Article January 24, 1901 Issue

Money

HANSON W. WHEELER.

Money typifies the dominant thought controlling mortals. The miser and the spendthrift are governed by the same motive,—the gratification of desire,—though manifested differently. The man dwelling in poverty is in bondage to the belief that money is power, just as truly as is the rich man who is striving to gain more.

Then it is not money, but the "love of money," or the controlling thought, that is the "root of all evil." The poverty bound is just as much in bondage as the grasping rich, for in both cases they are worshiping "gods that are no gods," the one believing in a power to deprive and the other conceiving that his worldly gain is a satisfactory protection. A man may give a fortune to what he thinks is God's work and yet not render unto God His due. That man who thinks that because he is poor financially he will escape the law that declares that a rich man can hardly enter the Kingdom of Heaven, is deceiving himself, for he is placing a value upon his thought that is little less than self-righteousness.

The rich man does not strive to increase his wealth because he needs it, but in order to gratify ambition or some other impelling motive. Men sacrifice money to uphold or maintain cherished opinions, beliefs, or doctrines, in politics, business, and religion; and religious opinions bind men more relentlessly than any other. Opinions fastened upon the mind by tradition and the teachings of years are exalted above everything else, and the acts of mortals are made to justify their beliefs, thus fulfilling the law of sin and death.

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