SUNDAY READINGS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 12199, 10 March 1934, Page 12

SUNDAY READINGS

(By the Rev. James. Aiiksn, Al'.A.y

material prosperity

In the Sixtieth Chapter of. Isaiah an old Hebrew prophet sketches for us. an Ideal State. Ho paints it- in. colours drawn from tils life ■■ around him. It is not the way we should, do it if wo were -to try. Our effort would be much more scientific and much more prosy. But probably thi* Hebrew poet sees fa-rther into the truth of things—farther into tho conditions that go to make an ideal society—than many of our modem teachers do. Those conditions ho would say to us are mainly three r and tho first of them is Material

Prosperity. Material .Pros aerify. Everybody derites to be prosperous. If We dp not crave great wealth, at least we want to reach the level of comfort and security. We want all the necessities and. some of the luxuries of life, and we want to be sure that- we shall • have them all otir day?. There is surely nothing wrong with that desire? It c-annot he God’s will that any man should want. Ho has made the earth so richly productive hhnrb iv- fis ob-

vious He means every man \to linve enough. There may be such a thing as an excess of wealth. A, man mr-'y have more than is good for him. more than he can. carry. Wealth is a- responsibility and a man's responsibilities n.Uy exceed his wisdom and his strength. His wealth may become a- temptation to him aud lead him astray. But aU the same there is no special merit in being poor. Poverty has its own. temptations, and poverty—re'al pov-* ortjy —is a. rare trial. It- tends to narrow the scope of a- man’s life and circumscribe bis personality. Or course a man may develop his manhood through the discipline of- poverty. jur-t as he may through rhe* discipline of ill-health. Nevertheless poverty, like ill-held to, i s an evil. No picture of an ideal 'state that men have ever drawn includes '*• section of the community living irt actual want. In the Kingdom ot G<kl, Jesus mid—and th e Kingdom M God is just Jesus’ name for the ideal society, the society, that -Is, 'as- God would havo it be—in the Kingdom of God the hungry will-he filled. No right-thinking' man can Tie content while multitudes- of'his follows are in, need.

It- does licit- follow that the wealth O! a nation should bo equailv dis. ti ibiuid among all -ch© . citizens* There will always he tile question of .what, men will do with th e i r abnro of it. But clearly every rrrin should, have enough. There are sufficient goods in the-world to-day to supply everybody. The present- situatiorj with its'plenty on the one hand and >vanjfc on the other is a paradox thatpoints to something wrong. Qdd. opegs Hi s ’ hand and supplies tho need of every living thing. Has bounty prorides for every naan. But He le aves it to His children to divide among fchenifielves ’ the r wealth He -bestows. What .is-a / failure today is. not the - production,- but tho distribution of wealth. In an ideal Society not only will there* he sufficient produced for al-I, hut'what is produced will bo equitably divided.