"Lord, increase our faith!" is a proper prayer for the disciples of Jesus. But where is a warrant for the prayer, "Lord, increase our funds"? Yet, the latter prayer is a great deal more common than the former. Is it a wise prayer? Is it a safe one? It was in a Bible class. The lesson for the day was "The Rich Man and Lazarus." Its discussion was after this sort, between the teacher and his scholars: Was the rich man lost because he was rich? No. Was Lazarus saved because he was poor? No. Is there any sin in the fact of being rich? No. Is there any merit in the fact of being poor? No. Ought we ever to pray for poverty? No. Ought we ever to pray for riches? The answer to that question did not come so promptly. After a little, one said, "Well, that depends—." "Why didn't the other 'depend'? You are all quick to say we oughtn't to pray for poverty, why are you less confident of the unwisdom of praying for riches?" "But we might glorify God by riches," said one. How do you know that you couldn't glorify God by poverty?" "Well, but we might do good with money. How? By giving it to the needy, and by aiding good causes. Do you know any needy persons? Do you know of any good causes which ought to receive aid? Yes, indeed. Why, then, don't you ask the Lord to send the money directly to them? Why should you want to be the 'middle man' in the transaction? Is that the way to feel and to pray? Are you to count the Lord dependent on your good offices for the supply of his needy children, or for the aiding of causes he loves? Do you now use every dollar he gives you as a trust to be accounted for to him? Would you give away every added dollar of your income, if your receipts were largely increased? or would you use the greater share for yourself, and but a small portion in charities? Is not a prayer for riches always a selfish prayer, in whatever phrase it may be shaped? If you want to do good with the powers and the funds already in your possession, do it. If you want to have others helped beyond your ability to aid them, pray that the help may come to them. Do not condition your prayer for them on a percentage to yourself of all that God sends for their relief. Your need is evidently a need of more faith, not of more funds." Is there not a lesson in this truth for those outside of that Bible class? Riches are at the best a temptation, a hindrance, an entanglement, in the Christian life. The love of them is a root of every evil. The care of them is an added responsibility, and an increase of labor. There is no such danger in faith. It is not that they who have riches are shut out from hope of salvation; but it is that they who "trust in riches" shall hardly "enter into the kingdom of God." Christians who find themselves possessed of wealth can pray for added grace in their added need. They can hope to be sustained under their pressing burden, and to be delivered out of their peculiar temptations. By faith they can so use the "mammon of unrighteousness" that it shall become a "treasure in heaven" when they have done with the things of earth. But their position is never an enviable one. Their lot is always one not to be desired. And as a rule this is manifest to the world. Dean Swift said, "We can see what God thinks of wealth by observing to whom he gives it." There are those who have both faith and funds in abundance; but they are not a common sight. In any case their faith is more to be desired than their funds; its practical value is far greater, and so is its comfort. He who thinks that riches are to be desired, to be prayed for, is in danger of trusting in riches. His peril is greater than that of the man who already has wealth. "They that will be rich"—they that would be rich; they that want to be rich; they that pray to be rich—"fall into a temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." Who would deliberately pray for riches, or even long for riches, in the face of such a warning of danger as that? The mistake of the Christian who longs for riches is in thinking that money has some power in itself; or that, at all events, it can be surely depended upon as an agency for good. Of what use is a bag of gold tied to a man's feet when he is swimming for his life? How much money would buy water for a famishing man in a lonely desert? Can you name the price in dollars and cents of the word of sympathy and cheer for which a heavy heart is aching and breaking? Faith can give help in all such emergencies. Money cannot. God can be heard from the ocean, from the desert, and from the bed-chamber. He is able and ready to supply every lack of his children, when all the wealth of the world would be unavailing for their rescue and support. If it is for your own welfare and happiness that you desire wealth, you may be sure that God is to be depended on as the bankers are not; that faith is to be preferred above funds as a means of unfailing good to you. If it is for others that you want the benefits of wealth, your faith in their behalf ought surely to be worth more than their share of your annual income would be in case you had large riches. —S. S. Times.