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51 - The Use of Money - Sermons on Several Occasions · Philosophy and Faith

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Speaker 1: Sermon fifty the use of money. I say unto you,
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Speaker 1: make unto yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that
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Speaker 1: when ye fail, they may receive you into the everlasting habitations. Luke,
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Speaker 1: chapter sixteen, verse nine. Our Lord, having finished the beautiful
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Speaker 1: parable of the prodigal son, which he had particularly addressed
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Speaker 1: to those who murmured at his receiving publicans and sinners,
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Speaker 1: adds another relation of a different kind. Addressed rather to
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Speaker 1: the children of God. He said, unto his disciples, not
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Speaker 1: so much to the scribes and pharisees to whom he
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Speaker 1: had been speaking before. There was a certain rich man
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Speaker 1: who had a steward, and he was accused to him
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Speaker 1: of wasting his goods, and calling him, he said, give
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Speaker 1: an account of thy stewardship, for thou canst be no
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Speaker 1: longer steward Luke, chapter sixteen, verses one and two. After
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Speaker 1: reciting the method which the bad steward used to provide
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Speaker 1: against the day of necessity, our Savior ads his Lord
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Speaker 1: commended the unjust steward, namely in this respect that he
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Speaker 1: used timely precaution, and subjoins this weighty reflection. The children
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Speaker 1: of this world are wiser in their generation than the
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Speaker 1: children of light Luke, Chapter sixteen, verse eight. Those who
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Speaker 1: seek no other portion than this world are wiser, not absolutely,
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Speaker 1: for they are one and all the veriest fools, the
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Speaker 1: most egregious madmen under heaven. But in their generation, in
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Speaker 1: their own way, they are more consistent with themselves. They
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Speaker 1: are truer to their acknowledged principles. They more steadily pursue
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Speaker 1: their end than the children of Light than they who
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Speaker 1: see the light of the glory of God in the
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Speaker 1: face of Jesus Christ. Then follow the words above recited,
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Speaker 1: and the only Begotten Son of God, the Creator, Lord,
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Speaker 1: and possessor of heaven and Earth and all that is
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Speaker 1: therein the judge of all, to whom ye are to
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Speaker 1: give an account of your stewardship. When ye can be
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Speaker 1: no longer stewards, I say unto you, learn in this respect,
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Speaker 1: even of the unjust steward make yourselves friends by wise
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Speaker 1: timely precaution of the mammon of unrighteousness. Mammon means riches
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Speaker 1: or money. It is termed the mammon of unrighteousness because
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Speaker 1: of the unrighteous manner wherein it is frequently procured, and
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Speaker 1: wherein even that which was honestly procured is generally employed.
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Speaker 1: Make yourselves friends of this by doing all possible good,
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Speaker 1: particularly to the children of God, that when ye fail,
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Speaker 1: when ye return to dust, when ye have no more
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Speaker 1: place under the sun, those of them who are gone
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Speaker 1: before may receive you may welcome into the everlasting habitations.
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Speaker 1: An excellent branch of Christian wisdom is here inculcated by
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Speaker 1: our Lord on all his followers, namely the right use
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Speaker 1: of money, a subject largely spoken of after their manner
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Speaker 1: by men of the world, but not sufficiently considered by
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Speaker 1: those whom God hath chosen out of the world. These
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Speaker 1: generally do not consider as the importance of the subject
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Speaker 1: requires the use of this excellent talent, neither do they
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Speaker 1: understand how to employ it to the greatest advantage. The
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Speaker 1: introduction of which into the world is one admirable instance
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Speaker 1: of the wise and gracious providence of God. It has
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Speaker 1: indeed been the manner of poets, orators, and philosophers in
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Speaker 1: almost all ages and nations to rail at this as
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Speaker 1: the grand corruptor of the world, the bane of virtue,
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Speaker 1: the pest of human society. Hence, nothing so commonly heard
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Speaker 1: as nosun's ferum pharoke nosascentius oorum, and gold more mischievous
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Speaker 1: than keenest steel. Hence the lamentable complaint fodinutur opis iramenta malorum.
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Speaker 1: Wealth is dug up incentive to all ill nay. One
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Speaker 1: celebrated writer gravely exhorts his countrymen, in order to banish
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Speaker 1: all vice at once, to throw all their money into
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Speaker 1: the sea in mare proximum sumi materium mali. But is
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Speaker 1: not all this mere empty rant? Is there any solid reason?
