Character and Conduct – 17 December – Wealth

Christ did not denounce wealth any more than He denounced pauperism.   He did not abhor money;  He used it.   He did not abhor the company of rich men;  He sought it.   He did not invariably scorn or even resent a certain profuseness of expenditure.   With a fine discrimination, He, while habitually discouraging it, yet recognised that, here and there, there was place for it.   What he denounced was the love of, the lust of riches;  the vulgar snobbishness that chose exclusively the fellowship or the ways of rich men;  the habit of extravagance;  in one word, greed and luxury and self-indulgence.   He taught men, first of all and last of all, that they were stewards, that in the final analysis of men and things neither they nor theirs were their own.

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We must not only affirm the brotherhood of man:  we must live it.   For then the State, and in the State, the home, the Church, and the individual shall become the incarnation of a regenerated humanity, and earth, this earth, our earth, here and to-day, the vestibule of heaven!

The Citizen in Relation to the Industrial Situation, Bishop POTTER

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These quotes are from ‘Character and Conduct’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1905 as a follow up to her volume of Daily Readings for members of the Being and Doing Guild who asked for an additional volume

In her preface Whishaw writes:

‘This collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it.’

It is my hope in publishing them here is that readers may be inspired to imitate the example of the authors.