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2. The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all.
There is great diversity in the several stations and circumstances of mankind. Yet the difference is mainly superficial, and the equality in all important matters manifest. The rich and the poor, apparently so remote from each other, meet together. All have the same birth.† All enter the world naked,† helpless, unconscious beings; all stand in the same natural relation to their God; dependent on him for their birth;† the children of his Providence;† the creatures of his moral government.† All are subject to the same sorrow, sickness, infirmities, and temptations.† At the gate of the invisible world the distinction of riches and poverty is dropped. “All go to one place”† — alike having kindred with worms and corruption. And when they shall come forth from the long home at the final consummation, all — “small as well as great — shall stand before God.” (Revelation 20:12.)
We meet together also on the same level as sinners. All are tainted with the same original corruption.† “All, like sheep, have” personally “gone astray.” (Isaiah 53:6.) All need alike the same new birth to give them life, the same precious blood to cleanse them, the same robe of righteousness to cover them. (Romans 3:21, 22.) It is in fact a common need,† and a common salvation. (Jude 3.) In all these matters the rich and the poor are as one. “God is no respecter of persons.”† The difference appears only as the outward garment.† Yet what a distance it makes! The one scarcely hears of or knows the other!
And when redeemed into the family of God, is not every member of the family our brother?† Here then rich and poor meet on equal standing at the same throne of grace, in the same spiritual body,† at the same holy table.† We communicate to each other the same blessed hopes, feel the same sympathies, and anticipate the same home.
Nor is this a constitution of accident, or of mechanical arrangement. The LORD is the maker of them all. Not only does he make us as men; but he makes us rich and poor. (1 Samuel 2:7.) Adored be that divine arrangement, that has knit the rich and the poor together so closely in mutual dependence, that neither can live without the other (Ecclesiastes 5:9); neither can say to the other, “I have no need of thee.” (1 Corinthians 12:21.) The lower rank may be the feet and the hands, which work out the purposes of the mind. The higher may be the head, the seat of counsel, absolutely necessary for the direction and preservation of the social system. Truly indeed — in contemplating the balance, by which perfect order is educed from the selfish passions of men, we must acknowledge of the moral, no less than the natural, system — “In wisdom hast thou made them all.” (Psalm 104:24.)
Yet this Christian equality before God does not annihilate the gradation of rank before men. “The servants under the yoke must not despise their believing masters, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved.” (1 Timothy 6:2.) In equality of rank, could men continue for a single day? Difference of mind and talents, industry, self-denial, Providences, would shake the balance before the morning was gone. God never meant to level the world, any more, than the surface of the earth. The distinction of rich and poor still remains in his appointment, and all attempts to sink it must end in confusion. To each of us are committed our several talents, duties, and responsibilities both to God and man. Let each of us therefore be given to our own work, and “abide in our calling with God.” (1 Corinthians 7:24.) “Let the brother of low degree rejoice, in that he is exalted; but the rich, in that he is made low.” (James 1:9, 10.) Soon shall we all be one family in our Father's house — to “go out no more.” (Revelation 3:12.)
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