PRECEPTIVE VERSUS THE PRACTICAL.
By Editor
Below is a letter from one of our readers which is representative of the opinions of a large class of men. We print it, and state the position of the SIGNS relative to these great questions:— EDITOR SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.— Dear Sir: On reading this day the SIGNS OF THE TIMES of the 24th of July ult., which contains very interesting subjects in connection with Biblical lore, etc., and to which I was a subscriber for several years, and have been occasionally buying it at five cents a copy since, the spirit moves me to remark that if the Bible is opposed to the accumulation of wealth, as it evidently is, and men in deference to that opposition refrain from accumulating wealth, where is it to come from to succor the poor and needy, as the Bible commands the wealthy to do even to this day, thus virtually constituting them benevolent institutions in person, and yet opposing the acquisition of the means to support them? And then where is the incentive for men of these days to accumulate wealth, if in order to be righteous they must give it away as the Bible commands them to do, when they can be just as righteous in poverty without the trouble, fuss, and feathers attendant upon the acquisition of wealth? To my mind these are two important questions, and like all questions each has two sides, the Biblical or preceptive side and the practical side. Now, here is a contention between Precept and Practice; and as prudence is the better part of valor in this matter, I prefer to be prudent therein, and let it alone. And as to the much-discussed subject of capital and labor, if four men, for instance, build a house for a man, and he pays for all the materials used in its construction, and pays the men the wages they demand, what further claim, I ask, have they against him?—None whatever; and yet to read all the rot and nonsense published in some of the papers about the rights of labor as against capital, one would think that nothing short of an equal distribution of the house among the four men and the owner would be the proper thing to do; and so on all along that fatuous line of thought to the infamous doctrine of rank communism, existing only in minds too base and despicable to be noticed. And as to the so-called sweat-shops, factories, etc., where poor girls are made to work long hours and are paid wages which are barely sufficient to keep body and soul together, such establishments, I say, should be prohibited by law as outrageous oppressions, and the conscienceless oppressors severely punished. No men or set of men have any right to avail themselves of poverty and destitution to make worse than slaves of any portion of the population of this free country to satisfy a villainous greed for money. The vengeance of Heaven will befall them, and woe be unto them in the day of judgment. Respectfully, JOSEPH H. SCULL. San Jose, Cal., Nov. 8, 1901. P. O. Box 603. If by the accumulating of wealth our querist means its getting, the Bible does not condemn it. It is the motive in getting, it is the manner in getting it, it is the use that is made of the wealth, that brings condemnation. The getting of riches for the sake of selfish purposes is always wrong. God condemns it because of its selfishness. But the power, the ability to get wealth, is God-given, a trust from heaven for which those who have it will be held responsible. “But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God; for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth.” Deut. 8:18. “Both riches and honor come of Thee.” 1 Chron. 29:12. If man gathers wealth for himself, if he gathers it by the oppression of the poor, if he accumulates riches by fraud, injustice, or dishonesty, it will prove a curse to him forever, a weight that will sink him to perdition. Read in Luke 12:15-21 the record of the man who laid up “treasure for himself,” and was “not rich toward God.” Self must die sometime. It has in it all the seeds of destruction. If we are willing it should die, if we volunteer it shall die, that the generosity, beneficence, and unselfishness of Christ may live in us, we may live forever. But if we choose selfishness, foster selfishness, minister to selfishness, we shall perish with it. If the man to whom God has given the ability to get wealth uses his talent with all his powers to glorify God by the right getting and right use of wealth, he will be blessed and will prove a blessing. But if he gets wealth for self by evil, dishonest methods, he will die. The Biblical side is, therefore, not only preceptive, but intensely practical. In fact, it is the only truly practical solution of the wealth question in the world. Here is the Lord’s message to those to whom He has given the ability to get wealth: “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” 1 Tim. 6:17-19. But only the rich man himself can obey this. It must be done voluntarily. Men can not obey it for him through law. Neither can the man to whom God has given the power to get wealth shirk his responsibility by saying, “I will make no effort to get wealth; I will live righteously poor.” He can not do it. He can not be honest with God and shirk his duty as a steward of God-lent powers. The capital-and-labor question will never be settled politically. It will never be settled satisfactorily, even to those who share the spoil, except, perhaps, temporarily, by a division of the rich man’s property. Civil power may restrain the heavy hand of oppression, in a measure; but corrupt men of wealth will find some way to evade the law or purchase exemption from its claims. Conversion in Christ Jesus would settle the question between capital and labor. The Golden Rule reduced to practice would settle it. But antagonistic trusts of capital on the one hand, and antagonistic trusts of labor on the other, will never settle the question. It may be patched up for a while, but sooner or later the smoldering fires of discontent, and envy, and hatred of the prosperous, will be manifest. So God forewarns us. Oppression, and heartless indifference, and extravagance on the part of the rich will but feed the fires of revolution. A spirit of wild coercive communism on the part of the poor will increase class hatred, settle nothing, and end in revolution. God warns us that these things will come, and lays before both rich and poor the remedies for the healing of the breach. The rich, He tells, as before shown, to distribute their means; the poor to wait patiently upon Him and leave with the Righteous One their cause. See James 5:7-8. He who does not heed the words of life, let him be rich or poor, will perish. He who heeds will reap “the long gain,” the eternal reward. There is a Biblical communism, but it can never be enforced. It is wholly voluntary, the fruit of the Spirit of God, abiding only so long as His Spirit abides in the hearts of those who are bound together in the bundle of His life. With the politics of the question we have naught to do. It is the duty of the SIGNS to give God’s warnings to individuals and to society, and also to preach the better, the only, solution of the question through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.