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11. Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase. {by labour: Heb. with the hand}
This Proverb does not imply the means, by which wealth has been gotten;† but the impoverishing use, to which it is applied. However large, by vanity it will soon be diminished. Frivolous and expensive pursuits, empty amusements, and the vain pomp and shew of dress, will soon prove, that “riches certainly make themselves wings” (Chapter 23:5); that the treasure is “put into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:6); and that nothing remains but the awful account of unfaithfulness to a solemn trust.
On the other hand — God's blessing is upon Christian industry; and, so far as is good, he that gathereth with his labour shall increase. Only let him remember, that the security for his increasing wealth is the dedication of himself and his substance to the Lord; the ready acknowledgment, that he “is not his own,” but God's property for God's glory. (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.) ‘All that man can have, we have it on this condition; to use it, to have it, to lay it out, to lay it down unto the honour of our Master, from whose bounty we received it.’† The Lord deliver us from the guilt of wasting on vanity what is due to Himself!
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