THE KING’S BUSINESS 655 was that which had the future in mind. Not the “injustice” but the “pru dence” of the man is here commended; he “made friends with the mammon of unrighteousness” so that when he was put out of his position, those whom he had befriended with the means at his disposal, gave him a welcome into their homes. This man had a keen eye for the future. This is what is commendable in the story. The lesson for the Christian is that he should use what wealth God has given him with an eye on the future, for the purpose of making friends for Christ; which means, in other words, the winning of souls for Him, the propagation of the work of God at home and abroad, the scattering of Christian literature and the Word of God, the furtherance of the work of evangelization of the masses, in a final word: the winning of men and women to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every soul thus won with the “mammon of unrighteousness” is a friend made, who will bid us welcome into the “everlasting habitations” when we are “put out of our stewardship,” that is, when we go to be with Christ. What a joy it will be to have some soul meet us there and say, “It was through the use of your money that I was brought to know Christ.” The third parable, or better perhaps, narrative, that of “The Rich man and Lazarus,” lays emphasis on the selfish use of wealth. Dives had a chance to “make a friend” of Lazarus with his wealth. In his selfishness he neg lected ter do it, consequently we have the awful picture here presented to us of the rich man’s utter loneliness, his want of a friend to comfort him in his agony and pain. Oh, if he had only made a friend of Lazarus with “the mammon of unrighteousness,” with his possessions when living on the earth! Oh, if he had only used his money to win souls! He would not have been friendless in that other world. What are you doing with your surplus funds? Man of wealth, will any one there at the beautiful gate be watching and-waiting for you to bid you welcome? Or will you be lonesome there? Make friends with the mammon or unrighteousness—with your wealth.
The “English Bible” is again coming into its own. -The tendency of past years has been to neglect its study. Even in institutions for theological training has this fault been manifest. The Scriptures, in parts, have been
Study of the English Bible.
studied in Hebrew and Greek, but the “English Bible,” the Bible which “the people” have to read and study, has been sorely disregarded. This sad and sore neglect is clearly evident from the absence of Biblical preaching or in struction in the Scriptures in the pulpit or class-room of the average church. A large gift, we understand, has been left the Union Seminary of New York, for the establishment of a chair “for the teaching of the English Bible pure and simple.” The great Presbyterian Church of the United States has urged strongly upon the presidents of all its colleges to seek to establish chairs for the teaching of the “English Bible.” The heads of these educa tional institutions a rc seeking earnestly for men and women of means to endow such chairs from which the youth of our land shall be taught the “English Bible.”
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker