"A rich man On Possessions" 




He spoke ill of rich men. And upon a day I questioned Him saying, "Sir, what shall I do to
attain the peace of the spirit?" 

And He bade me give my possessions to the poor and follow Him. 

But He possessed nothing; therefore He knew not the assurance and the freedom of
possessions, nor thr dignity and the self-respect that lie within. 

In my household there are sevenscore slaves and stewards; some labor in my groves and
vineyards, and some direct my ships to distant isles. 

Now had I heeded Him and given my possessions to the poor, what would have befallen my
slaves and my servants 
and their wives and children? They too would have become beggars at the gate of the city or
the portico of the temple. 

Nay that good man did not fathom the secret of possessions. Because He and His followers
lived on the bounty of others He thought all men should live likewise. 

Behold a contradiction and a riddle: Should rich men bestow their riches upon the poor, and
must the poor have the 
cup and the loaf of the rich man ere they welcome him to their board? 

And must needs the holder of the tower be host to his tenants ere he calls himself lord of his
own land? 
The ant that stores food for the winter is wiser than a grasshopper that sings one day and
hungers another. 

Last sabbath one of His followers said in the market-place, "At the threshold of heaven where
Jesus may leave His sandals, no other man is worthy to lay his head." 

But I ask, at the threshold of whose house that honest vagabond could have left His sandals?
He Himself never had a house nor a threshold; and often He went without sandals.