November 6

Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.—LUKE xii, 15.

For not that which men covet most is best,

Nor that thing worst which men do most refuse;

But fittest is, that all contented rest

With that they hold: each hath his fortune in his breast.

It is the mind that maketh good or ill,

That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor;

For some that hath abundance at his will,

Hath not enough, but wants in greater store;

And other, that hath little, asks no more,

But in that little is both rich and wise;

For wisdom is most riches.

EDMUND SPENSER.

Greed in grasping, niggardliness in giving, may let Satan enter and make a devil of the best of us. This one single element of character has peculiar power in detaching disciples from Christ, or turning them aside to serve His enemies and ruin a good conscience. How often are young and ardent disciples drawn away from the simplicity of early faith by the effort to get on in the world? How often are conscience and faith sacrificed for lucrative employment? How often are dishonest shifts employed to retain a situation, or to push a trade, gambling with other men's means, or undertaking obligations without resources to meet them? . . . How more frequently still has a man, without conscious dishonesty, or extravagance, or ordinary breach of trust, forgotten that as a disciple he carries Christ's bag, is a steward of His bounty, and is to receive and disburse all his own as his Lord's? . . . There is no disciple that has not some time or other to face the surrender of all he has for Christ's sake; but to do that once or twice in one's life, and especially in some hour of warm enthusiasm, is not nearly so true a test of a man's Christian life as to carry the bag every day after Christ and His poor disciples, grudging nothing that goes in and nothing that goes out.

D. MACCOLL.