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052 - The Use of Money · Sermons on Several Occasions, First Series

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  Speaker 1: Section fifty one of Sermons on Several Occasions First Series.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Tim Cotey. Sermons on
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  Speaker 1: Several Occasions, First Series by John Wesley, Sermon fifty The
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  Speaker 1: Use of money. I say unto you, make unto yourselves
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  Speaker 1: friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail,
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  Speaker 1: they may receive you into the everlasting habitations. Luke, chapter sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: Verse nine. Our Lord, having finished the beautiful parable of
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  Speaker 1: the prodigal Son, which he had particularly addressed to those
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  Speaker 1: who murmured at his receiving publicans and sinners, adds another
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  Speaker 1: relation of a different addressed rather to the children of God.
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  Speaker 1: He said, unto his disciples, not so much to the
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  Speaker 1: scribes and Pharisees to whom he had been speaking before.
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  Speaker 1: There was a certain rich man who had a steward,
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  Speaker 1: and he was accused to him of wasting his goods,
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  Speaker 1: and calling him, he said, give an account of thy stewardship,
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  Speaker 1: for thou canst be no longer steward. Luke, chapter sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: verses one and two. After reciting the method which the
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  Speaker 1: bad steward used to provide against the day of necessity,
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  Speaker 1: our Savior ads his Lord commended the unjust steward, namely
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  Speaker 1: in this respect that he used timely precaution, and subjoins
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  Speaker 1: this weighty reflection. The children of this world are wiser
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  Speaker 1: in their generation than the children of light Luke, Chapter sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: verse eight. Those who seek no other portion than this
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  Speaker 1: world are wiser, not absolutely, for they are one and
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  Speaker 1: all the veriest fools, the most egregious madmen under heaven.
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  Speaker 1: But in their generation, in their own way, they are
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  Speaker 1: more consistent with themselves. They are truer to their acknowledged principles.
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  Speaker 1: They more steadily pursue their end than the children of
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  Speaker 1: Light than they who see the light of the glory
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  Speaker 1: of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Then follow
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  Speaker 1: the words above recited, and I the only Begotten Son
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  Speaker 1: of God, the Creator, Lord and possessor of heaven and
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  Speaker 1: Earth and all that is therein the judge of all
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  Speaker 1: to whom ye are to give an account of your stewardship.
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  Speaker 1: When ye can be no longer stewards I say unto
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  Speaker 1: you learn in this respect, even of the unjust steward.
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  Speaker 1: Make yourselves friends by wise timely precaution of the mammon
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  Speaker 1: of unrighteousness. Mammon means riches or money. It is termed
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  Speaker 1: the mammon of unrighteousness because of the unrighteous manner wherein
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  Speaker 1: it is frequently procured, and wherein even that which was
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  Speaker 1: honestly procured is generally employed. Make yourselves friends of this
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  Speaker 1: by doing all possible good, particularly to the children of God,
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  Speaker 1: that when ye fail, when ye return to dust, when
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  Speaker 1: ye have no more place under the sun, those of
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  Speaker 1: them who are gone before may receive you, may welcome
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  Speaker 1: you into the everlasting habitations. An excellent branch of Christian
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  Speaker 1: wisdom is here inculcated by our Lord on all his followers,
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  Speaker 1: namely the right use of money, a subject largely spoken
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  Speaker 1: of after their manner by men of the world, but
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  Speaker 1: not sufficiently considered by those whom God hath chosen out
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  Speaker 1: of the world. These generally do not consider as the
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  Speaker 1: importance of the subject requires the use of this excellent talent,
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  Speaker 1: neither do they understand how to employ it to the
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  Speaker 1: greatest advantage, the introduction of which into the world is
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  Speaker 1: one admirable instance of the wise and gracious providence of God.
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  Speaker 1: It has indeed been the manner of poets, orators, and
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  Speaker 1: philosophers in almost all ages and nations to rail at
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  Speaker 1: this as the grand corruptor of the world, the bane
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  Speaker 1: of virtue, the pest of human society. Hence nothing so
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  Speaker 1: commonly heard as Nosn's ferum faroke nocentius ourum, and gold
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  Speaker 1: more mischievous than keenest steel. Hence the lamentable complaint e
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  Speaker 1: fodinutur opis iramenta malorum. Wealth is dug up, incentive to
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  Speaker 1: all ill nay. One celebrated writer gravely exhorts his countrymen,
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  Speaker 1: in order to banish all vice at once, to throw
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  Speaker 1: all their money into the sea in mare proximum sumi
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  Speaker 1: material mali. But is not all this mere empty rant?
