of which it is written: "If a man know not how to rule his own house,
how shall he take care of the Church of God?" And again, "If any provide
not for his own and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied
the faith, and is worse than an infidel." Our first duty, I say, as
Christian men, is to be just and honest in money matters and every-day
business; and over and above that, to be generous and liberal therein.
Not merely to pay--which the very publicans in our Lord's time did--but
to give, generously, liberally; lending, if we can afford it, as our Lord
bids us, hoping for nothing again; and remembering that he who giveth to
the poor lendeth to the Lord, and whatsoever he layeth out, it shall be
repaid him again.

Yes, my friends, we must all needs take our Lord's advice--make to
yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail,
they may receive you into everlasting habitations. WHEN YE FAIL--
literally, when you are eclipsed, as the sun is eclipsed. That must
happen to all of us, to the best, the wisest, the most famous. Each must
be eclipsed, and passed in the race of life, and forgotten for some
younger man. Each in turn must fail. One may fail in money--the mammon
for which he toiled may take to itself wings and fly away; or he may fail
in his plans, noble plans, and useful though they seemed; and he may
find, as he grows old, that the world has not gone HIS way, but quite
another one; or he may fail in health, and be cut down and crippled, and
laid by in the midst of his work. And even if he escapes all these
disasters, he must needs fail at last, by mere old age, when the days
come "when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;" when the sun and
the light are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain, when the
strong men bow themselves, and those who look out of the windows are
dark; and he shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and fears shall be in
the way, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: