August 10

Laging up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come. — 1 TIM. vi. 19.

And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. — LUKE xvi. 9.

CHRIST here calls money by a hard name. Not that money has any immoral quality in itself, but it gets its stigma from its habitual application by men to selfish and sordid ends. Yet Christ shows us another side, and tells us that this much-abused thing may become a real power in adjusting our relations to the kingdom of God. The selfish lust for money breeds hatred; yet money may be so used as to make friends in heaven.

Christ draws his illustration from a low level. He shows how an unfaithful steward turned his fraud to advantage by making friends of his master's creditors. "Take a lesson from this shrewd worldly policy," says Christ. "Every poor and helpless brother whose load you lighten by your benefactions, is knit to you by grateful love. The poor and sick and burdened shall greet you in heaven, saying, 'I was hungry and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger and ye took me in.' And the King shall say, 'Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me.'"

Harris Fincutt

But there are joys that cannot die,

With God laid up in store;

Treasure beyond the changing sky,

Brighter than golden ore.

PHILIP DODDRIDGE.