Concerning the Collection for the Department of Finance (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Concerning the Collection for the Department of Finance

It was not less a matter of interest then than now to watch the givers and their giving. Reflections, some of them very stern, must have come to the mind of our Lord as he paused to consider. Pos sessed of less penetration than our Lord, we are more inclined to observe and comment upon the ostentation in manner and amount. The Son of God had no eyes for the group of Pharisees who perhaps at that moment were making their rounds.

They typified the greed and covetousness of their times; yes, and we can truly say of all times, for the Pharisee has had sixty generations of imitators since then. The invective and sarcasm of even the Talmud is neither keen nor incisive enough to fittingly describe them. Luke says that our Lord did observe the rich casting in their gifts, and Mark does not fail in his fuller details to remark that Many that were rich cast in much. It was certainly true, for the treasury was frequently em riched by money that should have gone to the sup port oi poor and aged parents. There was a law forbidding gifts to the temple of less than a certain proportion' of the giver's possessions, and the fact that they were there and known to be wealthy would vouch for the size of the gift. History substantiates the statement also. After having met every possible expenditure Pompey found the temple treasury to contain over twelve millions of dollars in coined and uncoined wealth. But it must be noted that upon the size of these gifts Jesus made no comment.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.