I. What our Lord means by this faithfulness to which He attaches
such tremendous issues.
Now, you will remember, that the starting point of my text is that
parable of the unjust steward, whose conduct, knavish as it was, is
in some sense presented by our Lord to His disciples, and to us, as
a pattern. But my text, and the other two verses which are parallel
with it, seem to have amongst their other purposes this: to put in a
caveat against supposing that it is the unfaithfulness of the
steward which is recommended for our imitation. And so the first
point that is suggested in regard to this matter of faithfulness
about the handling of outward good is that we have to take care that
it is rightly acquired, for though the unjust steward was commended
for the prudent use that he made of dishonestly acquired gain, it is
the prudent use, and not the manner of the acquisition which we are
to take as our examples. Initial unfaithfulness in acquisition is
not condoned or covered over by any pious and benevolent use
hereafter. Mediaeval barons left money for masses. Plenty of
Protestants do exactly the same thing. Brewers will build
cathedrals, and found picture galleries, and men that have made
their money foully will fancy that they atone for that by leaving it
for some charitable purpose. The caustic but true wit of a Scottish
judge said about a great bequest which was supposed to be--whether
rightly or wrongly, I know not--of that sort, that it was 'the
heaviest fire insurance premium that had been paid in the memory of
man.' 'The money does not stink,' said the Roman Emperor, about the
proceeds of an unsavoury tax. But the money unfaithfully won does
stink when it is thrown into God's treasury. 'The price of a dog
shall not come into the sanctuary of the Lord.' Do not think that
money doubtfully won is consecrated by being piously spent.
But there are more things than that here, for our Lord sums up the
whole of a Christian man's duties in regard to the use of this
external world and all its good, in that one word 'faithful,' which
implies discharge of responsibility, recognition of obligation, the
continual consciousness that we are not proprietors but stewards.
Unless we carry that consciousness with us into all the phases of
our connection with perishable goods they become--as I shall have to
show you in a moment,--hindrances instead of helps to our possession
of God.
I am not going to talk revolutionary socialism, or anything of that
sort, but I am bound to reiterate my own solemn conviction that
until, practically as well as theoretically, the Christian Church in
all its branches brings into its creed, and brings out in its
practice, the great thought of stewardship, especially in regard to
material and external good, but also in regard to the durable riches
of salvation, the nations will be full of unrest, and thunder-clouds
heavily boding storm and destruction will lower on the horizon. What
we have, we have that we may impart; what we have in all forms of
having, we have because we have received. We are distributing
centres, that is all--I was going to say like a nozzle, perforated
with many holes, at the end of the spout of a watering-can. That is
a Christian man's relation to his possessions. We are stewards.
'It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful'