_Will._ Then you would make one believe, after all, that trade or business must be sinful in itself, since it brings a man into all these snares and scrapes. _Stock._ No, no, Will; trade and business don't create evil passions--they were in the heart before--only now and then they seem to lie snug a little--our concerns with the world bring them out into action a little more, and thus show both others and ourselves what we really are. But then as the world offers more trials on the one hand, so on the other it holds out more duties. If we are called to battle oftener, we have more opportunities of victory. Every temptation resisted, is an enemy subdued; and _he that ruleth his own spirit, is better than he that taketh a city_. _Will._ I don't quite understand you, master. _Stock._ I will try to explain myself. There is no passion more called out by the transactions of trade than covetousness. Now, 'tis impossible to withstand such a master sin as that, without carrying a good deal of the spirit of religion into one's trade. _Will._ Well, I own I don't yet see how I am to be religious when I'm hard at work, or busy settling an account. I can't do two things at once; 'tis as if I were to pretend to make a shoe and cut out a boot at the same moment. _Stock._ I tell you both must subsist together. Nay, the one must be the motive to the other. God commands us to be industrious, and if we love him, the desire of pleasing him should be the main spring of our industry. _Will._ I don't see how I can always be thinking about pleasing God. _Stock._ Suppose, now, a man had a wife and children whom he loved, and wished to serve; would he not be often thinking about them while he was at work? and though he would not be _always_ thinking nor always talking about them, yet would not the very love he bore them be a constant spur to his industry? He would always be pursuing the same course from the same motive, though his words and even his thoughts must often be taken up in the common transactions of life. _Will._ I say first one, then the other; now for labor, now for religion.