SCARCITY AMIDST PLENTY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22355, 19 March 1938, Page 22

SCARCITY AMIDST PLENTY

TO TUB EDITOR OF THB PRESS. Sir.— Evidently “Anti-Blah’.’ consider. Christianity a system of individual Ciovotion completely divorced from mundane affairs. He has not yet learnt that the Bible is just as much a text book on economics as it is on personal salvation. The Bible docs not divorce the spiritual from the material; its whole theme is rather that faith has two aspects —spiritual and material. Does not the Bible show iis how Moses was given statutes, laws, and commandments of righteousness so that the people of Israel w° enjoy* prosperity and distributive justice? And did not God promise the nation material wealth and prosperity if they obeyed these laws and punishments if they did not? And does not both secular and Bible history prove that these promises were kept? The whole of Bible history shows that when these statutes, laws, and commandments were kept, the people of Israel enjoyed a material prosperity and an individual liberty that has not been known on. this (iarth since.

“Ahti-Blah” asks. “What is the purpose of the Christian life?” We can only know that by studying the textbook on the subject, not only in parts but <from cover to cover.; There is no greater fallacy than to try to justify the present economic system by quoting Christ’s words, “The poor always ye have with you.” When He said these words He was addressing the Jews, who had violated the economic laws, and who had inherited the tradition from Israel and Judah. He did not mean that, if we conformed to the economic laws of God. we should always have the poor with us—quite the contrary. His words were biting sarcasm addressed to the Jews for disobeying - the laws that ■ were given to Moses, which. He said. He came to ratify: “Think not that I come to destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil.”— Yours, etc., , FIRST CAUSES.