Often, too, they are tempted to be
actually dishonest, to fancy that the means sanctify the end; that it is
lawful to do evil that good may come; and so, in order to carry out some
fine scheme of theirs, to say false things, or do mean or cruel things,
not for their own interest, but, as they fancy, for the cause of God: as
if God, and God's cause, could ever be helped by the devil and his works.
And so they cast a scandal on religion, and give the enemies of the Lord
reason to blaspheme. So it was, it seems, in our Lord's time--so it has
been too often since. The children of light--those who ought to be of
most use to their own generation--are sometimes of least use to it,
through their own weaknesses and follies. They will not remember that he
that is not faithful in that which is least, in the every-day concerns of
life, is not likely to be faithful in that which is greatest; that if
they will not be faithful in the unrighteous mammon--that is, if they
cannot resist the temptations to meanness and unfairness which come with
all money transactions, God will not commit to them the true riches--the
power of making their fellow creatures wiser, happier, better.
Pages:
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503