PROVERBS XXX. 8 347
this there is a perfectly undisguised appreciation of ownership and its solid satisfactions : to be out of the reach of carking care, of sordid anxieties, so that a man may have his energies free for something else than the dreary struggle to make ends meet — this is, in the frankest manner, held up as a consummation devoutly to be wished, and the counsel of these old-time sages is that men may take thought to attain it,
^ Kuskin compares wealth to a river. There are rivers which overflow their banks and create malarial swamps that load the air with pestilence, while they might, by engineering skill, be directed and controlled so as to bring a blessing instead of a curse. So, he says, wealth may be " water of life," or, if it is not wisely used, it may be " the last and deadliest of all plagues." ^
^ It is worth while remembering that the gentle Charles Lamb, who was as far as anyone could be from a passion for riches, saw in money the equivalent of " health and liberty and strength," while Plato could soberly state that " the possession of wealth contributes greatly to truth and honesty." You have only to put it to yourselves negatively — the lives of men, women, and children that might be saved year-in and year-out but for the lack of means to purchase medical attendance, strengthening diet, sojourn in a sanatorium — to appreciate Lamb's point of view ; it is perfectly true, and why not admit it, that there are hundreds of thousands of deserving folk in this land of ours who would say — and that in respect of a very trifling increase of income —
Oh the little more, and how much it is ! And the little less, and what worlds away ! *
(2) But the possession of wealth is a constant peril. — Living in continual enjoyment of those luxuries and pleasures which wealth procures tends to cultivate the animal rather than the spiritual part of our nature. Satisfaction with the good things of life, as they are called, has a tendency to make the soul slumber and forget its immortal obligations to itself. If we have all we want, we shall seek and find pleasure only in those things which wealth can purchase. We cannot easily rise above the low ground of animal desire and gratification. Our thoughts and actions are so engrossed in finding fresh avenues for indulgence or excitement that we have little energy left for spiritual and moral aspirations. Then, further, this constant indulgence brings with it a sense of
* J. M. E. Eoss. " J. Warschauer, Tfu Way of Understanding, 67.
348 THE GOLDEN MEAN
independence, an unmanly pride, a habit of trusting only in our- selves and in our own resources, which destroys, in time, all sense of dependence on others and on God. Agur felt this when he prayed, " Give me not riches, lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord ? " Our wealth is apt to take the very place of God in our heart's love and trust. Our money, and not God, is in all our thoughts. We are happy because it is there and seems safe and inexhaustible. We reckon our lives by what we enjoy through its means, and not by any progress or growth of the soul. Whenever wealth is to us of supreme importance, be sure it is eating out the very vitals of our spiritual life.
^ In a remarkable work entitled The Tree in the Midst, Dr. Greville MacDonald has recently furnished a striking illustration of the truth that Nature is against the luxury that preys upon society. He gives an account of the process of evolution and the secondary laws which it involves; and in speaking of luxury, he takes as an example the prehistoric monster known as the ichthyosaurus. The ichthyosaurus was one of a whole series of creatures, horrible in character, function, and form, which existed in an early stage of the earth's history. It was a reptilian fish, thirty feet in length, with the backbone and tail of a fish, the jaw of a crocodile, and the skin of a whale. Its eye was held in a socket eighteen inches in diameter and was protected by an armour of bony plates. It had a most extraordinary range of vision, and it could see in the dark. This monster, therefore, was highly gifted. It was, in fact, actually in advance of its age. It had points of advantage not existent in any other creature at that time. It anticipated the higher possibilities in structure. It was far on in the line of evolution. Why, then, did it disappear? Why was not the process of evolution continued along that line ? Why is it now an extinct creature, telling us its story only by the petrified remains of its terrible body which are dug out from its rocky grave ? Most significant is the answer to this question. It died out because life was too easy for it. The world did not desire it. It did nothing but feed and propagate its kind ; and it did this with no effort on its own behalf. It was undesirable from the point of view of upward evolution. That this was the truth con- cerning it is proved by its remains. There is evidence of its swallowing fish and reptiles in quantity far larger than it could digest, far larger than could be necessary for its own maintenance and the transmission of its species. Its awful jaw, its enormous stomach, its impenetrable armour, its great fieetness, made other