The Industrial Conflict in the Light of Revelation.
By Geo. W. Rine
HAVING been made for God, man can never become his truest and highest ideal apart from God. "And ye are complete in Him [Christ]." Col. 2:10. United to God, making God supreme in his affections, man is a Christian, an ideal man. Separated from God, he makes some creature rather than the Creator the object of his supreme regard, thus making himself virtually an idolater. In all the universe there is no power but sin that can separate man from his Creator. See Isa. 59:2. Created for God, man will instinctively worship, if not God, then something other than God. In spite of himself, man must set his heart upon something. Something must be and will be paramount in his affections. If that something is God, all is well; if it is not God, all is ill. That which commonly usurps the place of God in the human heart is fame, or sensuous pleasure, or material possessions. Inspiration, history, and observation conspire to warrant the conviction that the idol to which the heart is most prone, is money and all that money stands for. In other words, the most prevalent and relentless passion of the natural heart is avarice, or, as the Bible writers most frequently put it, covetousness. Note the direct, sharp warning given by our Lord, who "knew what was in man." "Take heed and beware of covetousness; for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Luke 12:15. Observe further the sweeping declaration which He makes through His servant Paul. "The love of money is the root of all evil." 1 Tim. 6:10. Again, David, referring to what the ordinary man is prone to do, declared, "He blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth." Ps. 10:3. These and many similar sacred passages show how general, how insidious, how implacable is the lust for gold. Observe, please, that Jesus did not say, "Beware of money," and that Paul did not write that "money is the root of all evil." "Beware of COVETOUSNESS," pleaded the Master. "The LOVE of money," Paul declared, "is the root of all evil." Not wealth, but the mania for wealth, is abhorrent to God. Money and all other forms of legitimate wealth are the gift of God, and therefore a blessing. There is nothing inherently bad in gold or silver, for the Lord created them both, and He made all things good. It is not a sin to be rich, but it is a sin to set one's heart upon riches. Avarice is not wealth; it is the craving for wealth. The passion for riches is often found burning in the heart of the poorest as well as in that of the richest. Greed is just as hateful to God when He finds it stirring the heart of the pauper as when he finds it throbbing through the soul of the millionaire. It is only when they become an idol that riches become a curse. When gold is sought for its own sake, when a love for it dominates the heart, then only does it become a snare. It then becomes a snare because it infallibly separates its devotee from God. It was no more a sin to pay homage to Aaron's golden calf, nearly three thousand years ago, than it is to pay reverence to Uncle Sam's golden eagles to-day. A little reflection will convince any one that covetousness is the very quintessence of selfishness. And selfishness is the matrix in which all sins have their inception. Hence it is not difficult to understand how the love of money becomes the root of all evil. A heart set upon gold soon becomes as cold and hard as gold itself. Greed is the soil out of which grow the noxious weeds of every form of dishonesty—forgery, embezzlement, bribery, perjury, theft, robbery, and even murder. Let a man once become infatuated with the idea of getting rich, and that very infatuation exposes him to approximately all the temptations that sinister spirits can suggest. Consistency, self-respect, honor, and conscience he will throw to the winds. "Nothing succeeds like success," becomes his working motto, and with such a motto he makes himself liable to the committing of almost any crime. The constant query of his heart is not, "What must I do to be saved?" but, "What must I do to get rich?" How vitally important, then, that our Lord's terse, ringing admonition, "Beware of covetousness," should burn its way into every heart. It is, however, in the closing days of time that, according to the repeated declarations of inspired prophecy, avarice will become peculiarly virulent, deep-seated, and almost universally prevalent. One of the most pointed and direct of these predictions is the following, recorded in 2 Tim. 3:1, 2: "In the LAST DAYS grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, LOVERS OF MONEY." R. V. All who have talent for observation, and who read current, periodical literature, must know that never before were there so many votaries at the shrine of mammon as to-day—so many who "love" money for its own sake, and accordingly make money-getting the one all-absorbing pursuit of life. Dr. Lyman Abbott recently wrote: "The sin that is nearest the root of our social disorder and unrest to-day is the eminently respectable and deadly sin of covetousness, tainting the life of the family and the church, as well as the state; the acquisitiveness whose sole concern is making money, and growing fat on what should be shared with others. Intemperance and licentiousness are more disgusting, but covetousness, which often prompts them for gain, dwarfs them both in the social detriment it works." Not long since the Scotch preacher and novelist, Ian Maclaren, wrote in his "Impressions on American Life," substantially as follows: The friendly visitor to the United States, who is proud of her achievements and delighted by her brightness, stands aghast at her open and unabashed front of secularity. Not merely coarse and unlettered men, whose souls have never been touched, either by religion or by culture, but all men, with a few delightful exceptions, bow the knee to this golden calf, and do it homage. Nowhere is there such constant, straightforward talk about money; nowhere is such importance attached to the amount of money which a man has acquired4or possesses; nowhere is it taken so absolutely for granted that the object of a man's work is to obtain money, that if offered money enough he will be willing to do any work which is not illegal. In short, the motive power with almost every man is his wages. The Doctor virtually affirms that "every man has his price," and that if you know that price, he can be induced to do what you want, even tho his health and his rest and his family and his principles stand in the way. Who can deny that the teachings of Jesus concerning possessions are practically a dead letter in the church to-day? He spoke of the "deceitfulness of riches." How very few of His nominal followers are really afraid of being deceived by riches! How very few