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and abortive brood of vipers. For of this nature are the gains of usury; more than those wild creatures do they devour and tear the souls of the wretched. Let

us deaden these lawless travailings; let us dry up this place of pernicious teeming, and let us pursue the great and true gains alone." (Chrysostom, Sermon on Matt. xvi. 28.)

"This usury is the harbinger of hell; there is one of heaven; one coming of covetousness, the other of self-denial; one of cruelty, the other of humanity. 'What dost thou desire?' saith one; 'that I should give another for his use that money which I have got together, and which is useful to me, and demand no recompense?' No; I say not that. I earnestly desire that thou shouldest have a recompense, not however a mean and small one, but far greater; for in return for gold, I would that thou shouldest receive heaven for usury. Why shut thyself up in poverty, crawling about the earth, and demanding little for great? This is the part of one who knows not how to be rich. For when God in return for a little money is promising thee the good things of heaven, and thou sayest, 'Give me not heaven, but give me instead perishing gold,' this is the part of one who desires to continue in poverty." (Chrysostom, Sermon on Matt. xxii., 23.)

"Consider what the usurer does. Undoubtedly he desires to give a less sum and to receive a larger; do thou this also; give thou a little, receive much. And perhaps thou wouldest say, 'To whom then shall I give?' The self-same Lord, who bade thee not lend upon usury, comes forward as the Person to whom thou shouldest lend upon usury. 'He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth to the Lord.' Then, though you have no bond from the

poor man to compel repayment, yet you have a security. Assuredly, if Christ be God, of which there is no doubt, He hath Himself said, 'I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat.' And when they said to Him, 'When saw we Thee hungry?' that He might show Himself to be surety for the poor, that He answers for all His members, that He is the Head, they the members, and that when the members receive, the Head also receiveth, He says, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these that belong to Me, ye have done it unto Me."" (Augustine on Psalm xxxvii.)

he sees.

"Let no one think that he is the receiver whose hand He indeed received it Who bade thee give. Nor will He restore only what He receiveth. He is pleased to borrow upon interest. Give the rein now to thine avarice, imagine thyself an usurer. Give to God, and press God for payment. Nay, rather, give to God, and thou wilt be pressed to receive payment." (Augustine on Matt. xix. 21.)

"For it is in truth the last pitch of inhumanity that one man, in need of the bare necessities of life, should be compelled to borrow, and another, not satisfied with the return of the principal, should seek to make profit for himself out of the calamities of the poor. The Lord gave His own injunction quite plainly in the words, From him that would borrow of thee turn thou not away.' But what of the money-lender? He sees before him a man under stress of necessity bent to the ground in supplication. He sees him hesitating at no acts, no words, of humiliation. He sees him suffering undeserved misfortune, but he is merciless. He does not reckon that he is a fellow-creature. He does not give in to his entreaties. He stands stiff and

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sour. He is moved by no prayers; his resolution is broken by no tears. He persists in refusal, invoking curses on his own head if he has any money about him, and swearing that he is himself on the lookout for a friend to furnish him a loan. Then the suppliant mentions interest, and utters the word 'security.' All is changed. The frown is relaxed. With a genial smile, he recalls old family connection. Now it is my friend.' 'I will see,' says he, if I have any money by me. Ah! yes; there is that sum which an acquaintance has left on deposit in my hands for profit. He named very heavy interest. However, I shall certainly deduct something, and give you better terms.' With pretences of this kind, and talk like this, he fawns on the wretched victim, and induces him to swallow the bait. Then he binds him with written security, adds loss of liberty to the trouble of pressing poverty, and is off.

“He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth to the Lord.' Do you not desire the Master of the universe to be security for your repayment? If any wealthy man in the town promises you repayment on behalf of another, do you admit his suretyship? But you do not accept God, Who more than repays on behalf of the poor. Give the money lying useless, without weighting it with increase, and both shall be benefited. To you will accrue the security of its safekeeping. The recipient will have the advantage of its use. And if it is increase you seek, be satisfied with that which is given by the Lord. He will pay the interest for the poor." (Basil on Psalm xiv. Cf. Hom. vii., De Avaratia, and Ep. ad Amphilochius, xiv.)

"Bishop's Jewell's sermon is an exposition of I. Thess. iv. 6. The other extract is from the farewell sermon preached by the Rev. David Jones in the Church of St.

Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street. are quoted in Fors Clavigera.

These two sermons

18 This paragraph is a loose quotation from passages in that remarkable book, Christianity a Civilized Heathenism, which was put into my hands during the progress of these addresses in Boston.

19

Adapted from a collect in the fragmentary Leonine Sacramentary.

20 Cf. The Law of Civilization and Decay, by Brooks Adams.

21 The Reverend Charles Ferguson visited me during the revision of this address, and once for all I credit to him all that is good in it.

22 The Ethics of Citizenship, p. 73.

23 Miss Wilkins has a story (Calla-Lilies and Hannah, in A New England Nun) which faithfully illustrates this. 24 De Incar. Verbi, Cc. xxvii.-xxxii.

25 In a sensible sermon on "What the Church might do for London," preached in St. Edmund's, Lombard Street, in Lent, 1895, the Reverend Stewart Headiam maintained this proposition with great force. The sermon is printed in A Lent in London, p. 127. (Longmans.)

26 Ethics of Citizenship, p. 46.

27 Lamennais.

28

Gregory of Nyssa, περὶ ψυχῆς καὶ ἀναστάσεως, i., "Look up to heaven, and consider the depths below; extend thy thought on this side and then on that, to the ends of the whole universe; and enquire what is the power which holds these together, and becomes, as it were, a bond to unite the whole. Then wilt thou see how spontaneously the idea of the divine power imprints on thy mind the figure of the Cross, reaching from the heights

above to the depths beneath, and stretching on both sides to the utmost bounds of space."

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Cf. Rufinus, Expositio Symb. Apost., xiv. Commenting upon the great passage in the Epistle to the Ephesians concerning the length and breadth and height," the Aquileian begins: Altitudo ergo et latitudo et profundum descriptio crucis est, and runs on with the thought. Cf. Basil, Com. in Is. xi. 12 (cap. 249).

Extendit

29 Lactantius, Institutiones Divinæ, iv. 26. ergo in passione manus suas orbemque dimensus est ut iam tunc ostenderet ab ortu solis usque ad occasum magnum populum ex omnibus linguis et tribubus congregatum sub alas suas esse venturum, signumque illud maximum atque sublime frontibus suis suscepturum.

30 This wonderful prayer is from the Sacramentary of Gelasius. It was the first of the ten solemn prayers connected with the lessons of Holy Saturday. Cf. Muratori, Liturgia Romana Vetus, i. 566, and Bright, Ancient Collects, pp. 98-99.

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