Article June 3, 1905 Issue

Which is the Better Way?

MARGARET E. EASTON.

Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine.—I Chronicles, 29:11.

Through the materiality of this age we are so accustomed to consider money a well—nigh absolute power, that we do not note its failures; we are not alert in watching the signs of the times. How often do we see the inadequacy of even vast wealth to remove or to alleviate intense physical suffering and deplorable domestic complications, or to heal its possessors and bring to them a sufficient degree of health to permit of their passing their days in even comparative comfort. While their comforts may be greatly enhanced, rich people come up to a stone wall of difficulty as often as do their poorer brothers and sisters. Apparently insuperable difficulties are distributed in human experience with more universal impartiality than is generally supposed.

Two pictures present themselves as I write, which, to my thought, very practically illustrate the superiority of the methods of Jesus over those of mortal man (be he a Croesus or an Esculapius), in meeting all human need. The first case is that of a child born to the purple. The greatness of the father's wealth and the magnificence of his position were subjects of world—wide comment, but neither wealth nor position were adequate to purchase exemption from suffering and sorrow, for he drank as deeply of that cup as is given to humanity to drink. The birth of his child, instead of being a cause for rejoicing, was a source of anguish. Imbecile, deformed, and an acute sufferer, every effort to benefit him proved unavailing. The prayers of the dignitaries of his church, the indefatigable efforts of the most skilled physicians, did not aid the devoted father in his self—sacrificing endeavor to bring succor to his child—the heir to his almost royal titles and vast possessions. Where, then, was the much—vaunted power of money in the presence of such an appalling problem? We willingly admit that it was an auxiliary, through whose aid temporary surcease from suffering might be procured, but toward the establishment of permanent health it was not, nor could it be, a factor. Here, then, was this man, widowed (for his wife had passed on soon after the birth of their son), and worse than childless, with the crowning sorrow that his titles and possessions were to him practically valueless, for he had no direct heir.

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