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Speaker 1: Therein by no means for let the world be as
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Speaker 1: corrupt as it will his gold or silver to blame.
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Speaker 1: The love of money, we know, is the root of
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Speaker 1: all evil, but not the thing itself. The fault does
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Speaker 1: not lie in the money, but in them that use it.
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Speaker 1: It may be used ill, and what may not, but
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Speaker 1: it may likewise be used well. It is full, as
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Speaker 1: applicable to the best as to the worst uses. It
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Speaker 1: is of unspeakable service to all civilized nations in all
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Speaker 1: the common affairs of life. It is a most compendious
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Speaker 1: instrument of transacting all manner of business. And if we
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Speaker 1: use it according to Christian wisdom, of doing all manner
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Speaker 1: of good. It is true where man in a stake
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Speaker 1: of innocence, or were all men filled with the holy ghosts,
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Speaker 1: so that, like the infant church at Jerusalem, no man
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Speaker 1: counted anything he had his own, but distribution was made
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Speaker 1: to everyone as he had need. The use of it
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Speaker 1: would be superseded, as we cannot conceive there is anything
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Speaker 1: of the kind among the inhabitants of heaven. But in
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Speaker 1: the present state of mankind. It is an excellent gift
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Speaker 1: of God, answering the noblest ends in the hands of
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Speaker 1: his children. It is food for the hungry, drink for
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Speaker 1: the thirsty, raiment for the naked. It gives to the
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Speaker 1: traveler and the stranger where to lay his head. By it,
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Speaker 1: we may supply the place of a husband to the widow,
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Speaker 1: and of a father to the fatherless. We may be
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Speaker 1: a defense for the oppressed, a means of health to
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Speaker 1: the sick, of ease to them that are in pain.
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Speaker 1: It may be as eyes to the blind, as feet
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Speaker 1: to the lame, yea a lifter up from the gates
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Speaker 1: of death. It is therefore of the highest concern that
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Speaker 1: all who fear God know how to employ this valuable talent,
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Speaker 1: that they be instructed how it may answer these glorious ends,
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Speaker 1: and in the highest degree. And perhaps all the instructions
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Speaker 1: which are necessary for this may be reduced to three
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Speaker 1: plain rules by the exact observance, whereof we may approve
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Speaker 1: ourselves faithful stewards of the mammon of unrighteousness. The first
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Speaker 1: of these is he that heareth, Let him understand. Gain
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Speaker 1: all you can here we may speak like the children
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Speaker 1: of the world. We meet them on their own ground,
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Speaker 1: and it is our bound in duty to do this.
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Speaker 1: We ought to gain all we can gain without buying
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Speaker 1: gold too deer, without paying more for it than it
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Speaker 1: is worth. But this it is certain, we ought not
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Speaker 1: to do. We ought not to gain money at the
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Speaker 1: expense of life, nor, which is in effect the same thing,
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Speaker 1: at the expense of our health. Therefore, no gain whatsoever
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Speaker 1: should induce us to enter into or to continue in
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Speaker 1: any employ which is of such a kind, or is
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Speaker 1: attended with so hard or so long labor, as to
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Speaker 1: impair our constitution. Neither should we begin or continue in
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Speaker 1: any business which necessarily deprives us of proper seasons for
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Speaker 1: food and sleep in such a proportion as our nature requires. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: there is a great difference here. Some employments are absolutely
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Speaker 1: and totally unhealthy, as those which imply the dealing much
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Speaker 1: with arsenic or other equally hurtful minerals, or the breathing
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Speaker 1: and air tainted with steams of melting lead, which must
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Speaker 1: at length destroy the firmest constitution. Others may not be
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Speaker 1: absolutely unhealthy, but only to persons of a weak constitution.
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Speaker 1: Such are those which require many hours to be spent
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Speaker 1: in writing, especially if a person right sitting and lean
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Speaker 1: upon his stomach, or remain long in an uneasy posture.
