GOD, WHAT MONEY!

The Reverend Fredrick J. Eikerenkoetter -- aka Reverend Ike -- died this week. He was 74.

The Reverend preached on national TV and radio. He had a peak audience of 2.5 million. He preached "Prosperity Now," or "Thinkonomics."

Here is some selected wit and wisdom of Reverend Ike:

• "Close your eyes and see green. Money up to your armpits, a roomful of money and there you are, just tossing it around like in a swimming pool."
• The Reverend solicited cash from his congregation, but only folding money, no coins. He said, "Change makes your minister nervous in the service." In return, he'd send you a prayer cloth.
• Ike loved exotic cars, claiming "My garages runneth over."
• In 1969 he bought New York's Lowe's 175th Street Theater for a half million dollars for his headquarters. He called the style, "Byzantine-Romanesque-Indo-Hindu-Sino-Moorish-Persian-Eclectic-Rococo-Deco.
• Expanding on Matthew, Ike said, "If it's that difficult for a rich man too get into heaven, think how terrible it must be for a poor man to get in."

The Reverend Ike died a multi-millionaire. But you can't take it with you.