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God’s Care for the Poor
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The law of mutual dependence runs through all classes of society.
The poor are not more dependent on the rich than are the rich on
the poor. While the one class ask a share in the blessings God has
bestowed on their wealthier neighbors, the other need the faithful
service, the strength of brain and bone and muscle, that are the
resources of the poor.
God’s Plan Would Solve Social and Economic Problems Today
Many enthusiastically urge that all people should share equally
in earthly blessings, but this was not the plan of the Creator. A
diversity of financial condition is one of the ways that God designs
to develop character. He wants those who have worldly possessions
to regard themselves as managers of His goods, entrusted to them to
use for the benefit of the needy.
Christ has said that we will always have the poor with us. The
heart of our Redeemer sympathizes with the lowliest of His earthly
children. He tells us that they are His representatives on earth,
placed among us to awaken in our hearts the love He feels toward
the suffering and oppressed. He regards an act of cruelty or neglect
toward them as if it had been done to Him.
If the law God gave for the benefit of the poor had continued to
be followed, how different would be the condition of the world today,
morally, spiritually, and economically! Such widespread poverty as
seen now in many countries would not exist.
The principles that God has given would prevent the terrible
evils that result from the oppression of the poor by the rich and the
suspicion and hatred of the rich by the poor. While these principles
might keep a person from gathering great wealth, they would prevent
the ignorance and complete poverty of tens of thousands of people
whose poorly-paid servitude is what it takes to build up these colossal
fortunes. They would bring a peaceful solution to problems that now
threaten the world with lawlessness and bloodshed.
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