sterious and mighty word on his own side of a
family quarrel. If that word, he thought within himself, were exerted in
my behalf, it would induce my brother to give to me the half or the
third of the paternal estate, which I claim as my right.

We cannot cast the first stone at this poor simpleton, who had no other
use for the Redeemer's word than to gain by means of it a few more acres
of the earth for himself: in every age, some men may be found who hang
on the skirts of the Church for the sake of some immediate temporal
benefit. Nor is it difficult to understand the phenomenon: "No man can
serve two masters;" practically each chooses one, and in the main serves
him faithfully. If Christ is chosen as Lord and Master, Mammon and all
other things are compelled to serve: if Mammon is chosen and seated on
the throne, he will not scruple to lay heaven and earth under
contribution for the advancement of his designs;--Mammon, when master,
will take even the word of Christ and employ it as an instrument
wherewith he may rake his rags together.

How simple and helpless is the man who has allowed wealth to become his
chief good! Here is an example of ungodly simplicity. Without any
apprehension of a reproof from the Lord or his disciples, the poor man
betrays all: in the public assembly he unwittingly turns his own heart
inside out. Instead of addressing to the preacher the question, What
must I do to be saved? showing that the truth had taken effect on his
conscience, he preferred a request regarding a disputed property,
showing that while the words of Jesus fell on his ears, his heart was
going after its covetousness. He attended to the sermon for the purpose
of watching when it should be done, that he might then do a stroke of
business.

We must not too complacently congratulate ourselves on our superior
privileges and more reverent habits. If those who wait upon the ministry
of the word in our day were as simple as this man was, some requests
savouring as much of the earth as his would be preferred at the close
of the solemnity. If human breasts were transparent, and the thoughts
that throng them patent to the public gaze, many heads would hang down.

From this untimely and intensely earthly interruption the parable
springs: thus the Lord makes the covetousness as well as the wrath of
man to praise him, and restrains the remainder thereof. A fissure has
been made in the mountain by some pent-up internal fire that forced