All we should do, instead of boasting, is to bless God that he
revealed to us just what we needed, and at the very time at which we
needed it, and confess that it is HE that giveth us power to get
wealth. It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves.
Look again at another case, even more extraordinary, which has
happened during our own times--indeed within the last ten years--the
discovery of gold in Australia.
There had been rumours and whispers of gold for years before; and
yet no one looked for gold, cared for it, hardly believed in it.
God had dulled their understanding and blinded their eyes for some
good purpose of his own. That is what the Bible would have said of
such a matter, and that is what we should say.
And at last some man finds lying out upon the downs a huge lump of
gold--by accident (as men call it; by the special providence of God,
as they ought to call it); and at that every one starts up and
awakes, and begins looking for gold. And now that their eyes are
opened, behold! the gold is everywhere. Not merely in lonely
forests and unexplored mountains, but on farms where the sheep have
been pastured for years past; ay, even Melbourne streets were full
of gold, under the feet of the passengers and the wheels of the
carriages; there had the gold been all along, but men could not see
it till God opened their eyes.
Pages:
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219