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  Speaker 1: Is there any solid reason? Therein by no means for
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  Speaker 1: let the world be as corrupt as it will his
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  Speaker 1: gold or silver to blame. The love of money, we know,
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  Speaker 1: is the root of all evil, but not the thing itself.
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  Speaker 1: The fault does not lie in the money, but in
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  Speaker 1: them that use it. It may be used ill, and
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  Speaker 1: what may not, but it may likewise be used well.
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  Speaker 1: It is full, as applicable to the best as to
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  Speaker 1: the worst uses. It is of unspeakable service to all
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  Speaker 1: civilized nations in all the common affairs of life. It
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  Speaker 1: is a most compendious instrument of transacting all manner of business,
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  Speaker 1: And if we use it according to Christian wisdom, of
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  Speaker 1: doing all manner of good. It is true where man
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  Speaker 1: in a stake of innocence, or were all men filled
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  Speaker 1: with the holy ghosts, so that like the infant church
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  Speaker 1: at Jerusalem, no man counted anything he had his own,
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  Speaker 1: but distribution was made to everyone. As yet need the
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  Speaker 1: use of it would be superseded, as we cannot conceive
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  Speaker 1: there is anything of the kind among the inhabitants of heaven.
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  Speaker 1: But in the present state of mankind. It is an
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  Speaker 1: excellent gift of God, answering the noblest ends in the
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  Speaker 1: hands of his children. It is food for the hungry,
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  Speaker 1: drink for the thirsty, raiment for the naked. It gives
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  Speaker 1: to the traveler and the stranger where to lay his head.
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  Speaker 1: By it, we may supply the place of a husband
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  Speaker 1: to the widow, and of a father to the fatherless.
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  Speaker 1: We may be a defense for the oppressed, a means
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  Speaker 1: of health to the sick of ease, to them that
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  Speaker 1: are in pain. It may be as eyes to the blind,
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  Speaker 1: as feet to the lame, yea a lifter up from
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  Speaker 1: the gates of death. It is therefore of the highest
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  Speaker 1: concern that all who fear God know how to employ
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  Speaker 1: this valuable talent, that they be instructed how it may
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  Speaker 1: answer these glorious ends, and in the highest degree. And
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  Speaker 1: perhaps all the instructions which are necessary for this may
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  Speaker 1: be reduced to three plain rules. By the exact observance,
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  Speaker 1: whereof we may approve ourselves faithful stewards of the mammon
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  Speaker 1: of unrighteousness. The first of these is he that heareth,
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  Speaker 1: Let him understand. Gain all you can here we may
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  Speaker 1: speak like the children of the world. We meet them
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  Speaker 1: on their own ground, and it is our bound in
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  Speaker 1: duty to do this. We ought to gain all we
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  Speaker 1: can gain without buying gold too deer, without paying more
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  Speaker 1: for it than it is worth. But this it is certain,
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  Speaker 1: we ought not to do. We ought not to gain
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  Speaker 1: money at the expense of life, nor which is in
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  Speaker 1: effect the same thing, at the expense of our health. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: no gain whatsoever should induce us to enter into or
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  Speaker 1: to continue in any employ which is of such a kind,
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  Speaker 1: or is attended with so hard or so long labor
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  Speaker 1: as to impair our constitution. Neither should we begin or
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  Speaker 1: continue in any business which necesscessarily deprives us of proper
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  Speaker 1: seasons for food and sleep in such a proportion as
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  Speaker 1: our nature requires. Indeed, there is a great difference here.