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Speaker 1: But whatever it is which reason or experience shows to
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Speaker 1: be destructive of health or strength, that we may not
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Speaker 1: submit to. Seeing the life is more valuable than meat,
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Speaker 1: and the body than raiment, And if we are already
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Speaker 1: engaged in such an employee, we should exchange it as
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Speaker 1: soon as possible for some which, if it lessen our gain,
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Speaker 1: will however not lessen our health. We are secondly to
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Speaker 1: gain all we can without hurting our mind any more
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Speaker 1: than our body, for neither may we hurt this. We
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Speaker 1: must preserve at all events the spirit of a healthful mind.
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Speaker 1: Therefore we may not engage or continue in any sinful trade,
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Speaker 1: any that is contrary to the law of God or
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Speaker 1: of our country. Such are all that necessarily imply robbing
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Speaker 1: or defrauding the King of his lawful customs. For it
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Speaker 1: is at least as sinful to defraud the King of
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Speaker 1: his right as to rob our fellow subjects. And the
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Speaker 1: King has full as much right to his customs as
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Speaker 1: we have to our houses. In apparel, other businesses there
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Speaker 1: are which, however innocent in themselves, cannot be followed with innocence, now,
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Speaker 1: at least not in England, such for instance, as will
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Speaker 1: not afford a competent maintenance without cheating or lying, or
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Speaker 1: conformity to some custom which not consistent with a good conscience.
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Speaker 1: These likewise are sacredly to be avoided, whatever gain they
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Speaker 1: may be attended with, provided we follow the custom of
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Speaker 1: the trade, For to gain money we must not lose
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Speaker 1: our own souls. There are yet others which many pursue
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Speaker 1: with perfect innocence, without hurting either the body or mind.
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Speaker 1: And yet perhaps you cannot either. They may entangle you
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Speaker 1: in that company which would destroy your soul, And by
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Speaker 1: repeated experiments, it may appear that you cannot separate the
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Speaker 1: one from the other. Or there may be an idiosyncrasy,
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Speaker 1: a peculiarity in your constitution of soul, as there is
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Speaker 1: in the bodily constitution of many, by reason, whereof that
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Speaker 1: employment is deadly to you, which another may safely follow.
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Speaker 1: So I am convinced from many experiments I could not
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Speaker 1: study to any degree of perfection either mathematics, arithmetic, or
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Speaker 1: algebra without being a deist, if not an atheist. And
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Speaker 1: yet others may study them all their lives without sustaining
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Speaker 1: any inconvenience. None therefore can here determine for another. But
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Speaker 1: every man must judge for himself, and abstain from whatever
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Speaker 1: he in particular finds to be hurtful to his soul.
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Speaker 1: We are, thirdly to gain all we can without hurting
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Speaker 1: our neighbor. But this we may not cannot do if
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Speaker 1: we love our neighbor as ourselves. We cannot if we
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Speaker 1: love everyone as ourselves, hurt anyone in his substance. We
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Speaker 1: cannot devour the increase of his lands, and perhaps the
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Speaker 1: lands and houses themselves, by gaming, by overgrown bills, whether
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Speaker 1: on account of physic or law, or anything else, or
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Speaker 1: by requiring or taking such interest as even the laws
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Speaker 1: of our country forbid. Hereby all pawn broking is excluded,
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Speaker 1: seeing whatever good we might do thereby, all unprejudiced men
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Speaker 1: see with grief to be abundantly overbalanced by the evil.
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Speaker 1: And if it were otherwise, yet we are not allowed
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Speaker 1: to do evil that good may come. We cannot, consistent
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Speaker 1: with brotherly love, sell our goods below the market price.
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Speaker 1: We cannot study to ruin our neighbor'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 spiritus 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: not 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 largest states in 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
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Speaker 1: out 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 life, 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: unto 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, play houses, or
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Speaker 1: any other places of public fashionable diversion. If these profit
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Speaker 1: the souls of men, you are clear your employment is
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Speaker 1: good and your gain innocent. But if they are either
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Speaker 1: sinful 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 thigh hands? These cautions and restrictions
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Speaker 1: being observed, It is the bound in duty of all
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Speaker 1: who are engaged in worldly business to observe that first
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Speaker 1: and great rule of Christian wisdom. With respect to money,
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Speaker 1: Gain all you can gain, all you can by honest industry,
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Speaker 1: Use all possible diligence in your calling. Lose no time.
