By:
Edited by Heyman Wreford
OWNING to another serious loss of principal, and therefore an income which seems to be ending in a “vanishing point,” I wrote to my brother and told him that I had made up my mind to change the motto of my crest, and for the future I should write it: — “Having nothing and yet possessing all things.” “True,” answered he, “a most appropriate and beautiful motto which St. Paul boasted of in his list of Christian graces and endowments.” Truer still, thought I, if, with St. Paul, I believe that “all things work together for good to them that love God,” which I am sure I do, and also I know that my God shall supply all my need according to His riches in glory.
A morning or two after I had made this proposal I was reading my morning portion, and came to this verse concerning the high priest in the Mosaic law: — “And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them, for I am thy part and I am thine inheritance”! Oh! that’s where St. Paul took this motto from, “Having nothing YET possessing all things”; he knew the Aaronic law. If God possess all things and if He is my inheritance I shall lack nothing. Also St. Paul knew as we do the priesthood of believers in Christ, and as priests we must possess nothing and yet possess all things! One of the wonderful paradoxes of Divine truth so entrancing to the spiritual nature. With this inheritance there is a continual feast on the provision the Lord provides. “All the best thereof ye shall give to Aaron.” Can ye make the children of the bride chamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them? No, there is no want to those who possess all things. A millionaire is nothing to my possessions—read Psalms 1:10-15, when you, my soul, forget your inheritance and call with unflinching, unfeigned faith on ME who has linked your poverty with My riches.
E. P. L.