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  Speaker 1: Some employments are absolutely and totally unhealthy, as those which
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  Speaker 1: imply the dealing much with arsenic or other equally hurtful minerals,
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  Speaker 1: or the breathing and air tainted with steams of melting lead,
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  Speaker 1: which must at length destroy the firmest constitution. Others may
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  Speaker 1: not be absolutely unhealthy, but only to persons of a
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  Speaker 1: weak constitution. Such are those which require many hours to
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  Speaker 1: be spent in writing, especially if a person right sitting
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  Speaker 1: and lean upon his stomach, or remain long in an
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  Speaker 1: uneasy posture. But whatever it is which reason or experience
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  Speaker 1: shows to be destructive of health or strength, that we
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  Speaker 1: may not submit to. Seeing the life is more valuable
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  Speaker 1: than meat, and the body than raiment, And if we
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  Speaker 1: are already engaged in such an employee, we should exchange
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  Speaker 1: it as soon as possible, for so which, if it
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  Speaker 1: lessen our gain will, however, not lessen our health. We
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  Speaker 1: are secondly to gain all we can without hurting our
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  Speaker 1: mind any more than our body, For neither may we
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  Speaker 1: hurt this. We must preserve at all events the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of a healthful mind. Therefore, we may not engage or
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  Speaker 1: continue in any sinful trade, any that is contrary to
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  Speaker 1: the law of God or of our country. Such are
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  Speaker 1: all that necessarily imply our robbing or defrauding the King
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  Speaker 1: of his lawful customs. For it is at least as
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  Speaker 1: sinful to defraud the King of his right as to
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  Speaker 1: rob our fellow subjects. And the King has full as
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  Speaker 1: much right to his customs as we have to our houses,
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  Speaker 1: in apparel. Other businesses there are, which, however innocent in themselves,
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  Speaker 1: cannot be followed with innocence, now at least not in England,
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  Speaker 1: such for instance, as will not afford a competent maintenance
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  Speaker 1: without cheating or lying, or conformity to some custom which
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  Speaker 1: not consists with a good conscience. These likewise are sacredly
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  Speaker 1: to be avoided, whatever gain they may be attended with,
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  Speaker 1: provided we follow the custom of the trade. For to
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  Speaker 1: gain money we must not lose our own souls. There
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  Speaker 1: are yet others, which many pursue with perfect innocence, without
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  Speaker 1: hurting either the body or mind. And yet perhaps you
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  Speaker 1: cannot either. They may entangle you in that company, which
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  Speaker 1: would destroy your soul. And by repeated experiments, it may
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  Speaker 1: appear that you cannot separate the one from the other.
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  Speaker 1: Or there may be an idiosyncrasy, a peculiarity in your
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  Speaker 1: constitution of soul, as there is in the bodily constitution
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  Speaker 1: of many, by reason whereof that employment is deadly to you,
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  Speaker 1: which another may safely follow. So I am convinced from
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  Speaker 1: many experiments I could not study to any degree of
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  Speaker 1: perfection either mathematics, arithmetic, or algebra without being a deist,
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  Speaker 1: if not an atheist. And yet others may study them
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  Speaker 1: all their lives without sustaining any inconvenience. None therefore can
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  Speaker 1: here determine for another. But every man must judge for himself,
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  Speaker 1: and abstain from whatever he, in particular finds to be
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  Speaker 1: hurtful to his soul. We are thirdly to gain all
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  Speaker 1: we can without hurting our neighbor. But this we may
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  Speaker 1: not cannot do if we love our neighbor as ourselves.
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  Speaker 1: We cannot if we love everyone as ourselves hurt anyone
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  Speaker 1: in his substance. We cannot devour the increase of his lands,
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  Speaker 1: and perhaps the lands and houses themselves, by gaming by
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  Speaker 1: overgrown bills, whether on account of physic or law, or
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  Speaker 1: anything else, or by requiring or taking such interest as
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  Speaker 1: even the laws of our country forbid. Hereby all pawnbroking
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  Speaker 1: is excluded. Seeing whatever good we might do. Thereby all
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  Speaker 1: unprejudiced men see with grief to be abundantly overbalanced by
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  Speaker 1: the evil. And if it were otherwise, yet we are
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  Speaker 1: not allowed to do evil that good. May we cannot,
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  Speaker 1: consistent with brotherly love, sell our goods below the market price.
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  Speaker 1: We cannot study to ruin our neighbour's trade in order
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  Speaker 1: to advance our own. Much less can we entice away
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  Speaker 1: or receive any of his servants or workmen whom he
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  Speaker 1: has need of. None can gain by swallowing up his
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  Speaker 1: neighbour's substance without gaining the damnation of hell. Neither may
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  Speaker 1: we gain by hurting our neighbor in his body. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: we may not sell anything which tends to impair health.
