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aged arose and stood up." Along with such becoming tribute of respect paid to worth,
we find that the relationship between the pious rich and the poor is thus described:
"When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave
witness to me: because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that
had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me,
and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy."
Assuredly there is nothing in all this which we could wish to see altered even in New
Testament times! But the more terrible in contrast must have been the idolatry and the
corruption of the vast majority of mankind; an idolatry which they had probably
inherited from before the flood, and which soon attained gigantic proportions, and a
corruption which went on ever increasing during the "times of this ignorance."
(^)