ROCKEFELLER AND TOLSTOI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 3120, 20 January 1908, Page 4

ROCKEFELLER AND TOLSTOI.

WHAT TO IX) WITH WEALTH. l-iy, the Palish »r----re-|Hinil('iit ,if tlie " ll.vilv Mail") Mr. •'"I'll U. l'oikeiiller. reputed to Ik> ilic richest man in tin- world. wrote to Conn! 101-toi. the lliH-i.m author, asking uli 1! Wiif the lie-t un to fill|i|.iv wealth for tlie greatest good of humanity. Tolstoi replied with the ,'ollowing letter, which i- printed in the Matin"': " To tlie i|ih>*tjoiis which von address to me, to know in what measure wealth i* compatible with the Christian doctrine which you profess, I make this answer:—Apart altogether from the teaching of the fiospel, plain common«"ns<> tells tw that wealth in itself is incompatible with an absolutely good life.

" I think I made tli.it -iillificjil]v clear in my volume. - What We tn Do?' "The tiimit-v f k(■"11 in my pocket. in my -Iron« l«i\. or in .1 bank, constitutes, without the I'Mi-t possible ilonl>t. a -nrl of weapon against the man who 111lion* —the poor man. Xow. tn posses> -ii'h a weapon. and to 11-e it whan opportunity arises, or merely to threaten in order to show the weapon's power, is not a good, but an evil. It is in this light that money apgiears from the point 01 view of plain eommonsense. ; '* 1 jinked at from the Christian point ! of view, the matter i> clearer still. The whole doctrine, the whole spirit of tht> Go-pel discourses of the folly of a man's labour to assure his future, of the folly o the acquisition of wealth, of man's 1 need to act not like the rich man in tli.> parable, who stored his tarns with grain, but more like Lazarus, the poor. It is ! Mitl in the Gospel that happy are the poor and unhappy the rich; that man cannot serve both God and mammon; that a man must give to him that a*keth, and not take bacl that which li' lias given; and many other things in a , similar sense.

'Such is the general teaching of the Christian doctrine. But in the conversation with the rich young man in the Gospel the truth is expressed with such precision that it is impossible to misunderstand it. There it is said,' If thou wilt be perfect, Bell all thou hast and give to tile poor and follow Me.' " I feel really ashamed to give expression to sncb platitudes, and to prove what is an axiom to every sincerely religions man, whether he lielicvos or not in the Divine Nature of the Gospel."