A Satisfied Spirit

T. De Witt Talmage.
Hebrews 13:5
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for he has said, I will never leave you…
To be content is to be in good humour with our circumstances, not picking a quarrel with our obscurity, or our poverty, or our social position. There are four or five grand reasons why we should be content with such things as we have,

1. The first is the consideration that the poorest of us have all that is indispensable in life. We make a great ado about our hardships, but how little we talk of our blessings.

2. Our happiness is not dependent on outward circumstances. I find Nero growling on a throne. I find Paul singing in a dungeon. I find King Ahab going to bed at noon through melancholy, while near by is Naboth contented in the possession of a vineyard. Haman, prime minister of Persia, frets himself almost to death because a poor Jew will not tip his bat; and Ahithophel, one of the great lawyers of Bible times, through fear of dying, hangs himself. The wealthiest man, forty years ago, in New York, when congratulated over his large estate, replied: "Ah! you don't know how much trouble I have in taking care of it." Byron declared in his last hours that he had never seen more than twelve happy days in all his life. The heart right toward God and man, we are happy. The heart wrong toward God and man, we are unhappy.

3. Another reason why we should come to this spirit inculcated in the text is the fact that all the differences of earthly condition are transitory. The houses you build, the land you culture, the places in which you barter, are soon to go into other hands. However hard you may have it now, if you are a Christian the scene will soon end. Pain, trial, persecution never knock at the door of the grave.

4. Another reason why we should culture this spirit of cheerfulness is the fact that God knows what is best for His creatures. Sometimes His children think that He is hard on them, and that He is not as liberal with them as He might be. But children do not know as much as a father. I can tell you why you are not largely affluent, and why you have not been grandly successful. It is because you cannot stand the temptation. If your path had been smooth, you would have depended upon your own surefootedness; but God roughened that path, so you have to take hold of His hand.

5. Another consideration leading us to the spirit of the text is the assurance that the Lord will provide somehow. Will He who holds the water in the hollow of His hand, allow His children to die of thirst?

6. Again, I remark that the religion of Jesus Christ is the grandest influence to make a man contented. Indemnity against all financial and spiritual harm! It calms the spirit, dwindles the earth into insignificance, and swallows up the soul with the thought of heaven.

(T. De Witt Talmage.)