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 greatest folly of all that are under thesun! 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 shew. 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 shield and buckler. He is a very present help in time of trouble; such an 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 who giveth me the victory through my Lord Jesus Christ.
*O 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 πλουσίως εἰς ἀπόλαυσιν· Who of his own rich and free mercy, holds them out to us, as in his own hand, that receiving them as his gift, 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.
22. Thirdly, seek not to increase in goods. Lay 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 meLord, 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 shewn 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 farther 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 trifledaway, 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 to 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 who 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.”
“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 merelywasted 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.”