Christian Mission and Poverty

Chapter 7: Abolition and Liberation

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bulk of the creature, and the hardness of its bones and teeth, that it could not be completed without much labor. So man must cease from that spirit which craves riches, and be reduced into another disposition, before he inherits the kingdom, as effectually as a camel must cease from the form of a camel in passing through the eye of a needle. When our Savior said to the rich youth, “Go sell that you hast and give to the poor” (Mark 10:21), though undoubtedly it was his duty to have done so, yet to confine this of selling all as a duty on every true Christian would be to limit the Holy One. Obedient children who are entrusted with much outward substance wait for wisdom to dispose of it agreeable to his will, in whom “the fatherless finds mercy” (Hos 14:3). It may not be the duty of everyone to commit at once their substance to other hands, but rather from time to time to look round amongst the numerous branches of the great family, as his stewards who said, “Leave your fatherless children; I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me” (Jer 49:11). But as disciples of Christ, however entrusted with much goods, they may not conform to sumptuous or luxurious living. For if possessing great treasures had been a sufficient reason to make a fine show in the world, then Christ our Lord, who had an unfailing storehouse, and in a way surpassing the common operations in nature supplied thousands of people with food, would not have lived in so much plainness. What we equitably possess is a gift from God to us; but by the Son all things were created. Now he who forms things out of nothing—who creates and, having created, does possess—is more truly rich than he who possesses by receiving gifts from another.