The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1905-09-13
Gods Riches and Curs.

Paul tells us that God is rich in
mercy. He also tells us about the
riches of Gods grace and of His good
ness and wisdom and knowledge.
We talk about the riches of those
who own houses and lands and stocks
and bonds and money. And we say q
man is worth so much, meaning that
his possessions are worth that am punt.
The man himself docs not enter into
the computation at all. And we are
very apt to value ourselves as well as
other people on the amount of our
property. if we have any
Over in New Jersey they used to
have saying that some people were
property poor" meaning that they
owned real estate which was making
them poorer every year. They had to
pay taxes on 1t, and perhaps interest
on a mortgage as well, and the prop
erty could not be sold or rented. Many
a man is property poor" who does not
know it. His property yields him large
returns as far as money goes, but it
impoverishes him by absorbing his life
and dwarfing his nature.
If ii Is true that Gods riches, the
possessions on which He sets great
store, are His mercy, grace, goodness,
wisdom and knowledge, is it not a self
evident proposition that these are the
riches which are really worth cOveting?
God owns all the worlds. Heaven and
earth and all things. seen and unseen,
belong to Him. But we are not told
that these things make Him rich or
even add to His riches. He possesses
irresistible power, but even that is not
spoken of as part of His riches. Gods
riches are in Himself, in His own char
acter. And His goodness and self-sac-
rlfcing kindness, His holiness and 10y
atty to lofty ideals constitute the riches
of His character.
Why? Because these are the quail
ties which make Him joy TO Him.
self, the qualities which expand His
/ being and enrich His life, filling it
with n sense of completeness and salts
faction.
True riches consist in being. not in
having. They are a treasure that can
not be destroyed by moth or rust or
stolen by thieves.
Such riches are not increased by
grasping and holding, but by giving
and spending. OF them ii may be said
with special emphasis, "There is that
glveth and yet increa aseth, and there is
that withholdeth more than 1t meet
and it tendeth to poverty"
But there is one element in Gods
riches which is in Il sense outside OF
Himself. We read of "the riches of
the glory of His inheritance in the
saints" God will be greatly enriched
and glorifed by the perfected man.
hood and womanhood of the redeemed;
but only because the perfection of
their characters is really an expansion
of His own being in them, the devel-
oping in them of His own life. 1t is
the accomplishment of His loving pur-
pose, into the working out of which He
has thrown His whole being and TO
achieve which He has given His hearts
blood.
AS the plous mother feels her own
life to be enlarged and enriched when
she sees the spiritual growth ana the
good works of her grown up son. so
God will find an expansion, enlarge
ment, enrichment of His own life in
the glorious beauty of those who
through beholding and rejecting His
glory have been changed little by little
into His image: until at last He is
able to see His nature perfectly re-
produced in them.
And we. too, may have share of
the same riches; nay we must have a
share, for only so can we be like our
Master. The image of God In MS is
not negative but positive thing. 1t
is not sinlessness, but holiness. Ii Is
sanctifcatlon, which means consecra-
tion-the devotion of oneself to the ser
vice of God and man.
"As Thou didst send Me into the
world, even so sent l them into the
world" Jesus said. "And for their
sakes l sanctlfy (consecrate) Myself
that they themselves also may be sane
tilted in truth sabbath Reading.