Pursuant to those passages in
Holy Scripture, I have somewhere met with the epitaph of a
charitable man, which has very much pleased me. I cannot recollect
the words, but the sense of it is to this purpose: What I spent I
lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains
with me.
Since I am thus insensibly engaged in Sacred Writ, I cannot forbear
making an extract of several passages which I have always read with
great delight in the book of Job. It is the account which that holy
man gives of his behaviour in the days of his prosperity; and, if
considered only as a human composition, is a finer picture of a
charitable and good-natured man than is to be met with in any other
author.
"Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved
me: When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I
walked through darkness: When the Almighty was yet with me; when my
children were about me: When I washed my steps with butter, and the
rock poured me out rivers of oil.
"When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me,
it gave witness to me. Because I delivered the poor that cried, and
the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of
him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's
heart to sing for joy.
Pages:
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192