Fruit of Covetousness: Dishonesty

“We have brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, 0 man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” — 1 Tim. vi. 7-11.

Regarding covetousness, or the love of money, we have already pointed out (II.) its company and its character, and (III.) its prevalence and its worthlessness. We return to it for the purpose of pointing out some of the disastrous consequences to which it leads — the bitter fruits which it bears. Of these, we select as the subject of the present lecture, Dishonesty. The apostle, in the same breath that he enjoins a man to flee from covetousness, also enjoins him to follow righteousness.

Surely if the Word of truth is to be rightly divided, warnings on this head must occupy a large place in such a city as this, and in such a time. In this vast workshop and market-place for the world, surely a man who desires to live so as to adorn the doctrine of Christ, would need to look well to his ways in the matter of upright dealing. You are required to have a single eye, to have truth in the inward parts, to do to others as you would have others do to you. You are required to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. And all this, while you mingle in that motley throng, and jostle to keep your own place in the impetuous race of life. In such circumstances, men need plain words about being honest in all their transactions. Can a man take fire into his bosom and not be burned? Perhaps he may; but it will be by dint of intense watchfulness, and unwearied care. There must be both prayer and pains, if a man is to come out of these intricate bargainings, every evening, with clean hands and a pure heart.

I shall first trace from the text the path by which covetousness leads to dishonesty; and, secondly, point out, with reference to our own circumstances, the dishonesty to which it leads.

I. The path by which covetousness leads to dishonesty is marked off step by step by the apostle in the text.

The deliverance given by Panl in this passage of Scripture regarding the love of money is very instructive, and withal very consolatory to Christians. When the mountains are removed, we must seek a yet more secure foundation. “When they are cast into the sea, God is our refuge. In the shakings of these times, we must flee as a bird to our mountain. We run to the Word. We take up a plain, pregnant portion of the Scripture, convinced that this community need it much — that this community neglect it much. WTien men’s hearts are failing them for fear — when it appears as if soon mercantile faith will no longer be found on the earth — they may be the rather inclined to hear what the Lord has said. The confusion, and distrust, and dismay that have of late been experienced in this commercial community, are well fitted to open this Word to our understandings, and bear it down upon our hearts. The steps by which those turn aside who love the present world are the following: —

1. They “will be rich,” (v. 9.) A class of persons are here characterised. They are described by the leading aim of their lives. It is not said what their religious profession was. Perhaps their belief was orthodox, and their zeal warm. All that we learn about them is, that in God’s si°dit monev was their “chief end.” This is not a right — not a safe aim for an immortal being. Perhaps if these people had been asked, What is the chief end of man? they would have given in substance the answer, “To glorify God, and enjoy him for ever.” If they had been left to describe themselves, with reference to their mercantile pursuits, they would probably have written “industrious,” or perhaps “enterprising;” but lie who knows what is in man — who reads off the character from the inner workings of the soul — has written them down as persons who are “bent upon being rich.” Their Judge knows that a determination to be rich is the passion that rules them — that an effort to get money is the labor of their life.

2. They “fall, into temptation.” The word conveys the idea of an unexpected fall — a stumble into a pit which you did not expect to be there. You may have seen a man walking in one direction and looking in another, not directly opposite, but to one side. When he comes to a pit, he stumbles and falls. Had he been looking in the same direction in which he was walking, he would probably have escaped the pit. It is thus with the fall of which we are speaking. If the real movement of a man’s life be toward money, while he diligently keeps his face turned round to maintain the appearance of being a Christian, he will certainly fall into every pit that lies in his way. The motion, too, is uneasy. Those who set out in pursuit of riches, making no other profession, get on more smoothly. They go in the same direction that they appear to be going in; but it is a painful, twisting movement, that of the man whose heart is set on a portion which his profession binds him to renounce.

3. They fall into temptation. A man does not all at once go into vicious practices. He glides, before he is aware, into a position where he is exposed to the pressure of a strong temptation. It is a great misfortune when a man finds himself in a situation where inducements to evil-doins; are brought to bear upon him — a situation in which, if he maintain his integrity, it is by resisting a current that sets strongly in from an opposite direction. A man should not rashly go into such a place. We have not yet reached the question of doing unjustly; we are dealing with a previous question of great importance, whether a man is justified in assuming a position where it will bo very hard to keep his conscience clear? Those who have rightly measured their own strength, will avoid persons and places that put it to a severe test. He that trusteth to his own heart is a fool.

