THE 8ACREDNESS OF BUSINESS, 
 
 COMMERCIAL LIFE. 
 
 By REV. CHARLES P. MASDEN, D. D.
 
 Stecfc
 
 REV. CHARLES P. MASDEN. D. D.
 
 WISCONSIN ST. & BROADWAY. 
 
 MILWAUKEE, \Vk. Nov. 9, 1898. 
 
 llc.r. Charles P. Maschn, Pastor Grand Ave. M. E. Church. 
 Milu'aiikce, Wis. 
 
 DEAR SIR: The faculty and students of the Spencerian 
 nusitirss College have by unanimous vote instructed me to 
 express to you personally, and to the officers of your church 
 and society, their appreciation of and thanks for the invita- 
 tion so kindly extended to them to listen to your sermon on 
 the "Sacredness of Business, or Commercial Life." 
 
 They were greatly ^leased with, and impressed by the 
 address, which, in their opinion, should be widely circulated 
 in the interest of the higher ideals of business life. 
 
 It being the special design of this institution to train 
 young people for business pursuits, it is a duty incumbent 
 upon us to promote the higher standards of business education 
 and character, as affecting all the interests of human society 
 and progress. We therefore ask you to furnish us with a 
 <-<>py of the sermon with your photograph for publication. 
 
 Thanking you for the service rendered to business and 
 business education, in which we are deeply interested, and 
 with best wishes for your usefulness and happiness, I am, 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 ROBERT C. SPEXCER,
 
 Robert C. Spencer, */., President of Spencerian <",,//, /< i 
 
 iness and Finance, .l//7"vn'/.vr, }\'i*. 
 
 DEAR SIR: Your kind favor of Xov. 9th, conveying the 
 request of the faculty and students of your college for the 
 publication of the sermon delivered before them on the occa- 
 sion when they attended divine service in my church, has 
 been duly received. 
 
 I fully appreciate the work in which you are en paired in 
 training young people for business pursuits, and, believing 
 that higher ideals and nobler motives than mere <i<iin. should 
 be introduced into commercial ethics, I sincerely thank you 
 for your kind offer to extend the influence of the nn->age be- 
 yond the hour and occasion of it- delivery. 
 
 I congratulate you and your College upon your great 
 and deserved success, and wishing you continued prosperity in 
 your noble work, I am, 
 
 Your< truly, 
 
 C. T. MASDKN.
 
 Sacrebness of Business 
 
 ... OR .. 
 
 COMMERCIAL LIFE. 
 
 By REV. CHARLES P. MASDEN, D. D. 
 
 iiL'ce.-.-ity and utility of occupation in human 
 life cannot be called into question. "Of what 
 did he die?" asked Alexander, when some one 
 told him of a friend's death. "Of having 
 nothing to do/' was the answer. "That was 
 enough to kill even a general/' replied the great conqueror. 
 St. Augustine said "Nothing is so laborious as not to labor." 
 Aristotle has described "Happiness as energy." The old 
 Greeks insisted on labor as a social end. Solon said, "He 
 who does not work is handed over to the tribunals." St. Paul 
 also urges labor not only as a means of self-support and self- 
 cult urc but also as a benefaction. "Let him that stole steal 
 no more,, rather let him labor, working with his hands that 
 which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." 
 St. Paul makes labor the antithesis of stealing "Let him 
 that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor."
 
 Labor is honorable and ennobling; and, business may be- 
 come more than a drudgery more than a livelihood more 
 than occupation a dirini' t-nUinij. Someho\\- the impiv 
 sion has been made that piety is for Sunday and business for 
 week days, and that the two are divorced making religion 
 asceticism and business \\orldliness, and the belief is preva- 
 lent that the devil makes the be-t master on exchange that 
 piety and worldly success are antagonistic. 
 
 My design in this address is to lift business out of the 
 realm of dishonesty into high ethical grounds transforming 
 the secular into the sacred and making the livelihood a 
 means of grace and a benefaction. 
 
