章节正文
is not an inconsistent thing. We preach against
covetousness, and you know we do, in the pulpit,
and oftentimespreach against it so long and
use the terms about ``filthy lucre'' so extremely
that Christians get the idea that when we stand
in the pulpit we believe it is wicked for any man
to have money--until the collection-basket goes
around, and then we almost swear at the people
because they don't give more money. Oh, the
inconsistency of such doctrines as that!
Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably
ambitious to have it. You ought because you
can do more good with it than you could without
it. Money printed your Bible, money builds your
churches, money sends your missionaries, and
money pays your preachers, and you would not
have many of them, either, if you did not pay
them. I am always willing that my church should
raise my salary, because the church that pays the
largest salary always raises it the easiest. You
never knew an exception to it in your life. The
man who gets the largest salary can do the most
good with the power that is furnished to him.
Of course he can if his spirit be right to use it
for what it is given to him.
I say, then, you ought to have money. If
you can honestlyattain unto riches in Philadelphia,
it is your Christian and godly duty to do so.
It is an awful mistake of these pious people to
think you must be awfully poor in order to be pious.
Some men say, ``Don't you sympathize with
the poor people?'' Of course I do, or else I would
not have been lecturing these years. I won't
give in but what I sympathize with the poor, but
the number of poor who are to be sympathized
with is very small. To sympathize with a man
whom God has punished for his sins, thus to help
him when God would still continue a just punishment,
is to do wrong, no doubt about it, and we
do that more than we help those who are
deserving. While we should sympathize with God's
poor--that is, those who cannot help themselves--
let us remember there is not a poor person in the
United States who was not made poor by his own
shortcomings, or by the shortcomings of some one
else. It is all wrong to be poor, anyhow. Let us
give in to that argument and pass that to one side.
A gentleman gets up back there, and says,
``Don't you think there are some things in this
world that are better than money?'' Of course I
do, but I am talking about money now. Of course
there are some things higher than money. Oh
yes, I know by the grave that has left me standing
alone that there are some things in this world
that are higher and sweeter and purer than
money. Well do I know there are some things
higher and grander than gold. Love is the grandest
thing on God's earth, but fortunate the lover
who has plenty of money. Money is power,
money is force, money will do good as well as
harm. In the hands of good men and women it
could accomplish, and it has accomplished, good.
I hate to leave that behind me. I heard a
man get up in a prayer-meeting in our city and
thank the Lord he was ``one of God's poor.''
Well, I wonder what his wife thinks about that?
She earns all the money that comes into that
house, and he smokes a part of that on the veranda.
I don't want to see any more of the Lord's poor
of that kind, and I don't believe the Lord does.
And yet there are some people who think in order
to be pious you must be awfully poor and awfully
dirty. That does not follow at all. While we
sympathize with the poor, let us not teach a doctrine
like that.
Yet the age is prejudiced against advising a
Christian man (or, as a Jew would say, a godly
man) from attaining unto wealth. The prejudice
is so universal and the years are far enough back,
I think, for me to safely mention that years ago
up at Temple University there was a young man
in our theological school who thought he was the
only pious student in that department. He came
into my office one evening and sat down by my
desk, and said to me: ``Mr. President, I think it
is my duty sir, to come in and labor with you.''
``What has happened now?'' Said he, ``I heard
you say at the Academy, at the Peirce School
commencement, that you thought it was an honorable
ambition for a young man to desire to have
wealth, and that you thought it made him temperate,
made him anxious to have a good name, and
made him industrious. You spoke about man's
ambition to have money helping to make him a
good man. Sir, I have come to tell you the Holy
Bible says that `money is the root of all evil.' ''
I told him I had never seen it in the Bible,
and advised him to go out into the chapel and get
the Bible, and show me the place. So out he went
for the Bible, and soon he stalked into my office
with the Bible open, with all the bigoted pride
of the narrow sectarian, or of one who founds his
Christianity on some misinterpretation of Scripture.
He flung the Bible down on my desk, and
fairly squealed into my ear: ``There it is, Mr.
President; you can read it for yourself.'' I said
to him: ``Well, young man, you will learn when
you get a little older that you cannot trust another
denomination to read the Bible for you. You belong
to another denomination. You are taught in
the theological school, however, that emphasis is
exegesis. Now, will you take that Bible and read
it yourself, and give the proper emphasis to it?''
He took the Bible, and proudly read, `` `The
love of money is the root of all evil.' ''
Then he had it right, and when one does quote
aright from that same old Book he quotes the
absolute truth. I have lived through fifty years
of the mightiest battle that old Book has ever
fought, and I have lived to see its banners flying
free; for never in the history of this world did
the great minds of earth so universally agree
that the Bible is true--all true--as they do at
this very hour.
