possible; but Jesus declares that there is no need of our trying to
minimize the power of the present world to blind us to visions of the
spiritual world. For many forms of wrongdoing the Master had a
willingness to make allowances; for the sin of placing material desires
above human welfare he had unsparing condemnation. In the day of Jesus
the world had an opportunity such as it never had before confronted to
learn spiritual truth. What manner of opposition was it which prevented
that truth from running its full course? Largely the opposition of money
interests. The Pharisees had need to keep alliance with the temporal
powers. It is not without significance that Jesus was betrayed for
money. It is not without significance too that Jesus's picture of the
Judgment Scene concerns itself largely with the rewards for those who
discharge the tasks of simple human kindness. It means much to find
Jesus hinting at an unpardonable sin on the part of those who call deeds
of human relief works of Beelzebub. It is certainly food for reflection
that the fiercest condemnations in his parables are for those who miss
the human duties in their regard for the possessions of this world. We
repeat that we would not be extreme, but when we see the disregard of
human life in modern industrialism; when we behold the attempts of
property interests to get control of all channels for the shaping of
public opinion; when we see rent, interest, and dividends more highly
rated than men, women, and children, we cannot help feeling that the
deeper penetration into the Scriptures cannot arrive except through an
emphasis upon fundamental human rights so mighty that all institutional
creations of industrialism or ecclesiasticism shall be put into the
secondary place and strictly kept there. This is not railing against
wealth. It is simply calling attention to the fact that the man who
possesses the wealth-tool cannot be allowed to use it or even to
brandish it in such fashion as to endanger the unfolding of human
ideals. It is only through the enforcing of these ideals that the