The Discreet Behaviour of the Christian Respecting His Outward Welfare
Proverbs 3:16
Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honor.


Well-being in externals, though not the most important part of our happiness, is yet always a part of it, and consequently a care for its conservation and advancement cannot be absolutely wrong.

1. See that all your efforts to promote your outward welfare are innocent. Employ none other than fair and honest means to that end.

2. Never let your efforts so engross and occupy your mind as to allow you neither inclination nor leisure, time nor ability, to care and labour for that which more proximately and directly promotes the perfection of your spirit.

3. Do not assume that your efforts for your outward welfare must necessarily succeed, or that they are absolutely lost if they fail of success.

4. Dignify your efforts by forming just conceptions of the ultimate end of all earthly goods and outward distinctions.

5. Enjoy the fruits of your labour, in proportion as you reap them, and postpone not the legitimate, discreet use and enjoyment of them, till you shall have acquired and accumulated such or such a store of them. Enjoy all the pleasures, the comforts, the conveniencies of life, with a cheerful temper and without anxious care for the future. Enjoy them as men, not as children; enjoy them as Christians.

(G. J. Zollikofer.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.

WEB: Length of days is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor.




The Advantages of Religion
Top of Page
Top of Page