Material revolution, the attack of the poor on the rich to take away
their possessions, has never achieved anything. Many a time it has been
tried, and many a time it has failed. Being part of the system of Mammon
it could do nothing else than fail. The evils which Mammon has wrought
Mammon will never remedy. There may be instances in history of economic
cures for economic ills; but I think they are few. In general such cures
are of the nature of our "settlements" of strikes. They settle to-day
what is again unsettled to-morrow, leaving the work to be done all over
again, and so on into a far future.
The revolution in point of view has these great advantages:
First, it contains within it the seeds of success, since it is
revolution toward God, the owner of the Earth and the fulness thereof;
Next, it takes place within the individual himself, doing no one
else any harm;
Lastly, it does not run counter to man's economic laws; it only uses and
transcends them. It directs and corrects them. Working along their lines
it stimulates their fruit. Letting the inner man out of the economic
trap it sets him in a world in which first, and last, and before
everything else, he is God's servant in God's pay. God's pay being sure,
and paid in the way we need it, we no longer have money-fear to be
afraid of. Money-fear being set aside we can the more easily give
ourselves to the knowledge that "the Kingdom of God does not consist of
eating and drinking, but of right conduct, peace, and joy, through the
Holy Spirit; and whoever in this way devotedly serves Christ, God takes
pleasure in him, and men commend him highly.
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