GOLD RUSTING by G. B. Thompson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 27, 1901

GOLD RUSTING.

By G. B. Thompson

In James 5:3 we read that in the last days the gold and silver will be cankered and that it will “rust.” Gold continually circulated will not rust, and the fact that the Lord speaks of it as being rusty would seem to indicate that it would be piled up unused. The following from the London Mail is of interest in the light of the text above referred to:—

“The world is full of millions and millions of long-lost sovereigns. A competent authority has just completed some investigations which, he declares, show that in three years the Bank of England has lost trace of no fewer than 20,000,000 golden coins of the realm. This wholesale disappearance of the elusive sovereign has been going on for years.

“A river of gold has flowed unceasingly from Threadneedle Street to all parts of the world, but it has come back only as a tiny yellow streamlet. What has become of the surplus in its wanderings? ‘Misers’ is the unpoetical explanation for a great part of this disappearance. There still exist in this and other countries people who are business-like enough to hoard up gold and keep it lying idle by them for the sole pleasure of knowing it is there and occasionally counting it.

“The people of India appear to be particularly addicted to a habit that is more reminiscent of medieval times than of an age when money is generally saved so that more can be made with it. In the regency of Bombay it is estimated that 12,000,000 golden sovereigns are hoarded. If that is the record of Bombay alone, what is the full tale for the whole country? China, too, absorbs a vast amount of gold that never sees the light again. As a matter of fact, while the whole world is searching for and trying to acquire gold, a goodly part of it appears to be engaged in the less thrilling pastime of hiding it away.

“Great Britain is not guiltless of this commercial sin. Dotted all over the kingdom are graveyards of gold, which, if discovered and opened, might restore to circulation a vast amount of wealth at present absolutely useless. At a spot about two miles from Herefordshire Beacon, a treasure chest is recorded in the local history as having been buried by a great family once resident in the district. But the money can not be found. There is a similar record in connection with Hulme Castle, formerly a seat of a branch of the Prestwich family. Somewhere near Stokesay Castle, Shropshire, there is believed to be hidden a great oaken chest filled with gold coins, but up to the present all efforts to find it have ended in failure.”

The covetousness of rich corporations is, by unjust schemes, wringing from the pockets of the poor that which is theirs by right. By fraud they are increasing their ill-gotten gain. They are hoarding in their coffers the gold and silver of the earth. But “be ye patient.” The cry of the oppressed has

entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts. The just judge standeth before the door. Gold and silver will not deliver in the day of His vengeance. As we believe this sign of His coming judgments, may it inspire us to hide in Him for deliverance.

G. B. Thompson.