But there is another view, in which riches are far from affording any solid satisfaction ; and that is, on account of the responsibility attached to them. They are talents to be im- proved for God : and, whether wasted in extravagance, or hid in a napkin, they will bring down nothing but a curse in the day of judgment. " Go to now, ye rich men," says St. James, " weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. ' To those who have amassed wealth, he says, " Your gold and silver is cankered ; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire : ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." To those, on the other hand, who have wasted their money on personal gratifications, he says, " Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton ; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter'."]
But where God gives his blessing with wealth, " he addeth no sorrow with it."
[There is then no conscious guilt in the acquisition of it ; no anxiety in the preservation; no disappointment in the use ; no grief in the loss ; no dread of the responsibility attached to it. On the contrary, " God has given to his people all things richly to enjoy™:" and they have a rich enjoyment of every thing, because they enjoy God in it. They receive it all as his gift : they taste his love in it. They consider it, also, as a means of honouring God, and of doing good to man. A benevolent steward, who should be sent by his master to dispense his boun- ties to a famished multitude, would feel great delight in all the comfort which he was thus empowered to bestow : he would view his master as the author of the benefits, and himself only as the instrument; but his pleasure would still be exquisite,
h Jer. xvii. 11. Hub. ii. G— II. ' Eccl. ii. 26.
k Prov, XXX. 8. ' Jam. v. I — .5. ™ 1 Tim. vi. 17.