Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-26

which YOU live, or helps anybody in it. or
brings genuine and healthful pleasure into
any human life, your own or your friends
such money is used religiously. 1 can
think of circumstances wherein dollar
used to buy roses with would be used more
religiously than if it had been put upon the
altar of a church. The books OF all the
treasurers of churches will be examined at
the dav of judgment, and the sums noted
which are set down opposite your name, but
so will the ledgers of all the grocers
be examined. and all the tailors. We need
not put it off so long as that. GOD sees
them every day. And He is just as much
interested in one kind of account as IN an
other, and takes them all into account Wnen
de looks TO see what you are doing Win the
gold and silver that are His.
Inc Bible has good deal to say about tne
Dangers OF money. Because whoever mas
money IS under constant temptation to use
that money for other than religious pur-
poses. The Bible tells about rich man,
who wore elegant clothes and gave elabo-
rate and fashionable entertainments, and
who, when he died, walked up in torments.
1t describes another rich man who had made
so much money that he had to tear down his
barns and build greater; who had settled
himself down to long enjoyment of
HIS SELFISH PLEASURES,
and when God called him suddenly, he de-
parted poor and miserable, all his treasure
being on the earth. The Bible has a good
strong name for that sort of man. 1t calls
him fool. We are warned in the Bible
about the deceitlulness of riches. Riches
tempt men into traps. Money is called the
"unrighteous Mammon,' which implies
that it persuades men to De both heathen
and wicked, to forsake God and to forsake
goodness. We are told that "they who will
be rich"-they who are straining every nerve
in the race which has golden goal-"fall
into temptation and snare, and into many
foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men
in destruction and perdition." We are for
bidden to lay up for ourselves treasures upon
earth. A woe is pronounced upon the rich.
The love of money is bluntly declared to be
the root of all evil.
We are able TO interpret some of these
hard sayings when we read how wealth and
vice walked arm in arm through the streets
of the Roman cities Of the time OF Christ
Wealth to-day is very widely Christian. In
parish after parish of the Christian church
to-day, wealth means spiritual energy and
wisdom and strength and splendid charity
and conservation. Nevertheless, wealth
means temptation still, and always. Wealth
means spiritual danger, if it were only in
the truth that the more will be required of
him to #hom God has given much. God
cares for no mans hank account; asks the
sum of no mans tr a ure, except the treas
ure that he has in heaven; looks straight at
the heart of man, and pays no heed whether
the man wears cloth OF frieze over his heart
or cloth of gold. God does not love the Door
more than He loves the rich. But God sees
what everybody needs. He sees that the
poor need consolation, and the book of God
is full of that; full of kind words tor the
poor. And He sees that
THE RICH NEED WARNING
and He gives them warning. That is the
meaning of that seeming preference in Holy
Scripture OF the poor above the rich. The
Bible gives warning plentifully, and his
tory emphasizes the Bible. When you read
history you read the lesson of the peril of
prosperity. 1t is written there in big cap
ital letters. Again and again has the same
tragic story repeated itself, chapter after
chapter, act after act, in the biography Of
nations-poEerty, thrift and honesty at the
beginning; wealth, corruption, disaster at
the close. So fell the Kingdom of Israel
after the splendid reign of Solomon. So
fell Rome. So will fall every nation, this
republic not excepted, which walks over the
same path toward the same precipiee.
The future of this nation is to-day mem
aced by money. 1t seems as if there were
no limit to the debasing things that men
will do for money Pile the scales Of
righteousness as high as heaven, put in per-
sonal character, conscience, honesty, honor,
our duty toward our neighbor; put in the
49, Il.
souls Of our felloY men, yes, aRd mani
own soul upon the top Of the pile, and in I
the other balance put anything you please
any mean, dishonorable, unclean, cruel,
wicked thing you will, and write this label
on it, ':There is money in it, !" and there
will be no lack of men in whose presence
up will go the side of duty like q feather,
down will go the side Of dollars.
Money is degrading the sanetity and
stealing the genuine help and happiness Of
the Christian Sunday. Money is writing
unworthy and debasing books, editing SEN
sational newspapers and getting them
printed. Money is setting snares for chill
dren. Moneyis putting that into the mouths
of men which steals their brains, makes
them pitiable, good for nothing,
BRINGS POVERTY INTO THEIR HOMES
and misery into the hearts of all who care
government of many large cities a byword.
The love of money is depraving public SEN
timent. 1t undertakes whatever cannot be
added up and marked with the sign for dol
lars. 1t settles the question of a mans
worth by asking: "How much is he worth?"
By its emphasis upon the material side Of
lie, by its uplifting OF money over morals,
by its upholding of wealth as the measure Of
human happiness, the love OF money is pour
ing oil upon the flame OF a trouble in the in
dustrial world, which will end-God alone
knows when or where or how.
Now, amid these perils, personal and na-
tionaI, amid these temptations which money
brings to bear upon our generation, there is
one defense. 1t is that every man and every
woman, in their place, and for their part,
keep this eternal principle in mind, that
whoever handles money acts as agent Of
the Lord God. '"The silver is mine and the
gold is mine, saith the Lord" Remember
that. Write that on the pages of ledgers,
and over the gates of Chambers of Com
mers and upon the doors of safes.
Test your life by that. Try the standards
of honesty in politics and commerce by that
standard. Money will never harm you, nor
will your money ever harm anybody else, if
you realize to whom it belongs Remember
that you are but stewards of the Lords
money. You are to have but one purpose in
getting and but one purpose in spending
moneY-and that purpose religious one,
absolutely for the glory of God, Interpreted
as 1 said. We, at least, must learn what
money is, and whose it is, and upon what
terms we hold it. Money hurts character,
personal and national, because it persuades
men into
TWO GRIEvoUs SINS,
worldliness and selfshness. Worldliness
makes us forget God, selfshness makes US
forget our neighbor. And so we break all
the commandments. can think of few sins
so hopeless, so fatal, as those which are