nor his seed begging bread" (Psalm 49. 5-13; and
37. 19 and 25)--"God hath fed me," says Scott, "all my life long. I
die, but God can provide for my children, and children's children
without me; I cannot without Him. I have not, since I came here,
allowing for my house, cleared L100 a year: yet the Lord hath
provided; and I live in plenty, and can give something, and, if more
money were good for me, he would give it."--What he farther says, in
speaking of the "carnal" anxiety of Parents for the temporal welfare
of their children, though applied by himself to the clergy in
particular, is equally applicable to the laity. "I often think what
St. Paul would say to ministers in our days, on this ground; when of
those in his days he says,--All seek their own, not the things of
Jesus Christ--(see my note on the passage.) I have long lamented that
we cannot serve God by the day, and leave it to ham to provide day by
day for us and ours" (Scott's Letters--London-1824; pages 296-7).

[12] By wealthy, I mean those who have large incomes, as contrasted
with those who have a bare subsistence from their labours, or those
who have inheritances entailed upon them, so that they cannot enjoy
the privilege of disencumbering themselves.

[13] Now many may say, these commands are so clear that none could
misunderstand them, but not so these under consideration; perhaps if
we were to analyze a little deeper our hearts, we should find that
the one owes its clearness to our freedom from any consequent burden
on finding them clear; the other its indistinctness from the reverse,
not having yet learnt the glorious liberty of depending on and
yielding all to Christ. In heaven they are seen to be, I have no
doubt, equally clear, equally commands, or rather privileges, of the
saints of God.

[14] How different the spirit and conduct of our Blessed Lord! Did he
fear to leave, without temporal Provision, his widowed Mother to the
promises and providence of God? No; he left her unprovided to an
unprovided (Acts 3.1 and 6) disciple: and this he did, not at a time
when probabilities were greatly in favour of a comfortable competence
being easily procured, but when he knew that difficulties and dangers
would beset them at every step. Surely had laying up beforehand been
the duty of a child, our Saviour would have exhibited this virtue
among that constellation of virtues which shone forth from his
character; for he knew that we were to follow his examp