Such exposures, then, and such scenes, are well fitted to warn us to consecrate all we have to God, both in the getting and the using. If the riches of the world have the image and superscription of Cæsar, the Christian's should bear the stamp of the King of kings. There is no scriptural anathema against riches--nay, every gift of God is good in itself; but there are countless anathemas against riches acquired by fraud, or spent without seeking the direction or the blessing of God. The Christian in the Market-place is thus taught to use the world as not abusing it, or not to grasp at what may bite like a serpent and sting like an adder. He thus learns to verify what was said of Tyre of old, "Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord; it shall not be treasured nor laid up." While many never think of God--for one solemn thought of him would dash all their schemes; while self is the centre, the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, of many an adventurer, the Christian will try to gather wealth as his God directs, in channels which his God can bless. A SCRIPTURAL CONTRAST. We repeat it; we are permitted to use the world; for there is nothing unnatural, or extreme, or ascetic in the Word of God. We are permitted to /use/ the world; but it is only upon the condition that we do not abuse it; and surely he abuses it who defers to the world more than to God; who adopts the world's maxims, and discards God's; who grasps the world's riches, but is poor toward God; who trembles at the world's frown, but mocks the majesty, the truth, and the justice of God. O, never let the Christian fear to be resolutely honest--his God will provide. He should be encouraged by thinking that, amid all our moral distemper, the world /is/ under the control of a king who will make his laws respected. Baffled we may sometimes be in the world's headlong career; but it is well, it is /best/, that we should be so. He who sees the end from the beginning, and who brings order out of confusion, is doing all things well. He says: "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree: Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not; yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." That is one side of the picture: the other is, "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace." And who has not seen this verified? Men whose hearts the Lord has opened, so that they gave their silver and their gold in thousands, tell us that the more they give, when it is to the Lord, the more are they blessed. That is, "they cast their bread upon the waters, and find it after many days." "They honour the Lord with their substance, and their barns are filled with plenty." "They scatter, and yet increase." "The liberal soul is made rich." "They lend unto the Lord," and receive it back with usury. FINANCIAL CRISES.