Huntsville gazette., 1886-10-16
THE ROOT or EVIL.

why Americans Should Heed tho Thought
full Admonition of st. Paul.
There are many passages which are
often misauoted from great authors in
a way that entirely perverts their
meaning, and throws the weight of the
great thinkers to whom they are incor-
rectly attributed on the side of opin-
ions which, whether they held them or
not, they did not utter. Notable
among these are ''the pen is mightier
than the sword,' and zone touch Of
nature makes the whole world KIM"
the former attributed to Bulwer and
the latter to Shakespeare. But Bulwer
and Shakespeare expressed no such
opinions as those which these passages
are commonly cited to support. OF
all examples of misrepresentation and
perversion, however, that which repre-
sents ST. Paul as calling money the
root of all evil is the most common. It
is SO common, indeed, that In general
talk money is jocosely spoken Of as the
root of evil, with a mental leaning
upon '.the Bible" in support Of the i'm
putation. Now, every one who has
read the passage in which this phrase
is supposed to occur. and who rightly
remembers it, knows that st. Paul said
no such thing, but something very diff
ferent What he did write, as it is
translated in our Bible, was ''the love
of money is the root of all evil" st.
Paul would never have written the
shallow saying usually attributed to
him. For, arart from his sacred char
acter as the Apostle of Christianity to
the Gentiles, he was not only learned
in all the learning of his time, subtle
thinker, and profound observer, but
man of sc und common sense and an ac-
complished man of the world using that
phrase in its best and largest sense. We
may venture to say, with reverence,
that st. Paul had due respect for
money, and knew as well as any man
in Tyre OF Sidon the power that the
possession of wealth must inevitably
give. What he wrote against was
covetousness, and the making haste to
be rich, which is no new disease in
this world; and he said, "But they that
will be rich fall into temptation and
snare and into mans foolish and hurt
full lusts, which drown men in destruc-
ton and perdition.'' And then, as
signing a cause, he adds, "For the
love of money is the root of all evil;''
writing in Greek words which might
be more accurately translated ''for the
love of money is one root of all the
evils"
NJ hot fhn of IN,
sense in which ST. Paul wrote, is one
root of all the evils, no people should
know better than we. The outgrowth
of this root is, as we have said, no new
moral manifestation. 1t springs from
human nature and showed itself, we
may be sure, long before the historic
period. But it has been left for our
time and our country to produce this
i'll weed in its rankest form; and it has
shot up into its present overshadowing
proportions within the last generation.
We were always thrifty people. and
up to about forty years ago we were in
general prudent, provident and saw
ing in money matters. More than all
this, we sought to earn money;
to get it by our labor or by the
steady and safe processes of
honorable trade. Against such means
of getting money, against a not i'm
moderate desire for money to be gotten
by such means, the great Apostle did
not write one word. 1t was the greed
of money, the eager seeking to be rich,
the making haste for it, in brief, the
disposition which urges us to get
money quickly and without labor that
St. Paul condemned. Never, among
any people, at any period, is there
record of such an outbreak of this
moral disease as there has been in this
country for the last generation. All
the conditions of our life favored it,
and it has grown upon us until it has
become mania epidemic to whole
people. There have been strong mani
festations of it before, elsewhere, it
need not be said; outbreaks of it
in France and in England, striking
enough and with serious consequences.
But these affected only comparatively
small proportion of society; never be-
fore did it infect whole people.
That this one root of all the evils is
the cause of the commercial unsound
ness and the social and political cor
ruption from which we have for years
been suffering. is clear enough upon
moments consideration. We talk of
reform and publication, and of course
we must strive after them, but here is
something beyond the reach of investi-
eating committees and out of the
sphere of "new departures Wemust
begin deep down in our moral con
seriousness and strike at this root of all
our evils.-Bost0n Budget.