Your business and your niece weigh heavily on your heart, but consider the nature of the conflict you have entered. The present life is a wrestling arena, not a banqueting hall. No one strips for combat and then seeks ease or feasting. If prosperity is your aim, why did you enter the struggle? Cut out the root of covetousness, and there will be no fruit of strife. Every disturbance you see, whether in your trade or in your household, springs from excessive love of the things of this earth. Has this man stolen your peace? He has not injured you unless you permit him to pluck the heavenly treasure from your soul. Let him not take your patience, your humility, your hope in God.
When you look upon the man who does not help your niece but strains your bond with her, do not rush into open conflict. It is nobler to deprecate such battles, to wait upon the Lord’s summons rather than to force the fight. For it may be that God is using this very trial to sharpen your faith. He often enhances the struggles of the righteous when their deliverance is near at hand. The end of your labors is the beginning of rest. If you endure, the intolerable becomes tolerable, and the victory more radiant.
Do you see those who prosper by unjust gain? Groan and weep for them instead of yearning after their portion. Their good things are received now; they are storing up punishment for themselves. But you, if you conduct your business with righteousness and learn to despise earthly honor, will have treasure where neither rust nor moth corrupts. The market and the house are not the place to carry your trust; bring the word you hear in this holy assembly into every affair, and let it cleanse the filth of worldly cares.
Your niece’s eyes will not be opened by contention or bitter reproof. When brother contends with brother, the natural tie itself ought to bring settlement without need of clever argument. Show her the honor as you would receive a saint, and as one who would receive Christ Himself. Be a succorer to her, not a prosecutor. If she is entangled with a man who brings no profit to her soul, offer her the peace that surpasses all conflict. Let your own life be so free from vainglory and covetousness that she sees in you the true relationship: not one of mere blood, but of the will of God, born again in Christ Jesus, who is equal with the Father and able to break every chain.
Do not ask for a financial breakthrough as the world understands it; ask for the breaking of your will, the rooting out of every passion, until you can say with the Apostle, “The Lord is at hand; be careful for nothing.” Then, whether the business thrives or falters, you will have the unshaken riches. Wait on God, and do not put your hope in the opinions of men. The time for rest is not yet; now is the toil. But the end is at the doors, and He who strengthened Abraham for his final trial will supply your need and illumine the eyes of her for whom you pray.