The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1906-09-06


They are working for gold in order to
win selfish power and selfish fame. Is
that your condition, o man, wOm-
an? Is your love of silver crowding
out your love for Christ?
But though the love for Christ and
the love for gold cannot exist sinful
taneousIy IN the same heart, that is not
the only result Of this evil of greed. 1t
might not be so bad if you could come
to greed and say: Here, greed, here
Is my soul, here is my love of God.
Now eat and be filed" But greed is
a glutton. Greed is gormand Greed
is huge monster with voracious APP
petite, and the more you feed him the
larger he will grow, and the greater
will become his desire for food. He
will swallow down q mans religion.
He will keep on swallowing down
houses and banks and lands. and still
this demoniac monster greed will keep
crying: Il am hungry; give me more
to eat. More to eat, say. Give me
more! Aye, give me more than you
have, and still can eat it and not be
satisfied. l am growing bigger all the
time Food, food! l must have more
food for my omnivorous appetite"
That is only another way of illustrating
the Biblical truth of my text, which
says, HE that loveth silver shall not
be satisfied with silver, nor he that
loveth abundance with Increase
You never saw a pers~ a. who selfish
ly lived for what he could get who was
satisfied with what he had More,
more" is always the slogan of greed
GIVE me more Give me more do
you see that sofa ~ said a gentleman
some years ago to a friend well,
that one sofa almost ruined me- 1t
took me years and years to recover my
self have always kept that sofa as
an object lesson for my children When
was young man we were living in
humble street and in small but
comfortably furnished house. ] was
working my way along and would in
time have come out all right But one
day my wife was at an auction sale,
and she was able to buy that sofa very
cheap. She bought it, but no sooner
did she put it in our parlor than it
made all the rest of the furniture look
shabby. Then we decided to get new
parlor set to match the sofa. No soon
er did we fix up the parlor than we had
to buy new furniture for the dining
room, and so we went on fixing the
house. Then, after we had refurnished
the house, we decided that the house
itself was not good enough for the fur
niture, so we moved into a larger house
on better street Then, when we
moved into the better s&eet, we found
out that we had to have better clothes.
Thus we went on Increasing our ex-
penses and our outgo, while our income
remained the same. Then the first
thing I knew the bills kept piling up
and l was financial wreck" "Ah,
yes" l said to myself when / heard
that story, "how true that is about the
unsatisfying result of selishly living
for what we can get! When we live
for self the more we have the more we
want. Greed has an omnivorous appe.
lllt. dIced 10 d ElutlOn. 0lCCO htCpo
crying: More, more Give me more. l
must have morev" My friend, is not
this the personal history of your greedy
life?
Growing Rich but Selfish.
My brother, how old are you? For
ty." How are you getting along in
business? "Oh," you say, "splendidly,
splendidlyl My business was never
better than now Are ysu making
any money outside of your business?
Eyes," you say II do not tell this to
everybody, but will to you. Last
week l closed one deal alone whereby
l made on one piece of land a net
profit of $4,000" Indeed. l suppose
you inherited a good deal of money
from your father to start in businessf
"Inheritedl Indeed, did not. Why,
father never had anything to speak of.
/ was brought up on farm. l made
my own way alone. Why, when | first
came to this city my wife and l used
to live in two rooms. Then l often
said to her, If the time ever comes
when we have an annual income OF
81, 800 and a little home of our own
we will be satisfied" Then you laugh
to yourself and say, THANK God, we
have a good deal more than our little
home now and 81, 500 year income"
Is that so, my friend? Then | sup
pose, as your money is increasing, you
are giving more and more to God and
to your fellow men. suppose, as your
capital enlarges, you do not grind your
clerks down to mere pittance and
that you give them more time off for
rest. 1 suppose that every year, as
your financial income enlarges, your
benevolences enlarge also. You look
at me q moment Then you drop your
eyes as you slowly say: mo; ought to
do this, but do not give as much now
as did twenty years ago. The strange
fact Is. that financial success inevitably
encourages selfshness. The more get
the more 1 want and the less give in
proportion to my success. This Is
selfish world, and L am each year Ike
most rich men, becoming more ana
more selfish" God pity you. 0 Chris
tan Migrate! God pity you, | say
again, because as you grow wealthler
you do less and less for Others.
know one fact is true-the more you
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