v. 7, 8. _He looked for judgment, but behold oppression;
for righteousness, but behold a cry. Woe unto them that
join house to house, and lay field to field, till there be
no place._
I. The Almighty expects from all His creatures, and especially from
those to whom He has given wealth or power, the practice of justice
and righteousness. II. The Almighty, instead of finding justice and
righteousness among His creatures, discovers oppression on the part
of the powerful, and a cry of lamentation and of indignation on the
part of the poor: the proof of the oppression, and the cause of the
cry is, that no place is left for the poor. There is a strong
tendency to the accumulation of property, and especially of land, in
the hands of a few; but such accumulations of land in a few hands
tends to grave national evils--to luxury on the part of the rich, and
to lawlessness on the part of the poor--and, therefore, instead of
being promoted, should be discouraged by the legislature. But year by
year we have been adding "field to field, and house to house," till
we have left the poor no place. Rights of common and rights of
pasture have been taken away, and the beer-shop established by law to
occupy the time which otherwise would have been employed in healthy
toil for a happy family. Little farms, held by working farmers, have
been joined together, so that one may live in luxury, where ten
families once dwelt in simplicity and plenty. The cottager, in his
little field, that once looked so fruitful and trim, cheering the eye
and charming the heart, not only of himself, but of beings dear to
and dependent upon him, has been driven into some town to add to its
misery, its debasement, and its discontent. Let us pray that there
may come a time when the gentle in rank shall be gentle in very deed;
when the rich shall recognise that they are trustees for God, and
shall use their property for the purposes for which He has placed it
in their hands; when allotment acts shall remedy the ruin which
enclosure acts have wrought; when an enlightened self-love, arising
out of the possession of something to love, shall render the
demagogue and the inciter to outrage a foreigner to our land, and
when our "common Father" shall find that "justice and righteousness"
for which He looks.--_R. C. Parkman, B.A., Sermons_ (1843), No. X.