for it. Abram's wealth has increased, and his companion, Lot, has
shared in the prosperity. It is because he 'went with Abram' that he
'had flocks, and herds, and tents.' Of course, the connection
between despising the world and possessing it is not thus close in
New Testament times. But even now, one often sees that the men who
_will_ be rich fall into a pit of poverty, and that a heart set
on higher things, which counts earthly advantages second and not
first, wins a sufficiency of these most surely. Foxlike cunning, and
wolf-like rapacity, and Devil-like selfishness, which make up a
large portion of what the world calls 'great business capacity,' do
not always secure the prize. But the real possession of earth and
all its wealth depends to-day, as much as ever it did in Abram's
times, on seeking 'first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.'
Only when we are Christ's are all things ours. They are ours, not by
the vulgar way of what the world calls ownership, but in proportion
as we use them to the highest ends of helping us to grow in wisdom
and Christ-likeness, in the measure in which we subordinate them to
heavenly good, in the degree in which we employ them as means of
serving Christ. We can see the Pleiades best by not looking directly
at, but somewhat away from, them; and just as pleasure, if made the
direct object of life, ceases to be pleasure, so the world's goods,
if taken for our chief aim, cease to yield even the imperfect good
which they can bestow.

But now we have to look at the two dim figures which the remainder
of this story presents to us, and which shine there, in that far-off
past, types and instances of the two great classes into which men
are divided,--Abram, the man of faith; Lot, the man of sense.

Mark the conduct of the man of faith. Why should he, who has God's