So I say that when he quoted right, of course
he quoted the absolute truth. ``The love of
money is the root of all evil.'' He who tries to
attain unto it too quickly, or dishonestly, will
fall into many snares, no doubt about that. The
love of money. What is that? It is making an
idol of money, and idolatry pure and simple
everywhere is condemned by the Holy Scriptures and
by man's common sense. The man that worships
the dollar instead of thinking of the purposes for
which it ought to be used, the man who idolizes
simply money, the miser that hordes his money
in the cellar, or hides it in his stocking, or refuses
to invest it where it will do the world good, that
man who hugs the dollar until the eagle squeals
has in him the root of all evil.
I think I will leave that behind me now and
answer the question of nearly all of you who are
asking, ``Is there opportunity to get rich in
Philadelphia?'' Well, now, how simple a thing it is
to see where it is, and the instant you see where
it is it is yours. Some old gentleman gets up back
there and says, ``Mr. Conwell, have you lived in
Philadelphia for thirty-one years and don't know
that the time has gone by when you can make
anything in this city?'' ``No, I don't think it is.''
``Yes, it is; I have tried it.'' ``What business
are you in?'' ``I kept a store here for twenty
years, and never made over a thousand dollars
in the whole twenty years.''
``Well, then, you can measure the good you
have been to this city by what this city has paid
you, because a man can judge very well what he
is worth by what he receives; that is, in what he
is to the world at this time. If you have not made
over a thousand dollars in twenty years in Philadelphia,
it would have been better for Philadelphia
if they had kicked you out of the city nineteen
years and nine months ago. A man has no right
to keep a store in Philadelphia twenty years and
not make at least five hundred thousand dollars
even though it be a corner grocery up-town.'
You say, ``You cannot make five thousand dollars
in a store now.'' Oh, my friends, if you will
just take only four blocks around you, and find
out what the people want and what you ought
to supply and set them down with your pencil
and figure up the profits you would make if you
did supply them, you would very soon see it.
There is wealth right within the sound of your
voice.
Some one says: ``You don't know anything
about business. A preacher never knows a thing
about business.'' Well, then, I will have to prove
that I am an expert. I don't like to do this, but
I have to do it because my testimony will not be
taken if I am not an expert. My father kept a
country store, and if there is any place under the
stars where a man gets all sorts of experience in
every kind of mercantile transactions, it is in the
country store. I am not proud of my experience,
but sometimes when my father was away he would
leave me in charge of the store, though fortunately
for him that was not very often. But this did
occur many times, friends: A man would come
in the store, and say to me, ``Do you keep jack
knives?'' ``No, we don't keep jack-knives,'' and
I went off whistling a tune. What did I care
about that man, anyhow? Then another farmer
would come in and say, ``Do you keep jack
knives?'' ``No, we don't keep jack-knives.''
Then I went away and whistled another tune.
Then a third man came right in the same door and
said, ``Do you keep jack-knives?'' ``No. Why
is every one around here asking for jack-knives?
Do you suppose we are keeping this store to supply
the whole neighborhood with jack-knives?''
covetousness, and you know we do, in the pulpit,
and oftentimespreach against it so long and
use the terms about ``filthy lucre'' so extremely
that Christians get the idea that when we stand
in the pulpit we believe it is wicked for any man
to have money--until the collection-basket goes
around, and then we almost swear at the people
because they don't give more money. Oh, the
inconsistency of such doctrines as that!
Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably
ambitious to have it. You ought because you
can do more good with it than you could without
it. Money printed your Bible, money builds your
churches, money sends your missionaries, and
money pays your preachers, and you would not
have many of them, either, if you did not pay
them. I am always willing that my church should
raise my salary, because the church that pays the
largest salary always raises it the easiest. You
never knew an exception to it in your life. The
man who gets the largest salary can do the most
good with the power that is furnished to him.
Of course he can if his spirit be right to use it
for what it is given to him.
I say, then, you ought to have money. If
you can honestlyattain unto riches in Philadelphia,
it is your Christian and godly duty to do so.
It is an awful mistake of these pious people to
think you must be awfully poor in order to be pious.
Some men say, ``Don't you sympathize with
the poor people?'' Of course I do, or else I would
not have been lecturing these years. I won't
give in but what I sympathize with the poor, but
the number of poor who are to be sympathized
with is very small. To sympathize with a man
whom God has punished for his sins, thus to help
him when God would still continue a just punishment,
is to do wrong, no doubt about it, and we
do that more than we help those who are
deserving. While we should sympathize with God's
poor--that is, those who cannot help themselves--
let us remember there is not a poor person in the
United States who was not made poor by his own
shortcomings, or by the shortcomings of some one
else. It is all wrong to be poor, anyhow. Let us
give in to that argument and pass that to one side.
