Wesley Corpus

22. Thirdly, seek not to increase in goods. "Lay not up for" thyself "treasures upon earth." This is a flat, positive command; full as clear as "Thou shalt not commit adultery." How then is it possible for a rich man to grow richer without denying the Lord that bought him Yea, how can any man who has already the necessaries of life gain or aim at more, and be guiltless "Lay not up," saith our Lord, "treasures upon earth." If, in spite of this, you do and will lay up money or goods, which "moth or rust may corrupt, or thieves break through and steal;" if you will add house to house, or field to field, -- why do you call yourself a Christian You do not obey Jesus Christ. You do not design it. Why do you name yourself by his name "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord," saith he himself, "and do not the things which I say" 23. If you ask, "But what must we do with our goods, seeing we have more than we have occasion to use, if we must not lay them up Must we throw them away" I answer: If you threw them into the sea, if you were to cast them into the fire and consume them, they would be better bestowed than they are now. You cannot find so mischievous a manner of throwing them away as either the laying them up for your posterity or the laying them out upon yourselves in folly and superfluity. Of all possible methods of throwing them away, these two are the very worst; the most opposite to the gospel of Christ, and the most pernicious to your own soul. How pernicious to your own soul the latter of these is has been excellently shown by a late writer: -- "If we waste our money we are not only guilty of wasting a talent which God has given us, but we do ourselves this farther harm, we turn this useful talent into a powerful means of corrupting ourselves; because so far as it is spent wrong, so far it is spent in the support of some wrong temper, in gratifying some vain and unreasonable desires, which as Christians we are obliged to renounce.