Page:God Manifest.djvu/362

 means to happiness. They will burden themselves with anxieties, cares, fears, and undergo labor and trouble to any extent, to attain this fancied joy—wealth,—which when attained is found to be but as "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal," utterly hollow and empty of all true enjoyment. Thus does evil always punish itself. But a further consequence, is, that while the avaricious make themselves no happier, they disturb the whole order of society, and bring multitudes into misery. Where one has too much, others must have too little. Great wealth, in a community, must always be found side by side with great poverty. Neither of these ought to be: both are contrary to the true order of man's existence. And it is hard to tell which is the most hurtful to the soul. Vast wealth tends to increase man's selfishness,—already so deep,—as well as leads to indolence, self-indulgence, luxury, intemperance, hard-hearted worldliness: while, on the other hand, abject poverty tends to bring despair, distrust in a Divine Providence, self-abandonment, low vice, crime. Agur's prayer, "Give me neither poverty nor riches" is the truly wise one.

The pursuit of wealth, merely for wealth's sake, may be regarded as the crying evil of this age. Every true man, every Christian, should set his face against this sin. And he should begin by conquering the evil disposition in himself. He should make up his mind, at setting out in life, what is the true object of living in this world. And a little reflection will show him, that merely to get rich is no object worthy of a true man, a being with an immortal soul. Suppose he attain his