WESLEYAN FOREIGN MISSIONS.*

BY REV. H. J. POPE.

(Ex-President of the Wesleyan Conference.)

"And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?"-LUKE xvi. 12.

THE parable of the unjust steward is admittedly hard to be understood. No other of our Lord's parables has called forth so many and such a variety of comments as this. Yet there is one canon of interpretation which applies to this equally with other parables that the best commentator upon the parables of Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ Himself. And all His teaching of this kind is either introduced by or concludes with some short, terse, pregnant sentences which contain the very gist of the lesson He would have us learn. The words of the text supply the key to the mystery of this parable; they are the solution of its difficulties. What are the difficulties of interpretation which the parable presents? You all felt them as it was read. How very harsh and unusual appear such words as "And the lord commended the unjust steward." What sort of a lord could he have been to do thus? It relieves us to find that it was not our Lord, but the lord of the steward, who commended him for acting wisely, though dishonestly. The fact that he did so simply proves that the master was as bad as the man. There is nothing to choose between them; they stand together on the same low platform of worldly expediency and selfish motive-they are "children of this world," governed by the same principles, actuated by the same motives. Most likely the lord had himself, ere this, defrauded or oppressed his steward. If placed in the same circumstances as his servant, and possessed of the same promptitude and ready wit, he would have done as the steward did. The lord had suffered by the roguery of his servant, but could not withhold a tribute of admiration at this display of the same qualities which he himself possessed.

This explanation removes some of the difficulties, but not all. Our Lord holds up something here as an example for us. What is there shown us in this picture which we may imitate? Not the principles governing the conduct of the unjust steward. They were wholly detestable. But the transaction itself is to be imitated having respect to the relationship between our Master

* A sermon preached, at the Wesleyan Missionary Anniversary, in City Road Chapel, London. The official visit of Mr. Pope to our General Conference will give special interest to this admirable sermon.

and His stewards. Here we have a man, entrusted with the goods of another, so using them as to obtain an advantage for himself. Are there any conceivable circumstances in which we might use goods entrusted to us by another for personal profit? Only under one condition, and that condition exists here. If that other person entrusted us with his property with the express purpose, intent, command so to use it as to get increase for ourselves, then, and only then, would this be right. While there are similarities between the relations of the lord and the steward in the parable and our Lord and His stewards, there are also differences, for the parable teaches by dissimilarities as well as by similarities. The lord entrusted his goods to the steward that he might trade with them for the master's benefit, and the steward's fidelity would consist in so doing. The relation between our Lord and His stewards is the reverse of this. He entrusts us with His goods to be used, not in enriching Him; that is impossible. No conceivable trafficking of ours can increase His wealth. But the use is to be for our own profit. I say unto you"-I who am the Lord of all you possess "make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations." Fidelity to our Lord and Master consists in the wise and constant use of that which He has committed to us so as to receive a welcome for ourselves to everlasting habitations. Faithfulness in that which is least will secure for us that which is much.

I. The further exposition, therefore, of this saying of our Lord's depends on the interpretation put upon two of its phrases: "That which is another man's," and "that which is your own." What are we to understand by these? No sooner do we begin to think about them than we find a great confusion of ideas. There is a very general reversal of the order of truth in the interpretation of these two phrases. What is "your own"? Most people when they contemplate their own fasten at once upon worldly possessions-houses, lands, businesses, accumulations, investments, worldly position, honours in society, dignities achieved. "These are my own," say they, and in this territory they walk, imagining that here they are supreme. But these are the very things which are not your own. Where," say you, "is the man who can successfully question the validity of my title deeds? Who is he that will challenge my right to these things? They were bequeathed by my ancestors, or they have been gotten by my own industry, or accumulated by my thrift. Surely these are my own." And it is of precisely such things as these that Christ speaks when He uses the phrase "that which is another man's."

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But whose are they? Where is the other who can claim proprietorship in them? There is One whose presence fills eternity, in whose hands our breath is, and whose are all our ways. The Lord of Life and Being has endowed us with being and with all we possess. We ourselves are His. The capacities of our being, the possibilities of our nature, everything we have, or are, or may become the sum of our whole being-is His. If so, then surely all these external things, which for a very short while are attached to us, belong to Him also. He penetrates every corner, knows the history of all our possessions. "The silver and the gold are His, and the cattle upon a thousand hills." If I tell the truth as to all the things I "own," I shall say: The Lord Jehovah, all are His. I shall write His name at the head of the capital account. There is indeed Another in the question-the High and Lofty One, who inhabiteth eternity." But you will say, "Oh, yes, we admit all that. That is Theology." Yet there are very few who are influenced by the considerations arising out of this admitted truth.

