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2. God's Blessings vs. Temporal Blessings
But we may put it in another light, and compare the blessing Jabez craved with those blessings that are temporal and transient. There are many bounties given to us mercifully by God for which we are bound to be very grateful; but we must not set too much store by them. We may accept them with gratitude, but we must not make them our idols. When we have them we have great need to cry— “Oh that Thou wouldest bless me indeed, and make these inferior blessings real blessings;” and if we have them not, we should with greater vehemence cry— “Oh that we may be rich in faith, and if not blessed with these external favors, may we be blessed spiritually, and then we shall be blessed indeed.”
Wealth
Let us review some of these mercies, and just say a word or two about them. One of the first cravings of men’s hearts is wealth. So universal the desire to gain it, that we might almost say it is a natural instinct. How many have thought if they once possessed it, they should be blessed indeed! But there are ten thousand proofs that happiness consists not in the abundance which a man possesseth. So many instances are well known to you all, that I need not quote any to show that riches are not a blessing indeed. They are rather apparently than really so. Hence, it has been well said, that when we see how much a man has we envy him; but could we see how little he enjoys we should pity him. Some that have had the most easy circumstances have had the most uneasy minds. Those who have acquired all they could wish, had their wishes been at all sane, have been led by the possession of what they had to be discontented because they had not more. “Thus the base miser starves amidst his store, Broods o’er his gold, and griping still at more, Sits sadly pining, and believes he’s poor.” Nothing is more clear to any one who chooses to observe it, than that riches are not the chief good at whose advent sorrow flies, and in whose presence joy perennial springs. Full often wealth deceives the owner. Dainties are spread on his table, but his appetite fails, minstrels wait his bidding, but his ears are deaf to all the strains of music; holidays he may have as many as he pleases, but for him recreation has lost all its charms. Or, he is young, fortune has come to him by inheritance, and he makes pleasure his pursuit, till sport becomes more irksome than work, and dissipation worse than drudgery. Ye know how riches make themselves wings; like the bird that roosted on the tree, they fly away. In sickness and despondency these ample means that once seemed to whisper, “Soul, take thine ease” (Luke 12:19), prove themselves to be poor comforters. In death they even tend to make the pang of separation more acute, because there is the more to leave, the more to lose. We may well say, if we have wealth… “My God, put me not off with these husks; let me never make a god of the silver and the gold, the goods and the chattels, the estates and investments, which in Thy providence Thou hast given me. I beseech Thee, bless me indeed. As for these worldly possessions, they will be my bane unless I have Thy grace with them.” And if you have not wealth, and perhaps the most of you will never have it, you may well say… “My Father, Thou hast denied me this outward and seeming good, now enrich me with Thy love. Give me the gold of Thy favor, bless me indeed. Then, allot to others whatever Thou wilt, Thou shalt divide my portion, my soul shall wait Thy daily will. Do Thou bless me indeed, and I shall be content.”
Fame
Another transient blessing which our poor humanity fondly covets and eagerly pursues is fame. In this respect we would fain be more honorable than our brethren, and outstrip all our competitors. It seems natural to us all to wish to make a name, and gain some note in the circle we move in, and we wish to make that circle wider if we can. But here, as of riches, it is indisputable that the greatest fame does not bring with it any equal measure of gratification. Men, in seeking after notoriety or honor, have a degree of pleasure in the search which they do not always possess when they have gained their object. Some of the most famous men have also been the most wretched of the human race. If thou hast honor and fame, accept it; but let this prayer go up— “My God, bless Thou me indeed, for what profit were it, if my name were in a thousand mouths, if Thou shouldest spew it out of Thy mouth? What matter, though my name were written on marble, if it were not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? These blessings are only apparently blessings, windy blessings, blessings that mock me. Give me Thy blessing: then the honor which comes of Thee will make me blessed indeed.” If you happen to have lived in obscurity, and have never entered the lists for honors among your fellow-men, be content to run well your own course and fulfill truly your own vocation. To lack fame is not the most grievous of ills; it is worse to have it like the snow, that whitens the ground in the morning, and disappears in the heat of the day. What matters it to a dead man that men are talking of him? Get thou the blessing indeed.
