m, especially the rich and comfortable religious people among
them. When He told them that they could not serve two masters; that they
could not worship God and money at the same time, the Pharisees, who were
covetous, derided Him. They laughed to scorn the notion that they could
not be very religious, and respectable, and so forth, and yet set their
hearts on making money all the while. They thought that they could have
their treasure on earth and in heaven also; and they went their way, in
spite of our Lord's warnings; and made money, honestly no doubt, if they
could, but if not, why then dishonestly; for money must be made, at all
risks.

St Paul warned them, by his disciple Timothy, of their danger. He told
them that the love of money is the root of all evil; and that those who
will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and
hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

St James warned them even more sternly; and told the rich men among the
Jews of his day to weep and howl for the miseries which were coming on
them. They had heaped up treasure for the last days, when it would be of
no use to them. They were fattening their hearts--he told them--against
a day of slaughter.

But they listened to St Paul and St James no more than they did to our
Lord. After the fall of Jerusalem, even more than before, they became
the money-makers and the money-lenders of the whole world. And what
befel them? Their wealth stirred up the envy and the suspicion of the
Gentiles. They were persecuted, robbed, slaughtered, again and again for
the sake of their money. And yet they would not give up their ruinous
passion. Throughout all the middle ages, here in England, just as much
as on the Continent, they lent money at exorbitant interest; and then
their debtors, to escape payment, turned on them for not being
Christians; accused them of poisoning the wells, and what not; massacred
them, burnt them alive, and committed the most horrible atrocities;
fulfilling the warnings of our Lord and His Apostles, only too terribly
and brutally, again and again.

Do I say this to make any man dislike or despise the Jews? God forbid.
The Jews have noble qualities in them, by which they have prospered, and
for the sake of which--as I believe--God's blessing rests on them to this
day. They have prospered: not by their love of money, not even by their
extraordinary courage, persistence, and intellec