Signs of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 26.
WEALTH, STATION, AND MISERYPage 1
Earlier text: WEALTH, STATION, AND MISERYThe Industrial Conflict in the Light of Revelation.
By Geo. W. Rine
“HIGH FINANCE,” “WATER,” AND FRAUD.
In a previous article it was shown that this age is the age par excellence of industrial combination, of capitalistic monopoly, of the trust. There are, doubtless, some trusts that are legitimate business enterprises. But, however unwelcome the truth may be, it is a fact that the majority of these “combines” are unscrupulous and essentially speculative in their plans and tendencies. Trust Prices, Extortionate.
It is well known that the yearly profits of the Standard Oil Company are scores of millions of dollars. The company was becoming fabulously rich when it sold its refined oil at sixteen cents a gallon. But greed knows no moderation. By increasing the retail price from sixteen to twenty-three and twenty-four cents a gallon, it deliberately compelled the people of the United States—mostly the poorer classes—to pay an additional fifty million dollars annually into its overflowing treasury. The heartlessness and inhumanity of some of the trust monopolies is strikingly illustrated by the course pursued in the summer of 1901, by the American Ice Company. It is a complete monopoly in its business, in Greater New York and adjacent territory. Taking advantage of its exclusive docking facilities in the ports of the North Atlantic cities and of its possession of all the important ice-making establishments, it doubled the price of ice—an extortionate increase, yielding to the trust inordinate profits. Of all the trusts there is none more merciless. It is upon the poor, the sick, and the helpless children that it lays its burdens most heavily. “The fever-stricken patient is dealt the heaviest blow, but even the strong and well find health and life in the hot summer days, endangered by food and drink that are tainted because of a lack of ice to preserve its wholesomeness. Trusts have often been characterized as ‘octopi,’ but the American Ice Company is the most vampire-like sucker of human blood that has ever been incorporated.” It is freely charged, and to this day it has never been denied, that many of the New York City officials are stockholders, and that it is the exceptional privileges which their influence has given to the trust that, with other powers, makes it a heartless, crushing monopoly. The poor were unable to buy ice at the monopoly’s prices, and, as a result, thousands of disease-stricken children and aged persons, of the families of poor, died of fevers that might have been reduced with ice. The trust stubbornly refused to relax its grip on the pockets of the people until it found itself overwhelmed by a tide of public indignation. “Within the last six months,” writes the editor of a leading San Francisco daily paper, “the gas companies of this city have consolidated, with an enormous increase of capitalization. At once the gas has become so poor that it has lost twenty-five per cent. to fifty per cent. of its lighting power, and for many consumers the price has doubled. Three burners will not give as much light as was given by two before the consolidation, and the monthly bills have more than doubled. The same deficiency is seen in the street lights.” Like so many other syndicates, this trust finds itself obliged to make vast profits in order to pay dividends on millions of watered stock, and to pay the princely salaries that their own officers vote themselves. According to the testimony of a Congressional Committee, appointed to investigate the affairs of the leviathan coal trust octopus, that “combine” has mulcted the people of this country since 1873, to the extent of $40,000,000 annually. This means that the people have paid the coal trust $40,000,000 more every year than they would have paid if they had not been obliged to pay more than a fair, honest price for coal. About three years ago the beef trust arbitrarily raised the price of meat so high that the common people are actually debarred from eating any meat except the poorest qualities. The price of steak meats is really prohibitive to all classes except the rich. Yet the men who raise the cattle on the western plains are paid less than ever before. That means that their helpers must be paid less. The cattle raisers are so completely at the mercy of this trust that they must sell to the trust or not sell at all. Hence, they simply must sell for whatever price the trust is willing to pay. The trust, having an absolute monopoly of the meat supply of the whole country, the people can buy meat from no other source, and, hence, are obliged to pay whatever the trust is pleased to charge. These prohibitive prices are not owing to a natural scarcity of meat, for in Chicago, packed away in cold storage, are 5,000,000 pounds of meat, waiting until the consumers are willing to pay the price asked. Millions of pounds more are in cold storage in Kansas City, Omaha, and other cities. (I beg to say, parenthetically, that the meat trust is, by its extortionate charges, proving to be a blessing in disguise to the people. If it succeeds in converting the people to vegetarianism, it will, unwittingly and unwillingly, become a public benefactor.) These instances of monopolistic extortion are sufficient to show that whenever the trusts have the power they will exact of the public the utmost penny that “the traffic will bear.” “Water,” or Inflated Capitalization.