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  Speaker 1: Such is eminently all that liquid fire, commonly called DRAMs
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  Speaker 1: or spiritous liquors. It is true. These may have a
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  Speaker 1: place in medicine. They may be of use in some
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  Speaker 1: bodily disorders, although there would rarely be occasion for them
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  Speaker 1: were it not for the unskillfulness of the practitioner. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: such as prepare and sell them only for this end
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  Speaker 1: may keep their conscience clear. But who are they who
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  Speaker 1: prepare and sell them only for this end? Do you
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  Speaker 1: know ten such distillers in England? Then excuse these? But
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  Speaker 1: all who sell them in the common way to any
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  Speaker 1: that will buy are poisoners general. They murder His Majesty's
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  Speaker 1: subjects by wholesale. Neither does their eye pity or spare.
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  Speaker 1: They drive them to hell like sheep. And what is
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  Speaker 1: their gain? Is it not the blood of these men,
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  Speaker 1: who then would envy their large estates and sumptuous palaces.
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  Speaker 1: A curse is in the midst of them. The curse
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  Speaker 1: of God cleaves to the stones, the timber, the furniture
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  Speaker 1: of them. The curse of God is in their gardens,
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  Speaker 1: their walks, their groves, a fire that burns to the
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  Speaker 1: nethermost hell. Blood. Blood is there the foundation, the floors,
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  Speaker 1: the walls, the roof are stained with blood. And canst
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  Speaker 1: thou hope, o thou man of blood, though thou art
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  Speaker 1: clothed in scarlet and fine linen, and fairest sumptuously every day,
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  Speaker 1: canst thou hope to deliver down thy fields of blood
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  Speaker 1: to the third generation? Not so? For there is a
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  Speaker 1: God in heaven. Therefore thy name shall soon be rooted out,
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  Speaker 1: Like as those whom thou hast destroyed, body and soul,
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  Speaker 1: Thy memorial shall perish with thee. And are not they
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  Speaker 1: partakers of the same guilt, though in a lower degree.
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  Speaker 1: Whether surgeons, apothecaries, or physicians who play with the lives
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  Speaker 1: or health of men to enlarge their own gain, who
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  Speaker 1: purposely lengthen the pain or disease which they are able
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  Speaker 1: to remove speedily, who protract the cure of their patient's
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  Speaker 1: body in order to plunder his substance. Can any man
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  Speaker 1: be clear before God who does not shorten every disorder
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  Speaker 1: as much as he can, and remove all sickness and
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  Speaker 1: pain as soon as he can, He cannot, For nothing
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  Speaker 1: can be more clear than that he does not love
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  Speaker 1: his neighbor as himself, than that he does not do
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  Speaker 1: to others as he would they should do unto himself.
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  Speaker 1: This is dear bought gain, And so is whatever is
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  Speaker 1: procured by hurting our neighbor in his soul, by ministering suppose,
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  Speaker 1: either directly or indirectly to his unchastity or in temperance,
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  Speaker 1: which certainly none can do who has any fear of
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  Speaker 1: God or any real desire of pleasing him. It nearly
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  Speaker 1: concerns all those to consider this who have anything to
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  Speaker 1: do with taverns, victualling houses, opera houses, playhouses, or any
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  Speaker 1: other places of public fashionable diversion. If these profit the
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  Speaker 1: souls of men, you are clear your employment is good
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  Speaker 1: and your gain innocent. But if they are either sinful
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  Speaker 1: in themselves or natural inlets to sin of various kinds,
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  Speaker 1: then it is to be feared you have a sad
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  Speaker 1: account to make. Oh beware lest God say in that
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  Speaker 1: day these have perished in their iniquity, But their blood
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  Speaker 1: do I require at thy hands, and restrictions being observed.
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  Speaker 1: It is the bound in duty of all who are
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  Speaker 1: engaged in worldly business to observe that first and great
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  Speaker 1: rule of Christian wisdom. With respect to money, Gain all
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  Speaker 1: you can gain, all you can by honest industry, Use
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  Speaker 1: all possible diligence in your calling, lose no time. If
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  Speaker 1: you understand yourself and your relation to God and man,
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  Speaker 1: you know you have none to spare. If you understand
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  Speaker 1: your particular calling as you ought, you will have no
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  Speaker 1: time that hangs upon your hands. Every business will afford
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  Speaker 1: some employment sufficient for every day and every hour that
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  Speaker 1: wherein you are placed, if you follow it in earnest,
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  Speaker 1: will leave you no leisure for silly, unprofitable diversions. You
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  Speaker 1: have always something better to do, something that will profit
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  Speaker 1: you more or less. And whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,
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  Speaker 1: do it with thy might. Do it as soon as possible,
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  Speaker 1: no delay, no putting off from day to day or
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  Speaker 1: from hour to hour. Never leave anything till tomorrow which
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  Speaker 1: you can do today, and do it as well as possible.
