by J E Scott
Is this language too strong ? Is it not a fact that the command to love thy neighbor as thyself is not in harmony with the economic conditions in which we live ? And yet the Church, as a whole, accepts, endorses and defends these conditions. Can we ever hope to reach the masses until this inconsistency is put away ? Well-to-do business men listen with composure and approval to sermons on "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart". That is a lofty theme, high in the spiritual realms of tho't and life. It brings little suggestion of earth or earthly things, but when the second text, which is : "like unto it, thy neighbor as thyself" is taken up, a sense of uneasiness, and weariness steals over the cushioned sanctuary. The preacher himself is often perplexed to know just how to manage the subject. An impression lurks in his mind, and creeps over the pews, that something not designed for much practical obedience, on earth, must have been meant by the text. The feeling is, it may do for heaven where the conditions will be more favorable, but an attempt to put it into actual practice here and now, would simply take all the life out of business, and make financial success an impossibility.
Is it a wonder that men who work and men who can find no work, the ragged and wretched and hungry multitudes turn away from the church where members call Christ their Savior, but do not believe in the practicability of the Golden Rule in the world's business and social life ? Is it a wonder that not only the poor, but tho'tful people of every grade are asking the question " If the precepts of Christ will not work in business, which makes up so large a part of life, will they work anywhere? If I find it impossible to love my neighbor as myself in my business relations with him, why should I pretend to love him at all ? " The economic side of Christianity is by no means all of Christianity ; but if men see Christianity a failure on the economic side, can they fail to lose confidence in it on all sides?
There are multitudes of unselfish faithful, loyal Christian souls in the church. They long and pray for the coming of the kingdom of God's righteousness on earth ; and they wonder why it comes so slowly. They want to see souls converted, but they forget that the ears are deaf to other sounds when the stomach is empty. They forget or perchance do not know that against the wheels of the chariot-car of Christ's kingdom the heavy brakes of antagonistic, social and economic environments are set.
To what conclusion then shall we come at the close of a necessarily imperfect consideration of a subject so far-reaching ?
From out the night of centuries past, the race has suddenly, as it were, awakened to a consciousness of its organic unity. We hear from every quarter of the globe where throngs of thinking, suffering humanity are found, one voice of discontent and protest. With each advance of knowledge and science, the voice has grown clearer and more articulate, till now it utters no longer a confused jargon of restless muttered anguish and passion, but it speaks as man to man, with a voice of no uncertain sound. That voice declares "that God is no respecter of persons, that in the measuring out of His bounty there is no partiality." It proclaims, that mans inhumanity to man is the fountain of earth's slaveries and tyrannies, and the woes of want ; and therefore, for the means necessary to life, and the opportunities necessary to the pursuit of happiness and higher manhood, it demands, not alms, not pity, but "distributive justice". This demand is the source of Christian Socialism.
To this demand an opposing answer has beeri made in every age. That answer is in the words : "Am I my brother's keeper?" From Cain's day to the present, in one form or another, the same answer has been repeated. It is voiced by the pride of life, the spirit of caste, the aristocracy of wealth, the com- petitions of business ; and the last official reutterance of the murderer's question came from the halls of Congress, when, to the appeal of the Industrial Army, for help to help themselves, the answer went; "It is not legal for us to provide means by which our brethren in need may help themselves to bread."
Can the church of Christ longer uphold an economic and social system, that rests on this interrogatory of the first fratricide? Can the church of God continue to pray "Thy kingdom come on earth" the kingdom of righteousness when the whole spirit and foundation of business life is to foster the selfish antagonism of the kingdom of Satan ? Do our brethren who tell us the business of the Church is to save souls and not to meddle with social questions, believe what they say ? 'Yes, doubtless ; but, fortunately for the Church, they do not follow their own rule. Do they not build church edifices and make them attractive ? Do they not try to have good music and to make the social atmosphere of the church inviting ? Do they not try to banish saloons and slums ? Are not these "social questions" ? Are they not attempts to make the environment harmonize with and help on towards the end sought, as Christ did when he drove out the money changers ?
The logic of these brethren was the bulwark of American slavery. It will not stand.
Christian Socialism can not be ignored. Every Christian should give it a sympathetic hearing, and every teacher of Christianity should give it a careful study, not as sceptics study the Bible to find out what may be said against it, but to learn what widened application of the Gospel may be in it. Christianity has hitherto been applied to individuals ; but it is adapted to a kingdom, and a kingdom means organized society and a state.
Surely there is incentive to study this subject, in the hope we have of a redeemed earth, in the waning progress of the present, and the failures of the past. For eighteen centuries, thro' good report and evil report, the Church has taught the Gospel of the kingdom to the children of men. Many saints have been gathered to shine as stars in the heavenly firmament. But if Christ were to come to-day and look upon the children of a common Heavenly Father, with all their pomp on one hand, and all their wretchedness on the other, would there not be truth of startling reality in the poet's "Parable" :
Said Christ our Lord : "I will go and see
How the men, my brethren, believe in me".
He passed not again, thro' the gate of birth,
But made himself known to the children of earth.
Then said the chief priests, and rulers and kings,
''Behold, now, the Giver of all good things ;
Go to, let us welcome with pomp and state
Him who alone is mighty and great."
With carpets of gold the ground they spread,
Wherever the Son of man should tread,
And in palace chambers, lofty and rare,
They lodged him, and served him with kingly fare.
Great organs surged thro' arches dim,
Their jubilent floods in praise of him ;
And in church and palace and judgement hall
He saw his image high over all.
But still, wherever his steps they led,
The Lord in sorrow bent down his head,
And from under the heavy foundation stones,
The Son of Mary heard bitter growns.
And in church and palace and judgement hall
He marked great fissures that rent the wall,
And opened wider and yet more wide
As the living foundation heaved and sighed
"Have ye founded your thrones and altars, then,
On the bodies and souls of living men ?
And think ye that building shall endure,
Which shelters the noble and crushes the poor ?
With gates of silver and bars of gold,
You have fenced my sheep from their Father's fold.
I have heard the dropping of their tears
In heaven these eighteen hundred years."
"O Lord and Master, not ours the guilt,
We build but as our fathers built ;
Behold thine images, how they stand,
Sovereign and sole thro' all our land.
"Our task is hard, with sword and flame,
To hold thine earth forever the same,
And with sharp crooks of steel to keep
Still, as thou leftest them, thy sheep."
Then Christ sought out an artisan,
&
nbsp; A low-browed, stunted, haggard man,
And a motherless girl, whose fingers thin,
Pushed from her faintly, want and sin.
These set he in the midst of them,
And as they drew back their garment hem,
For fear of defilement : "Lo, here," said he,
"The images ye have made of me ! "
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