p. 119 | A Mistaken View by Joseph Clarke

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 12, 1865

A Mistaken View.

By Joseph Clarke

WERE I a person who possessed wealth, I could not say very plain things about the poor, but being untrammelled in this respect, I may speak out. It is a fact, that poor people are often unreasonably jealous of the man who possesses wealth. Within a few years, I have noticed this more than ever before.

I have noticed that most of our wealthy men have amassed wealth by steady perseverance and industry; or by trade, or good management; or by all these; and some have got wealth by foul means, but these generally keep it but a short time.

The poor are often jealous of the attention a wealthy man receives from his acquaintance. But I ask, does not his industry, and forethought, merit a degree of respect and esteem?

There is A. He is a poor man. Why? Perhaps he spent his youth and early manhood in self-indulgence. Perhaps he is slack in his business. Perhaps he is wasteful. Perhaps he never took the pains to amass even enough to buy himself a home. He had always a preference for a good warm place at the fire in cold weather, and a cool shade in dog-days; and, consequently, B, who scarcely ever thought of comfort, unless it was to earn something to make his family comfortable, has stolen a march on A who is puzzled to know how B gets along so well; and throws out vague hints of dishonesty against B, who would despise to disappoint a creditor, while A is always in hot water with those who are so unfortunate as to trust him.

C, a thrifty farmer, embraces the truth, has a lovely family, who are industrious and thrifty. C dies. His children mourn his loss, but still keep up good habits, and keep up the farm, keep things neat and tidy, drive business, collect their debts, make money, and have plenty. A frets; for he has owed C a long time. He wonders that C with all his wealth, and his family should care for so small an amount. Does not A realize that this very trait, which hangs on for an old and honest debt, is the very principle which, working through a lifetime, keeps C from going to meeting shabby and mean in dress? This it is which entails upon his family good, warm and elegant clothing, good teams, good carriages, good house and barn, and buildings, orchard, &c., &c. Yes, it is so; and envy and jealousy are the tributes that ignoble poverty pays to industrious, frugal wealth.

There are honorable exceptions; but I have seen much to disgust, much to abhor in the poor. I speak not of the worthy poor, but I speak of that class of poor, who are like gnats and mosquitos, forever annoying larger bodies.

A poor man who is beloved, is like a bee, who builds his house just large enough for his own convenience, and extracts his livelihood from such sources as God and nature provide. Yet he differs from the bee—he does not sting. Such a man is humble and self-reliant. Ah! he is rich too!

JOSEPH CLARKE.