Be Your Own Executor.
The third thing is this: Store it up by means of exchange. Keep it safe by giving it away. The whole value of money is in exchange. It must be kept moving. But, but--and the whole heart of the teaching is here--be very wary about your exchanges. Invest your money in men, wherever the need may be. All that you invest wisely in men is stored up against any violence or craftiness of thieves and any corroding of rust.
All that is not out in active use directly among men, for men, in Jesus"
name, is in danger of being stolen, or of decaying, or of injuring you, or of being left behind, utterly worthless to you when you are through down here. Be your own executor.
Some years ago one of the religious papers of New York City told of the death of a maiden lady named Elizabeth Pellit. Her home was in the hall-room of a tenement-house, and at her death all her earthly possessions could be put into one common trunk. No executor or administrator was needed. Living in narrow circ.u.mstances, her friends thought she had denied herself all luxuries and even many comforts. But in the forty years of her Christian life she had been able to give over thirty thousand dollars to missionary work. She had supplied the money to send out and sustain one missionary in Salvador, and also for another who was to go out soon. She seemed to have grasped the meaning of the Master"s teaching.
Good common sense comes in for free play here, both in adjusting one"s personal and family schedule and in giving. Giving may be done foolishly, or not wisely. There is no place where there is more room for good sense in avoiding both the extreme of unwise giving and the other extreme of handicapping one"s gifts.
It is a question of personal judgment how far to give money out directly and how far to invest some of it and use the income wholly in gifts. You may think that in some directions you can invest it better, and direct the income better than some organization. That is an important detail. But the chief thing is that the money itself is dedicated wholly for use out among needy men.
Now you will please mark keenly that in all this I am not talking about what I think about money. I am simply putting into plain talk Jesus" own teaching about it, in these four great pa.s.sages.
Missing the Master"s Meaning.
Christian men, generally, seem to have missed the meaning of Jesus" words.
I think it due largely to the lack of teaching in the Church that world-evangelizing is a first obligation.
Recently a fire destroyed the home of a man of large wealth who lives some distance east of San Francisco. It was a beautiful palace, full of art treasures. The value of house and furnishings and the art collection was reckoned at about two million dollars. He is a Christian man, prominently identified with active Christian work, and reckoned a liberal giver. He has visited foreign-mission lands, and made special gifts to missions.
But his gifts to missions seem like a copper cent or a silver quarter given to a beggar in contrast with the two million dollars tied up for himself in the house that burned. Two millions stored up in a home, while many millions of men have lived and died in ignorance of the light and peace that comes with Jesus! Yet this man calls Jesus his Master, and sincerely, I have no doubt. And his Master said the one great thing was to tell all men of His love and death.
By no extension of the meaning of that word "need" could he be said to need a two-million-dollar home for himself and family. And there are other millions under the same man"s control. It looks very much as if this good man had missed the meaning of Jesus" words. The criticism, however, must be first upon the Church and its leaders, with whose general trend of teaching this man is in accord. According to the Master"s teaching, most of the money in his house, and stored up in other ways of the sort for himself, is being lost. Far more serious, the opportunity of investment in men is being lost. That money will be all loss to him when he reaches the line of departure over into the next sphere of life.
It is very difficult to use such an ill.u.s.tration from life. There is danger that the words will sound critical in a bad or unkind sense. I earnestly pray to be kept from that. You will know that I am talking to myself first of all; and speaking of this only to help. The bother is that this man is not an exception. Rather he represents the habit and standard of his generation.
I recall another Christian man as I speak, of large wealth, by inheritance and by dint of business keenness. His face showed plainly his fine Christian character. He gave liberally in many directions, sometimes very large sums. But he lived in a home whose value ran close to a half-million of dollars. When he died, full of years and honors, he left many millions to a son who does not inherit his father"s generous hand with his wealth.
Of course, the son didn"t need the vast wealth.
And I wondered, silently, within my heart, how things looked to that man, as he slipped out of life up into the Master"s presence, and looked down on the earth through the eyes of the One whose teaching we have been talking about. He could see China and India and Africa then as plainly as America.
How did the lost opportunity of laying up his treasure in the lives of men look to him then, I wondered. He was a good man. I saw him smile once, and his face seemed to shine as an angel"s. I think probably no faithful friend had ever talked to him of the plain meaning of Jesus" words, and of world-winning being a first obligation. He hadn"t been taught it from the pulpit. And he hadn"t thought into it himself.
Money Talks.
Many are losing a great opportunity of silently preaching Jesus to their fellows by their habit of giving. Two men were discussing the evidences of the Christian religion. The one was a Christian; the other not, and inclined to be sceptical. Arguments were freely exchanged. At last the sceptic, who was a blunt, out-spoken man, said frankly, to his friend and neighbor: "I think we might as well drop this matter. For I don"t believe a word you say. And, more than that, I am quite satisfied in my own mind that you do not really believe it yourself. For to my certain knowledge you have not given, the last twenty years, as much for the spread of Christianity, such as the building of churches and foreign and domestic missions, as your last Durham cow cost. Why, sir, if I believed what you say you believe I"d make the church my rule for giving, my farm the exception."
That Christian man"s life was contradicting every word he uttered to his neighbor. Money talks. His was talking very loudly to his sceptical neighbor. His neighbor was unusually frank in saying out what thousands are thinking. He had lost a great opportunity of winning his friend.
Debts.
In a simple little sentence Paul reveals how thoroughly he had grasped Jesus" meaning. He said, "I am debtor both to Greeks and barbarians"--to all men.[34] Now that word, "debtor," commonly means two things: that you have received something of value from some one, and that therefore you owe him for what he gave to you.
But Paul hadn"t gotten anything special from the men of whom he is speaking. His birth and training and whatever else he had were Jewish. And the Jews were a minority in the world. He was not under the debtor obligation of having gotten something from the men he is speaking of.
In his use of that word, "debtor" means three things: first, something received from G.o.d, and that something everything; then something owing to G.o.d; and then that something payable to man. He counted himself in debt to all men on Jesus" account. And so are we. How much owest thou to thy Lord? That"s how much you are to pay to men on your Lord"s account.
We are not even our own, much less our goods. We were bought up when we were bankrupt A great price was paid for us, even the life-blood of Jesus.
And our Owner bids us pay up by paying out. We are badly and blessedly in debt; badly, for we can never square the account; blessedly, because we can be constantly paying on account, out to men in Jesus" name.
"Over against the Treasury this day The Master silent sits; whilst, unaware Of that Celestial Presence still and fair, The people pa.s.s or pause upon their way.
And some go laden with His treasures sweet, And dressed in costly robes of His device To cover hearts of stone and souls of ice, Which bear no token to the Master"s feet.
And some pa.s.s, gaily singing, to and fro, And cast a careless gift before His face, Amongst the treasures of the holy place, But kneel to crave no blessing ere they go.
And some are travel-worn, their eyes are dim, They touch His shining vesture as they pa.s.s, But see not--even darkly through a gla.s.s-- How sweet might be their trembling gifts to Him.
And still the hours roll on; serene and fair The Master keeps his watch, but who can tell The thoughts that in His tender spirit swell, As one by one we pa.s.s him unaware?
For this is He who, on one awful day, Cast down for us a price so vast and dread, That He was left for our sakes bare and dead, Having given Himself our mighty debt to pay!
Oh, shall unworthy gifts once more be thrown Into His treasury--by whose death we live?
Or shall we now embrace His cross, and give Ourselves, and all we have, to him alone?"
Is not that the meaning of Paul"s "Owe no man anything, save to love one another."[35] We owe a debt of love to all men on Jesus" account. We can be paying on it continually, and yet never get a receipt in full that discharges the debt. But then we get other things in full--peace, and joy, and a life overflowing in fulness.
With an honorable business man a debt is a first obligation. His personal expenditures and his home schedule are shaped by his debt. The extras that he would feel quite free in allowing himself and his home are not allowed until the debt is cleared. The debt controls his spendings until it is paid off in full. That"s reckoned a matter of honor.
Rusty Money.
James, the first bishop of Jerusalem, had caught the Lord"s very language as well as His thought. He says, "Your gold and silver are rusted, and their rust shall be for a testimony against you."[36] It would seem as though there were quite a bit of rusty money entered in Christian names and controlled by Christian people. It is lying in vaults, and lands, and savings-societies, and old stockings, gathering rust.
It is in sore need. It needs friction, the friction of use. Without that its real, rare value will be completely lost. It is furnishing food for moths when it was meant to be furnishing food for men, bread of wheat and bread of life. There"ll be many a striking scene when some men come up into the Master"s presence with loaded purses, "caught with the goods,"
while millions of their brothers are living such pitiable lives because of their ignorance of Jesus.
But there are men who do understand. And their number is increasing. There are those who understand the Master"s basis for conducting their business matters. That basis is shrewd, faithful management of the business itself as good stewards of G.o.d; full, proper provision for home and loved ones--simple, but ample and intelligent; and then all the rest out in active service for men in Jesus" name. If that basis were more largely understood and accepted, what wondrous changes would come; changes out in the world, and changes in the home, and changes in the home church.
Many men are supporting their own representatives in the foreign field.
Many a church now sustains its own missionary or missionaries. The ideal toward which the Church might well aim is that every family should have its own missionary. The real unit of life is the family. The children would then grow up with the world-vision dearly and deeply marked. There are thousands of families in circ.u.mstances that are reckoned moderate that could support a missionary by planning. But the relationship should be carefully kept one of warm sympathy and prayer, as well as one of money.
The reflex blessing upon the home would be immeasurable in its sweetness and extent.
Are We True To Our Friend"s Trust?