The Tribune. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1951-19??, 1951-08-11

book to spend DR.. Foreman
single cent. SPEND
ing is something all of us do, all
the time.
is Your Money Yours?
HTT'S my money and can do what
= I please with it, That is the
average mans attitude toward his
money. But it's not the Christian
attitude.
In the first place, Jesus parable
OF the talents reminds us that all
the conditions, and all the energy,
and everything else that makes
earning money possible, are in the
long run the gifts of God. 1T is
he that hath made us and not we
ourselves" is just as true now as it
ever was.
God 1t is who gave us life i'm
the first place, who has pre-
served us, and endowed us with
whatever gifts and capacities
we have. We are not our own,
we are bought with a price, as
Paul puts it.
However, we earn our living,
whether as farmers, business or
professional people, if it had not
been for the blessings of God we
could have earned nothing at all.
One bedrock principle of the Old
Testament is that the earth is the
Lords. Put that together with the
New Testament principle that the
Christian belongs to God, and you
have arrived at the great principle
of stewardship"
Profits or Profit?
THE earliest Christians of Jeru-
L salem pooled all their resources
and dealt them out to all, in proper
ton to their individual needs. This
experiment in sharing the wealth
failed: and one main reason for the
failure was that they paid all their
attention to consumption and none
at all to production.
No matter how smoothely you
distribute the wealth, If some one
Is not producing, the whole pile
will vanish in time.
Nevertheless, those earliest
Christians did have q firm
grasp Of q real truth: namely,
that when q Christian spends
money he ought to have the
needs Of the community first in
mind, and not his own profits.
Does this sound too idealistic?
Well, even the law, slanted though
1t may seem toward the protection
of wealth, puts limits on the ways
a man can spend his money. II it
can be shown that what he pays
his good money for is hurtful to
the community, the law will clamp
down on him, in many cases. You
can't keep 8 skunk farm on Broad
way. 1t may be your money, and
your skunks, but It's nvi your
Broadway.
To take another angle: down in
Atlanta (Georgia) highly success.
full industrialist, when he died, left
the stock in his company to his
employees. They had helped him
earn his fortune, he said; they
should share in the proceeds.
Does not our community help us
earn whatever we do earn? And
doesn't the community deserve con.
sideration in the spending?
The Money-God
ATO temples on our main streets
Az are labeled ITO the God Nam.
mon" But money is often a god
all the same. On Mammon's alter
how many things and men are
sacrificed What will men not dc
to make a fast buck" to turn g
neat profit? Honor, decency, truth
fulness, health, even life itself, viii
be given up before consenting tc
cut the profits down.
Every great intrenched evil
gambling, prostitution, corrupt
courts, liquor traffic--is as hard
to dislodge as the silversmiths
OF Ephesus, and for the same
reason: The people who stand
70 make money out of sin never
care what happens 10 the sin
ners.
But let us watch ourselves. Do we
smalltiners criticize the paunchI
big-shots because we really hate
the way they sacrifice everything
TO greed, or is it because we are
envious?
Copyright 1851 By the Division o.
Christian Education, National Council
Of the Churches Of Christ In the Unite,
states Of America. Released By WNL
FsatureS.)