» Ruskin, A Joy far Ever, § 120 ( Works, xvi 102).
ST. LUKE XII. 15 261
desperate struggle, the incidents of which make the tragedies of every day ; and there is the struggle of some for wealth — no less anxious and tragical, though far more sordid than the other. Now to both of these classes Christ speaks. He says, " Is not the life more ? Are there not needs which are greater than all these ? Food, raiment, comfort, luxuries — at the best they are the means of life only, and if life be given up to the acquisition of these, is it not lost ? " Victor Hugo reminds us that " truth is nourishment as well as wheat." So it is undoubtedly, and it is nourishment of the nobler life. Let God come into a human life, and it becomes life indeed.
U The Monastic theory is at an end. It is now the Money theory which corrupts the Church, corrupts the household life, destroys honour, beauty, and life throughout the universe. It is the Death incarnate of Modernism, and the so-called science of its pursuit is the most cretinous, speechless, paralysing plague that has yet touched the brains of mankind.^
4 Our Lord even regarded the possession of wealth as a serious disadvantage. Not that the rich will be punished in the next world to make up for their happiness in this. No such crude doctrine of compensation need be thought of; but as a matter of fact, the rich did not hear Christ gladly. Their wealth did, in point of fact, keep them from joining Him. In those days, it was not easy for anyone to adopt the wandering life of Christ's disciples without first disposing of His moveable property. The suggestion to the rich young man, " Sell that thou hast," means, " Give up your fine house," not " Sell out your capital" In the East, where investments in our sense are hardly known, wealth is largely in the form of gold and trinkets, which are not easily kept safe in the absence of the owner. In these words of our Lord the emphasis should fall on the words " Come, follow me," rather than on " Sell that thou hast." No sweeping condemnation of modern capitalism can be drawn from such passages ; we must consider our Lord's whole attitude towards money and its uses.
(1) Our Lord's dislike of wealth seems to be based on the fact that it almost inevitably absorbs the time and attention of its possessor, which should be given to higher things. Money makes men busy and anxious, careful and troubled about many things.
» Kuskin, in Life by E. T. Cook, ii. 129.
262 A MAN'S TRUE LIFE
The rich man in His parables is either a luxurious sensualist, like Dives, or an " austere " man — a hard speculator — like the owner of the talents, or a money-spinner who intends to enjoy himself some day, like the rich fool. In each case, the rich man can have no time for the service of God, and the care of his own soul. Our Lord thinks much more of the loss to the rich man himself than of the injustice which his existence implies to the poor. The rich man forgets that life is more than a livelihood : " Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ? " Our Lord pities the mammon- worshipper more than He blames him: He regards him as one who has missed his way in life — as one who, in the words of the Koman satirist, has lost, for the sake of life, all that makes life worth living.
(2) The love of money grows by that which it feeds on. Covetousness does not seem to be the temptation of those who have nothing, but rather of those who have something. Few set their hearts on riches till the riches begin to increase. " Enough " has been caustically defined as " a little more than you have." As the possession grows, the desire to possess is apt to grow in yet greater ratio. It is a sad sight, though common enough, to see how, when riches increase, a man's bounty may not only not increase but steadily decline. When that is so, it means not only that the poor suffer, or that some cause of God suffers; more than that, the man himself suffers. His spiritual manhood is bUghted, and it is a blight which spreads to every part of the nature.
^ Money grows upon men. They do not know how sweet it is until they have saved a bit, then they begin to be strangely enamoured. If they have not tasted blood they have tasted gold, and a mysterious passion begins to awake, the consequences of which none may foresee. It brings with it the sense of importance, power, large possibilities of honour and indulgence, until in the end the man is mastered by it and ruined by it, as bees are sometimes drowned in their own honey.^
^ In a country parish we can often see things in their naked reality which are not seen, or not remarked, in a town. There was an old man, possessed of considerable means, who made me one of his trustees, a charge which I took for the sake of his grandchildren. I have never seen such a case of absolute slavery