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those who through longing have wandered away from the faith. The apostle charges
those who are rich in this age not to trust in their uncertain riches, but in God Who gives
to us all things richly for enjoyment. There is a future treasure to be thought of, and a life
that is life indeed, that is associated with the contentment of those who know the Lord.
would it not do all of us good to ask ourselves the plain question: "Are we content with
food and raiment?" These two items summarize the necessities of our creaturehood, all
else must be considered as additional. We are bidden to take no anxious thought
concerning what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, or wherewith we shall be clothed.
Our Father knoweth we need these things, and all our need He will supply. The spirit
that is not unceasingly stretching out after the comforts, the advantages, the privileges,
and the good things of this world, but rests in the all-sufficiency of the grace of God, the
fulness of Christ, and the blessedness of hope, is near the ideal. Food and raiment are
pilgrim necessities, and are sure. Israel in the wilderness ate "angel's food", they were
fed with bread from heaven, their raiment too was miraculously preserved during all the
wilderness journey:--
"I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes are not waxen old upon
you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot, ye have not eaten bread, neither have
ye drunk wine or strong drink, that ye might know that I am the Lord your God"
(Deut. 29: 5, 6).
Turning to the epistle to the Hebrews we find another exhortation to contentment:--
"Let your conversation be without love of money; and be content with present things,
for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Heb. 13: 5).
Love of money enters into the subject again, for the word "covetousness" here is the
same as the "love of money" of I Tim. 6: "Conversation" here is the rendering of a
word meaning "turn", and indicates the turn or bent of the mind, the attitude, the
tendency even before it results in the act itself; let love of money have no influence upon
you, let not your mind run along the channels of pounds, shillings and pence; if you have
a business to attend, do your business heartily as unto the Lord; if your normal expenses
are so much, seek to provide things honest in the sight of all men, but at the same time
beware the love of it, for love is connected with the heart, and out of the heart are the
issues of life. Satan knew the weak point in Judas--he knows ours too. The A.V.
continues, "be content with such things as ye have", literally, "the things being present";
the Hebrews were enjoined to be content independently of their "having" anything. "The
things present" may have been grievous to the flesh, as the only other occurrence of the
word in Hebrews teaches. "Now no chastening for the present seemeth joyous". The
child of God looks at present things with an eye that is really focussed on things to come;
he sees them as it were without seeing, he knows the vanity of this world, he understands
the hopelessness of all the attempts to put a Christless world right, and while he pities the
blind leaders of the blind, and preaches "the Word" in season and out of season, he does
not fret or worry, but sharing neither in the world's dreams of wealth, or schemes of
happiness, its despair and its failure, he just finds his rest in the Lord he loves.
There is One Who remains ever true and faithful and He hath said, "No, I will not
leave thee, no, neither will I in no wise forsake thee". Inelegant as this rendering may