■IB 835 ,J2 'Opy 1 °j°, all-inclusive laws # The one is the law of the Spirit of life, or the law of love; the other is the law of sin and death. The first fulfills all the law of Christ. Love includes all the graces. This is very clearly shown by Mr. Moody and Prof. Drummond. The former says in sub- stance, speaking of the fruit of the Spirit: It is love throughout. The first is love. The second is joy, which is love exulting. The third is peace, which is 12 THE MONEY PROBLEM. love in repose. The fourth is long-suffering, which is love on trial. The fifth is gentleness, which is love in society. The sixth is goodness, which is love to all men. The seventh is faith, which is love on the bat- tle-field. The eighth is meekness, which is love in the study of itself or love humbling itself. The ninth is temperance, which is love schooling itself, or mak- ing itself temperate in all things. This is evidently taught by Paul in his wonderful analysis of love in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. And no wonder that the apostle, after giving the nine manifes- tations of the one fruit of the Spirit, added: "Against such there is no law." For love is not only "the bond of perfectness," perfecting all the graces and making them ultimately one, but the bond of inseparable union to God as long as love lasts. And against God, who is love, there is no law. And just as these graces are one, just as the rainbow of truth is seen to be a separation of the pure white light of love that we may see it in all its beauty and adorn the doctrine in our lives, just so does the law make an analysis of sin to show the exceeding sinful- ness of sin. The law holds out sin in all its diversi- fied developments, with all their glaring and ghastly sensualness, selfishness, and devilishness that the whole body of sin, with all its deformity, hideousness, and corruption, " might be destroyed, and that hence- forth we should not serve sin." With some this body may have more members than with others. With some it is older and more fully developed than with others. But be assured that the body in its entirety is not destroyed till the " root of all evil " is destroyed. I quite agree with the commonly called " holiness " ORIGINAL SIN. 13 brethren ( God pity the unholiness sort ) in their cher- ished belief that sanctification is taking the worldli- ness or the earthliness out of the soul. This is the etymological and scriptural import of the word where- ever used with reference to moral character. But this most insidious and original vice is quick and powerful to enter again unless every avenue of the soul is closed against it, and constantly fortified with the manifold grace of God. So circumventive, so de- ceitful is this mother sin, that comes to us from our mother's womb, that grows with our growth, that be- comes, by the laws of heredity, assimilation, and de- velopment, part and parcel of our moral being, so na- tive to all men and insidious is this sin, that we firmly believe there are conscientious men who claim entire deliverance from it when they are under its influence. It is not asserted as a settled belief that covetous- ness is all of what we call original sin, yet the tend- ency of such faith is to increase. Evidently it is a universal condition of the soul, a disorder of every heart. The prophet did not miss the truth when he said: " For from the least of them even unto the great- est of them every one is giveii to covetousness." This identical statement is emphasized and repeated. ( See Jer. vi. 13, viii. 10. ) As these lines are being writ- ten a practical illustration or proof comes up in the case of the writer's two children, who are both young — one four, and the other one and a half. In the study they are playing with a book, looking at the pictures together. The larger has taken it from the smaller to have it all to herself. Here the question was asked: "Is not this covetousness?" Now the little brother, who has passed but two summers, has, 14 THE MONEY PROBLEM. with an angry exclamation, regained the mutually coveted but common property. Again there was a pause and the question: "Is not this original sin?" To study childhood is to see a multiform selfishness, and so with unregenerate man, only with the latter on a much larger scale. Just here it might be said that in a good Bible cyclopedia there are arranged 140 dis- tinct passages under the head of covetousness, while there are but 97 under the head of man's natural or de- praved state. And even some of the smaller division show that original sin is covetousness. With great wisdom does the Discipline insist on renouncing " the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with (/// covetous desires of the saute" which last phrase embraces not only what precedes but what follows it — "the carnal desires of the flesh." Original sin (an unscriptural phrase) or covetous- ness is a great poisonous stream, which flows from the fountain in Eden, and separates itself as it comes on down the ages into numberless diverging streams, some impurity flowing through every soul, which in turn becomes another fountain, and divides itself every time a soul is conceived and born into the world, for " that which is born of the flesh is flesh." No fountain can send forth both purity and impurity. So the "Seventh Article" is true to Scripture and to experience. The Consensus of Opinion. What about this stream to-day, which is many and yet one? What sort of spectacle does the world now present? What is the consensus of opinion, as to the curse of this age? Let wiser men answer. " The brain of the country is saturated with money THE CONSENSUS OF OPINION. 