A gentleman gets up back there, and says,
``Don't you think there are some things in this
world that are better than money?'' Of course I
do, but I am talking about money now. Of course
there are some things higher than money. Oh
yes, I know by the grave that has left me standing
alone that there are some things in this world
that are higher and sweeter and purer than
money. Well do I know there are some things
higher and grander than gold. Love is the grandest
thing on God's earth, but fortunate the lover
who has plenty of money. Money is power,
money is force, money will do good as well as
harm. In the hands of good men and women it
could accomplish, and it has accomplished, good.
I hate to leave that behind me. I heard a
man get up in a prayer-meeting in our city and
thank the Lord he was ``one of God's poor.''
Well, I wonder what his wife thinks about that?
She earns all the money that comes into that
house, and he smokes a part of that on the veranda.
I don't want to see any more of the Lord's poor
of that kind, and I don't believe the Lord does.
And yet there are some people who think in order
to be pious you must be awfully poor and awfully
dirty. That does not follow at all. While we
sympathize with the poor, let us not teach a doctrine
like that.
Yet the age is prejudiced against advising a
Christian man (or, as a Jew would say, a godly
man) from attaining unto wealth. The prejudice
is so universal and the years are far enough back,
I think, for me to safely mention that years ago
up at Temple University there was a young man
in our theological school who thought he was the
only pious student in that department. He came
into my office one evening and sat down by my
desk, and said to me: ``Mr. President, I think it
is my duty sir, to come in and labor with you.''
``What has happened now?'' Said he, ``I heard
you say at the Academy, at the Peirce School
commencement, that you thought it was an honorable
ambition for a young man to desire to have
wealth, and that you thought it made him temperate,
made him anxious to have a good name, and
made him industrious. You spoke about man's
ambition to have money helping to make him a
good man. Sir, I have come to tell you the Holy
Bible says that `money is the root of all evil.' ''
I told him I had never seen it in the Bible,
and advised him to go out into the chapel and get
the Bible, and show me the place. So out he went
for the Bible, and soon he stalked into my office
with the Bible open, with all the bigoted pride
of the narrow sectarian, or of one who founds his
Christianity on some misinterpretation of Scripture.
He flung the Bible down on my desk, and
fairly squealed into my ear: ``There it is, Mr.
President; you can read it for yourself.'' I said
to him: ``Well, young man, you will learn when
you get a little older that you cannot trust another
denomination to read the Bible for you. You belong
to another denomination. You are taught in
the theological school, however, that emphasis is
exegesis. Now, will you take that Bible and read
it yourself, and give the proper emphasis to it?''
He took the Bible, and proudly read, `` `The
love of money is the root of all evil.' ''
Then he had it right, and when one does quote
aright from that same old Book he quotes the
absolute truth. I have lived through fifty years
of the mightiest battle that old Book has ever
fought, and I have lived to see its banners flying
free; for never in the history of this world did
the great minds of earth so universally agree
that the Bible is true--all true--as they do at
this very hour.
So I say that when he quoted right, of course
he quoted the absolute truth. ``The love of
money is the root of all evil.'' He who tries to
attain unto it too quickly, or dishonestly, will
fall into many snares, no doubt about that. The
love of money. What is that? It is making an
idol of money, and idolatry pure and simple
everywhere is condemned by the Holy Scriptures and
by man's common sense. The man that worships
the dollar instead of thinking of the purposes for
which it ought to be used, the man who idolizes
simply money, the miser that hordes his money
in the cellar, or hides it in his stocking, or refuses
to invest it where it will do the world good, that
man who hugs the dollar until the eagle squeals
has in him the root of all evil.
I think I will leave that behind me now and
answer the question of nearly all of you who are
asking, ``Is there opportunity to get rich in
Philadelphia?'' Well, now, how simple a thing it is
to see where it is, and the instant you see where
it is it is yours. Some old gentleman gets up back
there and says, ``Mr. Conwell, have you lived in
Philadelphia for thirty-one years and don't know
that the time has gone by when you can make
anything in this city?'' ``No, I don't think it is.''
``Yes, it is; I have tried it.'' ``What business
are you in?'' ``I kept a store here for twenty
years, and never made over a thousand dollars
in the whole twenty years.''
``Well, then, you can measure the good you
have been to this city by what this city has paid
you, because a man can judge very well what he
is worth by what he receives; that is, in what he
is to the world at this time. If you have not made
over a thousand dollars in twenty years in Philadelphia,
it would have been better for Philadelphia
if they had kicked you out of the city nineteen
years and nine months ago. A man has no right
to keep a store in Philadelphia twenty years and
not make at least five hundred thousand dollars
even though it be a corner grocery up-town.'
