G.G. McGeer
The Conquest of Poverty
CHAPTER VIII.
The Prince of Crusaders
The Guidance of God
Mr. Roosevelt : “Your task as President, Mr. Lincoln, was one of the most difficult and trying ever imposed upon the chief executive of this nation; yet without previous experience in executive political leadership you were, in the face of an unparalleled national crisis, able to deal with every situation and to meet every emergency that arose. How do you account for your mastery of the situation?”
Mr. Lincoln : “I believed that when the fathers of our nation wrote into our Constitution the words :
‘We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed’:
they originated Democracy based upon popular sovereignty. In my endeavour to maintain and advance this ideal of responsible government I always kept in mind that it is said in one of the admonitions of Our Lord ‘as your Father in Heaven is perfect, be ye perfect’. I concluded that the Saviour did not expect that any human creature could be as perfect as the Father in Heaven, but I recognized that the standard set by Him was a guide and an inspiration that should lead to the attainment of the highest degree of moral and ethical perfection in public and private life.
“With this standard ever before me as a goal of possible achievement, I always tried to maintain, in the performance of all my public duties, the ideal of administrative duty so effectively enunciated by Lewis William Douglas of Arizona, one-time Director of the Budget, and who, speaking as an elected representative of the people, said:
‘As long as I am a member of this House, I will stand in the well or elsewhere to oppose every organized minority that attempts to impose an the United Ststes a burden which cannot be justified and which the United States cannot and should not carry. ...
‘We hold that it is the function of government to govern and not to become the instrument through which gratuities may be distributed to special groups of beneficiaries. Consequently we now put all organized minorities on notice that unless their demands can be demonstrated to be in the public interest they will receive “no quarter” at our hands.’
“Now, while I always agreed with, and knew that while the attitude Mr. Douglas so succinctly outlined might on occasions have to be invoked against wounded veterans, old age pensioners, educationalists, and those promoting all manner of social relief programmes, I was never unaware of the fact that it must be maintained at all times to protect the people against bankers, financiers, war contractors and self-seeking monopolists. The organized raids upon the treasury and the persistent demands of the last mentioned for the passage of laws creating privileges intended to aid the exploiter, were, I always found. infinitely more disastrous to the taxpayers, and more dangerous to public welfare than anything ever undertaken, to secure to the poor and needy of the land unwarranted measures of attention and assistance from government. Had Mr. Douglas been as zealous in protecting the treasury from the demands of usury and monopoly as he was in protecting it from the just demands of wounded veterans he would have performed a service of enduring value to his nation. I was always careful in applying true principles of social and political economy, to adopt the wide, rather than the narrow, point of view. I tried always to make government the means of doing that which the people could not do for themselves or which the government could do better than private enterprise.
“Experience taught me that when I applied to the poor the measures that the rich and the self-seekers sought for themselves, and dealt to the self seeking monopolists the treatment they were anxious to apply to the poor, I usually had a safe foundation to stand on. But, of course, in addition to using my own intelligence in such matters I was always fully surrendered to the Will of God, sought His guidance, at all times, and it always came to me.
“When I left my friends and neighbors in Springfield, Illinois, on the way to Washington I stated to them :
‘A duty devolves upon me which is greater perhaps than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the Divine aid which sustained him. On the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support, and I hope you, my friends, will pray that I may receive the Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain.’
This faith was born in me at my mother’s knee. I remembered her prayers. They always were with me; they clung to me all my life.
“When the times were darkest and the spirits of ruin were abroad in all their power, I was aware that God alone knew the issue that was involved and I was satisfied that nothing but His mercy could save us. I was fully resigned to the fact that our nation could not live on injustice, for a house divided against itself cannot stand, and I felt at all times that if it must be that I should go dawn because of anything I did, then I wanted to go down linked to the truth, and I was willing at all times to die in the advocacy of what is right and just.
“Living truly in that faith, God never failed me, not even at the moment of my assassination, for as a central figure in that conspiracy against humanity I was a privileged instrument in the hand of God.
“When men appreciate why Christ was crucified and why I was assassinated they will realize that ‘the love of money and Money Power’ and the abuse of money as a power, constitute the most dangerous menaces that threaten democracy and justice. When this is realized and accepted in the world of men humanity will be one step nearer to the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. The time will come when all the people will know the truth. Let us hope that it is near at hand.”
The Old Testament
Mr. Roosevelt : “How did you acquire so perfect a knowledge of the application of the teachings of the Scripture to the conditions of your own time?”
Mr. Lincoln : “The only schooling I ever had was in a log school house where reading books and grammars were unknown. All our reading was done from the Scripture. We stood up in a long line and read in turn from the Bible. In regard to that great Book I have but to say that it is the best gift that God has given to men. All the good Saviour gave to the world was communicated through the Book. All things most desirable for man’s welfare here and hereafter are to be found portrayed in it. It was from that source that I secured my inspiration and, being poor, it gave me undying hope at all times and consolation in times of sorrow and defeat. It taught me to know that progress is always punctuated by reverses.
“As a child I became familiar with the great stories of the Bible and was privileged to enjoy, in an imaginative way at least, an intimate acquaintance with the great characters who live within its pages.
“We were taught to look upon Moses as the servant of God whose laws would lead those who obeyed them into a land of milk and honey. The teacher impressed our childish minds with the evils of meanness and covetousness. No commandment was treated as more important than any other, but the one condemning covetousness was, according to my understanding, the most essential to the establishment of effective social justice. It was the law that prevented the mean man from profiting from an active expression of pure selfishness. It formed the basis of a social plan based upon service to others as opposed to service to self. Well do I recall being taught that the lovers of money were the sons of Satan. There were no rich in our community and there was no opposition to the Biblical denunciation of the worship of gold and silver, and the practice of usury. We were all taught and were unanimous upon the proposition ‘that the love of money is the root of all evil’ and that usury constituted the most heinous of all the offences that come under the commandment which says ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s goods’.
“We read the Decalogue book by book and studied their contents as the basis of a sound scheme of planned economy. Passages such as :
“I am the Lord your God and will rid you of bondage. If you keep my statutes, I will give you the Promised Land of milk and honey for an heritage.’ (Exodus 6: 7 and 8.)
‘Ye shall not make unto you gods of silver or gods of gold.’ (Exodus 20: 23.)
‘If thou lend to any of our people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as a usurer, and thou shalt not lay upon him usury.’ (Exodus 22: 35.)
‘And if thy brother be waxen poor, snd fallen into decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him; yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner, that he may live with thee.’ ( Leviticus 25: 35, 36 and 37.)
‘Take thou to usury of him or increase : but fear thy God that thy brother may live with thee.’ (Leviticue 25: 36.)
‘Ye shall not therefore oppress one another. ... And the land shall yield her fruit and ye shall eat your fill and dwell therein in safety.’ (Leviticus 25: 17 and 19.)
