e will find that they will be added
as well.

Those who would discredit the morality of the Gospel would have one
believe that our Saviour in dealing with shrewd, homely, literal folk
was careful to promise substantial future rewards for any worldly
sacrifices they might make; but not so can I read the Gospel. Our
Saviour does undoubtedly say plainly that we shall find it worth our
while to escape from the burdens and anxieties of wealth, but the
reward promised seems rather to be a lightness and contentment of
spirit, and a freedom from heavy and unnecessary bonds.

In our complicated civilisation it is far more difficult to say what
simplicity of life is. It is certainly not that expensive and dramatic
simplicity which is sometimes contrived by people of wealth as a
pleasant contrast to elaborate living. I remember the son of a very
wealthy man, who had a great mansion in the country and a large house
in London, telling me that his family circle were never so entirely
happy as when they were living at close quarters in a small Scotch
shooting-lodge, where their life was comparatively rough, and luxuries
unattainable. But I gathered that the main delight of such a period was
the sense of laying up a stock of health and freshness for the more
luxurious life which intervened. The Anglo-Saxon naturally loves a kind
of feudal dignity; he likes a great house, a crowd of servants and
dependants, the impression of power and influence which it all gives;
and the delights of ostentation, of having handsome things which one
does not use and indeed hardly ever sees, of knowing that others are
eating and drinking at one's expense, which is a thing far removed from
hospitality, are dear to the temperament of our race. We may say at
once that this is fatal to any simplicity of life; it may be that we
cannot expect anyone who is born to such splendours deliberately to
forego them; but I am sure of this, that a rich man, now and here, who
spontaneously parted with his wealth, and lived sparely in a small
house, would make perhaps as powerful an appeal to the imagination of
the English world as could well be made. If a man had a message to
deliver, there could be no better way of emphasizing it. It must not be
a mere flight from the anxiety of worldly life into a more congenial
seclusion. It should be done as Francis of Assisi did it, by continuing
to live the life of the world without any of its normal conveniences.
Patent and visib