15 ambitions, arid broken down with money cares." (Bishop A. G. Hay good. ) " Covetousness, the harlot mother of all iniquity, is monopolizing the thought of the age." (Bishop E. K. Hargrove. ) " The cowardly covetousness of the Church has gone into confederation with the aggressive covetousness of the world." (Be v. W. A. Candler, D.D.) " Prevailing robbery of God, . . the curse of the nation and the disaster of the Church." (Bev. W. F. Cook, D.D.) "Avarice is the canker at the heart of the Ameri- can Church." (New York Observe): ) "It is the business of the world." (Hon. W. E. Gladstone. ) "To him [Christ] money, stripped of all disguises and sophistries, was the god of this world, erecting its sacrilegious, idolatrous altar in the temple of God, and rivaling the claims of God to human hearts." (Nashville Christian Advocate.) And no wonder ought we to have at such stirring statements when covetousness is native to "human hearts." When men are covetous by nature, it is the most inevitable result to be covetous by practice, " without preventing grace." It is too patent to be proved that among all classes and stations there is one mighty, mad rush after Mam- mon. To-day the original stream, that has widened with the race and deepened with the depths of all iniquity, sweeps on with the fury of a flood, bearing on its uncertain bosom a vast multitude of self-deceived wrecks. And a wilder, more wretched, and more nu- merous race of self-seekers is not to be found outside 16 THE MONEY PROBLEM. of the pit and final pandemonium of the Diveses, the devils, and their dupes. First Timothy vi. 10. We have purposely refrained till now from a dis- cussion of the passage in 1 Timothy vi. 10— namely, " The love of money is the root of all evil." It is amusing to see how most commentators have tried to explain away this text; and in this endeavor have succeeded in making manifest their il- logical, unscriptural conclusions. The learned Dr. Adam Clarke is cautious as to his translation, but in- cautious as to his conclusion. His first comment is: " Perhapsit would be better to translate iravTwv twv kolkmv, oiall these evils — i. e. 7 the evils enumerated above; for it cannot be true that the love of money is the root of all evil." Never was a more emphatic conclusion reached from such a modest beginning, from weaker premises. From a very questionable translation — it was doubtful with him — he disposes of this text in short order. But apart from unsafe premises the conclusion will not do. The doctor agrees with Paul that the love of money causes men to err from the faith — "have totally erred, have made a most fatal and ruinous departure from the religion of Christ." Now to err from the faith — the one faith — is to be in un- belief or sin; and here is another (?) egg out of which is hatched every known sin. The faith once delivered to the saints, as all are agreed, consists in setting our " affection on things above;" while un- belief is setting our " affection on things on the earth." Ellicott and Middleton both translate : "a root ( not as English Version, the root) of all evils (so the Greek FIRST TIMOTHY VI. 10. 17 plural" ), parentheses and italics not mine. These would have us believe that there was more than ont root of evil, but "all evils," from the one in question — other roots of evil, but no evil therefrom! Wheth- er a root or the root, it is the source of all evils! And so we believe. Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown, quoting from Ben- gel, are like-minded: "Love of money is not the sole root of evils, but it is a leading root of bitterness, for it destroys faith, the root of all that is good." That which answers the first two classes of interpreters fully answers these. Mr. Wesley gives the clearest and best interpreta- tion that we have been enabled to get: "Love of money — commonly called prudent care of what a man has— is the root, the parent of all manner of evils." We are quite willing to accept the translation of the English Version, or that of Mr. Wesley, which is stronger by pluralizing the noun evils, and is more accurate, according to Dr. W. P. Harrison, than the Revised Version.* Those who would wrest this scripture from its true meaning by declaring the ab- sence of the Greek article must for the same reason deny the divine sonship of Christ. Christian people will be slow to say a Son of God, meaning there are other divine sons. The absence of the Greek article is insignificant. Most of the commentators write like they were joking or dreaming, or boldly dodging a difficulty, Paul and Mr. Wesley do not. But before we leave this passage let it be remarked *Mr. Wesley's translation is: "The love of money is the root of all evils." It is this particular translation that Dr. H. says is. more accurate than that of the Revised. 2 18 THE MONEY PROBLEM. that the word rendered root is, by metonymy, first translated cause, source, origin. Euripides uses the word in speaking of the origin of evils — 'plsa kolkmv, " which is," says Liddell and Scott, like " Virgil' s/ons et origo mali." We refer to these representative writers from the Greek and Roman nations simply to confirm, by their similar use of words, the inspired declaration of Paul. We have seen the relation the famous tree in the garden bore to property (and to money when it came into existence as the exponent of property) — how both the tree and money answers to the trinity of evil mentioned by the apostle John, and that actual covetousness there was the beginning of sin in our race. The Case of Cain and Others. Now let us see if the second sin, or the first after the fall, did not spring from the same root. Cain, the first-born of the fallen pair, came into the world with a full share of depravity. All the records in the first of Genesis are brief, but enough is given with the help of the original Hebrew to be determinate. Abel is said to have offered his sacrifice "by faith." Faith necessarily implies a revelation; a revelation implies making known in some way God's will. It must have been the divine will made known to Adam, Cain and Abel, to offer for sin an animal sacrifice, the blood of which would typify the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God. The record is: "Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering [a min- chah) unto the Lord." "The minchah" says Dr. Clarke, " was in general a eucharistic or gratitude of- fering ... by which he testified his belief in THE CASE OF CAIN AND OTHERS. 