(iii) The Use and Abuse of Money and Privilege
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of his publications, it must be admitted, made the war-time situation doubly difficult for his preachers on American soil.*
(iii) The Use and Abuse of Money and Privilege '"' The Church," cried St. Bernard in the twelfth century, as he gazed at the wonders of Gothit architecture, "is resplendent in her walls, beggarly in her poor.
She clothes her stones in gold and leaves her sons naked."'?
Wesley, six centuries later, * was to protest in terms equally eloquent and vehement, against the extravagances of wealth: and that protest he formulated into a very definite doctrine concerning the use and abuse of money and privilege.
The acquisition of knowledge, taught Lord Bacon, was for "' the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate."
Just so, taught Wesley, regarding the gaining of money and the use of all economic and financial power.
The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof,"' was the central aspect of his economic faith.
Hence the cardinal articles of his financial creed were the Divine proprietorship of all wealth, property and privilege, and the responsible stewardship of man.
All talents, of whatever nature, were to Wesley a temporary trust from God.
'' Occupy till I come," was God's commission toman.
The " Christian" use of wealth, therefore, anticipated and postulated a spiritualised and socialised will.
The delusion of '' irresponsible ownership "' represented the crassest idolatry ; avarice and cupidity were soul-killing sins ; while as for parasitic wealth, it carried within itself its own fearful Nemesis—a deathdealing sting.
To Wesley, therefore, any enduring antithesis between business and religion was unthinkable.
For him the vital question was not, " Should religion interfere with business ? " but rather, '' How can business avoid going, to the devil, if it is not permeated with religious values, and dedicated to religious ends?"
Riches, taught this modern prophet, were made for man, not man for riches.
Economic ambition, he believed to be a good servant but an accursed master.
The acid test of the economic and commercial life was the query, "' To what purpose do the wheels go round?"
And unless they moved for the common good, they obviously were out of gear.
All '"' snatching to hoard, and hoarding to snatch"? Wesley considered utter insanity.
No more than sex appetites, should the acquisitive economic appetites be stimulated, or pampered :
1 Edwards's Wesley has a suggestive chapter on '' The War of American Independence."
But despite all recent research in this field, he assumes throughout that the American cause was wholly just and the English unjust.
2 See Professor G. G. Coulton A Medieval Garner, pp. 68-73.
PREACHING
OF SOCIAL RIGHTEOUSNESS
rather should they be curbed, 'and sublimated to social and spiritual ends.
The injunction in Proverbs, '' Give me neither riches nor poverty, but enough for my subsistence," was to Wesley a law of reason.
Men who strove to "corner" the fruits of the earth were not only robbing God, but grinding the face of the poor: they were as ravenous wolves, whom any decently ordered society should seek to hold by the ears, till they learned neighbourliness.
No department of life, Wesley insisted, dare be surrendered to the '" powers of darkness."
The remedy for bad law was good law, not lawlessness: but the foundation of all good law, in turn, he believed to be the socialised conscience and the really " changed " heart.1
"Luther's utterances on social morality," says Professor 'Tawney, " are the occasional explosions of a capricious volcano, with only a rare flash of light amid the torrent of smoke and flame, and it is idle to scan them for a coherent and consistent doctrine."* Wesley himself refers to Luther's writings on Salvation by Faith as '"' muddy and confused."?
The leader of the "Second Reformation"? was too systematic by nature and too keen a logician by training, to fall into Luther's error.
Whatever were Wesley's shortcomings, system and coherence were at the centre of his life and teaching: ,his warm, stout heart was directed by a cool, reflective head.
Though Wesley always was suspicious of accumulated " fortunes," though commonly he avoided the rich and worked generally on the principle "' the poor are the Christians," yet he was too practical to despise or underrate the value of money, if controlled by a humane, sensitive conscience for the common good.
In his sermon The Good Steward, he speaks of " that precious talent which contains all the rest—money."
Indeed he pronounces it '"' unspeakably precious if we are wise and faithful stewards of it."* But always he proclaimed wealth an inevitable curse if once it became an end in itself, or a means of self-aggrandisement.
'' In what manner," he asks, "' didst thou employ that comprehensive talent, money?
