Jehovah is the sovereign Proprietor of all things. The teachings of the Bible are plain on this point as is evident from the following passages:"Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's your God, the earth also, with all that herein is." "The earth is the Lord's and ther fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein." [Psalm 24:1] "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you: for the world is mine and the fulness thereof." [Psalm 50:10-12] "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts." [Haggai 2:8]
Creation is God's work, and his ownership of the world, growing out of the fact that he created it, he has never relinquished. His claim to the which he has made is indisputable. He made all things; therefore all things are his.
The ability requisite to acquire property is the gift of God. The farmer who tills the soil and obeys the injunction: "In the morning sow your seed and in the evening withhold not your hand," [Ecclesiastes 11:6] receives from on high the strength which he exerts in the cultivation of his fields. And when a rich harvest repays his toil, he is indebted for it to Him who makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
The mechanic, who by daily, physical labor acquires property, derives from God the health and vigor essential to its acquisition. Any skill he may possess that renders his labor more than ordinarily valuable is to be classed with the endowment of the Creator.
The merchant, who has sagacity and foresight, and who is enabled thereby to arrange his plans advantageously so as to secure the benefit of any favorable change which may occur in the commercial world, is indebted to his Maker for these qualities. If when he richly freights his ship and spreads his canvass to the breezes of heaven, he makes a prosperous voyage, it is because the Being who has all things under his omnipotent control holds the winds in his fists, and suffers them not to spend their fury on the noble vessel which "walks the water like a thing of life." David, referring to the seafaring men, says that God brings them into the desired haven. [Psalm 107:30]
The lawyer, who by application to the business of his profession in amassing wealth, he received from the Author of his existence those powers of mind which enable him to comprehend the principles of law and apply them to the almost infinite diversity of cases which may occur in his practice. The art of reasoning by which he convices, and the art of persuasion by which he sways a jury at leasure, are both gifts of heaven. He is under obligatiion to God for the mental and moral qualifications which give him a reputation that brings him business to his office and renders lucrative the labors of his profession.
The physician whose vocation requires him to eradicate the maladies of the body, is indebted to his Creator for the intellectual endowments which adopt him to his profession. Indeed the very remedies he employs are furnished by the God of providence. He has deposited in various substances remedial virtues of which the physician avails himself in healing the diseases to which flesh is heir. It is God who raises up the sick from their beds of languishing; but in so doing he is pleased to smile on medical agency and render it effetual.
Those whose lives are consecrated to the educational interests of the country are qualified for their stations as teachers because God has given them minds susceptible of improvement, and has placed them in circumstances favorable to mental culture and the acquisition of knowledge. But for his goodness to them in times past they would be totally incapacitated for the positions they occupy.
All classes of society and all individuals composing those classes are under obligation to God for whatever ability they have to acquire worldly possessions. In him they live and move, and have their being, while they gain such possessions. Their health is in the hands of God and it will depend on his option when they draw their last breath. It is he who commissions death to arrest the beatings of the pulse - throbbing of the heart - and to abstract the vital principle. While, therefore, they draw the breath of life they are beneficiaries of his bounty, and derive their daily supplies from his hand. With propriety then may the language of Scripture be adopted: "For all things come of you, and of your own have we given you." We can give nothing to God, which he has not first given to us. All things are originally and of right his; and when he lends anything to his creatures it is upon condition that they return it when he calls for it, and in the manner he specifies.
That the views now presented are sustained by the divine word is evident from such passages as the following: Moses, anticipating a great increase in the wealth of the children of Israel, admonished the Israelite not to say in his prosperity, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. But you will remember the Lord your God: for it is he that gives you power to get wealth." (Deuteronomy 8:17-18) "The blessings of the Lord, it makes rich; and he adds no sorrow with it." (Proverbs 10:22) "For she did not know I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold which they prepared for Baal." (Hosea 2:8) From these quotations it is plain that divine agency is requisite to the production of wealth - that the Lord gives power to get wealth - that his blessings make rich - and that it is his prerogative to multiply silver and gold. If, then, God overrules the destinies of his people and so superintends their secular interests as to enable them to acquire pecuniary ability to do good, it will surely be admitted that it devolves on them to consecrate their ability to his service. They are stewards of God, and it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. - P.
============== [From the Tennessee Baptist, December 10, 1859, p. 2, from CD edition. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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