LECTURE XV.

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT.

SHOCKING bad times these: nothing stirring, nothing doing; no enterprise, no confidence; dullness reigns in all markets; depression is the order of the day; the wheels of commerce, which we have seen turning with such velocity, scarcely move at all, or, what is worse, in many instances, move fast enough, only the gear has been reversed; and, instead of turn a-head, half speed, stop her, back her, are the orders given to the engineers. Men of experience say that they never saw such a state of things; that the country never passed through such a fiery trial; and that there is no immediate prospect of any great improvement. There is much speculation, much inquiry, much discussion, much asseveration, as to the causes which have produced this crisis, and prostrated for a time, and so long a time, the commercial activity of this country, and of the world. One man traces the calamity as clearly as possible to this; another can demonstrate to his own satisfaction that it has arisen from that. It is my duty to leave the settlement of such questions to those who are deeply learned in the science of finance; and I do so with some hope that they may

settle it, and yet with much fear that the science of finance is, as yet, very imperfect; that it is a long way behind most of the sciences; and that, though men have been buying and selling for thousands of years, still the philosophy of commerce is thoroughly understood by very few even of those engaged in it.

This, however, is certain, and this it would be well. ever to bear in mind, that, be the times good or bad, the Creator and Preserver of the world always makes ample provision for the wants of all. It is not from any deficiency either in the quantity or the quality of his gifts, but rather from our own defective wisdom, defective honesty, and defective humanity in the apportionment and appropriation of those gifts, that all the difficulties, the perplexities, and the miseries arise. The human race is like a family, whose table is liberally and constantly supplied, for every one bread enough and to spare; but one man in his rapacity seizes more than his rightful share; another in his folly squanders his rightful share; another in his ignorance is swindled out of his rightful share; another in his idleness won't exert himself to obtain his rightful share; and another, in his weakness, cannot get near the table, but is rudely and unfeelingly thrust aside, or trodden under foot, by his greedy brothers, and so goes short of his rightful share, and is happy if, dog like, he can pick up a few of the crumbs. If there is any man, here or elsewhere, throughout this country, who has had and will have no dinner to-day, let him rest assured of this, that God provided him a dinner, and it is either his own fault or that of his fellow-men, that he has it not; and it is the

business of the science of finance not to provide the dinner, but to show how each man may honestly get it day by day and every day. In the productive powers of the earth, there is for all mankind an inexhaustible source of supply. These never fail, though they may be subject to local variations; so whatever the times. may be, let God be thanked, he has done his part; and however poor we are, it is not God who has stinted us; he has made the provision, he is ever making it for us, keeping all the machinery of nature in constant operation, and so producing everything that man can possibly require; but having created us intelligent and responsible creatures, with heads, and hearts, and consciences, he leaves in our own hands, commits to our good sense, our industry, our justice, our humanity, the distribution of that boundless wealth, which it is his glory and his joy to shower down upon the world. I think it is of importance to bear this in mind, because when we are in want we are often tempted to fret against God, and to ask, Where is the justice, where the mercifulness of the Divine Being, that we are brought to such a state of suffering as this? It is not God who has brought us to this state. Last year there were spring showers and summer sunshine and autumnal fruits, even as in other years; last year, like other years, was crowned with his goodness. "If the fig tree had not blossomed, and there had been no fruit in the vine, if the labor of the olive had failed, and the fields had yielded no meat, if the flock had been cut off from the fold, and there had been no herd in the stall;" if the coal seams had been exhausted, and the mines of iron and copper and lead had

been worked out; if the last forest tree in Norway and in America had been cut down; if every acre of available land on the habitable globe had been tilled and the tillage proved unproductive; then we might wonder at the dispensations of providence, and murmuring against God, though even under such circumstances inexcusable, would be not altogether surprising. But this has not been our case. There has been no utter failure, nor, as far as I am aware, any extraordinary deficiency, of any one article necessary for the comfort of the human race. God was, in all his gifts, as liberal last year as usual; therefore, if in our poverty and distress we grumble, let us not have the audacity to grumble against him.

But you may ask, What consolation is it for us, in our extreme want, to be told that there really is abundance, though we cannot lay our hands upon it? Is not this an aggravation of our misery? I think not; and I believe that, if you reflect for a moment, you will think with me. For this fact, that there is abundance, that the grand source of all, the power and mercy of the Creator, never fails, this fact enables us to hope that the evils under which we groan are at least curable. If, on the other hand, the present distress could be traced to the failure of some of the processes of nature, to the breaking down of some of the machinery of the universe, to the gradual diminution of the solar heat, to some derangement of the great water system by which the earth is irrigated, to the decay of the earth's productive powers, to the exhaustion of its mineral treasures, then we should have a panic indeed; the world would very reasonably be filled with consternation and despair, we

should tremblingly anticipate the dissolution of nature, and the end of all things, and we should ask, in agony, Is there a God?-Is there a God? and the dim sun, and the dried up river-courses, and the barren earth, and the empty mines would seem to say to us, No, there is no God; you have no Father in heaven that cares for you; there is no hope for you, there is no help; deliverance is impossible; in the course of time you will all be frozen up, and you must starve and miserably perish. Such horrible fears would be justifiable, would be inevitable, if our distress could be traced to natural, and not artificial causes; if it arose from a diminution in those supplies with which God has ever favored the world; and I consider it a very great consolation to know that this distress is artificial; that it is man's work, not God's; that it arises from our ignorance, our indolence, our greediness, or our inhumanity, or from all these in greater or less proportions, and not from any lack of either the power or the goodness of Him whose tender mercies have for so many ages been over all his works. Yes, it is man who has disarranged things, so that bad times alternate with good; so that in this human family one brother has luxurious plenty, and another brother cannot get a crust of bread; but men must try to arrange things better, and so to exalt righteousness, to check rapacity, to encourage industry, to put down idleness, and to cultivate benevolence, that, by the blessing of God, the voice of complaining shall never be heard in our streets, and pauperism, with all its horrors, may come to a perpetual end. Political economy is a great and noble science, great and noble because of the im