The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-01-21
RELIGION AND MONEY.

I .
sixth chapter, tenth verse;
''For the love of money IS the root of all
evil"
In the course of mis- sermon Beecher said :
Men may say what they please about de-
spising money but no rational man does
despise it,. Men despise the money they have
not got, but never knew man despise 1t
when lac CO. it. The most rigorous saint to
whom million is left Is quite willing 10
assume the stewardship oft. There is no one
single side OF religion or civilization or social
virtue or physical comfort that does not run
right back to money As the foundation of its
supply. To undervalue il is absurd aud I'M
necessary. In our own day the temptations
which have been incident in every age are
more and are intensified. We are living
at a time when the crop of crimes
Is enormous. Men are dropping like
untimely figs from the Bough of prosT Gritty
and crime Is increasing all over the land. Ex-
cessive enterprise is also producing crop of
criminals. While dealing in stocks Is as legit-
innate when stocks represent actual property
| as is the dealing in wool or the produce of the
I farm, yet gambling in stocks is not legitimate,
and yet ~ takes place unblushingIy, almost
undoubtedly and increasingly. Men are
tempted 10y lotteries. Why should not lotteries
. exist when churches are full of them, when
cathedrals are openly filled with the most in
/ gentous schemes, when church fairs are car
| ried on with the most unbluShing games OF
! chance, when a regiment is swelling its funds
/ by the most notorious of lotteries-what bust
ness have we TO rise up n Judgment? A man
that gets more than he gives steals by Just so
much as what he receives exceeds what he
| gives ASIAN equivalent, and this makes a crop
! OF thieves in any community. 1t is folly to
Z tInaf lTrfn foil - -
/ that the church does not do its duty.
! Those who read the foregoing will be i'm
! pressed with the declaration that there is
no single side OF religion @ that does
not run right back to money as the founda-
ton Of its supply"-and that while it is
Jolly TO cay that religion fails, land that il is
folly to say that the church does not do Its
duty > Mr.. Beecher declares that the churches
are full of lotteries" and that church
fairs are carried on with the most I'M
biushing games of chance" IL would
seem. from Beecher's financial theories,
in 30 far as they relate to the
church, that the root of all evil has grown
down into the church about as deep as any
where else not excepting the stock exchange.
Nor isit strange that such should be the casa
il it be true that there is no single side of
religion that does not run right back to
money, as the foundation OF its supply"
Leaving out of consideration all questions
relating TO Pagan religions, and deal
ing only with the Christian re-
Lyon, good many people will
regard the declaration as singular that it has
no Single side" that docs not run right
back to money" 1t is a new departure IN
business mercenary TO the last degree. 1t
absolutely MAKES gold the god of the church
as il is of the world-the central idea of
religion the cOnverging point for all relig-
ious thought It absolutely ignores the
teachings OF Christ and silences
every precspt or the Gospel. Mani
testify, il is about time there was
first-class funeral in Brooklyn, with II. W.
Btecher for a corpse. He is already dead in
trespass and in sins, and no more resembles
a Christian than an electric eel does a thun-
derbolt. How different from Beecher are the
sentiments of the eloquent II. A. Holland,
who holds that all men seek and ought to
seek joy-ought to rejoice in the Lord, and
that ''joy can not be got In the possession OF
things; neither can il be held or won as a
prize of precedence, or power or praise
Kings are few, and among them only one is
the kiDglicst; while all under the crown,
whatever badge they wear, must own them
selves interiors. with whom the pain
of looking up offsets the pleasure Of
looking down. Pride is always envious.
II by wealth or fame you WISH to stand above
others, the old sore of poverty and obscurity
will never cease to burn so long as you have
to meet and bow down before wealth and
fame greater than your own. And could
you reach the very top. knowing as you do
by the recollection of your own mood when
an underlIng what envy taints the honors
paid TO that station, no ~ fulsome and insin-
cere Is their sdulation, how for every good
word spoken in your presence a hundred
calumnies will be whispered where you can
not hear them. Were it not the blindness
of faulty to welcome the cloven feet
that are 80 Visible beneath any, even
the most ostentatious, pageant of
mere external rank or praise? Where,
on this side of Tophet, does human
ity appear more despiceble than in the in
trigue of courts?-where, except in the re-
publican snobbery which mimics their
meanness without their grandeur? But sup
pose that it were otherwise; suppose that
money could buy ease from pain, comfort
without feebleness, luxury which never
safes; suppose that the honors OF external
rank were just and whole-hearted, and abid-
ing; yea more, suppose paradise of hsppi-
ness-that is, OF what happens to a man
where there is no need of toll and strife,
where every sense is 'propt on beds Of anna
ranth and molly and life seems a lotus
eaters dream. Still it would be ioyless
paradise, q dream which the soul, unless too
drowsy to know its danger, would shake off
as the stupefscion OF some fatal drug. No