pleasure and complacency of mind than to consider that he is an
instrument of doing much good; that great numbers owe to him, under
God, their subsistence, their safety, their health, and the good
conduct of their lives? The wickedest man upon earth takes a
pleasure in doing good to those he loves; and therefore surely a
good Christian, who obeys our Saviour's commands of loving all men,
cannot but take delight in doing good even to his enemies. God, who
gives all things to all men, can receive nothing from any; and those
among men who do the most good and receive the fewest returns do
most resemble the Creator; for which reason St. Paul delivers it as
a saying of our Saviour, that "it is more blessed to give than
receive." By this rule, what must become of those things which the
world values as the greatest blessings--riches, power, and the like-
-when our Saviour plainly determines that the best way to make them
blessings is to part with them? Therefore, although the advantages
which one man hath over another may be called blessings, yet they
are by no means so in the sense the world usually understands.
Thus, for example, great riches are no blessings in themselves,
because the poor man, with the common necessaries of life, enjoys
more health and has fewer cares without them. How then do they
become blessings? No otherwise than by being employed in feeding
the hungry, clothing the naked, rewarding worthy men, and, in short,
doing acts of charity and generosity. Thus, likewise, power is no
blessing in itself, because private men bear less envy, and trouble,
and anguish without it. But when it is employed to protect the
innocent, to relieve the oppressed, and to punish the oppressor,
then it becomes a great blessing.

And so, lastly, even great wisdom is, in the opinion of Solomon, not
a blessing in itself; for "in much wisdom is much sorrow;" and men