In the summer of 1897 the farmers of this and other agricultural countries reaped the most bountiful harvest that they had known in a decade. Each of the six subsequent years came with its barns filled with plenty, its presses bursting out with new wine, its high prices, and its consequent flush times. Not for centuries had the tide of industrial and financial prosperity run so high as during those six memorable years. Early in 1903, however, the tide reached its acme, and since then it has been slowly but ceaselessly ebbing. To-day merchants and manufacturers are looking gloomy, the volume of business is rapidly declining; many mills and factories are closed or are running on half-time, and scores of thousands of workmen are laid off or have been put on reduced wages. That such conditions should prevail, in spite of the fact that crops are still good and prices fairly high, seems at first thought passing strange. But there are causes. Can we find them? During seven merry years the “wizard financiers” of Wall Street have been changing “water” into cash. We have all read in our school histories how the medieval mountebanks, called alchemists, imposed upon the ignorant masses by pretending to be able to transmute the base metals into precious metals. Of course they were never able to perform their promised miracles. But the alchemists of the Stock Exchange of our day go a step further in both profession and performance, and actually transmute “wind” and “water” into gold—gold for their own pockets. More than two thousand years ago Lucretius laid down the dictum, “Out of nothing comes nothing.” But in the operations of the modern wizards of finance, the “nothing” which comes from nothing is always the portion that goes to the “lambs”—the investing public. During the last two years countless thousands have been gnashing their teeth as they saw their hard-earned wealth slipping from their pockets into the pockets of the millionaire gamblers of the stock market. Few readers need to be told that by “water” is meant, in the parlance of the stock exchange, inflated capitalization; that is, capital which exists only on paper—capital which represents nothing. The Work of the “Promoter.”
The creation of a trust nearly always involves serious evils. Competitors are ruined; employees are dismissed. When the sugar trust was formed, eight refineries were closed, throwing out of employment about six thousand men. Among other evils are the methods used by unscrupulous “promoters,” which are calculated to deceive the public, to betray and defraud the minority stockholders, to impair public confidence, and to lead to the enacting of extortionate prices. Whenever it is proposed to combine several firms or corporations into one comprehensive trust, some individual who has no connection whatever with the firms involved must undertake the task of carrying on the negotiations among the several firms, of providing a plan of organization, and of persuading the different individual owners that it is to their advantage to enter into the combination on the terms suggested. This individual is the “promoter.” The fees of the promoter are in many cases almost fabulous. The promoters of the American Steel and Wire Company received $15,000,000 in stock for their services in organizing that company. One of the most successful of the trust promoters has, within the last few years, received $40,000,000 in stocks for his services, and out of these stocks he realized at least $20,000,000 in cold cash. Instances of this kind could be given indefinitely. Trust promotion of this kind is made possible only by inflated or “watered” capitalization. “Abolish over-capitalization,” says a great statistician, “and the promoting business would fall flat. Put an end to the possibility of making great fortunes through the sale of watered stock, and not one-half as many trusts would be formed.” It is usually by giving to the owners of the several plants their actual value, either in cash or in bonds secured by mortgage, and then by giving them in addition large amounts of common stock as a bonus, and thus paying them twice over, as it were, for their plants, that the promoter can induce the various owners of the plants to part with their property. Hence the promoter and those associated with him can make profits only by selling the stock to the public at exorbitant prices.5 “Concealment of the truth and misrepresentation thus become necessary to the success of their plans.” Freezing Water into Cash.
