LECT. XIII. of that which is the body of Christ, viz. to gather all humanity into its glorified self. Think of the world's sins and miseries, its lost ones, its hungry ones, its corruptions high and low, its enmities and strifes, its ignorance and moral darkness, its false religions and its unbeliefs. These are the sphere of Christian wealth. These need pious money. And how glorious it would be if Christian men realized the Church as the body of Christ, "filling up that which remains behind," and regenerating the world! Then it would joint-stock become, to use a familiar figure, the great jointstock company for the pious and heavenly fructification of wealth, of which believing men are the shareholders, laying up treasure which moth and rust cannot corrupt, whose per centage of interest is spiritual and of God. "Their works do follow them;" yes, the fallen restored, evil conquered, souls won to Christ. The Church a company. Robert Falconer's use of money. Suffer me in illustration of this idea to give one more instance of ideal political economy, which, just because it is ideal, is very real in the sense of being true. Some may call it fanciful, I venture to call it very Christian. George Macdonald, in Robert Falconer,' has a fine idea of how to use and transmit wealth. His hero is one who spends and is spent in the service of the lost and outcast. He had a competency, of which His mode of legacy, contrasted spirit of with the the world. he kept enough for his own simple wants, the LECT. XIII. rest belonged to the needy of every kind, whom he sought out to help and bless. When called from his work he left his money by will to one whom he had proved to be like-minded with himself, with the injunction that he in turn should look out some kindred soul, and he another, and thus pass it down the ages of need to do God's work all along in Christly hands. Contrast the spirit of such a legacy with the legacies of the world, in which the amount is all and morality nothing; which instead of being a blessing to others are frequently only a curse to the possessors; which instead of producing God's peace, breed endless strife and woeful differences in those who sucked at the same mother's breasts. Contrast the method of it with those old charities whose special purpose has become obsolete, and whose present fate is to do as much harm as good in the hands of unsympathetic distributors. Think of it finally as it hands in at the last its charity. glorious account, after earth's work is done and the books are opened. The second application of this principle of property as a sacred trust is to 2. Our use of ourselves. Wealth is more than money. It comprises all that God gives us, our talents, our influence, our whole self. And with common methods of Wealth is and have. all we use LECT. XIII. No compromise the heresy of a busy age. Failure. Edward A summary Too often it is taken for granted that we can make a compromise with love and duty by means of mere money given in subscriptions. But money is not self. On the contrary, when it is given to buy off personal effort we confess thereby that it is not self but only a substitute. In reality it is the talent in the napkin, for God values only according to the motive. But we cannot work personally in all the things to which we are asked to subscribe? That is not the point; do you personally take a part in any special Christian work? Without a doubt the gift of money as a substitute for personal effort, and faith, and love, is one of the great mistakes of this busy, luxurious age, even from the mere philanthropic point of view. Never were so many subscription lists sent round, never so many societies, but how little good in proportion does there seem to follow, and how many efforts positively fail ! Simply, brethren, because money cannot do the work of spirit, and moral influence is not a mere affair of committees and organizations. One true soul working like Edward Dennison worked in the Whitechapel back street exercises more of real saving power than any ten thousand who subscribe each their guinea, and care no more about it. In conclusion, he who lives selfishly, proudly, He LECT. XIII. of con clusions. The sin of the indul gent and selfish, and uselessly, abuses his Divine trust. He who in self-indulgence refuses to hear the cry of the lost world, who seeks out no Lazarus on whom to bestow his crumbs, betrays his trust. who might do good, who might heal and comfort and bless if he would, and yet does not, is guilty of unfaithfulness. He who has money and leisure neglectful, time, and does not go into the world of sin and sorrow, will have to answer for a broken stewardship. He who, for the sake of display and luxury, and vain. and in a spirit of worldliness, lodges himself in a great mansion, and drains away his resources in a large establishment, so that he has nothing to spare for the work of God, has really embezzled Divine wealth, and will have to account for it. And, brethren, having spoken thus strongly, I Strong have yet said nothing so strong as these old stern words which force a question upon the conscience question. of eternal moment: "He that seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” speech in an eternal XIV. THE NINTH WORD. LECT. XIV. The gist of this law. The argument of speech. What words are. THE SACRED TONGUE. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.- THE sixth and seventh commandments forbid THE us to injure our neighbour by deed, this ninth forbids us to injure him by a word. A word! what's in a word? Perhaps you have not thought of it, but what is the distinguishing faculty of man? It is speech. Max Müller and Dr. Bateman (as against Darwinism in its inclusion of man), say that language and its logical laws of development furnish the most convincing proof of the separation of man from the lower animals by an unbridgeable gulf. Words, light as air, contain possibilities of happiness or misery beyond the pen to depict, or even the imagination to realize. Children of our inner selves, of our mind and heart, they penetrate into deepest recesses of human feeling and there fix themselves. They are thoughts em |