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  Speaker 1: Do not sleep or yawn over it. Put your whole
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  Speaker 1: strength to the work. Spare no pains. Let nothing be
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  Speaker 1: done by halves or in a slight and careless manner.
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  Speaker 1: Let nothing in your business be left undone, if it
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  Speaker 1: can be done by labor or patience. Gain all you
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  Speaker 1: can by common sense, by using in your business all
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  Speaker 1: the understanding which God has given you. It is amazing
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  Speaker 1: to observe how few do this, how men run on
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  Speaker 1: in the same dull track with their forefathers. But whatever
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  Speaker 1: they do, who know not God, this is no rule
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  Speaker 1: for you. It is a shame for a Christian not
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  Speaker 1: to improve upon them in whatever he takes in hand.
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  Speaker 1: You should be continually learning, from the experience of others,
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  Speaker 1: or from your own experience, reading and reflection. To do
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  Speaker 1: everything you have to do better today than you did yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: And see that you practice whatever you learn, that you
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  Speaker 1: may make the best of all that is in your hands,
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  Speaker 1: having gained all you can by honest wisdom and unwearied diligence.
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  Speaker 1: The second rule of Christian prudence is save all you
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  Speaker 1: can do. Not throw the precious talent into the sea.
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  Speaker 1: Leave that folly to heathen philosophers. Do not throw it
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  Speaker 1: away in idle expenses, which is just the same as
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  Speaker 1: throwing it into the sea. Expend no part of it
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  Speaker 1: merely to gratify the desire of the flesh, the desire
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  Speaker 1: of the eye, or the pride of life. Do not
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  Speaker 1: waste any part of so precious a talent merely in
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  Speaker 1: gratifying the desires of the flesh, in procuring the pleasures
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  Speaker 1: of sense of whatever kind, particularly in enlarging the pleasure
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  Speaker 1: of tasting. I do not mean avoid gluttony and drunkenness.
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  Speaker 1: Only an honest heathen would condemn these. But there is
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  Speaker 1: a regular, reputable kind of sensuality, an elegant epicurism, which
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  Speaker 1: does not immediately disorder the stomach nor sense of at
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  Speaker 1: least impair the understanding, and yet to mention no other
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  Speaker 1: effects of it. Now it cannot be maintained without considerable expense.
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  Speaker 1: Cut off all this expense, despise delicacy and variety, and
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  Speaker 1: be content with what plain nature requires. Do not waste
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  Speaker 1: any part of so precious a talent merely in gratifying
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  Speaker 1: the desire of the eye by superfluous or expensive apparel,
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  Speaker 1: or by needless ornaments. Waste no part of it in
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  Speaker 1: curiously adorning your houses in superfluous or expensive furniture, in
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  Speaker 1: costly pictures, paintings, gilding books, inelegant rather than useful gardens.
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  Speaker 1: Let your neighbors, who know nothing better do this. Let
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  Speaker 1: the dead bury their dead. But what is that to
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  Speaker 1: thee says our lord, follow thou me. Are you willing,
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  Speaker 1: then you are able so to do? Lay out nothing
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  Speaker 1: to gratify the pride of life, To gain the admiration
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  Speaker 1: of praise of men. This motive of exp events is
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  Speaker 1: frequently interwoven with one or more of the former. Men
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  Speaker 1: are expensive in diet, or apparel or furniture, not barely
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  Speaker 1: to please their appetite, or to gratify their eye, their imagination,
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  Speaker 1: but their vanity too. So long as thou doest well
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  Speaker 1: unto thyself, men will speak good of thee So long
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  Speaker 1: as thou art clothed in purple and fine linen, and
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  Speaker 1: fairest sumptuously every day, no doubt many will applaud thy
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  Speaker 1: elegance of taste, thy generosity and hospitality. But do not
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  Speaker 1: buy their applause. So dear, rather be content with the
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  Speaker 1: honor that cometh from God, who would expend anything in
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: gratifying these desires if he considered that to gratify them
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: is to increase them. Nothing can be more certain than
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: this daily experience shows. The more they are indulged, they
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: increase the more. Whenever, therefore, you expend anything to please
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: your taste or other senses, you pay so much for sensuality.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: When you lay out money to please your eye, You
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: give so much for an increase of curiosity, for a
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: stronger attachment to these pleasures which perish in the using.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: While you are purchasing anything which men use to applaud,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: you are purchasing more vanity. Had you not then enough
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: of vanity, sensuality, curiosity before? Was there need of any addition?
