24. Equally inexcusable are those, who lay up what they do not need for any reasonable purposes. “If a man had hands and eyes and feet that he could give to those that wanted them; if he should lock them up in a chest, instead of giving them to his brethren, that were blind and lame, should we not justly reckon him an inhuman wretch? If he should rather chuse to amuse himself with hoarding them up, than intitle himself to an eternal reward by giving them to those that wanted eyes and hands, might we not justly reckon him mad?”
“Now money has very much the nature of eyes and feet. If therefore we lock it up in chests, while the poor and distrest want it for their necessary uses, we are not far from the cruelty of him, that chuses rather to hoard up hands and eyes, than to give them to those that want them. If we chuse to lay it up, rather than to intitle ourselves to an eternal reward by disposing of our money well, we are guilty of his madness, that rather chuses to lock up eyes and hands, than to make himselffor ever blessed, by giving them to those that want them.”
25. *May not this be another reason why rich men shall so hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven? A vast majority of them are under a curse, under the peculiar curse of God: inasmuch as in the general tenor of their lives, they are not only robbing God continually, imbezzling and wasting their Lord’s goods, and by that very means corrupting their own souls: but also robbing the poor, the hungry, the naked; wronging the widow and the fatherless, and making themselves accountable for all the want, affliction and distress, which they may, but do not remove. Yea, doth not the blood of all those who perish for want, of what they either lay up, or lay out needlessly, cry against them from the earth? O what account will they give, to him who is ready to judge both the quick and the dead!
26. The true way of employing what you do not want yourselves, you may, fourthly learn from those words of our Lord, which are the counterpart of what went before: Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven; where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break thro’ and steal. Put out whatever thou canst spare, upon better security than this world can afford. Lay up thy treasures in the bank of heaven: and God shall restore them in that day. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth untothe Lord, and look what he layeth out, it shall be paid him again. Place that, saith he, unto my account. Howbeit! thou owest me thine own self also!
Give to the poor with a single eye, with an upright heart, and “Write, so much given to God.” For inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
This is the part of a faithful and wise steward. Not, to sell either his houses or lands, or principal stock, be it more or less, unless some peculiar circumstance should require it; and not to desire or endeavour to increase it, any more than to squander it away in vanity: but to employ it wholly to those wise and reasonable purposes, for which his Lord has lodged it in his hands. The wise steward, after having provided his own houshold, with what is needful for life and godliness, makes himself friends with all that remains from time to time of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when he fails, they may receive him into everlasting habitations: that whensoever his earthly tabernacle is dissolved, they who were before carried into Abraham’s bosom, after having eaten his bread, and worn the fleece of his flock, and praised God for the consolation, may welcome him into paradise, and into the house of God, eternal in the heavens.
27. *We charge you, therefore, who are rich in this world, as having authority from our greatLord and Master, ἀγαθοεργεῖν, to be habitually doing good, and to live in a course of good works. Be ye merciful as your Father which is in heaven is merciful, who doth good and ceaseth not. Be ye merciful,—“How far?”—After your power, with all the ability which God giveth. Make this your only measure of doing good, not any beggarly maxims or customs of the world. We charge you to be rich in good works; as you have much, to give plenteously. Freely ye have received; freely give; so as to lay up no treasure but in heaven. Be ye ready to distribute, to every one according to his necessity. Disperse abroad, give to the poor; deal your bread to the hungry. Cover the naked with a garment, entertain the stranger, carry or send relief to them that are in prison. Heal the sick; not by miracle, but thro’ the blessing of God upon your seasonable support. Let the blessing of him that was ready to perish thro’ pining want, come upon thee. Defend the oppressed, plead the cause of the fatherless, and make the widow’s heart sing for joy.
28. We exhort you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to be willing to communicate: κοινωνικοὺς εἶναι. To be of the same spirit (tho’ not in the same outward state) with those believers of antient times, who remained stedfast ἐν τῇ κοινωνίᾳ, in that blessed and holy fellowship, wherein none said, that any thing was his own, but they had all things common. Be a steward, a faithful andwise steward, of God and of the poor; differing from them in these two circumstances only, that your wants are first supplied, out of the portion of your Lord’s goods which remains in your hands, and that you have the blessedness of giving. Thus lay up for yourselves a good foundation, not in the world, which now is, but rather for the time to come, that ye may lay hold on eternal life. The great foundation indeed of all the blessings of God, whether temporal or eternal, is the Lord Jesus Christ, his righteousness and blood, what he hath done, and what he hath suffered for us. And other foundation, in this sense, can no man lay; no not an apostle, no not an angel from heaven. But thro’ his merits, whatever we do in his name, is a foundation for a good reward, in the day when every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour. Therefore, labour thou, not for the meat that perisheth, but for that which endureth unto everlasting life. Therefore whatsoever thy hand now findeth to do, do it with thy might. Therefore let
“No fair occasion pass unheeded by;
Snatching the golden moments as they fly,