ncorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away," (1 Peter i. 4,)
ought in every respect to act differently from the world, and so in this
particular also. If we disciples of the Lord Jesus seek, like the people
of the world, after an increase of our possessions, may not those who
are of the world justly question whether we believe what we say, when we
speak about our inheritance, our heavenly calling, our being the
children of God, etc.? Often it must be a sad stumbling-block to the
unbeliever to see a professed believer in the Lord Jesus acting in this
particular just like himself. Consider this, dear brethren in the Lord,
should this remark apply to you.

3. Our Lord says about the earth that it is a place "Where moth and rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal." All that is of
the earth, and in any way connected with it, is subject to corruption,
to change, to dissolution. There is no reality, or substance, in
anything else but in heavenly things. Often the careful amassing of
earthly possessions ends in losing them in a moment by fire, by robbery,
by a change of mercantile concerns, by loss of work, etc.; but suppose
all this were not the case, still, yet a little while, and thy soul
shall be required of thee; or, yet a little while, and the Lord Jesus
will return; and what profit shalt thou then have, dear reader, if thou
hast carefully sought to increase thy earthly possessions?

4. Our Lord, however, does not merely bid us not to lay up treasure upon
earth; for if he had said no more, this his commandment might be abused,
and persons might find in it an encouragement for their extravagant
habits, for their love of pleasure, for their habit of spending
everything they have, or can obtain, _upon themselves_. It does not
mean, then, as is the common phrase, that we should "live up to our
income;" for he adds, "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."
There is such a thing as laying up as truly in heaven as there is laying
up on earth; if it were not so, our Lord would not have said so. Just as
persons put one sum after another into the bank, and it is put down to
their credit, and they may use the money afterwards: so truly the penny,
the shilling, the pound, the hundred pounds, the ten thousand pounds,
_given for the Lord's sake, and constrained by the love of Jesus_, to
poor brethren, or in any way spent in the work of God, he marks down in
the book of remembrance, he considers a