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ECONOMIC DETERMINISM 
corded, whether of bloodshed, chicanery or plunder, 
were regarded as being providential and for the 
glory of God. The reader is taught that the same 
supernatural power will answer his prayers and in 
tervene at the proper moment to save him from 
harm, while at the same time being responsible for 
his misfortunes in this life. But while this invisible 
power is at the bottom of his present sufferings, they 
are all to be atoned for by happiness in a future life, 
if he will only bear his present burdens with meek 
ness and submission. 
The natural result of this sort of teaching upon 
the mind is that the moral powers of the individual 
are paralyzed. If his sufferings and his limitations 
are inevitable, fixed by a power beyond his control, 
it would be folly to try to save himself from them. 
If he is saved from worse calamities by his submis 
sion, it would be madness to rebel. If by question 
ing the right and justice of the present order in 
either heaven or earth he would jeopardize his fu 
ture happiness as well as his present safety from a 
worse fate, he will not only submit, he will pray, 
he will grovel, he will kiss the hand that smites 
him. Thus the powers that be in the high places of 
the earth are safe in the possession of their special 
privileges and powers and have every opportunity to 
increase them, while the people are kept in a state 
of both material and moral degradation. This sort 
of history writing has always been a tool, used 
more or less consciously, by the class of people in