19 him as the Lord of the universe and the Dispenser of temporal blessings." The offering of Cain was good so far as it went, but it did not go far enough. It is now agreed by the best interpreters that Abel brought a minchah as well as Cain. But this may need some proof. A little word, which we give in italics, is significant. "Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock." The learned commentator just quoted better translates as follows: "Abel brought it also — i. e., a minchah or gratitude offering — and be- sides this he brought of the first-born of his flock." Now we can begin to see the nature of Cain's first wrong. As Adam's was appropriating what was God's, so Cain's was withholding what was God 's. But perhaps the reader is not ready to accept this. We, therefore, go further. "Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." The same authority above given says that the phrase "more excellent" means more in number, therefore more excellent. Any Greek scholar can settle it for himself that pleiona (rendered more excellent) means more numerous. (See the use of the word in Matt, xxi. 36, xxvi. 53; Mark xii. 43; Luke xxi. 3; Acts xix. 32, xxvii. 12; 1 Cor. ix. 19, etc.) If still there is doubt, let the reader study Genesis iv. 7, in which the word sin, according to the best authority, is to be ren- dered sin-offering , which if Cain would offer he should "be accepted." "And unto thee shall-be his [Abel's] desire, and thou shalt rule over him " — shall yet have the right of primogeniture. But Cain's cove ton sness overcame him ; he did not bring even the first fruits of the ground. Perhaps a small minchah was brought, and the required offering that God had put at his 20 THE MONEY PROBLEM. very door was kept back. And when he gave way to this " root of all evil," then followed in its ready wake snlkiness, anger, murder, and perhaps everlasting de- struction from the presence of the Lord. Abel, on the other hand, overcame the temptation that came to his brother and his parents. He be- lieved and obeyed. "By faith Abel offered a more numerous sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts [see again a plurality of gifts]; and by it [a faith that worked by love] he being dead yet speaketh." Yes, Abel's gospel was a gospel of sacrifice, a gospel of giving; and though dead, he preaches the same everlasting gospel to-day. As to Lamech's sin, the next on record, we only know that he first became the husband of two wives. And here is covetousness if the Saviour's teaching is to be accepted. God did not institute bigamy nor polygamy, but monogamy. (Gen. ii. 24; Matt. xix. 5-9. ) It is proper to ask in this connection : " What is the cause of two evils pertaining to the divine in- stitution of marriage — namely, divorce and the known efforts to pre cent childhood? " Concerning the two de- plored evils it can be said: "From the beginning it was not so." And why so now? "Lovers of their own selves, covetous." Not only Lamech's bigamy, but his murder of " a young man " must be traceable to the same prolific source as Cain's, for he said: " If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven fold." We wish we had time to consider the case of Noah, and his faith in the Unseen (see Heb. xi. 7), "by the THE CASE OF CAIN AND OTHERS. 21 which he condemned the world [for its worldliness], and became heirof the righteousness which is byfaith." We wish we could notice somewhat at length the call of Abraham to give up houses and lauds and kindred for the kingdom of heaven's sake — his en- trance into Canaan, with as yet "none inheritance; no, not so much as to set his foot on"— and his sab- sequent magnanimity in giving the choice of the good- ly land to his nephew and neighbor, whom he loved as himself. "And Lot lifted up his [covetous] eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord." "He coveted greedily " in his choice, while Abraham's un- selfishness and his faith in God only took him to the poorer, more mountainous, and barren section. With what results to both? The one became the friend of God and the father of the faithful, ever ready to sac- rifice his son or his property, holding all in trust for God, in whom he believed without wavering. What large giving was Abraham's? What far reaching re- sults? Count the stars, and then you can count the results. The other was taken captive by four kings, was vexed by those who were "sinners before the Lord exceedingly," had to flee for his life from the Heaven-consumed object of his love, saw his wife turned into a warning monument to covetousness, and had at last his selfishly selected possessions to become the inheritance of Abraham and his seed. Remember Lot, as well as Lot's wife. These and other epochal events that had a determi- nate influence on the principal actors, and gave char- acter to subsequent history, cannot be followed out, 22 THE MONEY PROBLEM. but we must ask the patience of our reading friends as we discuss next The Attempted and Partial Erection of the Tower and City of Babel, Its Relation to Babylon, the Relation of the Jewish People to Both, and, Finally, the Connection of These and the Church of To-day with the Spiritual Babylon of the Apocalypse. Is there not one and only one great idea running through all these? We will have to be content with a mere outline, which has the secondary object of provoking an investigation that is thorough among them so disposed. Babel and Babylon are from the same word, which, in both the Hebrew and Chaldaic languages, means "confusion." Babel, in the original, is not only ap- plied to the tower and city of this name, but to the city of Babylon, and later to the whole country of Babylonia. (See Isa. xiv. 4; 2 Chron. xxxii. 