And yet people talk about the multitudes that are supported by the use of luxuries, and about the want and ruin in which the poor persons that are employed in producing articles of luxury would be involved, if luxuries were to be laid aside. It is all error and delusion from beginning to end. The truth is just on the contrary side. You do not support people by your use of luxuries, you plunder and oppress them. It is not temperance, but luxury, that is the great parent of want and ruin. If all were to leave off the use of intoxicating drinks, the wants of all our suffering population might be supplied, and a vast surplus be left to supply the wants of other countries, or to be applied to general objects of benevolence. The adoption of temperance principles could not cause want and ruin. If every person in the country were to give up the use of intoxicating drinks this day, it could do no harm to the country generally. Some individuals would suffer, but other individuals would be benefitted, and the country at large would be a great gainer. The disuse of intoxicating drinks would not lessen the quantity of food and raiment in the kingdom. It would not lessen the number of houses, or injure the quality of our furniture. There would still be as much bread, and as many houses, and as much of every thing that is really serviceable as at present. There would be more. There would be a much greater quantity of potatoes and fruits; and the quantity of barley that would be at our service would be immense. I know that it would be a little time before the provisions would find their way into some people's houses. The brewer, the beershop keeper, the maltster, the distiller, and the spirit-merchant, would not all get their share of the good things in the country for the first few days; but this inconvenience would soon be remedied, If people

were to give up the use of luxuries from Christian principle, and it is that which we advocate, they would not suffer any one to be long without his share of what the country might afford. And it would not be long before maltsters, and brewers, and distillers, and spirit-sellers, would turn their hands to some useful employment, and their capital to some useful trade; and they would thus, while helping themselves and their families to things needful, be sharing the labours, and lightening the toils of their fellow-men. After the first year the amount of useful grain and fruits would be almost doubled, and the comfort of the nation improved beyond conception.

Examine into the influence of luxury in any of its branches, and it will be found that the infidel pretence, that luxury is a public benefit, is as false as it can be. Take luxury in dress, and luxury in building. Suppose the principle of luxury in these things to be carried out to its fullest extent. Suppose the demand for ribbands, feathers, lace, artificial flowers, brooches, necklaces, ear-rings, and similar things, to be so great as to furnish full employment to all the dress-makers, clothiers, tailors, hatters, shoemakers, and others in similar occupations throughout the country: what would be the consequence? Just this: we should all have to go in rags, as long as they would hang upon us; for there would not be a coat, a hat, a gown, a shirt, or a pair of shoes to be got. Suppose the demand for theatres, dancing saloons, race-course stands, church steeples, pyramids, ornamental towers, needless palaces, splendid mansions, and such things as Grey's monument to become so great, as to furnish full and constant employment to all the builders in the country, What would be the result? Why this, it would be impossible to get a school, a chapel, or a plain, comfortable house erected. Suppose the demand for pianofortes, organs, harmonicons, musical boxes, pictures, pleasure boats, and pleasure carriages, chimney ornaments, and all kinds of useless furniture to become so great, as to require the labour of all the carpenters, joiners, and cabinet-makers; we should then be unable to procure chairs, beds, or

tables, or any kind of useful furniture. And so in every other branch. Suppose a man, or a number of men, to have money enough to engage all the colliers in the country in digging fish-ponds, cutting down mountains, and getting marble for the erection of splendid monuments; we must then learn to live without coal. I know that what I am supposing is not likely to come to pass, but the supposition is no less reasonable for that; it tends to illustrate the principle under consideration, and that is enough. It shows that the principle of luxury will not bear to be carried out. It proves this, that if the principle of furnishing employment, and supporting the working classes by the use of luxuries were fully carried out, we should have all the working people in the country toiling all day for nothing, and every family in the country left without either a house to live in, a bed to sleep on, a garment to cover them, or a piece of bread to keep them from starvation. And the tendency of the principle is the same, whether it be carried out fully or only partially. Every one that purchases articles of luxury, does so much towards turning the industry of men out of its proper channel,– and towards causing a scarcity of all useful productions of the soil, and of all the useful productions of human skill and labour. Perhaps three-fourths or five-sixths of all the labour and skill of our country, are spent in ministering, in one form or other, to people's love of luxuries. The consequence is, that useful things are twice or three times as dear as they ought to be. There is such a demand for barley, that wheat flour, which ought to be no more than one and sixpence a stone, is sold for three shillings. There is so great a demand for ornaments, that useful articles of dress and furniture cost twice or thrice as much as they ought to do. If men would be content with such things as are truly serviceable, and spend their superfluous wealth in doing good, the labours of the working classes might be reduced one-half, or two-thirds. Every family in the country might have food and raiment in abundance, and every other blessing that man can enjoy, with two or three hours' work a day,

