A favourite idea has been that the New Testament teaching favours communism. To many such an authority would be decisive; and those who would not accept it as authoritative, must consider that the teaching is at least that of men who had such an instinctive knowledge of human nature, and such sympathy with the springs of action, that their views have held Western man more firmly than any other system. The first point to notice in looking at the teaching, is that it was given to a very severely selected group of persons. The early disciples were one of the hardest-weeded bodies of men that ever existed, like the Huguenots or the Quakers; ready perception, hearty conscientiousness, and a will to do right at all costs were the first qualifications, and incessant persecution from various sides weeded out all those who had no deep root of character. To such a body temporary communism was almost a need of existence at starting; all the causes and characters which would ordinarily make it a failure were weeded out, and such a highly selected group might safely benefit by a system which depended on self-abnegation. But so soon as the Church spread, no trace of communism remained; and even in general altruism the injunctions referred only to the Church and not to the world. The teaching was "Bear ye one another's burdens"; not, bear the burdens of the Roman rabble, but only those of the stringently weeded community. The one saying which survived most strongly of all the Gospel teaching, and is repeated oftenest, is, "To him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have." The full benefit of capacity and its utmost gains, and the direst losses of incapacity, are the main principle that is inculcated. In another point of view the parable of the prodigal son is sometimes felt to inculcate the ignoring of failure in life, and the permitting of follies to have no effect on the position of a person. The prodigal son among us is too often allowed to go on draining the resources on which his brethren rightfully have a claim. But the father in the parable, who had divided the family property already, was not intending to give anything more to the prodigal, however penitent he might be; forgiveness might be his, but the other brother was reassured at once by the formal declaration, "All that I have is thine." The greatest penitence, and the fullest forgiveness after it, will not give the prodigal a farthing beyond those rights which he has already misused.