By Peter Kennedy
“Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.” – Ecclesiastes 5:10.
Probably no one loved money as much as James “Jemmy” Wood. He inherited the Glouchester Old Bank from his grandfather and ran it with the help of only two clerks. He became nationally known as “The Gloucester Miser”. He was the inspiration for Charles Dickens’ character “Ebenezer Scrooge.”
His wealth of around £900,000 was stated at the time to have made him “the richest commoner in His Majesty’s dominions.”
Supposedly, he often visited the Gloucester Docks to fill his pockets with small pieces of coal that fell off the boats being unloaded there, and wore the same old clothes for years on end.
Wood was renowned for walking everywhere rather than paying the cost of a carriage. Once he travelled back to Gloucester from Tewkesbury in the back of a passing hearse, laid out in the space usually reserved for the deceased.
Despised throughout his life, when Wood died in 1836, people laughed at his funeral and through rocks at his coffin.
Money should NOT command our affection and be the driving force in our lives. Today in prayer, praise Jesus that true wealth is knowing and loving Him.
“There is nothing that makes men rich and strong but that which they carry inside of them. Wealth is of the heart, not of the hand.” – John Milton
God’s Word: “A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.” – Proverbs 28:20.
