Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1912-08-31
AvARIcE.

1
ness is the root of all evils" but it tell
US also that "every creature of God j
good" and money is no exception to tn,
rule. 1t is not money that the sacret
writer's condemn, but rather the inor
dinate love oft Good in itself, it be
comes source of evil, only when mer
set their hearts upon it, become slaveI
10 it, and worship it as their God. Few
vices are more roundly scored in Holy
Writ than that of avarice. The wiss
man does not hesitate to term it "the
service of idols" and assures US thai
"there is not more wicked thing thar
to love money" And no wonder, fol
we know from experience that once the
spirit of Unsuitable greed takes posses
sion of a mans heart, he will stoop to
almost anything to compass his desires.
The we'll springs of human kindness are
dried up within him, and nothing at all
is worth his while, save the quest Of the
glittering gold.
One of the most lothsome Of Gods
creatures is the ugly, Shiny octopus, OF
devil-fish, and one of the most blood
curdling sights imaginable is to behold
it seizing its unsuspecting prey in its
tentacles, and clasping the wretched vic.
tim in its foul embrace, till death in
mercy put an end to the tortures of the
writhing, agonized creature. The image
of this horrid thing, and its revolving
process of blood sucking, remind US
forcibly of the avaricious money grind
er. Himself and the disgusting devil
fish are sufficiently alike in method to be
classed in the same family. He has no
more heart than the octopus. Every
thing is food that comes his way. Cha
rity, justice, religion, patriotism-all
must yield and bend before his over
mastering passion of greed.
At first blush the picture may seem
to be little too highly colored. But it
is not. 1t is fact, not fancy. We could
lay our hand on many such men with
out going very far out of our way. Their
name, unfortunately, is legion. The
world is full of them, and We are
brushing against them every hour of the
day. Not all, of course, have fallen to
the lowest depths. There are grades in
avarice, as in every other vice. But in
one degree or another, they abound
among us, in the shape of misers,
'cornerers, loan sharks, and the thou.
sands of others who prey and fatten
upon the helplessness of their fellow
men. 1t is these human vampires who
enrich themselves by taking heavy toll
of the sweat and blood of their breth-
rem, whom st. James the Apostle ad-
dresses in such scathing terms: go
to, ye rich men, weep and howl for the
miseries that shall come upon you.
Behold the hire of the laborers who
have reaped your fields, of which you
have defrauded them, crieth out, and
their cry hath entered into the ears oi
the Lord of Sabbath" And the AL.
mighty, speaking through Moses, "You
shall not among the widows and the
orphans, and if you do among them
they will cry unto me, and 1 shal
hear their cry-and my wrath shall be
stirred up against you"
Avarice is not confined to any one
class. The immensely rich may be alb
solutely free from it, and the very
poorest saturated with it. 1t is the spiri
of greed, and not the possession o
money that marks the covetous man
And wherever it is found, in rich o.
poor, it begets the same results, tn,
same hardheartedness and insensibility
to the claims of the needys. If "charit!
covers a multitude of SINS" avarice Il
the fostering parent of a multitude o
the meanest vices. 1t is a trait which
deservedly renders its possessor as obi
Gus in the judgment of his fellow men
as he is in the sight of God.
Rev. JAMES A. MOONEY.