MONEY AND Till-: KINGDOM. 259 



the greatest economists England has produced, beUeves 

 that co-operative production affords the laboring classes 

 "the sole means of escape from a harsh and hopeless 

 destiny " ("Leading Principles," p. 338). Eeferring to 

 several thousand co-operative societies in England, hav- 

 ing some millions of capital, Thomas Hughes says: "I 

 still look to this movement as the best hope for England 

 and other lands." The eminent statistician, Carroll D. 

 Wright, Commissioner of the Department of Labor, 

 Washington, referring to the duty of the rich manufact- 

 urer to regard himself as " an instrument of God for 

 the upbuilding of the race," and the promotion of the 

 highest welfare of those in his employ, says : ' ' This may 

 soiTnd like sentiment. I am willing to call it sentiment ; 

 but I know it means the best material prosperity, and 

 that every employer who has been guided by such senti- 

 ments has been rewarded twofold : first, in witnessing 

 the wonderful improvement of his people, and, second, 

 in seeing his dividends increase, and the wages of his 

 operatives increase with his dividends. The factory 

 system of the future will be run on this basis. The in- 

 stances of such are multiplying rapidly now."i Mani- 

 festly, the acceptance on the part of Christian capitalists 

 of the scriptural doctrine of possessions would greatly 

 facilitate the introduction of co-operation or any other 

 plan which promised justice to the workman. 



The Christian man who is not willing to make the 

 largest profits which an honest regard for the laws of 

 trade permits is a rare man. But the laws of trade per- 

 mit much that the laws of God do not permit. Many 

 transactions are commercially honest which are not 

 righteous. If, now, a man accepts the truth that his 

 possessions are a trust to be administered for God's 

 glory, he will not consent to increase them by any un- 

 righteous means. And since justice and righteousness, 

 like honesty, will prove to be the best policy, the accept- 



1 For a history of profit-sharing see Gilman's Profit-Sharing Between 

 Employer and Employee, 1889, 



