p. 16 | Good Times

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 21, 1903

“Good Times.”

These are good times through which America is passing as a whole, but there are many dark spots on her optimistic robe. Last evening we heard a clergyman thanking God for the increasing spirit of brotherhood among men; but we see little of it manifest in the strife between labor and capital. The sentiment has become prevalent through the diffusion of Christian teaching, but when the test comes, the test which demands the sacrifice of selfish interests, the principle is woefully wanting. The coal strike, which has doomed to suffering whole States of people, was not a striking manifestation of the brotherhood of man as between capitalists and laborers, or as between union men and non-union men. The mob spirit manifest in both the North and South against the colored man, is not an evidence of the growing spirit of the brotherhood of man. The attitude of the stronger nations toward the weaker has the same trend. Prosperity is with certain classes, but many are suffering in poverty, with plenty on every side. But even those who are floating on the highest billows of prosperity do not enjoy it; they rather endure it, waiting in fearful apprehension the engulfing in the expected trough of the sea. Large sums are given by multi-millionaires who, oftentimes, gather it in exorbitant profits and interest from the poor and the needy. The trust spirit has exploited itself till it has become self-limited by its own operations. Soon it will be weeping for more worlds to conquer. All these and numerous other matters similar in character are, dear reader, foretold in the Word of God. We may ignore their warning now, but the results, the consequences, the fruitage we can not ignore.