Article December 11, 1909 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from D. M. Steele, John Haynes Holmes

[Rev. D. M. Steele in Churchman.]

Shall I not do what I will with mine own? Yes, provided it is your own. Whether it is your own depends on how you got it. Whether you shall do what you please with it depends on whether the thing that you please or wish or will to do with it is the right thing. Whether it is the right thing depends on whether it is the best thing that can be done with it: i.e., best for the thing in itself, best for you who have it, and best for your fellows who have it not. First, I say, wealth is or is not one's own, depending upon how he got it. I have no thought of raising the question, Can a man make a million dollars honestly? I make no doubt that he can, maybe many of them. But whether he have a million or a merest modicum is not the point. The point is, that whatever he has, if he did not get it honestly he does not have it in any legitimate sense. He may not do what he will with it. even though he should will to do the best of things, merely because it is not his to do with. It is not his to keep, not his even to give away, save to give back, to restore, to those from whom it has been taken.

[Christian Work and Evangelist.]

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