CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP V/.E,Chaiiv;ickD.D. Christian Social Union Handbook^ Edited by Henry Scott Holland, T>. D. 01- V ll55(o ai0mell lilttivmitg pilratig FROM THE INCOME OF THE FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND THE BEQUEST OF Ubrarian of the University 1868-1883 1905 ii BAm^^ /^m'l. The date shows when this vdlume was taken. Dk copy the $al the Ubrari^ To renew this book copy the sail No. and give to ■ Ubri ■* ■!-S '. HOME USE RULES. " : All Books lubjod to Rerall 2':, OCT 19' 5j,'' All books must be re- turned at end of college year for inspection and repairs. Students must re- turn all books before leaving town. OflBcers should arrange for the return of books wanted during their absence from town. Books needed by more than one person are held on the reserve list. Volume? of periodi- cals and of pamphlets are held in the library fs much as possible, 'or special purposes they are given out for a Umited time. Borrowers should not use their library privileges for the bene- fit of other persons. Books of special value and gift books, when the giver wishes it, are not allowed to circulate. Readers are asked t^ "report all cases of boojcs marked or mutilatc|f. Do not deface books by marks and writlnr- Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 924031 322674 CHRISTIAN SOCIAL UNION HANDBOOKS Eddted by HENRY SCOTT HOLLAND, D.D. CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP BY THE REV. W. E. CHADWICK, D.D. UNIFORM WITH THIS VOL. OUR NEIGHBOURS : A HANDBOOK FOR THE C.S.U. By the Editor THE BOY AND HIS WORK By the Rev. Spencer J. Gibb SOCIAL PRINCIPLES OF THE EARLY CHURCH By the Rev. A. J. Carlvle, D.Litt. MUNICIPAL WORK By the Rev. Canon Jephson, M.A. THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD By Constance Smith NOTE These Handbooks, issued under conditions sanctioned by the Central Executive of the Christian Social Union, are commended to our members and to the public as being good and adequate statements of the Social Problems in different aspects. Some of the Handbooks will approach more nearly than others to being expressions of our common principles. But, in any case, for the particular opinions expressed, or the mode of expressing them, only the author is responsible. The Editor Acting on behalf of the Central Executive. CHRISTIAN SOCIAL UNION HANDBOOKS Edited by HENRY SCOTT HOLLAND, D.D. CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP BY W. EDWARD CHADWICK D.D.^ B.SC. VICAR OP ST. PBTER's, ST. ALBANS, AND FORMERLY HULSEAN LECTURER AT CAMBRIDGE; AUTHOR OF *THK SOCIAL TEACHING OF ST. PAUL,' 'SOCIAL WORK,' 'the SOCIAL PRINCIPLES OF THE GOSPEL," ETC. A. R. MOWBRAY AND CO., Ltd, LONDON: 28 MARGARET ST., OXFORD CIRCUS, W. OXFORD: 9 HIGH STREET -1r-H?f- F^irst Impression^ igii EDITOR'S PREFACE The Christian Social Union aims at producing citizens inspired by spiritual convictions and equipped by patient and thorough study. It is to further this aim that these Handbooks have been written. They ground their appeal on the Name of Christ: and they set out the actual and precise conditions of social experience under which the service of men, for Christ's sake, can be realised. Each department has been entrusted to an expert who is in thorough possession of his material. The reader can be confident that the treatment is adequate, and the statements trustworthy. Each has tried to make the Handbook committed to him a complete exposition of the matter in hand. It has, also, been considered right that the first Number of the Series should rehearse the central motives and aims with which the Union identifies itself. It is hoped that these direct practical Handbooks will help the members of our Union to carry out into efficient action the convictions to which Belief and Study have led them. I have been assisted throughout, in all the work that falls to an Editor, by the advice and judgment of Dr. Rashdall, to whom the Executive had authorised me to turn for help, and who has always given me all that I asked for. HENRY SCOTT HOLLAND CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PAGE The object of the work, ..... .1 What ' Christianity ' and ' Citizenship ' each imply, . 1 The Bible our chief authority, 2 Christianity in the Old Testament as well as in the New, 2 Church history helpful, 2 A knowledge of present conditions essential, ... 3 Yet many are ignorant of these, ..... 3 The responsibilities of citizenship multifarious, . . 4 The duty of influencing public opinion, ... 6 CHAPTER I THE ISSUES OF THE INCARNATION The Incarnation sanctifies all that ministers to life, . 8 Its practical issues and applications are without limit, . 8 It sanctifies all that tends to the development of life, . 9 The practical importance of the Christological con- troversies, 9 The Incarnation (and its corollary the Atonement) the reason for the infinite value of man, ... 10 Hence the Christian's treatment of man, ... 10 We look to Christ and to the Gospel for principles, not for detailed applications, ...... 10 The need of the highest motives shown fi:om experience, 12 viii CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP CHAPTER II THE TEACHING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT Ctrist the one sufficient (a) Inspiration and O) Standard ofconductj ........ 14 All conduct, even the most personal, has social results, . 15 The Gospels apparently, but only apparently, deal much more with the personal than with the social, . . 15 The New Testament pre-supposes the social teaching of the Old Testament, 16 Especially of the Messianic Kingdom of Righteousness, . 16 The object of the Old Testament is to teach the infinite value of righteousness, ...... 17 Thus the New Testament is only the continuation of the Old, 18 II Only certain broad features of the social teaching of the Old Testament can here be given, . . . . 18 The constitution of Israel essentially democratic, . . 18 In the earliest period there was no definite organisation for the administration of the law, .... 19 After the settlement in Canaan the people were mainly small freeholders, ....... 20 The gradual rise of a trading class, when the difference between poverty and wealth became accentuated, . 20 The ' Law,' in all its strata, deals largely with questions of social duty, .... ... 21 The close connection between the Law and the Prophets, 22 The social difficulties revealed by the Prophets, . . 25 Social sins and social evils were the special objects of their strongest censures, ...... 26 The Old Testament was familiar to our Lord's hearers, . 27 Appeneix to Chapter II A Brief Summary of the Social Teaching of the Old Testament (1) The gradual growth of a town population : Jerusalem becoming more and more important, ... 27 CONTENTS ix PAGE (2) The stress laid throughout the Old Testament on right relationships, ....... 28 (3) The immense stress laid upon the importance of the family, 29 (4) In regard to the life of the home and the family, no teaching more wholesome than that of the Old Testament, ...... 30 CHAPTER III THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT (1) Of Christ and the Gospels So many recent books upon this subject that its treatment here very brief, .... 32 What we actually find is great stress laid upon certain principles, ........ 33 Christ made character pre-eminent, .... 33 Christ claims a Divine source and authority for His teaching, ........ 34 His references to the Old Testament, . . 34 The parables are especially valuable, . 36 (2) Of the Apostolic Writers These contain the earliest applications of the teaching of Christ, 36 (1) The teaching of St. James, especially upon ' the insolence of wealth,' ...... 37 (2) The teaching of St. Paul : his ethical exhortations have always a social application, .... 38 His condemnation of the ' disorderly,' and his idea of the social ' organism,' ..... 38 (3) The teaching of St. John : Christ's nature, conduct, and words expressed as principles capable of the widest possible application, ..... 39 What the Christian citizen may specially learn from the New Testament, ....... 39 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP CHAPTER IV THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN PAGE The civil community should be regarded as a co-opera- tive society, 41 This assumes that each member should be in a position to be helpfulj 41 But actual conditions show that this is not so, . 42 Present evils have their sources in the past : this true of both 'nature' and 'environment,' .... 42 The value of the science of eugenics, .... 43 The environment into which children are born, . . 43 The life of the child : (a) in infancy and childhood, (/3) during the years spent at school, (y) during adolescence, ........ 44 The importance of this last stage : present unfavourable conditions, ........ 46 The preparation, or want of preparation, for marriage, . 60 Here, again, the teaching of eugenics important, . . 51 The ' endowment of motherhood,' ..... 62 The wide field open to the Christian social reformer, . 64 CHAPTER V THE PHYSICAL V^ELFARE OF THE FUTURE CITIZENS Life as it should be implies an all-round development, . 66 To this both nature and environment must contribute, . 67 The importance of environment becoming more practically realised, 58 Development to be considered under four heads : (a) physical, (0) intellectual, (y) moral, (6) spiritual : these not divisible in practice, ..... 69 Physical Development : Christianity and good physical health, 59 The propagation of the unfit : public opinion must be educated on this subject : the need of plain speaking, 60 The care of the feeble-minded, ..... 62 The housing of the people : the conditions in the country sometimes worse than those in the towns, . . 63 CONTENTS xi PAGE The duty of the Christian citizen to serve on Local Authorities, .... ... 64 Water, drainage, and lighting often imperfect in rural districts, 66 The food supply of the poor, 66 The need for open spaces in large towns ; also for public recreation rooms for winter evenings and wet weather, ......... 68 After the physical environment the personal environment must be considered, .70 The mother the first and most important factor in this for the child, 70 The need of education in the duties of motherhood, 72 The deficient training of girls in our elementary schools, 72 The education at present given too literary and too mechanical, 72 In the years after school age little that is useful for either motherhood or housewifery commonly learnt, 73 The revelations from the medical inspection of school children, 74 The feeding of school children at the public expense : the arguments for and against this, .... 75 Physical development beyond the years of childhood, . 78 CHAPTER VI TUB INTELLECTUAL WELFARE OF THE FUTURE CITIZENS Intellectual development a necessity even from the point of view of national insurance, ..... 79 The expensiveness of ignorance, ..... 79 The severity of international competition, ... 80 The cost of education has necessarily risen : the charge of unprogressiveness brought against the Church, . 81 The false economy of the ratepayers the real obstacle to educational progress to-day, 83 The duty of providing every child with the opportunity for intellectual development, 84 As a nation are we interested in education, compared e.g. with the Swiss and the Germans ? .... 85 Elementary education must be made more immediately useful, and therefore less uniform and more prac- tical, 87 xii CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP PAGE The need for boys to be taught the elements of ' civics,' . 89 Also lessons should be given to all scholars on what ' thrift ' really is, and upon the duty of practising it, 91 CHAPTER VII THE MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE FUTURE CITIZENS This really the growth of character in the right direc- tion, .93 The object of Christianity the production of a certain type of character, 93 The home the chief manufactory of character, . . 94 How the housing 'question' enters here, ... 95 The evil effects of overcrowding include intemperance as well as impurity, ....... 97 The apparent increase of betting and gambling among the poor, 98 The growing love for ' sport ' among all classes, . . 98 What can be done to stem the craze for betting and gambling.'' ........ 100 The need, first, to strengthen the law ; secondly, to teach people to play for the sake of playing, . . . 101 The value of organised games ; the temptation to look on rather than to take part, ..... 102 Here another reason for recreation rooms in large towns, 106 The amusements of the people : the cheap theatre and music-hall, . 107 Might not these be subsidised and placed under some supervision .''........ 108 The manual worker's need for excitement : yet what wholesome excitements are within the reach of the poor? 110 The need to provide these under healthy conditions, . Ill CHAPTER VIII MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE The importance of the question as dealing with the source of moral as well as of physical life, . . 113 CONTENTS xiii i>AGE There is a science of ' moral,' as well as of physical, eugenics, 113 The moral future of children is largely dependent on the moral atmosphere of the home, . . . .114 The question complicated to-day because equally earnest Christians hold different views on divorce and re- marriage, . 114 Is the case one in which the innocent must be made (involuntarily) to suffer for the good of society .'' . 116 The Church has nothing to gain materially by the un- compromising view of many Churchmen, . . . 116 To plead for justice to the innocent is not to plead for further relaxation of the law of divorce, . . . 117 The question cannot be settled by an appeal to the ipsissima verba ol CbriBt, 117 The Lambeth resolutions are apparently self-contra- dictory, ......... 119 The opinions of two leading New Testament scholars, . 120 The Christian citizen's responsibility and duty, . 123 CHAPTER IX CHRISTIAN TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS OF THE NATION The importance of such teaching for the formation of character, 125 The bitterness of the controversy upon the nature of this teaching, 125 The controversy does not exist inside the schools, . 126 The widespread objection among teachers to religious tests, 127 The appeal to the parents : the real attitude of these, . 127 The ' creed register' and the ' right of entry,' . 127 Objections to both these plans, especially the latter, 129 Churchmen, as well as Nonconformists, have at present a real grievance, 131 Apparently only two possible alternatives : (1) secular instruction only, (2) simple Bible teaching, . . 133 The advantages of the latter, ..... 134 The need for greater efficiency in the Sunday school, 136 The tone of the school the really important matter, 135 The Christian citizen's duty to the Sunday school, . 135 xiv CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP PAGE In the Sunday school the social teaching of Christianity should be given, ....... 137 The possibilities of the Sunday school not yet fully realised, ......... 137 CHAPTER X THE CITIZEN, RELIGION, AND THE CHURCH Many citizens to-day not even ' professing ' Christians, . 139 Yet these enjoy the results of Christian influence in the past and in the present, ...... 139 What we owe to Christianity : the Christian standard compared with the loftiest ethical standards of heathenism, 140 The debt owed to Christianity not always recognised, . 142 Christianity alone enables us to live a life of entirely disinterested service on a wide scale, . . . 143 Of all people civic workers stand much in need of high ideals and of a motive power to impel them to the realisation of these, ...... 144 The ideals of the Christian citizen are social, . . 144 The Church a definitely purposive society, . . 145 The larger proportion of civic workers found among Nonconformists, ....... 146 The idea of the ' nation ' essential for the perfect life, . 148 The need of reform in the Church of England, . . 149 Disestablishment and its corollary Disendowmeut, . . 150 The need of reform in the system of patronage, . . 151 Upon the efficiency of the Church depends the Chris- tianisation of our national life, .... 164 The expenditure of useful energy upon matters of secondary importance, ...... 155 CHAPTER XI THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR The special claim of the poor from their comparative helplessness, ........ 156 The maintenance of the destitute as a national duty, . 167 CONTENTS XV PAGE The present Poor Law a long and gradual growth, . 157 The interest in the Poor Law neither intelligent nor general, 168 Yet need of a twofold change — first, in the law itself ; secondly, in its administration, .... 169 The ideal is to increase self-effort, hut this must be made possible, 160 At present few who are able-bodied, except widows with children, are assisted by the Poor Law, . . 161 The two schemes of Poor Law reform recommended by the last Commission : the salient features of each, . 162 The improbability of either scheme being adopted by Parliament in its integrity, ..... 165 The various efforts being made at the present time to effect a compromise, ...... 167 The problem one of immense responsibility to the Chris- tian citizen, because the effects upon character of any scheme must be considered, 169 The wastefulness of the present method of ' deterrent ' treatment, ........ 176 The real remedy is differential treatment ; but this is difficult to apply because of the very small number of really expert workers, ... . 178 ApDiTjONAL Note, . 179 CHAPTER XII 'the hindrances to good citizenship' Mr. Bryce's three great ' hindrances ' and his two great remedies, ........ 181 He recognises that the fundamental problem is an ethical one, . 182 What appeal can be made to the ' average' citizen? . 183 Mr. Bryce's appeal to 'enlightened self-interest ' is wholly insufficient, . . . . . • • .183 His quotation from Mazzini ; but what is Mazzini's actual testimony.'' • 184 Mazzini has no faith in progress apart from the conception of 'God's will,' • .186 The real needs of the 'average man' a lofty ideal and the persistent pressure of a high motive, . . 186 xvi CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP PAGE Does Mr, Bryce give sufficient place to ignorance, i.e. culpable ignorance^ as a hindrance to good citizen- ship? 186 Ignorance largely due to the indolence which will neither read nor investigate, ...... 187 The danger of delegated responsibility, .... 188 Mr. Bryce's motives to good citizenship compared with those of Bishop Westcott, 190 CONCLUSIONS, . 194 INTRODUCTION The object of this book is to help men and women who profess to be Christians, first, to understand, and secondly, to discharge, those duties and responsibilities which the term " Citizenship ' should imply. But before we can combine the terms ' Chris- tianity ' and ' Citizenship,' before we can speak of discharging the duties of citizenship in a Christian manner, we must have as clear as possible a conception of what each of these terms should mean. For practical purposes ' Christianity ' consists in a firm conviction of the truth of a body of definite principles, together with a belief in a force or power sufficient to enable us to put these into effect in conduct. It is a life based upon a creed ; which is itself based upon both past history and present experience. ' Citizenship,' in practice, is the discharge of our duty towards our neighbour, when we give to the word ' neighbour ' the meaning implied in the parable of the Good Samaritan, namely, every one who comes within the sphere of our possible influence, that is, every one whom it lies within our power to benefit, or to affect for good.