‘Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury.’ (Deuteronomy 23: 19),
were as familiar to us as were the words of the Lord’s Prayer.
“Conflicts such as appear in passages like the following :
‘Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury : but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.’ (Deuteronomy 23: 20.)
were explained to us. We were told that when Christ, as the Son of God, came on earth with the lesson that all men are and should live together as brothers under the common paternity of God that there were no strangers left to lend to.
“The penalties that followed when the laws were broken were not glossed over. Warnings such as :
‘He that hath not given forth upon usury and hath walked in my statutes, he shall surely live.
‘He that bath given forth upon usury and bath taken increase, shall he then live? He shall not live. He hath done all these abominations. He shall surely die. His blood shall be upon him.’ (Ezekiel 19: 8 and 13.)
‘The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is the servant to the lender.
‘He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity.’ (Proverbs 22: 7 and 8.)
were accepted as just and proper punishments that we understood to mean exactly what they say.
“Very early in life I developed a feeling of mistrust towards all usurers that was identical with the attitude of the ancient Hebrews, and the orthodox Hebrews of modern times. You know or you should know that the orthodox Jews do not lend to Jews on usury and that they still follow the teaching as it is recorded in the Talmud, which says of the money lenders :
‘These are illegal as judges or witnesses, one who played at cards, one who lent on usury or bet on the flight of doves or traded in the Sabbatical year.’
“The usurer is not respected by the Jews, but, on the contrary, he is placed in the category of the gambler whose word is not acceptable among honest men.
“We were taught to recognize usury not only as a sin but as a danger, and it was placed in the category of those evils which, offering temporary gain and pleasure, exact in the end the penalties of moral disaster. The usurer, that is one who lent money to collect interest, no matter what the amount of interest might be, was one who was placed along with those who wilfully and to serve self violated the laws of God.
“We were told that in the days of ancient Rome such men were known as the ‘beasts of the city’, and in the days of the New Testament as ‘the wolves of society’. Naturally I lived in fear of Money Power and as my knowledge grew with years of public experience I learned that the Biblical condemnation of usurers and usury was fully warranted.
“In addition to being drilled upon the application of the laws of the Bible to our individual lives, we were taught to appreciate that they applied to nations and governments as well as to individuals. The 5th chapter of Nehemiah was pictured to us as the fate of the people of our own nation, if they continued to give and take in usury. We came to know Nehemiah as a great and good ruler, who, by stamping out the evil of usury, restored peace and prosperity to his people. We were compelled to memorize passages such as :
‘And lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage already; neither is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.
‘And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.
‘Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them.’ (Nehemiah 5: 5, 6 and 7.)
“To us unbridled usury meant social disruption and mass slavery.
“Every child in my school knew by heart the warning that the wise and great patriarch Isaiah gave to a mammon-worshipping world when he wrote :
‘Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty and waste and turneth it upside down.
‘And it shall be as with the taker of usury and so with the giver of usury.
‘Because they have transgressed the laws and broken the everlasting covenant.’ (Isaiah 14: 1, 2 and 5.)
“From such teachings I was firmly impressed with the fact that peace and goodwill were not compatible with rule by Money Power. We were taught in our school that people could have the gold standard if they wanted it, but that they could not have the gold standard and the Golden Rule standard at one and the same time. We were also taught that humanity could enjoy liberty and goodwill, but that they could not have liberty and usury. The gold standard and the Golden Rule; liberty and usury cannot exist together. To me clergymen and church members who accepted usurers as respectable men and condoned that most damaging of all social vices, usury, as a necessary social evil were hypocrites who were willing while praying to God to watch, without protest, the most ravenous of all the wolves in sheep’s clothing preying upon the flock they were charged with protecting. They seemed to me to be as sinful as the usurers. If not worse, they certainly were no better, for men cannot be honest with God who flaunt the laws of the Christian code.
“I had no delusions when I left that school upon the possibility of entering the Kingdom of Heaven with a Bible in one hand and an order for foreclosure in the other, nor did I have any doubt as to the meaning of the term ‘usury’, for I was taught that the moment capital is increased by having lent it, be it but in the estimation of a hair, that hair’s breadth of increase is usury just as much as stealing a penny is theft no less than stealing a million.
“We were taught that usury is worse than theft insofar as it is obtained either by deceiving people or by distressing them, generally by both, and finally by deceiving the usurer himself who comes to think that usury is real increase and that money can grow out of money, whereas all usury is increase from one person to another only.
“We trembled as we listened to the story of the vision of the Apostle Paul who, according to the Apocalypse, said :
‘And I saw another multitude of pits in the same place, and in the midst of it a river full of a multitude of men and women, and worms consumed them. But I lamented and sighing asked the angel and said : “Sir, who are these?” ‘and he said : “These are those who exacted interest on interest and trusted in their riches and did not hope in God that He was their helper”.’
“No less disturbing was the record of the vision of the Apostle Peter which said:
‘And in another great lake full of pitch and blood and mire bubbling up, there stood men and women up to their knees; and these were the usurers and those who had taken interest.’
“It was explained to us that all records of the works of the disciples that were not in conflict with the Scripture were worthy of attention.”
Mr. Roosevelt : “There are some who contend that Christ in the parable of the talents seemed to condone a less stringent attitude towards usury than that which is laid down in the Old Testament, for they say that by using that parable He did not denounce usury as an inherent sin.”
Mr. Lincoln : “Any such conclusion as that must come from loose and careless reading of the Scripture. It is quite true that while the money changers, whom Christ denounced as corruptionists, were conspiring to bring about His destruction, Christ used usury as the means of explaining the duty of Christians as Christian workers in a world of sin. He said :
‘For the Kingdom of Heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods.
‘And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
‘Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
‘And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
‘But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his Lord’s money.
‘After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
‘And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents; be hold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
‘His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast heen faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
‘He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord thou deliveredst unto me two talents; behold I have gained two other talents beside them.
‘His Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
‘Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed;
‘And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth lo, there thou hast that is thine.
‘His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant; thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed;
‘Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
‘Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which bath ten talents.
‘For every one that bath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that bath not shall be taken away even that which he bath.
‘And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matthew 25: 14-30.)
“In contrasting the desire of God to increase and multiply good things with the desire of a hard man to increase and multiply material things, Jesus did not condone or approve of usury. He was merely using a bad thing to prove a good thing, a course to which he very often resorted in His teaching. At the time, everyone knew the meaning of usury and the people to whom Christ was speaking recognized it as an evil. He merely resorted to the practice of a skilful teacher pointing out that God expected Christians to multiply the Christian virtues of brotherly love and co-operative service in exactly the same way that a usurer expected his servants to multiply his money wealth. But Christ did not hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity offered to condemn usury. He refers to the usurer ‘as a hard man reaping where he had not sown and gathering where he had not strawed’. It would take a very wide stretch of the imagination indeed to believe that Christ approved of the accumulation of wealth by such methods.
