words about the camel and the needle's eye. Some have changed a vowel in the Greek word for "camel," and so have made it mean "rope." Others have declared that the needle's eye was the little gate for foot passengers that was in the big gate of the city. But the words stand. The rich man can be saved, as Jesus went on to declare, but he saw how hard it was.

THE CHRISTIAN MAN IN THE WORLD

Simple Enjoyment.-What, then, shall be the attitude of the Christian man in the world? (1) There will be a simple wholesome enjoyment of what is good, looking upon all this as God's gift to man. We are coming to see more and more the Christian meaning of natural goods such as health and recreation and money. So far from being evil in itself, money is one of God's great instruments when handed over to his use. To subdue the earth and make it minister to us is a Christian task. A sufficient income is one of the first conditions for lifting a people to a higher plane of living. Recreation is a part of normal human life and indispensable for education, while full physical vigor is a part of God's purpose for men.

Perfect Independence.-(2) There will be perfect independence of soul. The highest in life does not come from money or any of these other gifts, nor can their lack take it away. Instead of such dependence upon uncertain gifts, which make others slaves of fear, the Christian has confidence that what he needs will be given him by God.

The High Aim.-(3) The Christian aims for the highest. He will not let a lesser good stand in the place of a higher. He knows that the good may become the enemy of the best. Sometimes, therefore, he will renounce the good because it stands in the way of the best.

Using the Lesser.-(4) More often the Christian, instead of renouncing the lesser, will make use of it to promote the higher. He will not flee the world, but find it, rather, the place in which to grow strong and to serve. He will learn that this world, with its wealth and poverty, its

labor and joy, its temptations and its encouragements, is God's place for growing men. He will see how this world brings forth industry and loyalty and strength. He will learn how to be strict with himself and magnanimous toward others, to be strong and yet tender, to join courage with patience, to hate all evil and yet love all men.

DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY

Read the Scripture references: Matthew 6. 19-34; Luke 12. 13-21; Mark 10. 17-27; Luke 16. 19-31.

Go over in your own mind the life of Jesus. What was his attitude toward nature? toward the common pleasures of life, especially toward social pleasures?

Now consider the two attitudes first discussed in the lesson, and see whether either worldliness or otherworldliness describes Jesus.

Recall, however, his supreme interest, that of the life of man with God. Is not this, after all, a right kind of otherworldliness, since it lifts a man above all the limitations of this world or dependence upon its goods?

As you study next the question of Jesus' attitude upon wealth, read first of all his words upon this subject. Are they the words of an abstract philosopher, or of a lover of men who knows the real world and is trying to help men?

At the close, try to put constructively the principles that you think should govern a Christian man in his attitude toward material things.

What social evils of to-day come from the greed for wealth? What principles should be followed in the choice of our recreations?

CHAPTER XVI

STEWARDSHIP AND LIFE

WE have considered Jesus' teaching about the world and man's relation to it. It is God's world and a good world. There is danger in its gifts, because men grasp at these things as ends instead of means. Nevertheless, for those who see God and follow him it is a good world, a world in which to love and to serve and to develop Christian character. But there is another and important side to this conception of the world. We shall study it later as the place in which God's kingdom is to be established, and we shall see that man has a part in this. That part we now begin to study under the theme of stewardship.

JESUS' WORDS ABOUT STEWARDSHIP

Words from the Last Days.-The greatest single message concerning stewardship is given in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25. 14-30). It was spoken during the last days in Jerusalem, and is one of a group of messages in which Jesus enforces upon his disciples the ideas of watchfulness and faithfulness. Here belong the words concerning faithful and faithless servants and concerning wise and foolish virgins (Matthew 24. 45-51; 25. 1-13). At that time Master and disciples apparently thought that they should see each other very soon again, and this lent urgency to the words. The disciples were servants whom the departing Lord was intrusting with a great treasure and a great responsibility, and he bids them think of the time of accounting.

Other Teachings.-But there are other passages which give the same truth and which are scattered throughout

his teaching. He told them the story of the unrighteous steward (Luke 16. 1-13). He no more condoned what that unfaithful servant did than did the man's master. But this servant was an example in one point: as he was wise and diligent in his wickedness, so they were to be wise and diligent in their goodness. It is not enough to be harmless as doves, they must also be wise as serpents (Matthew 10. 16). They are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. Salt is not here for its own sake, but as a savor; light is not here for itself, but to give light to others. What they are is not enough, but what they do and count for (Matthew 5. 13-16). In these and in other teachings Jesus brings out his great conception of life whose further meaning we now consider.

TWO FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Not Ownership, but Stewardship.-This great teaching can be put in two propositions. The first is this: all that we have has been given us in trust. A great deal has been said in the church about stewardship in our day, but we are still far from grasping the radicalism of Jesus' teaching. Most men draw back from the sweeping proposition of socialism, which, though it does not declare against private ownership of all property, yet opposes private ownership of the means of production and distribution such as mines and fields and factories and railways. As a matter of fact, Jesus goes farther than that here. He declares that there is no absolute ownership of anything whatever. Nothing is held by man in fee simple-everything only in trust. We are trustees, and never absolute

owners.

Possession Means Obligation.-If all that we have has been given us, then there follows the second proposition: all that we have we owe. For paganism property means simply power and privilege; for Jesus it means trust and responsibility. We are familiar with these pagan cries today, with the men who say, "This is my money, I shall do with it what I will; this is my business, and no one is to

tell me how to run it." From the standpoint of Jesus only one position is possible: this is God's business, and I must run it for the good of men. Dives was probably quite as good as many a man to-day who pays his debts and keeps the law (or at least keeps out of it by the help of his lawyer), who indignantly asserts his right to run his own business and spend his own money, and who leaves his fortune to children who have not earned it and are not fitted to administer it.

STEWARDSHIP AS BROAD AS LIFE

The Stewardship of Truth.-Simple as these propositions are, they have the widest meaning. They apply to all of life. It is unfortunate that with many people stewardship has come to mean simply tithing. Now Jesus refers to tithing only once, and then it is to condemn those who followed scrupulously the law of the tithe and forgot greater matters. Stewardship refers to all that a man is and all that he has, for there is not one thing that he has not gotten from God, nor one thing for which he is not responsible to God. For example, the disciples had a great treasure intrusted to them in the teachings of Jesus. You are responsible for this treasure, Jesus said; from it, like a good householder (steward), you are to bring forth things new and old (Matthew 13. 51, 52). It is this stewardship of truth and life that lies back of Christian missions. Because Christ has first come to us, we are to go into all the world with him (Matthew 28. 16-20). That is why we are to confess Christ before men (Matthew 10. 32, 33). That truth lies also in the parable of the sower. The seed of the truth has been given to us; we must scatter it, and not hoard it (Mark 4. 1-9).

The Stewardship of Influence. There is a stewardship of personal influence. The question of character is not an individual matter. We must be for the sake of others. A man's character is a vote that is cast every day for good and God, or against them. A few years ago President Gilman, of Johns Hopkins, wrote an interesting article