regard to money:

I. Money itself is neither good nor bad.--It is simply force. It is
like the lightning or the sunlight: it withers or nourishes; it smites
or does other bidding; it devastates or fertilizes, according as it is
used by us. Whether money is good or bad depends on whether it is
sought for in right or wrong ways, used wisely or unwisely, squandered
where it does harm, or bestowed where it does good. (_a_) That it may
be a power for good is evident to all. It enables men to benefit their
fellow-creatures; it gives a man independence; it procures him comforts
he could not otherwise have obtained. It is, as it has well been
termed, "the lever by which the race has been lifted from barbarism to
civilization. So long as the race could do nothing but barely live,
man was little more than an animal who hunted and fought for his prey.
When the race began to think and plan and save for tomorrow, it
specially began to be human. There is not a single feature of our
civilization to-day that has not sprung out of money, and that does not
depend on money for its continuance." (_b_) That money may be a power
for evil is equally evident. Much of the crime and sin and sorrow of
the world spring from its misuse. "The love of money," as Scripture
says, "is a root of all evil." In the haste to be rich men too often
lose their very manhood. Money, it is often said, does wonders, but
"the most wonderful thing that it does is to metalize the human soul."

II. Money and our relation to it is a test of character--The making
and the using of it is an education. If we know how one gets and
spends money, we know what a man is. "So many are the bearings of
money upon the lives and characters of mankind, that an insight which
would search out the life of a man in his pecuniary relations would
penetrate into almost every cranny of his nature. He who, like St.
Paul, has learnt how to want and how to abound, has a great knowledge;
for if we take account of all the virtues with which money is mixed
up--honesty, justice, generosity, charity, frugality, forethought,
self-sacrifice, and their correlative vices--it is a knowledge which
goes to cover the length and breadth of humanity, and a right measure
and manner in getting, saving, spending, taking, lending, borrowing and
bequeathing would almost argue a perfect man." [1] Nearly all the
virtues and all the vices are connected with money. Its acquisition
and its distribut