To give the watered stock an apparent value they either have to make it earn dividends which are based on extortionate prices, or else to declare dividends which are never earned. Mr. Collier, a member of the New York Civil Service Commission, writes that the total nominal capitalization of the various trusts in the United States, exclusive of the railway trusts, is about $7,500,000,000, but the best estimate shows the actual capital to be much less than one-half that amount. This shows the amazing amount of over-capitalization in the aggregate. Discussing evils incidental to speculative trusts, Attorney-General Knox says: “Over-capitalization is the chief of these, and the source from which the minor ones flow.” Over-capitalization is a fraud upon those who contribute the real capital, and the efforts to realize dividends thereon from operations is a fraudulent imposition of a burden upon the public. An eminent journalist recently said that Frick, Schwab, and other steel producers in the Pittsburg district, by using certain secrets in metallurgy, which had recently been discovered, were enabled to make steel and sell it at twelve dollars a ton, and still make large profits; but, instead of using these secrets for their own reasonable benefit and for the benefit of consumers, they endowed themselves with $600,000,000 of watered stock and made the price of steel enormously high in order to be able to pay dividends on their spurious stock. In a subsequent official investigation it was discovered that the corporation was making nearly $60,000,000 net profit annually. Mr. Lorimer, editor of the Saturday Evening Post, writes: “Is it not a statement of fact that within a few years enormous, incredible fortunes have amassed in the hands of comparatively a few, and that these fortunes represent to an amazing extent investments which were originally little if anything more than paper for the manufacture of stocks and bonds and the cost of printing the certificates thereon?” Since 1896 more than one billion dollars of bonds, more than one and three-fourths billions of dollars of preferred stock, and more than two and one-half billions of common stock, have been issued by about two hundred industrial combines. By the word “issued” is meant that the stock has passed from the hands of the promoters or “wizards of finance” to the people who bought them. In that grand total of stocks more than $3,300,000,000 of it was issued on no tangible basis whatever. After making liberal allowance for “good-will” and opportunity for monopoly of sale, etc., the Wall Street magnates have wheedled the investing public into paying them more than two billion dollars, in seven years, for water alone. “Is it strange,” asks David Graham Phillips, “that water is gushing from the stock of the ‘combines,’ and the tears from the luckless investors? Is it strange that we have had in the past seven years so many scores of brand new multi-millionaires, the wizards and their confederates,—I beg pardon, their fellow financiers? Is it strange that we have had a spectacle of drunken prodigality? Is it strange that the man in the street has been talking glibly of hundreds of millions, that promoters have thought nothing of ‘ten or twenty millions’ to be added to the flotation, ‘just to oblige’ somebody or other who needed that amount to bring his fortune up to a good round figure? Is it strange that we have had, and that we are mournfully emerging from, an attack of the mania for speculation which has reached down and down through all the property-owning class until it has led the wife and mother reluctantly, but hopefully, to yield to the husband, for get-rich-quick investment, the deed of the little house, the home of which they were so proud, and in which they were so contented in their sane days, before the spell of the wizards was cast over the country?” At the most moderate estimate, Wall Street has in seven years “palmed off,” or “floated” more than two thousand millions of securities (?) manufactured out of just nothing at all. That colossal sum the wizards have juggled out of the pockets of the confiding people into their own pockets. Is it strange that the great industries stagger? They have had “a billion-dollar solar-plexus blow.” Of course you can’t fool the people all the time; and hundreds of the “wizard promoters” who juggled too late came to grief. The pioneer “plungers” made scores of millions; their belated imitators lost many millions. The shipbuilding trust, and the asphalt trust are conspicuous and noisome examples. The former of these two had “securities” of eighty million dollars, issued upon property worth about ten millions, and nearly all the property so “fixed” that the head of this gang of stock gamblers could get it back, and leave every one else hopelessly in the lurch. Hundreds of thousands of these alleged “securities” were squandered in frantic efforts to delude Americans and foreigners into buying the worthless stuff. “Eminent business men and lawyers, men of reputation for piety, as well as for honesty, struggled to outdo each other in meanness and treachery and thievery that would make a bunko steerer stare, and a highwayman blush. All the while three plans were at work,—one to swindle the public; another to wreck the concern, and do up all but a small coterie of ‘insiders’ out of the ‘swag’; a third to loot the looters