1. The earth and all that it contains, from the soul of man down to the invisible animalcule, are the Lord's inalienable property. With his Word for our guide, that truth cannot be evaded, and none whom he makes wise will attempt the evasion. 2. Man has no absolute title to anything which he proudly calls his own. He is a steward, and as a steward is bound to use all he has for the purposes and according to the will of God. "I thought my wealth no more mine," wrote Sir Matthew Hale, " than the lord's factor or the merchant's cash-keeper thinks his master's rent or money his." 3. Man sins at every step, when his true position in this respect is forgotten, and when God's righteous claims are modified, evaded, superseded, or disowned. 4. There is a blessing in being guided by God in all that we do. We may then say like Paul in chains at Rome" I have learned in whatsoever state I am, to be therewith content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound." But there is woe in declining the guidance of the only wise God; there is usurpation, and there will be misery. The groans and bankrupt hopes of the world proclaim it-for never, never can man be happy while he doats upon an object which may wither in his grasp―all the gold of Ophir could not, in such a case, purchase true felicity. The man who embarked his wealth in the South Sea Bubble, who lost it all, who became insane, and then wandered through the streets of London, as "Tom of ten thousand," a pitiable object of charity, is only the type of a class when viewed 62 THE HEIRS OF GOD. in the light of eternity. The brand of sacrilege is upon their basket, and their store. But 5. Countless multitudes, untaught by God's Word, and unwarned by His providence, set his righteous claims aside, and "live unto themselves." They own no law, and consult no will but their own. Though the Atheist's delusion were the truth, some could not act otherwise than they do in regard to their money. 6. As the blessing which makes rich cannot be expected upon these conditions, so "the little which a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked." Upon the whole, ancient Rome might teach us a lesson here, for its Mint stood in close connection with a Temple. And Greece displayed a similar spirit, for some of its coins were carefully stamped with religious emblems. On the other hand, a thousand beacons shine to warn men of their peril, if they would be warned—we point only to one. A Marquis of Chandos is said to have embarked £300,000 in a golden speculation. It reached a point where the invested treasure was well nigh doubled, but he waited till it should be completely so, and in waiting lost the whole. Assuming the truth of the narrative, it is thus that God in his providence enforces the sayings of his word thus that he rebukes a worldly spirit-and trains us to set our affections upon things above. He sweeps away our riches, as winter winds the autumn leaves, all that we may learn, if we will be taught, to be "rich in faith”—the very "heirs of God." THE MINERS. 63 CHAPTER IV. MONEY AND ITS USES, ACCORDING TO MAN. Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?”—LUKE xii. 19, 20. Wordsworth's miners-Success and madness-God's claims disowned- In Wordsworth's "Excursion" a passage occurs, which sheds a lurid light upon the subject of getting gain. Among his favourite mountains, he says, there was a spot where tradition had long declared that gold might be found, and the rumour— "Allured a band Of keen adventurers to unite their pains For a time they presevered and were buoyed up by hope, but all of them at length abandoned the search, except one strong-willed man. For twenty years did he continue his uncheered toils from day to day. Often was he derided, not seldom called insane, and by many deemed possessed by some demon who goaded the goldseeker to madness and ruin. At length, however, the reluctant mine surrendered its treasure to the devotee. The patience of twice ten years was rewarded, and with a joy like that of Columbus when he first gazed on the New World, did that man gaze upon the ore as he grasped the nugget. But the discovery was too much for his mind, jaded as it was by twenty years of hope deferred; he could not now bear an hour of hope turned into fruition, and Wordsworth says, that " he might be said to die of joy." Now, that man was a type of what often happens to the gold-hunter in other spheres-the man, whose chief end is, not to glorify God, but only to grow rich. The miner sought and dug till reason tottered and fell; and moral sanity is not less eclipsed in multitudes of the votaries of wealth; they are as unsatisfied after their amassings as before.-Haman, at the court of Ahasuerus, was surely a prosperous man. He had preferment, he had power, a princely state, his sovereign's smile, and all that mortal man could covet. Was he happy then? Nay, one trivial incident could dash the whole. Mordecai, a porter at the king's gate, would not bow his head before the favourite, and that embittered all. Moral sanity, we repeat, was eclipsed, while blindfold passion reigned, and can any plainer proof of that fact be demanded, than to see the claims of the Supreme Proprietor superseded and his property employed as if it were ours, not His? Whole brotherhoods of men who rank among the honourable of this world, have acted thus, till THE IDOLATOR'S CONFIDENCE. 65 moral obligation was in some cases annulled, and till they reckoned nothing false which could enrich the deceiver. The record of these proceedings, and the paths along which multitudes are thus lured to ruin by riches, form one of the saddest sections in the history of our land, or of the world, and one who has supplied such a record candidly confesses, that it is not in the power of human nature to withstand the temptations of such a career*-but why enter upon it? Surely man is not compelled by fatality to sin, as some maniacs feel impelled to commit self-destruction. Let us next, then, and in some detail, contemplate man's view of money, in contrast with what we have just seen to be God's. By placing error side by side with truth, we may learn the real character of each. Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches."-Such is the language in which the Holy One points out the class to which we now refer. Wealth, not God, is the confidence of such men. Whether it be the actual ore that is confided in, or the pleasure, the influence, the honours,, and the power which it can command, the true God is. equally set aside, while men in doing so continue as unthinking as children at sport in a grave-yard. In that state of mind, a man is worse than an infidel. He only empties the sanctuary, and leaves it without a divinity; whereas to trust in our riches is to set up an idol, and lavish our homage upon it, often till the very last breath of mortal life. We grasp it so closely that in some cases * See Chronicles and Characters of the Stock Exchange-passim. E |