“To him that bath evil desires in a pagan world shall be given more, but that is equally true of one whose purpose in a Christian world is to increase his love of God and Christian virtue by service to his fellow men. Those who have Christian virtue and seek to increase it, shall be given more, but to those who have virtue and who seek not to secure it, all that they bath shall be lost. Certainly no one in Christ’s time ever believed or suggested that He condoned usury. So much was that so that for at least 12 centuries after His crucifixion the condemnation and prohibition of usury formed a definite and unequivocal part of both ecclesiastical and secular law.
“We were taught to appreciate that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was crucified and that the Apostles Paul, Peter, James and Stephen were persecuted, stoned and killed because they dared to openly oppose the money changers and to demand that the laws of God should be accepted as the guide for government and for individuals in all things.
“The teaching of St. Paul ‘that the love of money is the root of all evil’ was not less emphasized than was the fearlessness of Daniel ‘who dared to stand alone’.
“In addition to a recognition of the danger of the love of money and the abuses that the misuse of money contributes to, we came to know that the Bible contains a plan for men to live by as well as a plan to die by. Establishing God as the sovereign over all, the Biblical plan took care of the Sabbath; of the life of men and nations, of the family which it recognized as the real basis of civilization; of property; of character; of reputation; of money, work, morals and ethics. It founded a system of communal life based upon the eschewing of covetousness and the acceptance of the doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. In a word, it made goodwill the soul of all co-operative effort, and recognized service to others as the true basis of Democratic government.”
The New Testament
“The study of the New Testament was no less interesting than the study of the Old. In addition to the story of the miraculous birth and the miraculous ascension of Christ, we were schooled in the purposes of the visitation of Christ to our world. According to our understanding the world then, as now, was suffering from material illusions. Selfishness and vanity in high places had established the worship of mammon in place of the worship of God. Life was a vain and useless recurrence of dull and painful activities that started nowhere and ended in a brief moment of time in the same place. God sent His Son on earth to change such an outlook of futility into one of abundant and satisfying hope. He came to confirm by an actual demonstration that man whose intellect has the power to comprehend eternity and infinity is intellectually and spiritually superior to the universe. He confirmed the fact that everyone should be aware of, namely, that man’s intellect, being able to comprehend the limitless and the immeasurable, must take its power from God, who created the universe. Life under His teaching ceased to be a thing of a moment of time and became a possibility of experience in never-ending grandeur. His birth was heralded by an angel who declared the dawn of a new day in which men of goodwill could enjoy the blessings of peace on earth and in eternity. Advancing the doctrine of co-operation based on goodwill as against self-service based upon acquisitiveness, Christ by His teaching sought to change life in a Christian world from one of night and darkness into one of dawn and light. He not only banished fear of death but made life a perpetual and glorious reality.
Mary
“We not only knew the Magnificat, but we sang it as the battle hymn of oppressed and suffering humanity. When Mary, the Mother of Our Lord, sang :
‘My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit bath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he bath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden; for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
‘His mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
‘He bath shewed strength with his arm; he bath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
‘He bath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.
‘He bath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he bath sent empty away.’ (Luke 1: 46 -53),
she uttered a message that we were taught to appreciate as a song carolling down the ages, bringing hope to all who are oppressed by poverty. The banishment of involuntary poverty we were taught formed a definite and concrete part of Christian philosophy. Mary, believing that she was the instrument that God had selected to mother a leader of all forgotten men and women, sang with the courage and faith of one truly inspired and her Son lived to prove that her inspiration came from God.
“Of course our sympathies were with the hungry and we were anxious that they should all ‘be filled with good things’. Most of us had known and felt the pangs of hunger. Mary’s inspiration, we were told, came from the fact that she knew the Son she was about to mother was going to be a leader who would oppose the rich and the proud, and help the weak and the poor. That she was able to declare before Christ was born that ‘all generations would call ‘her blessed’ and that all generations since have called her blessed was acknowledged as evidence of the Divine and miraculous nature of her prophecy, and accepted as proof of the Divinity of Our Lord.
“We were taught that Jesus fully vindicated His mother’s prophecy by living and dying fearlessly in the work of service to all mankind, and that His life was a model to be followed by all Christian men who should be glad to die if necessary to put the plan for the emancipation of the poor, outlined by Mary, into effect. There was nothing of the pale anemic Galilean about the Carpenter of Nazareth that we learned to love and worship. The Jesus we knew was a powerful champion of all those in need, who was endowed with the fearlessness of God.
“We read the story of John, the cousin of Jesus, who was beheaded because he dared to attack the immorality of the Herodian Court.
“James, the brother of Jesus, who rose to the position of a Bishop in Jerusalem, we learned was stoned to death because he said :
‘Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
‘Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
‘Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
‘Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth : and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
‘Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and have been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.’ (James 5: 1-5.)
“In James and John we saw fearless champions of humanity who gladly served in the cause of righteousness and against evil unto death.
“In the fight to put down the mighty from their seats, to scatter the proud, send the rich away empty and to fill the hungry with good things, we learned from St. Paul that we had to :
‘Put on the whole armour of God, that ys may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
‘For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
‘Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and have done all, to stand.’ (Ephesians 6: 11, 12 and 13.)
“We were taught that John, James and Jesus lived and died to teach Christian men their duty and the sacrifices they must make to protect the poor, and to establish and maintain the Kingdom of God on earth. So long as men love money and power, we believed that such sacrifice must be accepted by Christian leaders as their possible fate. The evils of our day we understood to be the same as those against which Jesus and His followers rebelled.”
Mr. Roosevelt : “Do you mean to say that the Biblical teachings apply in practical economy now as they did between 2,000 and 5,000 years ago?”
Mr. Lincoln : “Yes, there is no doubt of that.”
Mr. Roosevelt : “But there are many now who think that the economic teachings of the Scripture do not apply because they were developed by men who experienced only the life of a pastoral community, and who had no working knowledge of the involved and complex economic problems that have developed in our highly industrialized civilization. Do you suggest that the economic teachings of the Bible are still safe and sound guides for the development of political policy?”
Mr. Lincoln : “The economic teachings in the Bible apply today with the same force that they enjoyed when they were first written, and they will apply with that force unto the end of the world. Of course modes and details have changed, but the fundamental problems of social life are unchanging and unchangeable. For that reason the fundamental laws of God must forever remain the guide for both governments and individuals. That was made particularly clear by Christ who said :
‘Think not that I am come to destroy the laws or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfil.
‘For verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no ways pass from the law till all be fulfilled.’ (Matthew 5: 17-18.)
“When He declared :
‘No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ (Matthew 6: 24),
He showed quite clearly that material and spiritual life are inseparably related. Do you not think that living in a world of plenty, where destitution and poverty appear on every hand that the wisdom of the Sermon on the Mount if fully applied would not cure your troubles? Of course they would. For if men in the world today would eschew covetousness, greed and the worship of mammon, and work together, all would be able to live without thinking of tomorrow and they would find that Christ’s promise :
‘Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.