for the benefit of one man.” The millions of common stock that this ring of “boodlers” exchanged for the hard-earned money of the people did not represent value to the extent of a copper cent. In its moral turpitude, in its utter and shameless robbery, the shipbuilding trust is typical of a score of other speculative combines. In their superheated efforts to exploit the pockets of the public these concerns do not hesitate to traffic with political bosses and corrupt legislatures, to defy the laws, to bribe and browbeat—and pose as our best and most enterprising citizens. “Something out of nothing,” writes Mr. Phillips, “and upward of a billion of money has changed hands, has passed from those who made it by hard work, has passed in part to the multi-millionaire’s colossuses, and has passed in still larger part to those who certainly know how to put on ‘style’ with it.” Is not all this an astounding revelation of how millions upon millions of money are gotten for nothing by money kings at the expense of the public, and how manufacturing plants which, when legitimately conducted, may be made to yield large profits, are wrecked when seized upon by those whose sole purpose is to infiltrate them with “water,” and then sell the water to deluded investors, who are lured by false statements, and the prestige of great names into fancying that what they are buying represents actual value? In reference to the promoters who “floated” the bogus part of the stock of the United States Steel Corporation, Mr. Edwin Lefevre writes: “The party consisting of Messrs. Reid, Leeds, and Moore, who had created the Tin Plate, Steel Hoop, National Steel, and other concerns, received a huge block of United States Steel in exchange for their holdings of the constituent companies’ securities. They received somewhat above $140,000,000!” Think of it! Men who, two years previously, were not, strictly speaking, rich, became fabulously wealthy almost overnight; not because of the manifest economic tendency of the times, but because of the manifest ability of the American people to outgamble any other people on earth. In order to render the watered stock at all salable, it is necessary to pay at least nominal dividends upon it. To be able to do this the trusts are driven, not only to sell their products at extortionate prices, but also to reduce materially the wages of their employees. Further, they find it expedient to discharge many of their employees, and thus throw thousands of laborers out of employment. A careful investigator of economic problems finds that since the spring of 1903, more than 100,000 laborers have been discharged by the great industrial trusts (including the railways). The smaller industrial concerns throughout the country have laid off nearly as many more men. December 14, 1903, the press reports from Chicago to all the large newspapers of the world, contained the following:— As a direct result of the gigantic stock gamble that has staggered Wall Street, and the exposures which showed hundreds of thousands of dollars of watered stock in the United States Steel Corporation, a new wage schedule goes into effect January 1. More than $12,000,000 is cut from the trust’s pay-roll in one sweep. The workers must pay the price of the ruinous financiering that has marked the career of the company. Ninety per cent. of the employees must submit to a wage reduction of from five to twenty per cent. or starve. The direct cause of this grim situation is the fact that $668,910,412 of the $1,477,239,058 capital stock of the company is estimated to be water. In this ocean the actual valuation of the various properties floated, has gone down, and millions have been lost. And now that the day of reckoning is at hand, the bill is handed to the wage-earners for settlement, while the “high financiers” are carefully guarding themselves against loss. Last year the corporation paid out in salaries $129,528,343. The reduction, while ranging from five to twenty per cent., will amount for the most part to ten per cent. Only 60,000 employees who are members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers will escape the knife when it swings. Their present contract runs until July 1, and no cut can be made in their wages until then. But whenever it has been possible to save a penny to continue the payment of dividends on the watered stock, it has been done. Is not the evidence that we are living in an age of unprecedented mammonism overwhelmingly conclusive? Has any previous epidemic of greed been so virulent and so nearly universal as that with which society is to-day smitten? Can we much longer endure the guile, the treachery, the heartlessness, the rapacity, the embezzling, the forgeries, the bribery, the theft, and the political rottenness, which are honeycombing society as the inevitable result of universal cupidity? Who can deny that we are living in the time, foretold in prophecy, when “men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money”? “In the last days,” declares the apostle Paul, men shall LOVE money. A thousand voices of present-day social, economic, and political history proclaim in unmistakable tones that we are now living in those “days.” Dear reader, are you willing to believe, when the evidence is by its very magnitude rendered indubitable? THE VISION OF THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES.
The above chapter is one of great interest to the student of prophecy, and, in response to several queries, we present this brief study. Before entering upon a detailed study of the chapter, it is well to consider the situation of the prophet and the condition of the house of Israel. The time of the vision was about B.C. 587. The ten tribes had gone into captivity more than a century and a quarter before. In 599 a portion of Nebuchadnezzar’s host had swept down upon Jerusalem and carried captive certain of the nobles and better educated, among whom was the learned priest Ezekiel. He was settled on the banks of the Chebar, in a Jewish colony, 200 miles north of Babylon. Five years later was opened before him “visions of God,” and his prophecies began, extending over a score of years. In his earlier prophecies he pointed out the sure destruction of Jerusalem, and the utter futility of all help from Egypt. He points out the sins of Israel, and shows that the only hope of the nation is individual repentance. He prophesies concerning the apostate nations around Judea. His later prophecies, after Jerusalem had fallen, were predictions of future restoration and glory, in the figures and language of the time then present. As ever and always, God longs to do all things for His people. His ways are ever right and true and just and equal, despite the questionings of unbelief. All the promises of the unchangeable God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. But if Israel shall reap the glory of these promises, she must come into the channel of their workings; she must come into harmony with God. Note particularly the character and conditions of the promises of God:— 1. Some of these promises are unconditional, irrespective of what any nation may or might do. For instance, God’s gift of His Son and the sending of that Son to the world was based on God’s love for the sinner in his need. 2. Some of God’s promises were conditioned on the attitude of His people. Nowhere is this better set forth than in Jer. 18:7–10:— “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if they do that which is evil in My sight, that they obey not My voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.” The same things are stated elsewhere, over and over. If Israel were obedient, God’s promises to her were sure. If Israel would not place herself in the channel of God’s mercies, she forfeited the promise. 3. Some of these promises, essential in the fulfilment of God’s purposes, such as the peopling of the earth by a righteous people, the bestowment of the Abrahamic inheritance, etc., will not fail of fulfilment in all their completeness; but in the development of details, the process of fulfilment must shape itself according to the time and development of God’s great purpose. For instance, a promise concerning the priesthood and sacrifice fulfilled in the Levitical dispensation would apply to the Aaronic priesthood and the sacrifices of the then-existing sanctuary, but fulfilled this side of the crucifixion would apply to the priesthood of Christ and to the one Sacrifice for sins forever. 4. There are prophecies which apply to both dispensations. They were in part fulfilled when Israel returned from the Babylonian captivity, and the figures and terms used apply to that time; but the prophecy will not be completely fulfilled till a later age. Then it must be fulfilled according to the terms and conditions in the age of fulfilment. The first thing shown to Ezekiel in the chapter under consideration was a valley full of the bones of men, and the bones very dry. The Lord asks the question, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And the prophet answers, “O Lord Jehovah, Thou knowest.” Then the Lord tells His prophet: “Prophesy over these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.” In obedience the prophet spoke the word. Marvelous things followed. There was a great thundering and an earthquake; then bone came to its bone, sinew and flesh came upon them, and skin covered them. Then the prophet, in obedience to God’s command, called for the breath of life, and it came, and the valley of dry bones became a great living army. This the vision; now the application and interpretation: “Then said He unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, we are clean cut off. Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O My people. And I will put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land; and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken it and performed it, saith Jehovah.” Certainly, on the face of it, this was a prophecy and a promise to Israel then. Right at that time God stood ready to restore their buried hopes, the dead nation. He would restore dead living ones. He would restore live dying ones. He would bring up the faithful who were sleeping; He would quicken into spiritual life the spiritually dead and discouraged. But, in order that God might do this and the work be permanent, they must be cleansed from iniquity, and be filled with His Spirit. But, in order that God might thus cleanse and fill them, they “must be ashamed and confounded” for all their ways; they must “loathe” themselves in their own sight for their “iniquities” and “abominations.” Eze. 36:31, 32. “As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live, turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Eze. 33:11. In continuance of wickedness was death to individual and nation after the flesh; turning to God with all the heart was the only hope. The conditions of chapters 33 and 36 must not be omitted from chapter 37. The Lord goes further in His promises to His people. He tells them that in that present restoration, He would restore the whole nation of Israel, Ephraim and Judah; that David would reign over them in their own land; and that God should be with them. He would set them a separated people, the literal seed of Abraham, the spiritual seed of promise,7 the prevailing seed of Israel, a light, a praise, a glory among the nations of the earth. They would show forth His salvation from day to day,” and “declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples;” and thus “God would gather from among the Gentiles a people for His name who would become a part of His Israel.”},{ SETTING UP FALSE STANDARDS.
