There is a universal cry of hard times in all the world. It is hard to obtain money; and yet, there never was so much money as at present. But it is being collected—gathered in heaps—by the powerful few, while the limited means of the masses are dwindling lower and lower. The poorer classes witness the absorption of wealth by the money‐kings, with feelings that are being aroused to the point of desperation by the sense of their inability to secure what seems to them a more equitable distribution of the things of this world. The laborers cry, and God hears their cry.
That these things are taking place to‐day as the most prominent feature of our social life no one will for a moment deny. Such colossal fortunes the world has heretofore at most but dreamed of. There are men living to‐day who have risen in wealth from obscure stations to become lords of untold millions. Their wealth passes the bounds of just computation, for it includes the power of oppression by which it may be indefinitely increased. The lavish expenditure of these means for selfish pleasure often amounts to wantonness.
Well then, what is to be done? It is a difficult and delicate matter to frame and secure legislation by which this or any other class of men shall be deprived of the management of their own business as long as that business is legitimate and is legitimately conducted. Shall anarchy and violence be resorted to? Shall the laborer seize the torch and the weapons of death? Shall the country be devastated by strikes, strife, and civil war? Shall our communities be rent with murder, arson, treason, and intense personal hatred and enmity? No one possessing the natural instincts of humanity could contemplate such a condition of affairs except with horror. There are ghouls of society who gloat in blood; but such are not true citizens, they are not neighbors, they certainly are not Christians.
But what shall we do as citizens, neighbors, and Christians? This is a question of great importance just now. Inspiration long ago foresaw our situation. The pitying Saviour long since anticipated the sufferings that are to come upon this generation; and having, through his servant, outlined the present condition of affairs so closely, he certainly would not leave his followers uninformed as to the course he would have them pursue. We have to read only two verses farther in James’s letter to find the counsel we need.