31, xxxiii. 11 5 Ezra v. 13; Neh. xiii. 6, etc.) And the beginning of the Babylonish kingdom was Babel, in the land of Shinar, under Nimrod, its first king. (Gen. x. 10.) Nimrod, therefore, must have been at the head of the Babel-builders. Josephus, after making Nimrod the builder of this oldest tower, represents the act as "blasphemous impiety." The very word Nimrod means "rebel." Besides, he is represented as being a " mighty hunter before the Lord," which phrase, ac- cording to Josephus, Gesenius, and the Targums, has a hostile meaning: "against the Lord." Every rebel is "before," in the sense of over against, his ene- my. From the earliest history heroic hunters have TOWEE AND CITY OF BABEL. 23 become heroes on the battle-field. (See Perseus, Ulysses, Achilles, etc. ) And hunting was used in the sense of campaigning: hunting the people. Whatever Ninirod might have been on the chase, the Scriptures represent him as a leader, a king, and the builder of several cities. "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel." (Margin Babylon.) So under the lead- ership of this great campaigner, this mighty hunter against the Lord, it came to pass as they journeyed to the land of Shinar that " they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." Whether the Babel-builders expected to build a tower whose top would indeed "reach unto heaven" (some of the benighted ancients believed heaven to be but a few miles above), or whether they desired only a city and a tower as a general rendezvous for the peo- ple and the center of a growing population — interpret the undertaking as we may — the attempt was opposi- tion to God. Whatever was the vain hope of Nimrod and his beguiled workmen, selfish ambition led to the monstrous folly. "Let us make us a name." The people were not only one in language, but one in heart and one in the expectation of their future glo- ry; so that the first tower of the ages was a monu- ment to Self! But let vis go further. It is said that Babel, before the miraculous confusion came, meant "the gate of god," or the "court of Belus," or the "house of Bel." Bel or Belus is given in the Scriptures as the god of the Babylonians. (Isa. xlvi. 1; Jer. 1. 2, li. 44.) It is also now agreed that the Babylonian Bel 24 THE MONEY PROBLEM. is identical with Baal in its different forms. The primary import of all these kindred words, with their various compounds, denoting the different heathen divinities afterward worshiped, is the idea of owner- ship or possession. Bel or Belus and Baal were to the different worshipers lord, not with a divine significa- tion so much as "master, owner, possessor." * Let it be remembered that Nimrod was deified after his death and called Belus, and the "tower of Belus," when built at Babylon, was erected to his honor. And let it be remembered also that the idea back of all heathen worship is selfish ownership, that the mo- tive behind all idolatry is in some form the glorifica- tion of self. Before men had ever dreamed of other gods or had been deluded into their worship it was impossible, in the very nature of things, for it to be other than self-glorification. "The gods of men are the men themselves " is an ancient adage that has the force of inspiration. And what is its result every- where and always? The history of the race says, confusion. But what of the later Babylon of the Scriptures and of history? Having been begun by Nimrocl at the instigation of the "god of this world," having been resumed and continued by Semiramis and Neb- uchadnezzar, it became the most magnificent, profli- gate, and money-loving of all cities, at least before the Christian era. With its double walls 56 miles in circumference, 87 feet thick, and 350 feet high; with its vast and splendidly built canals, its 100 gates of solid brass, its 250 towers and its one "Tower of Belus," See the Cyclopedia of McOlintock and Strong, on " Baal." TOWER AND CITY OF BABEL. 25 containing precious articles and treasures estimated at $600,000,000; with the prodigious palace of Nebu- chadnezzar, lavishly decorated with gold, silver, and the costly spoils of Egypt, Palestine, and Tyre; with its vast hanging gardens, watered by machinery from the Euphrates, hundreds of feet below — with these and an extremely self-indulgent people, it is no won- der that Babylon was called great. And no marvel, either, that the prophet exclaimed: "Q thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness." Bead the most terrible and sublime denunciations of "the golden city" (margin, exact ress of gold) in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah and the fifty-first chap- ter of Jeremiah. Hear what profane history says: "Money dissolved every tie, whether of kindred, re- spect, or esteem." Their lusts were the most shame- less. " Women were present at their convivialities first with some degree of propriety, but, growing worse and worse by degrees, they