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ZION’S SEPTEMBER 1, 1902 eousness, knowing that in our imperfect development we could not love perfectly; but he expects us to grow in grace, know!edge and love, and only by so doing can we abide in his love, Vou. XXII WATCH TOWER ALLEGHENY, PA., SEPTEMBER 15, 1902 (275-276) and only by abiding in his love can we hope to attain the glorious things which he has in reservation only for those who love him. No. 18 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER ‘‘THERE WERE GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS’’ Recently W. F. Clarke, of Wilkesbaire, Pa., addressed to President Baer of the Reading R. R., appealing to him_on religious grounds to end the anthracite coal strike Mr. Baer’s reply, which has excited general criticism, follows :— “My dear Mr. Claik: I have your letter of the 16th inst. “I do not know who you are. I see that you are a religious man, but you are evidently biased in favor of the right of the workingman to control a business in which he has no other interest than to secure fair wages for the work he does, “T beg of you not to be discouraged. The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for —not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country, and upon the successful management of which so much depends. Do not be discouraged. Pray earnestly that right may tiiumph, always remembering that the Lord God omn:potent still reigns, and that lis reign is one of law and order, and not of violence and crime. “Yours truly, “GeEorGE F. Barr, President ” Now that the world is passing under the dominion of the “giants” (trusts, combines, ete.), it should not surprise us to find the claim advanced that these are of divine creation and have divine rights. Mr. Baer’s view is not hypocritical, in our opinion; but is the result of failure to discern that Satan is the “prince of this world” or dispensation, who under his law of selfishness is permitted of God to “deceive the whole world:” in order that eventually all may see to what lengths selfishness would lead—ultimately wrecking the present order ——social, political, financial and religious—and thus preparing for the establishment of Christ’s Millennial kingdom of love and righteousness upon the iuins of Satan’s dominion and the hinding of Satan that he may “deceive the nations no more until the thousand years are ended.—Rey, 20:1-4. Seeing present conditions foretold in Scripture, we can look with sympathy on hoth parties to the coming conflict We see the battle between them clearly set forth in God's Word. We see both parities to that struggle awake to certain truths and blind to each other’s arguments. From our vantage point we see both right and both wrong—both contending conscientiously for “rights”, vet both missing the real standard of right. beeause blinded by selfishness. We see that the fault lies less with the people on both sides of these controversies, and more with the false selfish standards which constitute the warp and woof of all present institutions: so much so that it cannot be patched, but will be permitted of the Loid to work out its own destruction, as a preparation for the new order of things promised the groaning cleation under the glorified Christ and his kingdom, The New York Tunes declares that President Baer's utterance “verged very close upon unconscious blasphemy.” The New York Tribune declares: “Strict-construction theologians have before now insisted upon the close relations hetween Calvinism and coal It 19 something new, however, to find a hardheaded financier setting up as a doctrine of the business world the predestination of the Pennsylvania coal mines to the all-wise control of President Bacr and his fellow presidents of coal companies. Douhtless good Calvinists have accepted the management of the coal operators, like everything else that is, as being somehow or other in some mysterious way in harmony with the ultimate designs of a God who endmes evil and makes even the wrath of men to praise Him But few of them have reached the point of considering the so-called ‘coal barons,’ ag shining examples of God’s perfect work, in which His loving designs for the welfare of the whole human race were made manifest Tt seems, however, that is the true doctrine which all religious men should hold... . . “Tt will take a load from the consciences of manv ernest people to have this authoritative declaration that God, through the kindness of the coal operators, will be able to manage this strike in accordance with the dietates of infinite wisdom. There have heen some persons who _ believe in law and order, and have no svmpathy with riotous strikers or demagogic agitators, who have not hitherto heen able to detect infimte wisdom sitting at any of the coal president~ desks, but doubtless they were mistaken. In their blindnesthey have said it was the duty of the operators to operate: that they should either meet their men half-way and settle the difficulty, or, under the protection of the State, put other men to work and mine coal. They have had a notion that tod put the coal in the earth to furnish heat for men’s needs, and thought there was some slip in the cogs of the universe when they could not buy coal because President Baer, God’s vieegerent at the mines, would not work them. But if it 1s a part of the divine order that we should all pay $10 a ton till the surplus stock is worked off, so let it be. Only we should like to ask a question or two. Are the coal operators infallible individually, or only when they are gathered together, like a church council, about an office table to fix 1ates and say what each 1etailer must sell his coal for on pain of having his God-given supply cut off? Was the agreement of two years ago, which the operators say was so unwise and las made so much trouble, also dictated by infinite wisdom*” The New York American and Journal, always extremcly caustic in 1eferring to labor troubles, and evidently predisposed to seore the wealthy to the extremest limit, uses the tollowing very severe language :— THE ASTOUNDING BLASPHEMY OF A MODERN PIRATE “The rights and interests of the laboring man,’ writes Piesident Baer, of the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company, to a correspondent who appealed to him as a Christian to end the coal strike, ‘will be protected and cared for, not hy the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom hag given contiol of the property interests of the country.’ “Myr. Baer, as one of the most influential members of the Coal Trust. no doubt sincerely feels that he is especially commissioned to carry out the divine will as a protector of labor aml manager of the property iterests of the country. He is so happily constituted that he can see no satire in the old ~\ llogism . “‘The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof. saimts shall inherit the earth. “We are the saints: “Therefore we inherit the earth’ “Heaven, whose deputy Mr. Baer so ingenuously and modestly declares himself to be, while endowing him with a shark’s appetite and capacity for seizing things, has mercifully denied him the sense of humor Thus is he spared the ecnseiousness of sin when he blasphemes. Indeed, when Mr Baer blasphemes he does so solemnly, with a warming and uplifting feeling that he 1s performing a religious rite and doing a virtuous deed. This blessing is vouchsafed only to those who in all things except money-getting are dense beyond the understanding of ordimary men. “Not since Tast February has one of the pious plutecracy —who protect the ‘tights and interests of the laboring maw and ‘to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the countiy’—favored a subject. people with a specimen ot unconscious blasphemy at all approaching in stupendous insolence and monstrous self-1ightcousness that of Brother Baer ‘Tt was ain February that voune Mi. Rockefeller. heir apparent to the Standard Oil millions, informed the Young Men’s Christian Association of Brown University that the trusts are God's work—that itis by the Almighty’s design that small competitors are killed off im order that a gieat monopolv mav arise. He soared to flowery illustration, thus: “<The American Beauty rose can be preduced in the splendor and fragrance which bring cheer to its beholder only bv caciificing the early buds which grow up around it. This is not an evil tendency in business. It is merely the working out of a law of nature and a law of God. There is no real difference between business and the Christian life.’ “And the whole history of the Standard Oil monopoly is the history of a erme! “Brother Baer, proclaimed by himself an agent sent of God to take possession of and care for the property of the rest of us, though blind to blasphemy in himself, has doubtless a hawk’s eye for detecting a sacrilegious spirit im others. His [3073]