king hold of his sluggish
soul and shaking it into wakefulness with this wise word, "Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits." He did not concede
the Lord any part in it.

There are many men just like him to-day. I was pastor in a small town
some years ago. There was in that town only one rich man. He had made
the money that he possessed, and they called him a self-made man. One
day a certain preacher, not myself, went to him to ask him for a
donation for some charity. He began by reminding this man of wealth
how the Lord had blessed him. And what was the reply? It was about
the meanest I ever heard. He said, "I know the Lord has blessed me,
but I was there."

"I was there." And what he meant by that was that in reality the Lord
had had nothing to do with it. "I did it all myself. In fact, if the
Lord hadn't made the world I would. So there is not a thing for which
I ought to be thankful." Now, the man who has no gratitude is a fool.
He is a fool because the right sort of thinking always leads to
thanking. The only kind of thinking that does not do so is the
thinking of the practical atheist, and the practical atheist is a fool.

Then this farmer had no sense of obligation. This, too, is a natural
outcome of his reckoning without God. Here is a man who is looking out
on this same world upon which the farmer is looking, and he says, "I am
a debtor both to the Greek and to the barbarian, both to the wise and
to the unwise." The reason Paul says that is because he believes in
God. God has blessed him and saved him with a wonderful salvation.
Because of that fact he feels himself under infinite obligation to
preach the Gospel that has saved himself. But this man, this fool, has
only himself to thank for his prosperity. Therefore he has a right to
use his wealth as he pleases. The man who has no sense of obligation,
the man who tells you that he has a right to do as he pleases with his
possessions is proclaiming to you not a new rule of ethics. He is
simply telling you in unmistakable language that he is a fool.

This man showed himself a fool, last of all, by the confidence that he
placed in things. Ignoring God he sought to find a substitute for God
in abundant crops. He undertook to treat his soul as he would treat
his sheep and his goats. Here he was, an immortal man. Here he was,
destined to live when this old world has been a wreck for billions of
years. And what provi