The fact is thrift is a virtue which shows strength of character. It takes self-control to save money instead of spending it. As Peabody wisely says, "The saving of money is to be encouraged not merely for the making of money, but quite as much for the making of character. The reckless spender loses not only money but selfcontrol."

The danger of covetousness. On the other hand, Jesus was afraid his friends would think altogether too much of money. Frequently he warned them about the dangers of riches:

How difficult it is for men who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!-Mark 10: 24.

He condemned the Pharisees because they were lovers of money, and when two stingy brothers quarreled over their father's property, he refused to act as their umpire and gave them this sound advice:

Man, who made me an umpire or divider over you? Watch out and be on your guard against covetousness, for a man's real life is not made up of the surplus things that he possesses.-Luke 12:14.

Life is far more than property. Mere things never yet made any one permanently happy. There are many rich poor men and many poor rich men who will agree that the truest happiness has little or nothing to do with money anyway. Yet think of the mad scramble for gold, in which thousands of foolish, covetous people breathlessly compete year after year! Such people forget that money is a good servant but a cruel master.

The rich farmer whom God called a fool. To teach his friends the foolishness of trusting in wealth for happiness, Jesus told them this story:

A certain rich man had a very fertile farm, and he debated in his mind saying: "What am I to do? For I haven't room to store my crops."

Then he said to himself: “This is what I'll do. I'll pull down my storehouses and build bigger ones, and in them I'll store all my harvest and my good things. And I'll say to my self: 'Soul, you have many good things laid by for many a year. Take your ease, eat, drink and enjoy yourself.""

But God said to him: "You poor fool! This very night your soul is demanded of you. Then all these preparations-whose shall they be?"

So it is when a man amasses treasures selfishly, but has no treasure in heaven.

How utterly selfish this rich farmer was! Hear him congratulate himself about "My crops,

my storeHe

houses, . . . my harvest, . . . my good things.' ... never dreamed of using any of his wealth for others. His one idea was to hoard his wealth, to make it safe, so he might be selfishly happy for years and years to come. His whole vision of a satisfying life was just to be lazy, to take his ease, and eat and drink and enjoy himself.

What a fool he was! He had everything invested in those barns, and not a bit of wealth in heaven. No wonder God thought he had lived long enough. It was too late for such a man to learn that, after all, a man does not really own his wealth at all. God just lets him have a life-lease of it. Then, after a few brief years, he has to leave it all behind him, for others to spend or share. That rich farmer in the story, who hoarded his wealth merely for his own selfish comfort, was really as poor as a man could be that night, when his naked soul went to meet his God-very likely like Nabal (an Old Testament fool) in the midst of a drunken revel.

Investments and character. It is a striking fact that our characters are influenced by what we "take stock in." The kind of investments we make has much to do with the sort of characters we become. Have you noticed how interested you have become in the Belgians and the Armenians, since you invested in the Belgian and the Near East Relief funds? If we invest in banks, steel, silk, copper, coal, the Red Cross, or Near East Relief, we soon become deeply interested in banking, steel production, silk processes or Belgian orphans, as the case may be. Jesus explains the reason:

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.-Matthew 6:21.

That is why he warned his friends not to hoard their wealth in earthly storehouses, like the foolish rich man, but

Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths or rust cannot destroy them, and where thieves do not break in to steal.

His advice against hoarding wealth on earth does not contradict his advice in the parable of the talents. There he both approves of investments and again condemns mere useless hoarding. Clearly, his teaching is that wealth should be made useful here on earth, and the spiritual riches of character permanently useful in the life that shall never end. All material wealth, at best, must be short-lived. Only what we give, do we truly keep. Trusteeship: Jesus' ideal of consecrating wealth. In Luke's description of the early Christian colony in Jerusalem, in the book of the Acts, we read,

Not one of them claimed that any of the things he possessed was his own.-Acts 4:32.

Though Jesus never taught communism, he did teach the following about the ownership of property, which is a very high ideal:

Whoever of you does not renounce all that he has, cannot be my disciple.-Luke 14:33.

The word translated "renounce" means "detach himself from." By this Jesus seems to teach that no true Christian can claim absolute ownership of his property, with no moral duty involved. He must hold it all as in trust from God. This is the clear teaching of the parable of the pounds, in Luke 19: 12-, where he describes a certain nobleman intrusting his servants with different sums and expecting them to use this wealth for him.

Now, this does not mean that we must give away all our wealth, unless, like the rich young ruler, we find it is strangling our generosity and becoming our tyrant. It simply means that we shall consecrate our wealth, all that we have and are, by considering ourselves God's trustees, and then using it all as his Spirit may guide us. Our own personal and family needs will take a fair share of it, and the Golden Rule will guide us for the rest. Jesus never emphasized tithing, but many Christians have found it helpful to set aside systematically a definite proportion of their income for the year, to be given to worthy causes. This proportion may vary from time to time, "as God has prospered you," and should certainly vary with the needs and responsibilities of different homes.

Some consecrated fortunes.-Jesus' high praise of the poor widow who gave her all, though it happened to be only a farthing, has taught us to reckon generosity not so much by what a person gives as by what he has

left. Yet it is splendid to see the surprising number of truly consecrated fortunes that are being shared with the world these days, by wealthy Christians who frankly regard themselves only as God's trustees. All manner of human needs are being generously served by noble men and women of large means. The Sage Foundation is a typical case. It was founded with a ten-million-dollar gift by Mrs. Russell Sage, "for the improvement of the social and living conditions in the United States." There are several other similar foundations with even larger capital, notably the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations, largely for educational purposes, but all serving society at large in the broadest possible ways.

A beautifully simple gift in the truly Christian spirit was recently given to the University of Minnesota by the justly famous surgeons of Rochester, Minnesota, the two Mayo brothers. When they gave two million dollars of their earnings to be used for advanced medical education and research, they sent this simple message: "We never regarded this money as ours. It came from the people, and we believe, my brother and myself, that it should go back to the people. That was our father's attitude in life." This is a noble conception of the responsibility of wealth. Such gifts show how deeply the ideals of Jesus about the use of money are getting into our modern life. How generally this is getting to be true we discover in the popular success of the "community chest" plan in many of our cities. For instance, in Cleveland, where the plan of a unified budget for charities originated, we find that no less than 310,271 individuals contributed the total of $3,820,017.13 subscribed for the "Cleveland Community Fund" for 1922. This fund will pay the operating expenses of the city's 110 Social and charitable agencies that express the good will of these many thou