est the
commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal,
Do not bear false witness, Honor thy father and mother. And he
said, All these things have I observed from my youth up. And when
Jesus heard it, he said unto him, One thing thou lackest yet: sell
all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt
have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. But when he heard
these things, he became exceeding sorrowful; for he was very rich.
And Jesus seeing him said, How hardly shall they that have riches
enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to
enter in through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into
the kingdom of God.--Luke 18:18-25.

A fine young man, of clean and conscientious life, but with unsatisfied
aspirations in his soul. Jesus invites him to a more heroic type of
excellence, cutting loose from his wealth and devoting himself to the
apostolate of the Kingdom of God. It was a great chance for a great life.
He might have stood for God before kings and mobs, and ranked with Peter,
John, and Paul as a household name. He did not rise to his chance. What
held him? Jesus felt it was his wealth. A poor man would have had less to
leave, and might have left it cheerfully. So Jesus sums up the
psychological situation in the saddened exclamation that it is exceedingly
hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom where men live in justice,
fraternity, and idealism.

Have you noticed that in recent years an increasing number of this man's
grandsons are trying to cut loose and find the real life, eternal life?
Can you name any?

Study for the Week

Evidently the dangers connected with property were much in the mind of
Jesus. He seems to have emphasized them more fully and frequently than the
evils of licentiousness or drunkenness. The modern Church has reversed the
relative emphasis. Why?

Of course we must not look for the methods or viewpoints of political
economy in his teachings. His concern was for the spiritual vitality and
soundness of the individual, and for the human relations existing among
men. He was interested in property only in so far as it corrupted the
higher nature or made fraternity difficult. But let no one underestimate
the importance of these considerations. These things are the real end of
life. All the rest is scaffolding. We should be farther along if the
economic and social sciences had kept th