 Ktiniiiifi a lirrli In>nd, in the competition of modern soci- 
 ety, implies thought, skill, promptness, truth, honesty, self- 
 denial and the exercise of all the manly virtues. He who is 
 compelled to rise early, exert himself in thought to be self- 
 deservin-r and temperate who must carry himself with self- 
 respect and so live as to gain the self-respect of others, is a 
 child of fortune. lie will be healthier and happier and more 
 virtuous, than if he had nothing to do but cat and drink and 
 sleep and parade. 
 
 The occupation must not be a drudt/ery druggery is to 
 be disesteemed. If a man toils as the ox toils, he may count 
 himself brother to the ox. What is a drudge? It is the man 
 who performs work by the hand and not by the manhood that 
 is in him. It is the man who works hating his work a man 
 who works as if he were a machine. He drudges. He is not 
 honorable. But a man who works with his hand controlled 
 by his head, with a conscience behind his work, is honorable 
 and hi- labor i- full of both manly and moral quality. Hence,
 
 any honest occupation can be made honorable and ennobling 
 and worthy of the minis! ration of an archangel. 
 
 The choice of an occupation, whether husbandry, mechan- 
 ics, the professions or mercantile life, depends upon the en- 
 dowments and tastes of the individual. I would not go so 
 far as Hazlitt, the essayist, who says, "If a youth has no apti- 
 tude for languages, but dances well, hand him over to the 
 dancing master," but I would let endowment, bias, affinity, 
 taste have a chance in determining the occupation in life, so as 
 to avoid the deformity and defeat of a misfit as Lessing's sar- 
 casm defines it: 
 
 "Tomkins forsakes his last and awl, 
 
 For literary squabbles: 
 Styles himself poet; but his trade 
 Remains the same he cobbles." 
 
 Perhaps in no other calling is the proportion of failures 
 to success so great as in the mercantile profession; only a small 
 percentage of the merchants are successful all others becom- 
 ing bankrupt or retiring in disgust. Why is this? Is it be- 
 cause they are overwhelmed by sudden disaster which no 
 sagacity could have anticipated or warded off? Is it because 
 they are dishonest and in overreaching others, overreach them- 
 selves? Is it because of partial success, they become inflated 
 and build marble palaces and indulge in champagne suppers? 
 In some cases these causes may answer the question, but as a 
 rule it was because they went into business without a business 
 education and train in;/. Lawyers, doctors, ministers, artists, 
 mechanics are made by education and training merchants 
 are not made bv accident.
 
 So, it will be opportune for UK- to discuss the morale of 
 commerce or the S(tcrr<lin'*x of Imxiness, and let in the brighter 
 light of gospel truth upon the subject. Hence I invite your 
 attention to three great facts, not generally emphasized in the 
 business world, yet essential principles in business life: 
 
 (1) Business is not a x/><'cul<tlion but a science; and, 
 therefore, is lifted out of the realm of dishonesty. 
 
 Risk and fraud have come into the calculation as factors 
 of success with some men; but, as a general policy it would 
 bankrupt a nation. A man must give an equivalent in work 
 or skill or thought for what he gets or he is a robber of the 
 public good. 
 
 While one man grows rich by speculation an hundred 
 are ruined. Speculation produces nothing adds nothing to 
 the common good only transfers money from one pocket to 
 another. Gambling is not the highest art. Chance is a poor 
 incentive to study and motive to activity. To look upon busi- 
 ness as an accident, a chance, a game, is to rob it of its high 
 ethical character. There will be no careful preparation for 
 laziness life, no moral character to maintain and dishonesty 
 will disfigure all trades. To imagine God blesses such trans- 
 actions is on a par with a young forger who prayed for success 
 in his villainies. 
 
 Mere speculation attempting to suddenly get rich, with- 
 out rendering an equivalent cannot find any moral justifica- 
 tion, and is sure to curse the individual and the nation. 
 
 In settled conditions of business life and in our civilized 
 social relations, the chances for speculation and sudden 
 wealth are diminishing and ability and integrity are coming 
 to be recognized as the surest factors of success.
 
