Nay, he that feeds thy flocks, or tills thy ground, has less sickness and pain than thou. He is more rarely visited by these unwelcome guests; and if they come there at all, they are more easily driven away from the little cot than from the "cloud-topt palaces." And during the time that thy body is chastened with pain, or consumes away with pining sickness, how do thy treasures help thee? Let the poor heathen answer, "Ut lippum pictæ tabulæ, fomenta podagram, away 19. But there is at hand a greater trouble than all these. Thou art to die! Thou art to sink into dust; to return to the ground from which thou wast taken; to mix with common clay. Thy body is to go to the earth as it was, while thy spirit returns to God that And the time draws on the years slide gave it. with a swift, though silent, pace. Perhaps your day is far spent the noon of life is past, and the evening shadows begin to rest upon you. You feel in yourself sure approaching decay. The springs of life wear away apace. Now what help is there in your riches? Do they sweeten death? Do they endear that solemp hour? Quite the reverse. "O death, how bitter art thou to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions !" How unacceptable to him is that awful sentence, "This night shall thy soul be required of thee!" Or will they prevent the unwelcome stroke, or protract the dreadful hour? Can they deliver your soul, that it should not see death? Can they restore the years that are past? Can they add to your appointed time a month, a day, an hour, a moment? Or will the good things you have chosen for your portion here, follow you over the great gulf? Not so: naked came you into this world; naked must you return. "Such help as pictures to sore eyes afford, As heap'd-up tables to their gouty lord." "Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placens Ulla brevem dominum sequetur !"* Surely, were not these truths too plain to be observed, because they are too plain to be denied, no man that is to die could possibly trust for help in uncertain riches. " 20. And trust not in them for happiness: for here also they will be found "deceitful upon the weights.' Indeed, this every reasonable man may infer from what has been observed already. For if neither thousands of gold and silver, nor any of the advantages or pleasures purchased thereby, can prevent our being miserable, it evidently follows, they cannot make us happy. What happiness can they afford to him who, in the midst of all, is constrained to cry out, "To my new courts sad thought does still repair, And round my gilded roofs hangs hovering care?" Indeed, experience is here so full, strong, and undeniable, that it makes all other arguments needless. Ap peal we therefore to fact. Are the rich and the great the only happy men? And is each of them more or less happy in proportion to his measure of riches? Are they happy at all? I had wellnigh said, they are of all men most miserable! Rich man, for once speak the truth from thy heart! Speak, both for thyself and for thy brethren! "Amidst our plenty, something still, Yea, and so it will, till thy wearisome days of vanity are shut up in the night of death. Surely, then, to trust in riches for happiness is the The following is Boscawen's translation of these verses from IIorace : "Thy lands, thy dome, thy pleasing wife, These must thou quit; 'tis nature's doom: No tree, whose culture charms thy life, Save the sad cypress, waits thy tomb."-EDIT. greatest folly of all that are under the sun! Are you not convinced of this? Is it possible you should still expect to find happiness in money, or all it can procure? What! can silver, and gold, and eating and drinking, and horses and servants, and glittering apparel, and diversions and pleasures (as they are called) make thee happy? They can as soon make thee immortal! 21. These are all dead show. Regard them not. Trust thou in the living God: so shalt thou be safe under the shadow of the Almighty; his faithfulness and truth shall be thy skield and buckler. He is a very present help in time of trouble; such a help as can never fail. Then shalt thou say, if all thy other friends die, "The Lord liveth, and blessed be my strong Helper!" He shall remember thee when thou liest sick upon thy bed; when vain is the help of man. When all the things of the earth can give no support, he will "make all thy bed in thy sickness," he will sweeten thy pain: the consolations of God shall cause thee to clap thy hands in the flames. And even when this house of earth is well-nigh shaken down, when it is just ready to drop into the dust, he will teach thee to say, "O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God which giveth" me "the victory through" my "Lord Jesus Christ." Oh, trust in him for happiness as well as for help. All the springs of happiness are in him. Trust in Him who giveth us all things richly to enjoy,” παρέχοντι πλου σιως παντα εις απολαυσιν,—who, of his own rich and free mercy, holds them out to us as in his own hand, that, receiving them as his own gifts, and as pledges of his love, we may enjoy all that we possess. It is his love gives a relish to all we taste,-puts life and sweetness into all; while every creature leads us up to the great Creator, and all earth is a scale to heaven. He transfuses the joys that are at his own right hand into all he bestows on his thankful children; who, having fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, enjoy him in all, and above all. "Lay 22. Thirdly. Seek not to increase in goods. not up for" thyself "treasures upon earth." This is a flat, positive command; full as clear as, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." How then is it possible for a rich man to grow richer, without denying the Lord that bought him? Yea, how can any man, who has already the necessaries of life, gain or aim at more, and be guiltless? "Lay not up," saith our Lord, "treasures upon earth." If, in spite of this, you do and will lay up money or goods, which "moth or rust may corrupt, or thieves break through and steal;" if you will add house to house, or field to field,-why do you call yourself a Christian? You do not obey Jesus Christ. You do not design it. Why do you name yourself by his name? "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord," saith he himself, "and do not the things which I say?" 23. If you ask, "But what must we do with our goods, seeing we have more than we have occasion to use, if we must not lay them up? Must we throw them away ?" I answer, if you threw them into the sea, if you were to cast them into the fire and consume them, they would be better bestowed than they are now. You cannot find so mischievous a manner of throwing them away, as either the laying them up for your posterity, or the laying them out upon yourselves in folly and superfluity. Of all possible methods of throwing them away, these two are the very worst: the most opposite to the gospel of Christ, and the most pernicious to your own soul. How pernicious to your own soul the latter of these is, has been excellently shown by a late writer:— "If we waste our money, we are not only guilty of wasting a talent which God has given us, but we do ourselves this further harm, we turn this useful talent into a powerful means of corrupting ourselves; because so far as it is spent wrong, so far it is spent in the support of some wrong temper, in gratifying some vain and unreasonable desires, which, as Christians, we are obliged to renounce "As wit and fine parts cannot be only trifled away, but will expose those that have them to greater follies; so money cannot be only trifled away, but, if it is not used according to reason and religion, will make people live a more silly and extravagant life, than they would have done without it: if, therefore, you do not spend your money in doing good to others, you must spend it the hurt of yourself. You act like one that refuses the cordial to his sick friend, which he cannot drink himself without inflaming his blood. For this is the case of superfluous money: if you give it to those that want it, it is a cordial; if you spend it upon yourself, in something that you do not want, it only inflames and disorders your mind. to "In using riches where they have no real use, nor we any real want, we only use them to our great hurt, in creating unreasonable desires, in nourishing ill tempers, in indulging foolish passions, and supporting a vain turn of mind. For high eating and drinking, fine clothes and fine houses, state and equipage, gay pleasures and diversions, do all of them naturally hurt and disorder our heart. They are the food and nourishment of all the folly and weakness of our nature. They are all of them the support of something that ought not to be supported. They are contrary to that sobriety and piety of heart which relishes divine things. They are so many weights upon our mind, that make us less able and less inclined to raise our thoughts and affections to things above. "So that money thus spent is not merely wasted or lost, but it is spent to bad purposes and miserable effects; to the corruption and disorder of our hearts; to the making us unable to follow the sublime doctrines of the gospel. It is but like keeping money from the poor, to buy poison for ourselves." 24. Equally inexcusable are those who lay up what they do not need for any reasonable purposes "If a man had hands, and eyes and feet, that he could give to those that wanted them; if he should lock |