^ » ' Our neighbour is every one with whom we have at any time any concern, or on whose welfare our actions have an influence.' — Seeker's Lectures, ii. p. i. A 2 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP We must remember that the Bible — ^the Old Testament as well as the New — is the chief source whence our conception of Christianity must be drawn. A reference to the Old Testament is necessary, because, in the true and widest sense of the word, ' Christianity ' is far older than the date of the Incarnation, which, of course, is infinitely the greatest event ^ in its history and its progress. Thus a study of the Old Testament as well as of the New must be involved in any attempt to describe the real nature of Christianity. Then, in stud3dng what we may term the practical teaching of Christianity, it is most important for us to know the conditions of the time in which that teaching was uttered, and especially the particular circum- stances of those to whom the teaching was ad- dressed. For unless we know something of the object at which a writer is aiming, we cannot fully understand his words. This is especially necessary with regard to the writers of the New Testament, who, while they may have written for all time, yet had certain very definite needs and difficulties in view. Much of the ' social ' teaching of both the Old and New Testaments will lose its point unless we understand the imperfect or evil conditions which their writers are trying to reform.^ In addition to this knowledge of Holy Scripture, some acquaintance with Church history will be found most useful, because from it we shall learn about the various attempts and efforts which, at 1 ' The Incarnation as it is seen now is the central point of all history.' — Westcott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, P-47- • Nothing could be more unsocial than the attitude of the Pharisees; e.g-.inSt. John vii. 49; and nothing more immoral than some of the conditions revealed in certain of St. Paul's Epistles. INTRODUCTION 3 various times, have been made to put into practice Christian principles. From history we add to our knowledge of the successes and failures which have attended the efforts of others, and by studying the causes of these we may obtain much that is valuable in the way of both encouragement and warning. Our other most important field of knowledge may be briefly described as ' present conditions,' that is, ' things as they are ' ; also how far in and towards these Christianity and Christian principles may be already said to rule. For, only when we know what the conditions actually are, can we estimate what is needed in order to Christianise these conditions. Probably none but those who have tried to interest others in social reform, e.g. in helping to ameliorate the conditions under which many of the poor are living to-day, realise how dense is still the ignorance of one part of the community as to how another part exists. Through being able to afford to travel, many wealthy people in this country have far more knowledge of the life lived by the natives of Egypt or India or Japan than they have of that lived by the poor who exist, sometimes within a few hundred yards of their own doors. An intimate knowledge of actual evil conditions is generally the first inspira- tion, the essential preliminary condition, to their abolition or reform. We may speak of the responsi- bility of this knowledge, by which we mean the responsibility not only of acting upon this know- ledge when we possess it, but actually of obtaining and possessing it. Ignorance, where knowledge is possible, is certainly culpable. Ignorance of in- sanitary conditions does not make such conditions 4 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP less dangerous ; ignorance, again, of evil moral conditions does not make these conditions less fatal to the welfare of society. Thus this book has two objects : first, to discover and explain what are the true principles of Christian citizenship ; secondly, after having described many of the evils from which society is suffering to-day, to suggest how these principles may be most usefully applied towards their permanent improve- ment. When we call upon people to discharge the duties of citizenship, we must also remind them — as I would remind my readers — ^that there are many ways in which this may be done, even by those who are not technically ' citizens.' Many of those who read these pages may at once feel inclined to say, ' We are not citizens, that is, we have no votes, either for a member of Parliament, in which assembly the laws are made, or for the munici- pality, with which often rests the administration of the law.' But if every one has not a vote, every one has some influence, and by carefully exercising it every one can increase the influence which he or she possesses. We must remember that influence, like a vote, is a sacred responsibility, one to be increased to the utmost possibility which within us lies, also one to be always directed towards the highest objects. Many a one who has not had a vote, has, by helping to create a healthy public opinion, been able to influence many who have votes to use these in the right way, and so to help to bring about a much-needed change in the law. But personal influence is often even more potent INTRODUCTION 5 in bringing about a better administration of the law. To-day there are many excellent laws upon the statute book which, for want of a healthy public opinion, are practically dead letters. It is really public opinion which more frequently than anything else sets the law in motion and demands its proper administration. Good citizenship, then, implies the effort to create a healthy public opinion. Christian citizenship implies the effort to make public opinion Christian, to see that it is inspired by Christian principles, ruled by Christian motives, and devoted towards Christian objects. Two instances of the immense effect upon public opinion from earnestly diffusing high principles and from personally living up to these may here be cited. First, the great majority of the early Christians were, from a social or official point of view, people of very little importance.^ They were not the people who had a direct voice in the management of great cities, or of the politics of the empire. But by constantly proclaiming their principles, by expressing them in daily conduct, and by being prepared to undergo any amount of suffering for the sake of them, they gradually so influenced public opinion that little by little the Christian standard became the recognised standard, at least in theory if not in practice. And to get a principle adopted as true, or as the proper standard, even in theory, means a great deal, for it means that what falls below or contradicts this standard is, at least tacitly, condemned. So to-day to be able to brand an action or a course of conduct as ' unchristian ' is to obtain for it a strong and widespread condemnation. ' I Cor. i. 26. 6 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP As my second instance I would cite the history of the Temperance Movement, which of recent years has made such immense strides. For a long time after its inception its apparent progress was very slow. But its leaders and the more earnest supporters of the movement steadily persevered. They became abstainers themselves, and by personal influence they induced others to become so ; they held small meetings in many a little schoolroom and mission hall in the slums ; they collected the children in Bands of Hope ; they issued little pamphlets and wrote numberless tracts and stories revealing the evils of intemperance. Gradually they began to influence a wider opinion. The Band of Hope children, many of whom had kept their pledges, grew up into men and women ; then Total Abstinence Insurance Societies and Temperance Hospitals were started. Little by little, like the early Christians, they permeated and influenced public opinion as a whole, and, like the early Christians, they created a public standard. Intemperance began to be regarded as a disgrace, and a state of intoxication as an outrage upon decent society. Recently, as I have already hinted, the movement, not necessarily in the way of total abstinence, but of the strictest temperance, has grown by leaps and bounds ; much beneficial legislation has already been enacted ; and within the next few years we shall probably see a further extension of this, as well as a still growing sobriety among the masses of the people. Both these instances are eloquent proofs of the power of personal influence ; and it is to this force we must chiefly look for raising the standard of INTRODUCTION 7 responsibility in the discharge of the duties of citizenship in a Christian direction.^ 1 As I shall show in a subsequent chapter, what we specially need at the present time is that the ' social ' teaching of Christianity and the duties of Christian citizenship, in the widest sense, be made subjects of frequent instruction in Sunday schools and Bible classes, in men's meetings, and in such societies as the Mothers' Union. CHAPTER I THK ISSUES OF THE INCARNATION By the Incarnation all that belongs to, all that ministers to, the development and the fulness of human life was for ever sanctified. The acceptance of this truth, the conviction that it can and must be apphed Avithout limit, is the only adequate basis for all that to-day goes by the name of Christian social teaching.^ The same truth may be expressed thus : A perfect and complete Human Nature or Human Personality set in the midst of a definite social and civic order was the DiAdnely ordained Instrument for the salvation of the world, for the redemption of mankind. The practical issues of the doctrine of the Incarnation are without limit ; the possible applica- tions of the doctrine cannot be numbered. We have only to think of the various spiritual, moral, and intellectual forces which enter into the develop- ment of character, we have only to think of the immense number of so-called material things which minister to life, we have only to remember the assimilative power and continuous assimilative action of human nature — ^how its various faculties develop by spiritual, mental, and moral and ^ ' The Incarnation of the Word of God becomes to us, as we meditate upon the fact, a growing revelation of duties — personal, social, national.' — Bp. Westcott, The Incarnation and Common Life, p. 43. 8 ISSUES OF THE INCARNATION 9 material assimilation — we have only to think of all this in order to see how, because it sanctifies all that ministers to human nature, the Incarnation sanctifies all that we can lawfully use to the development of life. We can now see that it was not for mere pm-ity of doctrine, for mere intellectual correctness, but for a working principle of infinite importance, so far as practical issues were concerned, that the great Christological controversies of the early Church were waged. Either Arianism, or Nestori- anism, or Monophysitism, when expressed in its practical issues, must have tended to lower the standard of human conduct. The degrading effects of Mohammedanism are the inevitable results of its defective creed. An imperfect, and therefore necessarily a false, conception of the Person of Christ issues in an imperfect conception of the possibilities, and therefore also of the rights, of human nature. It results in a wrong treatment of man by himself, and in a wrong treatment of men by one another. On the other hand, a conviction of the truth of the ' catholic,' the truly Christian, ' doctrine of Christ ' is the one sufficient reason and the one adequate motive for the right treat- ment of a man by himself, and for his right treat- ment of other men and women. The ' philanthropy of God ' ^ was expressed in the Man — yet His only begotten Son — Christ Jesus. The only stable expression of philanthropy for us is found in the Christian life, based upon a belief in Christian truth in all its fulness.* The Incarnation, with its necessary corollary * Titus iii. 4, ^ tpCKauBpuivla . . . toC . . . GeoC. ' See Note I. at the end of this chapter. 10 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP the Atonement, and, together with these, the fact of the risen and ascended Christ, constitute the ' Gospel,' which is the one adequate ' Divine power unto salvation,' ^ in the true sense of the word. Christian citizenship implies that the duties and responsibilities of citizenship are being discharged, not from mere tender-heartedness, but from a definite, deep, and firm conviction concerning the nature and possibilities, and consequently (I repeat) concerning the rights, of men and women and children. It has been said that ' the infinite value of the human soul ' is one of the three chief subjects of Christ's teaching, which, we must remember, was given in action as well as by speech ; the other two subjects being ' the Fatherhood of God ' and ' the Kingdom of Heaven.' ^ But we must remem- ber that it is just the fact of the Incarnation, that is, through Christ's being what the beUever in the Incarnation asserts Him to be, — it is only this which justifies us in using the words ' of infinite value.' Christ proved that this value was infinite to Himself, because, if God Incarnate, He, by His death, gave a life of infinite value for its redemption. Again, reflection will show that a true doctrine of the Incarnation, and only this, enables us to use the term ' Fatherhood of God ' in the highest sense. It is because of Christ's Incarnation that incorporation into Him implies adoption into the privileges of the Divine sonship, and that we become spiritually children of God. Once more, whatever ' the Kingdom of Heaven ' means, it implies a state in which the Divine will is done ; but this ^ Rom. i. 1 6. ' Harnack, Das Wesen des Christenthums. ISSUES OF THE INCARNATION 11 "will can only be perfectly done after it has been perfectly revealed ; and a perfect Revealer implies one with an entire unity of nature with the Author of that will. Thus all these three great subjects of Christ's teaching depend upon the fact, and their true interpretation depends upon a right conception of the doctrine, of the Incarnation. To treat every human being as if he or she was of infinite value ; to treat each as if he or she was, at least potentially, a child of God — think how we should treat the child of an earthly sovereign ! — and to remember in practice that, above and beside all earthly responsibilities, we must, being citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, live strictly according to God's will — ^to do all these would go far to enable us to discharge our duty to our neigh- bour, which is only a synonym for discharging the responsibilities of citizenship. It is for great and inspiring principles like these that we must look to Christ, rather than for detailed instruction upon much which we call ' social teaching ' to-day. We shall not from Christ Himself obtain explicit directions upon the be- haviour of the Christian in his capacity of citizen. We shall find no particular form of civil govern- ment singled out for special commendation ; we shall seek in vain for the details of any one form of either civil or ecclesiastical organisation. We shall not find it stated that this institution or that arrangement is peculiarly conducive to the welfare of the community. We shall find nothing about schools, or hospitals, or about the poor being maintained at the cost of the State ; but we shall find Christ blessing the children, healing the sick, and assuring us that when we relieve those who 12 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP are in need we are doing Him a personal service.^ We shall find no definite directions upon the duties of employers, we shall meet with no details laid down as to how they must treat their workpeople ; but for the master to remember that the servant is equally a child of God with himself is to ensure to the servant right treatment. We find no definite instructions upon the treatment of the criminal or of the social failures or social outcasts, but we do find Christ exercising a marvellous personal influence upon those whom the world is tempted to regard as the ' worthless ' classes.^ If we seek in the Gospels ready-made rules for the solution of definite and particular social problems, we shall seek in vain. On the other hand, earnest and patient students of our Lord's life and teaching will find in these what is far more really helpful. They will discover great comprehensive principles which will guide them under all circum- stances ; and they will also find the inspiration which even the most earnest workers constantly need. They will find the true motives for trying to help others ; and lastly, they will discover the secret of the maintenance of spiritual power, without which all work for others sooner or later loses its freshness, instead of its continuing zealous and vigorous to the end. The more we know of philanthropic work, the less can we trust the people whose actions are done from a motive lower than the highest, and who are guided by a principle of less than universal applica- tion. Those who work simply according to hard and fast rules may do right in five cases out of six, 1 St. Matt. XXV. 40, i/iol iT0i-/i(7aT€. ' St. Luke vii. 37, xv. i ; [St. John viii. 11]. ISSUES OF THE INCARNATION 13 but in the sixth they are apt to do wrong. But above everything else we must remember that in dealing, in any capacity, with human beings, to be actuated by any motive other than the highest and most pure — as Christ always was — is to run the risk, sooner or later, of degrading those whom we profess, and in all probability quite sincerely, to wish to raise. Note I. It may be thought, by some of my readers, that I have asserted too surely and too dogmatically the eifects of a belief iu the ' catholic ' doctrine of the Incarnation, and also of the results of its denial. But the longer my experience of social work, the more profoundly am I convinced of the truth of what I have stated. The same truth has been asserted at considerable length by Mr. Kidd in his Principles of Western Oivilisation (New Edition, pp. 219 ff.), from which the follow- ing may be quoted : ' Through a century of conflict, from the Council of Ephesus in 431 to the Third Council of Valence in 530, we have . . . the spectacle of the religious consciousness set unchangingly against the doctrine of the normalcy of the individual, and, therefore, against the conception of virtue as conformity to his own nature in the conditions of the world around him. Once more we have . . . the doctrine of the entire insufficiency of the individual in respect of his own powers to rise to the standard required of him, or to fulfil, in virtue of his own nature, the conditions held to be necessary to his salvation ' (p. 222). Note II. Parallel to guidance by only the loftiest principles is the appeal to only the highest part of man. Speaking of this appeal, INlrs. Bosanquet truly says : ' Does it appeal to the higher powers . . . does it call for the exertion of the distinctively human [as opposed to merely animal or physical] qualities, or does it tend to supersede them?' And she adds: 'Great religious teachers, who have put their faith in spiritual con- viction and conversion, who have refused to accept anything short of the whole man, have achieved results which seem miraculous to those who are willing to compromise for a share in the souls they undertake to guide.' — The Strength of the People, pp. 2, 3. CHAPTER II THE TEACHING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT The one and all-sufficient source of inspiration for Christian conduct, the one perfect or absolute standard by which the conduct of the professing Christian must be judged, is the Lord Jesus Christ. We are apt to speak of ' personal conduct ' and of ' conduct towards others,' but actually it is difficult to think of any action — and our conduct is the sum total of our actions — it is difficult, I say, to think of any action that we perform which does not, directly or indirectly, influence others, and whose consequences do not affect others.