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.
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