rise to eminence, respectability, and influence among men.  Preachers of the gospel, as well as others, give sanction by their conduct to these false notions of respectability and greatness.  They will seek the society, and court the favor of the rich in preference to the poor, even though the latter may exceed the former in integrity and moral worth.  This, we say, is the most powerful incentive to drive men into a state of encouragement, intemperance and crime.  It is a fearful precipice on which we stand, as a religious community.  Instead of estimating a man’s standing by his virtuous principles, it is too much estimated by his dollars.

So did not Jesus Christ our great example.  He mingled with the lowest class of society.  He associated with, and visited most among those he wished to reform, so that his meek, mild and heavenly example might exert a salutary influence upon their hearts, and cast a restraint upon their conduct.  He was a friend to publicans and sinners, and ate and drank with them.  He went among them, as a physician, to give them life and health, to conduct them by encouragement and persuasion to the paths of righteousness and peace.  His presence was not needed among those who were whole.  He was of course seldom found in their society.  He did not desire to rank with the rich, self-righteous pharisee.  So ought those, who profess to be the servants of Christ, to go among them, who are most in need of their aid.  “The servant is not above his Master.”  They ought, therefore, to condescend to men of low estate, and visit the abodes of poverty and want.

But instead of this, they stand aloof, even from the respectable, because they are poor, and instead of visiting those, who indulge in dissipation and vice, and trying to lead them to the paths of virtue and peace, are heaping upon them the most opprobrious epithets.  By esteeming the rich and associating with them, they practice a course of conduct, which has rooted the impression deep in every mind, that to be esteemed, and to rank with them in the social circle, they must be rich.  This has driven many a virtuous man into crime, many into bad company, and finally into discouragement and intoxication.  This no one can deny.  What, we ask, is the reason, that there is so large a proportion of the middle and lower class of society, compared with the rich, who indulge in crimes and intemperance?  Why is it when misfortune falls upon the rich, that they, so often, resort to the intoxicating draught?  The mystery can only be unriddled in the stubborn fact, that wealth, more than virtue, gives a man a reputation in the world, and this destructive vice involves thousands in ruin.

If every man were assured that, be he rich or poor, he could associate with those who are wealthy and respected, and move in the higher ranks of life, if he only maintained his integrity, and that he would be esteemed in proportion to his moral virtues and mental acquirements, every man would be induced to merit a good name; and their good opinion would operate as a constant check upon his conduct.  Every man, by early attention to his deportment, can become respectable, but every man cannot become wealthy.