^ A man may spend years in what he regards as the improvement of his mind, in amassing knowledge without any intention of teaching or writing, but simply because he would amass knowledge as a miser amasses gold. But even such conduct has an influence beyond itself. In a good direction it may affect his private conversation with the few people with whom he holds intercourse ; it may make his conversation far more enriching to them. In an evil direction it may cause him to neglect many duties and responsibilities which, as a man, or as a member of a family or of a com- 1 The only possible antithesis between ' personal ' and ' social ' lies in the motives ; the true antithesis to ' social ' is not ' personal,' but ' MMSocial.' TEACHING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 15 munity, he ought to discharge. In both directions his ' personal ' action has ' social ' results. Now when we turn to the Gospels to discover the teaching of Christ upon such subjects as the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, or upon social subjects generally, we are at first greatly disappointed to find so few direct references to these. Two reasons may be given for this. First, our Lord evidently quite clearly recognised that it is impossible to separate the personal and the social. Many of the parables whose teaching at first sight appears to be intensely personal are, when more carefully studied, seen to inculcate deep and far-reaching social principles ; for in- stance, the parables of the Prodigal Son, the Pounds, the Talents, the Ten Virgins, and that of the Wicked Husbandmen. This is also true of many detached sayings, such as the Beatitudes, and of verse after verse in the Sermon on the Mount. Again, the Lord's Prayer and the great Prayer of Intercession in the seventeenth chapter of St. John are full of ' social ' inspiration. The whole of Christ's teaching condemns a heresy which, im- plicitly, is all too commonly preached, sometimes indeed unconsciously preached, to-day, viz. that by some method, which is not explained, a perfect society can be formed simply by a skilful arrange- ment of very imperfect individuals. A second reason for our Lord's silence, so far as explicit instruction upon definite social responsibilities is concerned, is that He was speaking to a people who were familiar with the Old Testament, and who, at least in theory, if they did not carry their faith into practice, regarded themselves as bound to obey the teaching of both ' the Law and the 16 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP Prophets.' Christ again and again told His hearers that in spirit this teaching was still binding upon them. The men who had promulgated it were under the inspiration of God. Much of it, like our Lord's own great dicta upon conduct, expressed the great fundamental and irrefragable Divine laws, upon obedience to which human and social welfare depends. If men, and societies, and states would prosper they must take heed to the rules for conduct which it lays down. Much of this teaching was doubtless called forth by special circumstances, but its principles are of universal application. This is as true of the teaching upon civic righteous- ness given by Amos and Isaiah as it is of the Ten Commandments. Then we must remember that practically throughout the Old Testament there is in the background — sometimes indeed in the foreground — ^the conception, the hope, occasionally even the outline of an ideal State, a State in which righteous- ness or justice, mercy, and truth or faithfulness will reign.^ This is the real Messianic teaching of the Old Testament, and the Ruler of this State is the Messianic King.^ The great prophets and lawgivers always insist upon its moral features, and upon the moral conditions necessary for its realisation.' In the age preceding the Incarnation these moral features and conditions had ceased to be regarded as of primary importance. The establishment of the Messianic State was still looked for, but this was to take place as the result of a miraculous Divine intervention. It was to 1 Isa. Ix. 21. 2 Isa. xi. 2 ff. ' E.g. Hosea xiv. ; Amos ix. ii ff., cf. vv. g, lo. TEACHING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 17 be a kind of Divine present to the people, a favour bestowed upon them, almost a right which must become theirs in virtue of their descent from Abraham and of the promises made to them in the past, but quite irrespective of any moral repentance or moral fitness on their part. This is the soul-destroying or character-destroying heresy with which so much of the Jewish Apoca- lyptic literature is impregnated. It was the chief false-teaching which John the Baptist ^ and Christ,^ and, even indirectly, St. Paul ' had to combat. It is a heresy which is by no means dead, but is very much alive in many quarters to-day. We find it among those who speak as if the future greatness of England was assured, as if ' it must be,' quite apart from national righteousness, apart from the justice of our causes, apart from industry, honesty, and care for the poor and the oppressed.* We find it among those who behave as if national welfare was independent of national morality, as if it had nothing to do with civic and social righteousness. But the entire teaching of the Old Testament, indeed of all true history, is against this assumption. If I were asked, What do you consider to be the most important function of the Old Testament ? What is the chief of all the lessons we can learn from it ? I should reply. To teach the infinite importance of righteousness, and of righteousness as a social and civic virtue. Here the Old Testa- ment, among the books or literatures of the ancient world, stands supreme. And for this 1 St. Matt. iii. 7 ff. » St. Matt. viii. ii. ' Rom. ii. 3. * The history of the last war in South Africa furnished not a few instances. B 18 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP purpose the New Testament is simply the continua- tion of the Old, inasmuch as it shows how this righteousness may be realised ; it reveals the source of the power which man needs in order to attain it. In other words, the Old Testament makes the demand, the New Testament supplies it. The Old Testament says, Without righteousness life must be a failm-e and social welfare is unattainable. The New Testament reveals the power ^ whereby we may obtain righteousness. And the righteous- ness of the New Testament is itself a Life, and only by this Life entering into our lives can what we need be obtained.^ II It will obviously be impossible for me in a book like the present one to give a detailed proof of the assertions I have just made, for that would involve an exposition of chapter after chapter of the Old Testament — of the Prophets, the Law, the Psalms, and the Wisdom writings. It would involve a description of the history of the IsraeUtes from the days of Abraham onwards. I say from that time, because Abraham, we are told, looked for the ' city,' that is, the commonwealth, the social state, whose laws were Divinely inspired and whose ' making ' was due to Divine help and guidance.^ But certain broad features of Old Testament history, and certain general lessons from that history, may be noticed. First, the constitution of Israel was essentially democratic. The nation was a collection of tribes, 1 Rom. i. 17. » St. John vi. 51, 53 flf. s Heb. xi. 10 (R.V.). TEACHING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 19 made up of clans which in turn were composed of families.^ The bond which bound the several families and even clans together was kinship, which actually was far wider than any tie of actual blood-relationship. In fact, by performance of a covenant rite admission into the tribe might be gained, not only by individuals, but by families and clans. ' There seem to have been no gradation of relationship ... in the Semitic field relationship is absolute, a man either belongs to a given family circle or he does not. Relationship is participation in the common blood ... on this idea rest all the rights and obligations between the individual and his clansmen. There can therefore be no such thing as aristocracy of birth in our sense of the expression. Within the gens none are high-born, none are low-born.' ^ From this it will be seen that a very wide application is possible of the terms ' brother ' and ' brotherhood,' an application which the Christian Church adopted or inherited, and which, by removing from it even the national limitation, it still further widened. From this again there follows that the individual members of a group were essentially equal. Thus we have the source of the fundamentally democratic nature of the commonwealth of Israel, which always remained in idea, however much it was lost in practice. Then, again, in the earlier periods of the nation's history there seems to have been no regular or definite organisation for the administration of law, or any official body by which it could be enforced. • See art. ' Government ' (by Dr. I. Benzinger) in End. Biblica, vol. ii. ^ Art. ' Kinship ' (by Dr. Benzinger) in End. Biblica, col. 2672. 20 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP Such judicial decisions as were given were based upon custom. Gradually, no doubt, local author- ities ^ sprang up who directed affairs and ' judged ' cases of difficulty. But for long the people con- tinued to boast of their independence. The history of the revolt at the accession of Rehoboam, and to some extent that led by Jehu — both being instigated or fanned by prophets 2— are to be explained as efforts to assert the rights of the individual member of the community, the independence of the ordinary citizen. After the settlement in Canaan under Joshua, which marked the close of the nomadic period, the people became a nation of small freeholders, each of whom, at least at first, mainly supplied himself and his family with the necessaries of life. There seems to have been hardly any trading class, a class which certainly was in existence in the days of Solomon, and of which we hear so much in the prophets of the eighth century. It was the rise of this class which led to the accentuation of the differences between the rich and the poor. Thus certainly from the time of David (or, perhaps, rather from the time of Samuel) we may notice a change taking place in the social condition of the people, and contemporaneously with this change we notice an intense interest on the part of the prophets in the national welfare. To Samuel the establishment of the monarchy was evidently distasteful ; ^ he foresaw the expense, and conse- quently the oppression which the court and retinue of a king must involve.* Then the conquests of 1 E.g. the judges who condemned Naboth, i Kings xxi. 8 ff. ^ 1 Kings xii. 15; 2 Kings ix. i fE. ' I Sam. viii. 10 ff. * Ibid. TEACHING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 21 David ended even the measure of isolation in which the people until that time had lived, and the existence of a standing army involved increased taxation. The magnificence of Solomon gave an impetus to foreign trade, and, as I have already noticed, increased those differences of economic position which were the chief causes of the social troubles so lamented and so strongly rebuked by Amos and other prophets. All through the period which extends from the establishment of the monarchy to the fall of Jerusalem, and indeed long after that,^ the prophets are the champions of the poor and the oppressed. They take the part of the truly enlightened, the truly just, and (in the highest sense of the word) the patriotic citizen. Underlying all the protests of Samuel, of Gad, of Ahijah, of Elijah, as also of Amos, Micah, and Jeremiah, are the claims of the free citizen.^ The kings and their various officers, if in a high position, were yet, according to the fundamentally demo- cratic Israelitish state, citizens, and as such they were bound to respect the rights of the rest of the citizens.^ And it was not only for the rights of the citizen which the prophets pleaded, it was also for his responsibilities, for means and oppor- tunity to discharge these.* The prophets were well aware that rights and responsibilities cannot be dissevered : when you take away the one you prevent the due discharge of the other. It is strange, but true, that neither of the words ' E.g. Isa. Iviii. probably belongs to the time of Nehemiah. ' Amos ii. 6 ; viii. 6. ' It wais the murder of Naboth rather than the Baal-worship which shocked the conscience of Israel. * Neh. V. should be read in conjunction with Isa. Iviii. 22 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP ' citizen ' or ' citizenship ' occurs in either the Authorised or Revised Versions of our EngUsh Bible : nor does there seem to be in Hebrew any word which corresponds to the meaning that either we attach or that the Greeks would have attached to them. On the other hand, all the three great strata of Israelitish law ^ are full of precepts which bear directly upon the discharge of the duties of citizenship. Take the earliest of these, the so-called ' Book of the Covenant,' as found in Exodus xxi.-xxiii. 19. Here one after another the elementary duties of good citizenship are clearly insisted upon : viz. the proper treatment of slaves (or servants) ; the careful protection of life ; compensation for injury ; protection against, and compensation for, unnecessary danger ; pro- tection of property and redress for damage to property ; redress for property entrusted to another but stolen ; the protection of the helpless — ^the widow, the child, the stranger ; the condem- nation of usury and oppression ; the respect due to one in an official position ; condemnation of libel, false witness, and unjust judgment, also of bribery and corruption.^ When we pass to the Deuteronomic legislation we shall find the same equally true. The chief purpose of this legislation is ethical, and, being ethical, it is also social ; for the social and the ethical cannot be separated in thought. The laws in Deuteronomy are very largely the same laws which are found in the Book of the * See art. 'Law' (Old Testament) in Hastings' Bib. Diet. (where four strata are noticed) ; but I am not considering the Priests' Code, which deals mainly with ceremonial. 2 References to all these will be found ia the article just mentioned. TEACHING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 23 Covenant, only much enlarged and adapted to a more developed state of society. As Dr. Driver says : ' The practical form which devotion to Jehovah is to take ... is to embrace the Israelite's social and domestic life ; it is to determine his attitude towards the moral and civil ordinances prescribed for his observance. The individual laws contained in chapters xii. to xxvi. are designed for the moral and social welfare of the nation. Love of God involves the love of one's neighbour and the avoidance of any act which may be detri- mental to a neighbour's welfare. The Israelite must therefore accommodate himself to the con- stitution under which he lives ; and, where occasion arises, observe cheerfully the various civil ordin- ances which, in Israel, as in every well-ordered community, are necessary for protection against evil-doers, and for regulating intercourse between members of the same society.' ^ Most readers of the Old Testament are tempted to forget the very close connection which actually existed between the ' Law ' and the Prophets. They do not remember that in all probability much of what we call ' the Law,' e.g. Deuteronomy, was due to the prophets, was in fact inspired by them, also that a great part of their teaching consisted in exhorta- tions to obey the very principles which are laid down in the Law.^ Thus the duties and obligations of citizenship promulgated in Deuteronomy embody those taught by the prophets. To quote Dr. Driver again : ' The author [of Deuteronomy] builds upon 1 Driver, Deuteronomy, p. xxiii. » ' Prophecy stood on the foundation o£ the Law, and was not a separate and independent means of grace and redemption itself.' — Davidson, Old Testament Prophecy, p. 5 ; see also p. 8. 24 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP the foundation of the prophets . . . they had taught that the claims of civil and social justice were paramount in Jehovah's eyes ; Isaiah has reaffirmed, with fresh emphasis, the old truth (Exod. xix. 6) that it was Israel's vocation to be a holy nation.' ^ Another stratum of the Law is that known as ' The Priestly Code.' The main part of this is concerned with ritual and ceremonial observances. It belongs to a different atmosphere, and approaches life from a different point of view, to that of the prophets. There is, however, one small fragment of this code which breathes the same spirit as that of the ' Book of the Covenant ' and of Deuteronomy, indeed in some respects rises above these. In the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus we find exhortations to liberality and mercy, to honesty, to truthfulness, against vindictiveness, on behalf of kindness to the stranger, also to the use of just balances and true weights and measures. All these are necessary if the social relationships between man and man are to be what Ihey should be.