The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-09-21
PROSPERITY ARGUMENT.
Material Success Is No Test Of thu
True Faith.

Sceau, Ill 4fuIIl, RalelSu, N. u, IL mas
become a stock argument with non
Catholic controversialists that the ma
tional prosperity of Protestant peoples
is proof that their religion is true
Christianity. For the sake of brevity
we will call this the prosperity the
ory." Whether it be true theory de-
ponds on the sense in which the term
prosperity is used. For it has two
widely different meanings. 1t may
mean the absence of widespread and
distressing poverty among the masses,
freedom from crime, peace between
the different classes of society, and
the general prevalence of the Christian
virtues of contentment and kindness,
courtesy and good will between mar.
and man. Or it may mean the possess
sion of vast armies and navies, the
gaining of colonial possessions, the
winning of bloody victories Of great
prestige as military and naval world
power, together with the multiplied.
ton of the means of gaining wealth
and Of gratifying luxurious tastes
1t is in this latter sense that the
advocates of the theory in question
use the word prosperity. Nothing is
more common than to find preachers,
editors and platform speakers pointing
out the contrast between the mere ma
terial development of Protestant ma
lions and the poverty and backward
ness of Catholic peoples, and assert,
ing that it is a demonstration that
the former have the true religion OF
Christ and the latter false one.
Only short time ago Methodist
bishop evoked rounds of applause by
saying that the descendants of the
men who made the Roman empire are
men who now make a bare living by
the help of Il hand organ and mon,
key. And he laid this decadence of
the Italian people, of course, at the
door of the Catholic church. The good
man evidently forgot that he was
speaking as a Christian minister, and
that, according to his own principles,
the empire builder may have been an
unmitigated scoundrel while the Or
gan grinder may be one of Gods
humble hidden saints. Now, to make
its material prosperity a test of
whether nation processes the true
religion is to set up the falsest pos
sible standard of judgment. We pro-
pose to show that those who apply
this criterion ride rough shod over the
teachings of the Bible itself, and are,
moreover, complacently unmindful of
the self-contradictions in which it in
wolves them at every step.
And what has common sense to say
OH the subject? Simply this, that
rich and prosperous nation is only an
aggregation of rich and prosperous in
dividuals. But lit says also that, in
the individual. absorption in accumu-
Ating money. constant preoccupatim
in making paying Investments, the de-
votion Of time and engrossing thought
and labor to the Development of rail
way systems and coal and iron prop
critics, do not. and never will, tend to
that detachment from the things of
earth, which is the essential condi-
tion of the development of the highest
Christian character. Samuel Lewis,
the London usurer, and Terah HOoley,
the promoter, was each a modern
Midas, but no advocate of the pros
perity theory has ever claimed emil
nent sanctity for either of them.
Then how can it be claimed that Il
nation of Lewises and Hooleys would
be truly n people after Gods own
heart?
So, too, our own millionaires, al
though they do many noble acts Of
philanthropy, are not, as class look
ed upon as our most shining examples
of Christian meellness, lowliness and
self-denial. To build hospitals and
found libraries is no proof that the
benefactor has the spirit Of Christ,
for St. Paul teaches us that one may
give even all that he has to feed the
POOR, and yet not have the super
natural charity without which the pro-
fession of Christianity is conscious
pretense or an unconscious deception.
Therefore, we might be nation of
millionaires, sending ship loads of
treasure to relieve want and misery in
other lands, and might still be nation
of pagan, or ut best Of nominal, not
real, Christians. 1t is then dictate
Of common sense that prosperity has
no necessary connection with true
piety.
Experience also teaches the same
dining. In proportion to their numbers
the Jews have more wealth than any
other nationality; therefore. to be con
sistent, the advocates of the theory in
question ought to say that the pros
perdty of the Jews is proof that they
are still the chosen people of God. o.
take the case of the Mormons; they
have transformed the inhospitablt
shores Of Salt Lake into a veritablt
garden spot, but nobody believes tina
their material prosperity is PROOF
that the latter-day saints are the true
saints of God. And what of the Par
sees of India? There is, perhaps, il