Keller: Edwards on people who can't handle money

When answering the objection that the poor have often contributed to their condition, Edwards is remarkably balanced yet insistently generous.  He points out that it is possible some people simply do not have "a natural faculty to manage affairs to advantage".  In other words, some people persistently make sincere but very bad decisions about money and possessions.  Edwards says we should consider the lack of this faculty to be almost like being born with impaired eyesight:

Such a faculty is a gift that God bestows on some, and not on others.  And it is not owing to themselves....This is as reasonable as that he to whom Providence has imparted sight should be willing to help him to whom sight is denied, and that he should have the benefit of the sight of others, who has none of his own...

Generous Justice p72