COVETOUSNESS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 13, 1879

In a recent address at a missionary meeting of the M. E. Church, New York, Rev. Dr. Fowler, editor of the Christian Advocate, gave utterance to some very plain truths about penuriousness. What he said of his own (the Methodist) church is equally true, we fear, of almost, if not every other church. He said: “Brethren, I desire you to bear with me. I wish to utter a deep conviction in great gentleness and sorrow of spirit. It is this: While I have full faith in our people as compared with any other people in this vital matter of giving, I am yet persuaded that more men will go from the Methodist church to hell for the sin of covetousness than for all other sins put together. It is a respectable sin. It kills in the dark. It strikes with dry rot. It consumes the center, leaving the outer appearances unscarred. May God save us from the sin of covetousness! In this great cause God gives you a chance to secure the gold of Heaven. Actual giving is the only cure for penuriousness. If you feel that it is hard work to give, that is a bad sign. The enemy is eating out your spiritual life. You must awake, and cast him forth. Giving is the sure remedy. Keep giving till you like it; then you will keep giving because you like it. Then God will open the windows of heaven, and pour out upon your heart all wealth.”—Selected.