John Mark Hicks

Harding (1848-1922) was a firm believer that everything is about the kingdom of God, especially our wealth and our businesses. Harding encouraged making money but for the sake of the kingdom of God rather than self-interested pursuits. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from Harding which reflect this emphasis.

“If Christians are wise, they will be diligent in business; and then, when they have money, they will use it with a free hand in ministering to widows and orphans, in caring for the poor, in having the gospel preached, or to sum it all up, in lending it to the Lord….Lend your money to the Lord, and it is safe; you will be sure to get it when you need it.” (James A. Harding, “Scraps.  Wealth and How to Use It,” Gospel Advocate 28.43 [27 October 1886], 674.)

“If every Christian in the world should run his business, whatever that may be, solely for the advancement of God’s kingdom; if he should consider himself as being in the world simply and solely for that purpose, what a wonderful change we would have in the world!” (James A. Harding, “Three Contradictory Theories,” The Way 3.1 [4 April 1901], 3-4.)

This entry was posted on February 7, 2012 at 7:24 am and is filed under Stone-Campbell. Tagged: Kingdom of God, Poor, Wealth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.