^ The difference between the Law and the Prophets is not so much one of principle as one of occasion and method. It is not that the moral standard or the conception of social duty expressed by either is greatly above or below that of the other. It is rather the difference between an Act of Parliament and the political speech made in its favour ; it is rather the difference between some broad moral or social principle and the sermon which exhorts people to obey it. In the prophet we find the power of personality which a legal code necessarily ' Deuteronomy, p. xxvii. '^ See art. ' I^w ' (Old Testament) in Hastings' Bib. Diet. TEACHING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 25 lacks. If the Law contains the words of the wise, the prophet is at once the hammer and arm, the strength and muscle which drives the principle home, so that it may be securely fastened in the heart of the hearer.^ It will again be obvious that I cannot attempt to deal with the teaching of the prophets in any detail. All I can do is to give a general survey of the social difficulties which they reveal, and of the manner in which they dealt with these. When I speak of ' the prophets ' here I have in mind the great succession of those prophets whose writings have come down to us, which opens with Amos and which may be said to close with ' Malachi.' Perhaps the message which underlies the teaching of all, and which most comprehensively and succinctly expresses the chief burden of their various utterances, is that contained in the words of Micah, ' And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ? ' ^ These few words of course imply far more than appears on their surface ; they may indeed be said to describe the right conduct of life, coupled with, or rather de- pendent upon, a right attitude towards God.^ And the real meaning of the words becomes much more clear if their context is remembered. They follow a passage in which the uselessness of mere ceremonial observance and obedience is exposed ; they precede a description of the oppression, the 1 Eccles. xii. ii. ' Micah vi. 8 ' To ' walk humbly ' is the truly scientific attitude of life ; hence the prophets were the truly scientific teachers of that day : to-day the converse proposition is at least partially true. 26 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP dishonesty, the deceitfulness and violence which are rife in the city. Or, to take another example, the opening chapter of what we may term prophecy as literature, viz. the first chapter of Amos, which is a scathing denunciation of inhumanity, of unsocial sins. It is not idolatry or irreligiousness, in our usual sense of the word, which provokes at once God's wrath and the prophet's fiercest invective, it is the utter disregard of kindness and mercy.^ Then in that chapter which has wisely been printed first in the prophetic writers — the first chapter of Isaiah — we find again that it is the want of the civic virtues of justice, honesty, and mercy that is most strongly rebuked ; there is no respect for law, on the contrary, there is universal self-seeking : the claims of the helpless and oppressed classes are entirely ignored.^ What is true of the Law and the Prophets is equally true of the Psalms and of such writings as Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiasticus. Where are unsocial vices more strongly denounced than in the Psalms ? And they are so as they are found in the city and its streets. In the city are violence and strife, and in the streets are wronging and defrauding ; there robbery, usury, and bribery are among the curses of life.' The setting of the story of Job may be pastoral and patriarchal, but when we read beneath the surface of the writing, the life pictured is evidently one belonging to the complex state of society we associate with town life and with masses of people.* In the book of Proverbs 1 Amos i. 3, 9, II ; ii. 6. ' Isa. i. 23, etc. ^ ^.g. Vs. x. * See art. 'Job' (Book of) in Hastings' Bib Diet., vol. ii. p. 670. TEACHING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 27 the helplessness of the poor, the oppression to which they are subjected, and the dangers of riches are constantly insisted upon. With all this wealth of law and history, precept and exhortation (bearing upon the need of the exercise of the social and civic virtues) in the hands of those to whom He was speaking, our Lord had no need to add to it ; His task was rather to inculcate the necessity of those qualities of personal character which alone enable a man to exercise these social virtues. Let us, then, next very briefly notice how in His life and teaching, and in the teaching of His first followers, those qualities which make the good citizen find a first and fore- most place. Appendix to Chapter II A Brief Summary of the Social Teaching of the Old Testament The following brief summary of conclusions from what we may term the ' Social Teaching ' of the Old Testament may be useful : — ■ 1. After their settlement under Joshua in Canaan the Israelites were practically a nation of small free- holders, of agricultural freemen owning and farming their own land. This state of things was considered so essential to the welfare of the nation that laws were from time to time enacted whose object was to prevent both the Israelite falling into a condition of permanent slavery and his land being alienated in 28 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP perpetuity from him and from his family.^ What we see actually happening is the gradual growth of a trading class, the country State gradually changing into a State where towns develop, and, finally, the life of the nation and a large proportion of the population tending to concentrate in Jerusalem ; so that, politically considered, ' the inhabitants of Jerusalem ' ^ becomes a synonym for ' the people.' It is during this process, and apparently as a result of it, that what we term ' social problems ' arise, and continually become more and more acute. No one can study the history of this process carefully without feeling that the school of reformers who to-day state that the ' land question ' is the key to social reform, and that a ' back-to-the-land ' movement is the first essential step in such a reform, — no one can deny that this school of reformers has certainly the teaching of the Old Testament on its side. 2. Throughout the Old Testament the greatest possible stress is laid upon the necessity of right relationships between the employer and the employed. Slavery did exist among the Israelites, but there also existed a body of laws whose object was to protect the slave, to mitigate, as far as possible, the hard conditions inevitably connected with his lot, and to claim the exercise of the quality of mercy on his behalf ; indeed there is no virtue whose constant exercise both the Law and the Prophets more persistently demand than this.* On the other hand, the virtues of industry and honesty on the part of the employed are just as insistently demanded ; idleness and dishonesty are evils which deserve and should meet with severe punishment. Here, again, we are in the very heart of a modern problem, that of the right relationship between masters ^ E.g. Lev. XXV. 13. " The phrase is especially frequent in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. ' Driver's Deuteronomy, pp. 182 ff. TEACHING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 29 and workpeople. The great temptation of the master, especially when the number of unemployed is large, when there is a ' well of labour ' at the factory gate from which he can draw, is to oppress. On the other hand, the chief temptation of the workman is to be slack, to scamp his work — and scamped work is dis- honest work — and to do less than his best. The difl&culty of the legislator to-day (who represents the citizens) is to frame laws which shall restrain either form of injustice, without making it more easy to commit the other. From experience of the past we are sometimes tempted unduly to discount the power of legislation to compass its object. And restrictive legislation may so hamper both employer and employed that competition becomes impossible with other countries where such legislation is unknown. On the other hand, the Old Testament is a witness to the need of at least a measure of such legislation. It is here that we see the value and the peculiar virtue of Chris- tianity — a virtue at least foreshadowed in the Old Testament — namely, the virtue of personal character (issuing in personal conduct) inspired by such principles as that of the preciousness of man and the absolute necessity of truth, and of doing justly. Where the employer recognises that his ' hands ' are human beings, and where the employed feels that he must render as well as demand truth and justice, there the problem is far on the road towards solution. 3. A third fundamental conviction found from one end of the Old Testament to the other is the immense importance of the family. Upon this, again, the Law, the Prophets, and such writings as the book of Proverbs are entirely at one. Law after law is enacted for the protection of the family ; exhortation after exhortation lays stress upon the importance of each member of the family discharging the duties incumbent upon him or her from their position within the family. Father and 30 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP mother, son and daughter, have each their particular responsibiUty towards each other member of the family, and towards the family as a whole ; and welfare depends upon its due discharge. The family, and not the individual, is the true unit of the nation and of society. The fiercest invectives of the prophets are directed against those who trample upon, and put to shame, the solemn and beautiful sanctities of family life. It is in the discharge of the duties of the home that the discharge of the duties of citizenship is best learnt. It is within the family that obedience to authority,! that tender care for others, that the duty of each to take his share in ensuring the welfare of the whole can be first and most easily practised. And the problem of the home, that of family life, is also to-day one of the chief difficulties of the social reformer. At present there seems to be a tendency for home interests and family ties to grow weaker, and for family responsibilities to be shirked or declined. Some attribute this to the growing interference — whether necessary or unnecessary is an open question — on the part of the State with family life. We find among growing boys and girls an increasing impatience of control,^ among young men and women even a dread of incurring the natural responsibilities which parenthood involves. All this makes the efficient discharge of the duties of citizenship more difficult, if from no other cause certainly from this, that the training which best fits men to discharge these duties has never been experienced. There is no literature upon this subject so sound in its fundamental principles and so thoroughly healthy in its tone as that of the Old Testament. And 1 E.g. The Fifth Commandment (note its expansion in the Catechism) . ' To-day many of these, after they become wage-earners, so long as they remain at home, think that when they have paid their parents a fixed, recognised sum for board and lodging, they have discharged all their home responsibilities : actually they live the life of lodgers or ' paying guests. ' TEACHING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 31 we may feel sure that in the best homes of the New Testament, such, for instance, as that of Joseph and Mary, or of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the family life was built up according to Old Testament models. It was to such homes as these that Christ could point, it was such homes He had in mind in His teaching upon family life. CHAPTER III THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 1. Of Christ and the Gospels What is termed the ' Social Teaching ' of Christ, and also of the whole New Testament, has of late years been the subject of so many books ^ that my own treatment of the subject may be very brief. What we need especially to remember is, as I have already stated,^ that neither Christ nor His apostles teach that any particular form of social organisation is in itself intrinsically superior to all others. If we divide such forms into monarchic, oligarchic, and democratic, no man can truthfully assert that in the New Testament any one of these is chosen for special commendation. The following words of Dr. Hort, though written with a different object, are well worth remembering in this con- nection : ' According to the New Testament the Christian life is the true human life, and Christians become true men in proportion as they live up to it ; the right relations between the members of the Christian society are simply the normal relations which should exist between members of the human race ; and all the relations of life, being baptised 1 E.g. Peabody, Jesus Christ and the Social Question ; Shailer Mathew's The Social Teaching of Jesus ; Rauschenbusch, Chris- tianity and the Social Crisis ; Leighton, Jesus Christ and the Civilisation of To-day, etc., etc. 2 P. lO. SOCIAL TEACHING OF NEW TESTAMENT 33 into Christ, become parts and particular modes of Christian membership.' ^ To these words I would add Dr. Hort's remark about ' the futility of endeavouring to make the Apostolic history into a set of authoritative precedents to be rigorously copied without regard to time and place, thus turning the Gospel into a second Levitical Code.' ^ What we actually do find in the teaching of Christ and of the New Testament is an infinite stress laid upon certain virtues or principles which we know from experience have enormously increased social welfare under almost every conceivable form of government or of civil administration. Christ made character pre-eminent ; and char- acter must be expressed in conduct, and no form of conduct (as we have already seen) can have consequences which are confined to the persons whose conduct we are considering. Good char- acter (issuing in good conduct) must have a good social influence. Hence good character is the primary and essential condition for a rightly ordered social life and social state. And history is full of instances where a very imperfect form of govern- ment administered by good men has been infinitely more conducive to the welfare of the citizens than a much superior form of government administered by evil men. It would be no exaggeration to assert that the whole of Christ's so-called social teaching is im- plicitly contained in a single exhortation, viz. : ' Seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness.' * God's righteousness is God's character, this character is God's will, which is expressed in > The Christian Ecclesia, p. 228. '■ Ibid , p. 232. ' St. Matt. vi. 33 (R.V.). 34 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP Christ's life and teaching. For ' He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ' ; ^ 'I and the Father are one ' ; ^ ' The words that I say unto you I speak not from Myself : but the Father abiding in Me doeth His works.' ^ Hence Christ's conduct and Christ's principles have a Divine source, and they are for all, at all times, the highest possible ideal. If their source is personal their issues are social. Hence Christ's conduct and principles must be the ideal social conduct and social principles for every professing Christian. Every book on social life or social work is an attempt to answer this question, How should a man treat his neighbour ? The only satisfactory answer for the Christian to this question is. Go and watch Christ, listen to Christ, and copy Him. Every Christian book on these subjects can only be an attempt to expound and to apply to present needs or particular circumstances what Christ has done and what Christ has said. No action and no teaching, if it claim to be Christian, must be contrary to His example or contradict His principles. In the teaching of Christ the following points must be remembered with special care : His reference to the posi,* and, in this, His acceptance of the chief contents, and the purpose of the teach- ing of the Old Testament in the words, ' Think not I am come to destroy the law and the prophets ; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil ' ; ^ also. His own summary of His own present purpose, of the spirit and object of His own conduct, contained 1 St. John xiv. 9. ' St. John x. 30. » St. John xiv. 10. • See pp. 15 fi. ' St. Matt. v. 17. SOCIAL TEACHING OF NEW TESTAMENT 35 in the words, ' The Son of Man came not, to be ministered unto ' (i.e. to be helped or served by others) ' but to minister.' ^ By employing the term ' the Son of Man,' Christ identified Himself with all men, and so implied that this, His ideal, was one to be realised by all. Again, He pointed to the future conduct of those who should claim to be His disciples and call themselves by His name. The test of the rightfulness of this claim will be found in their social conduct : ' By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.' ^ Nowhere is the ' social ' teaching of Christ made more clear than in His parables. For it is in these that He lays down not so much rules for conduct under particular circumstances as the great prin- ciples or the spirit which should underlie and inspire conduct under all circumstances ; for instance, in that of the Sower He bids us remember the fact and power of assimilation of environment ; in the Good Samaritan the claims of helplessness ; in those of the Talents and the Ten Virgins how we are responsible in all positions and at all times ; in that of the Wicked Husbandman how life is a stewardship and property a trust. It is by living up to these great principles, which are of universal application, that we shall be obedient to the real ' social ' teaching of Christ. From this very brief outline we may, I think, conclude that what Christ demands most of all is a desire to serve, which implies humility ; and which, in turn, demands a desire to learn how to serve most usefully. Also Christ impresses upon us the need of a sense of deep responsibility both 1 St. Matt. XX. 28. 2 St. John xiii. 35. 36 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP towards God and towards man — towards God for all that He has entrusted to us, towards man for the right use of this — not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of others. But the greatest of all impressions we gather from Christ — ^from His life no less than from His words — ^is His infmite love of man ruled by perfect wisdom and directed towards perfect (that is, towards the Divine) righteousness, a righteousness expressed in doing justice coupled with mercy or kindness. Every intelligent Christian social worker knows that could we ensure these qualities in those citizens who profess to be Christians, the great majority of those social problems in which we seek to interest men and women would soon be far advanced towards solution. It is the absence of a sense of responsibiUty or stewardship, it is the refusal to take the trouble to learn, it is selfishness (a synonym for sin), issuing in injustice and want of kindness — it is these that are the real obstacles to social progress. 