A recent report from Richmond, Va., says that under an amendment to the rules of the church, unanimously adopted by the state Episcopal Council, members of that faith in Virginia can indulge freely in such pleasures of this world as dancing, attending theaters, and horse races. The new rule makes the only stipulation that the lives of members shall not be of such a nature as to offend the congregation. For many years a rule has been in force, forbidding indulgence in the practices mentioned, under pain of being expelled from the Lord’s table by the minister. The new rule specifically cuts out all mention of these forms of amusement, and substitutes the general statement therefor. The council approved this change without a dissenting voice. The ministers and lay delegates were all of the opinion that the change was necessary and proper. When the lives of the members are to be only of that standard that will not offend the congregation, and the congregation is made up of members, and the members favor the striking out of those specified forms of amusement, it is not to be supposed that those who desire to go to the dance, the theater, or the horse race, will refrain from doing so. Nor is it to be supposed that any of the members will complain of the conduct of such persons when they have stricken out the rule which was to have governed that conduct. If the rule to govern the members is to be such a standard as that, it will mean in the end that the members will do about as they please. God has never given us human standards by which to shape our characters for the eternal world. The example of Christ and the teachings of the Word are the standard for the Christian. As soon as men set up the desires or opinions of men as a rule of conduct, they begin to depart from the path which the feet of our Saviour trod, and they can never regain that path by following that standard. It is just such a standard that is being followed by the clergyman who carries a revolver in his pocket to use against another should occasion arise. A recent report from Texas tells of two clergymen who had a battle in a car while on their way to a religious convention. In the encounter one of the combatants fired three times at the other, who was struggling to gain possession of the weapon. We can not imagine one who is following the standard of Christ and the Word taking part in any such procedure, or carrying the weapon, or even cherishing the feeling which would prompt to the carrying of the weapon. The men were said to have been bitter enemies for years; but for that to have been the case, they must have been following the standard of the world instead of the standard of Christ during all that time, and one of them at least followed it to the extremity to which it leads. There is only one true standard, and all others lead away from Christ. The world is full of such to-day, and they will increase until our Lord shall come to put an end to sin. COVETOUSNESS is the condition of being covetous. Its root is the same as that of cupidity, capio, desire. It is used with especial reference to acquisition. It is generally used in an ill sense. The word is akin to “avariciousness,” but worse in spirit; for the avaricious man desires to get and to hold all he can in the way of wealth, while the covetous man desires to obtain it from others. In the commandment, “Thou shalt not covet,” the word comes from a Hebrew root, meaning “to delight in,” having all the faculties of the soul yielded to the one thing, so that others are secondary. In the New Testament, the Greek word signifies to set the heart upon, to desire with an all-absorbing passion. The very root of the word signifies to breathe hard. It means to desire with such soul-absorbing intensity that the thing desired seems necessary to life or happiness. It means to stretch one’s self, to reach out after, till one loses balance; to desire eagerly, greedily, so that rights of others are not regarded. Thus the thing coveted becomes an object of worship, and covetousness is seen to be idolatry. Col. 3:5. “Thou shalt not covet” forbids all longing for that which belongs to another. It forbids all inordinate desire for anything which would interfere with or affect our supreme devotion to God. There may be gold in the brine of the sea or in the mine of the mountain which belongs to no mortal, but if our heart is set upon it so as to adulterate or pervert our love for God and humanity, so as to interfere with the duty we owe to our Maker or fellow-men, we are guilty of “covetousness, which is idolatry.” The term used in 1 Cor. 12:31—“covet earnestly the best gifts”—comes from a different word zelo, meaning, earnestly desire. God