THE MUCK-RAKE | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 26, 1880

THE MUCK-RAKE.

WHEN Christiana was in the house of the Interpreter, she saw in one of the rooms "a man that could look no way but downwards, with a muck-rake in his hand. There stood also One over his head with a celestial crown in his hand, and proffered him that crown for his muck-rake; but the man did neither look up nor regard, but raked to himself the straws, the small sticks, and the dust of the floor." When the meaning of this figure had been explained to her, "then said Christiana, 'Oh, deliver me from this muck-rake!' That prayer, said the Interpreter, has lain by till it is almost rusty. . . . Straws, and sticks, and dust, with most, are the great things now looked after." That rusty old prayer is worth taking out and oiling up for fresh use in these days,—Lord, deliver us from the muck-rake!

This muck-rake using, in preference to crown-seeking, has its illustrations in the things exclusively of this life, quite as clearly as in the things of earth in contrast with those of Heaven. It is not alone the man who lives for money, or for pleasure, or for station, or for fame, forgetful of his spiritual needs and possibilities, who may be said to look downwards, instead of upwards, and to give more prominence to a muck-rake than to a shining crown. Many a man loses the best things of his immediate sphere of earthly endeavor by just such folly as this; and it is in matters of every-day duty and pursuit that all of us have reason to pray, Deliver us from this muck-rake!

Even in money-getting itself, many a man misses the crown by too close attention to the rake. It is less than a half-truth to say, "Take care of the pence; and the pounds will take care of themselves." The absurdity of that adage was shown in one of the comic periodicals, by the picture of a banker sitting at his desk in a draught of air, intent on holding his loose pennies while the wind was blowing away all his bank-notes. Pennies must often be counted as straws or dust by him who is after the pounds. He who can "look no way but downwards," and who expects to gather his treasure from "the straws, the small sticks, and dust of the floor," will never gain the crown of pre-eminence as a man of wealth or of business capacity. The power of letting the muck-rake alone, of being above absorbed occupation with minor and unimportant details, is indispensable to successful crown-seeking in all extensive business operations. This truth is hardly less applicable to small spheres than to great ones. There may be such a thing as too much attention to scrubbing and sweeping in a household, in comparison with the higher welfare of the family. It may be the mother's duty to leave straws and sticks ungathered from the floor, instead of turning to this service from a sick child's bedside, with its crown of reward to a mother's faithfulness there. Many of the great missionary and philanthropic enterprises of the day fail of their best attainable results because of the muck-rake policy which prevails in all their management—from the employment of their representative agents to the scale of their outreaching undertakings. They are more intent on saving straws than on spending freely for the crown. "The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand." And the eye of the liberal looks upwards at the crown, rather than downward at the muck-rake.

It is not less true in the pursuit of pleasure than in that of gain, that the muck-rake is a common hindrance to crown-winning. There are summer tourists who so intent on the lesser aids to comfort, or taste, or convenience that they miss utterly the larger results of their journeying. The straws of a good seat, or of sufficient shade, or of dry walking, or of freedom from dust, or of the possibility of full dress, so absorb their attention, that they fail of getting fine views of the mountain, or of the ocean, or of the prairie, or of the forest; or of enjoying those views if they get them. And there is quite as much danger in-doors as out, in this direction. Trying to be always cool, or always warm, always free from flies, or always with just enough light; trying never to be off dignity in a romp with the children; and never to be too natural or familiar with visiting acquaintances,—will keep one's eyes downwards, and away from the crown. Whether we stay at home or go abroad, even if we have no desire above that of solid enjoyment for the hour, we have need to pray, Lord, deliver us from this muck-rake!

Peculiarly is it true that in the seeking of reputation and honor, the muck-rake is a peril to any man. If we are looking downwards, and gathering the straws and small sticks and dust of contemporary criticism, we can never win the crown that awaits those who are looking upwards and moving forwards. If we would please those of our own day, those immediately about us, we must necessarily adapt our words and works to their standard; and by that very course shut ourselves off from reforming our fellows, or of improving their standards. But if we would have high repute in the future, as reformers, or discoverers, or advanced thinkers, it is inevitable that we now leave the straws of popular applause, or the sticks and dust of popular censure, for some one to gather who prefers the acquisitions of the muck-rake to the reward of the shining crown.

Here is the difference between the time-serving politician and the large-minded statesman; between the man who writes or speaks to carry the crowd, and the writer or speaker of profound convictions and of ennobled purpose. Here is the difference between the artist who paints or who chisels for immortality, and the man who covers the canvas or cuts the marble to meet the market, and to win ephemeral praise. If a man had no thought of reward, or of honor, or of desired attainment, beyond the life that now is, and from his fellow-men, his cry ought to be, Lord, deliver me from this muck-rake!

Even when we have recognized the superior worth of the shining crown, in comparison with the straws, and small sticks, and dust of the floor, and have set ourselves to strive for that crown, it requires courage and determination and grace, to let alone the muck-rake and its accumulations. We are tempted continually to turn from the crown that we may scratch with the rake. When we ought to be writing or teaching, or studying, or painting, or sewing, or visiting, in the line of our mission, and for the good of others, we find ourselves all absorbed in worrying over the fear that we blundered or bungled in our last interview with a friend; in thinking over some unkind word that was said of us, or to us; in analyzing the possible cause of the seeming coldness or estrangement of an acquaintance; in wondering how we came to make such a mistake as now stands out in our memory; in distorting and magnifying the difficulties of success in the work that is before us; and in other ways giving the first place in our thoughts to that which is unworthy of any place there. Meantime, the sermon is unfinished, the magazine article is unwritten, the lesson is unstudied, the child is neglected or poorly taught, the gift for a friend or the adornment of a room is incomplete, the money we might have earned is lost, the service we owed is unpaid, the sick or the needy, representative of Christ is unvisited, the impenitent sinner is unwarned,—all because of bending down over the floor, busy with the muck-rake, when our eyes ought to have been uplifted to the shining crown, and our whole soul absorbed in its winning, or absorbed in the work for which that crown is the reward. Ah! it is while we are avowedly crown-seeking, as well as before we had a sight or a thought of the crown, that our prayer needs to be, Lord, deliver us from the muck-rake! Lord, deliver us from the muck-rake!

But, after all, it is chiefly in the light in which Bunyan looked at this figure, that the life of the man with the muck-rake ought to be an object of dread to us. "This is a figure of a man of this world," says the Dreamer, "and his muck-rake doth show his carnal mind. And whereas thou seest him rather give heed to rake up straws, and sticks, and the dust of the floor, than to do what He says that calls to him from above, with the celestial crown in his hand; it is to show that Heaven is but a fable to some, and that things here are counted the only things substantial. Now, whereas it was also showed thee that the man could know that earthly things, when they are with power upon men's minds, quite carry their hearts away from God." The crown and the muck-rake are in competition in this life. If we would devote ourselves to the one, we must pray against the other. Unless we determinedly look upwards, we shall look downwards. We must be absorbed in contemplation of that which is worth living for, and worth dying for, or we are likely to be absorbed in that which has no value to us whether we live or die. Paul recognized this truth long before Bunyan did. He gave up the muck-rake and all it had brought to him, in exchange for the proffered crown. "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things." And rejoicing in his exchange, at the end of his course, Paul said, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing."

Which is it that has your chief attention—the crown or the muck-rake?—Sunday-School Times.