 Commerce is guided by laws as inflexible as those of 
 nature,, hence political economy should be a study, and busi- 
 ne-s a science and worthy of the most careful and exact prep- 
 aration. I know that you hear a great deal that will con- 
 tradict this theory and the very opposite is practiced. If a 
 boy has a bias toward and love for business, the method is to 
 take him out of school, and at once plunge him into the store 
 or office, without any preliminary preparation or future in- 
 struction, and let him take his chances, when he knows noth- 
 ing of commercial law, book-keeping, corporations or con- 
 tracts, and no wonder, after years of hard and honest accumu- 
 lation, some smart rogue cheats him out of all his possessions. 
 He is defeated for want of information and knowledge of the 
 laws and methods of trade. You might as well expect to 
 learn the science of medicine simply from the practice, with- 
 out preliminary study, as to learn business, as carried on to- 
 day, by c.i-jirricnce. without any training in technical business 
 education. 
 
 I know you will begin to quote the men who have suc- 
 ceeded in business, and began by sweeping out the store, and 
 in a few years worked their way up to the head of the firm 
 and became merchant princes. But you must bear in naind the 
 competition is different to-day. The business world is full of 
 trained and competent business men. Besides, your men of 
 success were strong in natural endowments and great students 
 of business principles and laws and methods. They were 
 competent judges and capable of forming and deciding con- 
 tracts and agreements, had a good idea of commercial law 
 and generally acted without attorneys. So banish the heresy 
 that business is a chance, and that skill and thorough training
 
 are not requisite. More and more business has become a 
 science, requiring skill and ability and int ferity: and dishon- 
 
 !ia- not so full sway: and. a- tins thought is magnified, 
 cheating will more and more pa away, and business be placed 
 upon high ethical grounds. 
 
 (2) liu-iiie-s is not a mere lirrliliood but a beneficence, 
 and, therefore, lifted out of the realm of selfixltnr**. 
 
 I know the "bread ami butter" question is supreme, men 
 mint he fed and clothed, and that the great majority rise no 
 higher than this possibility, Some do not even reach this 
 level. Among this class are the paupers and the non-pro- 
 ducers. Self-support is not only honorable, but self-respect 
 cannot exist, without it. To he dependent on another is to 
 dwarf conscious respectability. There is a great deal of 
 polite beggary. M very young man and woman, who has come 
 to maturity, ought to be able, especially if the occasion require 
 it, to take care of themscl 
 
 Hut while every man must look after himself and we must 
 not relax this responsibility and respectability of livelihood 
 or self-care, yet all this should be a preparation for true benev- 
 olence. Kvery young man should look forward to the time, 
 not only when he can take care of himself, but also when he 
 can take care of some man's daughter. Marriage is a great. 
 morality. Looking forward to a pure and happy marriage, 
 or the founding of a virtuous home is the great safeguard 
 to a young life. Without Christian homes there can be no 
 civilization and morality. But the scope of a man's labor 
 should include more than the support of himself and /MX 
 family, the spirit of beneficence should Mow to the comniiniifi/. 
 The two principle- of -elf-care and benevolence are co-or- 
 
 10
 
 dinated, and work togetlier in perfect harmony. Kach makes 
 the other fruitful. You cannot take care of yourself wisely 
 without it. They are reciprocal, lie who thinks only of 
 himself clients himself. He narrows his sphere. Selfish- 
 ness is a foe to happiness. There is an old story told 
 of an Italian nnhh\ who placed a woman in a little niche just 
 large enough for her to stand in, and a row of bricks was laid 
 around her by the masons, and row upon row, and thus a wall 
 encircling her rose steadily up, and finally, when the last brick 
 was laid, she was left standing in her living tomb. Men do 
 the same thing, with golden bricks, until they are smothered. 
 All the man that was in them is dead. Selfishness is a living 
 death a living tomb. The duty of benevolence runs parallel 
 with acquisition. Riches bring responsibilities. Yet there 
 are men so selfish and centripetal, they begrudge their taxes. 
 I hear that they actually lie about how much they arc worth, 
 to avoid taxation. They are mad when they see their neigh- 
 bor's bees going oft' loaded with honey from their flowers. If 
 they could they would conceal the perfume from their or- 
 chards in summer when they are in blossom. It is a shame 
 for a man to have a good farm and a bad road in front of it. 
 It is a shame for a man 1o shut himself up in his affluence, 
 saying, "I am independent let others look out for them- 
 selves." The man who does that curses himself. If he does 
 not make the park beautiful, the streets luminous and the 
 sewers wholesome, the schools good and the community wise 
 and moral, he depreciates the value of his own property. 
 Hence, the wickedness and folly of the men who begrudge 
 contributions to the public good. Therefore, you see hiyli 
 ii'i't may enter into lui-ine-s life. The honor and respect-
 
