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nests and seek their food? Why, having airy wings, do they not follow summer around the earth, instead of making themselves the playmates of the storm, and fluttering on the dreary verge of the winter's eve? I know not whence they come, nor why; yet my spirit has been cheered by that wandering flock of snow-birds.

LESSON CXXI.

Honesty.-W. J. LINTON.

"An honest man's the noblest work of God."

WHAT is honesty? "To pay one's debts." Exactly so. No definition could be nearer correctness. Always minding, however, that there are other legers than the trader's, that a man's debts are not to be calculated in pounds, shillings and pence. Thou shalt not accumulate debt is but another version of Thou shalt not steal! The debtor- that is, he who does not pay to the utmost of his ability—is a robber. Honesty pays all debts.

And what does a man owe?

One John Sharp has just called in his accounts; finds himself indebted - to his tailor so much, his baker and butcher so much, his wine-merchant, &c. &c., so much more. He is going abroad, and wishes to settle everything. Tailor, baker, and company, sign receipts, and depart well satisfied. Honest John Sharp!

John's brother Ernest, calls a meeting of his creditors, and shamefully offers them a dividend of one shilling in the pound. He shall pass through the Insolvent Court, branded as a knave.

Yet which of the brothers is the more honest ?

Truly, if there is no further inquiry, the world's judgment is right enough. But, if payments may not always be made in the coin of the realm, if for some debts stamp-receipts

avail not,

wait a while before you pronounce John honest or Ernest a knave!

John did not pay everybody; Ernest, in fact, declared a larger dividend than John.

John owed much to God-to himself; though bankruptcommissioners and legislators for credit may sneer at such a claimant. Did he pay that debt? Alas, no! He threw down health of body, mind, and heart, at the feet of the idol Money. He owed a duty to his own soul—for it was his duty to keep that undefiled; to his conscience for he was bound to maintain the sovereignty of that, against all rebels and usurpers; and he deposed his conscience because that conscience prohibited certain unfair dealings, and buried his conscience in a dungeon, the same place, indeed, wherein was his "safe," his money-box; and his soul (which was once pure as that of a little child) he dragged through all manner of sordid and sophistical filth, till it became no cleaner than a chandler's shop. For it happened that his soul could not grow in the atmosphere of a counting-house, that the delicate flower of thought withered and put forth no bloom there; and he forgot his duty, and paid no regard to either heart or mind: he must needs make money. But all his money would not pay the debt he owed to his own life; neither is there any insolvent court to clear him of that debt. Thus daily robbing himself, no wonder that John Sharp forgot his duty to his neighbors, the debts he owed to them: for indeed there are other debts beside those to the tradesmen who "supply you. He owed a manly conduct toward the world: he had degraded himself so that no manhood was in him. That debt was not paid, and so he robbed the world. He had borrowed love and kindness from others, and he had no love or kindness to return; such borrowing is theft. He owed a duty to his country he was too fearful to be a patriot; so he defrauded his country, and the great debt of liberty was not balanced in his year's account.

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He owed a duty to his children: but when he made himself a selfish thing, a thing of craft and guile, of over-reaching and veriest worldliness, it was no longer in his power to be an example to them. Tenderly draw up his schedule; and see for how much his children are creditors, of what he has robbed them.

John Sharp had a man's duties to perform, a man's debts to pay; and he gave certain moneys to certain trades-people who had done but little for him, and thought all settled, the greatest of his debts, his life's debts being unpaid. Was this man solvent? His dividend was scarcely a shilling in the pound. John Sharp was no solvent man, but a thief: though courts of law could not issue judgment against him. Miserable bankrupt, with thy ten thousand a year to pay what money pays not! thy own life is petitioning creditor against thee; and thou art not honest. Certainly Jacob was a knave: but Esau was not honest, when he sold his birthright, bribed by a mess of pottage to rob himself and all that had claim upon him.

