Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

¹⁰ Lo, you are in confusion, tossed to and fro; your heart as a ship is shaken about by tempests. Christ is asleep: awake Him, that sleeps, and you shall be exposed no more to the raging of the storm. Awake Him, who was pleased to have nothing here, and you have all, who came even to the Cross for you, whose “Bones” as He was naked and hanging “were numbered” by them that mocked Him; and “beware of all covetousness.” Covetousness of money is not all; “beware of covetousness” of life.

A dreadful covetousness, covetousness much to be feared. Sometimes a man will despise what he has, and say, “I will not give false witness; I will not. You tell me, I will take away what you have. Take away what I have; you do not take away what I have within. For he was not left a poor man, who said, 'The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; it is done as it pleased the Lord; blessed' therefore 'be the Name of the Lord. Naked came I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I return to the earth.' Naked outwardly, well-clothed within.

Naked as regards these rags, these corruptible rags outwardly, clothed within. With what? 'Let your priests be clothed with righteousness.'” But what if he say to you, when you have despised the things which you possess, what if he say to you, “I will kill you”? If you have given ear to Christ, answer him, “Will You kill me? Better that you should kill my body, than that I by a false tongue should kill my soul! What can you do to me? You will kill my body; my soul will depart at liberty, to receive again at the end of the world even this very body she has despised.

What can you do to me then? Whereas if I should give false witness for you, with your tongue do I kill myself; and not in my body do I kill myself; 'For the mouth that lies kills the soul.'” But perhaps you do not say so. And why do you not say so? You wish to live; you wish to live longer than God has appointed for you? Do you then “beware of all covetousness”? So long was it God's will that you should live, till this person came to you. It may be that he will kill you, to make a martyr of you. Entertain then no undue desire of life; and so you will not have an eternity of death. You see how that covetousness everywhere, when we wish for more than is necessary, causes us to sin. Beware we of all covetousness, if we would enjoy eternal wisdom.