GRADATIONS, NATURAL AND HELPFUL.
Can civilization reach the state of nature, that state which God meant for it, until men know how to divide society equally, from top to bottom? I do not mean by this that there will ever come a time when two will not be more than one, when four will not be more than two, and when eight will not be more than four; I do not mean that we shall ever see the time when there will not be gradations in society from the top to the bottom—gradations of power, gradations of intelligence, gradations of wealth, gradations of refinement; but there is to be in society just that which exists in households—namely, a disposition, that runs from the top to the bottom, of love and sympathy; and when you have so stratified society, and organized it, and made every member of it, from the lowest to the highest, feel, “My brother above me is pulling me up higher,” we shall begin to realize our true relation, and fulfil our appointed duty one to another. When in society it is as it is on the sides of mountains, where men, being helped by those who are above them, turn round and help those who are below them, and go on a few steps and again are helped by those that are above them, and again help those that are below them, and so on until they reach the top, then gradation will not be an evil. Gradation is now an evil because there is a stratum of prosperity, and a thick slice of selfishness; then another stratum of prosperity, and a thicker slice of selfishness; and so on, selfishness growing thicker and thicker as you go toward the bottom. It has got to be broken up. The low places, the valleys, have got to be exalted, the mountains have got to be brought down, and men have got to mix and coalesce. In other words, the day has got to come when that simple sentence, a million times repeated, and a million times not understood, shall be fulfilled, and love to God and love to man shall be the law of the universe, and of universal conditions. We have got to come to it first or last.—Christian Union.
