parable is a very simple one indeed, that in the unjust steward's false sense of security and sudden embarrassment and cunning method of providing for the future, Our Lord teaches us to employ in gaining heaven by means of our temporal possessions, if not greater, at least as great prudence as is exhibited by worldlings in their provision for the day of adversity or for their declining years. For the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.
First of all, then, we have to consider the utter lack of solicitude which characterized the unfaithful steward. His rich master, trusting him implicitly, had left the administration of the estate so entirely in his hands that the sense of stewardship had gradually given way to a proprietary feeling. How true that is to Nature I You have noticed, no doubt, with what easy carelessness bank cashiers and managers of large concerns handle immense sums of money, and from the sad details of court proceedings all of us have learned how easily conscience becomes blunted with usage and how often the coin sticks to the fingers through which it passes. An Italian proverb has it that no great river was ever yet without its muddy water. Nor is this true alone of the business world; it is verified also in the greater universe of men and things. The Lord's is the earth and the fulness thereof, and men are but the managers of His vast estate. The world is like a great and beautiful mansion, with its lofty blue ceilings and its brilliant lights and its carpets of velvety green and
