A NYTHING abnormal fails of proper balance, and a faculty gone astray needs righting for proper living. Nothing can be seen in its true light till the eyes see it from a correct focus; and eyes greedy for gold are wrongly set in their sockets.
A few illustrations may help to view the folly of mammon worship. If my neighbor has never displayed a musical faculty, this awakens no surprise on my part or on the part of his other neighbors, tho all of us may be given over to music. We simply see that music is not his forte, and he is none the worse fellow for that.
If in the circle of our acquaintance every other man or woman is not a poet or a poetess, we recognize that poets are never made, but born, and hold our friends in no less esteem, tho they may not even appreciate poetry.
If the artistic faculty has never come into the life of other friends as one of the highest blessings of heaven, we do not feel warranted in cutting their acquaintance.
But in the business world if our associates are not each and every man a money maker, we draw the line sharply; for here only birds of a feather can with comfort flock together. Mammon demands that all qualify themselves to double the almighty dollar, and the craze increases as the dollars double. No matter what the business, the question is not as to its respectability, but its profitableness, not as to its mutual helpfulness in trade, but the ability to coin money, as the money passes through the fingers of commerce.
And so we find ourselves at the close of the greatest century since creation's dawn, a race of money-getters and mammon-worshipers, and the "golden calf" the idol of millions of hearts.
Nor does the craze stop with those who are engaged in the more strictly commercial callings. He whose book sells the widest, not from virtue in the book, but from the popularity of the writer, he whose songs are the widest sung, not because of the sublimeness of the melody, but because the author is on the crest of the wave, and the shekels roll his way, these are the men to whom we turn and cry, "These are thy gods, O ye people!"
And, more than this—alas, pity 'tis true!—the preacher of righteousness, he who is set for the defense of truth, God's oracle, is swept in the mighty current; and the question is not, Can he convert sinners from error's ways? but, Can he command big pay? This is the all-important question, and the aisles of the church, as the avenues of trade, resound with mammon's mighty call for worshipers.
But men who sell themselves for gold will perish with their gains. He who barters all for silver will not be satisfied. Life has ever been, and ever will be, more precious than meat, and the body more precious than raiment.