2. Of the Apostolic Writers When we turn to the apostolic writers we find that their ' social teaching,' their teaching about our duty towards our neighbour, consists in an application of the principles of Christ evidently inspired by the particular circumstances and needs of those whom they were addressing. This is the true reason why we find some diversity of treatment between, for instance, St. James, St. Paul, and St. John — between the ecclesiastical ruler who had to deal with the particular tendencies, even the vices, of his Jewish fellow-countrymen, the SOCIAL TEACHING OF NEW TESTAMENT 37 missionary apostle who had to deal with such people as those of Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus, and the thinker who had, by long meditation upon His teaching, so entered into the mind of Christ that he was able to express the pictorial lessons of the parables in the form of principles of universal application. 1. St. James (whose Epistle is ' specially remark- able for constant hidden allusions to our Lord's sayings, such as we find in the first three Gospels ') ^ dwells upon the danger of the insolence of wealth, of the contradiction of Christianity in those professing Christians who treat the poor with contempt and who show respect of persons ; and he is particularly severe upon any oppression of those who may be in a position which prevents them from resisting it. 2. In St. Paul we find a marvellous wealth of Christian ethical exhortation which is unintelligible apart from a social application. Examples of this are found in every Epistle, from the First to the Thessalonians to the Second to Timothy. I will confine myself to two instances : (1) The strong condemnation of those who walk disorderly and not after the [Christian] tradition, which surely must refer to the great principles laid down by Christ Himself. The word disorderly ^ is one capable of wide application ; it is practically the conduct of the anarchist, and anarchy is only the worst form of individualism pushed to its logical conclusion. And St. Paul especially rebukes that form of disorderliness which refuses to live up to the ' Dr. Hoit, St. James, p. xxxiii. ^ driKTUs : 2 Thess. jii. 6. See Milligan, Thessalonians, pp. 152 s. 88 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP responsibility of maintaining ourselves (and those naturally dependent on us). What a condemnation have we here of the idle poor — one of the great difficulties of the social reformer ; and also of the idle rich, who dishonestly refuse to recognise their duty in working for the wages they have been paid in advance ! (2) St. Paul's analogy between the Christian society and the human body ^ is equally applicable to the civil society of which we are equally members. Here, again, the primary source of evil is that selfishness which refuses to recognise its personal responsibility to take its share in promoting the common good. 3. The teaching of St. John, if somewhat more abstract, is not less clear or less urgent. Such sentences as ' He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in the darkness until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him ' ^ are full of ' social ' application. The contrasts seem strong. But, as Bishop Westcott says, ' Indiffer- ence is impossible . . . hatred is a want of sym- pathy . . . where sympathy does not exist hatred is inevitable.' And an all too common application of the words ' occasion of stumbling ' is found where one man makes money by putting temptation in the path of his fellowmen.* Another instance of St. John's ' social ' teaching is found in the words, ' Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.' * For righteousness here is surely the practical 1 I Cor. xii. I ff. ; Eph. iv. i6. " i John ii. 9. 2 E.g. in the ' drink ' trade : this, of course, is the chief con- demnation of such trades. * I John iii. 10. SOCIAL TEACHING OF NEW TESTAMENT 39 expression of obedience to the law or revealed will of God, and all forms of lawlessness are examples of ' unsocial ' conduct. Also those who are guilty of this lack that Divine inspiration, which issues in the service of others, and which is the expression of love. Once more, in the sajing, ' Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer,' ^ we have a striking condemnation of much which takes place to-day ; for instance, of that fierce competition, of that unscrupulous effort, to ' get the better ' of another, which occurs when men, like beasts of prey, are trying to live at the expense of others, in other words, to filch away some part of the life of another. Lastly, in the well-known words, ' Whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need and shutteth up his compassion from him,' ^ we have a picture of what is all too commonly taking place. To-day we find multitudes of those who have, at any rate in considerable measure, the goods of this world callously indiffer- ent to those who are actually in need. Once more let me urge that it is not by seeking to prove whether Christ was a socialist or an individualist, whether He held with an aristocratic or a democratic form of government, or whether the New Testament does or does not favour a community of goods, that we shall get at the principles of Christ. It is rather by noticing how He lays stress upon certain great fundamental virtues and principles that we shall come to the heart of His teaching. Still more if we try to put these into practice shall we prove their value and the enormous range of their application.' AVhat the Christian citizen learns from the New ' I John iii. 15. ' St. John iii. 17. ^ St. John vii. 17. 40 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP Testament is both the duty and the enormous influence of self-sacrifice for others. He learns the inestimable value and the tremendous power of justice : he finds the infinite importance and the immense influence of kindness and mercy. He feels that life is a stewardship with great responsi- bilities, especially to those who have fewer and less advantages than himself. He learns he cannot narrow the bounds of obligation or confine the call to service within self-chosen limitations. He is constantly reminded, no less by example than by precept, that he was sent into the world to serve others rather than to expect or demand service from others. It is in explaining to us the true philosophy of hfe, and in providing us with at once the loftiest and strongest of all inspirations to the highest forms of social conduct, that the New Testament stands supreme. CHAPTER IV THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN Bearing in mind the great principles of Holy Scripture, and especially the doctrine of the Incar- nation (with its issues), we may now proceed to try to answer this question : What, in the light of this teaching, must be the social conduct of the Christian citizen ? What is his responsibility towards the various members of the community in the midst of which he lives ? This community— whether it be the State or the municipality — ^may from one point of view be regarded as a co-operative society which exists for the benefit of all its members. Consequently its welfare as a whole, and the welfare of every member, depend upon each member doing his best for every other member. But this assumes that every member is in a condition and position to do this. Now ' condition ' and ' position,' in the sense in which they are here used, are simply the two parts of opportunity. Hence one great duty, probably the primary duty of the Christian citizen, is to see that every one, as far as possible, enjoys at least the opportunity of rendering effective service to his fellowmen. This means that he will strive to see that every human life within the community has the chance of becoming the best which it has within it the possibihties of being. 42 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP It is only after much reflection and after long and wide experience that we realise all that this implies. In connection with this thought of possibilities, let us now briefly consider the actual conditions under which many a human life exists and develops, or fails to develop, to-day. To begin with, an immense number of lives are born into the world, as we say, ' handicapped ' in various ways. While we are in the midst of the controversies which are being waged to-day upon the nature of hereditary influences, and upon the relative importance to be assigned to them, whether in connection with physical health or moral character — ^it is well that we should not speak too dogmatically upon these. The temptation to attribute failure on one's own part or on the part of others to influences beyond our or their control is great, because it is so easy, and withal far pleasanter than to attribute failure to personal wrongdoing. But this at least may certainly be asserted, that all children are not born into the world with equally good health or with equally favourable physical prospects, and also that, in a certain number of cases, the reason why some are ' born handicapped ' is due to the health, the conduct, or the circumstances of their parents or more distant progenitors. Life does not actually begin with birth, which is rather a change in the nature of the child's environ- ment. Now every child in the world is due to a certain vital principle which has been placed in a certain enviroiunent. And the nature and quality of the child at first are due both to the nature and quality of the vital principle and to the nature and quality of the environment, out of which RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CITIZEN 43 environment the child develops by the process of assimilation. It is impossible here to enter into the laws and principles of eugenics ; not that I consider these unimportant. On the contrary, they are so im- portant that to treat them cursorily, as I should be compelled to treat them, would be to do them injustice. All I would now assert is, that the problems connected with a sound stock and physical health — and health is a chief factor in the right development of every life, not only physically but morally — are far more important and at the same time far more complicated than the ordinary citizen imagines. For adequate treatment the causes of good or bad health must often be pushed farther back into the past history of the stock, and they must be considered in reference to a far wider circle of conditions than is generally imagined. The child is born. But into what kind of an environment are a very large number of children in England born to-day ? Young life is very tender and delicate life ; and it requires the greatest care if it is to be satisfactorily reared. Many things which are quite harmless to an adult will kill an infant. Fortunately the public conscience is being rapidly roused in regard to the terrible amount of infant mortality which still exists to-day. An almost incredible ignorance, the most unsuitable environment, and the want, not necessarily, of the actual means of life, but of what is needful for infant life — all these taken together will account for the greater part of this mortality. What I would here ask is, Do not the words, 'Am I my brother's keeper ? ' apply to these infants ? Is 44 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP not the preservation of their lives to be a matter of concern to the community ? The children — those of others — were dear to Christ ; are they not to be dear to the Christian citizen ? Must we not, at least to some extent, be responsible for the enAdronment — I use the word in its widest sense, the sense in which it will include the ignorance and, perchance, the poverty of the parents — into which these children are born ? What kind of a life, during their earliest years, is that lived by many of the children of the poor who survive beyond infancy ? I refer to the years between one and five, when the legal age for school begins. Many readers of this book will know how these years are spent by the children of the rich, even by those of the moderately well-to-do. But what during these years is the actual experience of many children of the poor ? To learn about this, I would not question the ordinary untrained district visitor, whose lack of training is frequently proved not only by her inability to understand what she does see, but also by her want of imagination. She is not able to construct mentally a picture of the actual conditions of the family life during each hour of the day and night. But I would ask the Sister in charge of the children's ward of the great General Hospital, or th€ nurses in the Poor Law infirmary, or the Relieving Officer, when he has not — as is usually the case — far more cases under his care than he can possibly look after properly. It must suffice for me to assert here that, again, during these years the mortality, to say nothing of the sickness, among the children of the poor is far larger than it should be. And of the children who do survive, many carry with them through life the evil results RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CITIZEN 45 — moral as well as physical — of a neglected child- hood. Here let us pause for a moment to consider the following facts. For the education of these children during the next eight or nine years the citizens of this country have made themselves responsible ; upon this education many million pounds of public money are yearly expended ; but from this education many of these children actually profit far less than they should, because — either by the neglect or the inability of their parents — they are incapable, physically and mentally, of using the education provided for them.^ In the light of the Incarnation, and in the light of the doctrine of ' the infinite value of the human soul,' can the Christian citizen — man or woman — rest content without trying to do something to improve the conditions under which many of the children of the poor, during these years, grow up ? We pass to the years of school life, which, gener- ally speaking, lasts from the age of five or six (unfortunately sometimes even earlier than five) to that of thirteen or fourteen. Dvu"ing these years the child as a rule lives in four environments — the home, the day school, the streets, the Sunday school. I place these according to the number of hours usually spent, week by week, in each. From each environment the child is assimilating. And before this book is finished I hope to prove that the Christian citizen must regard himself as to some extent responsible for the nature, not of only one or two, but of all these various environ- ments. Then, it is dm-ing these years that the ' The Provision of Meals Act, where adopted, has done some- thing towards supplying some food for the very poorest. 46 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP development of the child — physically, intellectu- ally, morally, and spiritually — ^if the child's capacities are normal, is extremely active. In some respects this is the period during which the child's assimilative powers are at their highest. Hence there is no period during which it is more important that the nature of the child's environ- ment should in every way be as wholesome as possible. But are we not often greatly disappointed with the progress, or rather with the want of progress made during these years ? To-day we frequently hear dissatisfaction expressed with regard to the results of the education given in the elementary schools. Certainly that education is still very imperfect ; and it might easily be made much more useful.^ But the people who complain about ' the poverty of results ' from education forget that the children are in the day school — our second environment — not more than about 27^ hours per week ; we may add to this two hours for the Sunday school, which leaves 138^ hours to be passed in the home and in the streets. If, now, we allow 56 hours for sleep — a very liberal allowance for many of the children of the poor — we find that of the waking hours of the child three times as many are passed in the home and in the streets as are passed in the school ! And wherever the child is assimilation in some form or other is proceeding. It would be well if those who are so dissatisfied with the results of elementary education would bear these facts in mind. The next stage of life — we will consider this as 1 When public opinion upon education becomes more en- lightened, and public interest more general, we may hope for an improvement in this direction. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CITIZEN 47 extending from fourteen to twenty-one — is not less important than those preceding it. And here, again, a comparison between the lot of the rich and that of the poor during this period must be made ; indeed, not only one comparison should be made, but many. Upon the education of the children of the rich frequently more than £1000 is spent during these seven years — whether they be boys or girls. But among the children of the poor these years are probably the most regular of all the periods of life for wage-earning. During this period the poor are most seldom out of employ- ment. Frequently a man over forty may spend weeks in search of work ; but a boy or girl of fifteen or sixteen can generally find work in as many hours. These years, also, are years of rapid assimilation. We sometimes speak of the ' healthy ' appetites of growing boys and girls ; but the assimilative powers of the mind and of the feelings, if properly treated, are, in comparison, not less active than those of the body. Among the children of the well-to-do these years are, from an educational point of view, the most important years of life. Up to fourteen years of age the child has been doing little more than learning how to learn, or perhaps rather learn- ing how to use the instruments and faculties whereby knowledge and skill are acquired. This is true of the children of all classes. But at the very time when, among the rich, all that their children have so far acquired is being turned, or may be turned, to excellent account, at the very same time the opportunity of doing this is suddenly, and to a great extent permanently, denied to the poor. It is because the education given in our elementary schools stops far too soon that so much 48 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP of the money lavished upon these schools is wasted. In reference to this, the Christian citizen will remember that Christ was the greatest economist that ever lived, because He was so economical of life and of all those faculties whereby life is enriched. As an earnest follower of His Master, the true Christian citizen will zealously seek to devise some method whereby this waste may be prevented. He will try to see that the children of the poor — if in different and in more directly and immediately useful ways — have, like the children of the rich, an opportunity of continuing their education, at any rate into the years of young manhood and womanhood. At about the age of fourteen the vast majority of the children of the poor begin to earn their own living ; but in what way do many of them begin to do this ? Here we must institute another com- parison. Before the children of even the very moderately well-to-do take up some work, before they go into some business or profession, their future prospects from this are generally long and carefully considered, and the amount of wages or salary they will at once receive is not the chief factor in the decision of what their calling shall be. Future prospects are usually regarded as of far greater importance than present remuneration. Also the fitness of the young people, their tastes and aptitudes, are, as a rule, carefully weighed. With the children of the poor it is generally quite differ- ent. Frequently the day after a boy or girl leaves school he or she goes to some kind of work. The chief reason for deciding the nature of the work is usually the answer to this question. Where are the highest immediate wages to be found ? The father RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CITIZEN 49 may be out of work, the mother may be a widow, there may have been for years a real struggle with poverty in the home, hence every single shilling which can be added to the weekly income is a matter of very great moment. A boy of fourteen who goes as an apprentice — supposing he can get his premium paid — may for the first year receive three or four shillings weekly ; the boy who goes into a factory or goes as a ' nipper ' round the town with a dray will get six shillings, possibly seven. An additional two or three shillings in the family income is in some homes the difference between sufficiency and want. But what of the future of the boy ? What of his position and prospects seven, ten, or twenty years hence ? Here we come to one of the chief factors in the great problem of unemployment. For the boy who goes to unskilled or ' blind-alley ' employment has httle or no chance of developing his faculties. He has no incentive to produce that for which, as far as he can see, there is no demand. His work is simply that of a machine. Intellectually he is probably less capable at eighteen than he was at fourteen.