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: And would you pay for it too? What manner of
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: wisdom is this? Would not the literally throwing your money
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: into the sea be a less mischievous folly? And why
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: should you throw away money upon your children any more
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: than upon yourself, in delicate food, in gay or costly apparel,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: in superfluities of any kind? Why should you purchase for
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: them more pride or lust, more vanity, or foolish and
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: hurtful desires? They do not want any more. They have
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: enough already. Nature has made ample provision for them. Why
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: should you be at farther expense to increase their temptations
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: in snares and to pierce them through with more sorrows.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Do not leave it to them to throw away if
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: you have good reason to believe that they should waste
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: what is now in your possession, in gratifying and thereby
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: increasing the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: or the pride of life at the peril of theirs
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: and your own soul. Do not set these traps in
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: their way. Do not offer your sons or your daughters
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: unto Blile any more than unto Moloch. Have pity upon them,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: and remove out of their way what you may easily
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: foresee would increase their sins and consequently plunge them deeper
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: into everlasting perdition. How amazing, then, is the infatuation of
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: those parents who think they can never leave their children enough.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: What cannot you leave them? Enough of arrows, firebrands, and death.
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  Speaker 1: Not enough of foolish and hurtful desires, Not enough of pride, lust, ambition, vanity,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Not enough of everlasting burnings. Poor wretch, thou fearest where
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: no fear is. Surely both thou and they, when you
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  Speaker 1: are lifting up your eyes in hell, will have enough
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: both of the worm that never dieth and of the
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: fire that shall never be quenched. What then, would you
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: do if you were in my case, if you had
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: a considerable fortune to leave, whether I would do it
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: or no, I know what I ought to do. This
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: will admit of no reasonable question. If I had one child,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: elder or younger, who knew the value of money, one
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: who I believed would put it to the true use.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: I should think it my absolute indispensable duty to leave
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: that child the bulk of my fortune, and to the
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: rest just so much as would enable them to live
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: in the manner they had been accustomed to. But what
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: if all your children were equally ignorant of the true
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: use of money? I ought then hard, saying, who can
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: hear it? To give each what would keep him above want,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: and to bestow all the rest in such a manner
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: as I judged would be most for the glory of God.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Let not any man imagine that he has done anything
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: barely by going thus far, by gaining and saving all
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: he can, if he were to stop here, All this
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: is nothing if a man go not forward, if he
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: does not point all this at a farther end. Nor
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: indeed can a man properly be said to save anything
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: if he only lays it up. You may as well
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: throw your money into the sea as buried in the earth,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: And you may as well bury it in the earth
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: as in your chest, or in the bank of England.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Not to use is effectually to throw it away. If
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: therefore you would indeed make yourselves friends of the mammon
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: of unrighteousness. Add the third rule to the two preceding.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Having first gained all you can, and secondly saved all
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: you can, then give all you can. In order to
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: see the ground and reason of this, consider, when the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: possessor of heaven and earth brought you into being and
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: placed you in this world, he placed you here not
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: as a proprietor, but as a steward. As such, he
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: entrusted you for a season with goods of various kinds.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: But the sole property of these still rests in him,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: nor can be alienated from him. As you yourself are
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: not your own but his. Such is likewise all that
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: you enjoy. Such is your soul and your body not
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: your own, but God's. And so is your substance in particular.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: And He has told you in the most clear and
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: expressed terms, how you are to employ it for Him,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: in such a manner that it may be all and
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: a holy sacrifice acceptable through Jesus Christ. And this light
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: easy service he has promised to reward with an eternal
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: weight of glory. The directions which God has given us
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: touching the use of our worldly substance may be compromised
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: in the following particulars. If you desire to be a
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: faithful and wise steward out of that portion of your
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Lord's goods which he has for the present lodged in
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: your hands, but with the right of resuming whenever it
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: pleases him, First, provide things needful for yourself, food to eat,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: raiment to put on, whatever nature moderately requires for preserving
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: the body in health and strength. Secondly, provide these for
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: your wife, your children, your servants, or any others who
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: pertain to your household. If when this is done there
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: be an overplus left, then do good to them that
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: are of the household of faith. If there be an
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: overplussed still, as you have opportunity, do good unto all men.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: In so doing you give all you can, nay, in
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: a sound sense, all you have. For all that is
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: laid out in this manner is really given to God.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: You render unto God the things that are God's, not
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: only by what you give to the poor, but also
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: by that which you expend in providing things needful for
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: yourself and your household. If then a doubt should at
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: any time arise in your mind concerning what you are
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: going to expend, either on yourself or any part of
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: your family. You have an easy way to remove it,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: calmly and seriously. In one, in expending this, am I
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: acting according to my character? Am I acting herein not
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: as a proprietor, but as a steward of my Lord's goods? Two?