His brother Ernest

we said—paid more than John. Ay, did he! For he cherished his own soul; paid his debts to that, not burying his talent in a napkin, but putting it out to interest; and his heart grew like a mighty tree under whose shadow, in the sunny hours, many loved to linger, — under whose strong shelter, when the storm strode through the world, many poor had refuge. And his mind had its dues respected ; and brought him wealth in return-the royalist coin of thought, which he scattered, seed-like, over the world. He rendered to God, too, the real worship of deeds; and so ever paid the great debt of nature (which is life, not death), and had no claims uncancelled, save some charges for food and clothing, nothing comparable to the magnificence he had bestowed upon the world, paltry sums for which his great-heartedness (the great-heartedness of an apostle: "Take no thought for food or raiment!" &c.) had not cared to provide. Ernest did not

pay all debts: for no man is perfect; and a man cannot rob another of even yellow dirt without offending. But of the two brothers which was the worthier, which the honester?

Stare not so, good tradesman! we are not teaching thy customers to defraud thee; we are not arguing for any kind of shop-lifting. We would have all men paid to the veriest fraction. Pay tithe of mint and aniseed; but forget not the weightier matters! It is not honest to defraud thy tailor. Pay thy tailor's bill! But pay God's first. Real honesty is a far more comprehensive thing than the honesty of police-magistrates or bankruptcy-commissioners. Your felons' and debtors' jails are not wide enough, if dishonesty is the prisoner's qualification. Worldliness, self-debasement, is the veritable prison wherein the dishonest are confined, whence the soul's debtors may not depart to wander through the green fields, under the cheering smile of Heaven. Honesty is," to pay one's debts-to one's self first, for a man is his own chief creditor. Live well!-that thou owest to God. Pay for thy dress-coat, also! - for honesty cares for the meanest things while its gaze is upon the highest. This is honesty: to fulfil the requisitions of thy own nature, to render to the Eternal full interest for the genius, the aptitude, or even the single talent which has been lent thee. It is not honest for a man to deteriorate his own nature, to blight his own heart, to enfeeble his mind, or even to neglect his physical culture. It is not honest for men to compel or to allow their free souls to bow down to circumstances. An honest man carries his head above circumstances, looking heavenward. It is not honest in traders to overreach, in statesmen to prefer power to welldoing, in lawyers to plead for dishonest clients, or in poets, prophets, or artists, to seek fame rather than truth and beauty. It is not honest to wear a welcoming smile upon the lips while the heart is full of hatred, indifference or distrust.-Better even surliness than a civil lie. It is not honest to be "charitable" out of the superfluity of that of which thou hast

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robbed thy neighbor. It is not honest to shed blood for shame, when thy soul aspires to glory; neither is it honest to buy kingdoms at the price of wrong. It is not honest in a woman to swear to love a man when she only loves his house and equipage; nor any honester for a man to purchase a woman as he would purchase a beast. For everything has its certain value; and to pay that which is fairly due is the prerogative of honesty. It is not honest to make a poet an excise-officer; any more than it is to steal a legislator's robes to throw them over the shoulders of a fool. It is not honest to preach one thing and practise another. It is not honest to impoverish one man in order to enrich another. For honesty has the utmost respect for the rights of all. "He who robbeth even the least of these little ones," said Honesty, once speaking to men "is not my disciple." There is also an honesty of kindness. Love thy neighbor! devote thy life for the good of others! so fulfilling that most excellent bond of charity love's true bondsman. Honesty, God's word, is the first-born of love; ay! and love itself. For when thou hast obeyed the requisitions of Honesty, when thou hast paid all dues, to heaven and to earth, and to thine own soul which hangeth midway between God and the world, what else wilt thou have to do? Wilt thou not be in communion with God? Be thou as godlike as thy nature will allow paying due homage to the eternity within thee. Nor think thyself ever absolved from that duty! Be honest though thou stand in the throng of knaves! Even toward them thou hast a duty. Be honest! honor among thieves. Haply, imitating and strengthened by the great Exemplar, hanging between thieves, thou, strong and enduring in thy integrity, mayest have power to say unto some penitent soul, "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise!" anyhow, though men with never so fierce persecution and crossing of God's life may thrust the honest into hell, he shall rise again, and coming in the clouded future with power and great glory, shall judge the world that

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