ended by throwing off at once their modesty and their clothing." Ac- cording to Herodotus, "every native female was obliged at least once to enter the temple of Mylitta, and there receive the embraces of the first stranger who threw a piece of money into her lap." Time would fail us to notice the various and shame- ful developments of their depravity. But wdien the inspired prophet would give in one breath or in one phrase the measure of Babylon's iniquity, it was the measure of her covetousness. She was declared to be a "golden cup," which "made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad." 26 THE MONEY PROBLEM. Two Visions— The Decalogue. Before we reach the Apocalyptic Babylon, let us turn to the fifth chapter of Zechariah, in which we have first the vision of a "Hying roll," and next the vision of "a woman," which is personified wickedness. The roll is written "on this side" and "on that side," representing, as expositors say, the two tables of the law. The roll pronounces the curse upon Is- rael, and divides all their siiis into two classes, theft and false swearing. The latter denotes all their sins against God; the former, theft, all their sins against their neighbor. The first commandment, "Thou shaft have no other gods before me," virtually includes the next nine; the tenth, "Thou shalt not covet," the nine preceding. Or covetousness takes two forms, a wrong use of that which is God's, whether any of his creatures worshiped, any of his names profaned, or any of his days misused (this not only means desecra- tion on the Lord's day, but idleness on the other six); and secondly, a wrong use of that which is our neigh- bor's. Taking honor from parents; life, chastity, property, or reputation from our neighbor is all pro- hibited in "Thou shalt not covet . . . any thing that is thy neighbor's." Violation of any of these is theft. To break any of the commandments, even the least, is to break them all, because the law and sin are units. As it is impossible to love God without lov- ing men, so it is impossible to sin against God unless we sin against men. "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Is it marvelous, then, that God in the second vision should represent Israel's sins as one? The woman TWO VISIONS — THE DECALOGUE. 27 is placed in an ephah, a measure denoting the meas- ure of their iniquity. And when the prophet is given a sight of wickedness, as she sits in the ephah, a heavy weight of lead holds her down, and she is borne away by two other women with the velocity of wings. Sin brings about its own destruction; and when its cup is full, very quickly. " Whither do these bear the ephah?" asked the prophet. "To build it a house in the land of Shiuar; and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base." Babylon is her fit abiding-place. There shall she dwell ; there shall she be made desolate. But if this is not enough, then to more inspired testimony. Ezekiel, on the desolation of Israel, says: "Thus saith the Lord God; An evil, an only evil, be- hold, is come. An end is come, the end is come." Then in the same chapter (vii. 19) he tells what this many-sided evil is: "Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling -block of their iniquity;" or the cause of their stumbling. Isaiah gave the divine testimony thus : " For the in- iquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him." Jeremiah declares to Israel: " Thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness." When Moses was to be assisted by judges, they were to hate but one thing " Men of truth hating cov- etousness." But now when Israel is getting ready for her captivity, listen at the fearful and just charge of Micah: "The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the proph- ets thereof divine for money." And are we not 28 THE MONEY PROBLEM. coming to this in Church and State ? " They sacrifice unto their net, and burn iucense unto their drag; be- cause by them their portion is fat, and their meat plen- teous." (Hab. i. 16.) "Would to God sacrifices to and for money had ceased with the Israel of old ! Now they are taking the form of men, women, and children. Babylon the Great. So we see not only the cause of the Babylonish cap- tivity of Israel, but the cause of the downfall of Babylon. And the "woman" being borne away to the " capital of the God opposed world kingdoms," throws great light on the mysterious " whore " of Revelation called Babylon. It seems evident that this city in the Apocalypse refers to no particular city. The best interpreters are now agreed on this. It seems too plain to be contradicted. The utter fu- tility of making it refer to the city of Borne, in its pa- gan aspect, and as destroyed, appears from Revelation xviii. 11-14, 21-24, xix. 3. Besides, when Babylon is destroyed, "the cities of the nations" shall also fall with her, and forever. Indeed, the downfall of Borne comes infinitely below the exalted scenes and the terrific grandeur of the complete and everlasting de- struction of " BABYLON THE GREAT." She and every thing that is in her " shall be found no more at all." To make Babylon mean papal Rome alone contradicts the facts of history. What then? Just as Jerusalem or Zion is the spiritual metropolis, and the grand consummation of all Christly forces; so is Babjdon the spiritual metropolis, and the fear- ful culmination of all worldly forces. Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown say it " comprises the whole BABYLON THE GREAT. 