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Speaker 1: If 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 want, 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 businesiness 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 sensibly at least
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Speaker 1: impair the understanding, and yet to mention no other effects
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Speaker 1: 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, And
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Speaker 1: curiously ad adorning your houses in superfluous or expensive furniture,
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Speaker 1: in costly pictures, paintings, gilding books, in elegant rather than
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Speaker 1: useful gardens. Let your neighbors, who know nothing better, do this.
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Speaker 1: Let the dead bury their dead. But what is that
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Speaker 1: to 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 expense is frequently
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Speaker 1: interwoven with one or more of the former. Men are
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Speaker 1: expensive in diet or apparel or furniture, not barely to
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Speaker 1: 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 general 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
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Speaker 1: gratifying these desires if he considered that to gratify them
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Speaker 1: is to increase them. Nothing can be more certain than
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Speaker 1: this daily experience shows. The more they are indulged, they
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Speaker 1: increase the more. Whenever, therefore, you expend anything to please
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Speaker 1: your taste or other senses, you pay so much for sensuality.
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Speaker 1: When you lay out money to please your eye, you
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Speaker 1: give so much for an increase of curiosity, for a
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Speaker 1: stronger attachment to these pleasures which perish in the using.
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Speaker 1: While you are purchasing anything which men use to applaud,
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Speaker 1: you are purchasing more vanity. Had you not then enough
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Speaker 1: of vanity, sensuality, curiosity before, was there need of any addition?
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Speaker 1: And would you pay for it? Too. What manner of
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Speaker 1: wisdom is this? Would not the literally throwing your money
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Speaker 1: into the sea be a less mischievous folly? And why
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Speaker 1: should you throw away money upon your children any more
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Speaker 1: than upon yourself, in delicate food, in gay or costly apparel,
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Speaker 1: in superfluities of any kind. Why should you purchase for
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Speaker 1: them more pride or lust, more vanity, or foolish and
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Speaker 1: hurtful desires. They do not want any more. They have
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Speaker 1: enough already Nature has made ample provision for them. Why
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Speaker 1: should you be at farther expense to increase their temptations
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Speaker 1: in snares and to pierce them through with more sorrows.
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Speaker 1: Do not leave it to them to throw away if
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Speaker 1: you have good reason to believe that they should waste
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Speaker 1: what is now in your possession, in gratifying and thereby
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Speaker 1: increasing the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye,
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Speaker 1: or the pride of life, at the peril of theirs
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Speaker 1: and your own soul. Do not set these traps in
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Speaker 1: their way. Do not offer your sons or your daughters
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Speaker 1: unto Blile any more than unto Moloch. Have pity upon them,
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Speaker 1: and remove out of their way what you may easily
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Speaker 1: fan or see would increase their sins and consequently plunge
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Speaker 1: them deeper into everlasting perdition. How amazing, then, is the
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Speaker 1: infatuation of those parents who think they can never leave
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Speaker 1: their children enough. What cannot you leave them? Enough of arrows, firebrands,
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Speaker 1: and death. Not enough of foolish and hurtful desires, Not
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Speaker 1: enough of pride, lust, ambition, vanity, Not enough of everlasting burnings.
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Speaker 1: Poor wretch, thou fearest where no fear is surely both
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Speaker 1: thou and they, when you are lifting up your eyes
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Speaker 1: in hell, will have enough, both of the worm that
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Speaker 1: never dieth and of the fire that shall never be quenched.
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Speaker 1: What then would you do if you were in my case,
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Speaker 1: if you had a considerable fortune to leave, whether I
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Speaker 1: would do it or no? I know what I ought
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Speaker 1: to do. This will admit of no reasonable question. If
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Speaker 1: I had one child, elder or younger, who knew the
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Speaker 1: value of money, one who I believed would put it
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Speaker 1: to the true use, I should think it my absolute
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Speaker 1: indispensable duty to leave that child the bulk of my
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Speaker 1: fortune and to the rest just so much as would
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Speaker 1: enable them to live in the manner they had been
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Speaker 1: accustomed to. But what if all your children were equally
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Speaker 1: ignorant of the true use of money. I ought then hard, saying,
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Speaker 1: who can hear it? To give each what would keep
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Speaker 1: him above want, and to bestow all the rest in
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Speaker 1: such a manner as I judged would be most for
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Speaker 1: the glory of God. But let not any man imagine
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Speaker 1: that he has done anything barely by going thus far,
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Speaker 1: by gaining and saving all he can, if he were
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Speaker 1: to stop here, all this is nothing if a man
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Speaker 1: go not forward, if he does not point all this
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Speaker 1: at a farther end. Nor indeed can a man properly
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Speaker 1: be said to save anything if he only lays it up.
