ay find, that we have too much looked on our prosperity as a
matter of course, and have not sufficiently owned and recognized
_practically_ the hand of God in our success. Or it may be, while the
Lord has been pleased to prosper us, we have spent too much on
ourselves, and may have thus, though unintentionally, _abused_ the
blessing of God. I do not mean by this remark to bring any children of
God into bondage, so that, with a scrupulous conscience, they should
look at every penny, which they spend on themselves; this is not the
will of God concerning us; and yet, on the other hand, there is verily
such a thing as propriety or impropriety in our dress, our furniture,
our table, our house, our establishment, and in the yearly amount we
spend on ourselves and family.

GIVING AND HOARDING.

I have every reason to believe, that, had I begun to lay up, the Lord
would have stopped the supplies, and thus, the ability of doing so was
only _apparent._ Let no one profess to trust in God, and yet lay up for
future wants, otherwise the Lord will first send him to the hoard he has
amassed, before He can answer the prayer for more.

"There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that
withholdeth _more than is meet,_ but it tendeth to poverty." (Prov. xi.
24.) Notice here the word _"more than is meet;"_ it is not said,
withholdeth all; but "more than is meet" viz., while he gives, it is so
little, in comparison with what it might be, and ought to be, that it
tendeth to poverty.

MOTIVES TO GIVING.

Believers should seek more and more to enter into the grace and love of
God, in giving His only-begotten Son, and into the grace and love of the
Lord Jesus, in giving Himself in our room, in order that, constrained by
love and gratitude, they may be increasingly led to surrender their
bodily and mental strength, their time, gifts, talents, property,
position in life, rank, and all they have and are to the Lord. By this I
do not mean that they should give up their business, trade, or
profession, and become preachers; nor do I mean that they should take
all their money and give it to the first beggar who asks for it; but
that they should hold all they have and are, for the Lord, not as
owners, but as stewards, and be willing, _at His bidding,_ to use for
Him part or all they have. However short the believer may fall, nothing
less than this should be his aim.

STEWARDSHIP.

It is the Lord's order, that in whatever way He