Poverty, as Francis preached it, is an integral element in the Christian life. Christianity imperatively demands of all its followers an acceptance of the truth which Francis embodied so wonderfully in himself. No one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless he be as Francis was, a lover of Poverty. Such is the Gospel. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”[33] There are those who so interpret this beatitude as to empty it of all significance concerning material possessions. The meaning of Christ, however, is made clear, by His own earthly life and by the lives of His early disciples. “Poverty of Spirit” means nothing less than detachment of heart from the possession or achievement of material gain, and from its attendant pleasures. No man can be a disciple of Christ who is not free from the moral slavery which wealth and temporal possessions so easily set upon the soul. To no man is given the spiritual insight and vision which alone can bring rest eternal to man’s spirit, unless he have first put from him the lust of the earth. And according to the measure of his detachment is spiritual achievement possible. Is then every man to imitate St Francis of Assisi, and cast off all wealth and become dependent upon the labour of his hands or the charity of his neighbour? No such claim is made by Francis, for it was not made by Christ. If Christ demanded of the young man that he should “go and sell what he had and give it to the poor” in order to follow Him, He also acquiesced in the rich Zacchæus keeping his wealth so long as he did not neglect his duty to those in need. Francis, too, following the Divine Model, gave no injunction to the Lord of Chiusi or to the Lady Giacoma to renounce their property, and he expressly forbade his friars, who like himself gave up all right of possession, to judge those who have possessions. No, it is not the holding of property, but the selfish misuse of it and the inordinate desire of material gain and its pleasures, which is opposed to the virtue of evangelical poverty. In few words may the Christian precept of poverty be set forth: Let no man set his heart on any material possession for its own sake, or for the mere holding of it; if a man is lacking in this world’s goods, let him not fret nor complain, but seek rather the life of the spirit. If, on the other hand, he is endowed with this world’s goods, either by inheritance or as the result of honest labour, let him bear in mind that such goods are not absolutely his own; they belong, in the first instance, to God, the Master of all, and may rightfully be used and distributed only subject to the Divine laws of justice and charity. No man has an absolute ownership before God, so that he may satisfy his own whim or pleasure without consideration for what is due by Divine Law to his fellow-men. Possession in the sphere of conscience is stewardship. The rich are God’s stewards, appointed to “give to every