th_, in the
hour of death, and in the day of judgment, good Lord deliver us.'

"Examine this, my dear children: in all time of our tribulation,--that
is in poverty and distress, and perhaps famishing from want (and in few
positions are people so incited to crime), _then_ in all time of our
wealth, evidently and distinctly placing wealth as more dangerous to the
soul's welfare than the extremest poverty and its accompanying
temptations; and observe, only exceeded by the most critical of all
dangerous positions, when all has been done and nothing can be
undone,--the hour of death, followed by the day of judgment."

Mr. Campbell ceased speaking, and there was a pause for a minute or two
in the conversation, when Mary Percival said, "What, then, my dear
uncle, do you consider as the most enviable position in life?"

"I consider a moderate independence as the most enviable; not occupied
in trade, as the spirit of barter is too apt to make us bend to that
which is actually fraud. I should say, a country gentleman living on his
own property and among his own tenants, employing the poor around him,
holds a position in which he has the least temptation to do wrong, and
the most opportunities of doing good."

"I agree with you, my dear Campbell," said his wife; "and yet how few
are satisfied even with that lot."

"Because the craving after wealth is so strong, that every one would
have more than he hath, and few men will be content. The desire of
aggrandizement overcomes and masters us; and yet what can be more absurd
than to witness the care and anxiety of those to gain riches, who have
already more perhaps than is necessary for their wants,--thus 'heaping
up riches, not knowing who may gather them,' and endangering the soul to
obtain that which they must leave behind them when they die. Others
amass wealth, not actuated by the avarice of hoarding it up, but by the
appetite for expending it; who collect unjustly that they may lavish
profusely; these are equally foolish, and how important is that lesson
given in the Scriptures." Mr. Campbell opened the Bible which lay before
him and read--

"And he spake a parable unto them. The ground of a certain rich
man brought forth plentifully.

"And he said, What shall I do? because I have no room where to
bestow my fruits.

"And he said: This will I do; I will pull down my barns and build
greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.