one by one.

The first of them is this, that by our actions here we accumulate
treasure hereafter. 'Laying up in store for themselves' is one word in
the original, and it contains even more than is expressed in our
paraphrase, for it is really 'treasuring off.' And the idea is that the
rich man is bade to take a portion of his worldly goods, and, by using
these for beneficent purposes, out of them to store a treasure beyond
the grave. What is employed thus, and from the right motives and in the
right way, is not squandered, but laid up in store. You remember the old
epitaph,

'What I spent I lost;
What I gave I have.'

Now that is Christ's teaching, for did He not say: 'Sell all that thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven'? Did
He not say: 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, . . . but lay
up treasures in heaven'? And if anybody's theology finds it difficult to
incorporate these solemn teachings of our Lord with the rest of it, so
much the worse for the theology.

I have no doubt at all that Christianity has yet a great deal to teach
the Christian Church and the world about the acquisition of money and
the disposal of money; and, though I do not want to dwell now upon that
specific application of the general principle of my text, I cannot help
reminding you, dear friends, that for a very large number of us, almost
the most important influence shaping our characters is the attitude that
we take in regard to these things--the getting and the distribution of
worldly wealth. For the bulk of Christian people there are few things
more important as sharp tests of the reality of their religion, or more
effective in either ennobling or degrading their whole character, than
what they do about these two plain matters.

But then my text goes a great deal further than that; and whilst it
applies unflinchingly this principle to the one specific case, it
invites us to apply it all round the circumference of our earthly
conduct. What you are doing here is piling up for you, on the other side
of the wall, what you will have to live with, and either get good or
evil out of, through all eternity. A man who is going to Australia pays
some money into a bank here, and when he gets to Melbourne it is
punctually paid out to him across the counter. That is what we are doing
here, lodging money on this side that we are going to draw on that. And
it is this which gives to the