Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/423

 its vast  tables  loaded  with  rich  viands  and  fruits  and garnished with  flowers,  and  over  all  this  mart  presides. In all  the  world  there  is  not  one,  no  not  even the humblest  and  the  poorest,  to  whose  care  God  has not allotted  some  portion  of  His  wealth. The rich administer His  larger  interests,  humanly  speaking, but the  poor  also  have  intrusted  to  them  a  life  in comparison  with  which  the  whole  earth  is  valueless, a soul  for  which  ten  thousand  worlds  would  be  an inadequate  exchange,  and  time — the  golden  key  to the  treasuries  of  heaven. In the  order  of  grace,  too, our stewardship  includes  the  gifts  of  the  true  faith, the sacrifice  and  the  sacraments  of  our  Church,  the communion of  God's  saints,  and  the  infinite  merits  of our  Redeemer. But both  in  the  order  of  Nature  and of grace  we  easily  forget  that  we  are  stewards,  and we soon  begin  to  waste  by  selfish  extravagance  or neglect  our  Master's  goods. The rich  feel,  or  at  least they act,  as  though  they  were  absolute  lords  of  all they possess,  for,  while  Lazarus  is  being  hunted  from the door,  Dives,  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  is  feasting sumptuously. And yet  Dives's  superfluous  wealth belongs by  right  to  the  Lord  and  to  the  poor  with whom Christ  identified  Himself  when  He  said: " Amen,  I  say  to  you,  as  long  as  you  did  not  charity nor  justice  to  these,  My  least  brethren,  neither  did you  them  to  Me." Nor is  the  stewardship  of  the poor over  their  eternal  interests  always  above  reproach, though,  truth  to  say,  they  are  generally  the more faithful,  for  man's  fidelity  to  God  is  usually  in inverse  ratio  to  God's  liberality  to  man. The old