has bought us with His
blood: I say, whilst these three points are particularly to be
attended to in order that the Lord's blessing may rest upon our
calling, and we be prospering in it, there are, nevertheless, some
other points to be attended to, which I mention in love to my
brethren in the Lord, by whom they may be needed. 4, The next point
is, that a believer in the Lord Jesus should do nothing in his
calling, which is purely for the sake of attracting the world, such
as for instance, fitting up his shop or rooms of business in the most
costly manner, I do not in the least mean to say that his shop or
rooms of business should not be clean, orderly, and of such a
character as that there may be no positive hinderance to persons
going there. All the needful conveniences that are expected may be
there and ought to be there. But if any child of God seek to have the
front of his shop, or the interior of his shop, or of his place of
business fitted up in a most expensive way, simply for the sake of
attracting attention, then let him be aware, that, just in so far as
he is trusting in these things, he is not likely to succeed in his
calling, because he puts the manner of sitting up the shop in the
room of trust in the Lord. Such things the Lord may allow to succeed
in the case of an unbeliever, but they will not prosper in the case
of a child of God, except it be in the way of chastisement, just as
the Lord gave to Israel in the wilderness the desire of their hearts,
but sent leanness into their souls. Should any brother have fallen
into this error, the first thing he has to do, when the Lord has
instructed him concerning this point, is, to make confession of sin,
and, as far as it can be done, to retrace his steps in this
particular. If this cannot be done, then to cast himself upon the
mercy of God in Christ Jesus. 5, Of the same character is: To seek
to attract the attention of the world, by "boasting advertisements,"
such as "no one manufactures so good an article," "no one sells this
article so cheap," "we sell the best article in the city," etc.
Suppose these statements were quite correct, yet they are unbecoming
for a child of God, who has the living God to care for him and to
provide for him, and therefore needs not to make use of such
boasting, whereby he may seek to ensure custom to himself and keep it
from others. The law of love is, "Whatsoever ye would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them." Matt.