The Indianapolis journal., 1885-03-16
THE CURSE OF GREED.
Sermon Preached Yesterday by Rev. Il. e.
Neighbor at the North Baptist Church.

Neighbor at the North Baptist Church.
Rev. R. E. Neighbor pastor of the North Bap-
tist Church, preached yesterday morning on
''The Curse of Greed, taking as his text Kings
j., 21, 90.
Mr.. Neiehbor said that Naboth's life was
cheapened to the value of his vineyard, because
it unfortunately adjoined the palace gardens, and
the Kings heart was set upon possessing it, and
as Elijah met him once before and charged him
with being the cause of all Israels calamity, so
now he meets him again with terrible doom
for this terrible crime Elijah was the troubler
of Ahab as Ahab was the trouber of Israel
the man of God was sure to issue like an unwel
come apparition from his secrecy and confront
the unhappy crimina, with the well-deseryed
penalty of his crimes. So long as there are
Ahabs in the world, it is well that there should
be Ejahs to meet them. Ahabs was
a most miserable career from the
start; and for a man such as he, backed by wife
such as Jezebel, there was almost no hope what
ever cf character improving as the years in
creased He grew in infamy and moral coward
ice and duplicity until finally he was permanent
ly branded in history in such words or Scripture
as these: There was none like Ahab, which did
sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the
phasis on sell.
He is sad example of the truth that the love
of money is the root of all evil; that the service
of mammon stands directly across the service of
God; and that curse, deeper and more terrible
even than war, rests upon insatiate greed. No
woes of earth are deeper than the woes born of
| mammonism. There is no evil on earth but
what lust of gold is sufficient to compass it,
1.-The love of money is the root of all eviI.s
Even war 'horrid war"-nay be preferred to
the piping times of peace, if it be that canker
like greed, taking advantage Of peace eats its
way into the very heart of the Ma
tion's life and if the spirit of selfshness
fostered by trade finds opportunity of devel-
opment. For the spirit of greed is more the
spirit of humanity, and cares more for human
life than the spirit of war; Mammon, and this
crystallizing of all things about center of self
may change even the blessings of peace into
curses most dire The possession Of wealth and
the effort to obtain it are, of course, not wrong
On the contrary this is true: when poverty is
the result of thriftlessness and lack of industry
it is sinful to be poor. Men ought to try to OBJ
tain wealth by every lawful means and for the
sake of lawful ends; and when they do not
their poverty becomes the punishment OF their
fault. The accursed thing is not wealth, but
greed; the spirit that seeks to grasp, grasp
grasp, and then evermore to keep; the spirit
which like Ahab's, would lead a man through
slaughter, not only to a throne, but to the vine
yard of Naboth and it was against this that
our Lord who, being himself betrayed for $25,
the victim of greed, lifted up his voice of solemn
warning. Greed tramDles under foot the
law and the rights of individuals as
WE'LL In this case the law of iuher-
itance which forbade Jew from alternating any
part of his inherited possessions. Naboth re-
spectfuly appealed to this law as one that
rendered impossible what otherwise out of 10y
atty he might gladly have done. But what cared
Ahab for law when his pleasure was crossed by
it, although he was the anointed officer to
guard it and to that its provisions were main
tanned? The rights of property are as sacred as
any other rights OF men, and sIpposing there
had been no law of inheritance, Naboth was GER
tainy under no obligation to either sell it or ex-
change it, whether to the King to any one
else. ''Shali not do what I will with mine
own?" is Bible declaration of the sacredness
attaching to the rights of ownership, as we'll as
an indication of the responsibility resting
one for the use he makes of his property. The
possessor of wealth is not to be selfish and
grasping; but if he do not choose to use his
wealth for the benefit of his fellow men, that is
his business, and of them whether
individually or collectively. may com
property are sacred. Its responsibilities
| are to God and neither the might of a king as
| Ahab, nor the might of a mob like our com
| munstic societies may trample them under foot
Greed drives with the same indifference,
| also over human life. 10 it, indeed there is
| nothing sacred. Jezebel deliberately concocts
| plot for the murder of Naboth, and through the
elders of the city, who were evidently her thor.
| (0 message was on its way to Jezeba that
| 'Naboth was stoned and was dead Then
| Ahab went down to take possession. Finally
| divine law human rights in property, and hui
man life are overridden by the kings greed-all,
| that he might possess vineyard to which he
| had not the faintest shadow OF right But right
| what is right! And who cares for right any
| more than PLATE cared for truth, when one is
| under the sway of this over-mastering passion?
| Greed is exactly the same in stalk and in
| fruit to-day as it was in the days of
Ahab's crime. Our newspapers TEEN with
examples of ii. Must we not confess that there
are certain methods of business which are thor
oughly illegitimate, whether judged by the law
of God or of man, but which are adopted in the
interests of business l. e. of greed2 Are there
| adulterations in tea9 No such thing in sugar
as glucoses No vilely unwholesome baking pow
der? No vending Of nostrums under high sound
ing names, and with the assurance that they will
be found to be universal panaceas if rot the
very elixir of lifeg Are no lies of the most
au1acious sort faunted in our faces in the form
of advertisements No cheating the poor by ex-
tortionate rents for house that is barely habit
able, and which the landlord will not repair?
Here are businesses up and down these streets
which defy the law of God, and human law as
we'll Look at our saloons-gaping eateways to
perdition for any hapess fool that enters
Look at the publication of all that vile
iiterature-newspapers magazines and looks
which corrupt our youth If all this
is not greed of gain, tramplng law under foot
what, then, is It'll But, further; the spirit of
greed overrides the rights of individuals also to-
day as it did in the DAYS of Ahab-and as rough
ly shod. The laborer is worthy of his hire-the
wages OF which his work is worthy-does he
get its Is capital as solicitous concerning the
rights of the employed it ought to be- and
does it make fair distribution among them of
profits, according to the value of their seryicesl
On the other hand. every communistic assault
upon capital is Just as much a trampling of hu
man rights as when capital is inconsiderate of
labor. COMMUNISTS. Socialists and Dynamiters
are threatening violence against men who happen
70 be guilty of the crime tfl of being rich. Look