fulfil the duties which pertained more immediately to himself. The rich were not in this respect to be overlooked, any more than the poor ; nor were they to be addressed with less authority than the poor. Timothy, though quite a young minister, was to con- sider himself as speaking in the name and with the authority of Almighty God ; and was not merely to exhort, but to "charge," the richest and most power- ful of his flock, and most solemnly to enjoin on them a conscientious use of their wealth, for the honour of God, and for the benefit of mankind.
In the charge which Timothy was to give to the rich, we see,
I. The temptations which they are to avoid —
To fix the standard, and to draw an exact line be- tween those who are " rich in this world," and those who are not, is no easy task : because what would be wealth to a peasant would be poverty to a man whose rank and station in life called for a more enlarged expenditure. But we shall mark the character with sufficient precision, if we say, that the rich in this world are those who possess already, or are able by their different vocations to obtain, what is sufficient for their support in that rank of life wherein Divine Providence has placed them : for all persons so cir- cumstanced have it in their power, by frugality and self-denial, to appropriate a portion of their income to the uses that are here specified.
But to persons so circumstanced many temptations will arise. They will in particular find occasion to guard against,
1. Pride— [If from any source whatever a man have acquired an in- crease of wealth, and especially if he have acquired it by his own skill or industry, he immediately conceives himself entitled to a greater measure of respect and honour from all around him. He seems by that circumstance to have attained some- what of intrinsic worth and excellence ; never reflecting, that, as a horse is not a whit better for the trappings with which he is decorated, so neither is a man for the splendour with which he is encompassed. Even good King Hezekiah was led away