he declared that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the
Sabbath. The Master was also insistent upon the priority of human rights
as over against property rights. It is perfectly true that Jesus did not
encourage any propaganda for social reform. It is a mistake to try to
read any form of modern Socialism into his teaching. Socialism is the
theory of a particular time. Many of its outstanding features will no
doubt one day be adopted; and the world will then move forward toward
something else. Very likely three centuries from the present date the
well-advanced communities of the world will be living under systems
which will make Socialism itself look like the most hopeless and
reactionary conservatism. The scriptural revelation, however, has not to
do with the details of any particular scheme. It aims, rather, at the
setting on high of the human ideal, an ideal which will, if given a
chance, work itself out into the concrete forms best suited to each age,
and which will not have exhausted its vitality when all that is good in
the programs of our particular day shall have been incorporated into
social practice.

But let us linger for a moment around the blighting effect of placing
property rights in front of human rights. If anyone at this juncture
becomes nervous and insists that we are likely to introduce the new-
fangled notions of the present day into a discussion where they are out
of place, let us remind such a one that the danger of putting the
material before the spiritual has always been the chief stumbling stone
in the path of the biblical revelation. It may be too much to say with
the old version that the love of money is the root of all evil, but the
Scriptures place the sin of greed in the forefront among the evils that
block the revealing process. Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of God." With God a morally miraculous redemption is entirely