ECONOMICS OF SCRIPTURE,

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19564, 1 May 1935, Page 9

ECONOMICS OF SCRIPTURE,

(To the Editor.) Sir, —With apologies to those “fed up" fellows who do not relish my letters in the Times, I should like to join issue with Mr E. Earle Vaile when he states that the Bible is not an economic treatise. To my mind it is the best of such works extant, and nothing that fails to conform to It is economic at all; that is to say, economics is simply natural (i.e., 'Divine) law, which remains applicable under all conditions, whereas .what we are pleased to call our “laws” (mere regulations) vary with every political wind that blows —mostly ill winds. Mr Vaile is discussing monetary matters. Well, the 'Biblical law thereupon Is contained in the key commandment: “Thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and j.ust measure shalt thou have.” Is that not the very best possible guide to monetary science, though enunciated thousands of years ago? •Christ was the foremost monetary reformer this world lias seen. The only recorded occasion, if my reading is complete, upon which Jesus used physical violence was when lie picked up a whip and scourged the moneychangers out of the Temple. Not because they were money-changers, nor because of the place, for these men were necessary then as now, and they appeared at the entrance of the Temple to change Roman money into Hebrew units, the latter alone being acceptable in the temples. Ilis wrath fell on them because I liey had dishonestly departed from Hie Law, requiring them to have a just measure. They had tampered with the measures ami falsified the balance by deceit- It should appeal to Mr Vaile that Hie standard they had degraded was Hie gold standard, silver lming 111 en, as now, subsidiary; n,o nation, from the beginning of lime, having discovered, or put into operation, anything even remotely approaching I lie gold .standard as “a universally acceptable medium of ’international exchange.” Mr Vaile is by no means ignorant, of Scripture, and although it may he as graceless lo remind a man of his speeches on tlie hustings as of what he said in an after-dinner speech, I would yet observe -that Mr Vaile quoted the Bible very effectively 'in retort during last election campaign, especially at Tirau. ( would have him leave the broad road of destruction, lest lie follow the Gadareno swine over tiie cliff, and hasten hack lo the strait and narrow way. Let him slick to ttic natural (Divine) laws of economics, for I know lie does not wish to lie classed among lhe “planners,” who, as Herbert Spencer dubbed them, are "creation-menders,” and presume to possess something more Ilian Divine omniscience, entitling them to tell the Creator how tho universe should be run.—l am, etc.,

t. e. McMillan .Matamata, April -3, 1330,