For myself I do not believe that Dives is so black as he is painted or that his peril is so imminent.  To reconcile such an opinion with holy writ might place me in some difficulty were I a clergyman.  Clergymen, in these days, are surrounded by difficulties of this nature—­finding it necessary to explain away many old-established teachings which narrowed the Christian Church, and to open the door wide enough to satisfy the aspirations and natural hopes of instructed men.  The brethren of Dives are now so many and so intelligent that they will no longer consent to be damned without looking closely into the matter themselves.  I will leave them to settle the matter with the Church, merely assuring them of my sympathy in their little difficulties in any case in which mere money causes the hitch.

To eat his bread in the sweat of his brow was man’s curse in Adam’s day, but is certainly man’s blessing in our day.  And what is eating one’s bread in the sweat of one’s brow but making money?  I will believe no man who tells me that he would not sooner earn two loaves than one—­and if two, then two hundred.  I will believe no man who tells me that he would sooner earn one dollar a day than two—­and if two, then two hundred.  That is, in the very nature of the argument, caeteris paribus.  When a man tells me that he would prefer one honest loaf to two that are dishonest, I will, in all possible cases, believe him.  So also a man may prefer one quiet loaf to two that are unquiet.  But under circumstances that are the same, and to a man who is sane, a whole loaf is better than half, and two loaves are better than one.  The preachers have preached well, but on this matter they have preached in vain.  Dives has never believed that he will be damned because he is Dives.  He has never even believed that the temptations incident to his position have been more than a fair counterpoise, or even so much as a fair counterpoise, to his opportunities for doing good.  All men who work desire to prosper by their work, and they so desire by the nature given to them from God.  Wealth and progress must go on hand in hand together, let the accidents which occasionally divide them for a time happen as often as they may.  The progress of the Americans has been caused by their aptitude for money-making; and that continual kneeling at the shrine of the coined goddess has carried them across from New York to San Francisco.  Men who kneel at that shrine are called on to have ready wits and quick hands, and not a little aptitude for self-denial.  The New Yorker has been true to his dollar because his dollar has been true to him.