The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-02-14
THE GOSPEL OF GOLD.
Bishop Newman's Glorification
Of HOarded Wealth.
REVIEW BY JAMES c. CLARK.
Tho Divine Right Of Riches. and How
some Preachers Prove It
by the Bible.

in which he glorifies large accumula-
TONS as the result of divine gift"
The excellent bishop attempts the extra
ordinary feat Of carrying the gospel lamb
on one shoulder and the golden calf on the
other. And though his shoulders are
broad and strong the load causes him to
stagger, and, in some instances, to get con-
fused as to which is which.
The following extracts embody the sub
stance of the article:
believe In accumulation of wealth. The &C.
QUESTION of property is a divine gift Industry
and frugality are the laws OF thrift To amass
great fortunes is a special endowment As
poets, philosophers and orators are born such,
SO the financier has q genius for wealth. BY In
tuition he 10 familiar with the laws of supply
and demand He seems gifted with the vision
of o seer of the coming changes in the market;
he knows when to buy and when to sell. and
when to hold fast. He anticipates the flow OF
population and its effect upon real estate. As
the poet must sing because che muse is in
him, so the financier must make money. He
cannot help It, The endowment OF this gift Is
announced In Scripture "The Lord thy God
giveth thee power to get wealth." And all such
promises are illustrated in the present financial
condition of Christian nations who control the
finances OF the world.
Against these natural and lawful rights to the
possession of property is the ciamor for the dis
acquired 1t, either by inheritance, or skill, or
industry. 1t is a communism that has no foun-
dation either in the constitution of nature or in
the social order of mankind. 1t is the wild,
irrational cry of labor against capital, between
which, in the economy of nature and In political
economy, there should be no common antag-
onisln.
The employer and the employee have inviolabie
rights; the former to employ whom he can for
what he can, and the latter to respond when he
can. The envy OF the poor and the jealousy OF
the laboring classes are not excited against
those who possess vast fortunes, but against the
supreme ease and the supreme indifference Of
Wealth has the noblest of missions II is not
given to hoard, nor to crafty, nor for the show
OF pomp and power. The rich are the almoners
OF the Almighty They are his disbursing
agents. They are the guardians of the poor.
They are to inaugurate those great enterprises
which will bring thrift to the masses. not the
Capital makes it possible for the laborer to enjoy
a happiness that waits upon honest industry. 1t
is for the rich to improve the homes of the poor.
The right to property is founded in nature,
sustained by organized society, and protected by
the sanctions OF divine law. This light has its
origin in prior fact that each human being is u
distinct Individuality, adapted TO all the pur-
poses of self-government and responsible to God
and TO society for the manner in which his pow
ers are employed: By his physical nature he is
to supply his wants He is so created that he is
dependent on the air. the sunshine. and the
products of the soil for the continuance of his
his natural powers and extracts from the uni
verse that on which he can subsist
In all well-regulated society man 10 accorded
the right to possess that which he has made,
and the power of control over the same.
Around this sacred right divine and human
laws throw their awful sanctions "ThOu shalt
not steal is the command of high Heaven.
There is no prejudice against honorable and
benevolent wealth The war of today against
wealth is against the aristocracy of riches and
where wealth is boarded and appropriated for
personal qualification and grandeur or held for
the love of the power that issues therefrom.
1t is this selfshness OF the afiiuent that awak-
Ans thA srofh faf ft1a <Nf 1nh~ ~svx~v
classes. Who open to the INDECENT student Of
our land those scientific and professional
schools whereby the humblest may rise to the
our country are the monuments of
in New York, where any woman may
whose very name has filed christendom with
delight is the honorable work of man who left
se,0oo.oo0 to his two children. He is not dis
Society, whose fe-giving literature is today
blessing our nation, is largely the work of an
other citizen of Americas great metropolis, who
bequeathed to his widow and seven sons more
than 81 100000. He is not reprobated Every
state in the South is today the beneficiary Of the
wealth of merchant prince who died worth
millions, and the memorials of his princely CIV
ing are in London, in Baltimore, and in his ma
tive Massachusetts,. He is not damned.
Poverty, competence, and afiiuence are the
three financial conditions of man, in each OF
which there may be sainthoOd. Poverty may
be as vicious upon the morals of character and
life as wealth. The rich are not the criminal
classes of society; they represent the average
virtue OF Christian lands
The old prophets and inspired writer's
always used common objects and figures
to illustrate high spiritual truths.
To quote their words in the interest of
the most wicked and Heaven-aefying ma
terial power and tendency of all the ages
AS Bishop Newman does, and as the late
Secretary Window did at the Wall street
banquet and feast-is to prostitute the
golden vessels of Gods temple to unholy
uses and ends.
A few months ago the San Francisco
BGakers' Magazine devoutly said: "He
who spoke as never man spoke left his
record in these words: You should have
paid my money into the bankers SO that
when returned home might collect my
deposit receipt with interest,""
Professor Fell, of the Boston university,
recently, in lecture, quoted the parable
of the talents to prove that Christ's gospel
was in favor of the monstrous crime of
starving and expressing the poor in order
to add to the abundance of the rich
Satan himself could not ask for better
service than is volunteered by these men.
Verify they have their reward.
Bishop Newman turns into promise"
the scrlptural statement: "And the Lord
thy God giveth the power to get wealthy"
and then goes on to say: And all such
promises are illustrated in the present
financial condition of Christian nations
who control the finances of the world"
He might with equal force, and more
truthfulness, number among the divine
promises" the statements, THE love of
money is the root of all evil "And in
hell he lifted up his eyes, being in tor
ment''-and then gravely add: And all
such promises are illustrated in the pres
ent moral and social condition of christen-
dom, etc"
The statement-not ''pronise"-that God
gives the power To get wealthy, as we'll as
all other power used by man, cannot be
questioned. But Bishop Newman is aware
that it has no moral bearing whatever
upon the issue. The Creator also gives
mankind the power TO raise the necessaries
of life by cultivating the soil, but when
Hutchinson and other grain gamblers
employ an equally God-giyen power in
cornering and specializing in these same
necessities. at the expense of hundreds of
thousands of purchasers and consumers,
it is III order for the latter to arise and
deprive selfish men of the power to get
wealth" in that manner. And if the
people fail To do this it is simply because
they are weak enough and blind enough
10 be led by blind leaders of the blind"
like Bishop Newman and others, who are
literally rewarded for keeping their fol-
lowers In bondage TO an evil system. 1t is
not the abstract power to get wealth.
but the power on the part of private
individuals and corporations to control
and WELD that wealth in violation of eyery
principle of equity and honor, that is on
trial before the civilized world today.