Words for the Wise | Page 5

all right--nay, your duty--if you could do so
without neglecting higher and plainer duties. But you cannot do this,
and I cannot receive the money you paid me this morning. Take it back,
and let it be expended in making your family more comfortable. I have
enough, and more than enough for all my wants, and I will not deprive
you of a sum that must be important, while to me it is of little
consequence either as gained or lost.
EDWARD PETRON."
The letter dropped from the tailor's hand; he was overcome with
emotion. His wife, when she understood its purport, burst into tears.
The merchant's sleep was sweeter that night than it had been for some
time, and so was the sleep of the poor debtor.

The next day Mr. Moale called to see Mr. Petron, to whom, at the
instance of the latter, he gave a full detail of his actual circumstances.
The merchant was touched by his story, and prompted by true
benevolence to aid him in his struggles. He saw most of the tailor's old
creditors, and induced those who had not been paid in full to
voluntarily relinquish their claims, and some of those who had received
money since the poor man's misfortunes, to restore it as belonging of
right to his family. There was not one of these creditors who did not
feel happier by their act of generosity; and no one can doubt that both
the tailor and his family were also happier. John and Henry were not
compelled to leave their home until they were older and better prepared
to endure the privations that usually attend the boy's first entrance into
the world; and help for the mother in her arduous duties could now be
afforded.
No one doubts that the creditor, whose money is not paid to him, has
rights. But too few think of the rights of the poor debtor, who sinks into
obscurity, and often privations, while his heart is oppressed with a
sense of obligations utterly beyond his power to cancel.

THE SUNDAY CHRISTIAN.

TWO things are required to make a Christian--piety and charity. The
first has relation to worship, and in the last all social duties are involved.
Of the great importance of charity in the Christian character, some idea
may be gained by the pointed question asked by an apostle--"If you
love not your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God
whom you have not seen?" There is no mistaking the meaning of this. It
says, in the plainest language--"Piety without charity is nothing;" and
yet how many thousands and hundreds of thousands around us expect
to get to heaven by Sunday religion alone! Through the week they
reach out their hands for money on the right and on the left, so eager
for its attainment, that little or no regard is paid to the interests of
others; and on Sunday, with a pious face, they attend church and enter
into the most holy acts of worship, fondly imagining that they can be
saved by mere acts of piety, while no regard for their fellow-man is in
their hearts.
Such a man was Brian Rowley. His religion was of so pure a stamp that

it would not bear the world's rough contact, and, therefore, it was never
brought into the world. He left the world to take care of itself when the
Sabbath morning broke; and when the Sabbath morning closed, he
went back into the world to look after his own interests. Every Sunday
he progressed a certain way towards heaven, and then stood still for a
week, in order that he might take proper care of the dollars and cents.
Business men who had transactions with Mr. Rowley generally kept
their eyes open. If they did not do it at the first operation, they rarely
omitted it afterwards, and for sufficient reason; he was sharp at making
a bargain, and never felt satisfied unless he obtained some advantage.
Men engaged in mercantile pursuits were looked upon, as a general
thing, as ungodly in their lives, and therefore, in a certain sense,
"out-siders." To make good bargains out of these was only to fight
them with their own weapons; and he was certainly good at such work.
In dealing with his brethren of the same faith he was rather more
guarded, and affected a contempt for carnal things that he did not feel.
We said that the religion of Mr. Rowley did not go beyond the pious
duties of the Sabbath. This must be amended. His piety flowed into
certain benevolent operations of the day; he contributed to the support
of Indian and Foreign Missions, and was one of the managers on a
Tract Board. In the affairs of the Ceylonese