p. 4 | A Root of Evil by A. J. Gordon, D.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 29, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 18.

A Root of Evil.

By A. J. Gordon, D.D.

"I KNEW a widow of limited means who was remarkable for her liberality to benevolent objects. But a sad change came to her in an unexpected legacy which made her wealthy, and then her contributions began to fall below the amount of her straitened finances. Once she volunteered; now she gives only when importuned, and then in as meager a manner as if the fountains of gratitude had dried up.

"Once when asked by her pastor to help a cause dear to her heart in her comparative poverty, and to which she then gave a guinea, now she proffered a shilling. Her pastor called her attention to the surprising and ominous change. 'Ah!' she said, 'when day by day I looked to God for my bread, I had enough and to spare; now I have to look to my ample income, and I am all the time haunted with the fear of losing it and coming to want. I had the guinea heart when I had the shilling means; now I have the guinea means and the shilling heart.'

"It is a fearful risk to heart and soul to become suddenly rich. This is one of the reasons why God lets many of His best children acquire wealth so slowly, so that it may not be a snare to them, may not chill their benevolence; that, when wealth comes, the fever of ambitious grasping may be cooled, and that benevolence may overtake avarice."

Now, the only way to avoid this peril is to cultivate two habits, and let them grow side by side—the habit of economy and the habit of charity. If one's economy grows steadily and alone, it will tend to dry up his charity; if one's charity grows steadily, it will dry up his means, unless balanced by the other virtue of economy. Therefore let both grow together; then our giving will increase just in proportion to our getting.

—A. J. Gordon, D.D.