ABRAHAM AND LOT.
It is thus, then, that God over all proves, to our sad experience, that we forsake our own mercies by forgetting Him in the Market-place—but take an example. ABRAHAM
AND LOT. Abraham and Lot his nephew, are in their tents near Bethel. A strife arises between their herdsmen, because the grazing grounds were not sufficiently ample for the herds and flocks of both. But Abraham, the man of peace, disliked contention; and though he was the elder, he gave the younger his choice of the country, that they might separate without strife. With primitive simplicity, but also with true greatness of soul, he said, “If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.”
Lot accordingly chose. Captivated by the rich pastures of the valley of the Jordan, he selected them. His eye was fixed only on what was good for his herds; it was Eastern wealth, in short, which attracted the nephew of Abraham. He did not think of the character of those who dwelt where he was to dwell; and in his hot pursuit of riches, he fared exactly as those who do as he did are faring still. The inhabitants of that garden-like valley were “wicked exceedingly,” but Lot threw himself among them without forethought, and as the result, his righteous soul was vexed from day to day. Their “grievous sins” harassed him; and if we may judge from his own conduct, he did not escape contamination. He had at last to haste and flee for his life, lest he should perish in the common overthrow.
EVIL COMMUNICATIONS.
EVIL
COMMUNICATIONS. And when was it otherwise? Who ever tasted, touched, or handled what pollutes, and yet continued pure? Who ever threw in their lot with godless men, without incurring the risk of sharing their doom? Do not worldly engrossments steal the heart from God? When we have goods laid up for many days, is it not our instant thought, unless a double portion of grace be sought, that we are less dependent now on the Author of every good and perfect gift? The soul thus withers and pines; and if a child of God escape, it is as Lot did from Sodom—“so as by fire.” Just as a dislocated limb gives pain to the body, or just as one member wrenched by violence from the rest makes the whole physical frame quake and quiver, the dislocation of a single precept of God does violence to our moral nature. It has been often noticed that the men who are deprived, by whatsoever cause, of the Sabbath rest, soon become the most degraded in a community, they have perished sometimes by their own right hand; and the remark may be generalized so as to include all the laws among the Ten. The man who runs greedily after gain and forgets to consecrate it to God, is thereby self-degraded, and self-ruined in the end.
COUNSELS.
COUNSELS. But perhaps all that we have argued might have been more briefly and more emphatically urged in a few words: “They first gave themselves to the Lord.”[19] That is the true order of procedure on the part of Christian men, and that is the certain prelude to heavenly guidance. All that we have will be dedicated to the Great Proprietor, if we have first learned, as the Spirit teaches, to “present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.”
THE ONLY RULE.
Were it our object to exhaust this subject, instead of merely offering some general counsels, we should now proceed to other aspects of the Christian in the Market-place—that place where temptations are so rife, because the world’s current is at the strongest. We might refer to the necessity of excluding the engrossments of the Market-place from our hours of relaxation or our home duties, and press such examples as that of Him who left it as a counsel to others, that, they should leave all thoughts of business in their counting-house on Saturday, till their return on Monday.—But enough has been said for our purpose. And now, let it not be forgotten that all we plead for has been actually done in the Market-place by not a few. We urge nothing Utopian, nothing beyond what is written in the Word of God. A man can be both a student of the Bible, so as to regulate his business by its maxims, and yet prosper, as far as any Christian can care for prosperity; and that is proved by many examples. If a man, indeed, supposes that his life consists in the abundance that he has, or that the kingdom of God is meat and drink, then the Bible will be discarded; another god than it[T-8] will be worshipped. THE
ONLY
RULE. But if it be the rooted conviction of a soul, that it can be rich only in so far as it enjoys the blessing of Jehovah, His word will be found at once a pleasant and a profitable guide. And even though poverty may assail us for abiding by God’s simple truth, we must still abide by it. Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God; and though that maxim may provoke a smile from the devotees of the world, it is the maxim of eternal wisdom notwithstanding. Some whose life was spent in the place of business, of care and speculation, have left it upon record, that such a maxim is the only remedy for the woes of a groaning world.