August 21, 2026

Business by the Book

Proverbs 10:4   He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

Too many are like the lovelorn young man that once wrote to his dream girl. He wrote: “Darling, I would climb the highest mountain, swim the wildest stream, cross the burning desert, and even die at the stake for you. That’s how great my love is. PS:  I will see you on Sunday if it doesn’t rain.” 

Dreaming of being rich does not make one rich. Saying the right things about making riches does not guarantee riches. Diligently pursuing riches with an industrious hand brings forth riches. Before each person there is an option of dealing with a slack hand or a diligent hand. One brings forth riches, the other poverty.

Walter Lippmann, the man who brought the term “cold war” to the masses, once said: “After a great deal of experience and observation, I have become convinced that industry is a better horse to ride than genius. It may never carry a man as far as genius has carried individuals, but industry – patient, steady, intelligent industry – will carry thousands into comfort, and even celebrity: and this it does with an absolute certainty.” Few can claim true genius, but all can become diligent. The world is littered with geniuses that have come to poverty, but as Benjamin Franklin said:  “At the workingman’s house hunger looks in but dares not enter.” 

Dr. William Howe