“For the children of this world are wiser in
their generation than the children of light.
Wherefore make unto yourselves friends out of the
mammon of iniquity so that when you die they may receive
you into everlasting dwellings.”
Father Purdon developed the text with resonant assurance.
It was one of the most difficult texts in all the
Scriptures, he said, to interpret properly. It
was a text which might seem to the casual observer
at variance with the lofty morality elsewhere preached
by Jesus Christ. But, he told his hearers, the
text had seemed to him specially adapted for the guidance
of those whose lot it was to lead the life of the
world and who yet wished to lead that life not in the
manner of worldlings. It was a text for business
men and professional men. Jesus Christ with His
divine understanding of every cranny of our human
nature, understood that all men were not called to
the religious life, that by far the vast majority were
forced to live in the world, and, to a certain extent,
for the world: and in this sentence He designed
to give them a word of counsel, setting before them
as exemplars in the religious life those very worshippers
of Mammon who were of all men the least solicitous
in matters religious.
He told his hearers that he was there that evening
for no terrifying, no extravagant purpose; but as
a man of the world speaking to his fellow-men.
He came to speak to business men and he would speak
to them in a businesslike way. If he might use
the metaphor, he said, he was their spiritual accountant;
and he wished each and every one of his hearers to
open his books, the books of his spiritual life, and
see if they tallied accurately with conscience.
Jesus Christ was not a hard taskmaster. He understood
our little failings, understood the weakness of our
poor fallen nature, understood the temptations of
this life. We might have had, we all had from
time to time, our temptations: we might have,
we all had, our failings. But one thing only,
he said, he would ask of his hearers. And that
was: to be straight and manly with God. If
their accounts tallied in every point to say:
“Well, I have verified my accounts. I find
all well.”
But if, as might happen, there were some discrepancies,
to admit the truth, to be frank and say like a man:
“Well, I have looked into my accounts.
I find this wrong and this wrong. But, with God’s
grace, I will rectify this and this. I will set
right my accounts.”
THE DEAD
Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, was literally
run off her feet. Hardly had she brought one
gentleman into the little pantry behind the office
on the ground floor and helped him off with his overcoat
than the wheezy hall-door bell clanged again and she
had to scamper along the bare hallway to let in another
guest. It was well for her she had not to attend
to the ladies also. But Miss Kate and Miss Julia
had thought of that and had converted the bathroom
upstairs into a ladies’ dressing-room. Miss
Kate and Miss Julia were there, gossiping and laughing
and fussing, walking after each other to the head
of the stairs, peering down over the banisters and
calling down to Lily to ask her who had come.