wants His children to earnestly desire all that makes for a noble character and better service; but He wishes none to set the heart’s affections and soul’s desires upon anything that is below the value of an eternally righteous character. If this low estimate be ours, if we are covetous by nature, let Christ and all His glory into the heart and life, and all else will sink into insignificance. He will be “the Chiefest among ten thousand,” and the One “altogether lovely.” All the troubles of this world come through ignoring the counsel of the Lord. The divine administration, if acknowledged in the affairs of men, would bring prosperity beyond the most sanguine expectation of any human administration. A few simple suggestions are enough to indicate a basis of action that would insure peace and harmony among all classes:— “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, 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.” I Tim. 6:17–19. “Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.” Col. 4:1. “I will be a swift witness against . . . those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith the Lord of hosts.” Mal. 3:5. “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God; and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Col. 3:22–24. These scriptures show conclusively that if men in the various walks of life would, first of all, recognize their responsibility and accountability to God, and would act accordingly, there would be no capital and labor troubles to settle. Moreover, it is clear that existing troubles never can be settled on any other basis than that of a recognition of mutual rights and mutual welfare, estimated by the standard of the Word of God. When men of all classes learn to “look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others,” the clash between the classes will cease. When the human heart becomes a voluntary receptacle of the Golden Rule—“whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them”—then we may expect harmony among men. Then, and not till then, will there be a mutual regard for the rights of men of whatever condition in life. But this never can be while sin and its consequent selfishness rule the hearts of men. Only the Spirit of Christ can bring about such a condition of harmony with His law. For “the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Therefore all human efforts to bring about peace on earth must come to naught, and, as the Word tells us that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,” and that this probationary age will wind up as did the age before the Flood, there can be no prospect of better conditions in this world. “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” The spirit of selfishness can not enter there, and the counsel of God will be the invariable rule of action; hence universal peace and happiness will prevail. Such is the goal to which men are pointed by the Gospel of Christ—the great and only remedy for human ills. And this is the Gospel which we preach unto you. Does 1 Tim. 2:11, 12 mean that women must not teach man or speak in public at all? READER. The passage means what it says when read altogether. The strongest ruling power in women is not assumption of authority, but modesty, sweetness, and tact. The passage does not mean that women should not speak in public, for God chose Miriam and Deborah and Huldah as prophetesses. Philip had four daughters who prophesied or taught. Acts 21:9. Priscilla expounded with her husband the Word of God to Apollos. Acts 18:24–26. But in all these cases we suppose there was womanly modesty, with no assumption of authority. In 1 Cor. 11:5–13 the apostle gives instruction as to the appearance of women who speak or pray in public. Not only has God not debarred any soul from confessing Him, but He demands it as a duty and grants it as a privilege. Should not the true believers in Christ have bishops among them? READER OF THE SIGNS. Nearly all do, sometimes too many. The word “bishop” comes from episkopos, meaning an overseer, an overlooker, a shepherd, and is used synonymously with “elder.” See Titus 1:5–7. The elders were the overlookers of the churches. 1530.—What is Covetousness?
Is it covetousness to want things that one can pay for, yet can do without? or is it covetousness to want things that are not absolutely necessary? J. P. We should say yes and no to both questions. Sometimes the things we want, yet could do without, greatly help us in our work. The things absolutely necessary are very few, but many things not necessary are lawful, useful, expedient. It depends on how much we want the things not needful. See short article on “Covetousness” in another column.