n to honor
God_. Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory
of God. And yet is this a business which was ever engaged in, or ever
pursued, with a desire to honor God? Is it an employment over which a
man will pray? Can he ask the God of heaven to give him success? Let
him, then, in imagination, follow what he sells to its direct result;
let him attend it to its final distribution of poverty, and woes, and
crimes, and death, and then kneel before heaven's eternal King, and
render thanksgiving for this success? Alas, it cannot be. Man pursues it
not from a desire to honor God. And can the man who is engaged in a
business on which he cannot implore the blessing of heaven; who is
obliged to conceal all thoughts of it if he ever prays; who never
engaged in it with a desire to glorify God, or to meet his approbation,
can _he_ be engaged in a business which is lawful and right?

I might dwell further on these points. But I am now prepared to ask,
with emphasis, whether an employment that has been attended with so many
ills to the bodies and souls of men; with so much woe and crime; whose
results are evil, and only evil continually; an employment which cannot
be pursued without tending to destroy the very purposes of the
organization of society; without violating the rule which requires us to
render a valuable consideration in business; without violating the rule
which requires a man to promote the welfare of the whole of the
community; which promotes pauperism and crime, and imposes heavy burdens
on your fellow-citizens; which is opposed equally to the love of man and
the law of God--_whether this is a moral, or an immoral employment?_

The question is submitted. If moral, it should be driven on with all the
power of American energy; with all the aids of wealth, and all the might
of steam, and all the facilities of railroads and canals; for our
country and the church calls the man to the honorable employment. But if
it be immoral and wrong, it should be abandoned on the spot. Not another
gallon should ever pass from your store, if it be evil, only evil, and
that continually.

* * * * *

We are prepared now to examine a few of the OBJECTIONS to this doctrine.

1. The first is, that the traffic is not condemned in the Bible. To this
the answer is very obvious. The article was then unknown. Nor was it
known until 600 years after the Bible was completed. This mode of
exte