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| Chapter XXVI. How long standing an evil love of money is, is plain from many examples in the Old Testament. And yet it is plain, too, how idle a thing the possession of money is.
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Chapter XXVI.
How long standing an evil love of money is, is plain
from many examples in the Old Testament. And yet it is plain,
too, how idle a thing the possession of money is.
129. But
man’s habits have so long applied themselves to this admiration
of money, that no one is thought worthy of honour unless he is
rich.554
| 554 Cic. de
Off. II. 20, § 71. | This is no new habit. Nay, this
vice (and that makes the matter worse) grew long years ago in the
hearts of men. When the city of Jericho fell at the sound of the
priests’ trumpets, and Joshua the son of Nun gained the victory,
he knew that the valour of the people was weakened through love of
money and desire for gold. For when Achan had taken a garment of
gold and two hundred shekels of silver and a golden ingot555
| 555 “linguam
auream.” Other readings are: “lineam
auream,” or “regulam auream.” | from the spoils of the ruined city, he was
brought before the Lord, and could not deny the theft, but owned
it.556
130. Love of money, then, is an old, an
ancient vice, which showed itself even at the declaration of the divine
law; for a law was given to check it.557
On
account of love of money Balak thought Balaam could be tempted by
rewards to curse the people of our fathers.558
Love of money would have won the day
too, had not God bidden him hold back from cursing. Overcome by
love of money Achan led to destruction all the people of the
fathers. So Joshua the son of Nun, who could stay the sun from
setting, could not stay the love of money in man from creeping
on. At the sound of his voice the sun stood still, but love of
money stayed not. When the sun stood still Joshua completed his
triumph, but when love of money went on, he almost lost the
victory.
131. Why? Did not the woman
Delilah’s love of money deceive Samson, the bravest man of
all?559
So he who had torn asunder the roaring
lion with his hands;560
who, when bound and
handed over to his enemies, alone, without help, burst his bonds and
slew a thousand of them;561
who broke the cords
interwoven with sinews as though they were but the slight threads of a
net; he, I say, having laid his head on the woman’s knee, was
robbed of the decoration of his victory-bringing hair, that which gave
him his might. Money flowed into the lap of the woman, and the
favour of God forsook the man.562
132. Love of money, then, is deadly.
Seductive is money, whilst it also defiles those who have it, and helps
not those who have it not. Supposing that money sometimes is a
help, yet it is only a help to a poor man who makes his want
known. What good is it to him who does not long for it, nor seek
it; who does not need its help and is not turned aside by pursuit of
it? What good is it to others, if he who has it is alone the
richer for it? Is he therefore more honourable because he has
that whereby honour is often lost, because he has what he must guard
rather than possess? We possess what we use, but what is beyond
our use brings us no fruit of possession, but only the danger of
watching. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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