‘For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.’
would be fulfilled at once. When Jesus asked :
‘Or what man is there of you, whom if his son asks bread will give him a stone ?
‘Or if he asks a fish will give him a serpent?’
He was dealing with economic problems. When He declared :
‘Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophet.’ (Matthew 7: 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12),
He laid down the fundamental principles of social relations that must be accepted if community life is to be successful.
“While Christ was waiting for the time of His Crucifixion after having taught that the Love of God was the first law in the life of a Christian. He carefully explained to His followers that the only way by which men can establish their right to enter heaven through the love of the Lord is by service to those in need of a brother’s help. He pictured God as sitting in judgment of all mankind. To the right of His throne were placed the ones who served their fellowmen. To the left were placed the ones who failed to serve their neighbours’ in need. And Christ described the final judgment in these words :
‘Then shall the King say, speaking to those on the right, Come ye blessed, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
‘For I was an hungered and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in.
‘Naked and ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came unto me.’ (Matthew 25: 35-36.)
‘And they all denied that they had ever done these things to the King and He replied :
‘Because ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then to the ones on the left the King spoke. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ ‘I was an hungered and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger and ye took me not in; naked and ye clothed me not; sick and in prison and ye visited me not.
‘And they all denied these things, but the Lord said :
‘Because ye did it not unto one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me.
‘And these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal., (Matthew 25: 40-46.)
“Stern though this judgment may be it is unchangeable, and Christians will do well to recognize that it is the test they all must meet. Men who maintain a system that causes poverty and destitution to exist in the midst of plenty simply because they desire to accumulate money profit, are ignoring the plain duty of Christians. They have forgotten God, the Scriptures and the life of Christ. They cannot therefore enter the Kingdom of Heaven. They are doomed to the outer darkness of everlasting punishment. These are the teachings that Christian governments should inculcate in the minds of the people. For before the people may enjoy lives of peaceful ordered progress they must acknowledge that God is their Father and they must live according to His teachings. Unfortunately, greed and vanity are expressions of the evil power, and men foolishly cling to evil. Christ did not expect that the people, given the right to choose between good and evil, would accept the wisdom of His Divine teaching in a generation or in an age. All born in sin come slowly to an appreciation of the wisdom that emanates from the fountain of eternal knowledge. But ever increasing numbers are coming to know that selfishness is a poor substitute for goodwill, and that the joys of strife and conflict are inferior to the deep and enduring satisfaction and contentment that comes to one who serves his fellow men as a proof of his love of God.
“Some day men will come to know the true meaning of liberty. Governments which sustain monopolies under whose power men have no alternative but slave or starve have a poor conception of the meaning of that much-abused term. St. Paul understood “Liberty” as it is defined in Christian doctrine. He said :
‘For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
‘For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
‘But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.’ (Galatians 5: 13, 14, 15.)
‘For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
‘Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
‘A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. ‘I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded; but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment; whosoever he be.’ (Galatians 5 : 6, 7, 9, 10.)
“This conception of liberty is based upon the proposition that service to others is the best way of securing advantage for self. Liberty, therefore, is a privilege to serve and to live within the laws of God, fulfilling the true purpose of a Christian life. The record of Christ’s existence proves that by word and example the Son of God lived and died to establish a proper understanding of universal liberty.
The Nazarene
“The story of the Carpenter at Nazareth was by far the most inspiring to me of all the remarkable biographies and dramas that are contained within the Book of Books. Born under the iron heel of ruthless oppression, Christ became a man who never ceased to lead in the struggle for the emancipation of His fellow citizens from the oppression of greedy, misguided and ruthless rulers of Church and State.
“In the life of Jesus Christ we found a peerless example of dauntless leadership.
‘Come unto me all ye who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest,’
was a promise that was backed by an unrelenting attack upon all evil and oppression. Jesus was never concerned with the odds that were against Him, or the power of those He opposed, and we loved Him for His courage. In addition to reading the New Testament we were told of the history of the people of Judea and how at the time that Christ came on earth they were being plundered by their own King and religious leaders and by the Romans who were then dominating the Western world. Government in that day, we were informed, was based upon the assumption that might was right. The Roman government was primarily concerned with the establishment of monopolies and privileges under which the few could exploit and rob the people of the fruits of their labour.
“These exploitations, induced very largely by a love of money, offered a lucrative field of activity for the money changers and the usurers. Of all the monopolies and privileges established, the most profitable was that of purchasing from the government the right to collect taxes. The rich men of the time formed themselves into societies that were known as the equities. The men who bought the right to collect the taxes were known as the Publicani, and the publicans were their tax gathering agents. Christ denounced them as the most vicious racketeering rascals of His day. They were known as the farmers of the revenue, because the revenues were farmed out to them. When the taxes were being collected the publicans demanded more than the amount levied by the government. If any taxpayer refused to pay the extortions demanded he was summarily dealt with. False charges of treason were laid against him; he was dragged into a corrupt court, found guilty on perjured testimony and sentenced to death by crucifixion or by being thrown into the sea with a millstone hung about his neck.
“The Publicani was made up of men who operated privileged monopolies that, standing between the government and the people, permitted soulless intermediaries to feed and fatten on the revenues that should have gone to sustain the government. In the end they were responsible for the wrecking of the Roman Empire.
“When Christ looking at a Roman coin said to His questioners :
‘Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s’,
among other things He may have been referring to the unrighteous extortions exacted by the publicans.
The Money Changers
“The story of Christ’s attack upon the money changers in the temple was read and studied as a great lesson in practical political economy. The history of the temple was fully explained to us. We were told that it was a great fortification that housed some 20,000 scribes and priests. It was garrisoned by an army of zealous soldiers who constantly mounted guard on its gates and its outer and inner- walls of defense. It was not only the center of Jewish worship, but it was the storehouse of Jewish wealth. To it on the occasions of religious celebrations millions of Jews came to worship and pay the temple tax. The temple tax we knew had been fixed by the laws of Moses which had decreed :
‘These they shall give every one that passeth money, they that are numbered one-half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary and one-half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord.
‘And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle.’ (Exodus 30: 13, 16.)
“In Christ’s time the priests of the temple declared that this tax had to be paid in the specie designated in the laws of God, that its acceptance in any other form of money would be sacrilegious. Unfortunately Jewish shekels were about as scarce as gold was in our day. This rule of the priests therefore created an opportunity for a money changing racket in the temple, based upon the doctrine of specie payment. Working in collusion with the priests, the money changers set up their benches in the Gentiles’ court, where the beasts for the sacrifices were sold, and where the people assembled to argue and to gossip. In this Court no religious services were solemnized by the temple dignitaries. It was there that Christ argued against the false teachings of the priests of His day. There, too, He saw the money changers robbing and cheating and defrauding the millions of Jews who came from foreign lands and who had to change their foreign money into shekels before they could pay the temple tax. He knew that the money changers secured their supply of shekels from the priests and shared their unrighteous profits with the rulers of the House of God. This was the unscrupulous and corrupt conspiracy to which Christ referred, when He declared that the money changers were
‘Changing the House of Prayer to a den of thieves.’