4. A snare marks another stage of this downward progress. The man who has thoughtlessly or in foolhardiness placed himself in the way of temptation, is soon surrounded — the meshes of a net compass him about. He got easily in, hut he finds it impossible to get out again. At first it was merely a place of temptation. Here is an opening — here is an opportunity of quietly realizing a large sum. He determines to make a trial. His own means are inadequate. The property of others is within his reach, perhaps under his charge; hut he knows that the owners would not he willing to run the risk. He therefore risks it without consulting them, feeling sure that he will be able to replace it, after securing a large profit to himself. He throws for a glittering prize. He is beyond the temptation now. He is fast in the snare. His project tails. He discovers that he has lost his all, and more. He fears exposure. He will try again to recover himself; but more desperate measures are necessary now. He will do a deed now that he would have shuddered at when lie began. He has recourse to a false entry, a forgery, or some other of the thousand tricks that the wit of hard-pressed men has invented, and the complicated forms of business has served to conceal. Behold the desperate, helpless fluttering of the bird in the snare of the fowler — dashing itself on the sides of an iron cage!

5. The next step is “into many foolish and hurtful lusts.” These raging lusts are, as it were, watching, ready to fasten on their victim as soon as they see him in the toils of the net. You may have observed that a man whose pecuniary affairs are in a desperate position, is peculiarly liable to fall into meaner vices. How frequently do the agonies and embarrassments that precede a shameful disclosure precipitate a man into the abyss of secret drunkenness! I believe that the hopeless struggle to recover one’s pecuniary position after it is past recovery, is one of the most common causes of a sudden plunge into intemperance and kindred sins. The devil devours his victim more easily after the victim has fallen into the snare. Resistance is feeble where the footing of the combatant, undermined by despair, is crumbling away.

These lusts that covetousncss leads to are “foolish and hurtful;” they pretend to cure, but they only deepen the wound. They apply a balsam that soothes the sore for a moment, but fixes disease more firmly in the flesh. I shall not trace this progress farther. For our present purpose, enough has been said regarding the course that leads to dishonesty. “We turn now to dishonesty itself.

H. The dishonesty to which covetousness leads. “Flee these things, but follow after righteousness.” The vices that the love of money lands in are not named at length. In general, they are said to be foolish and hurtful. But the opposite graces are individually specified. Paul bids us turn our backs on these abominable things, and set our faces toward righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. As if suiting the action to the word, he felt his back turned upon injustice, ungodliness, unbelief, hate, impatience, pride. As if he did not see these, he does not name them, but names instead the beauteous array that stretched away before him, and which he counsels us to follow.

The first on the list is righteousness. Of course,

the opposite vice to which covetousness tends,

and against which his warning is directed, is

injustice. These virtues and vices are here introduced, not in the abstract, but in relation to the pursuit of wealth. The vice to which the injunction applies, is that injustice which is incident to excessive efforts to acquire riches. The odious thing from which Christians are commanded to flee, is dishonest dealing in the process of making money. Righteousness is required in all our transactions — righteousness, not according to the conventional rules of society, which shift like the sand, but according to the immutable standard of the divine law. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness.

