ebuked the servant who oppressed his
subordinates after being well treated by his lord. But the punishment
suggested by Jesus for the abominable conduct was extremely harsh: "And
his lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should
pay all that was due unto him." Torture for criminals was thus taught by
Jesus.

Jesus, apprenticed to his father in his youth, never did any practical
work so far as we know. He lived on the charity of others, setting an
example that would bring trouble to anyone who followed in his train. If
anything, he was an agitator, a peripatetic propagandist, teaching what
he believed right but not working to support himself and therefore not
being a good example for the workaday world today.

_Economics_

Nothing in the teachings of Jesus was more definite than his
denunciation of riches.

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth ... A rich man shall
hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven ... It is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of God ... The rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell
he lifted up his eyes, being in torments ... Woe unto you that are
rich."

These strictures upon the rich appear somewhat severe, and Jesus went
much farther, condemning even ordinary thrift and precaution.[7]

According to Acts ii, 44-45 and iv, 32, "All that believed were together
and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and
parted them to all men, as every man had need ... Neither said any of
them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they
had all things common."

It is to be presumed that the disciples practiced this communism at the
instruction of Jesus. If Jesus approved of communism was he right or
wrong?

"Blessed be ye poor."[8]

Poverty is not a blessing but a curse. Jesus taught the theory that the
poor would be rich hereafter while the rich would be in hell.

_Punishment for Debts_

We have seen that Jesus expected an unjust servant to be tormented until
he paid in full. There are also other evidences that he approved of
imprisonment for debt. "Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou
art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to
the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast
into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out
thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost fart