t

is but lost labour that ye haste to rise up early, and so late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness, unless ye have also that blessing of the Lord which maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it. We are not asked where we will be born, in a cottage, or in a palace, whether in a Christian country, or among savages who never heard the name of Jesus. We have no choice whether we will come into the world to earn our livelihood by daily labour, or to inherit a great estate. And "if we do not come into the world by our own choice, nor pick out the place we are to fill in it, by whose choice and determination are we sent here, some to fill a higher station, some a lower? Plainly, my brethren, it must be by God's determination." " In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honour and some to dishonour.* And if we find fault with the place assigned us in the world, what do we but reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour?

The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is

* Prov. x. 22.

x 2 Tim. ii. 20.

u Hare's Sermons, ii. 363.

y Rom. ix. 20, 21.

the maker of them all." cease out of the land.a

The poor shall never That is God's pleasure

b

made known to His ancient people by Moses. Ye have the poor with you always. These are the words of Immanuel, God with us; and they hold true to this hour as when they fell from His lips in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper. Neither is this all! Not only is it God's pleasure that the condition of men should be always thus unequal: He will change that condition from time to time, as He sees good. He putteth down one and setteth up another. He taketh up the simple out of the dust, and lifteth the poor out of the mire; that He may set him with the princes, even with the princes of His people. And the difference between the Christian and the man of the world is, that the one acknowledges all this willingly and cheerfully, does his duty faithfully and thankfully in that state of life to which it has pleased God to call him, and trusts heartily to the wisdom and goodness which has made him what he is, and given him the place he holds in the world. Whereas the other, the worldly man, attributes it all to blind chance, and is impatient and fretful. He cannot make the best of

his place in life, because he is always on the look out for some change for the better, to come he knows not how, and for which he will look to any hand rather than that from which alone it ever can come; or, perhaps, he bows sullenly to the order of Providence, as what he cannot help.

And why do I speak of these things? Because, my brethren, we are all of us in danger of forgetting, at one time or other, the trust and reliance which we ought to place in Almighty God; and you and I must guard against such feelings at all times, and not think that we are safe against all temptation to worldly thoughts, because God's grace may usually have made for us a better and healthier state of mind. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

II. The second lesson, which we may derive from this portion of Scripture, is, that the good things of life bring their own duties and their own dangers. If ever wealth came in such a way that it seemed impossible to forget the giver, it was so with the jewels of silver and jewels of gold and the raiment which Israel brought with them out of Egypt. But what happened? The time came indeed, when both men and women, as many as were willing hearted, brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and f Exod. xxxv. 22, 23.

e 1 Cor. x. 12.

tablets, all jewels of gold-when every man with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, brought them to be used in setting up the tabernacle-when the rulers brought onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod, and for the breastplate—and spice, and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense, till the liberality of the people needed to be restrained, for they brought much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded to make." But was this the first use which they made of the wealth which God gave them in so wonderful a way? Alas, no! Before this, while Moses was still in the mount with God, before they had so much as received commandment for the building of the tabernacle, they had forgotten the wonderful works that God had shewed for them when he delivered them from the hand of the enemy: how he had wrought his miracles in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan. All this they had forgotten, and they clamoured to Aaron to make them gods to go before them, and gave into his hands the golden earrings which were in the ears of their wives, and of their sons, and of their daughters. They gave of the spoil which

s Ib. 27, 28,

k

i Ps. lxxviii. 42, 43.

h Exod. xxxvi. 5.

Exod. xxxii. 1-3.

God had given them to their molten calf before they devoted any of it to God himself.

Be it your care not to follow their example. Whenever God is pleased to bless your honest endeavours, let your first use of increased worldly means be to do something, to do more than you have hitherto done, for His service. Sanctify your gains and profits by setting apart the first-fruits of them to Him. We have all of us idols in our hearts which will indeed put in their claim first. We shall be tempted to consume God's gifts on the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eye, or the pride of life; but we must pray for strength to be kept from yielding to such temptation. The fall of Israel must be our warning and our safety. All these things happened unto them for ensamples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.1

III. These words of St. Paul remind us of a third lesson, (the last which I propose now to lay before you,) which the text should teach us, in common with every place of Scripture, which tells of deliverances wrought for God's ancient people.

11 Cor. x. 6, 11.