CHAPTER III.

_THE CHRISTIAN MERCHANT._

When he commenced business for himself, Mr. Balfour intended to succeed; he felt that he had it in him to succeed. He knew that true success could only be realised with the blessing of God, and the proceeds of that success were to be consecrated to the service of God and of his fellow-men. One of his foremost subjects of concern was the application to a right use of the expected gains of the future. Those who knew him will feel that the picture drawn of him at the outset of his business career, by his partner Mr. Williamson, in the following simple touches, is altogether characteristic of the man. He says, “Before we began business, we had naturally to prepare and arrange articles of partnership. I remember with what earnestness he proposed that we should set aside a certain percentage of our profits for religious and benevolent purposes, before any division was made among the partners. His wish was cordially assented to, but the generous purpose originated with him. And to his dying day he never ceased to be thankful for having had so many opportunities of helping and furthering good objects, by means of that Benevolent Fund. It is unnecessary to say that his benefactions were not limited by the measure of this fund: for it is well known that out of his own individual means, he was one of the most generous of givers.”

A business begun in a spirit like this, was not likely to lack the dew of Heaven’s blessing. The large heart of the man was about to find wider scope for its beneficence, than when he wrote, in the year 1843, the following characteristic note to his little brother: “My dear Henry, I enclose you one shilling for pocket money, of which you will please take no notice to anybody; also half-a-dozen postage stamps to keep you from spending your pence. I daresay you are sometimes rather hard up for a little money. When you are in that unfortunate predicament, drop me a line, and I can always afford you sixpence at least.” The boy was father of the man, both in the readiness to give according to his means, and in the wish that “no notice should be taken to anybody.”

Lord Bacon’s wise words on the use of riches have never found more beautiful exemplification than in Mr. Balfour’s case. “Of great riches there is no real use, except it be in distribution: the rest is but conceit. There is a custody of them, or there is a power of dole and donative of them, or a fame of them: but no solid use to the owner.... Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly.”

The aspirations and resolves of Mr. Balfour for his business life call to mind the words reported to have been spoken, not long before his death, by the famous Richard Whittington, who died in 1423. “The fervent desire and busy intention of a prudent, wise, and devout man shall be, to cast before and make sure the state and the end of this short life with deeds of mercy and of pity; and specially to provide for those miserable persons whom the penury of poverty insulteth, and to whom the power of seeking the necessities of life by art or bodily labour is interdicted.”[A]

But there was more to be done than to “cast before” and arrange for the conscientious and generous disposal of profits. The profits must first be made, and to this object the young merchant turned his powers. “During the first decade of our business life,” says Mr. Williamson, “it was of course his duty to throw his energy into our business concerns; and while I dare say we all did our best, I have no hesitation in saying that he, more than any of us, laid the foundations of our business. He was possessed of untiring energy and enthusiasm, qualities which, before the era of the electric telegraph and submarine cables, were perhaps of more importance in commercial affairs than they are now. That energy, it is true, nearly led us into trouble and disaster, for the crisis of 1857 came upon us at a time when our operations were, perhaps, beyond what our means at that time warranted. The anxieties of that period made a deep impression upon him, and left a mark which was never completely effaced. He was full of self-reproach for what he considered to have been a grievous sin rather than an error of judgment; and ever afterwards he was tremblingly solicitous that our business commitments should not exceed what prudence dictated. For some time the anxieties of 1857-1858 pressed heavily upon him, and the recollection of them brought him at times almost to the verge of despondency. But even in this, his singularly beautiful character shone out. It was not the burden which he had himself to carry that disquieted him, but the worry and distress which he imagined he had brought upon others.

“ ... While his whole soul was fired with the desire to distribute with unstinted hand, yet in view of obligations which necessarily arose out of a large and varied business, and which rested upon him and his firm, the necessity was laid upon him to permit a reasonable accumulation of capital. In his later days he frequently made use, both in speech and writing, of this expression, ‘God helping me, I am now determined, so far as I can, to preserve the root while seeking to make good use of the fruit.’ It was well known that having acquired such an amount of capital as he considered adequate to his business obligations, he had for some years made up his mind to allow no further accumulation of his means, but to spend them, as God prospered him, for the promotion of Christian enterprises and social reforms. During one or two years of unremunerative business near the close of his life, he was greatly distressed to find himself unable, except by trenching on what he called the “roots,” to give with so free a hand as he had done during many previous years.

“He had not the remotest intention of retiring from business. It was his wish to die in harness; and this he did, alas! at an age and at a time when many of us thought the world could ill afford to lose him. When rallied by friends about the possibility of his some day becoming a large landed proprietor, he would break out, in his own manner, into derisive laughter at the very suggestion of such a thought. He was wont to say he would not exchange the proud position of a British merchant, with all its interests and opportunities of usefulness, for that of the richest landed proprietor of the realm. He frequently spoke with pity of men who had retired from business, and who had gone to the country to mope and wither and rust. His sole object in continuing to follow business pursuits in Liverpool was, that he might employ the position thus given him, as a fulcrum, by means of which to exercise a salutary influence on the town with which he had been so long and so closely associated.

“ ... When I was abroad, his private letters, amid all the hurry and excitement of business, invariably gave expression to his interest in God’s work in some quarter or other, and were constantly aimed at lifting us up to higher motives and considerations than the mere successful prosecution of business.”

And yet his letters afford little help in the delineation of his character. They contain snatches of devout thought and Christian feeling; but even those which deal with philanthropic questions are directed, for the most part, to some pressing practical point, the interest of which has now passed away.

Suffice it to say, that the business of the firm was conducted on principles of the highest integrity and honour. Soon after Mr. Balfour had been called away from earth, the present writer met a merchant who said to him, “For a long course of years I have done business with Mr. Balfour. Shall I tell you why? It was because I saw that when an order was given to him, it was carried out exactly as if he were acting for himself. Of course I could not but stick to him.” Happily the same thing may be said of many others. The principle on which he acted lies at the root of all honourable business.

