But there is a sphere which the government cannot and should not invade.  The government’s work ends when it has insured just rewards by preventing unjust profits, but even a just government cannot bring about an equal distribution of happiness.  It can and should guarantee equality before the law—­that is, equality of opportunity and equal treatment at the hand of the government—­but that will not insure equal prosperity to each or bestow on all an equal amount of enjoyment.  Ability will have to be taken into consideration, and likewise, industry, integrity and many other factors.

While the government can encourage all the virtues it cannot compel them; there is a zone between that Which can be legally required and that which is morally desirable.  When the government has done all in its power—­all that it can do and all that it should do—­there will be inequalities in success, based upon inequalities in merit.  There must, therefore, be a spiritual law to govern when the statute law, based upon economic principles, has reached its limit.

Christ suggests such a law—­the law of stewardship.  We hold what we have—­no matter how justly acquired—­in trust.  That which is ours by economic right and by the government’s permission, is not ours to waste.  We have no more moral right to squander it foolishly than we have to throw away our bodily strength, our mental energy or our moral worth.

When we analyze ourselves we find that there is little of real value in us for which we can claim sole credit.  We inherit much from ancestry and draw much from environment long before we are able to choose our surroundings.  The ideals which come to us from others will account for nearly all that we do not derive from the past and from those among whom we spend our youth.  If one has accepted Christ, received forgiveness of sin and been brought into living contact with the Heavenly Father, he becomes indebted beyond the power of language to describe.  Our indebtedness if discharged at all must be paid not, as a rule, to those who have contributed most largely to making us what we are, but by general service to those now living and to those who succeed us.  Our debtors are as impersonal as our creditors.

Nothing could contribute more to the security of the government than an approximation to the divine standard of rewards, and if all then recognized and obeyed the law of stewardship nearly all the complaint that would still exist would be silenced by the volunteer service rendered by the fortunate to the unfortunate.

“The mob”—­the terror of orderly government—­has been described by Victor Hugo as “the human race in misery.”  When the brotherhood of Christ is established a just standard of rewards will abolish law-made misery and private benevolence will relieve such suffering as may come upon the members of society without their fault and in spite of all the government can do.