Riches

RICHES

Related Index Topics: Covetousness, Giving, Greed, Materialism, Worldliness 1. A London paper offered a prize for the best definition of money: This was the winning answer: Money is an instrument that can buy you everything but happiness and pay your fare to every place but Heaven. 2. That money talks I will agree. It always says goodbye to me. 3. If you would lose a troublesome visitor, lend him money. 4. There was a widow of small means, yet of noble liberality. But unexpectedly a legacy was left her, & she was wealthy. But to a cause to which, in her comparative poverty, she had delighted to give five dollars, she now proffered twenty-five cents. When asked why such a strange change, & in her present circumstances, at last she candidly replied: "Ah, when day by day I looked to God for my bread, I had enough & to spare. Now I have to look to my ample income, & I am all the time haunted with the fear of losing it & coming to want. I had the five dollar heart when I had the 25 cents means; now I have the five dollar means & the 25 cent heart." 5. A young woman was one day visiting an aged man, a friend of her father's, who had been associated with him in early life. The man had been one of those who had run after the World & overtaken it. All it could give he had obtained. Soon he inquired after the state of his friend, whom he knew to be in circumstances of far less external comfort than himself. As he listened to the story of his less-favoured friend's patience in suffering, of the cheerfulness with which he could look forward to either life or death, the rich man's conscience applied the unexpressed reproach, & he exclaimed, "Yes, yes, you wonder why I cannot be as happy & quiet, too; but think of the difference. He is going to his treasure & I--I must leave mine." 6. Christ did not die to purchase this World for us. 7. Comfort comes as a guest, lingers to become a host, & stays to enslave us. 8. We do not realise how much we are attached to the good things of this World until they are taken from us.

9. The saints' spots are most gotten in peace, plenty & prosperity. 10. If a man will make his nest below, God will put a thorn in it; & if that will not do, he will set it on fire. 11. Gold! gold! gold! gold! Bright & yellow, hard & cold, Molten, graven, hammered & rolled, Heavy to get, & light to hold; Hoarded, bartered, bought & sold, Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled: Spurned by the young, but hugged by the old To the very verge of the churchyard mold; Price of many a crime untold. --Thomas Hood, 1799-1845 12. Dug from the mountain-side, washed in the glen, Servant am I or the master of men; Steal me, I curse you; earn me, I bless you; Grasp me and hoard me--a fiend shall possess you; Live for me, die for me, covet me, take me-Angel or devil, I am what you make me. 13. Dr. Watkinson tells us that some years ago two scientists of Vienna made a series of bacteriological experiments on a number of bank notes which had been in circulation for some time. The result of their researches was sufficiently startling. On each bank note they discovered the presence of 19,000 microbes of disease--some of tuberculosis, some of diphtheria, & some of erysipelas. More than that, they found one bacillus peculiar to the bank note--the bank note microbe, so to speak, because it is found nowhere else. It thrives & fattens & multiplies on the peculiar paper of which a bank note is made. Is there not a parable here? 14. One of the richest men in the World, oil tycoon Paul Getty, was being interviewed in London. "If you retired now," asked a reporter, "would you say your holdings would be worth a billion dollars?" Getty paced up & down the room, mentally adding, "I suppose so," he said, "but remember, a billion doesn't go as far as it used to." 15. Out of this life I shall never take Things of silver & gold I make. All that I cherish & hoard away After I leave, on the Earth must stay. Though I have toiled for a painting rare To hang on my wall, I must leave it there. Though I call it mine & I boast its worth I must give it up when I quit the Earth. All that I gather & all that I keep, I must leave behind when I fall asleep. And I wonder often what I shall own In that other life, when I pass alone. What shall they find & what shall they see In the soul that answers the call for me?

