GHeslev’s Cords | and Our CAealth = Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2023 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/wesleyswordsourw0Ounse Tesley’s Cords and Our Health John Wesley had a great fear of the dan- gers of wealth, and his practice squared with his preaching upon the subject. During all the years of his life, whatever may have been his income, he lived on twenty-eight pounds (less than $150) a year, and gave away the rest. In his long life of eighty-eight years he gave to benevolent causes more than $200,000, while he ex- pended upon himself less than $15,000. We may well heed one’s teaching concern- ing the perils of riches who lived in such an unselfish manner with respect to his own possessions, And here is a strong utterance of Wesley’s upon the subject of religion and riches: “I do not see how it is possible, in the nature of things, for any revival of true - religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and fru- gality; and these can not but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world in all its branches. “How, then, is it possible that the re- ligion of the heart, though it flourishes now as a green bay tree, should continue in this state? “Ts there no way to prevent this—this continual declension of pure religion? We 3 ought not to forbid people to be diligent and frugal. We must exhort all Christians to gain all they can, and to save all they can; that is, in effect, to grow rich! What way, then (I ask again) can we take, that our money may not sink us to the nethermost hell? There is one way, and there is no other under heaven. If those who ‘gain all they can,’ and ‘save all they can,’ will like- wise ‘give all they can,’ then, the more they gain, the more they will grow in grace, and the more treasure they will lay up in heaven.” That is both sound philosophy and a true interpretation of Christianity. Pure relig- ion by its very nature tends to produce riches, and riches tend to corrupt and de- stroy pure religion. What then should be the Christian’s course with respect to riches? Wesley points out the only answer to this question. The subject is one for good people in all climes and all times to consider most care- fully, and it behooves the Christian people of America especially to ponder the matter. Ours is the richest nation the world ever saw. The wealth of the ancient world was a mere bagatelle in comparison with the opu- lence of the United States. And notwithstanding the war our people are growing richer. To many of them even the war itself has brought a vast increase of worldly goods. Will this increased 4 wealth of our country doom us and damn us? Most certainly, unless our people be- come as pious as they are prosperous and as benevolent as they are opulent, In the South especially there must be in- creased benevolence. The high price of cot- ton, the demand for the coal and iron of Southern mines, and enhanced incomes from many other sources, have brought to the Southern people unprecedented wealth. They are now far richer than were their fathers before the Civil War. But are they as re- ligious? It is to be feared that they are not. Certainly they are not as generous as they are prosperous. They have learned how to make money much more rapidly than they have learned how to use it wisely and religiously. If the gifts of Southern men and women to educational institutions may be taken as an index to their benevolence generally, they can not be regarded as using their money very well. During the year 1916 gifts to higher edu- cation in the United States exceeded $35,- 000,000, but Southern institutions received not quite $2,500,000. New England, with a population of only about 7,000,000 souls, gave to its educational institutions above $8,- 000,000, while gifts to colleges and univer- sities in the South, which has a population of 28,000,000, aggregated no more than $2,- 178,493,—and of this amount $370,000 was 5 given by Northern philanthropists to colleges for Negroes. One institution in Massachusetts received more than was given to all the Southern colleges and universities combined, includ- ing the $370,000 for the Negro institutions. Our section was at the beginning of the year 1916 far behind the North in the mat- ter of money invested in educational institu- tions, and at the close of the year, it was even further behind. As the year 1917 has progressed, our case has not improved. By January, 1918, we shall be still further be- hind both the North and the West. But have many of our Southern men the disposition to use their money for the pub- lic good? Do they see the dangers of hoarded wealth as Mr. Wesley pointed. out? Do they perceive the vast means of grace found in the religious use of money? Well, if men and women will not heed the words of such preachers as John Wesley, perhaps they will listen to what was said by a great merchant like the late Marshall Field. Just before he died Mr. Field said: “A man should interest himself in public affairs, There is no happiness in mere dollars. After they are acquired one can use but a moder- ate amount. It is given man to eat so much, to wear so much, and to have so much shel- ter, and more he can not use. When money has supplied these, its mission, so far as 6 the individual is concerned, is fulfilled, and man must look further and higher. It is only in wide public affairs, where money is a moving force toward the general welfare, that the possessor of it can possibly find pleasure, and that only in constantly doing more. The greatest good a man can do is to cultivate himself, develop his powers, in order that he may be of greater service to humanity.” In such use of money, as that which Mr. Field commended, is found the highest pleasure and the truest profit in wealth. All other use of earthly treasure is selfish and sinful,—and it is also “vanity and vexation of spirit.” Such use of money by a comparatively few Southern men would give the South a really great university in Hmory. Already much has been done, and perfect success is in easy reach, Why should not the year 1917 record gifts sufficient to assure to the South a really great university? The man whose gift is associated with this institution makes an imperishable invest- ment in an institution which is destined to become historic. It is not an ephemeral and experimental enterprise; it is perma- nent, The building of Emory University marks a new era in the South, and the men who make it will occupy a high place in South- ern history. LP , a an ae Abbe r " f 1 hep ioe ke! VaR AS fA