no, not in Israel." While he was the friend of publicans and sinners, and represents the prodigal son, who had wasted his substance in riotous living, as welcomed back to his father's house, Jesus also represents the same father as saying to the elder son, who was a “moral man," and had never transgressed his father's commandments, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine."

In this manner, after the example of the Great Teacher, all goodness and the least measure of it should be appreciated and respected. It is in every instance a ray from the divine light of conscience in the soul. The principles of integrity, of morality, and of religion, are of one and the same nature and origin. All goodness is a fruit of the divine spirit, of the breath of the Lord. An upright intention, the love of truth, devotion to duty, the sentiment of humanity, the altruistic feeling and the feeling of self-respect as well, are correlatives and cousins-german of Christianity. They point to it, as the magnetic needle to the pole. They lead to Christ, when he is preached in the radiant glory of his character as the perfect man, the Holy One, who came into the world to redeem men from iniquity, and make them pure and holy. Let then the sentiment of integrity be cherished as the jewel of character, as the life of a good man, and let it be esteemed and honored wherever found, in the church or out, on pagan or on Christian ground. Happy the man who makes it his aim and rule to be true and do right always and everywhere, who says in his secret soul, not presumptuously, but sincerely, "As for me, I will walk in my integrity."

Ο

XXIII

PROPERTY

Take that thine is. - MATT. 20: 14.

UR Saviour was a close observer of the world he lived in. It was very much as it is to-day. He knew the different employments of men and their different conditions. He knew the labors of the field, the work of the mechanic, the details of business, the laws of trade, the law of wages, the exchanges of the merchant, and how men buy and sell, and get gain, and lay up money.

To teach a proper use of these things was part of his ministry; how to make them helpers of virtue and stepping stones to heaven. He said much about food and clothing, of house and home, of property, possessions, and treasures.

Property is an essential of man's earthly life, and of civilization. It is a prime factor in our education. As soon as we are born, we want something that shall be our own. The babe must have its own clothing. From the cradle to the grave we must have our own food, our shelter from the storm, our bed to sleep in, and our own employment and work. As every man has an arm and a hand of his own, they mean that he should do for himself and provide for his own wants and his own benefit. They also show that we were made to acquire things, and to hold them, and be owners and possessors, so that we cannot only say, my hand and my arm, but also say, my house, my farm, my store, my business, my work.

There was never a more quixotic proposition than to abolish private property. There was never a more monstrous falsehood

than that property is theft; that the rewards of industry do not belong to the industrious, but to the sluggard and idler also. A theory of socialism which carries that meaning is abhorrent to common sense. For private property is a necessity of nature, and while the earth remains, and man lives upon it, the right will continue alongside the right to liberty and to the pursuit of happiness. Slavery is nothing more than the denial of property to its victims. The slave does not own himself.

Our Saviour recognized the right of ownership in all sorts of earthly goods, in houses and lands, in fields and vineyards, and of merchandise and money. He had his own home at Nazareth, and his own trade and tools, and means of support for his mother. An eminent Latter-day prophet, for whom I cherished high respect, Henry George, went beyond the teachings of Christ in discrediting property in land, though he conceded the right of private use by payment of rent or rental value to the State, and it was his ingenious theory to support the government by such rent, and do away with all other taxes. But our Lord spoke of lands and fields as men's own, as much as their money or merchandise. To all these things he applied the distinction of "mine" and "thine." The parable of the vineyard and the laborers recognizes the right of the owner to the vineyard, and the right of the laborers to their hire. It is the ever-recurring question of the employer and the employee, of capital and labor. Some sentences of this parable cover the whole ground: "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?" "Friend, I do thee no wrong: "Didst not thou agree with me?" "Take that thine is." Lord explains the principles

In the parable of the talents our of religion and the rewards of heaven from the relations of capital and labor. The owner of an estate entrusts his servants with the care of it, when he goes away into a far country. Upon returning, he reckons with them, and says to one, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a

few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord;" but the indolent and petulant and unprofitable servant, who impugned his master's rights and his good name, is removed from office and cast into outer darkness.

In the parable to enforce the duty of mutual forgiveness, Jesus used the common language of creditors and debtors; "Pay me that thou owest." "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all."

These were the general principles of business in the time of Christ, as they are to-day. Men want their own. Labor wants its rewards. Capital wants its returns. We all want that others shall pay what they owe us. Mercy and forgiveness are often called for, and should be freely exercised, but justice is the first want, the supreme demand of the world. It is not by forgiving all debts, by universal discharges in bankruptcy, that commerce and trade are carried on, but by discharging debts and paying bills. It is so in every country on the globe, in Europe and America, in India, China, and Japan. In every place, merchants and bankers and all people must meet their engagements, and do as they agree, or a general crash and wreck come. It is to avert such a catastrophe and establish justice, that governments are instituted, and that they exist under divine warrant and sanction, and are "ministers of God" (Rom. 13:4). They stand to protect life and property. This is the great end of halls of legislation and of courts of justice. Mercy is the prerogative of executive clemency, but judges and magistrates administer law and justice, and by law and justice human society is knit together, and the nation stands.

The Christian religion vindicates both mercy and justice in the administration of the world, and exercises the one without damage to the other. It offers mercy upon condition of repentance and a return to righteousness. It says, "Go, and sin no more." Jesus reprobated thieves, and often referred to the eighth

and tenth commandments, which forbid stealing and covetousness. In exhorting one and another to sell their possessions and give to the poor, he recognized their right of property in their possessions. One cannot give what is not his own.

The peculiar doctrine of Christianity upon this subject is, not that there should be no property, not that there is any virtue in a vow of poverty, but that every person should have property, something of his own, and should respect the property of others and never desire for himself what belongs to another, or anything beyond reason and right.

Business and trade were active in the days of our Saviour. The Jews were merchants and bankers then as now. Some became rich by fair means; others, by foul means. Under the protection of Roman law property was secure and industry and enterprise made great gains. The temptations to greed, to excessive accumulation, to unscrupulous acquisition, were the same as now. Men who professed sanctity and were leaders in Israel, practised extortion, acquired widows' houses, and justified dishonesty by artifice and chicanery. Jesus compared them to whited sepulchres, fair without, but within full of dead men's bones and uncleanness. In the presence of such sanctimonious pretenders, Jesus condemned their hypocrisy, and said to his disciples, "No man can serve two masters;" "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." He forbids the idea of merging the love of God with the idolatry of this world, of which mammon was representative. An ancient god bore that name, and the name stood for money, which can buy all things. In opposition to the idea of serving God and mammon, Jesus taught the right use of money, making it not our master to bind us to earth, but our servant to lay up for us treasures in heaven. He gives four reasons, the moth, the rust, the thieves, and the tendency of money, when pursued with greed, to harden the heart against God and humanity. Paul teaches the same lesson when he says