Shall the great Judge learn, when my task is through That the spirit had gathered some riches, too? Or shall at the last it be mine to find That all I had worked for I'd left behind? --Edgar A. Guest 16. I am never afraid for my brethren who have many troubles, but I often trouble for those whose career is prosperous. 17. Wealth is no harm, but the inability to give it up is deadly. 18. Life is tragic for those who have plenty to live on & nothing to live for. 19. Wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants.--Epicurus 20. It is better to have your bank in Heaven than to have your heaven in a bank. 21. A big silver dollar & a little brown cent, Rolling along together they went, Rolling along the smooth sidewalk, When the dollar remarked--for the dollar can talk; "You poor little cent, you cheap little mite, I'm bigger & more than two times as bright, I'm worth more than you--a hundred-fold, And written on me, in letters so bold, Is the motto drawn from the pious creed, 'In God we trust,' which all can read." "Yes, I know," said the cent, "I'm a cheap little mite, And I know I'm not big or good or bright, And yet," said the cent, with a meek little sigh, "You don't go to church half so often as I!" 22. Money will buy: A bed BUT NOT sleep. Books BUT NOT brains. Food BUT NOT appetite. Finery BUT NOT beauty. A house BUT NOT a home. Medicine BUT NOT health. Luxuries BUT NOT culture. Amusement BUT NOT happiness. A crucifix BUT NOT a Saviour. A church-pew BUT NOT Heaven. 23. It is not the fact that a man has riches which keeps him from the Kingdom of Heaven, but the fact that riches have him. 24. It ill disposes the servant to seek to be rich & great & honoured in this World where his Lord was poor & mean & despised.--George Muller 25. If your treasure is on Earth, you are going FROM it; if it is in Heaven, you are going TO it.

26. When I have any money I get rid of it as quickly as possible, lest it find a way into my heart.-John Wesley 27. It was reported that eleven millionaires went down on the Titanic. Major A. H. Peuchen left $300,000 in money, jewelry, & securities in a box in his cabin. "The money seemed a mockery at that time," he later said. "I picked up three oranges instead." 28. The real measure of a man's wealth is how much he would be worth if he lost all his money. 29. A banker is a man who will loan you money if you can prove to him you don't need any. 30. The most pitiful poverty is that of man who has more than he needs but feels he doesn't have enough. 31. To possess money is very well; it may be a most valuable servant; to be possessed by it is to be possessed by a devil, & one of the meanest & worst kind of devils. 32. It's tough to be poor ... but not as bad as being in debt. 33. When your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep causes your downfall. 34. Riches are no curse when they are blessed of the Lord. 35. A person's character is put to severe test when he suddenly acquires or quickly loses a considerable amount of money. 36. Everybody shuns trouble unless it comes to him disguised as money. 37. Worldlings make gold their god; saints make God their gold. 38. The truly godly person is not interested in becoming rich. He possesses inner resources which furnish riches far beyond that which Earth can offer. 39. God gives us wealth not that we should be hoarders but dispensers. 40. Time & money are the heaviest burden of life, & the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.--Samuel Johnson 41. We do not need more money in our pockets as much as we need more grace in our hearts. 42. A man is a failure who goes through life earning nothing but money. 43. You can't take your money to Heaven with you...but you can send it on ahead. 44. Money may be the husk of many things, but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine but not health; acquaintance, but not friends; servants, not loyalty; days of joys, but not peace or happiness. 45. Some people are so poor they only have money! 46. Riches are not evil but they are dangerous. 47. Riches, in truth, are one of the most unsatisfying of possessions. They take away some cares, no doubt; but they bring with them quite as many cares as they take away. There is trouble in the getting of them. There is anxiety in the keeping of them. There is guilt in the abuse of them. There is sorrow in the losing of them. There is perplexity in the disposing of them, & a burden of account at last to be given