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Am I doing this in obedience to his word? In
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: what scripture does he require me to do so? Three?
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Can I offer up this action, this expense, as a
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: sacrifice to God through Jesus Christ. Four Have I a
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: reason to believe that for this very work I shall
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: have a reward at the resurrection of the Just. You
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: will seldom need anything more to remove any doubt which
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: arises on this head. But by this fourfold consideration you
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: will receive clear light as to the way wherein you
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: should go. If any doubt still remain, you may farther
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: examine yourself by prayer according to those heads of inquiry.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Try whether you can say to the searcher of hearts
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: your conscience not condemning you, Lord, thou seest I am
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: going to expend the sum on that food, apparel, furniture,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: And thou knowest I act herein with a single eye
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: as a steward of thy goods, expending this portion of them. Thus,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: in pursuance of the design thou hadst in trusting me
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: with them. Thou knowest I do this in obedience to
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: the Lord, as thou commandest, And because thou commandest it.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Let this I beseech THEE be a holy sacrifice acceptable
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: through Jesus Christ. And give me a witness in myself
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: that for this labor of love I shall have a
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: recompense when Thou rewardest every man according to his works. Now,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: if your conscience bear you witness in the Holy Ghost
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: that this prayer is well pleasing to God, then have
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: you no reason to doubt but that the expense is
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: right and good, and such as will never make you ashamed.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: You see then what it is to make yourselves friends
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: of the mammon of unrighteousness, and by what means you
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: may procure that when ye fail, they may receive you
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: into the everlasting habitations. You see the nature and extent
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: of truly Christian prudence, so far as it relates to
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: the use of that great talent money. Gain all you
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: can without hurting either yourself or your neighbor in soul
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: or body, by applying here too, with unintermitted diligence, and
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: with all the understanding which God has given you. Save
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: all you can, by cutting off every expense which serves
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: only to indulge foolish desire to gratify either the desire
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: pride of life. Waste nothing living or dying on sin
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: or folly, whether for yourself or your children. And then
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: give all you can, or in other words, give all
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: you have to God. Do not stint yourself like a
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: jew rather than a Christian to this or that proportion.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Render unto God, not a tenth, not a third, not half,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: but all that is God's, be it more or less,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: by employing all on yourself, your household, the household of faith,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: and all mankind, in such a manner that you may
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: give a good account of your stewardship, when ye can
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: be no longer stewards in such a manner, as the
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Oracles of God dere both by general and particular precepts,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: in such a manner, that whatever ye do may be
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor to God, and
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: that every act may be rewarded in that day when
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the Lord Cometh with all his saints brethren, Can we
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: be either wise or faithful stewards unless we thus manage
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: our Lord's goods. We cannot, as not only the oracles
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: of God but our own conscience beareth witness. Then why
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: should we delay? Why should we confer any longer with
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: flesh and blood or men of the world. Our kingdom,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: our wisdom is not of this world. Heathen custom is
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: nothing to us. We follow no men any farther than
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: they are followers of Christ. Hear ye him, yea to day,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: while it is called to day. Hear and obey his
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: voice at this hour, and from this hour, do as
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: will fulfill His word in this and in all things.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: I entreat you, in the name of the Lord Jesus,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: act up to the dignity of your calling. No more sloth,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with your might.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: No more waste. Cut off every expense which fashion caprice
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: or flesh and blood. Demand no more coveteousness, But employ
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: whatever God has entrusted you with in doing good, all
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: possible good, in every possible kind, and degree to the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: household of faith to all men. This is no small
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: part of the wisdom of the Just, give all ye have,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: as well as all ye are, a spiritual sacrifice to
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: him who withheld not from you his son, his only son.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: So laying up in store for yourselves a good foundation
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: against the time to come, that ye may attain eternal life.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: End of section fifty one. Recording by Tim Cotey of
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Santa Maria, California,