EDMUND HAWKER. 143 It was a sad loss, you will say, to lose his money! Ay! but it was a gain to Edmund; for it taught him, or rather God taught him by it, not to "trust in uncertain riches," but to lay up for himself "treasure in heaven." Edmund was taught to believe that "Godliness with contentment is great gain ;" and that "Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith," 1 Tim. vi. 6; Prov. xv. 16. 66 cease from He found Many pitied him when his worldly friends fell away, and said, "This is worse than ever;" but it was the means of teaching him to man, whose breath is in his nostrils." that "confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint;" and his heart was turned to that Friend "that sticketh closer than a brother." When sickness came upon Edmund, many cried out, "It's all over with him now;" but instead of that, it was the best thing that ever befell him. Before he was afflicted, he went astray, but afterwards he took heed to the word of the Lord; so that his poverty made him really rich, and his weakness made him truly strong. Can he be called a poor man who has a friend in Him to whom belong the silver and the gold, and the cattle upon a thousand hills? Can he be poor who has God's presence and God's grace 144 EDMUND HAWKER. here, and the promise of beholding God's glory hereafter? No! no! Edmund was a rich man ; he lived rich, he died rich: rich in contentment, rich in thankfulness, rich in hope, rich in faith, rich in peace, and rich in rejoicing in Christ Jesus. Edmund Hawker had his troubles, but they were all sanctified; he was purified in the furnace of affliction; he was tried in the fire, but he came forth as gold. His last days were his best days; for he was taught so to number them as to apply his heart unto wisdom. Turn over the leaves of Edmund Hawker's Bible, and you will see that it has been read by a God-fearing man: the marks left there will tell you that he heeded God's reproofs, and highly valued God's precious promises in Christ Jesus : these were, indeed, as oil to his joints, and marrow to his bones. And will you still tell me that Edmund Hawker was poor ? Who then is rich? Life is 66 a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.' The world is fading, and the goodliness thereof, with all its riches, will be known no more: then will it be found that heavenly treasure is the only treasure worth possessing. "That true riches are they which will not pass away, AN UNFAITHFUL FRIEND. DID you ever, by any accident or misfortune, break a tooth, so that the part remaining in the head was as tender as the apple of your eye? If you are as old as I am, most likely you know very well what I mean, without further description. It is of no use being peevish when a tooth gives way through age and infirmity we should call to mind the service it has rendered us in times gone by, and that may reconcile us to put up with a little inconvenience and pain. But did you ever so far forget yourself as to try to bite a hard crust with your poor broken tooth? I can see you screw up your face at the very thought of it. Why, the pain in such a case runs up to the very brain like lightning. We are poor, impatient creatures; and if it did not please God in mercy to melt our hearts now and then with a sense of his unspeakable goodness, we should be more impatient than we are. Did you ever, in walking along hastily or care 146 AN UNFAITHFUL FRIEND. lessly, tread with your foot on one side, and sprain your ancle to such a degree that the weight of an ounce upon it would have made you shout aloud with agony? This is by no means an unlikely case, if you have been a pilgrim for any length of time in the rough and crooked pathways of this uneven world. Well, then, biting a hard crust with a broken tooth, and trusting your whole weight on a sprained ancle, is just like putting confidence in a faithless friend, when you stand in need of his assistance. You will find the words in Prov. xxv. 19. "Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint," and you will find the meaning of them in your own heart and soul, if ever, in a season of calamity, you lean for support on that pointed spear, an unfaithful friend. Then will you be ready to estimate aright the injunction, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of?" Isa. ii. 22, and to cry out, "He whom I trusted has deceived me! The best of men is but a brier, and the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge," Micah vii. 4. Let us seek God's grace, that we may never play the part of an unfaithful friend ourselves: and in order to prevent disappointments, let us trust in that "Friend that sticketh closer than AN UNFAITHFUL FRIEND. 147 a brother," who, among the changes of the world, changes not; but is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Of Him the poet beautifully says One there is above all others, Well deserves the name of friend, |