Minded to Be Rich by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 23, 1914

Minded to Be Rich

By C. M. S.

ISRAEL worshipped a calf of gold and suffered God’s displeasure. His servant burned the calf, ground it to powder, and scattered the dust upon the water.

The people today are not making calves of gold to worship; but they are certainly worshipping the material of which Israel’s calf was molded. The worst feature

of the situation is that such worship is not confined to the people of the world. In very many cases even the church member has sacrificed truth and honor to the shining idol, and then has sat down to eat and drink and risen up to play.

The Word declares: “They that be minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” 1 Tim. 6:9, 10. In very many cases we have found that this unholy and dangerous love has taken possession of those of our own faith; and an idol has been set up in the soul that has eclipsed the missionary zeal, the love of the message, and even the fervent love of God experienced in former days. Satan has been wonderfully industrious in these closing years to invent a myriad of schemes to catch, if possible, the eye, the ear, and the heart of every soul in this age.

If we are “minded to be rich,” we may know, as surely as the Word of God is true, that we have put ourselves in the way of Satan’s temptations and thrown ourselves into his snare, and have opened up our hearts for the “many foolish and hurtful lusts” that Satan has invented for the very purpose of drowning men “in destruction and perdition.” We cannot love two things supremely at the same time. When the love of God is uppermost, the love of the things of this world sinks out of the heart. When the love of money is uppermost, the love of God declines and vanishes; and then it is that men are “led astray from the faith.”

At the present time unscrupulous men, whose only god is the gold they have or covet from you, are advertising all kinds of plausible schemes to enable “the small investor” to amass a fortune in a few months or a few years. They seem able to figure out their propositions to a demonstration. The people invest their means, and may even receive a dividend; and then for some reason, plausibly explained, the project ends, the “promoter” is rich, and the people who have invested, because they were “minded to be rich,” have the experience and a depleted purse.

Some of our own people have invested in these plausible propositions, and riches are still beyond their reach. In many cases they have not received a cent in dividends. They cannot contribute as they would like toward the promulgation of the message; for the very being who prompted the proposition and fosters the love of money, is holding theirs where it can never be obtained to use for that purpose. It is a scheme of the adversary, and it works for the advancement of his purposes and the hindering of the message God has given us to give to the world.

Such investments are like those of which Haggai speaks: “He that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.” God’s blessing is not upon them. How much better to follow our Saviour’s instruction: “Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Luke 12:33, 34.

The powers of darkness will never come to the support of the legions of light to advance the interests of the kingdom of Christ in the world. Satan exults when Christians (and especially Seventh-day Adventists) put their means where he can handle it in his own way. God has made us stewards of the means he intrusts to us. When we invest in the money-making schemes of this world, we are making the “god of this world” the steward of what God has intrusted to us; and we are in no way warranted in expecting that the god of this world will so handle our funds that the cause of God will be advanced or our eternal interests in any way served. There is a bank that is safe; there is an enterprise that will not fail nor disappoint the investors. That bank is the bank of heaven, and that enterprise is the third angel’s message. C. M. S.