Disguises of Covetousness.
By John Harris
It is true of every passion, that it has an established method of justifying itself; but of covetousness it may be said that all the passions awake to justify it; they all espouse its cause, and draw in its defense, for it panders to them all; “Money answereth all ends.” The very prevalence of the evil forms its most powerful protection and plea; for “the multitude never blush.” We might have supposed that its prevalence would have facilitated its detection and exposure in individual cases; but it is owing to its very prevalence that so few are conscious of it. We keep each other in countenance. Having been born in the climate, we are not aware of anything pernicious in it. The guilt of this, as of every other sin, is measured by a graduated scale; and as all around us indulge in it up to a certain point of the scale, it is only from that point we allow covetousness begins; we begin to reckon guilt only from that point. Indignation is reserved till that point is passed, and the passion has become monstrous and extreme. Because we are not a community of Trumans, Elwes, and Dancers, we exchange looks of congratulation and flatter ourselves that we are innocent. The very resentment which we let loose on such personifications of the vice, seems to discharge us from all suspicion, and to grant us a fresh dispensation to indulge in the quiet of ordinary covetousness. Yet, often, it is to be feared, that very resentment is the mere offspring of jealousy; like the anger awakened in a community of the dishonest, at finding that one of their number has violated the rules of the body, by secreting more than his share of booty. But that which constitutes the strength of covetousness is, its power to assume the appearance of virtue; like ancient armor, it is at once protection and disguise. In the vocabulary of covetousness, worldliness means industry; though it is obvious to every Christian observer, that the pretended industry of many a religious professor is the destruction of his piety, and will eventually form the ground of his condemnation. Idleness is his pretended aversion. His time, his strength, his solicitudes, are all drained off in the service of Mammon; while nothing is left for religion but a faint sigh, a hurried, heartless prayer, and an occasional struggle so impotent as to invite defeat. “But Providence,” he pleads, “has actually filled his hands with business, without his seeking; and would it not be ungrateful to lose it by neglect?” But have you never heard, we might reply, that God sometimes tries his people, to see whether they will keep his commandments or not? and may he not be now proving how far the verdure of your piety can resist the exhaling and scorching sun of prosperity? Besides, is it supposable that God intended you to interpret his grant of worldly prosperity into a discharge from his service, and a commission in the service of Mammon? And, more than all, significantly as you may think his providence invites you to labor for the bread that perisheth, does not his gospel, his Son, your Lord and Redeemer, call you a thousandfold more emphatically to labor for the meat which endureth unto eternal life? You may be misinterpreting the voice of his providence, the voice of his gospel you cannot misunderstand; it is distinct, imperative, and incessant; urging you daily to “seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.” Another individual is a slave to parsimony; but he is quite insensible to it, for the temptation solicits him under the disguise of frugality. Waste is his abhorrence; and he knows no refuge from it but in the opposite extreme. Every new instance of impoverished prodigality is received by him as a warning from Providence to be careful. His creed is made up of all the accredited maxims and world-honored proverbs in favor of covetousness, the authority of which he never questions, and the dextrous application of which fortifies his mind like an antidote against all the contagious attacks of charity. And thus, though he lives in a world supported by bounty, and hopes, perhaps, to be saved at last by grace, he gives only when shame will not allow him to refuse, and grudges the little which he gives. The aim of another is evidently the accumulation of wealth; but the explanation which he gives to himself of his conduct is, that he desires simply to provide for the future. Want is his dread. And though, in his aim to avoid this evil, he may not distinctly propose to himself to become rich, yet what else can result from his constantly amassing? His interpretation of competence, if candidly avowed, is affluence; a dispensation from labor for himself and family to the end of time, a discharge from future dependence on Providence, a perpetuity of ease and sloth. Till he has succeeded in reaching that enviable state, his mind is full of foreboding; he can take no thought except for the morrow. As if Providence had vacated its throne, and deserted its charge, he takes on himself all the cares and burdens belonging to his state. And laden with these, he is totally disqualified for every holy duty and Christian enterprise which would take him a single step out of his way to competence. And often is he to be seen providing for the infirmities of age long after these infirmities have overtaken him, and laboring to acquire a competence up to the moment when a competence for him means only the expenses of his funeral.—Mammon, by Rev. John Harris.