29 apostate Church, Roman, Greek, and even Protestant, in so far as it has been seduced from its first love to Christ, the heavenly bridegroom, and given its af- fections to worldly pomp and idols." And again, " Wherever and whenever the Church, instead of be- ing clothed with the sun of heaven, is arrayed in earthly meretricious gauds (a meretrix is literally one who earns money by prostitution), compromising the truth of God through fear or flattery of the world's power, science, or wealth, she becomes the harlot seated on the beast, and doomed in righteous retribution to be judged by the beast." (Rev. xvii. 16.) But how does the Bible speak of this scarlet- colored harlot? "Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." (Read all the 17th, 18th, and part of the 19th chapters). The kings, merchants, and in- habitants of the earth are weeping and mourning over her destruction; and why? "For nomanbuyeth their merchandise any more: the merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyne /rood, and. all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and trine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat and beasts, and sheep, and liorses, and chariots, AND SLAVES, AND SOULS OF MEN! " What a climax! Covetousness reaches her worst form, her most terrible deceivableness, when she 30 THE MONEY PROBLEM. traffics in the "souls of men." But how many slaves has she bought and sold? How many merchants, and shipmasters, and kings and other inhabitants of the earth has she made rich with the wine of her for- nication, contained in her "golden cup?" How many saints has she martyred because of their opposi- tion to her worldliness? How many wars has she waged? How many drunkards has she made, how many women and children beggared? How many harlots is she the mother of? * How much Sabbath desecration is she responsible for — either enjoying the world on the Lord's day with the mouey already made, or violating it to make more? What evil is it she has not done ? What crime is it she has not com- mitted? What deception is it she has not practiced? If, then, her history from Paradise to Patmos, and from the prophetic vision on Patmos to the present, shows her to be the "root of all evil," what better personification than " MYSTERY ( covetousness is the mystery of iniquity), BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMI- NATIONS OF THE EARTH?" Intensely Practical— Our Danger, Duty, and Destiny. But you may say: "All tltis is too theoretical." It is the rather intensely practical. But turn one 1110- * The words "harlot" and "whore" have the same root meaning as hire. (Study Ezek. xvi.31-33.) Covetousness proposes to many a poor but chaste girl, seeking employment, "sin or starve" when one or the other of these fearful alternatives seems inevitable. Marriage is also to many proposed which means not only the promise of love, but of support for life, to carry out her devilish devices. No doubt in every case the " root of all evil " is found on the surface or at the bottom. INTENSELY PRACTICAL. 31 merit to the New Testament. Study first the charac- ter of John the Baptist, his entire freedom from this evil (Matt. iii. 4), then the character of his preaching. For a brief outline of his preaching, we refer the read- er to Luke iii. 10-14. His text was "repent;" but repent of what? To the three representative classes that came to him asking, " What shall we do? " he re- plied to each in substance: "Cease to be covetous, re- pent." What a way this prophet prepared for the Lord by preaching and practice! Look at Christ. First his temptation, the three phases of which are in their last analysis a temptation to the money or world power on the greatest scale conceivable. And when our Lord had overcome this tap-root sin, he "returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee," preaching: "Foliate me." What a life he lived! What a rebuke to the self-indulgence of this age, even of his professed followers! He not only rebuked this hydra-headed evil more than all others, and com- mended its absence, but the only time Jesus ever showed a righteous indignation, coupled with violence, was when he whipped the avaricious money-changers out of his temple. And this sin was not only the first to enter the Jewish Church after their entrance into Canaan, and led to violence in the case of Achan and his family, but it was the first that crept into the Church after Pentecost* and was quickly signalized by the violent death of the evil doers. Thus by three punitive memorable acts of violence, under the three "• We wish we had time to consider the teachings of Pentecost, and the supernatural gift of tongues in connection with Babel and the miraculous confusion of tongues. Let the lessons of both be studied together. 32 THE MONEY PROBLEM. great dispensations of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, did the Triune God put the seal of a fearful and ev- everlasting condemnation on covetousness. The Babylon that would swallow up the Church is not yet destroyed. Then this question: Will the Church be carried away into a worse Babylonish captivity than has ever been known? To come nearer to us: Will Methodism go down because of her love of money? If there ever was a time when men should be mightily aroused on this question of all questions, that time is now. Just now we need to repeat over and over the prophet- like warnings of our ascended founder. He not only spoke of a more than possible downfall of Methodism, but he would tell every soul in his world- wide parish: "Give all you can, else your riches will sink your soul into the nethermost hell." To rich and poor he declared: "If you have any desire to escape the damnation of hell, give all you con.'" What are we doing now? Compared with the Jewish Church, when not given to covetousness, what is our record? The contrast, rather than the comparison, may help us. It is estimated that for the building of the temple alone the Jews gave the amazing sum of $6,440,801,- 215.