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# God Gives the Superfluities
- URL: https://mereorthodoxy.com/god-gives-the-superfluities/
- Published: 2010-05-07T03:47:54.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-20T21:07:58.000Z
- Description: God Gives the Superfluities
- Author: Mere Orthodoxy
- Tags: Matthew Lee Anderson, Formation

Where I spoke of the "[frivolity of beauty](https://mereorthodoxy.com/?p=2523)," Adolph Saphir speaks of the God-givenness of superfluities.

I was first introduced to Saphir by [my friend and mentor Fred Sanders](http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com), who is preparing an edited version of his devotional work, [The Hidden Life](http://books.google.com/books?id=pWgXAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+hidden+life+saphir&hl=en&ei=eIvjS-GfJJvKM7CxqPoC&sa=X&oi=book%5Fresult&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA&ref=mereorthodoxy.com#v=onepage&q&f=false). He also pointed [me toward this memoir of Saphir's life,](http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA350&dq=saphir+mighty+scripture&ei=9E3RS8DvJ4fqlQSmvqDkCA&cd=1&id=kzIMAAAAIAAJ&ref=mereorthodoxy.com#v=onepage&q=saphir%20mighty%20scripture&f=false) where I found Saphir ruminating on the Miracle at Cana:

*This is not a case of people starving, as when in the wilderness Jesus fed them, or of disease and suffering when He in love delivered them from it. This was simply a superfluity, a luxury ; they had no wine, and what does this mean ?—for it is a sign, and must signify something.*

*That God created man not merely that he should endure existence, that he should drag through life, but that he should rejoice; that there should be a happiness, a festivity, a gladness within him ; not only that he should be reconciled to his existence and have what is needful, but that he should feel within him a music, a rhythm ; that he should be able to say, It is a joy to live, He hath crowned me with loving-kindness and tender mercies.*

*So that in one sense the world is not wrong when it seeks for the ornamental and the beautiful; it is an instinct of what is true, that God created us for brightness and glory.*