spiritual, and a special fickleness and inconsistency must ever characterize the judgment of those who are trying the impossible task of serving both God and Mammon. John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking and men said: " He hath a devil." Christ came eating and drinking and they called Him a glutton — these servers of the two masters. Like the children in the market-place, they are piped to and they will not dance, they are mourned with and they will not weep. Thus is wisdom done justice to by all her children — by contrast, viz., with the folly of the slaves of Mammon and the inconsistency of the servants of the two masters, and directly, in .the consistency of the lives of her own, the servants of God, the children of light. For these last hold the world at its true worth. They are deeply imbued with the responsibilities of their stewardship, and seeing things with the eyes of God, they value and use the things of earth for their one legitimate object, the glory of God and the spiritual betterment of themselves and of their neighbors. It is thus that the Mammon of iniquity can and should be employed to secure for ourselves friends here and hereafter. Even as Jacob sent ahead rich presents to appease the wrath of his brother Esau, so should we devote our earthly possessions to the enrichment of heaven with souls saved, that when our own time shall have come they may receive us into everlasting dwellings.
Brethren, St. John Damascene in his history of Barlaam and Josaphat gives us a parable which has all the point of that of the unjust steward, with none
