Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1904-02-12
NUMBER 81.
He preached the great

Sermon on the Mount, of love, peace, humil
ity, purity, mercy and forgiveness. He ex
planned the command, "Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself," in the parable of the
Good Samaritan. He declared that He came
not to destroy men, but to save them. He did
not come to save tine righteous, but sinners.
The ninety and nine sheep safe in the fold were
not enough, but He searched the mountains for
the one wandering, perishing lamb.
A cripple lay at the rich mans gate, and the
dogs licked his sores. "The rich man died,
and in he'll he lifted up his eyes, being in tor
ment." The cripple, whose name was Laza-
rus died, and angels bore him to the bosom of
Abraham.
He'll stands for those who are out of the
Christ Kingdom of Heaven. Abraham is a
figure of the Christ Kingdom. The heart is
within the bosom. Love, shelter, protection
and consolation are OF and within the Christ
Kingdom. The riches stolen, lied for, wrested
by force, plundered from the weak-the toiling
producer-under any or all conditions of soci-
ETY., under forms of government, are the hell
the rich man creates. 1t existed in Jesus day.
1t existed in all the days of our so-called civil
izstions 1t exists in our so.called Christian
America.
Jesus stands against that hell. He virtually
taught that rich man could not enter into His
Kingdom. He told the rich young man who
had kept all the commandments" that he
lacked one thing, viz, to sell his goods and
give to the poor. He preferred his riches to
the Kingdom of Heaven, and he wanted both.
The Apostle James, in further interpreting the
Christi Kingdom, said, in substance, ed epistle,
5th chapter, that the rich men shall "howl for
the miseries that shall come upon them; that
"their gold and silver is cankered," and shall
"te a witness against them''; that it shall ''eat
their flesh as fire." Aud why? Because, "by
fraud they had kept back the hire of the labor
ers.' In other words, the rich men had fraud
ulently appropriated the wealth produced by
the hands Of toll.
Possibly the bowling came in the dismember.
ment of the Roman empire and in the French
"reign of terror"
Laboring men, in your antagonism to the
church, don't confound the Christ Kingdom
with the so-called christian church. Much of
the o-called christian church is only so in
name.
Jesus never authorized wrong done by one
man to another, be that man Of high or low
degree. All the bloody wars and cruel burn
ings done in the name of Christ are abhorreut
to the God man as the devils of the lowest hell.
Jesus authorized no church dignitaries on
semi.thrones; neither fat livings wrested from
poor people in the form of taxes.
AS we'll argue that Washington fought for
Negro slavery, and the men of 80 fought for
the establishment of wage slavery for whites
and serfdom for blacks, as to argue that the
gospel sanctions oppression or greed.
No wealth grabber has ever been in the
Kingdom of Heaven, nor ever will be. The
men who scourged the earth with wars, and
wrung wealth from laboring men to foot the
bills, drew their inspiration from lowest Hades.
"Peace on earth; good will toward men," is
not the inspiration to bloodshed and extortion.
Men who claimed to be Christians brought on
wais and devastated countries, but they were
not in the Kingdom. Men who create wars to-
day are not Christians. Wealth obtained to-day
by other methods than honest toll has not the
sanction of the Founder of the Kingdom of
Heaven.
Rockefeller may be pillar in the Baptist
church, the Goulds and Carnegies in the Pres
bvterian church, and the Morgans and Wander
blts in the Episcopalan, but they are not in
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