the bargain. I thought he gave us them for our own use; and I
am sure nobody works harder all the week than you do.

_Stock._ God, it is true, sets apart one day in seven for actual
rest from labor, and for more immediate devotion to his service. But
show me that text wherein he says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
on _Sundays_--Thou shalt keep my commandments on the _Sabbath
day_--To be carnally minded on _Sundays, is death_--Cease to do
evil, and learn to do well _one day in seven_--Grow in grace on the
_Lord's day_--Is there any such text?

_Will._ No, to be sure there is not; for that would be encouraging
sin on all the other days.

_Stock._ Yes, just as you do when you make religion a thing for the
church, and not for the world. There is no one lawful calling, in
pursuing which we may not serve God acceptably. You and I may serve
him while we are stitching this pair of boots. Farmer Furrow, while
he is plowing yonder field. Betsy West, over the way, while she is
nursing her sick mother. Neighbor Incle, in measuring out his tapes
and ribands. I say all these may serve God just as acceptably in
those employments as at church; I had almost said more so.

_Will._ Ay, indeed; how can that be? Now you're too much on t'other
side.

_Stock._ Because a man's trials in trade being often greater, they
give him fresh means of glorifying God, and proving the sincerity of
religion. A man who mixes in business, is naturally brought into
continual temptations and difficulties. These will lead him, if he
be a good man, to look more to God, than he perhaps would otherwise
do; he sees temptations on the right hand and on the left; he knows
that there are snares all around him: this makes him watchful; he
feels that the enemy within is too ready to betray him: this makes
him humble himself; while a sense of his own difficulties makes him
tender to the failings of others.

_Will._ Then you would make one believe, after all, that trade or
business must be sinful in itself, since it brings a man into all
these snares and scrapes.

_Stock._ No, no, Will; trade and business don't create evil
passions--they were in the heart before--only now and then they seem
to lie snug a little--our concerns with the world bring them out
into action a little more, and thus show both others and ourselves
what we really are. But then as the world offers more trials on the
one hand, so on the other it holds out more duties. If we are called
to