^ After all, what is wealth ? My noble and severe parent had it in goodly quantity, but it cannot be said that it made him happy. He was far from being a happy man. And so it is with many people. I remember when I was a youth at Lii-chow that riches and promotions seemed as very gifts of the Celestial Regions. But I have found that neither great wealth nor distinguished decorations, nor both put together, will guarantee a man against unrest of mind or turmoil of soul. How great and honourable is the Peacock's Feather of the Throne, yet how much easier rests the head on goose feathers ! ^
^ Riches are truly thorns, as the Gospel teaches us. They prick us with a thousand troubles in acquiring them, with more cares in preserving them, and with yet more anxieties in spending them ; and, most of all, with vexations in losing them. I know very well how to spend what I have ; but if I had more I should be in difficulty as to what to do with it. Am I not happy to live like a child without care ? Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. The more any one has to manage the longer the account he has to render. We must make use of this world as though we were making no use of it at all. We must possess riches as though we had them not, and deal with the things of earth like the dogs on the banks of the Nile, who, for fear of the crocodiles, lap up the water of the river as they run along its banks. If, as the wise man tells us, he that addeth knowledge addeth also
^ Memoirs of Li Hung Chang, 210.
I TIMOTHY VI. lo 153
labour, much more is this the case with the man who heaps up riches. He is like the giants in the fable who piled up mountains, and then buried themselves under them.^
IV.
Deliverance from the Love of Money.
1. Let a greater love expel a less, a nobler affection supersede a meaner. Consider often the great things for which we were made, the unsearchable riches of which we have been made partakers in Christ ; for covetousness, the desire of having, and of having ever more and more, sin as it is, is yet the degeneration of something which is not a sin. Man was made for the infinite, with infinite longings, infinite cravings and desires. He was intended to find the satisfaction of all these longings, all these desires, in God ; ordained by the primal law of his creation to hunger and thirst for God, and to be satisfied only with Him. But averting himself from God, the hunger and the thirst still remain, the sense of emptiness, the yearning after something which he has not got, the desire of having, of filling that immense void within him ; and now, because he has refused to fill it with the fulness of God, he seeks to fill it with the fulness of the creature, with ever more and more of this ; which, however, do what he will, leaves him dissatisfied and yearning still; for none are truly filled save those whom God satisfies, and satisfies with Himself.
*[[ A person who made much profession of living a devout life, was overtaken by sudden misfortune, which deprived her of almost all her wealth and left her plunged in grief. Her distress of mind was so inconsolable that it led her to complain of the Providence of God, who appeared, she said, to have forgotten her. Blessed Francis, anxious to turn her thoughts from the contempla- tion of herself and of earthly things, to fix them on God, asked her if He was not more to her than anything ; nay, if, in fact, God was not Himself everything to her; and if, having loved Him when He had given her many things, she was not now ready to love Him, though she received nothing from Him. She, however, replying that such language was more speculative than practical' and easier to speak than to carry into efiect, he wound up by ^ The Spirit of St. Frcmcis de Sales, 131.
154 THE LOVE OF MONEY
saying with St. Augustine : " Too avaricious is that heart to which God does not suffice." "Assuredly, he who is not satisfied with God is covetous indeed." This word covetous produced a powerful effect upon the heart of one who, in the days of her prosperity, had always hated avarice. It seemed as if suddenly the eyes of her soul were opened, and she saw how admirable, how infinitely worthy of love God ever remained, whether with those things she had possessed or without them. So, by degrees, she forgot herself and her crosses ; grace prevailed, and she knew and confessed that God was all in all to her.^
2. Let us share our money with others. The habit of large and liberal giving is a great remedy against covetousness. We do not mean lazy and promiscuous almsgiving, with no pains taken to know whether our gifts are well bestowed — emptying our seed- corn out of the sack's mouth, instead of carefully scattering it with the hand ; for this can do nothing except harm. What we mean is a wise and deliberate dedication to God of a portion of that which came from God. And this portion, if it is really to help us in mortifying the corrupt affection of covetousness, must not be a very small and niggardly one. It must not be that paltry residue which, in most cases, is all that is likely to remain, if indeed anything at all will remain, after every taste, every fancy, every desire of our hearts has been gratified.