UNKNOWN

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 91, 10 January 1908, Page 11

UNKNOWN

'WHAT TO DO' -WITH WEALTH.

Soine time ago ; (says the Paris correspon- . dent of. the "Doily. Mail") Mr._ John. D. Rockefeller, reputed to lie the richest man in the world, wrote' to ' Count Tolstoi, the Russian author, S .i\sk;ng : _what .vfas. the best'way to employ wealth for ,the greatest good of humanity.. Tolstoi replied with the following letter, which*-'is'printed ifl tho "iratin": • "To' tlie'questions which you address to me w ™onV in .what measure .wealth is compat--1 , W9 . the'l; Christian. doctrine which, vou profess, I make-this answer,:—Apart altogether 'roni tho teaching of the Gospel, plain connnonBense; tells , wealth iif itself is incompatiblc with' an . absolutely good life. .' .I/think 1 I' made. that sufficiently clear in m.y.vqlUnie,f? ; What! Ought :We' to Do?' ' v. I, n keep in my pocket, in my strongbox, oj; jii a bank, constitutes, without tho least ' possible doubt, a sort of weapon against the'man who has poor man. to possess such a weapon' and to use it when, ; opportunity arises, or merely to threaten •i lu °™er to .show the-weapon's power, is not ■ a good, but. an evil. It is in this light that money appears , from tho point of- view of plain .commonsense. "Looked .at from the Christian point of view, .the matter is clearer still. Tho whole doctrine, the whole spirit of'the Gospel dipcourses of tho,.folly of a man's/labours to assure nis futuro, of. the folly of the acquisition of wealth, of man's need to act not like the rich man in the parable, who stored his barns with grain, but more like Lazarus, tho poor. It is said in tile Gospel that happy aro tho poor.and unhappy the rich; that man cannot , scrro' both God-,and mammon; that a man must give,to him that asketli, and not take back. that which he has given; and manv other'.things in a similar sense. "Such, is the general teaching of tho Christian; doctrine. J>ut in the t conversation with the rich young man in the Gospel the truth is expressed with such precision that it is imiwssible.to Jnisuiidcrsland it. There it is said, If thou wilt be perfect, sell all thou hast to.tho .poor, and foltov Mo/ - ,',feeh really ashamed to give expression to au .' pla-<- "los, and to prove what is an a*. »m. I every sincerely religious man, Tfiicther he believes or not in the Divine aatuie of the-Gospel" .