The Great Commission. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. IVMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
The Great Commission. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. IV
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Theology
And yet the two things may be very unlike in their outward
development. The former, that is, the desire to get more, may often be
found in connection with a readiness to spend; the latter, on the
contrary, is generally linked with an intense spirit of hoarding.
There, for example, is a man of great business capacity--a thorough
commercial genius--in whose hand everything seems to prosper. He has a
real zest for business, an unquenchable thirst for making money. His
one object is to get more, to add thousand to thousand, to strengthen
his commercial foundation, and enlarge his sphere. He lives, thrives,
and revels in the atmosphere of commerce. He started on his career
with a few pence in his pocket, and he has risen to the proud position
of a merchant prince. He is not a miser. He is as ready to scatter as
to obtain. He fares sumptuously, entertains with a splendid
hospitality, gives munificently to manifold public objects. He is
looked up to and respected by all classes of society.
But he loves to get more. He is a covetous man--an idolater. True, he
despises the poor miser who spends his nights over his money-bags,
"holding strange communion with his gold;" delighting his heart and
feasting his eyes with the very sight of the fascinating dust,
refusing himself and his family the common necessaries of life; going
about in rags and wretchedness, rather than spend a penny of the
precious hoard; who loves money, not for what it can get or give, but
simply for its own sake; who loves to accumulate, not that he may
spend, but that he may hoard; whose one ruling desire is to die worth
so much wretched dust--strange, contemptible desire!
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