The priests and the money changers were cheating the people. The money changers in the temple, like the Publicani, were money-manipulating intermediaries. Where the Publicani stood between the government and the people and profited through collection of the taxes of government, the money changers in the temple stood between the rulers of the Church and the people and profited by providing the people with the specie in which the temple tax had to be paid. In both instances monopolies were profiting under unrighteous privileges that were unnecessarily being maintained and protected by rulers of Church and State.”
Mr. Roosevelt : “Do I understand you to mean that as you studied the Bible you came to know that Christ’s repudiation of the publicans and the money changers had a political and economic significance that is applicable to our bankers and financiers?”
Mr. Lincoln : “Yes, quite so. The activities of the publicani and the publicans were identical in principles with the activities of the modern financiers, bankers and credit dealers who profit by financing government, and who, as unnecessary intermediaries, feed and fatten on the collection of public revenues of the government that come now, as then, from the people. The money changing activity in the temple of Jerusalem was based upon the same principle of specie payment that the gold standard money system was established to maintain.
“Christ, in voluntarily sacrificing His mortal life, by incurring the wrath of the money changers, was teaching humanity that if money lovers are permitted to enter the temples of religion or government that they will pervert religion, corrupt government and destroy the peace of man on earth. But more than that : the record of His Crucifixion informs all Christians that the lovers of money to gain their material ends will not hesitate to attack and destroy the Son of God. That is why you must drive the money changers out of the temple of government if you are to succeed in your attempt to conquer poverty. If you fail to follow the example of Christ, despair will be your reward, and the time for you to act is overdue. Properly understood there is no great mystery about Christ’s attack upon the money changers. For a study of history discloses that the progress of Democracy has been characterized by an unceasing struggle between altruism and self interest. In attacking the money changers Christ as a social scientist was attacking the greatest of all evils, for there is no more vicious form of greed than that which the age-old business of making money by the manipulation of money exemplifies. That Christ in this His only act of militancy had a great and real purpose in mind was made perfectly plain.
“Before He made His attack upon the money changers in the temple of Jerusalem He let it be known that He was aware of the fate that He was courting. Shortly before that historic occasion He said to a group of His followers :
‘Behold we go up to Jerusalem and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished.
‘For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on.
‘And they shall scourge him; and put him to death and the third day he shall rise again.
‘And they understood none of these things.’
“Now the only thing He did on this particular visit to Jerusalem that he had not done before was to attack and drive the money changers out of the House of God. The Scripture discloses that it was the money changers who demanded of the priests that He be crucified, and who set in operation the conspiracy to lay a false charge of treason against Him. This conspiracy included the rulers of the Church, the rulers of the State and the mammon-worshipping people, and resulted in Christ’s execution under the weirdest death sentence ever passed. Have you not read of the warning that Pilate’s wife gave to him and that when Pilate saw that the organized mob demanded the crucifixion of Christ that :
‘He took water and washed his hands before the multitude saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, see ye to it.’ (Matthew 27: 24.)
Pilate also stated :
‘Take ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him.’
It is through this extraordinary statement that one perceives in the life of Christ the miracle of human perfection, for in truth Christ is the only one in history who has lived the faultless life of a perfect individual. That was sufficient to satisfy me that the Carpenter of Nazareth was the Son of God. The practical lesson that we found in the study of the Crucifixion was the simple proposition that lovers of money who krill not hesitate to crucify the Son of God cannot and should not be trusted to serve humanity. Notwithstanding their attitude to the Son of God, and Christ’s attitude towards them, men have placed the money changers and credit dealers in charge of the economic power of the social order of modern civilization which they, in turn, are now destroying. Christians should have expected that the afflictions they are now suffering would follow their clear repudiation of the teachings of the prophets and Jesus Christ.
The Fearless Reformer
“So vividly was the story of Christ’s attack upon the money changers presented to us that we felt as though we were walking with Christ through the great guarded gates and into the Temple. We saw the money changers angry and mystified as their tables were upset and their coins scattered among the dung of the market-place. We saw them fleeing in consternation before His awful gaze and under the lashes of a whip which He plied with the anger of an outraged God. After the money changers were driven out, we studied carefully the lessons and the parables which Christ lost no time in teaching as He waited for the Crucifixion and the torture He knew was coming.
“By His action in driving the money changers out of the Temple, He condemned covetousness, and the dangerous evil of money manipulation. But He did not let it stop there. When the people came to Him and told Him that Herod would destroy Him, He replied :
‘Go ye and tell that fox.’
This was His attitude to a King who had cut off His cousin John’s head to satisfy the whim of a soulless harlot. Jesus had the courage of a God. Almost immediately after His attack upon the money changers, Christ told the parable of the fig tree. Because it hove no fruit it was cursed and withered away. This was in line with His teaching that He had often repeated, that :
‘If a tree bring forth no fruit, or if it bore evil fruit that the proper thing to do with it was to cut it down and cast it into the fire.’
That teaching applies to credit manipulators now as it did to money changers then. “Then followed the parable of the husbandman who refused to pay to the owner of the vineyard the fruits of the land which he owned. After pointing out that a householder after having planned a vineyard, had let it out to husbandmen, who refused to give to the servants of the householder the fruits of the vines that the householder had planted, and who beat the servants and killed his heir, Christ asks what should be done under such circumstances, and the answer He gave was that the householder ‘will miserably destroy those wicked men and let out his vineyard to men who will act fairly and honestly’. Is that not the situation that exists today between governments and the men to whom they have farmed out the right to issue the medium of exchange of the nation and the people? Of course it is. No lesson could be more specific in offering the remedy that you need to apply.
The Lesson
“Immediately after that parable was presented Christ asked of those about Him :
‘Have ye not read in the Scriptures the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvellous in our eyes.’
“Now let any man ask, What is the stone the builders of the American civilization have rejected which must become the head of the corner if your scheme of planned economy is to succeed? Surely the answer is the national administration of currency and credit, for such a policy was proposed by Jefferson and I died in attempting to establish it as the pivot of the administration of American government. Our plans were rejected.
“So there could be no question in our minds about the political and economic purpose of Christ’s attack upon the money changers, we were taught to read and study the 23rd chapter of St. Matthew. In that great chapter we found that Christ made the purport of His action perfectly clear. Standing unafraid He submitted the oligarchy of Jerusalem to an oratorical castigation that will forever remain the masterpiece of vitriolic condemnation of corrupt and self-seeking rulers. Christ then appeared to me as the perfect representative of the people. Let me remind you of some of the burning metaphors that poured forth from His lips as the expressions of the righteous wrath of the outraged Son of Man.
