Scripture irreverently, there is no harm in making a different
application of them. There is no irreverence here: next to the grace of
God, money is the thing hardest to get and hardest to keep. If we are
not wise with it, the grace--I mean money--will not go far."

"Not so far as the next world, anyhow!" said Alexa, as if to herself.

"How dare you, child! The Redeemer tells us to make friends of the
mammon of unrighteousness, that when we die it may receive us into
everlasting habitations!"

"I read the passage this morning, father: it is _they_, not _it_, will
receive you. And I have heard that it ought to be translated, 'make
friends _with_, or _by means of_ the mammon of unrighteousness."

"I will reconsider the passage. We must not lightly change even the
translated word!"

The laird had never thought that it might be of consequence to him one
day to have friends in the other world. Neither had he reflected that
the Lord did not regard the obligation of gratitude as ceasing with this
life.

Alexa had reason to fear that her father made a friend _of_, and never a
friend _with_ the mammon of unrighteousness. At the same time the
half-penny he put in the plate every Sunday must go a long way if it was
not estimated, like that of the poor widow, according to the amount he
possessed, but according to the difficulty he found in parting with it.

"After weeks, perhaps months of nursing and food and doctor's stuff,"