Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1941-02-06

GOLOEN AEAI-1e cannot serve God
and mammon.-Luke 1918
I'm the service" is an expression
much used today. Every commune
ty has young men in the service Of
their country. But they are not the
only service men," for the fact is
that every man and woman serves
under some authority. Our lesson
today reminds US that our attitude
toward our possessions determines
both character and destiny. We de-
eide whether they shall rule us or
we shall rule them.
l. Who Is Your Master-God or
Gold? You Decide! wv. 1915.
The decision here is of the "either
or" variety. Eye cannot serve
God and mammon" (which means
''riches").
Money itself is neither good nor
bad. It is the use to which it is
put that determines whether it is to
bless or to destroy. Rightly gained
and rightly used, money is an honor
to the man who has it, and will,
through him, become a means Of
blessing. On the other hand, money
which controls man will blast his
own soul and those Of others round
him.
Who decides which it shall be?
You-and you alone. Here we come
to the central truth of the matter.
He that is faithful in that which is
least is faithful also in much ".
100. We generally read that as
though it said. He that Is now faith
full in little will later have an op-
portunity to be faithful in much"
That may be true, but what Jesus
said here was that he sis faithful
in much"
The point is that the man who is
faithful in the much shows that life
attitude by being faithful in the lit
tie. That is, only the man who is
right in the great matter of his re-
lationship with God will be the ruler
over his possessions for the glory Of
God and the good of his fellow man.
Someone may say, Il don't be-
ieve that" Well you are in bad
company (see Wv. IA, 15). The Phar-
isees. who loved money, who were
sef-righteous, and whose attitude
was an abomination in the sight of
God, derided the words of Jesus.
If you don't like that kind of COM
panions, l invite you to come over
on Gods side.
ii. Where viii You Spend Eter-
nifty? Your Life Decides wv. 1929.
Our life beyond the grave is de-
termined by our life on this side Of
death. Yes, we know that eternal
life is gift of God received by
faith in Christ as Saviour, quite
apart from our own works or our
merit. But let us not forget that
this means far more than uttering
few words Of profession or going
through formula.
The man who really turns to
Christ in saving faith becomes a
new creature; he is born again Il
Pet. 1920. That means that he
walks Sin newness Of life" (Rom.
SD. And thus his life in this world
determines both by decision for
Christ and daily living for Him that
he will, like Lazarus. be received
into eternal blessedness.
Sad to say. the opposite is also
true. Living as the rich man did,
for self. will bring judgment in the
world to come. There is no indica-
ton that he was especially wicked.
but only that he loved his money,
revelled In the famboyant display
Of his wealth ". 19, and had no
thought for others ". 21). Here
again, the point is that these out
ward deeds were the expression Of
a heart attitude against God.
Death came to both of these men.
1t will come to all of US, unless the
Lord returns to take us to Himself.
It is not pleasant matter to think
Of death, but only the unintelligent
will fail to recognize the coming
of that day. When it comes, it may
be too late to make any real life
decisions. Now is the acceptable
time. Today is the day Of salvation.
The verses Immediately following
our lesson in chapter 16 indicate
that the decision of men concerning
their relationship to God is not de-
pendent on the miraculous, but on
moral and spiritual truth. The man
who says he would believe II he
could only see God perform mira
Gle is only evading the issue. Verse
81 says that the man who rejects
Gods Word does so because he
wants to, not because he needs to
be convinced by miracle.