he is by what he says. He may
speak high sentiments to which his heart is a stranger. Nor can you
tell him by what he does. He may "do his alms" simply to be seen of
men. But if you can get in behind the scenes and see him think, then
you will know him. Tell me, man, what you think within yourself and I
will tell you what you are. For, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so
is he."

Now, what did this man think? "He thought within himself, saying, What
shall _I_ do for _I_ have no room where to bestow _My_ goods and _My_
fruits? And he said, This will _I_ do. _I_ will pull down _My_ barns
and build greater, and there will _I_ bestow all _My_ goods and _My_
fruits." Now we see him. When he thought, he had not one single
thought of God. God was as completely ignored as if He had no
existence at all. This was the very fountain source of his
foolishness. He reckoned without God, and the man who reckons without
God is a fool.

Look now how this fatal foolishness casts its blight over his entire
character. Reckoning without God, of course, he has no sense of Divine
ownership. Quite naturally, therefore, he thinks because he possesses
a farm, he owns a farm. Possession and ownership mean exactly the same
thing to a man who begins by ignoring God. When you hear this man talk
you find that the only pronouns he has in his vocabulary are "I," "My"
and "Mine." He knows only the grammar of atheism. He is acquainted
only with the vocabulary of the fool. "His" and "Ours" and "Yours" are
not found in the fool's vocabulary.

Faith, on the other hand, makes large use of the word "His." It
recognizes the fact that "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof." It believes in the big truth: "Ye are not your own. You are
bought with a price." Faith, taking God into consideration, wisely
reckons that you are His and that all that you possess is His. It does
not concede to you the ownership of anything. And for any man anywhere
to-day to claim that because he possesses a farm or a bank or a brain,
that, therefore, he owns it is to talk not the language of a wise man
but the language of a fool.

This farmer's reckoning without God not only led him to confuse
possession and ownership. It also robbed him of his gratitude. Crops
were abundant. The farmer has prospered wonderfully. But leaving God
out of his thinking there is no one for this farmer to thank for his
success but himself. He never thought of ta