* Admit that this amount was raised during the whole of David's reign, forty years, what would it do? ould be sufficient to send out annually 71,564 Dr. Adam Clarke's estimate in his comment on 2 Chron- icles ix.: "The Christian Law of Giving," by Rev. 8. H. Piatt, A.M.. page 13 : and Geikie'e estimate, which is about the same as the other two, when the Jewish money is taken as a basis of calculation — the only proper one. INTENSELY PRACTICAL. 66 missionaries, at a cost each of $750 a year. It would also build every year 53,698 churches, at a cost each of $1,000. It would still further build and endow 536 schools at $100,000 each. It would amount to an annual contribution of $134 for every man, woman, and child in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This vast sum came during David's reign from him- self and a people (outside of their regular offerings to the priests and the poor) living in a tract of ter- ritory less than one-fifth of the State of Georgia I Giv- ing as much annually as Southern Methodists gave last year (not countiug the money for education, Sun- day-schools, and incidentals), it would take us more than sixteen hundred years to raise the same amount! Practicing the system of beneficence practiced by the Jews, the results with us would be just as marvelous. Let it be remembered: "God has from the beginning made an assessment upon both time and property in order that the user of both may recognize his rightful owner- ship of all." But what are we doing? Southern Methodists raised last year for pastors' salaries, Home and For- eign Missions, Conference claimants, Church Exten- sion, by Woman's Missionary Society, for building churches and parsonages, $3,988,398.59. These fig- ures do not represent all we have done, but the great- er part of it, making for our 1,218,561 members and preachers $3.27 each, a little more than six cents a week, or less than one cent per day for each commu- nicant. Giving as the Jews gave, we would give 36 cents a day for each communicant. The Watchman estimates that the people of the United States give $75,000,000 annually for Church 3 34 THE MONEY PEOBLEM. institutions, and $31,000,000 more for purely relig- ious ends, making a total of $106,000,000; while they spend on themselves annually for necessaries, luxuries, and beverages, $15,000,000,000.* This gives an average of $230.76 as an annual outlay on each soul, and $1.63 per caput for purely re- ligious purposes; or 141 times as much on our- selves as for all benevolent objects; and 3,750 times as much for ourselves as to save the heathen millions of earth!!! O unspeakable shame! Southern Methodists have their share of the shame. Let us no longer speak of our poverty in the New South, another term for the money-making South. The people of Georgia gave in on oath thirty-two millions more of taxable property this year than last. The eleventh census, if it be correct, shows an increase of assessed valuation of property during the last decade in the States as follows: Alabama, $74,213,213; Flor- ida, $45,988,629; Georgia, $137,894,185; Louisiana, $74,158,341; Mississippi, $46,890,777; North Carolina, $56,597,085; Tennessee, $135,731,565; Texas, $375,- 477,805. This gives a total increase in the eight States named of one billion in round numbers, about one-seventh of the increase for the whole United States for the same time, which last amount is $7,- 135,780,228— equal to all the wealth of the nation in 1850. We said unspeakable shame — it is yet more mi- felt— speaking of the little we had done compared with our possibilities and duties. No one rejoices more than this writer over what has been done. But * A mere approximation in these figures will not destroy the force of the argument. INTENSELY PEACTICAL. 35 let us defend the Church no longer. This, together with the wide-spread lack of conviction of covetous- ness, the master sin of the age, has been the Church's hurt long enough. We take it upon us to say: The Church is convicted on Missions; and convicted on Church extension, and convicted on education, et cet- era; but not convicted on money. Covetousness has framed numerous objections — from "charity begins at home," better called "pious penuriousness," down to " the Lord don't need money ! " — not because these causes are not regarded as good, but because they do not believe in the gospel of daily self-denial, the very first test of discipleship. When will it get rooted and grounded in the souls of men that every dollar is, according to its use, a power to lift the soul to the great Giver", or a weight to drag it down to the great Destroyer. Salvation is by grace — all by grace. But it is a faith that works by love. And loving is giving with God, angels, and men. Jnst as certain as Christ taught the truth, just so certain is it that the grace of liberality will be the test grace at the general judgment. (Matt. xxv. 34-46.) If any one is disposed to think we have overdrawn the picture, let him study the situation, not only in the Church, but in the nation. Let him remember tli at the Congress of 1789-90 devoted more than half of its time to the intellectual and moral liberties of the people; while the House of Representatives in the first session of our last Congress gave two hours for discussing a bill for the education of the people, and nine months to the tariff, silver, subsidies, and lard. The same Congress appropriated millions for 36 THE MONEY PEOBLEM. war-ships. It also voted away millions for subsidiz- ing steam-ships (though ostensibly for another pur- pose) to carry such instruments of death as strong drink and opium