The Evil of the Day

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 28, 1874

“The Evil of the Day.”

UNDER this head, the following article on the greed for gain which prevails to such a terrible degree at the present day, appears in the Christian Statesman of June 27, 1874. Prophecy has singled out this as one of the sins which would be so prominent in the last days as to constitute a sign of the end. The following words from Sir Edward Hornby show a striking fulfilment:—

A judge in Shanghai has been giving some useful hints on the prevalent desire to get rich too fast. A correspondent writing from that place tells of a criminal case which has been creating some excitement on account of its novelty, though we should perhaps not be disposed to regard it in the same light here. He says, “A gentleman holding a position of trust made use of moneys not belonging to him, and was tempted to act so by unsuccessful speculation and extravagance in living. The Chief Judge, in passing sentence, took advantage of the opportunity to read a wholesome lesson to the community, and his remarks are well worth repeating to a large sphere of society. He said, ‘You are the self-made victim of a passion which seems to be seizing on society at large, and which, like disease, spares neither age nor sex, the single or the married, the rich or the poor—the passion for getting rich by one or more strokes of luck; by a process which is as much open to the fool as the wise man, to the knave as to the honest man. It appears as if in these times men had but one faith, one hope, one object in life—wealth. Respectability, contentment with what we have, the happiness of our family, honor, all are sacrificed to this one god of the age we live in. Everything is to be sacrificed—not only our own prospects, but the prospects of those dearest to us, the prospects of our wives and children—to the great mania of getting rich; and this wealth is not that which is the result of patient industry, uprightness in dealings, and legitimate trade,’ but the wealth of the gambling table. The words of Sir Edward Hornby are like a shower of pearls, and it is to be hoped that the effect will not be lost.”