One rented an olive garden, and paid for it so
many measures of oil; another rented corn-land, and paid so many
measures of meal. Now suppose that the steward, as he easily might,
had been setting these poor men's rents too high, and taking the
surplus himself. That while he had been charging one tenant a
hundred, he had been paying to his lord only fifty, and so forth.
What does he do, then, in his need? He does justice to his lord's
debtors. He tells them what their debts really are. He sets their
accounts right. Instead of charging the first man a hundred, he
charges him fifty; instead of charging the second a hundred, he
charges him eighty; and he does not, as far as we are told, conceal
this conduct from his lord. He rights them as far as he can now.
So he shews that he honestly repents. He has found out that honesty
is the best policy; that the way to make true friends is to deal
justly by them; and, if he cannot restore what he has taken from
them already (for I suppose he had spent it), at least to confess
his sin to them, and to set the matter right for the time to come.
This, I think, is what our Lord bids us do, if we have wronged any
man, and fouled our hands with the unrighteous mammon, that is, with
ill-gotten wealth. And I think so all the more from the verses
which come after.
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