Luke 16

Mammon, The Money-God

Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Luke 16:13.

There was once a good knight called Sir Guyon, who was sent by his queen to a far country to deliver the people from the enchantments of a wicked witch. As he went on his way, thinking of gallant adventures and brave deeds, he came into a wilderness, and there he found a gloomy glade so closed in by trees that the sunlight never entered it. His way led through it, and there, sitting in the darkness, he discovered a man.

He was an ugly man with bleared eyes; his face was black with smoke, and there was soot on his hair and beard. His hands were black like a smith's. In his lap was a great heap of gold which he turned over and over, and all around him were piles of gold and money.

When he saw the knight the man started up in a fright, and began to pour the money into a hole in the ground. But Sir Guyon seized his arm and demanded who he was, and why he was hiding his money there, instead of making a good use of it. “I am Mammon, the money-god,” he answered. “I am the greatest god beneath the sky. From me comes all the gold that men strive and work for. If you will be my servant I will give you for your own all you see, or even ten times as much.” “Mammon,” said Sir Guyon, “offer your gold to those weak men who covet it. I am an honorable knight vowed to great deeds. It would ill become me to allow the love of such dross to spoil my heroic spirit. It is for crowns and kingdoms I strive. I will not be your servant.”

“Do you not know,” said Mammon, “that money can buy everything? It can buy crowns and kingdoms.” “I think differently,” said Sir Guyon. “Riches are the cause of great evil. Money is often got by deceit, and kept with anxiety. It is spent with pride and wastefulness, and it leaves behind it grief and sorrow. It brings strife and bloodshed, and all kinds of wrongdoing which a noble heart despises. I do not wish your gold. Men were far happier in ancient times, when they lived simply and without money. When they began to seek gold they learned greed and avarice.”

“All very well,” said Mammon, “for those who lived long ago, but in these days you cannot live without money. Come now, take what you please.” “I cannot take it,” said the knight, “unless I know how you got it. I cannot take money that has been got by dishonesty or wrong.”

So Mammon led Sir Guyon by a dark and dismal way to a huge underground cave. They passed by strange shapes called Pain and Strife and Jealousy and Fear and many more, and guarding the door of the cave sat Care. Entering in, they found themselves in a great vault of gold. The roof and walls and floor were all gold. This vault contained great chests of gold, but scattered all around were the bones of men who had died in striving to get them. “Behold,” said Mammon, “the happiness of the world! This is what all men aim at to be rich. Be my servant, and all these riches will be yours.”

Now, all this time, an ugly shape was hovering behind Sir Guyon, ready to tear him to pieces if he should touch anything. "I will not be your servant,” said the knight. “I seek a higher happiness the happiness of doing great deeds. I will not be the servant of riches.”

Another bliss before mine eyes I place,

Another happiness, another end.

Then Mammon showed the knight great furnaces watched by working slaves, while others ladled melted gold out of huge cauldrons. Still he refused to be tempted. Next the god led him into a golden room, where a beautiful lady, dressed in the richest clothes, sat on a throne. “This is my daughter,” said Mammon. “Be my servant and you shall have her for your wife, and much gold besides.” But the knight had given his love already to a lady, and true knights do not break their vows, or give their love for gold, so Sir Guyon refused this offer too.

Then Mammon was mad with rage, but he still hoped to get the knight into his power; so he took him to a garden, dark with cypress trees, and full of all sorts of poisonous shrubs and flowers. There he showed him a tree laden with golden apples. A mound ran round the garden, and a river flowed outside. The branches of the tree hung over the river. Strange noises reached Sir Guyon's ears, and, climbing the mound and looking over, he saw men moaning and struggling in the river, trying in vain to grasp the golden fruit which hung just beyond their reach. But Mammon pulled him back. “What a fool you are!” he said. “Why do you not gather the golden fruit? You ' are afraid!” But Sir Guyon knew that all the time the fiend waited behind him to tear him to pieces. So he resisted this also, and the god had no power to keep him, but had to let him return to the upper world, where he went on his way, and, after many adventures, accomplished the task set him by his queen.

Boys and girls, this story is an allegory. A boy starts out in life with a high resolve to be a true knight, to live a pure life, to fight for the right, and to aid the oppressed. As he goes through life he meets everywhere the temptation to put gain first, to serve the money-god. Money means so much in pleasure, or comfort, or success. To get it he must make some sacrifice of principle here and there. When he has it he will make a good use of it, but he cannot do without it. He must do as others do or be left behind.

The temptation of Mammon comes to him when he chooses his career in life. Will he choose the career which brings most money, or the career in which he can best use his powers, and be of most service in the world? It comes to him afterwards in business. Will he be content with what he can honestly make, or will he squeeze all he can out of those who work for him, and deceive with bad work those who buy from him?

If he yields to such temptations he is the slave of the money-god. He is also the slave of Mammon when he makes money only to hoard it. Then he is like Mammon hiding his treasure in the ground, instead of using it well. His is a kind of success in life that is really failure.

True success is not to be the slave of money, but to make it your servant for good. True success is to refuse money wrongly made and money for which you must give up your highest aims, and to be content with what you can have with a good conscience. So you will resist the power of Mammon, and, like the good knight,

Another bliss before your eyes you place,

Another happiness, another end

the end of the service of God. For if you are the slave of Mammon you cannot be the true servant of God. “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.”