The records would show that Paul included among his friends men and women of worldly means; still his words of chiding and warning are not withheld. He writes of a "cloak of covetousness." He had seen men don that cloak--by their paltry excuses for withholding gifts; by their effort to make an intent for the future stifle a present cry for help; by a deft transfer of income to principal which "must not be disturbed"; by the plea that luxuries were necessities; by a recital of past generosities; by setting one good cause against another. All these modern cloaks Paul doubtless found in the wardrobes of long ago. He carries the charge against covetousness on until he identifies it with heathenism. He writes of the "covetousness which is idolatry," and in yet another place he speaks of the "covetous man who is an idolater," as if he wished to make the charge personal. Idolatry is the worship of something less than God. When, therefore, any man bows down to idols of silver and gold erected in banks rather than by temple altars, he joins the ranks of the idolatrous. He may be even worse than those idolaters who strive to reach beyond their hideous images if haply they may feel after God and find him. These words of Paul are urgent warnings that covetousness may destroy personal genuineness and may defeat spiritual worship. Greed may shut us away from both man and God. But the apostle's strongest word is given in his counsel to Timothy, a young man whose ideals he would seek to mold. We can imagine the impression the advice made upon the susceptible youth when he read Paul's letter in rich and worldly Ephesus. "They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." It is a modern account again. The twentieth century has already given thousands of illustrations of the same apostasy. As for the wide statement that "the love of money is the root of all evil," we have but to review these pages to find the commentary. Every item in the catalogue of crimes finds a partner in greed. Intemperance, lust, war, thieving, murder, betrayal, persecution, untruthfulness--all these grow from the root of greed. No heedless joking about the "root" can vacate the language or permit "the love of money" to declare its innocence.