It seems a strange combination! Is there any connection between money and morals? If there is, it is the connection that exists between the neck of the criminal and the ax of the executioner—a connection that is, as a rule, hopelessly and absolutely fatal. The reckless greed of gain has driven more men away from Jesus Christ than any other passion. “Very sorrowful, . . . for he was very rich.” That is a miniature portrait of a young man who once came to Christ, and it tells the story of many a prosperous but dissatisfied man today. Have you ever known any man who received the slightest benefit of a high and noble kind from money? Has it ever made a man good? Has it ever increased his generosity, broadened his sympathies, or aroused in him a longing for righteousness?—Never! It adds to your creature comforts, ministers to your merely sensuous enjoyment. If you possess brains, it enables you to encourage art and science; and if you are a practical Christian, it places in your hand the wherewithal to succor the suffering and relieve the distressed. But in itself money has never made any man happy or healthy or holy. On the contrary, it has dimmed the love, wrecked the peace, and spoiled the characters of countless thousands.

Don’t you think it is a very impressive and significant fact that the most heartless and contemptible act of treachery ever committed—an act which has excited the horror and disgust of all ages—should have been due to the selfish desire of a miserable and covetous man to secure thirty pieces of silver? Judas Iscariot was not a degraded profligate—he was a disciple, with a character, no doubt, of the utmost decency and respectability. He may have been alluded to, for all we know, as a shrewd, practical, hardheaded man of business. But it was that little bag of money which led to his sin, his suicide, and his destruction. His love of gain was greater than his love for his Lord.

And this is just where the danger exists. Young men will exclaim, “ Surely it is not wrong to wish to make money!” Certainly not, if you are careful that when you have made the money it does not mar you. Riches are like a rose in a man’s hand; if he holds it gently, it will preserve its beauty of shape and fragrance of smell; but if he holds it tightly, he will crush and destroy it. Hold the riches lightly—let them flow out freely in wise benevolence, use them liberally for the highest ends, and you will have done well. But hug your wealth, set your heart on it, let the miserly and covetous spirit paralyze your very soul, and life will become a hideous nightmare, a foul sepulcher, a long spell of hopeless servitude. —Atkins.