This command obviously implies that men in business, whether their effort for the time be to enlarge the treasure already possessed, or to weather a point ahead which threatens the ruin of their fortunes, are exposed to the temptation of dealing unjustly. I call upon you in God’s name, and out of his Word, to watch and pray that ye enter not into this temptation. Do you feel as if I were stepping beyond my province, and conjuring into existence the enemy whom I propose to smite, when I call upon you to beware of dishonest dealing? Do your hearts swell into resentment, as if this were a warning suited to another place, and another company? Nay, brethren: Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest lie fall. Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing? Yes, he is: and that thing he will do, the very first time that a temptation occurs, if he has nothing to fall back upon but a bristling pride, that snarls at a warning as if it were an insult. Honorable merchants! And do you presume to give them a warning, which is as much as to say to their face, “See that ye do not cheat your customers?” Yes, I do; and I tell the most honored and most honorable anion e? them to take it to himself, for he needs it. If you have nothing but your honor and integrity, your high place and high mind, to lean upon, your foundation is in the dust. How many are at this day put to shame for detected dishonesty, who once would have resented the supposition of it as keenly and as sincerely as you! I do not know your hearts: and what is more, you do not know them yourselves. One who does know them, however, testifies that they are deceitful above all things. Manifest it is that Paul would not have stood upon ceremony, and softened his words because he had men of honor to deal with. He did not hesitate to counsel Timothy in this manner, a man that had known the Scriptures from his youth; how much more would he have spoken out here against the unrighteousness that mingles with the making of money, where, for the most part, the ledgers are more accurately known than the Scriptures, and far more deeply indented on the hearts! Under these counsels of the Bible, the face to the ground is our becoming attitude; “Lord, is it I?” our becoming prayer. There are many kinds of dishonesty in trade that cannot conveniently be specified here. Indeed, there are many depths of Satan in these matters that I do not know. There is, however, the less need to go into the cunning mysteries of unlawful trade, because we have a rule from the Lord that will reach them all: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” — (Matt. vii. 12.) What a word is this! * Where is the exceptional case or qualifying circumstance that can elude the grasp of that all-comprehending rule? It is a mighty engine fitted to seize and crush the most gigantic iniquities; and yet a portable machine that may be

[ * Our author grapples here with a great question. To denounce the sin of covetousness is well; but to state the doctrine, the laws, the emotions, which should occupy the soul from which this lust has been cast out, is better. Perfect love not only casteth out fear, it is also capable of casting out covetousness. We must bring forward the forces which are not onty to besiege and take, but occupy and keep, the citadel of the soul. — C] used in detecting the hidden things of dishonesty in your minutest transactions. It is a hesom that sweeps the deepest, darkest crevice of a deceitful heart. It is a rule that every man may apply for himself; and if he is willing to know the right, he will not fall into error. Try your conduct by that law. Take it with you when you are behind the counter, and the customer before you — take it with you to the manufactory, when the purchaser of the goods is as yet unknown. If you were the customer and he the merchant or manufacturer, would you be willing that the same bargain should be made — that the same material should go into the fabric? Under this rule, faithfully applied, a man might make a mistake through ignorance, but he could not cheat. In framing that rule, the Lord has taken a principle of our nature that is uniform, and employed it to regulate an impulse that, when left to itself, is very uncertain. The steady, uniform principle is, the desire not to be cheated. The wavering, uncertain thing, which you may have at one time and want at another — the thing that with man you can never be sure of, is, the desire not to cheat. Now, in the construction of that comprehensive rule of Christian morality, the uncertain is connected with the certain — the moveable is made fast to the immoveable, in order that it too may be made sure. Justice is linked to self-interest, because, while justice in fallen man is weak and wavering, self-interest is steady and strong. If that rule were faithfully applied, we would have the same security that a man would not injure his neighbor, which we now have that he will not injure himself.*

Some forms of dishonesty, such as a false balance, that are prominently condemned in Scripture, we shall pass over without particular notice, because in modern society, though they still exist, they have been comparatively cast into the shade by other inventions. Dishonesty is obliged to hide itself now under more elaborate devices.

[*This idea deserves to be maturely weighed, and to be studied in all its bearings. Self-interest is one of the most powerful stimulants to exertion which God has planted in the human breast — and one which grows stronger by indulgence. Infinite wisdom has, it may be, planted it there to give vigor to the character, but not without clearly revealing that the self-interest which regards its highest inducements must not neglect for a moment the demands of justice and the obligations of duty. If self-interest were duly enlightened, “we should have the same security that a man would not injure his neighbor which we now have that he will not injure himself.” We must therefore not only denounce covetousness, but we must heed the teachings of Christ, which instruct us not only what we should not do, but tell us what we should do. These instructions need to be fully developed and applied. — C]

There is one form of it, however, which, though it is vulgar enough in its own nature, the refinements of society cannot banish into the hackground. I mean the adulteration of goods offered for sale by the mixture of other ingredients. This practice prevails to a very great extent, and in many different kinds of articles. I do not say the fact of mixing different articles is, in its own nature, necessarily dishonest. But I do say that, to sell as pure an article that is mixed with something else, is a dishonest deed. To sell an article into which some other ingredient has been put, without telling the customer, when the customer, if told, would decline the bargain, is plain unvarnished cheating. All or most of vour neighbors do it! It is the custom of the trade! Well, and what then? The practice of your neighbors is not the rule of your duty; the custom of the trade is not the standard whereby you will be judged at the throne of God. The line of duty is short and simple. One would think it is abundantly obvious to an honest man. Sell the article, whether simple or compound, according to the best of your judgment, for what it is.

