fore it. The pursuit of
money has become the settled custom of the country. Many are so absorbed
by it, that every other kind of well-being is either lost sight of, or
altogether undervalued. And then the lovers of money think to recover
their moral tone by bestowing charity! Mountains of gold weigh heavily
upon the heart and soul. The man who can withstand the weight of riches,
and still be diligent, industrious, and strong in mind and heart, must
be made of strong stuff. For, people who are rich, are almost invariably
disposed to be idle, luxurious, and self-indulgent.

"If money," said the Rev. Mr. Griffiths, Rector of Merthyr, "did not
make men forget men, one-half of the evil that is in the world would
never occur. If masters drew nearer to the men, and men were permitted
to draw nearer their masters, we should not be passing through this
fiery ordeal. Let them do something to win the men out of the
public-houses; let them spare more of their enormous gains to build
places of amusement and recreation for the people; let them provide
better houses to live in, better conveniences for decency, better
streets; and if all these things are done we shall have neither
lock-outs nor strikes. We hear with pomp and triumph of the millions and
millions that have been dug out of this old Welsh land of ours, but we
hear nothing--and we see, indeed, less--of the public buildings, the
people's parks, the public libraries and public institutions, and other
civilizing agencies. Fifteen months ago, when we were in the highest
tide of prosperity, I said all this, and no notice was taken of it. Why
should any notice be taken of a preaching parson or a Christian minister
of any kind, when sovereigns fly about like snowflakes in winter, or may
be gathered like blackberries in summer?"[1]

[Footnote 1: Sermon preached at Merthyr during the South Wales strike.]

Men go on toiling and moiling, eager to be richer; desperately
struggling, as if against poverty, at the same time that they are
surrounded with abundance. They scrape and scrape, add shilling to
shilling, and sometimes do shabby things in order to make a little more
profit; though they may have accumulated far more than they can actually
enjoy. And still they go on, worrying themselves incessantly in the
endeavour to grasp at an additional increase of superfluity. Perhaps
such men have not enjoyed the advantages of education in early life.
They have no literary pleasures to fall