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HARVEST OF GREED

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal., Kansas City, and New York · Nov 29, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, Nos. 48, 49.

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HARVEST OF GREED.

A Lesson to Rich and Poor.

WHAT is a prominent characteristic even among professed religionists in the last days?
"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous; . . . having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." 2 Tim. 3: 1-5.
2. What does this covetous spirit lead them to do?
"Ye have heaped treasure together in the last days." James 5: 3.
3. To enable them to do this what course has been pursued?
"The hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth." Verse 4.
4. How have these thoughtless rich regarded the cries of the poor?
"Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just." Verses 5, 6. "The wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he." Hab. 1: 13.
5. In what value do they hold men?
"And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them." Verse 14.
6. How do they use them?
"They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag; therefore they rejoice and are glad." Vs. 15.
7. How grasping is such avariciousness?
"That join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth." Isa. 5: 8. "He is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and can not be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people." Hab. 2: 5.
8. What does prophecy say of the outcome of such a course?
"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you." James 5: 1. "Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee." Hab. 2: 7, 8. "And the songs of the palace shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God; there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence. Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail." See Amos 8: 3-6.
9. How does the Lord regard such oppression?
"The Lord hath sworn, . . . Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt." Verses 7, 8.
10. What counsel does the Lord give to both classes?
"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." James 5: 7. "With righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth." Isa. 11: 4. "Avenge not yourselves; . . . vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Rom. 12: 19. "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." 1 Tim. 6: 17-19.