‘The rulers sit in Moses’ seat; they say, but they do not.
‘Loving the uppermost rooms and the chief seats, they would not raise a finger to lift the burden that the masses carry. ...
‘Woe unto you hypocrites; ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men. Ye devour widows’ houses; therefore, ye shall receive the greater damnation. Ye compass sea and land to increase the children of hell. ...
‘Ye blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. ...
‘Ye fools and blind; for whether is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifieth the gift; the gold or the temple that sanctifieth the gold. ...
‘Ye have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.
‘Ye make clean the outside of the cup, and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
‘Ye are like whited sepulchres that are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness, hypocrisy and iniquity....
‘The prophets ye scourge and kill. Thou killeth the prophets and stoneth them. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.’ (Matthew 23.)
“These utterances apply to the evils of the twentieth century. Christ was attaching rulers of Church and State dominated by Money Power. He was dealing with the same causes that have produced the economic troubles that afflict the world today.
“And He offered the only remedy available. By driving the money changers out of the Temple of God He condemned rule by Money Power, which is the root cause of your own difficulties. The attack by Christ upon the money changers was the climax in the drama of the ages. A drama that portrays the last week of the life of Christ on earth and presents in anti-climax the sacrifice of the Son of God as an example to the ages that the war between greed and usury on the one hand and love and goodwill on the other must continue until right based upon the service of goodwill is established as supreme in the lives of men. When goodwill dominates and greed has been subjugated, the Kingdom of God will be established on earth, but it cannot come till then.
Teaching by Example
“We were taught that these declarations indicated a plan that Christ offered to all Christian public leaders to follow. In after years I came to know that the Carpenter of Nazareth was possessed of an intellectual power of superior magnitude. There was that sweeping finality of His conclusions which indicated the inspired nature of His knowledge of the science of politics. He lived to teach men how to change the stream of history from channels that are worn deep with centuries of use. That can only be done by leaders who are willing to fearlessly exercise masculine authority, with the firm incisive power that impregnates lesser minds with a desire to achieve great and enduring reforms. Jesus knew the conditions of His own day, but more than that He was fully aware of the conditions with which the countless ages of posterity would have to deal.
“But more important than that. Jesus was aware that great reforms come slowly and that they must be accomplished through the unceasing effort of men who take up the struggle generation after generation throughout the ages. His great work on earth was that of teaching men by example, and of recording his lessons so that they could never be erased from the record of humanity’s affairs. In this great task He persisted to the very end.
“When the time for His crucifixion came, Christ consoled His weary and heart-broken followers by saying :
‘Ye will have tribulation in the world, but fear not for I have overcome the world.’
This was not an idle boast, or an expression of vain bravado. It was a declaration that Christ knew would be fulfilled in time. He was aware that He had recorded lessons in practical economy that some day men would appreciate and adopt as the guide for individual and governmental policy. When they are appreciated and put into practice, peace will come to men of goodwill. And Jesus knew that in time right based upon His teaching would prevail.”
The Sermon on the Mount
Mr. Roosevelt : “Do I understand you to mean that, in addition to offering His life to redeem the souls of sinners, Christ by His teaching laid down a sound basis far Democratic government?”
Mr. Lincoln : “Yes. The Sermon on the Mount offered a clear exposition of the political implications of the Ten Commandments, which constitute the only safe foundation upon which economic security and social justice map permanently rest. That greatest of all political sermons was uttered by a Leader who knew that government should be ruled by the laws of God which make consideration of the welfare of the humblest citizen in the land no less important than that of any other, no matter how high his station may be. Jesus taught to develop enlightened leaders who, as His followers, would carry out and put into practice the principles He propounded.
“In His association with His disciples, He put the privileges and honours of leadership aside and demonstrated that in a Christian Democracy the leader is one of a number, where all, in the interests of the common wealth, are servants of each other, guided solely by the sovereignty of God and dedicated to the practice of sacrifice dictated by pure kindness. In a Democracy, where all accept sound principles as the basis of public and private action and peace with plenty is available to all, leadership ceases to be a matter of aggressive authority and becomes a matter of example, of course in nations that profess the acceptance of Christian teaching and which maintain a purely pagan economic system.
‘Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what ve shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on :
‘Is not the life more than meat, and the body more than raiment’:
seems to be an impossible doctrine. On the other hand if government establishes an economic order based upon the law of co-operative goodwill, everyone will find that God has supplied the world abundantly. Once the people and governments will follow the admonition to—
‘Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves
‘Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
‘Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
‘A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth a good fruit.
‘Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
‘Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.’ (Matthew 7: 15-20.)
Humanity will soon find that the teachings of Christ are the soul of practical wisdom. Put these rules of economic practice into operation and the private money system cannot survive. The daily prayer of Christians—
‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’,
will then cease to be a mere shallow echo in words, and will become a glorious reality. Then those in every walk of life will find that Christ knew what He was talking about when He said :
‘Therefore take no thought saying. What shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or where withal shall we be clothed? for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
‘But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.
‘Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.’ (Matthew 6: 31-34.)
Nor will unrighteous monopoly or privilege be allowed to continue. Here is the real remedy for all depressions and the way to world peace. The moment that governments will adopt the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments as its guide, poverty will be banished from the world and permanent peace will become the natural complement of life. The scheme of government which the Old Testament offers and which Christ lived and died to explain provides for individual freedom compatible with true and unselfish brotherhood. It contemplates, under the sovereignty of God, a government of service that aims at ‘filling the hungry with good things’ in the widest sense of that expression. The wealth that it respects and protects is made up of human and spiritual values that give to mankind plenty and peace in life and in death.
The Blood Atonement
“By applying the plain and definite economic implication of Christ’s teachings to the welfare of humanity you do not detract from ‘the doctrine of the blood atonement’, or any of the magnificent spiritual promises that Christ made. On the contrary, by recognizing that Christ defined the way in which a Christian should live, and clearly set forth the plain duties of Christian brotherhood, you extend the philosophy of Christ into a plan under which men can maintain ordered progress in a world of plenty.
“Christian men should recognize that by maintaining the sovereignty of Money Power in the realm of credit, governments are repudiating the teachings of Christ, Who drove the money changers from the temple of God. Instead of following out His teachings in actual practice, modern political leaders are serving the arch-fiend, for they have actually driven the Spirit of Christ out of the temple of government and put the money changers in charge. Their errors are even greeter than were those of the rulers of pagan Rome. Where the Romans farmed out the taxes to the lovers of money, Christian governments have farmed out the creation of the medium of exchange to men whose prototypes were responsible for the crucifixion of the Son of Man-and by so doing have incurred the wrath of God. If they will not repent and change their ways, the day of disaster is at hand.