You say, ``You cannot make five thousand dollars
in a store now.'' Oh, my friends, if you will
just take only four blocks around you, and find
out what the people want and what you ought
to supply and set them down with your pencil
and figure up the profits you would make if you
did supply them, you would very soon see it.
There is wealth right within the sound of your
voice.
Some one says: ``You don't know anything
about business. A preacher never knows a thing
about business.'' Well, then, I will have to prove
that I am an expert. I don't like to do this, but
I have to do it because my testimony will not be
taken if I am not an expert. My father kept a
country store, and if there is any place under the
stars where a man gets all sorts of experience in
every kind of mercantile transactions, it is in the
country store. I am not proud of my experience,
but sometimes when my father was away he would
leave me in charge of the store, though fortunately
for him that was not very often. But this did
occur many times, friends: A man would come
in the store, and say to me, ``Do you keep jack
knives?'' ``No, we don't keep jack-knives,'' and
I went off whistling a tune. What did I care
about that man, anyhow? Then another farmer
would come in and say, ``Do you keep jack
knives?'' ``No, we don't keep jack-knives.''
Then I went away and whistled another tune.
Then a third man came right in the same door and
said, ``Do you keep jack-knives?'' ``No. Why
is every one around here asking for jack-knives?
Do you suppose we are keeping this store to supply
the whole neighborhood with jack-knives?''
- preach [pri:tʃ]
v.宣扬；鼓吹 n.训诫 (初中英语单词) - wicked [´wikid] a.邪恶的；不道德的 (初中英语单词)
- willing [´wiliŋ] a.情愿的，乐意的 (初中英语单词)
- exception [ik´sepʃən] n.例外；反对，异议 (初中英语单词)
- honestly [´ɔnistli] ad.诚实地，老实地 (初中英语单词)
- attain [ə´tein] v.取得；到达；成为 (初中英语单词)
- riches [´ritʃiz] n.房地产；丰富 (初中英语单词)
- argument [´ɑ:gjumənt] n.辩论；争论；论证 (初中英语单词)
- fortunate [´fɔ:tʃənət] a.幸运的，侥幸的 (初中英语单词)
- wealth [welθ] n.财富，财产 (初中英语单词)
- universal [,ju:ni´və:səl] a.宇宙的；普遍的 (初中英语单词)
- safely [´seifli] ad.安全地；平安地 (初中英语单词)
- temple [´tempəl] n.庙宇；寺院；太阳穴 (初中英语单词)
- academy [ə´kædəmi] n.专科学校；学会；协会 (初中英语单词)
- anxious [´æŋkʃəs] a.担忧的；渴望的 (初中英语单词)
- chapel [´tʃæpəl] n.小教堂 (初中英语单词)
- proudly [´praudli] ad.骄傲地；傲慢地 (初中英语单词)
- absolute [´æbsəlu:t] a.绝对的 n.绝对 (初中英语单词)
- cellar [´selə] n.地窑，地下室 (初中英语单词)
- stocking [´stɔkiŋ] n.长统袜 (初中英语单词)
- invest [in´vest] v.投资；授予 (初中英语单词)
- instant [´instənt] a.立即的 n.紧迫；瞬间 (初中英语单词)
- measure [´meʒə] n.量度；范围 vt.测量 (初中英语单词)
- expert [´ekspə:t] n.&a.专家；内行 (初中英语单词)
- charge [tʃɑ:dʒ] v.收费；冲锋 n.费用 (初中英语单词)
- neighborhood [´neibəhud] n.邻居；邻近；附近 (初中英语单词)
- awfully [´ɔ:fuli] ad.令人畏惧地 (高中英语单词)
- industrious [in´dʌstriəs] a.勤勉的，刻苦的 (高中英语单词)
- emphasis [´emfəsis] n.强调；重点 (高中英语单词)
- grocery [´grəusəri] n.食品杂货店 (高中英语单词)
- preacher [´pri:tʃə] n.讲道者，传教士 (高中英语单词)
- testimony [´testiməni] n.证明；证据；表明 (高中英语单词)
- pulpit [´pulpit] n.讲坛 (英语四级单词)
- accomplished [ə´kʌmpliʃt] a.完成了的；熟练的 (英语四级单词)
- theological [θiə´lɔdʒikəl] a.神学(上)的 (英语四级单词)
- universally [,ju:ni´və:səli] ad.普遍地 (英语四级单词)
- inconsistent [,inkən´sistənt] a.不一致的 (英语六级单词)
- oftentimes [´ɔ:fəntaimz] ad.屡次，常常 (英语六级单词)
- denomination [di,nɔmi´neiʃən] n.命名；宗派；派别 (英语六级单词)
- idolatry [ai´dɔlətri] n.偶像崇拜；过度崇信 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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