ame, or a
similar, class of circumstances in view, and was intended simply to
govern a Christian man's conduct to the poor and needy, and "such as
have no helper," and cannot, without a violent twist (F), be construed
into a general law determining forever and in all cases the legitimate
use of capital. Indeed, on another occasion, and in a very memorable
parable, the great Founder of Christianity recognizes, and impliedly
sanctions, the practice of lending money at interest. "Thou oughtest,"
says the master, addressing his unprofitable servant, "thou
oughtest"--[Greek: edei se]--"to have put my money to the exchangers;
and then, at my coming, I should have received mine own _with usury_."

151. "St. Paul, no doubt, denounces the covetous." (G) But who is the
[Greek: pleonektes]? Not the man who may happen to have money out on
loan at a fair rate of interest; but, as Liddell and Scott give the
meaning of the word, "one who has or claims _more than his share_;
hence, greedy, grasping, selfish." Of such men, whose affections are
wholly set on things of the earth, and who are not very scrupulous how
they gratify them, it may, perhaps, not improperly be said (H) that they
"have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." But here,
again, it would be a manifest "wresting" of the words to make them apply
to a case which we have no proof that the Apostle had in contemplation
when he uttered them. Rapacity, greed of gain, harsh and oppressive
dealing, taking unfair advantage of our own superior knowledge and
another's ignorance, shutting up the bowels of compassion towards a
brother who we see has need--all these and the like things are forbidden
by the very spirit of Christianity, and are manifestly "_not_ according
to the will of God," for they are all of them forms of injustice or
wrong. But money may be lent at interest without one of these bad
passions being brought in to play, and in these cases I confess my
inability to see where, either in terms or in spirit, such use of money
is condemned either by the Christian code of charity, or by that natural
law of conscience which we are told (I) is written on the hearts of men.

152. Let me take two or three simple instances by way of illustration.
The following has happened to myself. All my life through--from the time
when my income was not a tenth part of what it is now--I have felt it a
duty, while endeavoring to discharge all proper claims, to live within
that in