Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.  Psalms 119:175

The saint improves his earthly things for an heavenly end.  Where layest thou up thy treasure?  Dost thou bestow it on thy voluptuous appetite, thy hawks and thy hounds; or lockest thou it up in the bosom of Christ’s poor members?  What use makest thou of thy honour and greatness?  To strengthen the hands of the godly or the wicked?  And so of all thy other temporal enjoyments.  A gracious heart improves them for God; when a saint prays for these things, he hath an eye to some heavenly end.  If David prays for life, it is not that he may live, but “live and praise God.”  When he was driven from his regal throne by the rebellious arms of Absalom, see what his desire and hope were, 2 Samuel 15:25: ”The king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favour in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me again, and shew me both it, and his habitation.”  Mark, not shew me my crown, my palace, but the ark, the house of God.
                                                                                                                                         William Gurnall