else we might conclude that, though providing for the lilies, birds, and beasts, His fatherly solicitude is not concerned with the helpless poor. Reason and nature-study will convince the veriest Pagan of the duties of superfluous wealth. And for Christians, oh, in the face of Christ's teaching and example, can there be a doubt? Alas! whether it be doubt or niggardliness, it often happens that more shaking is required in a Christian than a Pagan, in a Catholic than a Protestant, land to bring down the fruit from the tree. . Did Christ but come to-day He could find full many a barren tree to disappoint Him and evoke His curse. Multi-millionairism and direst poverty are most conspicuous to-day in Christian countries. Why? Because they are correlatives, and because our moneyed men are only nominally Christian. Were they sincerely such they would be guided by Christ's commentaries on their Gospel prototypes. In the Gospel there figure three multi-millionaires. The first, the good young man, whom Jesus loved, the would-be Apostle, who nevertheless when bidden to give his millions to the poor, sadly turned away. He represents to us the spiritual disadvantages inseparable from the mere possession of wealth, whereby even the best of men are not only excluded from the number of Christ's immediate followers, but also, as Christ said, find it as difficult to even enter heaven as a camel does to pass through the eye of a needle. The second multi-millionaire is he whose possessions so increased that his sole concern was to build larger storehouses, that, having laid up much
