LUKE xvi. 9.
_I say unto you, make unto yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into the everlasting habitations._
1. OUR Lord having finished the beautiful parable of the prodigal son, which he had particularly addressed to those who murmured at his _receiving_ Publicans and sinners, adds another relation of a different kind, addressed rather to the children of God. _He said unto his disciples_ (ver. 1.) not so much to the Scribes and Pharisees, to whom he had been speaking before――_There was a certain rich man, who had a steward, and he was accused to him of wasting his goods. And calling him he said, Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou canst be no longer steward_, (ver. 2.) After reciting the method which the bad steward used, to provide against the day of necessity, our Saviour adds, _His Lord commended the unjust steward_, namely in _this respect_, that he used timely precaution, and subjoins this weighty reflection, _The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light_. (ver. 8.) Those who seek no other portion than _this world, are wiser_, (not absolutely; for they are, one and all, the veryest fools, the most egregious madmen under heaven, but) _in their generation_, in their own way: they are more consistent with themselves, they are truer to their acknowledged principles, they more steadily pursue their end, _than the children of light_, than they who see _the light of the glory of_ God, _in the face of_ Jesus Christ. Then follow the words above recited. _And I_――the only begotten Son of God, the Creator, Lord and possessor of heaven and earth and all that is therein: the judge of all, to whom ye are to _give an account of_ your _stewardship_ when ye _can be no longer stewards――I say unto you_, learn in this respect, even of the unjust steward, _make yourselves friends_, by wise timely precaution, _of the mammon of unrighteousness_. _Mammon_ means riches or money. It is termed _the mammon of unrighteousness_, because of the unrighteous manner wherein it is frequently procured, and, wherein even that which was honestly procured, is generally employed. _Make yourselves friends_ of this by doing all possible good, particularly to the children of God: _that when ye fail_, when ye return to dust, when ye have no more place under the sun, those of them who are gone before _may receive you_, may welcome you _into the everlasting habitations_.
2. An excellent branch of Christian wisdom here inculcated by our Lord on all his followers, namely, the right use of money; a subject largely spoken of, after their manner, by men of the world: but not sufficiently considered by those whom God hath chosen out of the ♦world. These generally do not consider as the importance of the subject requires, the use of this excellent talent. Neither do they understand how to employ it to the greatest advantage; the introduction of which into the world, is one admirable instance of the wise and gracious providence of God. It has indeed been the manner of poets, orators and philosophers, in almost all ages and nations, to rail at this, as the grand corrupter of the world, the bane of virtue, the pest of human society. Hence nothing so commonly heard as,
_Ferrum, Ferroq; nocentius aurum_:
And “gold, more mischievous than keenest steel.” Hence the lamentable complaint
_Effodiuntur opes, irritamenta malorum_.
Nay, one celebrated writer gravely exhorts his countrymen, in order to banish all vice at once, to “throw all their money into the sea.”
_In mare proximum, Summi materiem mali!_