Is the Lord
supposed to teach that for a man who trusts in his riches it is
_possible_ to enter the kingdom? that, though impossible with men, this
is possible with God? God take the Mammon-worshipper into his glory!
No! the Lord never said it. The annotation of Mr. Facingbothways crept
into the text, and stands in the English version. Our Lord was not in
the habit of explaining away his hard words. He let them stand in all
the glory of the burning fire wherewith they would purge us. Where
their simplicity finds corresponding simplicity, they are understood.
The twofold heart must mistake. It is hard for a rich man, just because
he is a rich man, to enter into the kingdom of heaven.'
Some, no doubt, comfort themselves with the thought that, if it be so
hard, the fact will be taken into account: it is but another shape of
the fancy that the rich man must be differently treated from his
fellows; that as he has had his good things here, so he must have them
there too. Certain as life they will have absolute justice, that is,
fairness, but what will that avail, if they enter not into the kingdom?
It is life they must have; there is no enduring of existence without
_life_.
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