But there are other men in question. It is not possible to acquire any earthly things of which we can say that we have the absolute proprietorship. Other men have claims and rights in them. We are but trustees for the common good. Our worldly possessions are not "our own." Surely, to-day men are learning that property has its responsibilities as well as its rights, its obligations as well as its privileges. No man has the right to say: "This is for myself, and myself only." He holds for his brethren in general. The solution of the social problems which perplex society lies in the recognition of this great Christian doctrine of trusteeship. Because these things are not our own is no reason for seeking, by an equal division of property, to adjust the rival claims of different classes in society. Nothing could be more absurd or unfaithful. Not in absolute proprietorship, nor by arbitrary divisions, nor by attempted communism, but by the doctrine that all we have we hold as trustees for the good of those by whom we are surrounded, shall we fulfil the Divine purpose in committing to our keeping "that which is another man's." I almost hear you say again, "Yes, we admit all this." But how much unfaithful trusteeship there is, nevertheless.

To bring the truth home to us we must reflect upon the fact that, in the most literal and absolute sense, these worldly things are not our own-they are "another man's." How soon the day will come to all of us when, willingly or reluctantly, we shall be compelled to part with earthly goods. In prospect of that hour we may already ask ourselves, in the words of the prophet,

"Where will ye leave your glory?" It must be left. Where can it be left that we shall ever find it again? Then, when we are confronted with the death summons, whose shall those things be which we have fondly imagined were our own?" What wonderful ingenuity men display in their testamentary arrangements in order to declare whose those things shall be. Alas! how futile their endeavours. Not for long in any case—often not even for a short period-can they say whose those things shall be, but into the hands of another, or of others, all must be surrendered. That inevitable "other man;" how he dogs our footsteps in life, ever following on our track-a few short days or years and he will overtake us. Men cling to their possessions and call them their own, yet after all they are but money-carriers to the gates of death. They will soon wake up from the dream of earthly life, and in the presence of death from their palsied hands will drop the treasure they have grasped, from their shoulders will fall the burden under which they have staggered. Most certainly these things are not "our own." They are "another man's." Ere long that other man will be examining our papers, operating upon our balance at the bank, and dividing our property-perhaps in the manner we should least desire.

"What then is our own? Is there in this fleeting, changeful world anything we can so appropriate that it shall become in very deed and of a truth our own? God in His infinite goodness and mercy through Jesus Christ our Saviour has made it possible for us to become possessed of true riches which shall be our heavenly portion, our eternal inheritance. Nothing external is really our own-not any of the earthly things we acquire and hold but the moral qualities we possess, as the result of dealing with earthly things, these are our own-love of justice, mercifulness, humility, benevolence-these are the patrimony of man, made after the image of God, and in His likeness. Inwoven daily into the very texture of our spiritual being are qualities which become a part of ourselves. God sees not only what we are, but what we may become. He sees the loftiest ideal for every human being, what we might be if the utmost possibilities were reached. This He has willed shall be our own, and has bidden us reach out to and obtain as much of these highest possibilities as we choose. In the formation of character we are acquiring that which shall be ours for ever. The Apostle Paul refers to this in his Epistle to the Corinthians, when he speaks of being clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven, if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked." When our spirits, separated from their earthly tabernacle, pass into

their new sphere, their equipment for their new career will be the dispositions, the affinities, the qualities which they have already made their own. "Clothed with humility as with a garment," clad in vestments of truth, of purity, and of love, they are fitted for the life of heaven. The qualities of our nature will be the vehicle of our communication with the upper world of light and blessedness.

Unhappily, many make their own what God never intended should be theirs. The contrary qualities to those I have mentioned, the carnal, the sensual, even the devilish, may become ours. It is possible for men to become untruthful, unjust, unmerciful; and these qualities, which God never intended should be their own, may be so woven into the texture of their being as to determine the sphere in which they shall move when, clothed with shame, they enter upon their final inheritance of woe.

II. If we thus clearly understand what is "another man's" and what is "our own," then the teaching of the text becomes at once apparent. Only by faithfulness in the use of another's can we become possessed of that which God intended should be ours. By our use of the things of the earth we are obtaining the higher things that appertain to our character and destiny. Possessions in themselves base and carnal may be so employed that out of them we shall secure the spiritual and the heavenly. From the unrighteous mammon we may extract the "true riches "-from that which is least that which is much; from the fleeting treasures of this life the enduring wealth of eternity; from that which is "another man's" that which is "our own."

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All the relations of our life here become thus invested with a vast importance. We cannot afford to despise the earthly; we cannot neglect its proper use, or fail in righteous dealing with it, but we beggar our real selves. Many scarcely reflect that their daily trafficking with worldly matters-their business, their gains, their losses, their ambitions, and their plans-are leaving indelible traces on their spiritual being. The material things they handle will perish in the using, but the noble qualitics—the generosity, the unselfishness, the truthfulness, the mercifulness, the Godlikeness-they have acquired in the sphere of worldly. duty will abide with them for ever. And equally so, on the other hand, when all the cherished schemes, the ill-gotten wealth, and the tarnished honours of the worldy wise man have long since perished, the meanness, the miserliness, the untruthfulness, the injustice, the selfishness, that have come of his dealings with that which was "another man's," will cleave to him, as the leprosy of

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