The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1952-02-07

ASSVo. nno SUI ne Knew mat q man
with money has both temptatio
to evil and opportunities for good
that the poor man never has.
Two Rich Men
JESUS met two men Of means who
were quite different from each
other.
One, who remains nameless, had
much to recommend him. He was
rich. but perhaps that was the last
thing people thought about when
they saw him. He was young and
vigorous; when he came to Jesus
for an interview he did not walk,
he ran. He was a man Of execu.
tive ability. for the story calls him
q ruler" He was good, at least
he claimed to have kept all the
Ten Commardmen and Jesus did
not contradict him.
Furthermore, he was eager In
the right direction. His prin-
cipal ambition was not to have
more money but to have eter.
nal life. On top Of all this,
Jesus loved him. You would
certainly think that . man like
that couldn't miss. But he did.
On the other hand was the man
Zacchaeus. Being a publican, and
rich, it is perfectly obvious that he
couldn't have been either honest or
generous, for it was only the greedy
and the dishonest in those days who
could amass fortunes by collecting
taxes. He was no doubt middle
aged. for it took time to rise to the
top in the publican game. AS for
eagerness for spiritual things, he
seems not to have felt a bit Of it.
We may guess that Jesus was not
the only one who loved the rich
young ruler; but if Jesus loved Fac
chaeus. and he must have, he was
perhaps the only person then in
Jericho who did. No community
loves man who bleeds it white.
Yet, strange as it seems. it Is this
rich man. this bad rich man, who
comes out in the end with higher
rating than the good rich man.
Money the Master
THE last thing we see Of the good
! rich man is his turning his back
on Goodness. He had a chance to
follow Christine same chance that
Peter and Matthew had, the same
command. Follow Me!
What great service Christ had
In mind for him we shall never
know. All we know Ii that he
made the great refusal. Per-
haps he thought better Of II and
came back later on; but Il b
not likely. The last we see Of
him IL his back, - he went
away sorrowful."
Jesus never said Of him what he
said Of Zacchaeus. Salvation never
came to his house. He never in
herited the eternal life he wanted
When 1t came right down to q
choice: money. or eternal life, he
chose money. He was willing 70
be Christian. but not q sacrificing
Christian. He only wanted to be
an inheriting Christian. He thought
of himself (no doubt as master Of
his money; instead. money was his
master. His money talked so loud
he could not hear well what Jesus
said. His money talked so fast tina,
It made what Jesus demanded sound
like nonsense.
Money the Servant
TESUS did not ask all his follow,
} ers to get rid Of every penny
they possessed. Zacchaeus, for in
stance, did not renounce all he had.
What he did was to give back all
that did not belong to him, and give
away good deal that did. Jesus
did not ask this man to do more.
A doctor does not always pre-
scribe the same operation for
every one. For some men, an
appendix Is . source of danger
and must be removed at once,
for others, an appendix may
safely and most wisely be left
where Il Is.
Jesus could see that the younger
man was at the point where money
was about to be his master; so in
deed it was for the older man. But
the frst could not shake of the
tyranny Of his wealth, his own
wealth; the other man could.
For the servant Of Christ, money
Is not in itself sin It is a root Of
sin when its voice Is louder than
the voice Of the Master. It is the
means of sin when it stops the ears
to a cry Of need. No one can call
himself Christian when he re-
fuses his money in the service of
Christ.