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Show A Fount From Which All Should Drink THE SILVER-HAIRED LEGION IS MINE We are one hundred per cent for the good Christian system sys-tem of assistance for the aged and poor instituted by the government gov-ernment and the state. It is a result of social evolution a leavening of hard and cruel conditions by the living spirit of the Master. A speaker said last week about as follows: "The children upon whom devolve the support of their neediy parents are shoving them off on to the state for support." He held that this was contrary to the commandments, and the teachings of Jesus. We humbly beg to differ. When the commandments were given to Moses none of the people were earning anything and had to be fed by the Almighty. There could not have been any support from the children. To honor parents meant to heed their counsel and to follow them in the paths of righteousness. A sort of Paganism Pagan-ism and idolatry existed everywhere, and in many places it was the custom to set the feeble and the aged on the hillside or by the roadside to succumb to exposure or be devoured by wild beasts. Throughout all the centuries before Christ the aged were treated with harsness and cruelty. And for a long time afterward. But when He began His mission He announced that He had come to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted broken-hearted and to bring glad tidings to them that sit in darkness. Ever mindful of the poor He admonished His followers to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the widow and the fatherless father-less and minister unto them. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least by these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." The opposers of state assistance quote but one instance and say because He did not feed all the people like He fed the five thousand He was against any plan of assistance. Nonsense. Was it unjust, un-Christian and degrading to institute old age pensions and assistance in the civilized countries of pre-war Europe and later in America? No! Never! It was the outcropping of pure and undefiled religion, real and practical Christianity entering into government, and, little as it was and is, it is as far ahead of the Pagan and un-Christian systems that had gone before as heaven is above Hades. , Jesus said: "I will draw all men unto Me." By love! Some moderns evidently evi-dently believe in pushing the aged and poor away from them 1 to linger in the valley of despair. It is easy for the super-rich in luxurious offices, picking profits from all the resources which should belong equally to all, to say that the teachings of Jesus are against the present system of pensions and assistance, but it would take something some-thing like an angel from heaven to convince us. 4Au " . |