^ I must not stay to prove the statement, but it is well known that the way in which a man earns his living has a considerable effect upon his moral character. ^ Beyond strength, a certain amount of speed, and regularity, nothing is required of the unskilled labourer. When at twenty-one he requires a man's wages, he may be superseded by a boy who 1 It is common experience that, if a boy leaves an elementary school in Standard VI. at thirteen years of age, and returns, say at sixteen, to a continuation school, his intellectual attainments have dropped to the level of about Standard IV. * See Marshall's Economics of Industry, p. i. D 50 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP probably can do all that is required. Certainly after forty, when both speed and strength are apt to begin to diminish, his chances of employment become less. Thus there is no development intel- lectually, morally, or in economic worth. From this point of view alone such a life is to be con- demned. And this is the point of view from which the Christian citizen must approach the problem. As a member of the community he must not silently acquiesce in the continuance of a system which tends to dishumanise a proportion of the young lives of the nation. That which tends to prevent, even to check wholesome development, cannot, in the light of the Incarnation, be regarded as satis- factory. We must speak cautiously of ' the rights of man,' but among these we may surely place that of opportunity for growth of mind and character. Too often to-day men are mere physical machines, which, like other machines, wear out, and then are thrown upon that great ' human scrap- heap ' which tends to accumulate in all great industrial centres. The Christian citizen, who recognises that he is his ' brother's keeper,' will not regard this condition of things or this process as ' inevitable.' Means are at present being devised ^ whereby the evil may be greatly lessened, if not wholly eradicated, and into this movement the Christian citizen will throw his influence. The next stage in life is that during which young men and women by marriage seek to make a home for themselves and to enter upon the responsibilities of parenthood and family life. Many thoughts and questions here suggest themselves to us ; for 1 By consultative committees which are in touch with both the Education Authorities and the Labour Exchanges. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CITIZEN 51 instance, What preparation have the majority of young people, and especially of young women, for this great responsibility ? In what spirit do they usually approach it ? In this respect I believe there is little to choose between rich and poor. In both classes there are those who approach it in exactly the right spirit. In both classes many enter upon it ' lightly ' and very ' unadvisedly.' On the other hand, among the rich, I fear, there are not a few cases in which on one side or the other a mercenary spirit rules. In what proportion of families, in any class of society, is there given by the parents wise and yet sympathetic advice upon this most responsible of all relationships, and the one of all others most heavily charged with issues for good or for evil ? Between the ideas of the family and of good citizenship there should be the closest connection. In the family the future citizens are trained, also the wise discharge of the responsibilities of fatherhood are among the best of all preparations for the discharge of those of the citizen. Among the various duties of the good citizen, I would assign a very chief place to that of doing all in his power to exercise as wholesome as possible an influence on the subject of marriage. Fathers and mothers might do this far more earnestly and far more efficaciously than is generally the case at present. Those, also, who are in any way engaged in training young men and women, or who stand to these in a position of responsibility, might also do much. To-day there are an immense number of Bible classes, guilds, and other similar societies, yet how rarely do we hear of this subject forming the topic of an address ! ^ From time to 1 See further upon this, p. 137. 62 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP time a conscientious and wise medical man does no doubt exercise his influence to prevent a marriage when the physical condition of either party is clearly quite unfit, and when he has over- whelming evidence that nothing but misery could result from their union. The science of eugenics, to which I have already alluded, is still in its infancy, and even the knowledge which we have upon it is as yet in the possession of a very few. Yet the subject is one whose importance cannot be exaggerated. In the present state of the contro- versy it would be at least unwise, as I have already said, to speak dogmatically about the transmission of hereditary and acquired mental and moral characters ; but this may be said without fear of contradiction, that it is nothing less than criminal for many of the people to propagate children who to-day are recklessly engaged in doing this. They are producing lives which at the best are a burden, at the worst a curse, to the community. But what, it may be asked, can even the best-intentioned people do in a matter of this kind ? They can rouse, inform, and improve public opinion. And when public opinion has become sufficiently strong, then action will be taken.^ No doubt in a matter of this kind we must move slowly and cautiously. But even now much might be done, especially by greater care and stricter surveillance of feeble- minded girls and women. ^ In connection with this subject of marriage, there is a question which is much debated by different schools of social reformers, viz. what is termed the • History shows us what an immense effect public opinion has on marriage customs. " These should be placed under some form of State surveillance. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CITIZEN 63 ' endowment of motherhood.' ^ As the words stand they are capable of very different interpreta- tion, i.e. the amount of public support given to mothers among the poor might be small or it might be very considerable. Undoubtedly many very poor and deserving mothers cannot at present obtain what they ought to have when their children are born. They frequently work almost up to the hour of their confinement, and they just as fre- quently begin to work — if not in factories — far too soon after it.^ Then they cannot afford either skilful treatment or sufficient nourishment. I am now speaking of evils over which they have no control, which are not due to wastefulness, care- lessness, or ignorance. There are, of course, many additional evils due to these, but at present I am not concerned with them. Broadly speaking, upon the endowment of motherhood two opposite views may be taken, for both of which much may be said : One school of social reformers urges that a liberal allowance to the very poor during the period of childbirth, far from being extravagant or wasteful, would be the truest and most far-sighted economy : the expenditure incurred by the nation would be more than returned in the improved health and efficiency which would be, as far as possible, guaranteed to both mother and child. It is pointed out that a great proportion of the immense sum of money spent by the public medical services of this country is spent in combating sickness, in battling with ill-health, which ought never to have 1 See chapter iii. of the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission. * On this subject much light is thrown in the two chapters entitled 'Wives and Daughters' in Lady Bell's At the Works. See also Report on Physical Deterioration [Cd. 2175], pp. 47-50. S4 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP existed. Prevention, it is argued, is not only better, it is far cheaper, than cure. The other school of social reformers urge the danger — a very real one — of taking away from people responsibilities which it is well for their own character that they should bear, and which (it is added) nature intends them to bear. Undoubtedly there is an immense danger in taking away from any one any kind of responsibility, and the Christian social reformer, to whatever school of thought he belongs, should be the first to realise this, because his aim is not simply the economic, but also the moral betterment of the people. He does not believe in economic improvement at the cost of moral deterioration, for he knows that under those circumstances even the economic improvement will be very temporary, will ultimately, indeed, be altogether futile. What both schools of social reformiers need is discrimina- tion. The mistake frequently made by the first is that they check self-effort, and by the second that they demand a larger measure of self-effort than is actually possible. Should the recommenda- tions as to a public medical service made in the Minority Report of the last Poor Law Com- mission be adopted, both evils might be prevented ; for medical assistance and the requisite medical extras might be demanded as a right ; but in the case of those able to repay, such repayment might be enforced by law. I must not pursue this examination into the various evils which widely exist, but which are by no means inevitable. Such evils meet the social reformer at every stage of human life. What I desired to do in this chapter was to indicate, as RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CITIZEN 55 clearly and as briefly as possible, how wide is the field which is open to all who would try to benefit their fellows ; I wished to show how very much there is which needs to be done. The individual, in his individual capacity, may no doubt do much, but the man who recognises his responsibilities as a citizen can do far more. As an individual he can certainly attack a number of more or less isolated cases of evil, and he can employ methods of either palliation or cure ; he may even attack the sources or causes of evil in these particular cases. But the man who works as a Christian citizen can aim at prevention; he can work for better laws, and for a better administration of existing laws. The citizen stands not for individual but for corporate action ; he stands for the duty and the responsibility of the community of which he forms a part. In the following chapters I hope to deal in much greater detail with some of the many problems which I have so far only mentioned. I shall also try to point out how the Christian citizen may improve both the characters and the conditions of a great many people at the present time. CHAPTER V THE PHYSICAL WELFARE OF THE FUTURE CITIZENS Christ was accustomed to state the purpose of His mission in various short and pregnant sentences. Among these we find the following : ' I came that they {i.e. all men) may have life.' ^ If we give to the word ' hf e ' its fullest and deepest meaning, this purpose might be otherwise expressed thus — to enable man as he is to become the best in every way he has the capacity for being, or, in other words, to enable him to become what God meant him to be. This change, we can see, will involve a process of development in the right direction. And it will involve a process of what we may term ' all round ' development — an improvement in life physically, intellectually, morally, and spiritually. Our Lord Himself speaks simply of ' life.' He did not speak of physical life or spiritual life, because He knew that all the various parts of our human nature act and react upon each other. We cannot think of perfect mental health apart from physical health, or of moral health apart from mental health. We cannot isolate the various powers of our composite nature. And just as certainly as Christianity has a message for every man, so it has for its object the salvation of the whole of man. No thought and no action must lie outside the 1 St. John X. lo. PHYSICAL WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS 57 range of its influence. Religion is not a matter for the soul apart from the body ; it must not content itself with dealing with the life of the Church or the home ; it must rule every sphere of life, for instance, the spheres of business and pohtics, as much as it rules what we are apt tQ term our private relationships.^ ' We have already seen that in all development there are two factors : first, that which we termed the ' principle of life ' ; secondly, the environment, in which this principle of Hfe is placed, upon which it works, and which it assimilates.* Our Lord stated this truth as plainly as possible in His first recorded parable, that of the Sower. And the very position of this parable * in His teaching proves that He regarded the truth which it teaches as fundamental. The development of the seed which contains the life-principle, the fulfilment of its purpose, depends, not only upon its inherent nature and quality, but upon the soil, the environ- ment, into which it falls. Our Lord could not have insisted more strongly upon the importance of the kind of environment. In the parable of the Sower there is no question as to the nature of the seed, though at other times our Lord strongly insists upon the importance of this being right. For instance, when He bids His disciples to ' beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of 1 The first object of the Christian Social Union is 'to claim for the Christian law the ultimate authority to rule social practice.' ^ See p. 42. ' In each Gospel in which it occurs it comes first of all the parables. 58 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP Herod,' ^ He shows what evil a wrong Hfe-prineiple may work. For in this case, as so often, leaven (which works upon its environment, the meal) clearly represents an evil principle or influence. Fortunately we are realising more and more clearly the importance of every kind of environ- ment. We are also realising what various factors — material, mental, moral, and spiritual — every environment in which we may be placed contains. The growing interest taken in what is compre- hensively termed ' social work ' is largely due to this realisation of the importance of environment. The Christianity which was usually preached a hundred or even fifty years ago has been termed ' individualistic' Then stress was almost ex- clusively laid upon the necessity of a right relation- ship between the individual soul and God. It was either not realised, or it was forgotten, how impossible it is to sever what was termed ' the soul ' from the environment in which it is living and of which it is, at least in part, the product. Into the Christianity usually preached to-day the ' social ' element, which is only another term for the recognition of the environment,^ much more largely enters. This is well ; because, if we would ourselves be in ' the way of salvation,' or if we would place others in that way, we must not shut our eyes to the multitude of influences of various kinds constantly entering into our lives, each due to some factor or fragment of our environment. This is one reason, not only for the formation of a Christian society, but for the immense importance of the nature or quality of that society. This is why ' St. Mark viii. 15. ' From the point of view of both influence and object. PHYSICAL WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS 59 ' salvation ' in the Biblical sense is not merely health or safety, but health or safety within the covenant, within the covenant people or common- wealth of Israel. In the Acts we are not told merely that the number of those being saved was increasing, but that those who were being saved were being added to the Church,^ i.e. were being brought into an environment which was conducive to the process and ' state ' of salvation. Thus the discharge of the responsibilities of Christian citizenship, which implies practical care for, or effort on behalf of, the highest welfare of every member of the community, will not fail to take account of both the life-principle (the quality of the life of the individual) and the environment. For the sake of greater clearness I propose to consider this welfare — in other words, the process and result of a right development — under four heads. Under the first I shall consider physical develop- ment, under the second, intellectual, under the third, moral, and under the last, spiritual develop- ment. But before proceeding further, let me say once more that though for convenience we may try to deal with these to a certain extent separately, yet actually they cannot be separated. Physical Development What we must aim at here is the development of a life, which comes from a good stock, in the midst of the most favourable environment. Surely there is nothing unchristian, there is nothing materialistic in laying the greatest possible stress upon the 1 Acts ii. 47. 60 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP importance of good physical health. Our Lord evidently spent a considerable portion of His time in restoring people to this.^ He commissioned His first workers to see to the healing of the sick.