Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-02-07
MORAL END OF MoNEY-MAK1NG.
By Henry F. Cope

Whatsoever ye do, do all to the
glory of God.'-1 Cor. 10 81.
There are those who talk Of money
and business as though these were
necessarily and intrinsically evil. 1t is
often supposed that capacity for bust
ness, while those to whom poverty
seems inevitable find consolation in re-
garding 1t as evidence of piety.
Large numbers of otherwise sensible
people feel that there is some unavoid-
able conflict between the ideal and
the real, between what they call the
sacred and the secular, between the
things they would like to do and to
be and the things they actually have
to do as part of their daily affairs and
duties.
Probably the greater number try to
meet the difficulty by dividing their
lives and interests into separate parts.
, They say, business is business; religion
Is another thing altogether l will work
hard and honestly at my business and
look forward to the comforts and pleas
ures of religion and ideal things
SO it happens that there are those
who feel that to speak Of religion on
weekday reveals a lack of the sense
Of the fitness of things, while other
good people are quite sure that it Is a
wholly frreverent thing to speak Of
business on a Sunday. We tend to
dwell alternately in two sets Of apart
ments, the practical and the pious.
Even where there are no such sharp
lines through the life we feel that
manufacture and the market, money
making, and trading tend to blunt the
finer sensibilities and act as a him
drance to the realization Of our ideals,
while, on the other hand, we are sure
that the life Of ideals is untitled for
business.
The result of this separation and
| apparent antagonism is that we cannot
develop our lives symmetrically; we
are torn by conflicting purposes we
fail to see any ideal ends in business
or to find any practical values in re-
ligion. Religion without business tends
to dreamy, purposeless moral enerva-
ton; business without ideal ends aims
to grossness and materialism.
We need to spiritualiZe all our acts;
our whole lives, our business, our work,
our pleasures by giving them moral in
tent and value, so as to unity the
sacred and the secular, the unitarian,
and the ideal by making each serve the
other
1t does not make SO much differ
ence whether a man Is engaged in
money making or in writing poems and
picturing the fair dreams Of better
things the question is this, Is the
money making for the sake of the
money or for some high and worthy
end? What is the motive that impeIs
either the dealer in dollars or the
dealer in dreams?
Our ideals, visions, aspirations, and
our religion become most damaging if
! they fail to find expressions in conduct
and work lacking the practical, they
result in a character that is satisfied
with contemplating the good instead Of
| realizing it. The man who sinks his
soul In dollars may personally be no
worse than he who allows it to atrophy
while he dreams.
Here in religion is the dynamic, are
! the motives that bear men on and buoy
them up to do the toll, bear the bur-
dens, stand in the fight of daily liv-
ing; here are the visions that lift our
eyes from the desk and the machine,
from profits and discounts and help
us to see the worthy prizes of life.
No man could become a saint by sep
arating his Bible alone; neither can
any man find strength and stability
for life's business and battle, find salts
faction in it's service and rewards. I'M
less he sees through it's dollars and it's
dirt the moral ends Of all this worlds
work.
This noisy mill of daily living may
be the greatest blessing we know; it is
the opportunity for the expression of
our highest ideals for the translation
of religion into terms Of daily living:
it is the place where character Is mold
ed by it's stress, it's calls to the strong
will, and it's manifold opportunities for
the service of all mankind by each man
T. f. 111o