12. A time is coming, nor is it afar off, when people will cease to believe that riches give happiness, and will realize the simple truth that while acquiring and retaining riches, they do not improve but spoil their own life and the lives of others.
IV.
Riches are Not to Be Envied, But to Be Ashamed of
1. Rich men are not to be honored or envied, but to be avoided and pitied. The rich man need not boast of his wealth, but ought to feel ashamed of it.
2. It is well if the rich see the sinfulness of riches and do not censure the poor for their envy and jealousy. But it is bad when they judge the poor for their envy, yet fail to perceive their own sin. It is also good if the poor realize the sin of their envy and jealousy of the rich, nor censure the rich, but pity them instead. But it is bad if they censure the rich, but fail to perceive their own sin.
3. If the poor envy the rich, they are no better than the rich.
4. The self-content of the rich is bad, but no less evil is the envy of the poor. How many poor there are who judge the rich, yet act just as the rich towards those who are still poorer than tliemselves.
V.
Excuses for Wealth
1. If you receive an income without laboring for it, doubtless some one is laboring without receiving an income
f<^r it Memnonides,
2. Only a man convinced that he is not like others, but better than others, can with a calm conscience enjoy wealth while surrounded by poor. Only the thought that he is better than others can justify a man before the tribunal of his own heart if he has wealth, while others around him are poor. And the most curious thing of all is that possession of wealth, which should be a source of shame, is considered a proof of a man's superiority over his fellows. "I enjoy wealth, because I am better than others, and I am better than others, because I enjoy wealth,"— such is the attitude of a man of this type.
3. Nothing so clearly exposes the error of the religions which we confess as the fact that people considering themselves Christians not only enjoy wealth amid universal want, but are actually proud of it.
4. Men can feed themselves in three ways: by robbery, begging and labor. It is easy to distinguish those who earn their bread by labor; equally easy to tell those who live by alms.
5. One of the most current and the most grievous errors of judgment is to consider that as good which one likes. Men like wealth, yet although the evil of wealth is very apparent, they try to persuade themselves that wealth is good.
6. Rich men seemingly could not pretend either to themselves or to others that they do not know how hard the working people must toil,—some under ground, others
in the water, still others around furnaces, ten to fourteen hours at a stretch, many working nights in various factories,—and, they are engaged in such cruel work just because the rich give them a chance to live only in return for the performance of such tasks. Seemingly it would not be possible to deny something so patent. Yet the rich do not see it, just as the children who close their eyes to avoid seeing that which frightens them.
7. Can it be that God gave something to one man and denied it to another? Can it be that the conunon Father of all has excluded any one of his children? You, men, who claim the exclusive right to enjoy His gifts show us that will and testament whereby He should have deprived your other brothers of their heritage.
Lamenais.
8. It is true that wealth is an accumulation of labor. But usually one man labors, another accumulates. And this is what scientists call "division of labor."
From English Sources,
9. Pagans considered wealth a blessing and a glory, but to a true Christian wealth is an evil and a shame.
To say a "rich Christian" is like saying "warm ice."
10. It would seem that in the face of the agonizing poverty of the working people who are dying for want of necessaries and because of excessive toil (who can claim ignorance of these facts?) the rich men who enjoy the fruit of these labors bought with the lives of men could not be at peace for a single moment. Yet there are rich men who are liberal minded, humane and very sensitive to the sufferings of men and animals, who never cease to enjoy the fruits of these labors and who ever endeavor to increase their own wealth, that is to add to the fruit of
these labors enjoyed by them, and while engaged in this pursuit they are perfectly serene.
This is due to the new science of political economy, which explains things in a new way, showing that the division of labor and the enjoyment of the fruits thereof depend upon supply and demand, upon capital, income, wage, market values, profits, etc.
Upon this theme a multitude of books and pamphlets have been written in a very short time, a multitude of lectures have been delivered, and there is no end to such books and pamphlets and lectures.
The majority of people may not know the details of these soothing explanations of science, but they nevertheless know that such explanations exist, and that bright and learned men demonstrate right along that the present order of things is just as it should be, and that we may keep on living in peace without trying to change it.
This alone can account for the darkened state of mind of those kind people in our modem society who can sincerely pity dumb animals, yet calmly devour the life of their own brothers.
VI.
In Order to Be Blest, Man Should Pay Heed Not to the Increase of His Possessions» But of the Love
Within Himself
1. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steaclass="underline"
But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
To lay up treasures in Heaven is to increase the love within you. And love is not in harmony with wealth, it is directly contrary to it. A man living the life of love cannot either accumulate wealth, or if he has it, he cannot retain it.
2. Earn such wealth that no one can take away from you, that will remain with you even after death, that will not decay. Such wealth is your soul.
Hindu proverb,
3. Men worry a thousand times more about increasing their wealth than about increasing their knowledge. And yet it is clear to any one that the happiness of man depends much more upon what is within man than upon what he possesses. Schopenhauer.
4. And he spake a parable unto them, saying. The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully;
And he thought within himself, saying. What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits ?
And he said; This will I do: I will pull down my bams, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
And I will say to my souclass="underline" Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry.
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall be the things which thou hast provided?" Luke ХП, 16-20.
5. Why does a man wish to be wealthy? Why does he need expensive horses, fine raiment, beautiful apartments, the right to enter public places, amusements? Only because of a lack of spiritual life.
Give such a man an inner spiritual life and he will not require any of these things. Emerson.
6. As heavy raiment hinders the movements of the body, so the riches impede the progress of the soul.
Demophilos, VII.
Combating, the Sin of Covetousness
1. With what effort and sin riches are gathered and preserved! And yet there is but one joy to be had of accumulated riches. This joy consists in giving up the riches after realizing all the evil thereof.