The Church's Answer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 1, 1874

The Church's Answer.

PAUL said that in the last days covetousness should so abound, as to be one of the prominent characteristics of even the professed church of Christ. Covetousness is an inordinate desire for the possession of some supposed good, and is to be understood, as used by the apostle, in a bad sense. In this age it manifests itself in a mad clamor for wealth, immense fortunes, gaudy equipage, outward show. And the professed church of to-day responds, not in words, but in action, which more often than words, and more forcibly, tells the truth, that the words of Paul have come true; and this is the way in which one of their own papers speaks about the matter:—

“MAMMON IN THE CHURCH.—The present age is a materialistic age. The prominence given to the study of physical science, the innumerable inventions of implements and machinery, and the absorption of thought in money-making, building and land monopoly, prove the statement we have made to be true. The secular spirit is predominant in all departments of life. The people are interested and active, almost exclusively, in things of time and sense. Mammon is king. The lower nature of man is in the majority. There is constant and universal rush for gain of worldly good—for wealth, for fame, for office, and emoluments of the passing hour. The masses of the people are wearing their lives away in toil for bread that perisheth with the using. The times are crowded with schemes of speculation, with incessant strife for riches, and with the parade of temporal power.

“In such an atmosphere the church of Christ is stifled, and spirituality wanes. Even among Christians the worldly mood prevails. Religion becomes a thing of show, of convenience, of mere profession. Religious conversation deteriorates to passing criticism on sermons, sects and men. The discipleship which begins and ends in talk is of the letter that killeth.” U. S.