world was full of such men. When we see a rich man exercising the humility of a cottager, the selfdenial of a peasant, the love and faith of a martyr, and the bountifulness of a prince, we know that he must have higher aims and purer motives than those who are not born from above.

But if the obstacles to a rich man's salvation are so many and so great, his earnestness and carefulness must correspond to the opposition he meets. If all men must watch, and pray, and labour, and fight, and run, and faint not; how much more must he, whose cares, and temptations, and enemies are so terrible. And if all men find it hard to keep their hearts right, how much more he, whose personal and social position is a perpetual snare to his soul.

And let not the rich be offended when God's ministers, according to his word, "charge them... that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation for the time. to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.' 1 Tim. vi. 17-19. How much good might be done; how many poor relieved; how many useful institutions aided; how many churches built up; how many Bibles and good books scattered; how many ignorant children educated; and how many widows made to sing for joy, if the wealth that is in the world were freely and judiciously used! What a light would then shine upon the path of many, who now almost "choose strangling rather than life!"

"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;

In feelings, not in figures on a dial.

We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best."

"If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. Ps. lxii. 10. Remember "that riches profit not in the day of wrath," Prov. xi. 4. They never make it easier to die. Many things are to be preferred to wealth. A good conscience, an unsullied honour, the friendship of the virtuous around us are incomparably better. Prov. xxii. 1. "Riches are not for ever." Prov. xxvii. 24. Your wealth must soon leave you, or you must soon leave it. "You brought nothing into this world, and it is certain you can carry nothing out." 1 Tim. vi. 7. not permit his wealth to do good to others while he is living, prevents it from doing any good to himself when he is dead."

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"He, that will

If you were once rich and are become poor, be not cast down with overmuch sorrow. Sanctified reverses are better than unsanctified prosperity. Leighton: Certainly it is true in matter of estate, as of our garments, not that which is largest, but that which fits us best, is best for us." Remember Job in the midst of his poverty. Rather remember Christ, who

though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich." And if you never were rich in earthly things, neither was your Saviour. "Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content." 1 Tim. vi. 8. Carefully guard against all wilfulness in your desires. Ps. lxxxvii. 29–31; 1 Tim. vi. 9. Let us cheerfully take up our cross and follow Christ. Matt. xvi. 24. Let us sweetly submit to the will of God in all things. 1 Sam. iii. 18; Phil. iv. 11, 12. Let us learn to bear the yoke whenever God shall lay it upon us. Lam. iii. 27-29. Let us dismiss all tormenting

solicitude, putting our trust in the unerring wisdom and gracious providence of God. Hab. iii. 17, 18; Phil. iv. 6. Let us by experience prove how God's grace can abound towards us in the greatest straits, and let us glory in our infirmities. 2 Cor. xii. 9. Let us never question the right of God to do what he will with his own; much less set up our wisdom against his. Job xxxiv. 33; Matt. xx. 15. Let us remember that our sins deserve far worse than we have ever received. Neh. ix. 16, 17; Micah vii. 9. Nor will our sufferings be long. They will last but for a little moment and be gone for ever. 2 Cor. iv. 17. Let us only believe and they will do us good. Rom. viii. 28.

Those parents are not wise, who live, and risk their own souls to heap up riches for their children. A good name is the best inheritance we can leave to posterity. When to that we add a good example, a good education, good counsel, and good principles, there is but little more that is valuable in an inheritance. At all events, it is God's blessing that maketh our children rich and addeth no sorrow. Let us commit them to him in hearty prayer, and be not over-anxious respecting their temporal wants. "The LORD will provide." "I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."

And let not the poor envy the rich. When all is told, the latter have not many advantages. In eating and sleeping, they are frequently worse off than the poor. "The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep." Eccles, v. 12.

The rich can live no longer, can die no more easily, can fill no larger space in the grave, than the poor. What profit then has he of all his wealth? He works hard for years to amass a fortune. He spends the residue of his life in watching that fortune for his victuals and clothes. "What good is there to the owners of riches saving the beholding of them with their eyes." Eccles. v. 11.

Let all men seek the true riches. "Sell that ye have, and give alms: provide for yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Luke xii. 33, 34. If God has denied you great things here, seek the more diligently for glory, honour, immortality, and eternal life. Poverty is no virtue. Your poverty will not save you; but it ought to remind you of your greater wants, and to make you the more earnest in seeking the unsearchable riches of Christ.

But let us not forget that we are never out of danger till we reach our heavenly home. The way to heaven is like the way that Jonathan and his armour-bearer ascended. There is a sharp rock on one side, and there is a sharp rock on the other side. Leighton: "We pervert all: when we look below us, it raises. our pride; and when above us, it casts us into discontent. Might we not as well, contrariwise, draw humility out of the one, and contentment out of the other?" "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." 1 Pet. ii. 11.

Good writers have stated that this commandment

requires full contentment with our condition, and that it forbids ambition, envy, the inordinate love of what we possess, greediness after more, repining at providences and grieving at our neighbours' good. All these things have been noticed in previous pages of this book.

The great requisition of this command is fervent love, charity out of a pure heart towards our neighbour. This excellent grace is so fully explained in the New Testament, and especially by Paul in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, and we have so many good popular treatises upon it, that the reader's time and attention will not be asked any longer to this subject.