And every one that indulges his love of luxury, is doing so much towards increasing the hours of la bour to the working classes, and increasing the price of all useful articles, whether of food, of dress, or of furniture. He is doing his share towards making the rent of a house which ought to be only fifty shillings, five pounds; towards keeping up the price of cloth at ten shillings, which night otherwise be sold for four or five; and towards keeping up the price of a loaf at a shilling, which might otherwise be sold at sixpence or fourpence. He is doing his share towards keeping in ignorance, and want, and wretchedness, the great mass of the whole human family. He is leagued, whether he knows it or not, with the great tyrants, oppressors, and destroyers of mankind. He is a parti cipator in the most wholesale and ceaseless system of plunder, of oppression, and of blood, that ever the world beheld. The robberies and murders of such men as Alexander, Cæsar, and Napoleon, multiplied, black, and horrible as they were, were trifles compared with the robberies and murders perpetrated by men's love of luxury. Besides the millions who annually murder themselves by their luxurious indulgences, there are millions more that are cruelly murdered every year by want and excessive toil, and by numberless diseases which their love of luxuries entails upon their fellow-men. And millions that are not outright destroyed, are doomed to spend their lives in difficulty and sorrow. miseries resulting from luxurious indulgences know no bounds.

The

And yet there are men who can talk of people being supported by luxury, and about the want and misery that would come upon people if luxuries were laid aside. Philosophers, so called, and politicians, can write books to prove the use of luxuries a general benefit. Their philosophy is foolishness; and their systems of political economy are all vanity and delusion. The best philosophy is the religion of Christ, and the only sound principles of political economy are the precepts of the Gospel. In this, as in all other things, the wisdom of the world is foolishness; and those principles of temperance and self-denial which

unbelievers and sensualists, and some misguided professors of the religion of Christ, regard as foolishness, are the only true wisdom. I dare trust in Christ sooner than in all the world. There is more true philosophy in one single sentence of his, than in all the books that earthly philosophers and politicians have ever written since the world began. I hope our readers will be on their guard against the philosophy of the world, and cleave to the simple, selfdenying principles of the Saviour. In Christ, or in his religion, are laid up all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the truth as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man rob you of your spirituality and salvation through philosophy and vain deceit, after the doctrine of men, according to the principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, furnished with all the philosophy you require. Col. ii. 3, &c.

But is it not better for people to spend their money in luxuries than to hoard it up?

I do not know; I hardly think it is; but there is no necessity for a man to do either the one or the other. The principles for which we contend, are the principles of the Gospel, which are as much against covetous hoarding of money, as against wasting it in luxuries. The doctrine of the Gospel is, that we should do good with our property unto all men, and that to the full extent of our power. And there is plenty of room for doing good yet. The followers of Christ have no money to spare yet; the deplorable state of the church and of the world calls for all the wealth and influence that professing christians possess. A million of places of worship are wanted, twelve millions of schools are wanted, and thrice twelve millions of comfortable houses. The principal part of the human race are without decent clothing; innumerable multitudes are but scantily supplied with bread; while hun

dreds of thousands are dying of absolute want. Books and tracts are wanted without end, and troops of teachers too are wanted to instruct the nations in the use of books, and to lead them forward in the way of improvement.