Health
There is another temporal blessing which wise men desire, and legitimately may wish for rather than the other two: the blessing of health. Can we ever prize it sufficiently? To trifle with such a boon is the madness of folly. The highest praise that can be passed on health would not be extravagant. He that has a healthy body is infinitely more blessed than he who is sickly, whatever his estate may be. Yet if I have health, my bones well set, and my muscles well strung, if I scarcely know an ache or pain, but can rise in the morning, and with elastic go forth to labor, and cast myself upon my couch at night, and sleep the sleep of the happy—yet, oh let me not glory in my strength! In a moment it may fail me. A few short weeks may reduce the strong man to a skeleton. Consumption may set in, the cheek may pale with the shadow of death. Let not the strong man glory in his strength. The Lord “delighteth not in the strength of the horse: He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man” (Psalm 147:10). And let us not make our boast concerning these things. Say, thou that are in good health… “My God, bless me indeed. Give me the healthy soul. Heal me of my spiritual diseases. Jehovah-Rophi1 come, and purge out the leprosy that is in my heart by nature: make me healthy in the heavenly sense, that I may not be put aside among the unclean, but allowed to stand amongst the congregation of Thy saints. Bless my bodily health to me that I may use it rightly, spending the strength I have in Thy service and to Thy glory; otherwise, though blessed with health, I may not be blessed indeed.” Some of you, dear friends, do not possess the great treasure of health. Wearisome days and nights are appointed you. Your bones are become an almanac, in which you note the changes of the weather. There is much about you that is fitted to excite pity. But I pray that you may have the blessing indeed, and I know what that is. I can heartily sympathize with a sister that said to me the other day, “I had such nearness to God when I was sick, such full assurance, and such joy in the Lord. I regret to say I have lost it now. I could almost wish to be ill again, if thereby I might have a renewal of communion with God.” I have oftentimes looked gratefully back to my sick chamber. I am certain that I never did grow in grace one half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain. It ought not to be so. Our joyous mercies ought to be great fertilizers to our spirit; but not infrequently our griefs are more salutary than our joys. The pruning knife is best for some of us. Well, after all, whatever you have to suffer, of weakness, of debility, of pain, and anguish, may it be so attended with the divine presence, that this light affliction may work out for you a “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17), and so you may be blessed indeed.
Home
I will only dwell upon one more temporal mercy, which is very precious—I mean the blessing of home. I do not think any one can ever prize it too highly, or speak too well of it. What a blessing it is to have the fireside, and the dear relationships that gather round the word “Home”— wife, children, father, brother, sister! Why, there are no songs in any language that are more full of music than those dedicated to “Mother.” We hear a great deal about the German “Fatherland”—we like the sound. But the word “Father” is the whole of it. The “land” is nothing: the “Father” is key to the music. There are many of us, I hope, blessed with a great many of these relationships. Do not let us be content to solace our souls with ties that must ere long be sundered. Let us ask that over and above them may come the blessing indeed… I thank Thee, my God, for my earthly father; but oh, be Thou my Father, then am I blessed indeed. I thank Thee, my God, for a mother’s love; but comfort Thou my soul as one whom a mother comforteth, then am I blessed indeed. I thank Thee, Savior, for the marriage bond; but be Thou the bridegroom of my soul. I thank Thee for the tie of brotherhood; but be Thou my brother born for adversity, bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. The home Thou hast given me I prize, and thank Thee for it; but I would dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, and be a child that never wanders, wherever my feet may travel, from my Father’s house with its many mansions. You can thus be blessed indeed. If not domiciled under the paternal care of the Almighty, even the blessing of home, with all its sweet familiar comforts, does not reach to the benediction which Jabez desired for himself. But do I speak to any here that are separated from kith and kin? I know some of you have left behind you in the bivouac of life, graves where parts of your heart are buried, and that which remains is bleeding with just so many wounds. Ah, well! the Lord bless you indeed! Widow, Thy Maker is Thy Husband. Fatherless one, He hath said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18). Oh, to find all your relationships made up in Him, then you will be blessed indeed! I have perhaps taken too long a time in mentioning these temporary blessings, so let me set the text in another light. I trust we have had human blessings and temporary blessings, to fill our hearts with gladness, but not to foul our hearts with worldliness, or to distract our attention from the things that belong to our everlasting welfare.
1 Chapel Library note: Jehovah-Rophi is a Hebrew name for God, meaning “The Lord Who Heals” (Exod. 15:26).