Not in gratifying the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye or the pride of life?
Not squandering it away in vain expenses, the same as throwing it into the sea?
Not hoarding it up to leave behind thee, the same as burying it in the earth?
But in first supplying thine own reasonable wants, together with those of thy family ; then restoring the remainder to God, through the 1 See Dr. W. J. Warner, Wesleyan Movement, etc., chapter iii.
2, R. H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, p. 88.
Fournal, June 15th, 1741.
4 Ibid., p. 8
ENGLAND:
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poor???
Industry and thrift, he demanded of all his disciples as indispensable marks of Christianity: but the purpose of these must be service to God and man, not vainglorious indulgence.
'"'Wast thou accordingly a general benefactor of mankind ?"? he asks.
' Didst thou labour to improve all outward works of mercy and means of saving souls from death 2"
If sos at remains that thou be rewarded to all eternity, according to thy works.??
But if contrariwise, we forget that God is the Creator and Proprietor of all, and fail to use the money entrusted to us as stewards of His Kingdom, we are certain to become entangled in the enticing meshes of sin, and lose whatever lingering faith remains in our souls.
Wesley's injunctions in this regard are emphatic and unmistakable.
"Give all you can.
Hoard nothing.
I defy all the men upon the earth, yea all the angels in heaven, to find any other way of extracting the poison from riches."
Any who squander or hoard wealth for self-gratification, Wesley taught are '' robbing God, continually embezzling and wasting their Lord's goods, and, by that very means, corrupting their own souls."
Nay worse ; in so doing, we are "keeping money from the poor, to buy poison for ourselves.''?
Wesley's famous money rule, the world knows.
'' Gain all you can.
Save all you can.
Give all you can.'"'
But it was circumscribed by the strictest limitations, which frequently are forgotten.
The Christian, guided by "love toward God and man," must do "' no harm'! to his neighbour ; he "' must not sell anything which tends to impair health"; he must disassociate himself from all '' hazardous and unhealthy employments."
He must gain only by means which render true and honest service to his fellow men.
Neither must he save to the extent of endangering the physical, mental or moral health of his dependants or himself.
Finally, if he failed to give all, beyond what was necessary for the Christian support of his family, the running of his business, and a reasonable provision for his dependants—if he piled up "treasures on earth "'—then he was flouting "a flat, positive command, full and clear as ' Thou shalt not commit adultery '."> Similarly, Wesley urged parents not to "' seek riches for your children by their marriage."
To call such a union a '' good match," he protested, is "' by parity of reason,"' to '' call hell a good lodging.''®
* Ops cits, p20:
Ibid., pp: 20=2.
3 J. Wesley's Works, Vol. V., p. 375.
4 See Rules of Wesley's Societies.
5 See Sermons, The Use of Money, The Danger of Riches, Dives and Lazarus, Causes of the Inefficiency of Christianity, Wheels within Wheels, etc.
8 See Wesley's Works, Vol. VII, p. 85.
PREACHING
OF SOCIAL RIGHTEOUSNESS
Emphatic was Wesley's teaching that the human body, being "the temple of God," should be kept healthy and clean; no financial exploits therefore should be permitted which undermine men's physique.
But yet more emphatic is his teaching concerning the supremacy of personality over all considerations of property and profit.
'' All cheating and overreaching in business, all pawn-broking and usury," he sternly denounced.
"We cannot, consistent with brotherly love," he'says, " sell our goods below market price ; we cannot study to ruin our neighbour's trade, to advance our own.
. None can gain by swallowing up his neighbour's substance, without gaining the damnation of hell."1!
Though Wesley often used the word ** hell,' it was generally in a metaphorical sense.
He was not given to the employment of "' sulphurous"' language ; but the hottest fires of the deepest hell, he would have deemed necessary to purge the sins of some modern " cornering trusts."
Nevertheless, as to the worst of sinners "' grace abounds," he would have said with Anatole France, "' The mercy of God is boundless : it can save even a rich man!"
Southey contends that Wesley's uncompromising teaching regarding wealth alienated the sympathy of the privileged classes.
