Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/74

70 It is only in certain cases that it may be given away, as to hospitals, to orphanages, to prisoners, to countries ruined by bad harvests, to people deprived of everything in a fire, to widows, to orphans, to the infirm and aged, and to those who have no homes.

50. This law is ignored in the world, as we have seen, and as I will show you further. They might have placed it among virtues of less importance, but they have not even accorded it that much honor.

Nature herself leads the laborer to seek the highest good; that is to say, bread.

But if, not content only to see that it is indeed an excellent thing, he can penetrate Nature's profound mysteries, he will then realize what has been said in the preceding article. It will no longer be said, "Give me bread," but rather, "Take of my bread," and I do not believe any man will enjoy eating the bread that another has prepared.

But at present, what must be done? You have put away this commandment as one plunges a stone into the depths of the sea, so that its name and its memory are lost to the world. God will judge between us and you.

51. Here are some objections that a rich man has made to me: "How can you say that it is forbidden to buy and sell bread, and to make a profit by the traffic? Besides that which historians relate, we see in the Holy Scriptures that bread was bought and sold and used in traffic,