I TIMOTHY VI. lo 143
reputations in the dark. For gold they defraud the hireling of his wages, and grind the faces of the poor, and wring the means of personal luxury from rotting houses or infamous pursuits. Gold corrupts trades and professions into that commercial standard which is often little better than systematized dishonesty. Gold can condemn the innocent and shield the guilty.
Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; Clothe it with rags, a tiny straw will pierce it.
Look into the history of any civilized nation, analyse with reference to this one cause of crime and misery the lives and thoughts of their nobles, priests, merchants, and men of luxurious life. The sin of the whole world is essentially the sin of Judas. Men do not disbelieve in Christ, but they sell Him.^
^ Twenty-fifth of ninth month, 1764. — At our Yearly Meeting at Philadelphia this day, John Smith of Marlborough, aged upwards of eighty years, a faithful minister, though not eloquent, stood up in our meeting of ministers and elders and, appearing to be under a great exercise of spirit, informed Friends in substance as follows : " That he had been a member of our Society upwards of sixty years, and he well remembered that, in those early times. Friends were a plain, lowly-minded people, and that there was much tenderness and contrition in their meetings. That, at twenty years from that time, the Society, increasing in wealth, and in some degree conforming to the fashions of the world, true humility was less apparent, and their meetings in general were not so lively and edifying. That at the end of forty years many of them were grown very rich, and many of the Society made a specious appearance in the world: that wearing fine costly garments, and using silver and other watches, became customary with them, their sons, and their daughters. These marks of out- ward wealth and greatness appeared on some in our meetings of ministers and elders ; and, as such things became more prevalent, so the powerful overshadowings of the Holy Ghost were less manifest in the Society. That there had been a continued increase in such ways of life, even until the present time ; and that the weakness which hath now overspread the Society and the barrenness manifest among us is matter of much sorrow."
Friends were incited to constancy in supporting the testimony
of truth, and reminded of the necessity which the disciples of
Christ are under to attend principally to His business as He is
pleased to open it to us, and to be particularly careful to have our
^ F. W. Farrar, Social and Present-Day Questions, 110.
144 THE LOVE OF MONEY
minds redeemed from the love of wealth, and our outward affairs in as little room as may be, that no temporal concerns may entangle our affections or hinder us from diligently following the dictates of truth in labouring to promote the pure spirit of meek- ness and heavenly-mindedness amongst the children of men.^
Silver and gold! The snowdrop white
And yellow-blossomed aconite,
Waking from winter's slumber cold, Their hoarded treasures now unfold,
And scatter them to left and right.
Ah, with how much more rare delight
Upon my sense their colours smite Than if my fingers were to hold Silver and gold.
They bear the superscription bright
Of the great King of love and might, Who stamped such beauty there of old That men might learn, as ages rolled,
To trust in God, nor worship quite Silver and gold.^
2. We must remember that it is love of money the Apostle condemns, not money itself. For although avarice is a sin, although the love of money for its own sake is the parent of innumerable evils, yet money, in itself and for the good that we can do with it — either for ourselves, or for those who are immedi- ately dependent on us, or for an ever- widening circle, in proportion as we have the wealth and the opportunity — money thus viewed is not a bad thing but a good thing, and men who daily give the sweat of their brow or the force of their brains to obtain it, and to obtain more of it than they are getting at present, are, generally speaking, not only committing no sin, but simply doing their duty. Their honest industry and application to business is only praise- worthy in God's sight.
^ Everyone of us who turns to the pages of the New Testament is constantly brought face to face with the fact that all through Christ regards money as a sacred trust. The accent of Christ is always upon stewardship. He never condemns private property ; He assumes it. Indeed, He goes so far as to recognize the duty of accumulation. The man with whom He quarrels is the man
^ The Journal of John Woolman. ^ Richard WiltoD.
I TIMOTHY VI. lo 145
who puts his talent in the earth, and does not entrust it to the bank where it may bear its reasonable interest. He recognizes that money is, as the writer of the Ecclesiastes says, a " defence " ; and he recognizes at the same time that what it is to the individual or to the society, or to the nations, depends upon the character that is behind it, and the use that is made of these tremendous responsibilities.^