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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Personal Problems (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 26. A Strange Coat-of-arms.
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A Strange Coat-of-arms.
Then there is a great company whom nobody ever yet has numbered, of every nation and neighborhood, who plainly believe that to have, to possess, is the chiefest thing in life. The taint of this infection seems to have gone into all circles. Nothing escapes its unhallowed itch. It has become an epidemic in our own country. The old Hebrews had but one calf. Americans are more prodigal with their calves than that. We have two at least, the paper calf already spoken of and the golden; though the golden can no longer be properly spoken of as a calf. It is a matured bull, but not of the polled type; it has full-grown horns.
Money is extremely handy stuff and extremely dangerous stuff too. How rare the wisdom that reckons it at its full value—and a great, untenable value that is—but keeps it strictly as a servant under the strong thumb of a high purpose. In the partnership of a pure, holy purpose it seems almost omnipotent. But when it is allowed to grip both lines and whip, it drives a man such a pace as to use up all his strength, and leave him utterly winded for anything else.
Though the world has a larger supply of gold than ever before, the vast majority of men are poor, strugglingly, pitiably poor. While there never was as good an opportunity as to-day for frugal, steady men to get enough and to spare, the crowd remains needy. And gold in itself is apt both to be and to bring a curse. It is good to have, and to have the most that may be gotten honestly, and unselfishly, and without the fever of it getting into the blood. Its possession increases the possible power of a man enormously.
Yet if getting and having were the highest achievement it would mean that man's highest estate is to be a safety-deposit vault. The correct coat-of-arms would be a clutching hand. The man develops into a tightly shut fist. The life becomes a gold-plated death. The yellow fever germ of the bank vault is sadly infecting many a noble life to-day. It is good to have for our needs, and for the world's need, but having is simply a pathway through to something higher. It is not the highest ambition of life.