Men who, having
cheated their neighbours all their lives, have tried to cheat the
Devil at last, by some such plan as the unjust steward's, but that
plan has never been looked on as either a very honourable or a very
hopeful one. I think, that if I had been an usurer or a grinder of
the poor all my life, I should not save my soul by founding
almshouses with my money when I died, or even ten years before I
died. It might be all that I was able to do: but would it justify
me in the sight of God? That which saves a soul alive is
repentance; and of repentance there are three parts, contrition,
confession, and satisfaction--in plain English, making the wrong
right, and giving each man back, as far as one can, what one has
taken from him. To each man, I say; for I have no right to rob one
man and then give to another. I ought to give back again to the man
whom I have robbed. I have no right to cheat the rich for the sake
of the poor; and after I have cheated the rich, I do not make
satisfaction, either to god or man, by giving that money to the
poor. Good old Zaccheus, the publican, knew better what true
satisfaction was like. He had been gaining money not altogether in
an unjust way, but in a way which did him no credit; he had been
farming the taxes, and he was dissatisfied with his way of life.
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