The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-02-03
PARABLE OF THE
UNJUST STEWARD
DR.. Stage Makes Application TO
the Present Time
PASSION FOR POSSESSIONS
There Is More Religion In the Right
Using of Money Than There
is In Saying Prayers
Wrongly.

The Rev. DR.. John ". Stagg preached
at the First Presbyterian church yester-
day morning on the parable of the unjust
steward, the sermon being an appliea-
! ton Of the teachings of the parable to
! the conditions of the Twentieth century.
| The text was from the ninth verse Of the
sixteenth chapter of Luke:
Make to yourselves friends of the
mammon of unrighteousness that when
| We fail they may receive you into ever
| lasting habitation." DR. Stagg spoke in
| part as follows
There are many difficulties that beset
| a discourse, and it is well to be rid of
the disagreeables at the start and one,
at least. is out of the way when I an
nounce that collection will follow this
sermon There are also many difficulties
| that hedge a text; therefore, it is the
better to handle a text naturally, for
when it is pressed too much 1t may be
made to teach more than was ever put
in it.
What damned error. but some sober
brow
Misunderstood Parallels.
Parallels likewise have their misappll-
cations and difficulties, and the one we
are considering, for the brief space of
our hours worship. is possibly the most
misunderstood and the worst abused of all
our Lord spoke. 1t has been coerced
rather than. coaxed for the truth; someone
has said that parable like picture
gives it's meaning best when our eyes are
! allowed to play upon it. In this way
they will gravitate naturally where the
interest centers.
A great preacher. whom preachers
themselves called the prince of preach
ers had a way of dividing the teachings
of a text exactly in two halves, and that
appears to be the better way of handling
this verse from the parable of the unjust
steward. In doing this it is better to be
rid of some serious obstacles In the way
of understanding its teaching. 1t has been
observed, by those who have given
thought to the matter, that the King
James version of the scriptures is any
thing but satisfactory translation of the
Bible, and if the truth of the accusation
could be found nowhere else, it would
be verified in exactly the verse We are
now considering
make to yourselves, friends, by means
of your earthly possessions, that when
they fail ye.nlay be received into eternal
'tabernacles," is the revised version, and
makes the teaching far more intelligible.
With this translation it is only necessary
to pause long enough over the parable to
get its meaning. A certain rich man put
the handling of his estate in the hands of
an agent After while, for reasons that
we need not stop to mention, notice was
given that his services were no longer
needed. The agent, like many another
man, had laid up nothing, and was also
beset by those limitations that make the
securing of livelihood in any but the ac-
customed way perplexing. Pride, when 1t
is real, may be great hindrance to
bread-winning, and manual labor, when
one is unaccustomed to it, is less inviting
as a way of supplying the wants of life
than devices, which work well, when con-
science is out of the way. The agent ac-
cordingly calls his masters debtors to
him and with a liberty of handling an
other mans goods, which is anything but
advisable when a man is handling his
own, he plucks himself from circum-
stances that threaten to engulf him. and
secures an inheritance at least as lasting
as life.
Wisdom of Bad Acts.
The debtor who owed 100 measures of
wheat was allowed to substitute a bond
for so, and the one who owed 100 meas
ures of oil was allowed to substitute a
bond for so. And so. by transmitting
wheat and oil into friendship he made
sure Of home for himself. The dis
honesty Of the transaction is apparent
enough, but that is only an incident in the
| case. The wisdom of a bad act may he
| as apparent as the wisdom of a good
| one, and the wisdom may be commended,
| on the one hand, and the wrong con-
demned ON the other. Or, as in the case
with our verse, the intent of the teach
! ing may be so set Upon the wisdom of
the handling of bad condition to the
| bringing about of safe issue that the
moral obliquity of the transaction may be
| passed over altogether. This, by the way,
| is one of the ways in which this parable
| has been shaken through too many fine
| sleeves. The eye catches the dishonesty
| and keeps itself there, while the parable
moves on to the higher lessons.
I If, now, we take the wisdom of the act
and begin to apply it to the larger needs
of life, the wisdom of 1.-The children of
| this world will take the coloring precise
! ly that our Lord intended to give it when
He commended to "the children of light"
| their example in handling matters that
belonged to another world. When we
pause long enough to ascertain what is to
| be the outcome of our efforts, the very
most that we can make out of them is
that we are trying to put down one kind
of value and take up the same kind, only
more of it.
1 The boy Is nothing lothe to trade tops
and marbles and bats and balls provided
he gets more of the same kind of thing
that he offers, and grown-up men play
the game of putting down stocks sand
bonds and lands and taking up more
stocks and bonds and lands. At least this
seems the present day method of getting
at the meaning of existence. All the tur-
MOL and strife of life centers around the
changing of smaller values into larger
ones of the same kind.