is narrow and shallow at first, it may be; yet
there is room for some of the waters of God's bounty to pass through.
And if we cheerfully yield ourselves as channels for this purpose, then
the channel becomes wider and deeper, and the waters of the bounty of
God can pass through more abundantly. Without a figure, it is thus: At
first, we may be only instrumental in communicating five pounds, or ten
pounds, or twenty pounds, or fifty pounds, or one hundred pounds, or two
hundred pounds per year, but afterwards double as much; and, if we are
still more faithful in our stewardship, after a year or two four times
as much, afterwards perhaps eight times as much, at last perhaps twenty
times or fifty times as much. We cannot limit the extent to which God
may use us as instruments in communicating blessing, both temporal and
spiritual, if we are willing to yield ourselves as instruments to the
living God, and are content to be _only instruments, and to give him all
the glory_.

But with regard to temporal things it will be thus, that if indeed we
walk according to the mind of God in these things, whilst more and more
we become instruments of blessing to others, we shall not seek to enrich
ourselves, but be content, when the last day of another year finds us
still in the body, to possess no more than on the last day of the
previous year, or even considerably less, whilst we have been, however,
in the course of the year, the instruments of communicating largely to
others, through the means with which the Lord had intrusted us. As to
my own soul, by the grace of God, it would be a burden to me that
however much my income in the course of the year might have been, I were
increasing in earthly possession; for it would be a plain proof to me
that I had not been acting as a _steward_ for God, and had not been
yielding myself as a channel for the waters of God's bounty to pass
through. I also cannot but bear my testimony here, that in whatever
feeble measure God has enabled me to act according to these truths for
the last fifteen years [this was written in 1845]; I have found it to be
profitable, most profitable to my own soul; and as to temporal things, I
never was a loser in doing so, but I have most abundantly found the
truth in 2 Cor. ix. 6, and Luke vi. 38, and Prov. xi. 24, 25, verified
in my own experience. I only have to regret that I have acted so little
according to what I have now been stating; but my godly purpose is by
t