May 9

AND Jesus looking upon him loved him. Loved him for what he already was and had been; and for what he might yet, but would never be. . . . In this pure and generous soul it would seem that wealth was loved, not in opposition to God, but apart from God as something supplementary; that there was a sort of qualified will to do everything to get nearer to God—everything compatible with retaining his possessions. He would have sacrificed them in order to enter into life and save his soul; but not in order to be perfect, and to walk still more closely with God. Subconsciously he hopes our Saviour will ease his unrest by suggesting some compromise. But Christ reads him through and through. . . . With firm kindness He lays His skilled finger on the shrinking sore, and mercifully unmerciful gives the dreaded and unwelcome verdict: “Go; sell all and give to the poor.” “He went away sad,” as many another soul turns its back, not upon salvation, but on the fuller and nobler salvation, content to bear thirty instead of sixty or an hundredfold. And Christ too went away sad.

FATHER TYRRELL

MONEY