Covetousness: Its Insidiousness
Covetousness: Its Insidiousness [1]
Beware of growing covetousness, for of all sins this is one of the most insidious. It is like the stream of a river. As the stream comes down from the land, it brings with it sand and earth, and deposits these at its mouth, so that by degrees, unless the conservators watch it carefully, it will block itself up, and leave no channel for ships of great burden. By daily deposit it imperceptibly creates a bar which is dangerous to navigation. Many a man when he begins to accumulate wealth commences at the same moment to ruin his soul, and the more he acquires, the more closely he blocks up his liberality, which is, so to speak, the very mouth of spiritual life. Instead of doing more for God he does less; the more he saves the more he wants, and the more he wants of this world the less he cares for the world to come.