A false representation to a customer as to the original cost of your wares, or the rate of your profit, is manifestly dishonest. I do not think any merchant is bound to tell how much he paid for his goods, or how much he is making’ out of them. But if he volunteer any information on the subject, he is bound to tell the truth, and the whole truth necessary to enable the purchaser to form a correct opinion. A portion of truth may be stated in such a way as to convey an erroneous impression to an unskilful inquirer. When this is done intentionally, the truth is turned into a lie. The sharpened wit of the practised dealer may in this way draw out the hard-earned money of a laborer who has come in quest of winter provision for his family, but the transaction is unrighteous. The poor man is outwitted, and has gone out of your sight; but you are not yet clear of the transaction. The Judge of the poor has yet to be met.

Above all things, you who have others, especially young persons, employed in selling your goods, charge them to be true and honest. I speak now not for the purchasers, but for the salesmen. A system of dishonesty in a shop may cheat the casual customer out of a few pence; but it inflicts on the seller a deeper wrong — it becomes the defiler of his conscience, the destroyer of his soul. Enjoin not, encourage not, permit not, any thing short of transparent righteousness. Suffer no

DISHONESTY. Ill

trick of any kind. Let nothing be transacted on your premises that you would have cause to be ashamed of if, in all its particulars, it were displayed to the world. I know of nothing more revolting in all the secret doublings of dishonest ambition, than is implied in the experience of a young man who finds himself wedged between the two sides of the terrible alternative of cheating to please his employer, or giving up his situation for the safety of his soul.

Some may say, — I have often heard it said, — if you insist on such strictness, you cannot carry on business at all. I sympathise with the difficulties of men in business. When they think of their families that must be supported; when they see the trade ready to go past them, because of unscrupulous practices resorted to by others; when they feel themselves screwed up on all sides by the pressure of a thousand eager competitors, I do compassionate my brethren in their time and place of trial: but I am here speaking from God, and for righteousness, and about the interests of eternity. Of necessity I must speak the truth. I have, in view of these difficulties, only one counsel to give, one command to issue, and it is this: When the alternative is presented to you of a falling off in business, or dishonest shifts to keep it IS up, make short work of it — dally not with the tempter. If you cannot both keep a good custom and a good conscience, let one of them go. Keep a good conscience at all hazards, and cast yourself on a Father in heaven for daily bread.

Breach of trust is a form of dishonesty alarmingly frequent in our day. Our ears are familiar with reports of persons entrusted with the management of money, using it for their own purposes, and so defrauding their employers. It is seldom a case of simple theft. In most instances the course is that which we have already traced. It is first a determination to be rich; then the temptation, the snare, and the hurtful lusts follow each other in rapid succession. The man with this passion burning in his bosom has money, the property of others, passing through his hands. He sees a promising speculation. If he can by a successful move make a profit to himself, his employers will experience no injury: they will get their own again. I do not know how many instances of this daring operation may take place amongst us. I suppose we hear only of those that are unsuccessful. Public attention is attracted to the loss and shame that are attached to the close of the transaction, but the real dishonesty lies at the beginning of it — in risking money without the knowledge or against the will of its owner. Though the speculator should succeed, and repay in full, he has acted dishonestly. The risk is a thing that has a money value: it may he small, or it may be great; but whatever it is, if you take it without bargaining and paying for it, you are stealing — you have fallen into the snare.

