Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1909-01-01
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WHO Is YOUR MASTERP

By Rev. P. A. Halpin
Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.-
Matt vi, a.
Christian ethics is logical, comprehen-
sive and immutable. Like its founder,
it is simple and unequivocal as well.
Theoretically, it appeals to reason and
experience. Practically, it is uplifting
and calls out what is best in highest
manhood. 1t is for heroes and not for
weaklings
That no man can serve God and
MammOn is an irrefutable inference
from the larger principle that no man
can serve two masters. 1t implies that
man must have a master, that there are
but two masters-God and Mammon-
and that he cannot serve both. 1t di-
videS the race into three classes.
There are those who serve God, those
who serve Mammon and those who en-
deavor to serve both God and Mammon.
1t is to these last that this particular
utterance is made. The first Christ
embraces as His brethren. For the
last His scorn is almost as boundless
as His mercy. They are numerous,
these wastrels Of humanity. What their
number God alone knows. In the blind
ness which seems their curse they act
as if they could hoodwink God. Christ
confronts them with a dilemma which
they cannot escape Both masters they
cannot serve, so they must come from
under cover and declare themselves. All
that is left for them to do is to give up
one or the other master. Let them ad-
vance to the open and fling cOncealment
to the winds. Away with compromise!
Away with cowardice. Away with ny
pocrisy! This is their best, their only
chance of regeneration.
Nothing will ever come from duplic-
ity save dishonor and ruin. The sol
der who rudely smote Christ on the
cheek did not infiict a 1.-THE of the
agony which followed the kiss of Judas.
CCmpromiserS are Judases, every one of
them, and the malediction of their pro-
tOtype is on them all Living they are
cOnfound and betray themselves. Liv-
ing honestly is better than trucking,
and even the honor that is found among
thieves is honor OF kind, whereas
knavery is always degradation. While
angry with your brother the sacrifice
you place upon the altar is insult, and
the Widows mite counts more with
God than the mammoth requests to
church and to charity extended by
hands tainted by the oppression of the
labOrer and the orphan.
Let, then, every man unmask. Who is
TO be the master? God or Mammon?
Let each one be mercenary and adhere
to the employer who gives the bigger,
the better wages.
What stipend does Mammon offer and
what is the security?
The collateral is uncertain and the
end slavery, not freedom, and servitude
the vilest. Is there a human being so
prone as the slave Of wealth, and of
all that it inspires and procures in the
way Of pleasure and crime? What does
it not do against sense and brain and
heart, bringing disease and madness
and cruelty?
What remuneration does it even
promise to render after death? Gods
hire is exceeding great-here freedom
and not chains; hereafter a compensa-
ton which eye hath not seen nor ear
heard, nor mind conceived. With this
Master no panic, no failure no bank
ruptcy. He will not leave His servant
naked to his enemies Surely God is a
better master than Mammon.