Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

^4. There is indeed another way of understanding it; and I will not withhold it too. The mammon of iniquity is all the riches of this world, from whatever source they come. For howsoever they be heaped together, they are the mammon of iniquity, that is, the riches of iniquity. What is, “they are the riches of iniquity”? It is money which iniquity calls by the name of riches. For if we seek for the true riches, they are different from these. In these Job abounded, naked as he was, when he had a heart full to Godward, and poured out praises like most costly gems to his God, when he had lost all he had. And from what treasure did he this, if he had nothing? These then are the true riches. But the other sort are called riches by iniquity. Thou dost possess these riches. I blame it not: an inheritance has come to you, your father was rich, and he left it to you. Or you have honestly acquired them: you have a house full of the fruit of just labour; I blame it not. Yet even thus do not call them riches. For if you call them riches, you will love them: and if you love them, you will perish with them. Lose, that you be not lost: give, that you may gain: sow, that you may reap. Call not these riches, for “the true” they are not. They are full of poverty, and liable ever to accidents. What sort of riches are those, for whose sake you are afraid of the robber, for whose sake you are afraid of your own servant, lest he should kill you, and take them away, and fly? If they were true riches, they would give you security.