to China and Japan. Is not our legislation conceived in, born of, protected and con- trolled by, money power? See the caricature of Puck with nearly all our legislators swallowed in money-bags up to their necks. See again his repre- sentation of the attraction to unjust speculation, which should be resisted, he says, "by the aid of guardian angels from police head-quarters." Look at our multiplying millionaires playing with their money like a boy with a June bug tied to a string — letting it out and drawing it in at pleasure, regardless of the consequences to the people. Look at the multitudi- nous speculative frauds of our day, that have in- creased in direct ratio with man's inventive genius. A prominent Congressman just a few days before this goes to press said to the writer: "This age is the reign of Mammon." If this be true, can it not be said: "An evil, an only evil, behold is come?" Are we getting ready for God to say to us: "Thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness? " Are the cries of earth's toiling millions, who are laboring at almost perishing prices, entering effectually into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, the Jehovah of hosts? Are we indeed on the verge of volcanic fire? We do not know. But certain it is that our last great struggle will be with Mammon. All the signs of the times, the les- sons of history and experience, the voice of inspira- tion, our magnificent peril, and our greatest of possi- bilities — all these seriously challenge us to the SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 37 mightiest of all struggles. The conflict is already on! O Zion of God, Church of redeeming love, be equipped with unselfishness, and the omnipotence of divine power for this final and fearful conflict with the god of this world. Let us not underesti- mate the strength of our enemy. Babylon the Great is greater than we are prone to think. Summary and Conclusion. 1. The very word " money" means warning, is a mo- nition. 2. Money, in its widely representative capacity, "answereth all things" or the trinity of evil, as did the famous tree in the garden, against the misuse of which only man was warned. 3. With Satanic influence he coveted and fell. 4. The great law of the Sabbath was to teach that worship must come before work in both time and im- portance; that godliness is paramount to gain. 5. Covetousness is clearly the source of the sins committed by Cain and successive evil doers. 6. There are ultimately but two possible objects of worship — God and Mammon — one representing the unseen and eternal ; the other, the seen and perishable. 7. Covetousness," selfishness, worldliness, money- loving,* Mammon worship, and other terms of like * The love of money is in a child just as the love of flesh is in a young lion, which will not and cannot eat flesh while liv- ing on its mother's milk, but is, nevertheless, a carnivorous an- imal from its birth. If you please, the carnivorous root is in the little lion as the root of all evil in the little child. The tiger, another flesh-eating animal, has been tamed and raised without ever knowing the taste of flesh nor seeming to care for it. How much more will grace and proper training do for the child ! 38 THE MONEY PROBLEM. scriptural import are interchaugeably used. Briefly and scripturally stated, these are " covetousness, which is idolatry" (from cidos, " that which is seeu'* ). More couipreheusively still, all these are sin, which is rep- resented in the Bible and human experience as hav- ing a root, or the natural defilement in every soul from which comes, sooner or later, all lawlessness. 8. There is but one great idea running through the history of Babel, Babylon, Belus or Bel, and Baalism in all its forms. 9. The love of money was the cause of the Baby- lonish captivity of Israel, and also of the downfall of Babylon. 10. It has ever since been the " only evil " of both Church and State. 11. All strifes between individuals, parties, and powers of every kind are symptoms of this " noisome and grievous sore" (Rev. xvi. 2) on the body of the world. 12. Our nation, and even our Southland are getting surprisingly, dangerously rich unless there be a rev- olution in giving. A billion increase in eight South- ern States in a decade, an annual outlay of $230 on t-ach soul in the nation, and 81.63 per caput for pure- ly religious purposes. 13. The Church is not convicted of covetousuess. 14 Christ is our Exemplar in all things. Let rich men begin to become poor for the sake of Him who became poor for them. Let the " great middle class " prove the sincerity of their love by abounding " unto the riches of their liberality." "Follow me." Your eternal salvation depends upon it. 15. The complete, terrific, and everlasting destruc- SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 39 tion of the spiritual metropolis of the world power, Babylon the Great, is yet to come. Thank God, Babylon will be destroyed, and the smoke of her torment will go up forever and ever! The Church will make herself ready. She will return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon her head, "saying, Alleluia! for the Lord God om- nipotent reigneth." But what about us? What is our warning, repeated by prophet and plague for thousands of years? "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye re- ceive not of her plagues." As the great whore is fit- ting herself for destruction by her selfish abomina- tions and worldly fornications, so the bride is to make herself ready by the entire giving of herself, like her Lord, that they twain may be gloriously one for the uplifting of all men. " Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 969 818 6