r; but because it was Thy
doing; and therefore it was done well. It was the deed, not of chance,
not of necessity: for had it been, then those who loved him might have
been excused had they cursed chance, cursed necessity, cursed the day in
which they entered a universe so cruel, so capricious. Not so. For it
was the deed of The Father, without whom a sparrow falls not to the
ground; of The Son, who died upon the Cross in the utterness of His
desire to save; of The Holy Ghost, who is the Lord and Giver of life to
all created things.

It was the deed of One who delights in life and not in death; in bliss
and not in woe; in light and not in darkness; in order and not in
anarchy; in good and not in evil. It had a final cause, a meaning, a
purpose: and that purpose is very good. What it is, we know not: and we
need not know. To guess at it would be indeed to meddle with matters too
high for us. So let us be dumb: but dumb not from despair, but from
faith; dumb not like a wretch weary with calling for help which does not
come, but dumb like a child sitting at its mother's feet; and looking up
into her face, and watching her doings; understanding none of them as
yet, but certain that they all are done in Love.

SERMON XXVI. GOD AND MAMMON.

MATTHEW VI. 24.

Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.

This is part of the Gospel for this Sunday; and a specially fit text for
this day, which happens to be St Matthew's Day.

On this day we commemorate one who made up his mind, once and for all,
that whoever could serve God and money at once, he could not: and who
therefore threw up all his prospects in life--which were those of a
peculiarly lucrative profession, that of a farmer of Roman taxes--in
order to become the wandering disciple of a reputed carpenter's son. He
became, it is true, in due time, an Apostle, an Evangelist, and a Martyr;
and if posthumous fame be worth the ambition of any man, Matthew the
publican--Saint Matthew as we call him--has his share thereof, because he
discovered, like a wise man, that he could not serve God and money; and
therefore, when Jesus saw him sitting at the receipt of custom, and bade
him "Follow Me," he rose up, and left his money-bags, and followed Him,
whom he afterwards discovered to be no less than God made man. "Ye
cannot serve God and Mammon." It is very difficult to make men believe
these words. So difficult, that our Lord Himself could not make the Jews
believe the