New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-04-12
WHAT WEALTH OWES.

myo,,r ,vaa,tb IL not your own" said GER
tain clergyman to well-cushioned pews; III IS
not charity to help the poor, but q duty winch
YOU owe them.H A critic answers: owe
nv property TO anybody, to what particular IN
div;dual do | owe it? What claim has ne on
mo for anv mart of It, and for what part? Must
we not admit that the woro owe III 'nis dppno"-
ton was wrongly usedT"
Il cannot be said that the phrase is OF no
consequence. OF all the dangers which threaten
modern society, the worst and greatest comes
when those who have little or nothing begin to
believe that the property OF others rightly be-
longs TO them that the rich man has no right
10 the property he holds; must have robbed
others or he could not be rich, and ought to
he forced to disgorge. Hence the public teacher
who. whether In carelessness or in excess OF
feeling uses words which may be interpreted as
DENYING the rights of property is liable to do
more mischief than years of labor can undo
On the other hand, the danger comes only
because wealth has far too often ignored It's
obligations, treated the poor as if they had no
claims or rights, and poisoned every act OF char
ity with an insolenoc of patronage making 10
offensive and insutferable. The hard man who
grinds his worlingmen, feeoes to the utmost
those with whom he trades uses wealth only for
selfish ends, and tramples under foot the poor
and the weak as if they had no souls, can never
set the account right by liberal check in the
plate on Sunday. The lives of such men make
socialism and all its furies and follies not only
possible, but intensely natural.
The Christian rule is not hard to find. There
is a sense in which every man does literally owe
all that he has and all that he is. lie does in
very truth rob somebody if he does not devote
all that he is and has to the good Of others.
He owes to the Infinite Oliver, from whom he has
received ALL He holds all property, all powers,
and life itself, only as a trust which he has no
right to devote to the qualification of SELF but
is bound by most sacred duty to use for the
good OF others. TO him it belongs to Judge in
what way he can best use that trust, and any
property he has-to him, and to the Master who
will approve or condemn.
But the poor are not Gods authorized
collectors To them belongs no title whatever
to the property lie has given in trust to others,
or suffered others to gain. Only too often the
"unfaithfu servant,n of whom it was said,
From him that hath not shall be taken even
that which he hath" is he who has so abused
his powers and opportunities in this world that
he can neither care for others nor for himself,
and so rails at mankind and society. The naked
fact that man has nothing gives hir' ) the
right to the slightest share of that Y ST wealth
which the holders are bound to use according
to the will Of the Master. 1t might not be his
will that the nearest penniless man should have
enough money to buy another drink.
Wealth owes all that it can do to make the
world happier and better But poverty also
owes all that it can do to the same end The
poor owe not to the rich, nor the rich to the
poor, but both to Him for whom all are only
stewards. For each man the only question is what
he has done with the gifts and opportunities
and powers intruSted to him.