 ability "f >elf-support BO a- not to In- a robber of tlu- common 
 . The formation and support of a happy homo and a 
 virtuous family. The ability to add something to the welfare 
 of men and the good of the community the providing for the 
 comfort.- of men in beautiful parks, clean street-, healthy 
 sewerage, pun- \vater. good schools and useful churches. The 
 ability to help the unfortunate hospitals for the sick, home- 
 for the aged, orphanages and asylums, and all possible shelter 
 and protection for the suffering poor. What high motives 
 What noble callings What grander sphere can employ t li- 
 abilities and industries of men than the honest accumulation 
 ami proper distribution of wealth? 
 
 (3) Hii-mess is not a senilnrilif, but a tlirinc misi 
 and. therefore, is lifted out of the realm of mere rnnd-rinliam. 
 It i- -a.-red. It is religious. It is a means of grace. It 
 i- a -teward-hip. It is building for eternity, and laying up 
 nva-iin- in Heaven. A New England merchant waited on 
 his pa>tor and expressed a desire to do some special religious 
 work wishing that he could leave busines- and talk all the 
 time to men about religion. The pa-tor said. "Go back to 
 your .-tore and sell goods for Christ, and let the world 
 see that a man can be a Clirl*li<ui in Ir/nJi'." Year.- afterwards 
 the merchant rejoiced that he had followed the advice. The 
 merchant i- dead but the great society that he founded, with 
 a national reputation, and the <;>ll<><j<' which he endowed, send- 
 ing forth yearly its da-- of trained men, both of which re- 
 ceived his noble hem-factions, are still feeling the result of 
 the wise advice of the pa-tor and the wise decision of the mer- 
 chant. Let 11- look into this ijuestion of the divine mission 
 of bu.-iiie-: (ai It i- a -ivat school for rlnintrli-r. < 'lnir<i<-h<r
 
 is a moral structure, \vliich ha- conic- top -I her with the 
 of years, a certain combination of ruling motive.-, a certain 
 bend of will, a peculiar set of emotional currents, a peculiar 
 .-entinieiit. tastc>. judgment all of which grows more and 
 more fixed and distinct in us as the days pass and which our 
 friends mark and noie. di-ciis< and classify, criticise and esti- 
 mate. This character will remain the same in Heaven as here. 
 We shall have the same likes and dislikes, same sentiment-. 
 same tone, same tendeneie-. -nine movements of feelings, char- 
 acteristics, mannerisms. Before the Judgment Bar our friernU 
 will say, ''How like himself." This character which is to en- 
 dure forever is the result of a business life; of Itonrxtij amid 
 chances of cheating; of fid el Hi/ amid opportunities for self- 
 gratification; of indu.-try amid temptations of ease; of tem- 
 perance amid luxury: of humility amid plenty and prosperity; 
 of gentleness amid provocations; of forgiveness amid insult. 
 Plenty of opportunities and means for self-culture in all 
 Christian graces in business life. Business men may train 
 one man for Heaven and another for hell. You remember 
 the picture of our Lord, "Two women shall be grinding at the 
 mill one shall be taken and the other left. Two men shall 
 be in the field one shall be taken and the other left." Every 
 single circumstance identical. They work at the same trade, 
 ri-e the same hour, dress alike, paid alike, pass life on the 
 same level, nothing oidinirdlij to distinguish the one from the 
 other. On and on they go, hand in hand and face to face up 
 to the last and lo one is for Heaven and the other for hell 
 "One taken the other left." It was out of doing the same 
 thing that one grew ready for the Lord and the other dark- 
 ened into a slothful servant. The character that is to live in 
 (ilory is developed in the sphere of business here.
 
