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self-interest, and unrestricted competition, supported by law and custom and buttressed by the economists and mammonists, was a triple alliance of the devil, the prolific source of industrial ills, and an offence alike to God and man.

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Maurice said of it: "I believe in my soul [it] would be fatal to the intellect, morality and freedom. Kingsley declared that it was the worst "of all narrow, conceited, hypocritical, anarchic, and atheistic schemes of the universe." He believes, however; that Christian forces are about to usher in a brighter day for working men. "Freedom, Equity, and Brotherhood are here. Realize them in thine own self, and so alone thou helpest to make them realities for all. . . Not by wrath and haste, but by patience made perfect through suffering, canst thou proclaim their good news to the groaning masses, and deliver them, as thy Master did before thee, by the cross, and not the sword. Divine paradox! Folly to the rich and mighty! - the watchword of the weak, in whose weakness is God's strength made perfect. In your patience possess ye your souls, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.' Yes, - He came then, and the Babel-tyranny of Rome fell, even as the more fearful, more subtle, and more diabolic tyranny of Mammon shall fall ere long. . . . Yes, Babylon the Great - the commercial world of selfish competition, drunken with the blood of God's people, whose merchandise is the bodies and souls of then - her doom is gone forth. And then when they, the tyrants of the earth, who lived delicately with her, rejoicing in her sins, the plutocrats and the bureaucrats, the money-changers and devourers of labor, are crying to the rocks to hide them, and to the hills to cover them from the wrath of Him that sitteth on the throne - then labor shall be free at last, and the poor shall eat and be satisfied with things that 'eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, but which God has prepared for those who love Him.'

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"Then the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord . . . and He shall reign indeed on the earth. And then shall this sacrament be an everlasting sign . . . of freedom, equality, brotherhood, of Glory to God in the highest, and

on earth peace and good will toward men. Do you believe?" 1

The confidence of these Christian Socialists was inspired by the conviction that their cause was the cause of God. They were co-workers with Him. So just, so simple, so humane and Christian did their remedy for social ills appear, that Mr. Hughes said, "I certainly thought . . . that here we had found the solution of the great labor question; but I was also convinced that we had nothing to do but just to announce it and found an association or two, in order to convert all England and usher in the millennium, so plain did the whole thing seem to me." They made propaganda by establishing co-operative associations of laborers, by a newspaper called Christian Socialist, by "Politics for the People" and numerous tracts and pamphlets.

German Christian Socialism is of later origin, and has had a distinct Catholic and a distinct Protestant recognition and development. In 1864 the Catholic clubs of Germany, composed of laborers associated together for "mutual improvement, recreation, and benefit," were urged to take up the social question; and Bishop Ketteler warmly espoused the cause of working men and published a stirring pamphlet on the "Labor Question and Christianity." He claimed that ministers of Christ are bound to look into the breadand-butter question as a part of their religious duty. He deplores that social régime that makes the food and clothing and other necessities of working men and their families dependent upon the fluctuations of the market. "The Bishop," says Mr. Rae, "never spares an opportunity of attacking heathen humanist-Liberalism,' which he says has pushed the laboring man into the water, and now stands on the bank spinning fine theories about his freedom, but calmly seeing him drown."

This good and great man proposed to organize productive associations which would yield laborers both wages and profits; that is, the entire fruit of their labor. Others differed from him as to the means deemed necessary to attain

1"Alton Locke," p. 433.

2 As quoted in "French and German Socialism,” p. 251.

this result; but all agreed that Christianity itself was essentially Socialistic in its hostility to a selfish individualism.

About ten years ago the Protestant Church of Germany became alarmed at the atheistic attitude of the laborers. The clergy found that in their zeal for speculative theology they and the churches had well-nigh forgotten the toiling masses struggling for their daily bread; and working men in turn had come to regard the church as a cold, formal, hypocritical institution, false alike to her tradition, her history, and her Lord.

Several able clergymen resolved to take out of the way this stumbling-block, and to show working men that the church was their friend.

The moment the Christian church embarks upon such a work, whether in Germany or England or America, she becomes and must become socialistic. Dr. Rudolph Todt and Dr. Stöcker became the acknowledged leaders in this movement. Todt published, in 1878, his "Radical German Socialism and Christian Society."

"Todt's work is designed to set forth the social principles and mission of Christianity on the basis of a critical investigation of the New Testament, which he believes to be an authoritative guide on economical as well as moral and dogmatic questions. He says that to solve the social problem we must take political economy in one hand, the scientific literature of Socialism in the other, and keep the New Testament before us. As the result of his examination, he condemns the existing industrial régime as being decidedly unchristian, and declares the general principles of Socialism, and even its main concrete proposals, to be directly prescribed and countenanced by Holy Writ. . . . Every active Christian who makes conscience of his faith has a socialistic vein in him; every Socialist, however hostile he may be to the Christian religion, has an unconscious Christianity in his heart." 1

...

Seldom have braver and truer words been spoken. They contain a prophecy of the future. They herald the eman

1 "Contemporary Socialism," p. 244.

cipation of the laborer and the dawn of an industrial millennium when the devil of self-interest will be chained and the industrial kingdoms of this world shall "become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ."

Christian Socialism has already borne golden fruit. It has called the attention of the entire Christian church to the social question, and enlisted many of the ablest clergymen in Europe and America, who stand forth boldly in pulpit, on the platform, and by publication to proclaim those primary and essential gospel truths which will not down till a Christian Socialism is crowned king in the economical arrangements of society. It has compelled legislation in behalf of operatives in shops and factories, a large per cent of whom are women and children. It has encouraged laborers to unite for inutual protection and to secure legal recognition for labor organizations.

While not advocating the abolition of private property, it has brought home to popular Christian thought the mighty truth that no man nor his money belongs to himself but to God and society; and thus it has dealt a terrific blow at the pagan idea of property as a subjective right, and thus prepared the way for State ownership.

It has taught not only the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, but the fraternity of the State. The State is no longer regarded as a police institution to club her children into submission to laws which can never be equal to unequal citizens.

A State, when society has reached that point where the happiness and life of each depend upon the others, that acknowledges no more obligations of protection to the weak than to the strong, whatever else it may be, is not worthy the name of Christian. Let us dismiss forever that conception of the State which makes it merely a great law-andorder league, or a huge machine for lynching the poor, weak, and unfortunate by a process none the less murderous because it proceeds by the slow, refined, and legalized methods of hunger, nakedness, and disease. The most cruel lynch-law, the mob most to be dreaded, is that which, ignoring the divine law of love, inflicts its punishments

upon the innocent victims of society in the name of justice and order.

Christian Socialism is awakening interest in the toiling masses which promises great things in the future. Humanity is a larger word than ever before. The "destiny that shapes our ends" is not far off, but nigh; even in society about us. A Christocentric faith has emptied Christian theology of its harshness and narrowness. It is coming more and more into the thought of men that Christ is the Saviour of the world of this world in the fullest sense.

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His true mission was not only to give men felicity in heaven, but "peace on earth." While man's future is of paramount importance, He made "the life that now is" of immediate and immense concern.

His precepts touch and determine all human relations. He is the Saviour of the world, socially, politically, economically. His gospel would not be good news if it justified social and industrial conditions that wreck multitudes in this world in the hope that they might be picked up on the shore of the next. Let us have done with that conception of Christianity which eliminates Christ from all connection with capital, labor, wages, and all other social, industrial, and political affairs in which men live, move, and have their being.

This is Christian Socialism, the tree whose leaves are "For the healing of the. nations."

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