concerning them. 48. Poor people are as much in danger from an inordinate desire towards the wealth of the World as rich people from an inordinate delight in it. 49. We may love money without having it, just as we may have money without loving it. 50. We need not covet money, for we shall always have our God, & God is better than gold, His favour is better than fortune. 51. Covetous men, though they have enough to sink them, yet have they never enough to satisfy them. 52. The real value of a thing is the price it will bring in Eternity. 53. If you have possessions you will surely find this true; unless you possess Jesus, your possessions possess you! 54. The Devil has the authority from God to rule the material things of this World, & he seems to pretty much rule the riches & nations. Just like when he got Jesus up on the mountain, he offered Him the World: "I'll give you all this if you'll just bow down & worship me!" (Mat.4:8,9) 55. Gold begets in brethren hate; gold in families debate; gold does friendship separate; gold does civil wars create. 56. Look at the rich! The rich are the most corrupt, the most evil, the most crooked, the most cheating of anybody, robbers of the poor & robbers of each other. They're even the WORST because they've got the time & the money to get into it! They can afford to be crooked & to cheat & to rob & to figure out ways to chisel the government & each other. It's horrible! The rich, wherever they are, are always the worst & most corrupt. If you hadn't been children of the rich you wouldn't have had money to buy drugs & time to get in trouble. When I was a kid in Depression days, even if they didn't have a job, everybody was busy out on the farm or doing something trying to earn a living & trying to feed themselves, just thankful that they were alive & could eat & they had some place to lay their heads! Now this generation is not satisfied unless it's got a mansion, a limousine, ten TV sets & all kinds of luxury, drugs & even enjoying crime if they can't get their kicks any other way. 57. Riches are a curse! God's Word teaches that all the way through, that they become a curse to those who have them if they don't use them right. (Pro.23:5; Mat.19:23; Mark4:19; Jam.5:3; 1Tim.6:9) It's a curse to be rich if you don't love the Lord & know how to use your riches, because you're bound to use them for selfish reasons & for the Devil & evil. The thing about the Devil's rich is that they are never satisfied, they never have enough, they always want more! If they finally get their own home, car & an easy living, then they want to run their community. Then they want the whole town, then they want to be powerful enough to get the whole country, & by & by they want the World! That's what's wrong with the United States--& Russia too! They're not satisfied with what they've got, they always want more. The rich are never satisfied. 58. The poor are richer than the richest of the rich who live in mansions in the filthy cities in the midst of crime where they're afraid to even get out & walk on the street. They drive out of an armoured garage in an armoured car with armoured guards. They can't even enjoy their riches for fear of all the wicked poor around that are apt to rob'm or shoot'm! THEY are the poor ones, living like prisoners in their own houses, afraid to go out on the street without bodyguards. They live in fear all the time. 59. The big business game is to see how fast you can rob the other guy. And the big business empires built in every single so-called civilisation or every single rich nation, are built on the bodies & the crushing or both the poor & the rich. Somebody just manages to cop it all. But they'll lose it all. The rich never last, they always lose it in the end.

60. There are lots of rich people who put a lot of money into their religion & their church because they figure they're getting a bargain & it's cheap & they're not really having to sacrifice or really having to serve God or really having to forsake all or give up anything, or it's not really costing them very much compared to how much they've got. 61. Russell Conwell tells of an ancient Persian named Al Hafed, who owned a very large farm and was a contented & wealthy man. One evening a Buddhist priest who was visiting Al Hafed told him of the splendor of diamonds which are to be found in some parts of the earth, & of the riches which would come to the man who owned but a handful of these diamonds. At once Al Hafed became discontented, for in the face of such visions of wealth he felt very poor indeed. He must own some diamonds! So he sold his farm & set out to find diamonds. His search carried him fruitlessly to the ends of the earth, until finally, discouraged, penniless, & in rags he threw himself into the sea & was drowned. In the meantime Al Hafed's successor took possession of his farm. One day when he led his camel out into the garden to drink from the clear brook, he noticed a curious flash in the sands of the shallow stream. He reached in & pulled out a stone containing a beautiful diamond. When he stirred the sands of the garden with his fingers he uncovered other & more beautiful diamonds. Al Hafed was plodding he weary way over the lands of the earth when, on the farm that he sold & left behind were literally acres of diamonds! Are we satisfied to labour for the Master in the field where He has placed us? Or are we, like Al Hafed, looking to other fields? 62. A man's bank account doesn't indicate whether he is rich or poor. It is the heart that makes a man rich. A man is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.--Henry Ward Beecher