Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/223

223

THE NEW BIRTH.

  "Faith transfigures every thing," said Hold ; "all
our affections, occupations, trials, and hopes. If you
have, till now, considered the business of a merchant
merely as designed to secure earthly enjoyments, you
will now regard it in a new light. It is commerce
which breaks down all natural and artificial barriers be-
tween nations. It sends its flag over the broad ocean,
passes mountain chains, and leads the beast of burden
through barren wastes and desert sands. No toil, no
peril deters it. It defies the vertical sun of the south,
and the ice of arctic seas."
  "Yes," said Mander, joining in the conversation,
"we assist, too, in the intellectual developments of
mankind. It was not until after I had become satis-
fied of this, that I was able to pass without repugnance,
from the study of writings calculated to elevate the
mind above every thing merely selfish and worldly, to
the exchange and counting-room. We advance the
growing brotherhood and further the progress of na-
tions, by bringing them nearer to each other, thereby
removing their mutual distrust, hostility, contempt,
prejudice, and ignorance. For commerce is a living,
moving web, stretching over the whole surface of the
earth, whose threads bind all nations together, making
them mutually dependent, and so teaching them to
love and respect each other. It is the bearer of a
never-ending exchange, not only of worldly goods, but
of intellectual advancement. Not only does it make
the products of each one common to all, but it scat-
ters, everywhere that intellectual light, which, without
its world-embracing activity, would have shone only
over a very small part of the earth's surface. It tends