Not you _without_ yours, still less yours without you. This is no place,
nor is the fag end of a sermon the time, to talk about so wide a subject
as the ethics of Christian dealing with money. But two things I will
say--consecration of self is extremely imperfect which does not include
the consecration of possessions, and, conversely, consecration of
possessions which does not flow from, and is not accompanied by, the
consecration of self, is nought.
If, then, the great law of self-surrender is to run through the whole
Christian life, that law, as applied to our dealing with what we own,
prescribes three things. The first is _stewardship_, not ownership; and
that all round the circumference of our possessions. Depend upon it, the
angry things that we hear to-day about the unequal distribution of
wealth will get angrier and angrier, and will be largely justified in
becoming so by the fact that so many of us, _Christians included_, have
firmly grasped the notion of possession, and utterly forgotten the
obligation of stewardship.
Again, the law of self-surrender, in its application to all that we
have, involves our continual reference to Jesus Christ in our
disposition of these our possessions. I draw no line of distinction, in
this respect, between what a man spends upon himself, and what he spends
upon 'charity,' and what he spends upon religious objects. _One_
principle is to govern, getting, hoarding, giving, enjoying, and that
is, that in it all Christ shall be Master.
Again, the law of self-surrender, in its application to our possessions,
implies that there shall be an element of sacrifice in our use of these;
whether they be possessions of intellect, of acquirement, of influence,
of position, or of material wealth. The law of help is sacrifice, and
the law for a Christian man is that he shall not offer unto the Lord his
God that which costs him nothing.
So, dear friends, let us all get near to that great central fire till it
melts our hearts. Let the love which is our hope be our pattern.
Remember that though only faintly, and from afar, can the issues of
Christ's great sacrifice be reproduced in any actions of ours, the
spirit which brought Him to die is the spirit which must instruct and
inspire us to live. Unless we can say, 'He loved me, and gave Himself
for me; I yield myself to Him'; and unless our lives confirm the
utterance, we have little right to call ourselves His disciples.