Money

A character named “Mr. Pump” appears in a novel by A.A. Milne called “Two People.” At one point in the novel, Mr. Pump, an important London publisher, is described as follows,

…Mr. Pump was not a hypocrite. He was a religious man whose religion was too sacred a thing to be carried into his business. The top-hat which he hung up in his office was not the top-hat which he prayed into before placing it, thus hallowed, between his feet as he sat in Church on Sunday. He had two top-hats. On Monday morning he put God reverently away for the week and took out mammon. On Sunday morning he came back to God. No man can serve two masters simultaneously!

“No man can serve two masters simultaneously!” To which we might add that Mr. Pump, who was at least willing to admit this, was closer to the truth than many of us who go on living as though it were possible to serve God…