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FREEDLEY ON MONEY.

which the tenth would be fourteen millions one hundred and twelve thousand pounds. We have accordingly

-And all that should be available for God's work in the world were his stewards to be stewards indeed. Leaving out of view those who are not connected with the professing Church, and limiting attention only to the heads of families, estimated at the low average of one in eight of the population, we see again, by the help of arithmetic, the wide extent of our unfaithfulness, and cease to wonder that the Church's work in the world advances so slowly. In these estimates, the revenues of the titled and the princely have no peculiar place assigned to them; but were they embraced in the calculation, the entire sum might be largely increased. Thirty millions would scarcely, in that case, be too large an estimate, and were we thus faithful as professing followers of the Lord, O how speedily would his work be accomplished, how surely would He "make a short work upon the earth!" At the same time, blessings in more rich abundance would become the portion of the faithful steward, for we re-echo the saying, "No one of sound judgment will deny, that if all men acted intelligently, and in accordance with the precepts of the gospel, all would attain twice their present ratio of prosperity with one-fourth the present anxiety, risk, and trouble.”*

A CHRISTIAN CONGREGATION.

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But there is danger in such large and general views. To make the matter definite, we might take the case of a congregation of professing Christians. They form a society who are by solemn profession "not their own;" they "are pilgrims and strangers;" they seek "a better country;" they have welcomed the Son of God as their Saviour, and their model; they are "living unto Him." His interests and theirs are one.

How, then, should such a society, if consistent, act? In regard to their property, they are the Lord's stewards: that is one of the conditions of their union as a flock. He has "given them all things richly to enjoy," and one of their purest pleasures is to devote all to Him. A church or a flock thus becomes a society constituted to work for the Saviour-it is a life-giving element in a dying world. Men there are not to seek their own things, but His to make it their business and their joy to promote his purposes on the earth. Wealth or poverty, time, influence, every talent and every gift, are to be thus devoted, according to the mind of Christ.

Such is the theory-but does the practice correspond? Are the members of churches generally seeking the things which are Christ's? Is His right of property conscientiously considered! On the contrary, are not the claims of his cause often neglected? Is not the aid of many rather extorted by pressure than elicited by love? There are stewards in the Churches-men who know the tenure by which they hold their all, but still it is the unchallengeable truth that the righteous claims of God are evaded as a tax by many, and the gospel of his grace is

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PAINS AND PRAYER.

left by them to shift as it can upon crumbs, or upon mites. In the camp, the deserter is shot. On Exchange, the fraudulent are posted. In the church the apostate is excommunicated; and what shall be said of those who are all the three, and yet profess to be followers of Christ? Are they not betraying his cause with a kiss by seeming to espouse it?

In pleading as we have done for the consecration of our money to God, it will not be supposed that any charm-like power is attached to it, as if it could convert or bless the nations. It is spoken of only as a means, and without the Spirit of God, sent down in answer to the prayer of faith, our piled up millions would be all unavailing. But for this reason, the Lord's stewards should also be his remembrancers, and it is that combination of pains and prayer, of giving and asking, that will subdue the world at length.

But let us next glance, somewhat more in detail, at the world's antagonism to the Church's work.

SOCIALISM.

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CHAPTER VI.

WORLDLINESS AND ITS WORK.

"This will I do : I will pull down my barns, and I will build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods."-LUKE xii. 18.

The social constitution-Owenism-Socialism-"The world"-Passion for accumulation-Evasions-The inconsistency of Christians-Peculiar idioms on wealth-Squandering-Rivalry-Mammon's temple-His devotees Retiring from business-Profuse liberality for self-Lot, Judas-The flight of riches-Rothschild-The Goldsmids-Nicholas of Russia-Bankruptcy morally viewed-Religion friendly to trade when Christianised-An example-A caution-The Pearl.

We repeat, it is never to be denied that God has appointed different orders in society-the high and the low, the rich and the poor-and all attempts to violate that primary law have recoiled upon their authors. The theories of the Owenite, and the agrarianism of the Socialist, are alike unscriptural and impracticable. Like all our attempts to improve upon the enactments of God, these impede men's true progress, and throw them back into a moral chaos.

God, then, being the author of the different ranks in the social scale, as surely as of men's different mental gifts, no one who takes the Bible for his guide can fail to notice that these diversities, like hill and dale in landscape, produce many moral beauties. They knit men

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THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES."

together in the bonds of reciprocal dependence, while they give scope for the play of some of the deepest principles in our nature. When abused, indeed, they become the fertile source of social evils, of despotisms, and consequent degradation; but when they hold the place which the only wise God has assigned to them, the diversities which prevail among men are beauteous and benignant, like the varying seasons of the year or the complementary colours in nature.

The truth as it is in Jesus, accordingly, consecrates these distinctions. It never attempts their abolition, and none of the remarks which follow are meant to efface, or even to obscure them.

The world must be very cursorily viewed, if we do not notice how profoundly its maxims and habits are opposed to the work and the mission of the Church as already described. "The deceitfulness of riches" has wrapt its meshes round the heart of man, and like the fly entangled in the spider's web, he is at once poisoned and impaled. The god of this world has succeeded in superseding or reversing the right order of things, and proofs of this distempered antagonism meet us on every side. We may excuse the quaintness of the following remarks for the sake of their truth :- -" Elijah now lacks his hostess of Sarepta ; Elisha his Shunamite; Paul cannot find the seller of purple, nor Peter the tanner; Job we have not; Obadiah we find not; good Onesimus is not to be heard of."* Consider, then, some of

the aspects of this evil.

* Trapp on "Almes."