1 Timothy 6:6-8 But godliness with contentment is great gain.… A gentleman was once talking to Thomas Mann, a pious waterman on the river Thames, and having ascertained that he never laboured on the Sabbath, and was dependent on his labour for a living, he said, "Well, as your gains have been so small, you could not lay much up. Have you not been anxious, as you have proceeded in life, lest, from the very nature of your employment, exposed as it is to danger and to all weathers, you should be laid up by illness, and have nothing to support you?" "No, sir; I have always believed in God's Providence. I think I am just fitted for the situation which He has appointed to me, and that what He has fixed is best. I am, therefore, satisfied and thankful. I endeavour to do the duty which daily falls to me, and to be careful of my earnings: I have always had enough, and I have no fears about years to come." "Yet, my friend," said the gentleman, "if illness were to come, and you had not a provision made for the supply of your need in helpless old age, ought not this to give you some uneasiness?" "No, sir, that is not my business. Future years are not my business. That belongs to God, and I am sure that, doing my duty in His fear now, and being careful in what He intrusts to me, He will supply my need in future in that way which He shall think best." The gentleman then said, "We have heard that teaching the poor to read has a tendency to make them discontented with the station in which Providence has placed them. Do you think so?" "No, sir; quite the contrary. All that I have read in the Bible teaches me to be content with the dispensations of Providence, to be industrious and careful. A Christian cannot be an idle or an ungrateful man." Parallel Verses KJV: But godliness with contentment is great gain. |
    |