Id the management of railways, disclosures have been made that may well make us tremble for the prosperity of our country. Practices have been brought to light which may well make us blush, not only for our Christian name, but for our common nature. With extravagant expenditure, selfinterested, dishonorable jobbing, and wholesale swindling, the nation has perhaps suffered as much on the one side as it has gained on the other by these wonderful creations of our age. The advantage of railways to the social condition of the Community is incalculably great; but multiform dishonesty has so mixed the cup of blessing, that one might almost entertain the question, whether it would not have been on the whole better for the country that railways had not been invented yet?

There are other transactions on a large scale in which one portion of the community have been unwisely trusting, and another portion have been unjustly abusing that trust, until both are ruined together. I must make a plain statement on this head. Men seem to speak and act as if great mercantile transactions were not to be judged by the old-fashioned rules of morality that apply to common things. Righteousness is one and unchangeable. It compasses about your mighty trafficking, and lays bonds on it, as completely and as easily as the smallest bargainings between a huckster and a peasant at the wayside: even as the same law with equal ease retains a little water in a cup, and the ocean’s wave within the ocean’s bed.*

The principle which I desire to enunciate and illustrate is this: If a number of persons agree to entrust certain sums of money to certain men, to be used according to their discretion, then though

[ * It behooves the pious of every denomination to consider what they can do to vindicate society from such reproach as this. If these reproaches be deserved, an effort should be made to purify the social arrangements which tolerate such departures from sound morality. Christians are better taught — they know better. Can it be that in such a country as Scotland, where evangelical religion is prevalent, where Protestantism is in the ascendant, where religious training is almost universal, that such language is needed to characterize the morals of the commercial and industrial community? Is it not a serious reproach to Protestantism? We fear they dwell more upon those doctrines which refer to God than upon those which refer to their duty to men. — C] those who receive it act injudiciously, and the depositors thereby suffer loss, the managers may be accused of ignorance or unskilfulness, but not of dishonesty. If, however, the money has been entrusted to them by a specific instrument, describing clearly the method of management, and in particular defining the amount of risk that they were permitted to run, — if they receive the money on these terms, and then knowingly go beyond the specified risk, without consulting their constituents, the deed is unjust, without reference to the success that may attend it.

Take an analogous case. The cultivators of a district acquire as their joint property a boat, to be used for the purpose of conveying produce to the opposite side of an inland lake. They agree upon a scheme of management, which is accurately written out. One of the clauses provides that on no pretence whatever shall more than twenty tons be put on board at one time; that being, after due admeasurement, considered the utmost amount of burden that was consistent with perfect safety. A few of the farmers who reside near the shore are appointed managers of the concern. The constitution of the company, in which they have concurred, is placed in their hands, and the various members return to their own homes. Operations have begun, and the prospect is good. Daily the boat leaves the shore with her burden, and the whole neighborhood reaps the benefit. One morning, when the boat was fully loaded and ready to start, one of the managers said to his brethren, “‘1 have twenty quarters of wheat here; if I do not get it over by this trip I shall lose my market; it will be a great accommodation if you will permit me to put it on board.” “Any thing to accommodate you, sir,” replied the chairman; “but it is against the rules. We might be liable for the consequences.” “There is no danger,” replied the other; “the lake is as smooth as a mill-pond; there is not a breath of wind. The rule is made for a stormy day; the boat will carry forty tons in such weather as this.” The reasoning seemed good, and the favor was granted. No accident occurred. Next morning the craft was at her moorings ready for another load. In a few days, another member asked and obtained a similar indulgence. Again, on their return, the boatmen reported that all was well. Forthwith, instead of an exception, overloading became the rule. Day by day the managers exceeded their powers for their own advantage, mutually accommodating each other, in the absence, and without the knowledge, of their constituents.

At length, unscrupulous by long habit, and emboldened by uniform success, they exceeded all the bounds of prudence. Such was their complicity, and mutual consciousness of wrong-doing, that no one dared to refuse what any one was pleased to ask. !Not one or two, but all the managers, must have accommodations at the same time. One day, although the sky looked squally, the boat was loaded with forty tons, exactly the double of her specified burden, because every one of the managers needed something for himself; and all, in spite of misgivings, were obliged to comply with the demands of each. Off went the boat at her accustomed hour, with the water up to her gunwale. The managers stood on the shore and looked after her with some anxiety, till she was out of sight in a haze. In the evening news arrived that at mid-passage a ripple had risen on the water, the boat had filled and sunk, and the whole cargo had been lost. Disastrous was the result; but though there had been no disaster, there was dishonesty. The community of proprietors had concluded a bargain with the directors for a certain definite risk, leaving them on that point no discretion. Behind backs the managers took more than was bargained for, and that in favor of themselves. They cheated their neighbora. Even while the trick was successful, it was dishonest. The guilt of an action does not depend on its discovery.

