May 18

Look to yourselves. - 2 John 1:8.

REASON and Scripture combine to enforce upon us self-attention; and therefore we may observe, First, That we may and ought to look upon our own things as to the soul. To see that it be pardoned and renewed, that we have a title to heaven, a meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light, that we are fed with the bread of life and clothed with the garments of salvation. Here, indeed, our care should be supreme.

Secondly, We may and ought to look on our own things as to our bodily health; to maintain a rational care of it in the use of proper means: for health is a most invaluable blessing; it is the salt that seasons and the honey that sweetens every other enjoyment. It is to be valued, not only on the ground of enjoyment, (for what would affluence be without health?) but also on the score of usefulness. How many of the duties of life and religion must be either improperly discharged or entirely abandoned, if the poor frame be disordered, and if, like Job, it be made to possess “months of vanity”! The apostle therefore tells us that life is a part of the Christian’s treasure. “Life,” says he, “is yours,” and the saints on earth possess one privilege above the saints in heaven; they who are glorified have lost all their opportunities of doing good; they cannot exercise candour towards those who differ from them, they cannot forgive injuries, they cannot relieve distress, they cannot instruct the ignorant, they cannot convert the vicious. “The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known thy truth.”

Thirdly, We are required to be regardful of our reputation. “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.” The man who makes free with his reputation not only sacrifices his comfort but his usefulness. Character is credit; it gives weight to a man’s counsel and advice; and, as professors of religion, we should never give place to the maxim, “Oh, I care not what people say of me.” We ought to care what people say of us: our religion is involved in it; the way of truth may be evil spoken of; the worthy name by which we are called may be blasphemed; we may prove stumbling-blocks to the weak and distress the strong; we may discourage the hearts and weaken the hands of God’s ministers. A Christian is like a female: he is not only to maintain purity, but delicacy; like her, so is he; to be suspected is almost as bad as to be convicted; and in both of them carelessness is a crime. Hence, says the apostle, “Avoid the appearance of evil.” Neither may we be careless as to the welfare, of our families. In regard to this, it may be enough to repeat the language of the apostle:-“He that provideth not for his own, and specially those of his own house, hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”

We therefore only remark, further, that in their secular concerns Christians may look upon their own things. They are, indeed, required to abide with God in their callings; but the God in whom they abide will never make them unprincipled, and imprudent, and foolish, and slothful in their worldly matters. “Mind thy business,” says Franklin, “and thy business will mind thee.” The apostle, in addressing the Romans, calls upon them to be “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,” and yet, says he, “not slothful in business.” Paul would have a tradesman a morning-man; he would have him punctual, regular, obliging, active, intelligent. Why should the children of this world be wiser in their generation than the children of light? “If a Christian man,” says Newton, “be a tradesman, I would have him be the cleverest tradesman in the nation. Yea,” says he, “if he be only a blacker of shoes, I would have him to be the best in the whole parish.”