unrighteous Mammon.

It is not the quantity of money we have to deal with which is the
snare, it is our own lusts and covetousness which are the snares.
It is just as easy to sell our souls for five pounds as for five
thousand. It is just as easy to be mean and tricky about paying
little debts of a shilling or two, as it is about whole estates. I
do not see that rich people are at all more unjust about money than
poor ones; and if any say: Yes, but the poor are tempted more than
the rich; I answer, then look at those who are neither poor nor
rich; who have enough to live on decently, and are not tempted as
the poor are, to steal, or tempted as the rich are, to luxury and
extravagance. Are they more honest than either rich or poor? Not a
whit. All depends on the man's heart. If his heart be selfish and
mean, he will be dishonest as a poor man, as a middle-class man, as
a great lord. If his heart be faithful and true, he will be honest,
whether he lives in a cottage or in a palace. Any man can do
justly, and love mercy, if his heart be right with God. I have seen
day-labourers who had a hard struggle to live at all, keep out of
debt, and out of shame, and live in a noble poverty, rich in the
sight of God, because their hearts were rich in goodness. I have
seen tradesmen and farmers, among all the temptations of business,
keep their honour as bright as any gentleman's--brighter than too
many gentlemen's, because they had learnt to fear God and work
righteousness. I have seen great merchants and manufacturers,
because that they were their brothers' keepers, spread not only
employment, but comfort, education, and religion, among the hundreds
of workmen whom God had put into their charge. I have seen great
landowners live truly royal lives, doing with all their might the
good which their hand found to do; and, after the likeness of their
heavenly Father, causing their sun to shine on the evil and on the
good, and their rain to fall on the just and on the unjust. Yes; in
every station of life, thy dealings will be right with men, if thy
heart be right with God.

Yes. Let us bear in mind this--that whatever we cannot be, we can
at least be honest men. Let us go to our graves, if possible, with
the feeling that there is not a man on earth, a penny the worse for
us. And if we have ever fouled our hands with the unrighteous
Mammon, let us cleanse them by the only possible plan, by making
restitution to those wh