And as for encouraging trade, if this be your object, you may accomplish your object to far greater advantage by spending your property and time in works of charity, than by spending them in luxuries. Suppose you should spend your wealth in furnishing a supply of Bibles and religious books and tracts to the human family, you would be giving encouragement, directly or indirectly, to almost every useful trade in existence. You would be encouraging the printers' business, and be furnishing employment for a number of additional hands. You would increase the demand for paper, and the paper manufacturer would want more hands. More rags and ropes would be wanted, and more starch and glue, and encouragement would thus be given to persons dealing in these various articles. The printers would want more type, the type-founders would want more metal; and the increased demand for metal would render it necessary to open fresh mines, or else to work the old ones more briskly. More steam engines would be wanted, and more coal, and this would give an impulse to trade in other directions. More buildings. would be called for; and more stone and lime, and more iron and timber would be wanted to erect them with; and this would encourage trade and industry in other branches. Then leather and thread would be wanted for binding the books, and this would improve other branches of commerce. Ships would be wanted to carry the books and the teachers to different parts of the earth, and men would be wanted to sell or distribute them, and this also would give additional impulse to trade.

Suppose you should spend your money in building chapels, and schools, or in erecting comfortable houses, and improving the economy of towns, you would be encouraging trade in this way also. You would be furnishing employment for builders, and stone-getters, and brickmakers, and joiners, and wood-cutters,

and edge-tool manufacturers, and bellows-makers, and iron-founders, and workers in brass and tin, and lime-burners, and hair-collectors, and tanners, and leather-cutters, and cabinet-makers, and glass-blowers, and men in other branches of business innumerable. If you spend your money in clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and ministering to the sick, you still afford encouragement to trade. You increase the demand for cloth, for wool, for linen and for cotton, for iron and for leather, for grain and for fruits, for medicines and drugs, and for innumerable other articles of commerce. You have no need to indulge in luxuries to encourage trade; you may encourage it far more effectually by doing good. You may do all the good in the way of furnishing employment, by employing your money in works of charity, that you could do by spending it in luxuries; besides directly contributing to the relief and comfort of multitudes, and to the improvement of the human race at large. The argument in favour of luxury is utterly unsound. The use of luxuries does not so much furnish employment as cause men to spend their labour on that which profits no one, instead of spending it in producing something which would prove of real and general service. The use of luxuries does not furnish men with the means of support; it lessens the means of support; and if the infidel principle which we oppose was fully carried out, it would leave the world without a crumb, and annihilate the whole human race. The adoption of Gospel principles would not occasion any general or permanent inconvenience. If men were thrown out of one kind of employment, they would soon obtain other kinds of employment far better; and their temporary sufferings would be followed by lasting advantages. If the abandonment of luxury were accompanied with the exercise of Christian liberality, it might be done without any inconvenience at all: and this is the plan which the Gospel requires, and this is the plan which we recommend. The only parties that would be likely to suffer by the disuse of luxuries, are the rich and powerful; and even their sufferings would be more imaginary than real. They would have less money, perhaps, but they might

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have more happiness. persons in India who, by means of the trade in opium, have amassed vast treasures they have raised themselves to the rank of princes, and are at this hour receiving tens of thousands a year. If the trade in opium should cease, these persons would experience a diminution in their income. Their thousands might be reduced to hundreds, or to tens, and some of them might have to labour for their bread. And if the principles of evangelical reform should generally prevail, numbers that now have thousands a year, would have no more than would be needful to furnish them with food

and raiment. But this would be no disadvantage, but a blessing. Those who have such overgrown fortunes, seldom, if ever, know how to use them. Most of them employ them in little else than doing mischief. They destroy their own health, and shorten their own lives, and fill their few days with abundance of miseries. They employ the influence which their wealth gives them, in corrupting the minds and the morals of all around them. They are patrons of vice, and persecutors of truth and virtue, and plagues to the whole country in which they dwell. And shall we indulge in luxuries for fear lest such persons should lose a portion of their wealth and influence? The best thing that could come to them, probably, would be the diminution of their property. The diminution of their property would lessen their power to do mischief, and perhaps be the means of bringing them to their right minds. The loss of their property might be the means of making them holy and happy, and of rendering them the instruments of promoting the welfare of the souls of others. The Gospel will scarce allow us to entertain any hope of their salvation, so long as they are rich: whereas, if they were brought to poverty and want, we might hope to hear of their salvation forthwith.

All God's plans are right; every principle of the Gospel is true; and the only way to happiness, either for individuals, families, or countries, is to receive what He says as true, to submit to what He commands as right, and to spend our days in faithful and persevering obedience to his will.