It is another's because it passes, like quicksilver
under pressure, from hand to hand, and no man really holds it, but it
leaps away from his grasp. And if a man retains it all his days, still,
according to the grim old proverb, 'shrouds have no pockets,' and when
he dies his hands open, or sometimes they clutch together, but there is
nothing inside the palms, and they only close upon themselves. Dear
brethren, if there is anything that can be filched away from us,
anything about which it is true that, on the one hand, 'moth and
rust'--natural processes--'do corrupt' it, on the other hand, 'thieves
break through and steal'--accidents of human conduct can deprive us of
it, then we may _call_ it ours, but it is not ours. It possesses us, if
we are devoted to it as our best good, and fighting and toiling, and
sometimes lying and cheating, and flinging the whole fierce energy of
our nature into first gripping and then holding it; it possesses us; we
do not possess it. But if there is anything that can become so
interwoven and interlaced with the very fibres of a man's heart that
they and it cannot be parted, if there is anything that empty hands will
clasp the closer, because they _are_ emptied of earth's vanities, then
that is truly possessed by its possessor. And our faith, which will not
be trodden in the grave, but will go with us into the world beyond, and
though it be lost in one aspect, in sight, it will be eternal as trust,
will be ours, imperishable as ourselves, and as God. Therefore, do not
give all the energy of your lives to amassing the second-best riches.
Seek the highest things most. 'Covet earnestly the best gifts,' and let
the coveting regulate your conduct. And do not be put off with wealth
that will fail you sooner or later.

II. Note, again, the testing of the wealth.

I need not dwell upon that very familiar metaphor of the furnace for
gold, and the fining-pot for silver, only remember that there are two
purposes for which metallurgists apply fire to metals. The one is to
test them, and the other is to cleanse them, or, to use technical words,
one is for the purpose of assaying them, and the other is for the
purpose of refining them. And so, linking the words of my text with the
words of the previous verse, we find that the Apostle lays it down that
the purpose of all the diverse trials, or 'temptations' as he calls
them, that come to us, is this one thing, that our faith should be
'tried,' and 'found