^ Further, it has often been pointed out that we are never told of His suffering from any form of sickness or physical ailment. We are told of His being weary, but never told of His being ill. The physical body is God's instrument, created by Him to do His work ; hence the care of the body, even the bringing of it to perfection, may be regarded as a sacred duty ; because, other things being equal, the more perfect our health, the more and better work can we do. The improvement of bodily health, and, as a part of bodily health, of mental and moral health, is the true ground for Christian asceticism.' I have already pointed out that in regard to the physical health of the community we must at present trust mainly to environment. This is not to discount the factor of stock. Yet in regard to this factor, public opinion will require an immense amount of enlightenment before the community, for its own protection and for its future welfare, will be prepared to take means to prevent the propagation by unfit persons of a progeny which is bound to be unfit. Still, as we look back over the records of the past we need not despair of such means being taken, or rather perhaps of such propagation becoming regarded as a crime against the community, and one to be punished at least by social ostracism. Possibly the most effectual means of effecting this will be to bring religious 1 St. Mark i. 21-34. ^ St. Matt. x. i, 8. ' See H. C. King, Rational Living, pp. 47 S., 93 fE. PHYSICAL WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS 61 influences to bear upon the subject, so that such conduct is regarded not merely as a crime but as a very heinous sin.^ When we learn what immense effects have been produced on the subject of undesir- able unions by public opinion in other ages and among other races (especially under the influence of religion), we certainly need not despair. Those who have studied the history of such customs as monogamy, endogamy, exogamy, taboo, the pro- hibited degrees, and celibacy, know with what immense power sentiment, and especially religious sentiment, acts upon marriage customs.^ Suppose, for instance, that an undesirable marriage, from a physical point of view, came to involve, as I have just hinted, entire social ostracism enforced by the power of an enlightened public opinion, how the number of such marriages would decrease ! Of course this assumes that a healthy public opinion will permeate all classes of the community, not merely the highest or most enlightened, but what are termed the working classes. Still, if somewhat slowly, public opinion does affect these, and knowledge of various kinds does filter down to them. When these classes realise what a burden to themselves and to the community unfit progeny are, and that the production of such is a social crime, they will be far more careful not to contract unfit marriages than they are to-day. I firmly believe that, if the present conclusions of eugenics were more clearly understood among the less educated classes, at least some check would be given to the formation of alliances whose inevitably * ' Eugenics as a Factor in Religion,' in Sociological Papers, 1905 (by Sir F. Galton). ' See Frazer's Totemism and Exogamy. 62 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP disastrous results they do not now understand, I do not say that all such alliances would cease, but that they would largely decrease in number. Hence the Christian citizen, the man or the woman who wishes to live for the good of others, for the welfare of the community, must have courage to speak plainly and fearlessly on this subject. They must insist that in relation to his physical nature man is subject to the same laws and forces which act inevitably throughout the whole physical world. Go'd is a God of order, and God does not cease to be such in regard to human nature. Our Lord's words about men not expecting to gather grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles apply to the reproduction of human nature as certainly as they do either to the vegetable world, or to the sphere of moral character, to which their application is too often confined.^ Men and women, as certainly as trees and plants, produce ' after their kind.' As we possess this knowledge, and as we have its lessons enforced by the highest possible Authority, we must not fail to act upon it, and we must impress others, not only with the duty, but with the religious duty, of acting upon it. I would here again briefly refer to one part of this duty in regard to which public opinion is probably quite sufficiently advanced to agree to a measure of legislative action. I refer to the care of the feeble-minded, and especially of feeble- minded girls. These are undoubtedly the most prolific and generally entirely ignorant instruments of the evil with which I am now dealing. They should be so strongly protected by the law that, so far as they are concerned, the evil of which, as 1 St. Matt. vii. i6 ff. PHYSICAL WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS 63 I have just said, they are usually the unconscious instrument, may be entirely prevented. There should be no difficulty in keeping these girls under surveillance, for their existence is known through the registers of the elementary schools, and in large towns through the schools for mentally defective children. After they have left school they should certainly be put under the protection of the law, and a very careful watch be kept over their conduct. In doing this there is an opening not only for official, but for most useful voluntary philanthropic work. Leaving, now, the question of stock, we come to the immense subject of environment as a factor in the development of physical life. Here I would begin by considering an entirely material part of this, viz. the housing of the people. In regard to this matter something has been done ; but that something is almost as nothing in comparison with what needs to be effected. Those who will take the trouble to search Blue Books and Reports^ — unfortunately these people are very few — can find quite sufficient evidence to prove that the hous- ing conditions under which tens of thousands of the very poor live are nothing less than appalling. And it must not for a moment be imagined that these evil conditions are confined to the slums of our great towns. From what I know by personal observation, and from what I have learnt through other sources of information, I am inclined to assert, and without fear of contradiction, that the 1 Among these may be mentioned that on Physical Deteriora- tion, also the Report on the Housing of the Working Classes Amendment Bill (1906). 64 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP housing conditions in many of our country villages — some of them most picturesque ! — are actually worse than they are in the slums of the towns.^ One reason for this is clear. In the great towns the Municipal Authority, under which the Medical Officer of Health and the Sanitary Inspector work, is a numerous body ; and the more numerous such a body is, the less likely it is to be swayed by particular private interests ; the less chance there is of some individual owner of bad property having sufficient influence to prevent interference with this. In the villages the Local Authority is a small body, and for at least two reasons its members may be interested in preventing the condemnation of houses which ought to be condemned. ^ First, it is very probable that more than one or two of the members are actually owners of such property ; secondly, if not actually owners themselves, it is very much to their interest not to fall out with those who do own it. Here, for instance, is some territorial magnate who is never tired of stating how great, in comparison with his income, are his absolutely ' necessary ' expenses. [When we hear that useful word ' necessary,' it is well to inquire what it includes.] This great man owns farms large and small. On these farms are labourers' cottages which certainly ought to be rebuilt. Upon the Local Authority are certain of the tenants of these farms. They dare not set the law in motion. If they do, one of two things may happen. They may receive notice — on some other pretext, and a pretext is easily found — ^to give up their farms ; or the landlord may decide to close 1 See pp. II £E. of Report on Housing of the Working Classes. « Ibid., pp. 13 fi. PHYSICAL WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS 65 the cottages without erecting others in their place ; in that case where are the labourers, necessary to the farmer, to be housed ? The dearth of cottages in many of our country villages is notorious.^ Frequently labourers cannot find a house of any description within two, and sometimes three, miles of their work. A walk of five or six miles daily, in addition to heavy labour and often long hours, involves a severe strain upon the physical resources of even the strongest.^ Until recently the Medical Officers of Health in country districts were much more at the mercy of the Local Authority than is now actually the case. But even under improved legislation the pressure which may be brought upon officials is great. Here the work which the conscientious elector, the citizen who is inspired by Christian motives, may do is great. Of course in the discharge of his duty he may stand to lose something materially ; but Christianity and self-sacrifice cannot be dis- severed. He may offer himself for election upon the Authority, and determine that, if he is elected, he will fearlessly do his duty. This will doubtless involve very considerable self-sacrifice — not only of time and ease, but very frequently of temper ; for the men with whom he probably will have to work will be most difficult to deal with. He will require immense patience, for by some of his colleagues every means will be taken to thwart his efforts. Still, tact, perseverance, and, as far as possible, good humour will effect much. No doubt there are many men, especially those of 1 See pp. II ff. of Report on Housing of the Working Classes. " I recently came across a man who was wsilking six mijes to and six from his work daily. E 66 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP some education and position, who would be willing to serve on the municipal council of some great town, where they may have business property, but who never think of offering themselves for election upon the small Authority of the village or suburb in which they reside. This is one reason why suburban Authorities are so often the oppor- tunity of the property jobber or of the men who in other ways have axes to grind. It is also the reason why jerry-building is so frequently found, especially in working-class suburbs. But many a man of education, who is at once high-principled and fearless, if he would only seek it, might find an opportunity of really great usefulness upon the board of a relatively unimportant Authority. Such a position, if wisely and conscientiously used, does offer a field in which he may do excellent service for his poorer brethren. Then in our country villages, besides bad housing, we often find the water supply, the drainage system, and the lighting to be most imperfect. The first two of these have a great effect for good or evil upon the physical development of the inhabitants ; the want of proper lighting of a village may be conducive towards immorality. The food supply of our country villages, especially in southern England, is, at any rate so far as the poor are concerned, far from what it might be and should be. And cheap and wholesome food is a very important factor in a satisfactory physical development. The contents of the ordinary Aallage shop, to whose proprietor many of the poor are often heavily in debt, leave much to be desired. Many of these debts are, of course, bad, that is irrecoverable. Then how does the village shop- PHYSICAL WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS 67 keeper continue to exist ? Generally, of course, by charging high prices for what he retails. We must remember that the poor are obliged to buy in small quantities, and such a method of purchasing is bound to be expensive to the buyer, especially when, as is frequently the case, something must be added to the price in order to meet the loss from bad debts. Then, especially in small villages where there is only one shop, or at most two, competition is either non-existent or very small. This also enables the retailer to offer a very inferior article for sale. What can the man or woman, who wishes to benefit their poorer brethren, do to remedy this ? The answer is found in scores, indeed in hundreds of villages in the manufacturing districts, and even in wholly agricultural villages in northern England. They can encourage and assist the villagers to have a Co-operative Store, where ready money must be paid, and where the consumer, if he or she takes interest in the society, can practically be sure of being supplied, through the Co-operative Wholesale Society, with excellent goods at a per- fectly fair price. Only those who have taken a practical part in the movement know what co- operation has done for the working classes in the north. In a very small village it would not be possible to keep a co-operative store open every day, but it could be open two or three days a week. By this means the manager, or the manager and his assistant, could serve two or three neighbouring villages. And the effect of co-operation is moral as well as financial and physical. It prevents people from running into debt, it is educational in encouraging, not only self-help, but the art of helping others. Indeed, I believe that there are 68 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP few ways in which an intelligent inhabitant of a country village could render more useful service to his poorer brethren than in helping them to set up and manage a co-operative distributing society with three or four branches in neighbouring villages. In the town the problems of health, and so of physical development, are different. One of the most acute of these in large towns is the want of open spaces, not only as lungs or where more fresh air may be found, but as places for recreation for both children and adults. Very often the large public park is too far away from at least some of the slums to be used daily by the children. It is useful on the fine Saturday or occasional half- holiday. But for health there should be within easy reach of every poor home some open space, if not a large one, where children may play in fine weather. Other than the schoolyard; the only playground available at present for thousands of our poorest children is the street, which is in every way unsuitable for such a purpose. But what open space is there where children, or adults, may go in wet weather ? Here is a problem which, in the interests of both health and morality, urgently needs solution. The public park is of little use in wet weather, it is of absolutely no use during the long dark winter evenings. Those who have started recreation and vacation schools in our large and airy modern elementary schoolrooms have done an excellent service to the children, but even for them something more is needed, and still more for the adults than for the children. At present three places are open to the adult poor on a wet or dark evening — the public-house, the working man's PHYSICAL WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS 69 political or social club, and the cheap theatre or music-hall. If the provision of a public park is a legitimate expenditure of public money, surely the provision of a covered place for recreation and social intercourse could not be regarded as an illegitimate one. What I should like to see in the midst of every thickly populated poor district is a large and airy but inexpensively built and furnished hall or series of halls open to both children and adults on wet holidays and on wet or dark evenings. If only one hall could be provided, it might be closed to children after seven p.m., and from then to eleven be open to adults. In these halls cheap food and non-intoxicating beverages might be provided,^ and tables for quiet games, like cards or dominoes — betting and gambling being absolutely forbidden — might be found. Such halls would, I believe, in the improved health and decreased drunkenness which they would promote, more than pay for the cost of their erection. I would most strongly commend an effort for establishing them to every Christian citizen. Let well-to-do parents think what the health of their children would be if the street was the only place in which they could play in wet weather ! Let well-to-do fathers and mothers think what the temptations to themselves or to their grown-up sons and daughters would be if the public-house was the only place in which in the winter they could meet their friends for social intercourse. The public- house does at present provide for an immense social need. And largely owing to restrictive (I do • The ' Alkoholfreies Volkshaus,' recently established in Zurich (partly at the cost of the city), is an example of what I mean. 70 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP not say unnecessarily restrictive) temperance legis- lation we have multiplied working men's clubs, where the evils of the public-house are often found to a much exaggerated degree. But so far we have done very little to provide what is not only a legitimate, but an absolutely essential, need for the people, viz. a place for social intercourse which shall at the same time be free from all temptation to intemperance. After considering the purely material environment as conducive or the opposite to physical health and development, we must think of the personal environment in this connection. Here, in connec- tion with the young child, the most important of all factors is the mother. I have already drawn attention to the high percentage of infantile mor- tality among the very poor, which, as we saw, was largely due to the wrong treatment (mainly due to ignorance) of children during the earliest months of life. I would now deal with this at somewhat greater length. One remedy Ues of course in the better education of the mother. This must begin early. Now, as I have already hinted, there is a wide and growing dissatisfaction with the actual results of our present system of elementary education. Many people are asking what the nation is actually receiving in return for the several millions which it annually spends upon this. Not a wholly satisfactory return, I am quite prepared to admit. What, then, is especially wrong about the present system ? Let me give one suggestion. It would be quite possible to expend many thousands of pounds in setting up plant and sinking a shaft with the view of working some rich vein of precious metal. But PHYSICAL WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS 71 the thousands we have spent, or are prepared to spend, might be just short of the amount necessary to make the mine really a pajdng concern. I am inclined to think we need to spend more on elemen- tary education, but also to spend more wisely. I realise the difficulty, not to the nation but to the poor themselves, if the period of compulsory education is lengthened, that is, if the age of exemption is raised. Personally I am strongly inclined to agitate for three reforms : first, smaller classes, and therefore the possibility of greater individual training, especially ' character-training ' by