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.  For, when he has said, ’Make yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness,’ he goes on in the very next verse to say, ’He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is much.  If, therefore, ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?’ Now, surely, this must have something to do with what goes before.  And, if it has, what can it mean but this—­that the way to make friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness, is to be faithful in it, just in it, honest in it?

But some one may say, If mammon be unrighteous, how can a man be righteous and upright in dealing with it?  If money be a bad thing in itself, how can a man meddle with it with clean hands?

So some people will say, and so some will be glad to say.  But why?  Because they do not want to be righteous, upright, just, and honest in their money dealings; and, therefore, they are glad to make out that they could not be upright if they tried; because money being a bad thing altogether, a man must needs, if he has to do with money, do things which he knows are wrong.  I say some people are glad to believe that.  I do not mean any one in this congregation.  God forbid!  I mean in the world in general.  We do see people, religious people too, do things about money which they know are mean, covetous, cruel, and then excuse themselves by saying,—­’Well, of course I would not do so to my own brother; but, in the way of business, one can’t help doing these things.’  Now, I do not quite believe them.  I have seldom seen the man who cheated his neighbour, who would not cheat his own brother if he had a chance:  but so they say.  And, if they be religious people, they will quote Scripture, and say,—­Ah! it is the fault of the unrighteous mammon; and, in dealing with the unrighteous mammon, we cannot help these little failings, and so forth:  till they seem to have two quite different rules of right and wrong; one for the saving of their own souls, which they keep to when they are hearing sermons, and reading good books; and the other for money, which they keep to when they have to pay their debts or transact business.

Now, my dear friends, be not deceived:  God is not mocked.  God tempts no man.  Man tempts himself by his own lusts and passions.  God does not tempt us when he gives us money, puts us in the way of earning money, or spending money.  Money is not bad in itself; wealth is not bad in itself.  If mammon be unrighteous, we make money into mammon, when we make an idol of it, and worship it more than God’s law of right and justice.  We make it unrighteous, by being unrighteous, and unjust ourselves.