12 INTRODUCTION. [No. 



Can it be religion to regard, as marks of his grace, 

 the poverty and misery that almost invariably attend 

 pur neglect to use the means of obtaining a competence 

 in worldly things ? Can it be religion to regard as 

 blessings those things, those very things, which God 

 expressly numbers amongst his curses ? Poverty 

 never finds a place amongst the blessings promised 

 by God. His blessings are of a directly opposite de- 

 scription ; flocks, herds, corn, wine and oil ; a smiling 

 land ; a rejoicing people ; abundance for the body and 

 gladness of the heart : these are the blessings which 

 God promises to the industrious, the sober, the careful, 

 and the upright. Let no man, then, believe that, to 

 be poor and wretched is a mark of God's favour ; and 

 let no man remain in that state, if he, by any honest 

 means, can rescue himself from it. 



18. Poverty leads to all sorts of evil consequences. 

 Want, horrid want, is the great parent of crime. To 

 have a dutiful family, the father's principle of rule 

 must be love not fear. His sway must be gentle, or 

 he will have only an unwilling and short-lived obedi- 

 ence. But it is given to but few men to be gentle and 

 good-humoured amidst the various torments attendant 

 on pinching poverty. A competence is, therefore, the 

 first thing to be thought of; it is the foundation of all 

 good in the labourer's dwelling ; without it little but 

 misery can be expected. " Health, peace, and compe~ 

 tence," one of the wisest of men regards as the only 

 things needful to man : but the two former are scarcely 

 to be had without the latter. Competence is the 

 foundation of happiness and of exertion. Beset with 

 wants, having a mind continually harassed with fears 

 of starvation, who can act with energy, who can 

 calmly think? To provide a good living, therefore, 

 for himself and family, is the very first duly of every 

 man. "Two things," says AGUE, "have I asked; 

 deny me them not before I die : remove far from me 

 vanity and lies ; give me neither poverty nor riches ; 

 feed me with food convenient for me : lest I be full 

 and deny thee ; or lest I be poor and steal." 



19. A good living therefore, a competence, is the 