'' The rigid doctrine which Wesley preached concerning riches," he says, "being only one degree more reasonable than that of St. Francis, prevented Methodism from extending itself as it otherwise might have done, among those classes where these notions would have been acted upon by zealous mothers."?
It must be remembered, however, that this is the criticism of a highly privileged man.
When Southey, in 1820, wrote his Life of Wesley, his place was established as a literary idol of exclusive and wealthy society ; already for seven years had he been Poet Laureate: and his youthful dreams of establishing a pioneer Utopia in America, which once he had shared with Coleridge, were now but a faint and fantastic memory.
His publications were paying him handsomely ; he was living on the fat of the land; and he left behind him £12,000.
Hence the prejudices of the wealthy had become his own; he was in no position to intrepret the heroism or the selflessness either of St. Francis or Wesley.
He desired no hard sayings regarding the snares of wealth.
With peculiar insight has it been said of Southey's Wesley : '"' He had nothing to draw with, and the well is deep!"'
The criticism is not applicable to the whole work ; but it is a sagacious rejoinder to Southey's
1 See section, "' Gain all you can," in Use of Money ; also J. A. Faulkner, Wesley as Sociologist, Theologian and Churchman, pp. 7-35.
2 Southey's Life of Wesley. p. 326.
i 8 See Dict. of Nat. Biog. ; also Chambers's Biographical Dict.
238 ENGLAND:
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denunciation of Wesley's teaching regarding wealth.
The prophet-evangelist would not sugar coat the doctrines of his conscience and his Christ, to make Salvation easy for the rich and roud : so the pill was too bitter for Southey's " refined "' taste.
That Wesley's life-long practice squared exactly with his money teaching, there can be no possible doubt.
In 1743 he wrote: "If I leave behind me {10 .
. you and all mankind bear witness against me that I lived and died a thief and a robber."!
In 1776, he received a communication from the Commissioners of Excise, saying they " cannot doubt but you have plate for which you have hitherto neglected to make an entry."
Wesley's reply was succinct:
"I have two silver spoons at London and two at Bristol.
This is all the plate I have at present, and I shall not buy any more while so many round me want bread."'* The income from the almost unprecedented sale of Wesley's tracts, pamphlets and books was sufficient to make him a rich man: but never did he spend more than £30 a year upon his personal needs.
Always he wore cheap clothes; and always he dined on the plainest fare.
In a single year he gave away as much as £1,400: which meant that he kept one fortyseventh of his earnings, and gave away nearly ninety-eight per cent.
Increased income therefore, had no effect on his personal expenditure.
He supplied his humble needs in the most modest manner, and gave away all the rest—or rather returned it to God, its Owner, '"' through his brethren, the poor."
Yet, giving his time, his talents, his love, his money, his all, he was given in return, the pearl of great price: for, amidst all his unparalleled labours, happiness and composure possessed his soul and were mirrored in his benign and saintly face.
On the eve of death, Wesley closed his Account Book with the words :
"For upwards of eighty-six years I have kept my accounts exactly, I will not attempt it any longer, being satisfied with the continual conviction that I save all I can, and give all I can— that is all I have.''4
Never did Revolutionist or Communist give of his all so utterly unreservedly as did John Wesley: yet he gave it not in the spirit of envy, pride, hatred or revenge, but in the spirit of fellowship, service and love; for he hated no man, but loved, and sought fellowship with, every soul on earth.
1'Tyerman's Wesley, Vol. I, p. 436.
2 This letter (September 9th, 1776) is preserved in the library of Headingley College.
3 See Encyclopedia Britannica, '' John Wesley " (Telford).
4 Journal (Curnock edition), Vol. VIII, p. 80.
See, too, facsimile of a page from Wesley's Diary (August 5th, 1790), ibid., p. 85.
CHAPTER XIII
THE REASSERTION OF THE CHRISTIAN ETHIC
"' NEITHER may we gain by hurting our neighbour in his body.
Therefore we may not sell anything which tends to impair health."
WESLEY's sermon, The Use of Money.
So wickedly, devilishly false is that common objection, tae} 'They are poor only because they are idle'.
WeEs.eEy's Journal, February gth, 1753.