ou down, even to the extent of secretly attacking your credit.
He will lend his money on usury, and when he has none to lend, will
play the jackal to some money-lion, and get a large share of the spoil
for himself. And further, if you differ in faith from him, in his
heart will send you to hell with as much pleasure as he would derive
from cheating you out of a dollar."

"You are too severe on R----. I cannot believe him to be what you
say."

"A man's reputation among business men gives the true impression of
his character, for, in business, the eagerness with which men seek
their ends causes them to forget their disguises. Go and ask any man
who knows R---- in business, and he will tell you that he is a
sharper. That if you have any dealings with him you must keep your
eyes open. I could point you to dozens of men who are as pious as he
is on the Sabbath, who, in their ordinary life are no better than
swindlers. The Christian religion is disgraced by thousands of such,
who are far worse than those who never saw the inside of a church."

"I am afraid that you, in the warmth of your indignation against false
professors, are led into the extreme of setting aside all religion; or
of making it to consist alone in mere honesty and integrity of
character--your moral man is all; it is morality that opens Heaven.
Now mere morality, mere good works, are worth nothing, and cannot
bring a man into Heaven."

"There is a life of piety, and a life of charity, my friend, as I have
before said," replied the old man, "and they cannot be separated. The
life of charity regards man, and the life of piety God. A man's
prayers, and fastings, and pious duties on the Sabbath are nothing, if
love to the neighbor, showing itself in a faithful performance of all
life's varied uses that come within his sphere of action, is not
operative through the week, vain hopes are all those which are built
upon so crumbling a foundation as the mere life of piety. Morality,
as you call it, built upon man's pride, is of little use, but
morality, which is based upon a sincere desire to do good, is worth a
thousand prayers from the lips of a man who inwardly hates his
neighbor."

"Then I understand you to mean that religious, or pious duties are
useless"--was remarked with a good deal of bitterness.

"I said," was mildly returned, "that the life of piety and the life of
charity could not be separated. If a man truly loves his neighbor and
seeks his good,