EZEKIEL xxxvu. 3 237
on giving that unites, not on greed that disunites. That is not the peace which the societies of earth desire at present. The peace they want now has other aims than the desire of brotherhood. It is peace for the further development of the greed of wealth — that is, for the fruitful source of jealousies, hatred, and envy, injustice, cruelty, and dissension. The result of such a selfish peace is certain to be war ; and this natural result is the punish- ment which the law of God's universe exacts for greed. Till the greed ceases the punishment will continue.
Tf The man who accumulates that he may keep, or who piles up all the goods he can that he may enjoy them himself, who distributes nothing, he is the covetous man ; he is the man whom the parable sketches in so bold an outline. " I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there " — that I alone may have my ease in self -enjoyment — " will I bestow all my fruits and my goods." This is the man whom God condemns. But the Bible calls the man not only immoral but also a fool. Why ? Because there is an inevitable power whose force he does not think of: Death. "Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided ? "
In God's name, what do you gain by a life of voluptuous self- indulgence ? You have gained, at a vast expense of time, that slothfulness of heart which eludes the difficulties of life and refuses its commonest burdens; that indifference which sneers at enthusiasm as foolish, reverence as ridiculous, admiration as vulgar; that restless activity which spends on the pursuit of pleasure the energies of immortality. A life of this kind is slavery. Better to be poor as the poorest than such a pitiable ruin of humanity. The world may flatter the selfish man. He may win his way to a higher place in society year by year, but Christ's word holds true — at best he is a fool, at worst he is degraded.
Rich towards God ! Surely it is time for some of us to think of that ! The night is far spent ; the day is at hand when all the scenery of life will be changed, and a new world open on us. What treasure have we laid up for our existence there ? Nothing but eternal things are wealth in that far-off land, and we cannot win these without surrendering what is transient. The happiness of the man who lives for mere self-interest here is in accumula- tion. The blessedness of the man who lives for God is in distribution.1
'Stopford A. Brooke,
238 LIFE FROM THE DEAD
(2) Many of our people lie scattered and dry in the valley of ruin. They have lost reverence and love for the spiritual powers by which a nation lives. Justice is an interloper, love of man sentimentality, pity a scientific error, simplicity of life a folly, honesty — save where it is good policy — a mistake, honour a weakness, faith in good laughable, the pursuit of the ideal mad- ness, love of beauty incomprehensible, sacrifice of self for others undue interference with the laws of nature, and truth unwise, and not to worship the God of Getting-on irreligious, blasphemous, atheistic. These folk are the dry and fleshless bones of the dead in this country, unhappy victims of the cancer of nations. We might leave them to their death were it not that the dry-rot in them infects others with their disease, and were it not that pity for their miserable fate wakens in all who love mankind. " Son of man," we hear, " can these dry bones live ? " Is all England to take this turn to death ? Is there to be no resurrection for this great people, none from the death of greed into the life of self- giving ?
^[ Mrs. Forbes Julian's journal for 1901 contains an account of a visit that she and her husband paid to America in that year. " We were sometimes amused," she writes, " by the references made to the price of things by a few of the less refined visitors at the various hotels in New York.
" ' That's my automobile. It cost fifteen thousand dollars (£3000). It has all solid silver fittings,' was the remark of a lady, a total stranger, as she pointed out her motor-car to me from our hotel window. She also gave us a list of her jewellery, and informed us of the price of several ornaments she was wearing at the time, and whenever we met her on several other occasions she volunteered information about her diamonds and other precious stones, with a profusion of which she was always decorated. On our being anxious to escape the recital on one occasion, and my husband saying that he thought it was getting late, her daughter remarked, ' I guess I can tell you the time,' and we then noticed that she was wearing three watches. She kindly explained that ' she was terribly fond of watches,' and possessed seventy.
" Finding both these ladies very good-natured when we knew them better, we tried to interest them in the case of a poor and deserving woman whose husband was ill, and who was anxious to get work for herself, to support him and her children. We mentioned that the case was a genuine one, as we knew of it