REVOLUTIONARY CHRISTIANITY 33 



fellowship and to make men more at one* Christ *s 

 hatred of riches was due to the fact that they inevitably 

 create social barriers between man and his fellow men. 

 Christ's Ideal was a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, in 

 which the Universal Fatherhood of God and the Universal 

 Brotherhood of Man should be fully realised in the life 

 of every citizen. Thus anything like money that tended 

 to make social distinctions was to Christ anathema. 

 Christ's bete noir was snobbery ; whether snobbery of 

 money or snobbery of birth, or religious snobbery. 

 He was extraordinarily tender in His dealings with the 

 sinner, but He knew no mercy in His dealings with the 

 snob. Think, for example, of His fierce denunciations 

 of the Pharisees, whose chief fault was that they were 

 very superior persons. Not only were they very com- 

 fortably off, but they felt a comforting assurance that 

 they were properly saved. 



A very good illustration of the reason why Christ 

 hated riches may be found in the interesting story of the 

 rich young ruler. Christ and His little band of disciples 

 — the little company which was to form the nucleus of 

 the Kingdom of Universal Brotherhood — were walking 

 along the road, when a well-dressed young man ran after 

 them and kneeling down, asked the question, *'What 

 must I do that I may inherit Eternal Life ? ** Now the 

 idea of a life beyond the grave was a comparatively new 

 one and had all the interest of a new theological doctrine. 

 Indeed, the older and more orthodox sect of the Sadducees 

 still refused to accept it. But it was not the life beyond 

 the grave that chiefly interested Jesus. The Kingdom 

 that He was preaching was in the Here and the Now. 

 So He told the young man, not without impatience, to 

 keep the Commandments ; not to murder ; not to steal ; 

 not to commit aduhery; not to lie. But the young man 

 was in earnest, and refused to be snubbed. '* All these 

 things have I kept from my youth up ; what lack I yet ? '* 



