TWO FORCES by F. D. Starr

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · May 31, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 22.

TWO FORCES.

By F. D. Starr

YE can not serve God and mammon." Matt. 6:24. "God is love." Mammon is riches. Two very different powers impel men to action in this world. One is the power of love, the other is the power of money. The very same act may sometimes be performed by either one of these motives, so that it may be hard to tell which of these two induced the person to act. Sometimes it may be difficult to get any one to assist us from either motive, and then we say, "I could not get any one to do it for love or money." But while the operation and the effect produced may be about alike in either case, yet the motive, the thing that God takes into consideration, may be as different from the other as day is from night.

A man desires to go to the neighboring town. Various powers may take him there, and it remains for him to make the choice among the many. He may go by steam on the railway, or he may go by the street-car line and be impelled by electricity, or he may ride in a carriage and be drawn by horse-power. If he prefers, he may go independently of all these and furnish his own locomotion by going on foot or on a bicycle. Anyway, he gets there just the same, and it would not seem to make so much difference how he gets there. But in our conduct in morals and our dealing with our fellow-men, the motive, the impelling power, is the important factor to be taken into consideration.

The minister who regularly enters the pulpit to preach the Gospel, is supposed, of course, to be moved by no other power than that of love. But is it not possible that the salary may have more to do in this matter than one would think?

Sometimes sailing craft on the ocean put in an auxiliary power of steam or something else, to be used when the wind is too low to drive the ship, so that if the sails are not sufficient to move the vessel along the auxiliary power may be.

Would not something of that kind be a good thing for the Gospel worker, so that if the love for souls were not quite sufficient to keep him at work, the love for dollars might accomplish the purpose? Right here comes in so pointedly the admonition of our Lord, "Ye can not serve God and mammon." The auxiliary power of the desire for reward and sustenance for the hungry mouths at home, gradually becomes the main power, the sole power even, and, without knowing it, the worker has changed motives as well as masters.

Men serve a visible god, and that god is wealth, the money power. To serve the true object of worship, the invisible God, whose power and nature are love, requires a mighty transformation of mind. Money has its place. The Lord created money. "A just weight and balance are the Lord's; all the weights of the bag are His work." Prov. 16:11. Money is to be the servant whose use and disposal are to be directed entirely by love, which is to be the master.

Nothing can afford a better opportunity for the manifestation of love than the investing of money in the cause of God and philanthropy. Mark, the opportunity is afforded the giver to thus manifest his love, and, hence, "it is more blessed to give than to receive." The worker in the cause of Christ manifests his love in devoting himself unselfishly to its advancement. Of course he needs support, but he is not to work for that support. It is arranged for the one who desires to share his labor of love, to manifest his love by furnishing the other with the necessaries of life.

Sometimes those who work from the pure principle of love, are accused of serving God for riches. It was so with Moses and with Job. We may often mistake the motive, but God knows it. When mammon is master, all love's operations must be restricted, as was the case with those who wished to prevent the costly gift of Mary to her Lord. Loving deeds may not be performed if they cost too much. This "waste" can not be tolerated. Often upon the settlement of an estate the heirs of the deceased become forever alienated from each other. Before they seemed perfectly united, but now there is a lifelong division, not only of the property but also of the family. What was the rule by which their decisions were reached, love or money? "Ye can not serve God and mammon." F. D. STARR.