He has declared, that " it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven :" " with men," he says, " it is altogether impossible.'1'' The Rich Youth perished only because he would not sacrifice his earthly possessions : had he been a poor man, he would in all probability have followed Christ, and have been at this moment in heaven. Besides, a rich man is afraid of being thought singular, if he " follow the Lord fully:" he fancies that his situation obliges him to conform to the customs of the world : he is ashamed to associate with the Lord's people : nor will he suffer any one to deal faithfully with him : but a poor man may follow his own ways, and seek instruction wherever he can obtain it; and nobody will trouble himself about him : his instructor also may, without compliment or circumlocution, come at once to the point, and " declare unto him all the counsel of God." What an advantage is this for the obtaining of everlasting happiness ; and what a solid ground of joy to all who possess it.
Once more ; they have a sovereign antidote against all their disadvantages. — Be it granted ; they want the benefit of human learning : but they have the teachings of God's Spirit. They want many earthly comforts ; but they have the promises of the living God. " Their afflictions may abound ; but their consolations also abound by Christ." Whereinsoever they may be supposed to labour under any disadvantage, they have every thing that they need, treasured up for them in Christ Jesus; and out of his fulness they receive, in the time and measure which he knows to be best for them. Poor they may be in this world's goods; but they are enriched with " the unsearchable riches of Christ."
Now let the poor say whether they have not reason to re- joice. Surely if they estimate their state aright, they may well " rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified f."]
That the rich have equal reason to rejoice in their humiliation, is, though less obvious, not at all less true —
[What a mercy is it to them, that they are brought to see the vanity of all their earthly distinctions. In their unenlight- ened state, they have no conception how contemptible those things are, which they suppose to be of such mighty conse- quence. What is a high-sounding title, or a large estate, to a man that in a few hours is about to launch into eternity ? Yet that is the real condition of all : we are like the grass, which by the influence of the sun and rain is brought forth rapidly into gay luxuriance, but by an eastern blast is withered
f See Hab. hi. 17, 18.
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