was familiar with the customs and
the costumes of fashionable society, as we find in that chapter where
he openly rebukes the showy extravagance of the idle rich. He was well
educated--he had that literary skill which comes only to those who are
well trained. In all the Old Testament you will find nothing finer
than the sweep and finish of some of this young prophet's public
utterances. He was one to whom five talents had been given where other
men were struggling along with one apiece. He therefore owed to
society what might be called the debt of privilege. It is a fixed
charge upon the lives of those who sit above the salt. It has a right
to insist upon full payment. "To whom much is given, of him will much
be required."

It is for every man to ask himself: "How much do I eat up in my
generous mode of life? How much in food and dress, in housing and
furnishing, in motor cars and yachts, in travel and in recreation? How
much do I consume in those provisions which I make for a wider culture
through books, pictures, music and the like?" What is your average
intake of this world's good things? That measure of consumption will
indicate the measure of your responsibility. If you are born to the
purple and fare sumptuously in all these ways then the world has a
right to demand that you shall render back in corresponding measure
that useful service which is your plain duty.

In that effective cartoon which Jesus drew of the Rich Man and Lazarus,
it was the unpaid debt of privilege which brought about the loss of a
soul. Jesus showed the two men in this world, one of them living in a
palace, clothed with purple and fine linen, faring sumptuously every
day; the other in rags dying at the Rich Man's gate, hungry and full of
sores. Then Jesus showed the two men in the next world, Lazarus the
beggar now in Abraham's bosom, and the son of good fortune enduring
torment.

There is no hint that the Rich Man had gained a penny of his wealth
wrongfully; no charge of lying or theft, of murder or adultery is laid
at his door. He was damned not by the wicked things he had done, but
for the lack of that generous and humane service which he had left
undone. His sin was that of selfish indifference. The way to
perdition is paved with moral neglect. The debt of privilege can no
more be escaped than death or taxes. To whom much is given, of him
will much be required. And a full sense of that responsibility was
brought h