The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1893-11-09
OHAUTAUQUA.
GODS RELATION TO POVERTY.
(RepOrt by 7. F. L. for Class F.

(Report by T. F. T. for Class F.
The nineteenth century has been one of the
grandest in the history of man. The progress in
discovery in invention in literature in the sci
ences has been wonderful. and the prosperity of
our country has been phenomenal. AS Ameri-
cans. the people should indeed be contented and
happy But it is strange fact. nevertheless
that the people are not so; in the midst of all our
progress and prosperity we see men discontinued
and miSerabe and. if we seek for the cause of
this anomalous condition of things in the history
that surrounds us, find it in the fact that pow
erty. that grim spectre of want. that harbinger
of disease and crime. has come down side by
side and step by step with our prosperity. The
prosperity that surrounds us is real and Substan-
tial but alas, it Only exists to the great body of
our people as a mOckery of their misery. Men
are starving to death while we are covering the
dome of our capitol with gold. 1t is true that any
charitably disposed person will tell us that
man need starve in this country, but the bitter
truth of their assertion is manifested in our aims
houses. our mad houses and our prisons. The
great number and subStantialneSS of such build
ingS stand us an evidence of our prosperity.
Prosperity. however. is a grand thing. All men
desire it and if we look out on the life that sur
rounds us, we see man against man. brother
against brother, son against father; we see all
that is base and wicked in human nature COM
mitted we see the Almighty God forgotten in
the mad race after the almighty dollar, and we
see but few obtain the object of their desires.
We see the rich get richer and the poor get poor
er; and we are taught by the glorious theory of
political economy under which we exist to be-
lieve that it is right and proper and in perfect
accordance with the laws of nature. We are to
find consolation in the church which quotes
scripture to prove it is in accordance with the
will of God under this condition of things where
the fitteSt only can hope to survive. Is it any
wonder then, that men are discontinued and mis-
cradle? When we look out on the world and see
life in its extremes, prosperity on the one hand
and poverty and misfortune on the Other-when
we see the rich presumably the fittest) appar-
emily enjoying their wealth only by its contrast
with the poverty and misfortune that surrounds
them. If we wander to the centres of wealth.
our large cities, and there linger on the dying
cadence of delicious music as it steals from the
richly decorated and fashionable ballroom, per-
chance through the broken window of a cold
and cheereSs home wherein we see Il good and
loving mother draw hungry babe to her own
famiShed breast, can we wonder why men turn
away from their God, when they are taught to
His divine will? Mans whole hope is wrapped
up in a good and living God, and in justice to
our God and ourselves we should study deeply
the relationship of God to man and the things
that surround him; and if we seek Gods true
relationship to poverty, we find that in the be-
ginning, having created the earth, replenished
and beautifed it, He then created man and adj
dressed him saying: Behold. have given you
every herb bearing seed which is uDOn the face
of the earth. and every tree in which is the fruit
yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And
to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of
the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the
earth wherein there is life, l have given every
green herb for meat" Evidently God abhorred
poverty in the beginning. But could God have
fOreseen the present time when there would be
billions of men upon the earth to feed, and did
He really design was he pOwerlesS to supply
enough for us all is a question thai is answered
in the fact that in the state of Texas alone we
could raise enough to feed the whole united
world. Poverty should not be attributed to the
design of Cod it should not be considered as a
cause but as an effect; man himself is the cause,
and that man alone is to blame is evident in the
fact that in the present session of Congress a
law could be passed in perfect accordance with
the Constitution that would in a short time ban
iSh poverty forever from our shores 1t is not
physical hunger that man has most to contend
with, it is moral hunger that is knawing at the
vitals of his soul. While our gifted dvines, from
the richly decorated affairs of our million dollar
churches are telling the world that Christ went
about in his bare feet preaching to the poor men
are morally starving to death for a knowledge of
God.