es,
the fault is their own. It is proved by obvious facts that worldly
possessions may be placed between you and temptation, as cotton
bales and sand bags may be employed to ward off cannon shot from
stone walls. They are capable of being turned to some account in
advancing our eternal interests; for our inheritance in heaven, the
world is useful, if it is rightly used.

Could it be truly said of any who are lost that the mammon of
unrighteousness brought them to the place of woe? or, conversely could
it be truly said of any who now stand round the throne in white, that
the mammon of unrighteousness became the friend who introduced them to
that everlasting habitation? I reply, this mammon is not and cannot be a
cause either of being saved or being lost; but it, as well as all other
things in time, may become instruments in the saving or destroying of a
soul, according as it is wisely used or foolishly abused. For example,
in the next parable, it was sin and not wealth that ruined the rich man;
many richer men than he have walked with God on earth, and entered rest
when they departed. Wealth was not his destroyer, yet he so used his
wealth as to permit the wicked one to bind his soul with it as with
chains over to the second death. On the other hand, it was neither the
poverty nor the sores of Lazarus, nor both together, that saved him;
many as destitute of money and as full of sores as he are never saved.
Christ was this man's Saviour,--Christ alone; yet, his poverty became in
God's hands, and through his servant's faith, the instrument of
shielding him from temptation and purging his dross away. In the same
subordinate and instrumental sense in which the rich man's wealth was
his ruin, the poverty of the poor man saved him. But these results are
not uniform--are not necessary; they may be--they often are reversed.
The wealth of a rich man may help him heavenward, and the poverty of a
poor man may press him down toward the pit. The cardinal point of the
parable is, employ the mammon of unrighteousness--this world's affairs
all, with forethought, skill, decision, and energy, to further your own
salvation; turn all to account for the gain of godliness.

A ship leaves our shores bound westward to an Atlantic port: the wind,
being from the north, beats on her right side all the way. She makes a
quick voyage and reaches her destination in safety. Another ship at
another time leaves these shores for the same dest