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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
heart. He saw that the love of money would freeze deep and hard into
men’s souls, stopping the flow of generous impulses and closing their
senses to the wants of the suffering and the afflicted. “Take heed,” was
His oft-repeated warning, “and beware of covetousness.” “Ye cannot
serve God and mammon.” The oft-repeated and striking warnings of
our Redeemer are in marked contrast with the actions of His professed
followers who evidence in their lives so great eagerness to be rich and
who show that the words of Christ are lost upon them. Covetousness
is one of the most common and popular sins of the last days, and has a
paralyzing influence upon the soul.
Brother P, the desire for wealth has been the central idea of your
mind. This one passion for money getting has deadened every high
and noble consideration, and has made you indifferent to the needs and
interests of others. You have made yourself nearly as unimpressible
as a piece of iron. Your gold and your silver are cankered, and have
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become an eating canker to the soul. Had your benevolence grown
with your riches, you would have regarded money as a means by which
you could do good. Our Redeemer, who knew man’s danger in regard
to covetousness, has provided a safeguard against this dreadful evil.
He has arranged the plan of salvation so that it begins and ends in
benevolence. Christ offered Himself, an infinite sacrifice. This, in and
of itself, bears directly against covetousness and exalts benevolence.
Constant, self-denying benevolence is God’s remedy for the canker-
ing sins of selfishness and covetousness. God has arranged systematic
benevolence to sustain His cause and relieve the necessities of the
suffering and needy. He has ordained that giving should become a
habit, that it may counteract the dangerous and deceitful sin of cov-
etousness. Continual giving starves covetousness to death. Systematic
benevolence is designed in the order of God to tear away treasures
from the covetous as fast as they are gained and to consecrate them to
the Lord, to whom they belong.
This system is so arranged that men may give something from their
wages every day and lay by for their Lord a portion of the profits of
every investment. The constant practice of God’s plan of systematic
benevolence weakens covetousness and strengthens benevolence. If
riches increase, men, even those professing godliness, set their hearts
upon them; and the more they have, the less they give to the treasury
of the Lord. Thus riches make men selfish, and hoarding feeds cov-