Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/320

 3 i4 The Plan of the Ages.

howling at your hardships that are coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted [lost its value], and your garments have become moth-eaten : your gold and silver have become rusted out, and their rust for a witness to you shall be, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye treasured it up in the last days. Behold ! the wages of the workers who cut down your fieldsthat which has been kept back by reason of you [of your hoarding] is crying out ; and the outcries of those who reaped, into the ears of the Lord of the whole people have entered." (Jas. 5 : 1-4.) He adds that the class com- ing into trouble has been used to luxury, obtained largely at the cost of others, among whom were some of the right- eous, and out of them, because they resisted not, the very life had been crushed. The Apostle urges the "brethren " to bear patiently whatever their part may be, looking be- yond, and expecting deliverance through the Lord. This very condition of things can now be seen approaching; and in the world, among those who are awake, "men's hearts are failing them for looking after the things that are coming on the earth." All know that the constant ten* dency of our times is toward lower wages for labor, unless where the prices are artificially sustained or advanced by labor combinations, strikes, etc.; and with the present senti- ment of the masses, all can see that it is but a question of time when the lowest point of endurance will be reached, and a revolt will surely result. This will alarm capital, which will be withdrawn from business and manufacturing channels and hoarded in vaults and treasuries, to eat itself up with charges for its protection in idleness, to the great annoyance of its owners. This in turn will certainly pro- duce bankruptcy, financial panic and business prostration, on credit. The natural result of all this will be to throvk out of employment tens of thousands who are dependent

�� �