PSALM CXXViii. 1, 2. "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee."

LUKE, xvi. 10. "He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much."

LORD, they who are Thy children are of a rank far too

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lofty to need to feel anxious about their daily bread. All the burden of such care I cast upon Thee, as Thou thyself hast commanded me to do, and now therefore the matter is in Thy hands.1 Thou wilt not permit that I should be put to shame before mine adversaries, or that they should have cause to say, See how the Lord rewardeth His servants! Never wilt Thou permit them to open their mouth against me, and cry, “Aha, aha! our eye hath seen it." Such was the confident hope of David, and it is also mine; and if, O mighty God, Thou hast in mercy connected Thine honour with the cause of Thy poor servants, surely it would be on our side a grievous sin, were we to fail to do our part, and thereby put Thine honour to hazard. And yet that sin we commit, when all we do is to look up to the clouds, and expect them to pour down rain and sunshine upon us, while we pay no attention to the spade and the plough, which here on earth Thou hast put into our hands. Wise were the men of former days when they said, All depends on God's blessing; but no less wisely did they say that God helps those who use their hands. They said, moreover, He gives us the ox, but not a hold of it by the horns-meaning that we must exert ourselves in order to subject it to our power. Hence, in the household of God the general maxim is, Pray as if thou didst not labour, and labour as if thou didst not pray. To carry on both simultaneously is a difficult task for a being so changeable as man; because, when prayer is lively, labour grows languid, and when prayer is 1 Psalm lv. 22; 1 Pet. v. 7.

2 Psalm xxxv. 21.

languid, labour becomes lively. The human heart revolves like a wheel, of which one spoke goes down as another goes up.

It is enough to break one's heart to see a man made after the divine image, and still more if he be a father, calling aloud for bread to himself and his children, and willing to do his part by labouring for it; but who, notwithstanding, fails to find it, because he can find nothing to do. At such a spectacle the weak in faith stumble and lose confidence in God, who of old time said, "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."1 But may we not be permitted to question whether instances of this really occur, and whether it ever happened that any man who had all his life long been industrious and willing to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, actually died of hunger? That it never did, is a bold statement to make; but what emboldens me to make it is, that one far greater than I has made it before me: for thus spake King David,-"I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." 2

Any exception to this rule, I have always found, might be accounted for as follows: Either it happened according to the Preacher's description, "I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down:" "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.' Men reap as they sow. A bad beginning makes a bad end. He who plants thistles must not expect to gather grapes. How needful for those who are the chief sufferers from indigence would be a discourse upon the words of the son of Sirach: "When thou hast enough, remember the time of hunger; and when thou art rich, think upon poverty and need"! Persons of this class never reflect that

1 Psalm 1. 15.

3 Prov. xxiv. 30-34.

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2 Psalm xxxvii. 25.

4 Ecclus. xviii. 25.

there will be a to-morrow after to-day, or that he who eats his whole loaf at breakfast is likely to have a scanty supper. However much they have, they use it all, and when they are full, are idle. Or if not from this cause, indigence proceeds from men having attempted things above their reach, and disregarded the proverb

"Try first to understand

The task you take in hand;"

or the prudent advice of the son of Sirach: "Meddle not with many matters: for if thou meddle much thou shall not be innocent; and if thou follow after, thou shalt not attain, neither shalt thou escape by fleeing."1 Sometimes it is avarice, and sometimes ambition, which instigates them to attempt to fly higher than their wings can carry; and if the issue be unfortunate, who can wonder?

"Whate'er commences without thought

Is sure at last to end in nought."

Probably, too, such want and penury are a penal retribution for many an old error and hidden misdeed, unknown to other men, but respecting which he who has the yoke to bear is the best able to tell whence it comes, and in how far he bears it as a penance; and he will also be the last to cast the blame of it upon God. Oh how much oftener than is ever suspected, may the victim of such bitter penury be reaping the harvest of a seed of evil-doing! for it admits not of a doubt that ill-gotten gain never prospers, and is dissipated in the way it was acquired. Ah me! if in the haunts of beggars the walls could speak, would the doctrine which they preach be different from that declared by the prophet, when he says that "poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction ;"2 and that "sin is a destruction to any people"?

It cannot be that that can come to nought which the Word of God so often avers-as, for example, when it says: "He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the hand 2 Prov. xiii. 18.

1 Ecclus. xi. 10.

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of the diligent maketh rich;" and "In all labour there is profit." To the same effect the son of Sirach exhorts : "Trust in the Lord and abide in thy labour; for it is an easy thing for the Lord, on the sudden, to make a poor man rich.”3 As for the cases in which sickness, or war, or general dearth may have reduced an industrious and faithful servant of God to bitter poverty, such poverty will be of temporary duration; for in the day of trouble the Lord will send some friend to take his part, and not suffer him to be tempted above that which he is able to bear, but will temper the cold to suit the thinness of his coat. A servant of the Lord who has always maintained his integrity may possibly become poor, but he will never become a beggar; and of cheerful poverty the proverb beautifully says that "it is riches without wealth," which is consonant with the saying of Solomon: "There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing; there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches."5 Besides, it is principally those He means to favour whom the Lord visits with poverty, there being so many good things of which it is the parent and the nurse. Does not the proverb tell us that in the school of privation and hunger many have acquired their learning? and that uprightness and industry cannot reduce a man to beggary, was well expressed by Luther, when being asked, What was the best investment? he answered, Honesty.

I therefore know for certain that if I do my part the Lord will never suffer me to lack food and raiment; and when along with these He gives me a cheerful heart, what more should I desire? At a little fountain we can quench our thirst as well as at a great one. I must needs, however, do what is my part, and this implies that in the everyday work allotted me by the Lord I must look upon nothing as too little, but learn to be faithful even in the smallest things. It is related of Luther that he wrote with chalk above his fireplace the saying of the Lord, "He that is faithful in that which is least, is faith3 Ecclus. xi. 21.

2 Prov. xiv. 23.

1 Prov. x. 4.

ful also in much,"1 and assigned as the reason that no one who despises a penny will ever possess a pound. Dogs learn to eat leather by beginning with parings, and he who wastes an hour will have little scruple in wasting a whole day. As the son of Sirach says, "He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little." 2 Our Lord has told us that He holds faithfulness in the use of worldly wealth in the very highest esteem; for He adds in the same passage, "If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? and if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who will give you that which is your own ?" 3 It is spiritual blessings which He here calls the true riches, and that which is our own; and hence it appears that these will be bestowed in proportion to the fidelity which has been shown in the use of worldly wealth. We are to begin with little things; and were Christians to take the admonition seriously to heart, and were every one in his vocation to exercise due conscientiousness even in the smallest matters, how good a reputation would be thereby procured for the Gospel! In truth, however, there is nothing so sad as to see men continually labouring to mount aloft and aspiring to be preachers, not to say spotless angels, before they have learned to be decent tailors, shopkeepers, and farmers. No doubt it is often a worthy zeal which prompts tradesmen to attempt to preach. Has not the Lord declared that if they who have been called to that office are silent, the "very stones should cry out"? When, then, a tradesman happens to be impelled by the Spirit to bear from house to house a testimony in behalf of Christ, the whole clergy of the city ought not, as they too often do, to burn with indignation, as if-may God forbid the thought!-they were afraid of losing their bread. No doubt the clergy say, Are we then dumb dogs? and if not, what would the stones be at when they open their mouths along with us, who are the watchmen upon the towers? And yet when a long war has come to an end, and gentle peace 2 Ecclus. xix. I. 3 Luke, xvi. II, 12.

1 Luke, xvi. 10.