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Speaker 1: You may as well throw your money into the sea
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Speaker 1: as buried in the earth, And you may as well
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Speaker 1: bury it in the earth as in your chest, or
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Speaker 1: in the bank of England. Not to use is effectually
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Speaker 1: to throw it away. If therefore you would indeed make
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Speaker 1: yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, add the third
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Speaker 1: rule to the two preceding. Having first gained all you can,
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Speaker 1: and secondly saved all you can, then give all you can.
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Speaker 1: In order to see the ground and reason of this,
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Speaker 1: Consider when the possessor of heaven and earth brought you
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Speaker 1: into being and placed you in this world. He placed
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Speaker 1: you here not as a proprietor, but as a steward.
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Speaker 1: As such, he entrusted you for a season with goods
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Speaker 1: of various kinds. But the sole property of these still
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Speaker 1: rests in Him, nor can be alienated from him. As
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Speaker 1: you yourself are not your own but his. Such is
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Speaker 1: likewise all that you enjoy, such as your soul and
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Speaker 1: your body not your own, but God's. And so is
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Speaker 1: your substance in particular. And He has told you in
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Speaker 1: the most clear and expressed terms, how you are to
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Speaker 1: employ it for Him, in such a manner that it
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Speaker 1: may be all and a holy sacrifice acceptable through Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 1: And this light easy service he has promised to reward
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Speaker 1: with an eternal weight of glory. The directions which God
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Speaker 1: has given us touching the use of our worldly substance
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Speaker 1: may be compromised in the following particulars. If you desire
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Speaker 1: to be a faithful and wise steward out of that
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Speaker 1: portion of your Lord's goods which He has for the
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Speaker 1: present lodged in your hands, but with the right of
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Speaker 1: resuming whenever it pleases him. First provide things needful for yourself,
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Speaker 1: food to eat, raiment to put on, whatever nature moderately
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Speaker 1: requires for preserving the body in health and strength. Secondly,
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Speaker 1: provide these for your wife, your children, your servants, or
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Speaker 1: any others who pertain to your household. If when this
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Speaker 1: is done there be an overplus left, then do good
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Speaker 1: to them that are of the household of faith. If
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Speaker 1: there be an overplussed still, as you have opportunity, do
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Speaker 1: good unto all men. In so doing you give all
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Speaker 1: you can, nay, in a sound sense, all you have,
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Speaker 1: for all that is laid out in this manner is
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Speaker 1: really given to God. You render unto God the things
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Speaker 1: that are God's, not only by what you give to
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Speaker 1: the poor, but also by that which you expend in
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Speaker 1: providing things needful for yourself and your household. If then
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Speaker 1: a doubt should at any time arise in your mind
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Speaker 1: concerning what you are going to expend, either on yourself
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Speaker 1: or any part of your family, you have an easy
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Speaker 1: way to remove it. Calmly and seriously inquire one in
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Speaker 1: expending this, Am I acting according to my character? Am
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Speaker 1: I acting herein not as a proprietor, but as a
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Speaker 1: steward of my Lord's goods. Two am I doing this
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Speaker 1: in obedience to his word? In what scripture does he
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Speaker 1: require me to do so? Three? Can I offer up
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Speaker 1: this action, this expense, as a sacrifice to God through
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Four Have I a reason to believe that
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Speaker 1: for this very work I shall have a reward at
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Speaker 1: the resurrection of the Just. You will seldom need anything
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Speaker 1: more to remove any doubt which arises on this head.
