god's blessing, the greatest riches.
Prov. X. 22. The blessing of the Lord, it maheth rich ; a?id he addeth no sorroiv with it.
AMIDST the lessons of practical wisdom which we are taught in the Book of Proverbs, we find a continual reference to God as the source and the end of all. If we attempt to spiritualize the different moral apophthegms, we in fact pervert them, and apply them to a use for which they were never intended : if, on the other hand, we regard them solely in a moral view, without any relation to God, we fall exceed- ingly short of their true import. In explaining them, therefore, a proper medium must be observed ; that we neither strain their meaning, on the one hand ; nor enervate it, on the other.
To unfold to you the passage before us, I will shew,
I. In what respects "the blessing of God" may be said to " make us rich" —
This effect may well be ascribed to " the blessing of God,"
1. Because it is in reality the only source of all wealth —
[Men are apt to ascribe their success in life to their own industry, and to the wisdom which they have exercised in the management of their affairs. But this is to rob God altogether of the glory due to him. The people of Israel were guarded against it by God, who particularly cautioned them not, when they should be established in Canaan, to arrogate any thing to themselves ; or to " say in their heart. My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth :" for that " it was God alone who had given them power to get wealths"
^ Deut. viii. 17, 18.