Mammon or Covetousness the Sin of the Christian Chruch. By Rev. John Harris; Anti-Mammon, or an Exposure of the Unscriptural Statements of Mammon [pp. 222-239]

M4lamminooni, anid niili-nManmon.
To represent this creature of God, this machinery which
He works for his own glory primarily and supremely, and
not for the sakle of that machinery itself, as having power to
limit the grace of God, to defeat his plans, and to prevent the
accomplishment of his purpose, is, we sincerely think, most
impious. It is shocking to every feeling of reverence and
piety. What Christian mind can read the language we
have quoted; especially out of the mouth of a "teacher
in Israel," without shuddering? "To ascribe the present condition of the heathen to an act of divine sovereignty, is not in accordance with the declarations of Scripture."t Such is the doctrine which is becoming current
in certain portions of the church, which with a sickly affectation of piety, rather than allow the condemnation and
present outcast condition of the heathen to be the manifestation of divine anger, and of the "righteous judgment" of
God, strips God of all that constitutes him supreme,
infinite, and glorious, as the Sovereign of the universe.
Let us abide by the scriptures, and put away from us all
vain and foolish imaginations of men. Hear the language
of the apostles in the synod of Jerusalem, recorded in the
book of Acts, ch. 15: 13-18, "And after they had held
their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren,
hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first
did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his
name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is
written, After this I will return, and will build again the
tabernacle of David which is fallen down; and I will build
again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue
of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon
whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these
things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." On this subject the remarks of the authors of Anti-Mammon are most seasonable and comfortablet
to our minds, even as the views presented in Mammon,
while ostensibly offered in furtherance of the great cause of
missions, have filled us with fearful and gloomy apprehensions. That the church has failed to dlischarge her duty is
lamentably true. That she is on this account criminally
guilty before God is equally certain. That she is now under
* "It should not be evaded nor blinked," says Mr. Jenkyn, "that the divine
plans are susceptible of failures. This failure has taken place in the atonement," &c.
t See Eclectic Rev. 1838, p. 313. t See Chapter 6.
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