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Speaker 1: But by this fourfold consideration you will receive clear light
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Speaker 1: as to the way wherein you should go. If any
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Speaker 1: doubt still remain, you may farther examine yourself by prayer
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Speaker 1: according to those heads of inquiry. Try whether you can
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Speaker 1: say to the searcher of hearts, your conscience not condemning you. Lord,
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Speaker 1: Thou seest I am going to expend the sum on
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Speaker 1: that food, apparel, furniture, And thou knowest I act herein
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Speaker 1: with a single eye as a steward of thy goods,
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Speaker 1: expending this portion of them, thus in pursuance of the
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Speaker 1: design Thou hadst in trusting me with them. Thou knowest
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Speaker 1: I do this in obedience to the Lord, as thou commandest,
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Speaker 1: And because thou commandest it, let this I beseech thee
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Speaker 1: be a holy sacrifice acceptable through Jesus Christ, and give
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Speaker 1: me a witness in myself that for this labor of
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Speaker 1: love I shall have a recompense when Thou rewardest every
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Speaker 1: man according to his works. Now, if your conscience bear
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Speaker 1: you witness in the Holy Ghost that this prayer is
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Speaker 1: well pleasing to God, then have you no reason to doubt,
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Speaker 1: but that the expense is right and good, and such
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Speaker 1: as will never make you ashamed. You see then what
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Speaker 1: it is to make yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness,
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Speaker 1: and by what means you may procure that when ye fail,
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Speaker 1: they may receive you into the everlasting habitations. You see
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Speaker 1: the nature and extent of truly Christian prudence, so far
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Speaker 1: as it relates to the use of that great talent money.
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Speaker 1: Gain all you can without hurting either yourself or your
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Speaker 1: neighbor in soul or body, by applying here too, with
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Speaker 1: unintermitted diligence, and with all the understanding which God has
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Speaker 1: given you, save all you can, by cutting off every
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Speaker 1: expense which serves only to indulge foolish desire, to gratify
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Speaker 1: either the desire of the flesh the desire of the
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Speaker 1: eye or the pride of life. Waste nothing living or
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Speaker 1: dying on sin or folly, whether for yourself or your children.
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Speaker 1: And then give all you can, or in other words,
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Speaker 1: give all you have to God. Do not stint yourself
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Speaker 1: like a jew rather than a Christian to this or
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Speaker 1: that proportion. Render unto God, not a tenth, not a third,
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Speaker 1: not half, but all that is God's, be it more
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Speaker 1: or less, by employing all on yourself, your household, the
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Speaker 1: household of faith, and all mankind, in such a manner
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Speaker 1: that you may give a good account of your stewardship,
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Speaker 1: when ye can be no longer stewards in such a
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Speaker 1: manner as the oracles of God direct, both by general
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Speaker 1: and particular precepts, in such a manner that whatever ye
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Speaker 1: do may be a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor
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Speaker 1: to God, and that every act may be rewarded in
29:43
Speaker 1: that day when the Lord cometh with all his saints. Brethren,
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Speaker 1: Can we be either wise or faithful stewards unless we
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Speaker 1: thus manage our Lord's goods? We cannot, as not only
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Speaker 1: the oracles of God but our own conscience beareth witness.
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Speaker 1: Then why should we delay? Why should we infer any
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Speaker 1: longer with flesh and blood or men of the world.
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Speaker 1: Our kingdom, Our wisdom is not of this world. Heathen
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Speaker 1: custom is nothing to us. We follow no men any
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Speaker 1: farther than they are followers of Christ. Hear ye him,
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Speaker 1: yea today while it is called today. Hear and obey
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Speaker 1: his voice at this hour, and from this hour, do
30:20
Speaker 1: as well fulfill His word in this and in all things.
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Speaker 1: I entreat you, in the name of the Lord Jesus,
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Speaker 1: act up to the dignity of your calling. No more sloth,
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Speaker 1: whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with your might.
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Speaker 1: No more waste. Cut off every expense which fashion caprice
30:39
Speaker 1: or flesh and blood. Demand no more coveteousness, But employ
30:43
Speaker 1: whatever God has entrusted you with in doing good, all
30:46
Speaker 1: possible good, in every possible kind, and degree to the
30:49
Speaker 1: household of faith to all men. This is no small
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Speaker 1: part of the wisdom of the Just. Give all ye have,
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Speaker 1: as well as all ye are, a spiritual sacrifice to
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Speaker 1: Him who who withheld not from you his son, his
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Speaker 1: only son. So laying up in store for yourselves a
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Speaker 1: good foundation against the time to come, that ye may
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Speaker 1: attain eternal life. End of Section fifty one