s he do, then, in his need? He does justice to his lord's
debtors. He tells them what their debts really are. He sets their
accounts right. Instead of charging the first man a hundred, he
charges him fifty; instead of charging the second a hundred, he
charges him eighty; and he does not, as far as we are told, conceal
this conduct from his lord. He rights them as far as he can now.
So he shews that he honestly repents. He has found out that honesty
is the best policy; that the way to make true friends is to deal
justly by them; and, if he cannot restore what he has taken from
them already (for I suppose he had spent it), at least to confess
his sin to them, and to set the matter right for the time to come.

This, I think, is what our Lord bids us do, if we have wronged any
man, and fouled our hands with the unrighteous mammon, that is, with
ill-gotten wealth. And I think so all the more from the verses
which come after. For, when he has said, 'Make yourselves friends
of the mammon of unrighteousness,' he goes on in the very next verse
to say, 'He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful
also in that which is much. If, therefore, ye have not been
faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust
the true riches?' Now, surely, this must have something to do with
what goes before. And, if it has, what can it mean but this--that
the way to make friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness, is to
be faithful in it, just in it, honest in it?

But some one may say, If mammon be unrighteous, how can a man be
righteous and upright in dealing with it? If money be a bad thing
in itself, how can a man meddle with it with clean hands?

So some people will say, and so some will be glad to say. But why?
Because they do not want to be righteous, upright, just, and honest
in their money dealings; and, therefore, they are glad to make out
that they could not be upright if they tried; because money being a
bad thing altogether, a man must needs, if he has to do with money,
do things which he knows are wrong. I say some people are glad to
believe that. I do not mean any one in this congregation. God
forbid! I mean in the world in general. We do see people,
religious people too, do things about money which they know are
mean, covetous, cruel, and then excuse themselves by saying,--'Well,
of course I would not do so to my own brother; but, in the way of
business, one can't help doing these thi