The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 62

in ,mother place (eh. xviii. 25), the.t it we.a a portion of their bleBBedness consists in 01Laier for o. caruel to paes through the eye of this power, to which the Lord makes allusion o. needle than for e. rich man to enter the here, of 11,11sisting othe:re-the helped here kingdom of God, "Who.t the steward of bewming the hel~• there. Although the my story," said the Master, "did to men of teaching of Christ and his chosen servants his world, see that you with your money do here and elsewhere shows us distinctly that toward those who belong to yowr world." no merit can attach to almsgiving, seeing The.t, when ye fe.il, they may reoeive you that our alms are only given out of property into everlasting he.bite.tions. So that when entrusted to us for I\ short time by Goel for you shall be dismissed from being stewards this and other similar purposes, yet the of God's possessions, that is, when ye shall same authoritative teaching informs us that die, "when ye suffer the last eclipse and God ha• regard to alms<leecls <lone in the bankruptcy of life," that then others, your true spirit of love, in determining our eternal friends, may receive you (welcome yon) into destiny. Thus a message direct from heaven everlasting dwellings. The me.jority of the informs the Roman legionary Comeliu11 older authorities here, instead of" when ye that his prayers and alms were come up for e. fail," read," when it (money) shall fail you" memorial before God. Paul writes to Timothy (by the event of your death). The sense to charge the Ephesus Christians "that of the passage, however, remains the same, they do good. that they be rich in good whichever reading be adopted. But now e. works, ready to distribute, willing to com- deeply interesting question arises-Wben municate; laying up in store for themselves the Lord speaks of friends receiving us after a good foundation against the time to come, death into eternal homes, to what friends is that thPy may lay hold on eternal life." he alluding? Great expositors, Ewe.Id and In th: ,,arable of Lazarus and Dives we Meyer, for instance, tell us that he means shall find this principle yet more clearly the angels, But the plain sense of the illustrated. These are only a few out of parable points, not to angels, but to poor, the many passages where this generosity weak, suffering persons whom we have helped e.nd e.lmsgi ving is commended to the believer here; these, then, must be the friends who with peculiar earnestness. will receive us, or welcome us, in the world Ver. 10.-B:e that is faithful in that to come. A further query suggests itself- whioh is least is faithful also in much : and How will these be able to receive us? To he that is unjust in the least is unjust also euch a question no definite reply can be in much. This and the next three verses given. We know too little of the awful are closely connected with the parable of the mysteries of that world to be able even to unjust steward. Our Lord no doubt con- hazard a surmise as to the help or the tinued speaking, and these four verses con- comfort which grateful, blessed spirits will tain a genera.I re~uml!' of what may be called be able to show to their brethren the newly his reflections on the important piece of arrived, when they receive them. His word teaching he had jUBt delivered. We have here must suffice us; well will it be for us, here the broad rule, upon which God will if one day we practically discover the holy decide the soul's future, la.id down. If the secret for ourselves. Godet has a weighty man has been faithful in his administration note with which he concludes his exposition of the comparatively unimportaut goods of of ,his difficult but most instructive parable: earth, it is clear that he can be entrusted " There is no thought more fitted than that with the far more important things which of this parable, on the one hancl to under- belong to the world to come. There is, mine the idea of merit belonging to alms- too, in these words a kind of limitation and giving (what merit could be got out of that explanation of the foregoing parabltl of the which is another's? and is not all money, are unjust steward. The conduct of that stewad, not all goods out of which we bestow our regarded in one point of view, was held to alms, God's?); and on the other, to encourage be wise, and we, though in a very different us in the praotice of that virtue which way, were advised to imitate it; yet here assures us of friends and proteotors for the we are distinctly told that it is fidelity, not grave moment of our passing into the world unfaithfulness, which will be 6f/entually re- to come." One beo.utiful and exquisitely warded-the just, not the unjust steward. comforting thought is shrined in this playful Ver. 11.-The unrighteous mammon. Aa and yet intensely solemn uttl)]'o.nce of Jesus. above in the parable, " me.mmon " signifies The eternal tents, the "many mansions," as money. The epithet "unrighteous" is used John oalls them, will have among their in the same sense e.s in ver. 9, where we ocoupants, it is oertain, many e. one whose read of the "me.mmon of unrighteousness." life ou earth was hard and sorrowful. These Ver. 12.-And if ye have not been faith- are now enjoying bliss indesoribable, these ful in that whioh is another man'a. Here poor Lazaruses, to whom this world was so we have our earthly possessions plainly Sl'd, 110 drear;r e. habite.iion. And perhaps spoken of as the goods of another, the.t ill,  64 'l'HE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [oH. xvi.1-31