struck dead for dishonesty, and the advice might often be safely extended to other scenes.

But it is needless to expatiate longer upon a subject which a sentence suffices to make plain.-From a review of this section, the following conclusions are once more forced upon the mind.

First, Man's view of riches is not merely different from God's-it is the reverse and the antagonist of His. The Supreme makes man a steward; man makes himself an owner or a monarch, and uses for himself what he is delegated to employ for God.

Secondly, The Scriptures fence round the rights of the Eternal by all moral means. But man disregards them all-he tramples the fences in the dust. The Word of the Lord is not consulted in the use of wealth, or any gift. Pleasure, ambition, self in some of its thousand imperious forms, is too often man's only guide, and it is painfully illustrative of the wide-spread abuse of riches, that much of what is done for God, is done by the accumulated offerings of the children of handicraft and daily business, not by the rich at all. It is as true now as in the days of Nehemiah, that the nobles put not their shoulder to the work.

But, Thirdly, Even when conscience has been roused to recognise, in some degree, the claims of God, it is often bribed or laid to rest again by the surrender of a fragment, as a quit-rent for the whole.

Fourthly, Woe and disappointment are often the result. Riches take to themselves wings and flee away. Men who supersede the claims of God, or disregard his

F

sovereign will, sooner or later discover that their gold and their silver are cankered; that moth and rust can spoil them, or thieves rifle them away. If they remain, they petrify the feelings; they dry up sympathy, and render some men little else than a safe for money. It is recorded, for example, of the great capitalist, the elder Rothschild, who has been known to realize £150,000 by a single transaction, that he usually hired his subordinates at the lowest rate at which it was possible for them to subsist. Riches, as abundant as the leaves of the forest, could neither enlarge nor satisfy his evercraving soul, and his case signally proves that the greatest of all bankrupts is money-it never pays what it promises. It is said that in America three hundred thousand die of drunkenness every year. How many more perish there and here of covetousness!

Fifthly, Could men be taught wisdom by any thing but omnipotent grace, experience might teach the folly of disowning, God's mind, in using what He bestows, or employing what was given to promote His glory in pampering self. There was something more profound than either flattery or wit in the words of a monk who told a pope and his cardinals that the apostles were fools compared with modern Christians—the former abjured the world; the latter make it their heaven.

But how should man employ his money? That is our next inquiry.

THE USES OF MONEY.

83

CHAPTER V.

THE CHURCH'S WORK, AND MEANS FOR DOING IT.

"Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."MARK XVI. 15.

The purposes of God-The uses of riches-The Church and its Mission -The field contemplated-Illustrations-Behar-London-Edinburgh -The Church's Instrument, the Gospel-The revenues of BritainHer stewardship-Examples-The power of littles-The world's munificence-The Rajah of Burdwan-The Moravian Church, a modelIts labours-Results-Other examples of the Church's work doneThat work neglected.

We have now reached an important point in our inquiry. It is this. Since God is the Supreme proprietor of all, and since man is constituted his steward to employ all that God bestows, according to the sovereign will— What is that will? What are God's purposes in our world? At what are his stewards to aim in employing his property?

Now, as his word has carefully guarded his rights, it is not less explicit in declaring the purposes to which his property is to be devoted.

In the first place, the whole is to be consecrated to the Highest, and held in solemn trust from him. Whether it be the domains of the princely, or the pittance of the poor, one tenure characterises all, as one

84

STEWARDS-NOT OWNERS.

maxim is to regulate all. God is to be recognised as the rightful Owner of everything that is, and whatever is less than that is sin. Ananias and Sapphira are beacons, not models and the man whom Supreme Wisdom called a fool* ranks in the same class with them. We are at every stage, and in every movement, to be guided by the revealed mind and the asserted rights of God. Having laid our all upon his altar, we have, so far, discharged our duty, and aught else is not the Christian's attitude. Having made the surrender, that Christian wisely and humbly waits for his directions.

Nor does this apply only to our money or our material property. Every gift is to be laid on God's altar in the spirit now described, and we adopt the following remarks on this subject in all the extent of their meaning." All our talents, our powers of mind, speech, learning, health, strength, time, and money, are to be viewed in the same light-(as means of diffusing the truth). Many seem to think that these things are bestowed merely for their own enjoyment. But this is a great mistake. They are not so much given as lent or entrusted. We are stewards rather than owners. There is a use to be made of them, an account to be given. You would be surprised to see the lamplighter using his ladder as a plaything, yet this is what thousands are doing with their various talents. We must not use our talents so. They are tools, not toys, to be used like the ladder in helping to light the lamps."+

+ See The Lamplighter, or How to Work for God, a useful and practi

THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER.

85

And these things being adjusted as the scriptural basis of all that is to follow, the Great Proprietor next allots a portion of our money for our maintenance in the sphere where he has placed us. The prince is to be princely, and the man of humbler lot is to remember that godliness with contentment is great gain. The man of many thousands is to occupy his high position under a right sense of his responsibility. He has ten talentsbut the man who has only one is not less under the eye, or less provided for by the goodness, of God. Each in his allotted rank divine benevolence designs to uphold and make happy.

But though the steward thus stands second in the divine order, he is not final, nay, much of his care is to be devoted to others as well as himself, and here, according to the Scriptures, the poor find their place. In an early portion of the Bible, we are assured that "the poor shall never cease out of the land," and we are assiduously taught, as God's stewards, to consider their wants. Blessings are pronounced upon those who provide for them, while woe is the lot of those who neglect that duty, and the man who leaves the poor out of view in employing God's property, is called mindless, senseless, or a fool.* On the other hand, encomiums are

cal tract, issued by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.-See also Sir Matthew Hale on "The Great Audit."

We read that Sir Thomas Halifax, a rich London banker, was once asked to aid in relieving the poor, and reminded that they who do so "lend to the Lord." His reply was-"I never lend upon such slight security." Ere his day was done, he fell into decay; he needed help, and pled the same argument which those to whom he appealed. But his