Many transactions which are of a questionable character are excused by the familiar saying, “Business is business.” There was nothing on which Mr. Balfour looked with greater scorn, than the idea, that there was a mercantile code of morals and a Christian code. He believed it to be imperative on the man of business to be upright and fair under all competition and in all circumstances. On one occasion he entered into a written agreement with a merchant on certain terms. An uncomfortable conviction crept into his mind that it was too much to the advantage of his own firm. On reaching his office he said to one of his clerks, “Take back this agreement to Mr. ----, and tell him that I wish it cancelled: I think it ought to have been more in his favour than it is.”

The sensitively conscientious and self-forgetting character of Mr. Balfour at times manifested itself in peculiar ways. Mr. Williamson says: “Sometimes his scrupulosity approached to business eccentricity. When at Valparaiso he perplexed the minds of his salesmen occasionally by insisting that, even for most saleable and well-bought goods, they should not charge beyond a low percentage of profit. And it was with difficulty he could be convinced that it was essential to secure a fair profit on fresh well-bought goods, in view of the losses which had to be faced on goods which had become difficult of sale.

“At one time, in the realisation of produce at Liverpool, he set his face like a flint against selling to men who were merely ‘speculators,’ and insisted on sales being made only to dealers, manufacturers, and consumers. It was impossible to maintain that position. This became apparent to him on one occasion upon a serious fall in values, before which he had refused to take satisfactory prices because they were offered by a ‘mere speculator.’ Much to his discomfort, he had eventually to submit to a heavy loss. Such eccentricities or errors--if errors they be--had all a leaning to virtue’s side, and testified to that scrupulous consideration for others which formed so strong a feature of his character.”

Certain it is that the man who could act thus was not likely to violate the rule of merchant life quoted above, viz., to seek only such riches as he might “get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly.” To most of us the law is difficult which requires us to “love our neighbour as ourselves.” To those who knew him well, it sometimes appeared as if his difficulty was to love himself as his neighbour. Not only in the transactions of business, but in many little ways in the home circle and among his friends, it seemed as if he were more sensibly affected by pleasures and advantages when given to others, than when they fell to his own lot. The idea of securing any benefit to himself, at the cost of loss or trouble to another, was a thing wholly alien to his generous nature.

To be “not slothful in business,” and at the same time “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,” is a task which many have found hard. Mr. Balfour acted on a rule which greatly helped him in the effort to combine diligence in his worldly affairs with the service of the Lord. He was always determined to keep business matters in their proper place, and to confine them to their proper hours. In Valparaiso it was customary for the heads of the English houses to have the young men from their offices living with them; and there Mr. Balfour from the first made it a strict rule not to permit any reference to business to be made at table or in the house. Any breach of this rule greatly displeased him. It was his desire to cherish, in the minds of those associated with him, concern for higher and nobler interests. And even in the busiest seasons, his own spirit, dismissing office cares on the expiry of office hours, was free to expatiate in the fields of usefulness and beneficence in which he found his peculiar delight.

We have seen what indomitable energy characterised his early business life. In his later years he was more “restful” in business concerns, but never slack-handed. It cannot be doubted that the welcome change, from business to beneficence, served as a refreshing influence to his mind, and reacted favourably on his power for the discharge of his duties as a merchant. The man, who day and night has business on the brain, will not do even business so well as he who daily at the appointed time throws aside its cares, that he may advance the kingdom of God and the welfare of man;

“For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds, And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.”

On the 23rd of March 1864 Mr. Balfour was married to Jessie, third daughter of the Rev. Dr. Roxburgh of Glasgow, whose ministry, in early life, he had attended in Dundee. The union was one in every way happy and helpful, and one for which Mr. Balfour never ceased to thank God.

His letters at this time breathe a spirit of profound gratitude to the Giver of all his blessings. Writing to Mr. Williamson he says: “I wish to let you know how extremely grateful to myself and to my wife have been the hearty feelings you both cherish at the enormous addition which has now been brought to my happiness. I do not lose sight of the main element of congratulation afforded to my own mind, but I do sincerely rejoice that, in addition, I have the further gratification that such thorough satisfaction has been expressed regarding our marriage, on all hands. I am happy to believe the union to be thoroughly in harmony with Dr. and Mrs. Roxburgh’s feelings. For one thing, it seems to link Mrs. Roxburgh to Fife again, and this is a happiness perhaps to her and her husband, but doubly so to all our connection. You cannot think how many different sources of congratulation exist around the union. Yesterday’s post brought me perhaps the most valuable letters that I can remember having received: the West Coast matters all so satisfactory, things in Liverpool going on pleasantly: and then I had such a splendid letter from Dr. Roxburgh; I think it must be kept, and read on every anniversary of the happy 23rd.”

Again he writes in a merry vein: “I have not failed to point out to Dr. Roxburgh the coincidence you refer to, that you went to Free St. John’s of Edinburgh for your wife, and I to Free St. John’s of Glasgow. It is also odd we should each have selected the third daughter in the family, and that in both families the youngest girl is a bright-eyed lassie called ‘Nell.’”

There was a vein of gaiety and mirth in Mr. Balfour which was not visible to all eyes. It was overgrown and overshadowed by the intensity with which he pursued the serious and solemn aims of his life. There were, however, times when the old bent asserted itself. Among children especially he was often free and frolicsome as one of themselves, entering with his whole heart into their amusements, and rejoicing in their joys. He possessed in a peculiar degree the gift of mimicry; but finding that it tended towards discourtesy, and sometimes gave pain, he deliberately abandoned its exercise.