Tuesday. [Rom. 14:9-18; Matt. 12:14-16, 22-30]

   He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Who is with the Lord? He who lives and acts in His spirit; he who allows himself neither thoughts, nor feelings, nor desires, nor intentions, nor words, nor deeds, which would be unpleasing to the Lord and in opposition to His revealed commandments and determinations. He who lives and acts otherwise, is not with the Lord and consequently does not gather, but scatters. What does he scatter? Not only energy and time, but also what he gathers. For example, one who gathers riches not with the Lord, amasses only riches, not sharing with others, while depriving himself even of necessary things; or another gathers them, spends a part on his own luxurious lifestyle, part on donations made out of vainglory, and saves part for his heirs. In the other world he will appear with nothing—and there he will be the poorest of the poor. On the contrary, one who gathers riches with the Lord passes on what is gathered through the hands of the poor and needy, unto eternal treasuries. When such a person dies, he will find in that world all his riches intact, not scattered, although he spent them throughout his life. The same applies to the gathering of knowledge. Here scattering is even more obvious, because it can be seen how one who is intellectual not in the Lord gathers a seeming mountain of knowledge, but it is no more than rubbish—a phantom of the truth, and not the truth. They not only lack knowledge, but even loose human sense. They become delirious, like one who is asleep. Read the systems of the materialists and you will see that this is so.