366 MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL HORIZONS

seeks it; believes in inlermitiomiHsii] and works for it;
believes in peace and hopes to win if. Communism, in
the Soviet Union, turns emotional communism into scien-
tific communism.

Covetousncss is the greatest foe to the next advance
towards this higher oigamzation, and Christianity is the
sworn foe of covetousness. Men covet riches because they
covet the power, piestige, and privilege which riches bring.
The covetous man moves into isolation., hedging himself
around in the search for security.

In its very essence covelousness is a denial of God, a
refusal to give up the selfish, independent life and seek
security in the whole,

That is why Jesus warned men to " take- heed and beware
of covetousness ". That, too, is why Si. Paul spo.iks of
covetousness as of something indecent and loathsome:
" let it not even be named among you " (Ephesiam v. 3).
The covetous man is classed with ibruieutors and unelenn
persons.

The acquisitive or covcious spirit, in the eyes of St. Paul,
is as evil in its nature as is perverted and unrestrained rarnal
instinct.

The Soviet Union performed an essentially religious act
entirely parallel with this Christian abhorrence of covetous-
ness when it cut the taproot of rovetousness, freeing men
from the bondage of the acquisitive instinct and paving the
way for a. new organization of life on a higher level of
existence.

(v)

If communism cannot be regarded by religious men as
the end of the whole life process, it certainly appears to
shadow a vitally necessary step in religious development.

Communism has overcome the disintegration of modern
society by pressing forward to a higher and more complete
union of the separated parts.

Communism has at last found a form of integration com-
patible with the necessities of a technical civilisation.

Communism has served religion by challenging the
irreligious dualism of Greek thought which separated life