Page:The Parochial System (Wilberforce, 1838).djvu/72

 and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another's, who shall give you that which is your own ." Can words more plainly describe the nature of worldly property in the sight of God. "The trust committed" to our "stewardship;" in the management of which "fidelity" is required, (not merely prudence or gratitude to the donor, as if it had become our own now that it is given,) which is still "another's, not our own;" and which we are to use "faithfully," in the hope of receiving hereafter "the true riches which shall be our own," even "an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Let us, then, carry with us this notion of a stewardship, to assist us in our inquiry as to the true measure of Christian bounty.

If property be a trust, then before we determine how it can be used faithfully, we must inquire, what are the terms of the trust-deed—for what purposes and objects we are trustees? The first question of a scrupulous mind, when it grasps the full magnitude of this thought, is, whether we are justified in using any property for ourselves, in having greater comforts than the poor around us, better houses, better clothing, better food, than the poor members of