“Many professors of religion seem just about as much determined to do good with their money, as impenitent sinners are to repent. They profess to engage in business for the glory of God, but instead of using their money for this purpose, they enlarge their capital, and their business, and transact business upon the principles of worldly men, and practice upon themselves a constant delusion.
Instead of laying out their money as they go along for the building up of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, they add their yearly profits to their capital, until nearly their whole time, and thoughts, and affections, are engrossed with money-making. Now, why do you not see, who practice this, that you are deceiving yourselves.
The only way in which money can be used for the glory of God and the good of men, is to promote the spirituality and holiness of men, and if you pursue business in a way that is inconsistent with your own spirituality, you might as well talk of getting drunk or swearing for the glory of God, as of making money for His glory. For you to neglect communion with God, under the pretense of making money for him, is sheer hypocrisy.”
Charles Finney (1792-1875) Sermons on Important Subjects, this excerpt taken from Sermon XII “Love of the World (New York: John S. Taylor, 1836) 263-264.