Let the principle involved in such a case be applied to any large joint money speculations. If an indefinite number of persons agree to throw various sums of money into one great capital — if they agree upon the principles of management, and embody them in specific rules — in particular, if they determine and define the kind and amount of security that must be kept around it — if they lay down a maximum risk which their property may be allowed to run, and mark off the breadth of margin which is continually to be kept between it and the encroachments of danger; — if, after completing the legislative code, so to speak, they entrust the executive to some of their own number — if they go to their homes trusting to the wisdom of the constitution for the preservation of their property, and to the honesty of the directors for the preservation of the constitution — then, and in that case, if the managers, to the best of their judgment, abide by the rules, although loss should ensue, they are to be honoured in their misfortunes, and sustained against the interested complaints of disappointed speculators. Want of success is no crime. On the other hand, if they knowingly exceed the rules, without new instructions from their constituents; more especially if the excess be in their own favor, and for their own pecuniary advantage; if they expose, and persist in exposing, the property of their constituents to greater risks than the rules admit, or their constituents know, they are dishonest men, whatever their standing may he in the church or the community.

Let it he observed, that I give no judgment on any particular case, for this good reason, that I do not know the facts on which such a judgment might rest. It is not for me to decide on mere rumor, however prevalent. A strong rumor might overrun and oppress the innocent. It is my duty and my aim to lay down principles of judging, and let no man apply them against a neighbor except on the basis of ascertained facte. It is my aim to enunciate only the major of the indictment; and the public have no right to bring home the conclusion against any brother, unless, with all the solemnity of a jury, they have seen a minor established, fastening the conclusion upon a particular man. I have been induced to lift my voice on these subjects, not by any tardiness observed in affixing blame to guilty persons, but by fear of latitudinarian views on the very principles of righteousness. My object is not to quicken the public mind into greater readiness to fix on a particular man a charge of guilt. The public seem to be more than sufficiently apt to do this already. My object is to describe certain acts and courses of action, and to proclaim that the perpetrators, whoever they may be, ought to be accounted dishonest men.

It is a grievous thing when matters have come to such a pass, that a minister expounding the morality of the Bible finds it necessary to enter into such definitions, in order to explain what dishonesty is. Men dare now-a-days to bring forward the magnitude of their transactions to break down the barriers which God has set up between right and wrong. It has often been remarked in regard to unjust wars, that he who kills ten thousand gets a coronet upon his brow, and he who kills one gets a halter on his neck. There is an inclination to adopt a similar distinction between great dishonesties and small. We protest against the distinction, whether expressed or implied. The-Bible affords it no countenance. “But business could not go on, if you class the great transactions of honorable men with the tricks of mean swindlers.” Avaunt, Mammon, thou God of the world; thou art the enemy of righteousness! It is necessary that all men do justly, whether business go forward or stand still. I suppose one of the most widely current maxims that ever obtained in any language is the Latin proverb, “Fiat justitia, mat ccelum” — “Do justly, though the sky should tumble down.” So be it; but there is no danger. God has better supported the pillars of the sky. Our dishonest manoeuvres are not required to keep them up. God has better compacted the framework of society, than that it should need your tricks to keep it going. It is a libel on the wisdom of the Almighty to say that business could not go on if righteousness, pure as that of heaven, were made to circulate through all its hidden channels. The business of earth would realty prosper, if its people were all righteous, and righteous always. Forthwith it would be a new earth, if it should become the dwelling-place of righteousness.

What civilization and commerce cannot do for this troubled world, God will yet do by the sending of his Son. As Christ has come, bearing sin to save, he will come in righteousness to be glorified in his saints. To them that wait for him shall he come the second time, without sin unto salvation. If, weary of the world’s sin, yet willing to do the Master’s work, we wait for his coming, what manner of persons ought we to be meantime, in all holv conversation and godliness!