"Wilt thou draw from out the store-house of thine erudition, and show unto us one law or custom that is common to all human governments? For in that one thing, whatever it may be, we shall assuredly find the sole cause of the failure of governments, and of all the tyranny, injustice, oppression, and wretchedness, that maketh human life a burden to the masses of mankind."
"Thou must state the law or custom that is common to all governments alike, for thyself," said Am-nem-hat, "for they differ almost inconceivably in form, religion, language, laws, and customs; and I recall none which is common to every human government."
"All human governments," said Ammonius, "have one thing in common: they agree in one pernicious law and custom which is the cause of failure in them all; for all human governments alike maintain the legal right of individuals to acquire, hold, and transmit private property-rights in estates, offices, prerogatives; even in women and in slaves. This is the idolatry of mammon, of which all nations are guilty, the only idolatry which Jesus ever denounced by name, the only one that opposeth his kingdom with a potent logic based upon selfishness. Many are learning to hate this idolatry in respect of the royal offices: even the debased Romans scorn the name of 'king,' and call their master 'imperator,' the commander of the army; some tribes hate it in its application to men, and own no slaves; the Scythians and some other nations deny the right of property in women, and take but one wife. Jesus Christ denies the right of private property, not only in women, slaves, offices, and prerogatives, but in houses, lands, and everything else. Hence the property-law of his kingdom imperatively demandeth the transfer of all that the believer hath unto the common Church; this sacrifice is hard to make if one hath great possessions, and, therefore, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. No rich man doeth this except under the power of a dominant faith which teacheth him that the thing which is best for all believers is best for him; and that the common good is better than self-aggrandizement. No sane man doubteth that the political economy of Jesus would bless the world, if men would adopt it; but not many great, not many wise, not many rich, not many noble, come into the kingdom, because selfishness revolts at the sacrifice of real or imaginary advantages, secured to them by mammon-worship. It is emphatically the gospel, the glad tidings, for the poor, and it is a regeneration that beginneth at the bottom, not at the top, of every social system. All human governments are founded upon the idolatrous faith that private rights of property are the sacredest thing in human life, and that government over the people is necessary to protect it. Jesus denieth this faith: he saith that liberty is better than wealth, equality better than rank, fraternity better than power. He, therefore, in his kingdom, abolisheth private rights of property in order to reach something that is infinitely higher and better for all men; and he summeth up human life, laws, governments, all that pertaineth to man's social condition, in one short sentence which containeth in itself the ultimate truth of all social and political economy and wisdom: 'Ye can not serve God and Mammon.' And the Pharisees hated Jesus only because they were 'covetous'; and the Romans and other nations persecute us even unto death because they know that the triumph of the kingdom of heaven is the overthrow of all government over the people; and they love power, and wealth, and rank."
"How wouldst thou punish crime if all human governments were thus abolished?" asked the ancient.
"There would then be no crime to punish," answered Ammonius. "For human statutes, growing up out of the idolatry of private rights of property, both create and punish crimes. There could be neither treason nor war in the absence of government; and all other crimes, which in some shape are the out-put of the idolatry of mammon, would cease with the false social and political systems which generate and nourish them. Crimes are, and for nearly three centuries have been, utterly unknown among the Christian communities."
"What, then, standeth in the way of the triumph of the kingdom of heaven?"
"Naught except the selfishness of men intrenched behind the strong rampart of private property-rights--the one thing against which our Lord hath declared undying and uncompromising enmity."
The old man sat in silence for a long time, and his grave and noble face showed the traces of many conflicting emotions. Finally he said: "Thy son did once ask me why I am not a Christian, and I could not answer him, nor do I know. But Arius thought that thou mightst understand better than either he, or I, the exact attitude in which my soul standeth toward Christ and his religion. Canst thou tell me what the trouble is?"
"Then," said Ammonius unto him, "thou mayst believe that Jesus is the Christ; thou mayst believe that his religion is divinely true and perfect, best for thee and for mankind; thou mayst believe that he is ready and willing to accept and save every one that cometh unto him by faith; thou mayst believe that he will so accept and save thee whenever thou wilt come unto him thus; thou mayst believe and purpose that thou wilt come--but all this maketh no man a Christian! The thing which maketh thee a Christian is the voluntary surrender of thine own will to the will of Jesus; to abrogate all in his favor; to accept his will as thine only law. And this he saith thou canst do if thou wilt; no man on earth, no angel in heaven, can do this thing for thee, nor force thee to do it for thyself; nor can any enginery of earth or hell prevent thee from doing this thing if thou wilt. It is a matter between thee and thy Lord only; and thou and he must transact it. But if, freely and voluntarily, with a full purpose of heart and mind to obey Christ only, thou makest this grand surrender of thyself to him, the light, and peace, and blessedness which he imparteth to those who truly love him shall be thine own forever. Wilt thou have this man Christ Jesus to reign over thee?"
Then a glorious beauty shone from the old man's countenance, and his eyes grew bright with happy tears, and he exclaimed joyously: "I make this surrender now; the light breaketh in even upon my soul; it is as plain as the noonday sun: 'Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth peace; good-will to men!' The truth for which all my life long I have so vainly sought cometh unto me as to a little child. And it is pure, satisfying, beautiful! 'Praise the Lord, O my soul!'"