Editorial September 29, 1923 Issue

True Riches

Ella W. Hoag

Carlyle once said, "The wealth of man is the number of things which he loves and blesses;" while Henry Ward Beecher declared, "In this world it is not what we take, but what we give up, that makes us rich." Wise thinkers have always recognized that true riches belong to Spirit and spirituality, not to matter and its claims to material possessions. In all ages there have been men who have endeavored to preach and practice the gaining of heavenly riches through the relinquishment of the things which belong to the world. John wrote: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

As with other right purposes, mankind has not so much lacked their forceful presentation, as it has failed to see the way to put the right purpose into practice,—to allow it to become the ruling motive. Men have always desired to gain good that is lasting; but because wealth has been looked upon as material, the tendency to lay up treasures on earth has apparently gone on uninterruptedly, even though the fact has at the same time been accepted that all which pertains to matter is, in the final analysis, but transitory.

One great difficulty has been that men have ever been trying to get. They have been seeking to gain something they might claim as their own, something they might be conscious of possessing. They have therefore failed to see that the only way one can ever be conscious of truly having is by giving—reflecting.

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