"Assuredly so," replied Ammonius. "And thou hast done well to characterize the parable as ’a species of literary composition unknown and impossible to other men’; for no other man hath written a parable, nor do I suppose that any man ever will do so. For he spake as never man spake: he spake in parables; without a parable he spake not. The history, the poem, the fable, the allegory, may be used by other teachers also; but the parable is the language of Jesus alone; and no man can handle it but himself." "I can now understand that strange parable of ’the unjust steward,’" said Am-nem-hat, "although, when I first read the words, ’I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations,’ I did even suppose that Jesus represented eternal life to be a vendible thing, and that his religion, like every other, assured the rich that they could purchase salvation with money--although this seemed to be antagonistic to the general current of his teachings." "Verily," replied Ammonius, "the words of Jesus would convey no other meaning, if, indeed, the fundamental law of the Church had not excluded therefrom all the private wealth, honors, and authority after which the Gentiles seek. But, if thou wilt consider that the unjust steward is any believer that useth his means, pecuniary, intellectual, physical, for his own aggrandizement, and not for the common good; that the Lord of that steward is Jesus; that unrighteous mammon is wealth held by private ownership, and that the true riches is wealth held by common title for the good of all--thou canst then understand how, even upon ceasing to be steward (the end of life), one may make amends for past selfishness and mammon-worship, by giving up his property to the common Church. Thou canst understand how it is just that those who come in even at the eleventh hour to work in his vine-yard shall have an equal reward with those who entered early and bore the heat and burden of the day. Thou wilt see that it is true that those who gave up houses and lands for his sake and the gospel’s reaped manifold more ’now in this present life’ by gaining a communal title in the property of all other believers--an increase which our Lord expressly promises as to all the interests and relationships of life, except as to the wife; for, while, if one leave houses, lands, father, mother, brother, sister, or children, for the gospel’s sake, the severed interests and relationships are replaced a hundred-fold by his admission into the kingdom of heaven, monogamic marriage was and is the law of the Church. And thou canst thus give a practical and beautiful meaning to all that our Lord hath said and done; thou wilt see that the social and political system of the gospel is the only kingdom that can ever banish crime, hatred, and selfishness out of human life, and so regenerate the world; thou wilt