 do Bu-iue i> not only a school !'<>r character, but also 
 aru of grace to lift the thoughts and soul to God. The 
 counting-room may become a Kethel, and the desk a pulpit. 
 The spiritual man spirituali/es all places, all scenes, all occa- 
 sions. He often prays for divine guidance in great decisions 
 and thus links his office, by the golden chain of prayer, to the 
 throne of Heaven. He often consults his Elder Brother, the 
 head of the firm. Angels, all unseen, watch his transactions. 
 His thoughts are not secularized not degraded, and he is 
 his Lord's representative; and all his business transactions are 
 occasions for becoming more and more intimate with his Lord. 
 Hi.- activities become wings of devotion. His vision of the 
 Christ remains with him while he does his duty. You re- 
 member Longfellow's picture of the Mediaeval Moid- pray- 
 ing in his cell, and a vision of his Lord came to him and he 
 revelled in the fellowship of such a Guest but just then the 
 convent bell rang out the hour of noon, when it was the 
 monk's duty to go and feed the hungry poor at the convent 
 gate and the question rose in his mind, "\Vould the vi-iou 
 remain? Would the vision come again?" lie left the glori- 
 ous vision to go and do his duty. 
 
 'Like the gate of l'aradi<e 
 Seemed the convent gate to rise. 
 Like a sacrament divine 
 Sci-med to them the bread and wine," 
 as he fed the hungry poor. 
 At length returning 
 
 "He beheld the convent bright 
 With a supernatural light 
 Like a luminous cloud expanding 
 floor and wall and ceiling 
 
 14
 
 But he paused with awe-struck feeling 
 At the threshold of his door. 
 For the vision still was standing 
 As he left it there before 
 When the convent bell appalling 
 From its lofty belfry calling calling, 
 Summoned him to feed the poor 
 Through the long hours intervening 
 It had waited his return, 
 And he felt his bosom burn 
 Comprehending all the meaning 
 When the Blessed vision said 
 'Hadst thon stayed, I must have fled.'" 
 
 The vision of the Christ, the fervor of the .Soul, the lux- 
 ury of divine fellowship are not dissipated but kept, by a 
 life of duty by Christian activity. l>y fidelity in business, as 
 the Lord's stewards. 
 
 (c) Not only can business develop character and be- 
 come the means of grace but the imniorlal and eternal ele- 
 iiintt comes into it, and the rewards 6f Heaven transform it, 
 so that its secular character blends with the sacred, and it is a 
 divine mission. I'nless this is the case, business will be de- 
 graded into a mere secularity and the veil of materialism will 
 dim the vision of the soul. No man can truly believe in im- 
 mortality who is not living for immortality. He who is 
 without passion cannot believe in enthusiasm. He who is 
 blind has no conception of the stars. A soul plunged in the 
 sensual cannot realize the spiritual. When the whole ener- 
 gies are given to this world, the world to come cannot be a 
 reality. Not so with him who is liring for Heaven whose 
 life is spiritual who often by faith and hope makes excur-
 
 9 t<> tin 1 immortal world ho ha< a transcendent coiu-ep- 
 tion oi immortality a- ival as physical life here. 
 
 The motive of eternal reward and the power of the in- 
 visible must touch us and sway us and inspire us in the activ- 
 ities of human life or life will break down before we come 
 to victory. Every other motive is too small, too circum- 
 scribed and too feeble to sustain the soul up to the point of 
 conquest in this mortal struggle. 
 
 You must throw open the pearly gate and let u- have a 
 vision of the throne and the crown or you dwarf character. 
 degrade work, dim our hopes, and rob life of proper mothe 
 and enduring power, and heroic effort. If all labor is lost 
 who can have the courage to toil? If immortality is not our 
 goal and Heaven our reward, who can hope and endure and 
 conquer? Ambition would die. Heroism falter. Hope grow 
 pale and cease her flights; and human life would lie a gloomy 
 M-eiie. Throw open the gate of Immortality and let its light 
 fall upon the fields of human toil and the pathway of human 
 Borrow, ami you t ran- form the -ceiie and make Karth a suburb 
 f the N'ew .Irnisalem. 
 
 UNIV. OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES