Quiet Talks with World Winners Part 23

"Oh, if our ears were opened To hear as angels do The Intercession-chorus Arising full and true, We should hear it soft up-welling In morning's pearly light; Through evening's shadows swelling In grandly gathering might; The sultry silence filling Of noontide's thunderous blow, And the solemn starlight thrilling With ever-deepening flow.

"We should hear it through the rus.h.i.+ng Of the city's restless roar, And trace its gentle gus.h.i.+ng O'er ocean's crystal floor; We should hear it far up-floating Beneath the Orient moon, And catch the golden noting From the busy Western noon; And pine-robed heights would echo As the mystic chant up-floats, And the sunny plain resounds again With the myriad mingling notes.

"There are hands too often weary With the business of the day, With G.o.d-entrusted duties, Who are toiling while they pray.

They bear the golden vials, And the golden harps of praise, Through all the daily trials, Through all the dusty ways.

These hands, so tired, so faithful, With odors sweet are filled, And in the ministry of prayer Are wonderfully skilled.

"There are n.o.ble Christian workers, The men of faith and power, The overcoming wrestlers Of many a midnight hour; Prevailing princes with their G.o.d, Who will not be denied, Who bring down showers of blessing To swell the rising tide.

The Prince of Darkness quaileth At their triumphant way, Their fervent prayer availeth To sap his subtle sway.

"And evermore the Father Sends radiantly down All-marvellous responses, His ministers to crown; The incense cloud returning As golden blessing-showers, We in each drop discerning Some feeble prayer of ours, Trans.m.u.ted into wealth unpriced, By Him who giveth thus The glory all to Jesus Christ, The gladness all to us!"[29]

Money

Limitations.

The Best Partners.h.i.+p.

Jesus' Teaching.

Be Your Own Executor.

Missing the Master's Meaning.

Money Talks.

Debts.

Rusty Money.

Are We True to Our Friend's Trust?

Money

Limitations.

Money seems almost almighty in its power to do things, and make changes.

It can make a desert blossom as a rose. It can even defy death. Medical skill holds the life here that otherwise would have been snuffed out.

Great buildings go up. Colleges begin their life with apparatus and books, skilled instructors, and eager students. Mammoth enterprises spring into being. Hospitals and churches rise up with skilled attendants and talented preachers.

We have come, in our day, and perhaps peculiarly in our country, to think that there is no limit to the power of money. Our ideas of its value are really greatly exaggerated. That first sentence I used would be revised by many to read, "Money is almighty." The cautious words "seems" and "almost"

would be promptly cut out.

Yet money has great limitations. It will help greatly to remember what they are. And many of us need the brain-clearing of that help. Of itself money is utterly useless, so much dead-weight stuff lying useless and helpless. It must have human hands to make it valuable. It gets its value from our conception of its value and from our use of it. It must have a human partner to be of any service at all.

In bad hands it becomes devilish in its badness. And I needn't put an "almost" in that sentence. It may be as a very demon, or as the arch-devil himself, as really as it may seem to be divine in its creative and changing power.

Then it is valuable only in this world, on the earth. At the line of death its value wholly ceases. Over that line it takes its place as a pauper. It is represented as being used for cobble stones in the streets of the new Jerusalem. Yet it would need to go through some hardening process to make it of any account at all as paving material.

We ought to remind ourselves of something else, too, that the crowd constantly forgets, and that we are tempted to forget when touched by the contagion of the crowd. And that is, that money is always less in its power than a strong, sweet, pure life. Maybe you think that comparison can't properly be made. You say that things so unlike can't be compared.

But, whether consciously or intentionally or otherwise, that comparison is being made constantly in practical life, and most times to the advantage of money. Commonly the crowd reckons money more than character.

We do well to remind ourselves that its influence for good is always distinctly less than that of a life. To live a life pure and strong and wholesome in its ideals out among men is more than to be able to give money in any amount. To keep one's life up to such ideals in the heartless drive and compet.i.tion of modern life means more than to extract large quant.i.ties of gold out of the mine of barter and trade, and to give some of it away.

And money is less than personal service. Great deference is paid to checks and subscriptions. The man who can draw a large check for some good object, and who may by dint of much dexterous handling be induced to write his name under some large figure, is treated with awe. But there's another man who stands higher up in the scale, and to whom hats should go farther off and more quickly. That is the strong man who gives personal service.

There may be a blessed partners.h.i.+p between the man of money and the man of service. There often is. But he is an unfortunate man, to be pitied, who lets anything else crowd out of his life the privilege of giving some of his self out in personal service for others. These are some of gold's limitations.

The Best Partners.h.i.+p.

Give money good partners, and there is no end to what it can do. Let prayer and sacrifice and money form a life-partners.h.i.+p, and that first sentence can be revised, and greatly strengthened by the revision: Money is almost almighty. It gets all the good qualities of its partners as long as it stays in the partners.h.i.+p, on good working terms.

It isn't the head of the firm, however. Prayer belongs in that place. It must direct. It is the prayer's touch with G.o.d that hallows the gold and gives to it some of G.o.d's omnipotence. Money is the working partner, best when hard at work, and famous for the amount of work it can do in obeying orders from the head of the house.

It gives a strange sense of awe to realize that the bit of money you hold in your hand can be used to change a life, aye, more, to change many lives. That money is yours to control. It came to you in exchange for your labor or your skill. It is yours, for the sweat of your brow or your brain is upon it. And now it can be sent out, and the result will be a life utterly changed, purified, and redeemed.

Through your partners.h.i.+p the money produces something greater than itself.

And that changed life becomes the centre of a new power, changing other lives out to the far rim of an ever-widening circle. It may have cost you much. Some of your very life has gone out in the work that brought into your hands that bit of gold. It is red with your blood. And now, if you choose, it can be sent out and made to bring new life in to some one else.

Life has gone from you in getting it, and life will come to another in your giving it out, under the blessed Master's trans.m.u.ting touch.

Jesus' Teaching.

Jesus' teaching about money is startling. I mean that it stands in such utter contrast to the commonly accepted standards out in the world, and inside in the Church, that the contrast startles one sharply.

There are four pa.s.sages in which His money teachings group, largely.

There's the "Lay-not-up-for-yourselves-treasure-upon-the-earth" bit in the sermon on the Mount;[30] with the still stronger phrase in the Luke parallel, "Sell that ye have, and give."[31] There is the incident of the earnest young man who was rich;[32] the parable of the wealthy farmer in Luke, twelfth chapter;[33] and the whole sixteenth chapter of Luke, with that great ninth verse, whose full meaning has been so little grasped. The truth taught in each of these is practically the same thing.

The Master is evidently talking about what a man has over and above his personal and family needs. It's a law of life, from Eden on, that a man should work to supply his daily needs and the needs of those dependent upon him. Just how much that word "needs" means each man settles for himself. It means different things at different times to the same man.

It is surprising how little it can be made to mean when the pinch comes, and yet a man have all actual necessities supplied. The man who would have his life count for most for the Master, and the Master's plan, thinks over that word prayerfully and sensibly with full regard to personal strength, and loved ones, and the future. Whatever it may be made to mean, this teaching is plainly about what is left over after the needs are met.

Now, about that left-over amount the Master gives three easily understood rules, or bits of advice, or commands. First: Don't treasure it up for the sake of having it. If you do it is in danger, and you are in danger.

It may be stolen. Every vault, and safe, and safety-deposit company, and lock, and key backs up that statement. Or it may be lost through rust or moths, the two things that threaten all inactivity. The stuff that isn't in use wears away. The wear of use can't compare with the wear of disuse or neglect.

Then you are in danger of your heart being affected. It will be wherever your treasure is. It may get locked up, and so dried up for lack of air or poisoned by bad air. The blood must have fresh air. The heart must have touch with men to keep its vigor. It may get all dried up with things, instead of keeping vigorous by touch with needy men. That's the twofold danger. That's the first thing Jesus says: Don't store it up, down here, in the ordinary way.

The second thing is this: Store your surplus up. Be careful of it. Keep strict tally. Let the books be well kept and balanced. Let no thoughtlessness nor carelessness nor thriftlessness get in. Store it up.

But be careful where you store it. Keep it carefully guarded against the action of thieves and moths, and against the inaction of decaying, destroying rust. That is the second thing. Store it up carefully.