Desire does not deliberately seek its own frustration, and men set their sights on what they believe will satisfy them and bring a reward which justifies their efforts. If a man loves silver, he will try to get hold of it even at considerable cost. He may sacrifice his own comfort and ease, but payback supposedly comes when he reaches his goal. But here is someone who has seriously miscalculated. He does not know either himself or the object of his desire. What power does silver have to give satisfaction? None, according Solomon. How could we not know what satisfies us? Don’t we understand our own hearts and what pleases them? A man holds silver in his hand, but it cannot enter his heart for it is material not spiritual and so must please him remotely. It shines and glitters, and he admires its colour, but he cannot take that colour into himself and it remains an object outside of him, which can never become a part of him. He can touch it and look upon it and relish the possession of it; he can think about what it could buy and the security that he imagines it gives him, but it cannot have any direct contact with his soul. He thinks about what it can buy, but who can tell whether he will ever buy those things and who can tell whether the possessing of them will ever bring the anticipated joy. An abundance of the same does not remove this basic limitation. The soul must be satisfied with other things. What touches the soul is love, joy, peace, faith, hope. These things come into direct contact with the soul and feed it and strengthen it, but silver can buy none of them.
The proper use of this world’s good is to provide for our family’s material needs, to support the advance of the gospel, to give to those who lack in this life, but to remember that material riches belong to this world and we cannot take them with us and they are incapable of feeding the soul. Security comes from God not from earthly riches, yet it is a common affliction with which men are afflicted, that they imagine that riches are a substitute for God himself.