Part 21 (1/2)

”'It is a great mistake which many people make, church-members among the rest, that the money they get is their own to do with as they please.

Men have no right to use anything as they please unless G.o.d pleases so too.

”'The acc.u.mulation of vast sums of money by individuals or cla.s.ses of men has always been a bad thing for society. A few very rich men and a great number of very poor men is what gave the world the French Revolution and the guillotine.

”'There are certain conditions true of society at certain times when it is the Christian duty of the rich to use every cent they possess to relieve the need of society. Such a condition faces us to-day.

”'The foolish and unnecessary expenditures of society on its trivial pleasures at a time when men and women are out of work and children are crying for food is a cruel and unchristian waste of opportunity.

”'If Christ were here to-day I believe he would tell the rich men of Milton that every cent they have belongs to Almighty G.o.d, and they are only trustees of his property.

”'This is the only true use of wealth: that the man who has it recognize its power and privilege to make others happy, not provide himself luxury.

”'The church that thinks more of fine architecture and paid choirs than of opening its doors to the people that they may hear the gospel, is a church that is mortgaged for all it is worth to the devil, who will foreclose at the first opportunity.

”'The first duty of every man who has money is to ask himself, What would Christ have me do with it? The second duty is to go and do it, after hearing the answer.

”'If the money owned by church-members were all spent to the glory of G.o.d there would be fewer hundred-thousand-dollar churches built and more model tenements.

”'If Christ had been a millionaire he would have used his money to build up character in other people, rather than build a magnificent brown-stone palace for himself. But we cannot imagine Christ as a millionaire.

”'It is just as true now as when Paul said it nearly twenty centuries ago: ”The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil;” it is the curse of our civilization, the greatest G.o.d of the human race to-day.

”'Our civilization is only partly Christian. For Christian civilization means more comforts; ours means more wants.

”'If a man's pocket-book is not converted with his soul the man will not get into heaven with it.

”'There are certain things that money alone can secure; but among those things it cannot buy is character.

”'All wealth, from the Christian standpoint, is in the nature of trust funds, to be so used as the administrator, G.o.d, shall direct. No man owns the money for himself. The gold is G.o.d's, the silver is G.o.d's! That is the plain and repeated teaching of the Bible.

”'It is not wrong for a man to make money. It is wrong for him to use it selfishly or foolishly.

”'The consecrated wealth of the men of Milton could provide work for every idle man in town. The Christian use of the wealth of the world would make impossible the cry for bread.

”'Most of the evils of our present condition flow out of the love of money. The almighty dollar is the G.o.d of Protestant America.

”'If men loved men as eagerly as they love money the millennium would be just around the corner.

”'Wealth is a curse unless the owner of it blesses the world with it.

”'If any man hath the world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his compa.s.sion from him, how dwelleth the love of G.o.d in him?

”'Christian Socialism teaches a man to bear other people's burdens. The very first principle of Christian Socialism is unselfishness.

”'We shall never see a better condition of affairs in this country until the men of wealth realize their responsibility and privilege.

”'Christ never said anything against the poor. He did speak some tremendous warnings in the face of the selfish rich.