Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/175

 not possibly happen otherwise than that the result of the invention of labor-saving machinery must, after the flurry and stimulus occasioned by the manufa&ure of machinery, tend to make the rich richer, and the poor poorer. The manifest tendency is toward monopoly and self-aggrandize- ment, which places the advantage dire<5lly in the hands of .those whose capacity and natural advantages are already the most favorable.

Secondly : If it were possible to legislate so as to divide the present wealth and its daily increase evenly among all classes, which is not possible, still, without human perfe&ion or a supernatural government to regulate human affairs, the re* suits would be even more injurious than the present condition. If the advantages of labor-saving machinery and all modern appliances were evenly divided, the result would, ere long, be a great decrease of hours of labor and a great increase of leisure. Idleness is a most injurious thing to fallen be- ings. Had it not been for the necessity of labor and sweat of face, the deterioration of our race would have been much more rapid than it has been. Idleness is the mother of vice ; and mental, moral and physical degradation are sure to follow. Hence the wisdom and goodness of God in with- holding these blessings until it was due time for their in- troduction as a [preparation for the Millennial reign of blessing. Under the control of the supernatural govern- ment of the Kingdom of God, not only will all blessings be equitably divided among men, but the leisure will be so ordered and directed by the same supernatural govern- ment that its results will produce virtue and tend up- ward toward perfection, mental, moral and physical. The present multiplication of inventions and other blessings of in- creasing knowledge is permitted in this " day of prepara- tion" to come about in so natural a way that men flatter themselves that it is because this is the "Brain Aje ;" but

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