refuse to run the risk! "Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth." Yet this is exactly what most of those who are in the church are doing, or at least strenuously striving to do to-day. "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven," said the Master. Yet nearly all His professed children are willing to run the risk of entering the kingdom, in spite of their having "great possessions." That greed has become epidemic, chronic, and well-nigh universal in civilized society, is evidenced a thousand times by the various immoral and even criminal methods employed, by all sorts of persons, to "rake in" the "almighty" dollar. Perhaps the most common and conspicuous of these unholy methods is exemplified in the ubiquitous saloon. According to the report of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue there were 184,889 liquor dealers and manufacturers in the United States in 1889. Allowing twenty-two feet front to each, their saloons in that year would reach in an unbroken line from New York to Chicago. To-day, however, our country can boast (?) of 250,000 of these gilded rum shops—temples dedicated to his satanic majesty. There is invested in this nefarious business more than a billion dollars of capital. It is estimated that the yearly liquor bill of the nation is now $1,600,000,000. It is not my purpose to discuss here the enormity of this unsavory business, but I refer to it as one of the many conclusive proofs that men are to-day essentially and universally "LOVERS OF MONEY." This vast host of men engaged in this diabolical traffic, are in it, not because it possesses any inherent attractiveness; not because they really desire to be parties to the immeasurable woe and ruin that their dark business is entailing upon society;—they are in it simply and solely for the money there is in it. The poor fellows are in absolute bondage to the cupidity of their own hearts. The most of them abhor the business, but adore the gold it brings them. They are not all avowed worldlings either. A very large per cent of the real estate devoted to the traffic and manufacture of liquor is owned by the adherents of Christian churches. What a sad, dark commentary upon the spiritual status of the present-day church! Nothing but the power of God in Jesus Christ can "set at liberty them that are bound"—bound with chains of iron to an altar of gold—and "let the oppressed go free." These devotees of the money tables know full well that they are bringing suffering and woe unutterable upon millions of mothers and children, and eternal ruin upon millions of men; yet they will not relent, they will not desist, not because they love human souls the less, but because they love money the more! "In the last days . . . men shall be COVETOUS," is the unqualified affirmation of Holy Writ. Is not this startling prediction of the divine Spirit most marvelously fulfilled in the eyes of all the world to-day, dear reader? The love of money—greed—is the mother of the saloon; the saloon is the mother of drunkenness, bestiality, brutality, lechery, disease, crime, insanity, and the drunkard's grave. Indirectly, upon the countless innocent and helpless dependents of the victims of rum, the saloon entails endless sorrow and shame and hunger and squalor and cold and not infrequently disease and death. How wonderfully this illustrates the truth of Paul's aphorism, "The love of money is the root of ALL KINDS of evil." R. V. (American). Another noxious thistle that has its root in the love of money is the social vice. This festering, reeking horror has, within the last twenty-five years, found its way into nearly every city and town having a population of a thousand or more. The larger cities, especially, are fairly honeycombed with the vile dens of harlots and harlot-mongers. It is estimated that more than 25,000 innocent girls are being seduced, and enticed into these hellish resorts every year in this country alone. Mr. Jerome, an officer in the city of New York, recently declared that of the 2,509 hotels in that city, 2,000 are open houses of prostitution. The Charity Organization of the same city is authority for the published statement that at least 10,000 immigrant girls, landing at Ellis Island, are annually forced or lured into harlotry. New York is probably not blacker in this respect than other large centers of population. It has become the regular business of scores of abandoned, reprobate men (?) to scour the country in search of victims—often pure, innocent girls—to be lured into these urban dens of infamy. For one of these innocents to cross the threshold of one of these dens is nearly always equivalent to crossing the threshold of perdition. But there's gold in this demonish, soul-destroying business. It is the demon of greed that is driving men and women into this ghoulish service of the devil. Just think of the families that have been wrecked, the hearts that have been torn asunder, the fathers, and, above all, the torn and bleeding mothers, who, under the weight of crushing agony, are sinking into premature graves, because of this reeking evil! Why, it may be asked, do the municipal authorities tolerate such a social octopus? I can only answer, There's money in it. These officers get a big "rake-off" from the uncanny, sulphur-kissed proceeds. Yes, it's the demon of avarice, that is, in the first instance, responsible for this social maelstrom which is annually dragging thousands of souls into the bottomless depths of perdition. "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." For "in the last days . . . men shall be lovers . . . of money." Even the children are becoming familiar with the terms "graft," "bribe," "boodle," "monopoly," and "corruption." They all spell GREED. In voices distinct and stentarian, they proclaim that we are living in a time when men will be "lovers of money"—in the last days. We are verily in the midst of last-day perils. The money-lovers of those days are everywhere. The fret and hurry and worry incident to the mad race for shekels is filling the world with nervous wrecks, issuing in paresis, heart failure, insanity, and suicide. Accordingly, all sorts of stimulants, narcotics, and soporifics are resorted to for the purpose of conserving(?) nervous energy and inducing rest and sleep. One vice begets a whole brood of others. "Misery loves company." How evident it is that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. How true that "they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." Such men, Paul adds, "have erred from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things." In later papers I shall further illustrate, by a discussion of modern monopoly, trusts, business and political corruption, etc., how the world is smitten with the disease of wealth-lust, as with an epidemic.