The Right Way
“Even after the Crucifixion Christ appeared and again admonished His Disciples upon their duty to feed the people. On one occasion He appeared in the morning on the seashore. To some of the Disciples who had been fishing all night without success He said :
‘Children, have ye any meat? And they answered him No. And he said unto them, Cast your net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find. And they cast their net on the right side and it was filled with abundance.’ (John 21:.5-6.)
“As we read that message there was no mystery about the miracle. It was merely a lesson showing that there is a right way to do everything, and particularly a right way to secure an abundance of the necessities of life for the people. In the matter of money management we have been casting our net on the wrong side of the boat. Christ, in His parting message to Simon Peter, demonstrated the infinite tenderness and care that He felt towards the needy and oppressed mass of humanity. To Simon Peter He said :
‘Love thou me more than these? He said unto him Yea. Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
‘He saith to him again the second time, Simon, Son of Jonas, Lovest thou me? He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, Feed my sheep.
‘He said unto him the third time, Simon, Son of Jonas, Invest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest; but when thow shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.
‘This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.’ (St. John 21: 15-19.)
That was explained to us as meaning that men who became Christian leaders were charged with the responsibility of caring for children, and the aged, and of providing the people with the means of securing all the requirements of their temporal and spiritual life that God has placed in abundance and within the reach of all men who accept His teaching. General destitution in a world of plenty is unnatural and artificial. Certainly there need be no suffering from poverty, for, while the poor will always be with you, namely those who, from a multitude of causes, some within and some beyond the control of the unfortunate individuals, who are in need, the rendering of assistance to the needy is a duty that should be grasped as a blessed opportunity by all Christians.
Christ On the Cross
“We studied the Life of the Son of God as the narrative of the supreme champion of oppressed humanity. His entire life was devoted to an attack upon, and a denunciation of, the forces of evil and oppression. He died because He dared to champion the cause of humanity against the iniquities of vanity, indulgence and greed. He was never unfaithful to the promise that Mary made that her Son would lead in the revolution on behalf of the meek, the lowly and the poor. Although He was called upon to pay the supreme penalty as a result of His fulfilling to the letter the service to humanity which His mother had outlined, He never faltered in His loyalty to her. As He hung in torture on the Cross He ignored His own suffering and took the precaution to provide for the future care of the Mother who bore Him. We understood that Christ’s action at this time constituted the most magnificent example in history of the full performance of the duty of a son to his mother. As we read—
‘Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his Mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
‘When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!
‘Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her into his own home.’ (St John 19: 25-27),
we saw in Christ the perfect son.
“As we read this passage in the Scriptural narrative of Christ’s brutal destruction we lost sight of Christ dying in agony.
“In the days of my youth and early manhood I was greatly influenced by this demonstration of Christ’s filial devotion. It kept the memory of my own mother’s sweet and tender through all the days of my life.
“It was His fearless attack upon the money changers, however, that was responsible for my early entry into the public life of my own community. It was the attitude of Christ to the money changers that led me to a careful and definite study of monetary and credit problems. As my public experience advanced, my admiration and respect for the Carpenter of Nazareth as a political leader grew stronger with every passing year. The more I came to know of the needs of humanity the more clearly was I able to appreciate and understand the teachings of Christ, and I came to know that His understanding of the needs of mankind was infallible. To me the superb perfection of the wisdom of the Carpenter of Nazareth offered all the evidence I needed to satisfy me of the Divine nature of His power and authority. As I studied history I found that the perfection and purity of the attitude that Jesus offered as the correct way of determining human relations that are essential to the maintenance of ordered progress, commanded for His memory more love and respect than any other life in history enjoyed. To all those who know the work of Jesus on earth, His life offers an expression of purposeful existence that provides a perfect model for Democratic leadership. It satisfies the desire of intelligence anxious to advance in the realm of righteous existence. It indicates the possibility of combining wisdom, authority and courage with sublime humility and the grace of perfect gentleness. It proves that justice is the light of life and the soul of sympathy. While offering a faultless guide to the exercise of the power of leadership by responsible authority, it carries, at the same time, the consoling pleasantness of confidence into the lowliest of surroundings. With the help of its support the greatest of public services may be undertaken and executed by the humblest of individuals, for the Carpenter of Nazareth, in silence, in waiting, in obscurity, in unnoticed activities, by years of uneventful, unrecorded service, gave and waxed strong.
The Miracle of History
“From an obscure corner of the world the undying memory of the martyrdom of this servant of humanity still persists. The power of His life, like that of a perfect postulative law, has increased with the centuries in which it has been submitted to trial. In no other instance has time so consistently advanced the glory of one who died because he dared to serve the poor and the oppressed. The increasing power of the life of Christ on human affairs is the outstanding miracle in the records of biography.
“Socrates, Plato and Aristotle developed theories in which the right of the people to govern themselves was advanced as the basis of sound government. Christ illuminated the material democracy that they propounded by giving it a soul. He made it an expression of love for mankind and of service to man and God based upon a nobler understanding of the destiny of humanity and civilization. Under the influence of His teaching, the fathers of our Republic gave to our people and to the world the concrete ideas of liberty and freedom that our constitution contains. Jesus gave to us a proper understanding of the wider application of democracy by teaching that universal charity, truth and justice are the essential complements to individual and national freedom. The demoracy which Christ advanced expresses not only the hopes of mankind in constituted doctrines of rights and codes of liberty, but it makes the general welfare of all the members of human society the end and object of law. It recognizes that service and enlightened purpose can come only through sacrifice and self denial, by heroic individuals and by enlightened nations. It is, therefore, more than the hope of oppressed minorities; it is in reality the light of the world. Christ, by expounding Christian democracy as outlined by Moses and propounded in the Decalogue, was true to the prophecy of the Virgin Mary. The democracy He advanced was based upon individual liberty and aimed to fill those who hungered for material, moral and spiritual blessings with good things. By showing the way to the conquest of material, moral and spiritual poverty, He indicated the way to World Peace.
“Modern society is moving slowly, but nevertheless certainly, under the power of this great and ever-present force towards the complete acceptance of the political economy of Christian teaching.
Liberalism
“In addition to being the spiritual Saviour of the souls of men, Jesus died to prove that the establishment of man’s comfort on earth was a positive and foundational part of Christian philosophy. To me, Jesus was a man’s man in every sense of the term. He fitted into every kind of company. He was loved by children, adored by women, and respected by men. He was a leader who moved into the teeth of every storm. The record of His undaunted courage in the face of inescapable disaster establishes His universal right to be respected and enshrined in the hearts of all lovers of brave and fearless men.
“Under the inspiration of His life, your civilization must rebuild its democracy upon the ruins of a civilization whose foundations of usury, debt, and greed, have collapsed.
“My studies of the Bible profoundly impressed me with the fact that none should be allowed to live by the sweat of other men’s faces. From the same book I came to know that the success of government will always depend upon its ability to maintain the law so that none may gain from an unrighteous exploitation of the rights or the labour of others. To me the exalted liberalism of the Old Testament that Christ expounded was defined by Isaiah when he said :
‘Behold the King shall reign in righteousness and Princes shall rule in judgment. The eyes of them that see shall not be dimmed, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.‘The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.
‘For the vile person will speak villainy and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord; to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
‘The churl devises wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.
‘But the liberal deviseth liberal things and by liberal things shall he stand.’ (Isaiah 32: 1-8.)
In these words Isaiah presented a scheme of government in which God is the ruler, and the representatives of the people are princes of peace, guided by the laws of Jehovah. It offers a great middle course along which the righteous may pursue democracy’s unceasing march towards the goal of peace and plenty, protected on the one hand from the avaricious plunder of predatory monopoly, and on the other hand safeguarded from the brutal discipline of Godless, selfish class and material dictatorship. Recognizing that the liberty of the individual may only be secured by the maintenance of proper discipline, it unhesitatingly accepts all matters of common interest as the proper subjects of governmental regulation. In exercising the control required, however, it abjures the idea that progress and prosperity are dependent upon a denial to any worthy individual of the right to dwell in safety under his own vine and fig tree. The liberalism of Christianity eschews the idea that social justice can be advanced by scuttling democracy through the surrender of individual freedom to socialism, fascism or to the dictatorship of irresponsible bureaucracy, money power, or any other form of self-seeking monopoly.
The Beacon of Hope
“Christ lived to propound and explain the wisdom of the plan of government that the prophets and the law givers had offered. By His work He wrote into the records of history a story that makes the few years He dwelt upon this earth the outstanding epoch in the history of the evolution of human enlightenment. His life is the Gibraltar of democracy. It rises from its base, set in the swirling currents of life’s affairs, its summit reaching into the infinite of human conception and, like a permanent fountain of sunshine, it radiates throughout the ages the light of justice tempered by reason and mercy. It will always remain a glorious beacon of promise and assurance that right is might. Along the seas of uncharted progress it not only illumines the way, but strengthens man’s intelligence with a penetrating power of understanding. In the midst of the wreckage of human failure it inspires renewed energy in man’s endeavour to order his way with dignity, usefulness and peace.
“There is no calamity that can befall nation or individual that can resist the power of Divine authority once its assistance is secured. When democratic leadership accepts the teaching of the exalted liberalism of the Bible and establishes, under the sovereignty of God, the Christian scheme of government, the wages of men will no longer be sacrificed to the demands of usurers for the wages of money.
“Under the sovereignty of God Christian democracy will then take the place of the oligarchy of Money Power that now misrules. Such a government will not seek to subjugate the individual to a straight-jacket of regimentation, but by regulating the opportunity of all and by offering the moral guidance that persuades and developes a desire for proper direction of human effort, measures of enlarging freedom and liberty will become the accepted and established order. Such a government would aim at facilitating the exercise of political power to the end that the public mind and the intellectual tone of society would be raised. It would seek to refine the intercourse of private life and to purify the national taste; to give enlargement and sobriety to the worthy ideas of the age and at supplying true principles as the foundation of public opinion and positive objectives as the guide of popular aspiration.
“It was by studying and pondering the democracy of the Nazarene that I came to know that nations cannot live on injustice. ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ That is why a nation divided into lenders and borrowers must come to disaster. In the end they will be changed into drones and paupers. The first step in arresting the depression and preventing the coming about of such a situation is to be found in taking the management and control of the nation’s currency and credit away from Money Power and vesting it in a department responsible to the government. If this is not done, progress, as an institution of service to humanity, cannot be maintained. But more than that, no nation can survive that tries to advance at the expense of other nations. The illusions of progress may exist for a while, but in the end disaster is inevitable. The fact is that at this very moment the nations of the British Empire and the great Republic of the United States are now facing the crisis period. They cannot go on as they have been moving. They must unite under God, and with His help move toward the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. There is no other way for them to survive. That is true because there are only about 160,000,000 people of British extraction in the Empire and the United States, while the world’s population exceeds 2,000,000,000 souls. Material and pagan peoples are rising and they are successfully challenging the right of the English-speaking people to lead the world. Unless Anglo-Celtic people unite and move with the superior power and authority that comes to those who recognize the sovereignty of God, the overwhelming numbers that are now arrayed against them are bound to overwhelm them. But united and with the power of God as their strength and armour they can continue to lead and to rule through the power of love proven by unselfish service to others. If they lose, or refuse the guidance of God, their fate will be that of the people of Egypt and of Rome whose glory is but a memory today.
“ ‘Woe unto the world because of offences, for it must needs be that offences come, but woe unto the man by whom the offences cometh,’
is just as true to-day as it was three thousand years and more ago. That is why public leadership at this particular time carries with it a heavy responsibility, for God will test the leaders of government in this wise : If government, through love of God, serves and protects the people on the basis of the greatest good for the greatest number, it will be recognized as Christian and blessed with Jehovah’s aid. If it ignores the welfare of humanity and maintains and protects monopolies that are designed to permit the few to exploit the multitude, it will be condemned as pagan, confused in its work, and stripped of the successes that shallow trumpery sustains. The leaders of such a government will be condemned to eternal damnation. No leader of government need fail, however, for all may find true guidance in the laws of God that are all plainly set forth in ‘the ancient truths’.
“To you, Mr. Roosevelt, I want to say that your day on earth is a time of great opportunity, for if the United States and the nations of the British Empire will only accept the sane and practical plan that we have discussed, these nations will find themselves possessed of a power under which they can lead the world in peace and progress. The two great nations on the North American continent, the Dominion of Canada and the United States of America, can unite and glorify by this work the second century of peaceful neighbourhood that they are now enjoying. Such an example will be followed by other nations and all will be able to unite in the brotherhood of man in a universal war against poverty and evil. My friend Roosevelt, you cannot escape history. You and the members of your administration and the members of the Congress supporting it will be remembered in spite of yourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or other of those privileged to lead in this time of recurring crises. The fiery trial through which you are passing will light you down in honour or dishonour to the latest generations. You all say you are for peace and progress. The world will not forget that you have said this. You know how to achieve the con quest of poverty. The world and God know you know how to save humanity from destitution. You hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assured freedom to the free. Unfortunately, by establishing the sovereignty of Money Power, all have been re-enslaved. We were honourable in what we gave, but leaders have been dishonourable in what they have given away. You may honourably save, or meanly lose, the last best hope on earth. Other means will not succeed. The plan of God cannot fail. The way is plain, peaceful, gentle, just; a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless. Your first step must be to free your people from the bondage of usury and the slavery of unpayable debt. You must take over and assume the control of your nation’s currency and credit. God demands action and action should not be delayed.”