the teacher ; secondly, much more practical in- struction between the ages of twelve and fourteen ; thirdly, and most important, compulsory attendance at a day continuation school for so many hours each week from the age of fourteen to eighteen. In the case of girls a large proportion of these hours should be strictly used in fitting them to perform the duties of motherhood and housewifery. Men and women who wish well to the poor could hardly agitate for more useful reforms than these. What do those who have a large experience of the insides of elementary schools find to-day ? They find the teaching in the infant schools greatly improved. The methods now generally employed in these are good. The foundations for at least a very fair education are well laid. The children, up to their capacity, are taught to observe and to think. At the age of seven these children pass into the ' boys' ' or ' girls' ' or ' mixed ' department, where they remain for six or seven years. Here, as a rule, the classes are far too large, the teaching (in conse- quence) far too mechanical, and, after the first four years, far too uniform, too literary, and too theoreti- 72 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP cal. It might be designed to produce an unlimited supply of second-rate clerks — male and female. I am well aware of the arguments in favour of a ' well-trained mind ' and ' a good general education.' But the children we have in view are not likely to be put into positions where a choice must be made out of a multitude of possible directions of action, nor where a large measure of general culture will be of much use to them. What would be exceedingly valuable to the girls (beyond the three R's) would be a thorough knowledge of the simple rules of health, and of the properties of common foods ; how to make their own and others' clothes ; how to deal with the commoner forms of sickness ; and, not least, how to get the best value or most useful return for the very limited amount of money they will have to spend. A knowledge of these things will be infinitely more useful to the children of the working classes than a knowledge of English history or of Shakespeare's plays. But how many of our elementary teachers are capable of imparting this knowledge in a thoroughly practical way ? A really capable mother and housewife, if she knew how to impart the knowledge she possessed, would be an infinitely more useful instructress than the college-trained assistant mistress, who would ' get up ' the subjects from some text-book, written in all probability by some one whose practical experience was as limited as her own. I remember an exceptionally clever gardener telling me how another gardener had asked him to look at some plants which were not doing well. He asked the man where he had got his ideas about the way he had been treating them ; whereupon the man confessed he had obtained them from a book. PHYSICAL WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS 73 ' I soon told him,' said my friend, ' that he ought to have had more sense than to go to a book for right ideas ' ! What I would advise my fellow-citizens and fellow-electors to agitate for would be the appoint- ment in every girls' school of a thoroughly practical teacher of the duties of motherhood and house- wifery. She need not give up her whole time to one school any more than a drill instructor now does. She might arrange to give, say, three hours' instruction weekly to each of the two top classes of girls. If she did not wish this teaching to inter- fere with her home duties, she might teach in not more than one school. If she wished to make such teaching a profession, she might arrange (in a large town) to give the same lessons each week in three or even four schools. But, whatever special arrangements are made, even at the cost of greater expense, it is certain that the teaching of the older girls in our elementary schools must be far more useful and more calculated to be helpful than is the case at the present time. It is equally certain that this teaching must be carried on beyond the age at which girls now leave these schools. A large proportion of girls go direct from school to work of various kinds — in factories and ware- houses, and offices and shops — where they have literally no opportunity whatever of learning what will be most useful to them as wives and mothers. Their employers, until they are eighteen years of age, should be compelled to allow them to attend so many hours weekly a day continuation school, in which the main part of the teaching given should be practical instruction upon what may be compre- hensively termed the various domestic arts. 74 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP Recently, through the medical examination of the children in our elementary schools, a further proof has been obtained of the widespread ignorance among working-class mothers of the right way in which to maintain the health of their children, and to treat by simple remedies the common troubles to which children are subject. Quite apart from the misery suffered by the children (through ignorance and neglect) both in the present and in the future, we must remember the cost entailed by the community — both through the Poor Law and through voluntary hospitals and other phil- anthropic agencies for dealing with sickness — ^in treating the temporary or chronic ill-health which, had these children enjoyed proper care and atten- tion, would never have come into existence.^ The whole vast subject of preventive medicine, of national hygiene, is one which I would again most earnestly commend to every citizen who would discharge his responsibilities to the poor. It is because it seems better calculated to effect prevention that the method of dealing with sick- ness advocated in the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission conmiends itself to me. The plan advocated may no doubt entail a large outlay of public money, especially if re- covery of cost (where the cost can be borne) is not more stringently insisted upon than seems probable ; it may also tempt many to use State aid who ought to meet the expenses of sickness by their own efforts. Still, prevention, ^ As one who has been for many years chaplain to a large general hospital, I can bear personal testimony to the immense amount of unnecessary suffering which, through ignorance and neglect, has to be endured by the children of the poor. PHYSICAL WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS 75 especially in sickness, is notoriously cheaper than cure ; and every social reform is liable to misuse. What we must realise is the immense amount of sickness among the poor which might have been prevented, and then we must use every effort to see that by knowledge and training, and also by their being able to obtain at once the best medical attention — we must, I say, see that the poor, equally with those who are better off, are enabled to obtain as speedily as possible for themselves and for their children what is requisite for combating sickness and for living a healthy life.^ What should be the attitude of the Christian citizen towards the feeding of school children by the Public Authority ? The arguments usually adduced against such feeding are : first, that it is another step in taking away (at the cost of the character of the parent) responsibility which natur- ally the parent ought to discharge ; secondly, that a large number of the parents of the children who would be fed could feed their children if they would only exercise sufficient thrift and care ; thirdly, that the small number of children who (through the genuine and not self-inflicted poverty of their parents) do require to be fed could easily be fed by voluntary means, and that for the Public Authority to feed them at the expense of the community is to take away a valuable field for charitable effort. My own experience, extending over thirty years and gained in six parishes, each of which has ' What we must try to prevent is the delay in treating sick- ness which so often at present takes place, largely, of course, owing to the ' deterrent ' policy of the present Poor Law. 76 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP contained a large number of very poor people, leads me to the following conclusions : first, that a larger number of the poor than is generally sup- posed do not earn enough to keep themselves and their children in a state of physical efficiency. Secondly, that a larger proportion of the children than we imagine, if they have enough to eat, are fed, through the ignorance, idleness, or carelessness of the mother, on the wrong kind of food.^ This condition would to some extent be remedied by the more useful education of the mother ; though where she is compelled to go out to work it is very difficult for her to prepare suitable meals for the children. Thirdly, that the dangers from ' further removal of parently responsibility,' while in some cases no doubt very real, may be greatly exaggerated. Some parents will, without any temptations to do so, shirk these. Other parents will require a stronger temptation than the free meal in order to succumb.^ From the point of view of the duty of the citizen I would urge, first, that if there is imposition in the acceptance of free meals, i.e. if children whose parents could easily afford to feed them properly get such meals, the fault will lie in the administration of the law, most probably with the magistrates, who are not sufficiently strict in enforcing repayment. I may 1 On a certain winter's morning, I had in my class forty-three boys between the ages of eleven and thirteen. I made a careful inquiry of each boy what he had had for breakfast : only one boy had had any porridge ! Recently a poor woman could not give me the name of her milkman : it transpired that the only milk she ever bought for her children was tinned milk purchased at the grocer's ! * See Prof. H. Jones, The Working Faith of the Social Reformer, PP- 57, 58. PHYSICAL WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS 77 be accused of urging the duty of the citizen in seeing to the administration of the law ad naitseam. But it is just here where so many excellent laws are inoperative, and where so many reforms, admirable in theory, become actually evil in practice. I will ventm*e to assert that no citizen, man or woman, can do a better work for the poor and for the community generally than in constantly urging the universal establishment of a paid magistracy, in demanding that every magistrate is, first, one who thoroughly understands the law, and secondly, is both in a position to administer it, and is prepared to administer it without fear or favour, because he is absolutely free from the pressure of party and local influences. I may be told that to have a stipendiary magis- trate is impossible except in large towns. I do not believe it. In small towns and large villages such a magistrate could easily sit in three different centres in the week, and in country districts in four or five. And during his necessary holidays (by having a somewhat larger number of magistrates than would be required when all were working) vacancies might be supplied. At the risk of being charged with labouring the point, I would urge upon every citizen the import- ance of demanding this reform. If a stipendiary magistrate is necessary anywhere, e.g. in London or Manchester or Liverpool, he is necessary everywhere. I have watched the administration of ' justice ' in such a manner that it was certainly calculated to imbue every one in coiu-t with a contempt rather than with a respect for the law. Because so many of our magistrates either dare not, or will not, administer the law, much legislation 78 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP which (if properly administered) would most efficaciously promote social reform, remains a dead letter. But the worst effect of the present system is this, that in the minds of those who are permitted to break the law with impunity there is generated a contempt for all law.^ Passing to physical development beyond the age of childhood, the same ignorance with regard to the laws and conditions of health is still noticed. Here, again, there is need for practical instruction, both of young women and young men. We have only to notice how both spend their money upon food and clothes to notice this. Those who know intimately the life of the poor know that expendi- ture upon food does not as a rule rise in proportion with increased wages. What generally does rise is expenditure upon outside dress, not upon under- clothing. If proof is needed for this statement, I would say. Ask the nurses and house surgeons of any large general hospital, they will soon supply it. To-day an immense number of classes for girls and young women between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five are taken by Christian women whose sole object is to help these girls morally and spirit- ually. These good ladies might with advantage help them physically more often than they do. A hospital or district nurse could tell the average lady who conducts a Bible class or a sewing class much which would astonish her, much which might be most useful for her to know, much about the existence of which, or the absence of which, she has never imagined ! * Among the more thoughtful working men I should say there is a growing dissatisfaction with, and a widening contempt for, the ' justice ' of the amateur magistrate. CHAPTER VI THE INTELLECTUAL WELFARE OF THE FUTURE CITIZENS Besides doing all he can to promote the physical development of the people, the Christian citizen will do what lies within him to further their intellectual development. This is not the same thing as promoting their education ; for education is a process of far wider scope than intellectual development, which, rightly regarded, is only one factor, if a very important factor, in education. In fact, if rightly regarded, an all-round develop- ment, rather than development in any particular direction, or of any particular faculty (or group of faculties), is the true purpose, and, indeed, is identi- cal with the process, of education. The lowest ground upon which the necessity for intellectual development can be urged is that of national insurance. I do not say that this is an unimportant ground ; on the contrary, it is very far otherwise ; for certainly our future progress, if not our actual existence, as a nation depends upon the best intellectual development of the people. There is nothing so expensive as ignorance and want of skill. A hundred proofs of this meet many of us daily. The world, it has been said, consists of the ' carriers ' and the ' carried.' Among 80 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP the latter we must place two great masses of people —the paupers and the unemployed. Those who know anything on a large scale of either, know that their condition is largely due to ignorance and want of skill. I say ' largely ' and not ' altogether,' for I know how large a part want of character has had in bringing many of them into their present position. We must also remember that moral and intellectual development (or the want of both) are frequently very closely connected.^ There is a very close relationship between righteousness and wisdom, as there is between stupidity and wicked- ness, and also between ignorance and evil.^ Thus from the point of view of merely national or internal politics, the promotion of the intellectual develop- ment of the people is an economical proceeding. We know from daily experience that in the long run it is far cheaper to pay good wages to those who can think and who are skilful in their work, than it is to employ for low wages the stupid and the bunglers. But the fiercest competition to-day, and the chief reason for the need of a combination of highly developed skill and strenuousness, is inter- national competition. In the race or battle of life it is not so much that man is pitted against man, but nation against nation. And, owing to the growth of knowledge and the discoveries of science, other things being equal, the nation which is intellectually best equipped and most highly developed, must prove the victor in the struggle. 1 Truth is both an intellectual and moral virtue ; mental skill (which is an intellectual virtue) is of little use without persever- ance (which is a moral virtue) . 2 This is the great lesson of the book of Proverbs. INTELLECTUAL WELFARE OF CITIZENS 81 For this cause alone we cannot afford to be ignorant. In the competition between different nations, which is bound to grow more severe in the future, physique will count for much, and character will count for much, but also intellectual equipment will count for a very great deal. The field of knowledge which of recent years has most rapidly expanded is that which is concerned with the utilisation of the materials and forces of nature.^ The nation which in this sphere has the fullest knowledge, and also the skill to use this knowledge to the best advantage, other things, again, being equal, is bound to forge ahead of its competitors. At present England does not in these matters hold the foremost place. The educational systems of at least two and perhaps three other nations ^ are to-day more perfect than our own. They have, on behalf of knowledge, been content to make greater self- sacrifice, and, if wisely made, self-sacrifice is always fruitful. Thus we have not only to keep pace with others, in some respects we have serious leeway to make up. Still, if wisely advised, England can do this. Here, then, lies the duty of the wise citizen, to see that we are not merely the victims of a shortsighted economy which is ultimately bound to be wasteful, but also to see that what we spend is spent to the best advantage. I write as a Churchman. Now, undoubtedly in the last few years the position of a Churchman towards national education has been one full of difficulties. Before the Education Act of 1870, ' In their knowledge o£ chemistry, and how to utilise this knowledge, the Germans are far ahead of ourselves. • Switzerland and Germany, and possibly the United States of America. F 82 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP Churchmen were bearing by far the largest share of the cost of what elementary education then existed. And since that time, in order that Church children might receive Church teaching in the elementary schools, they have made enormous sacrifices. I do not wish to enter into topics of denominational or sectarian or political strife. But it must be remembered that the standard of educational efficiency during the last forty years has risen by leaps and bounds. Consequently the cost of education has risen in proportion. The strain upon Churchmen in trying to maintain their schools at the higher and higher level of efficiency demanded, and rightly demanded, by the Board of Education has become more and more severe. In a very great many instances, of com^se, it has proved too severe to be borne, and conse- quently ' Church ' schools have either been closed or handed over to the public Education Authority. In a great many instances Churchmen have pro- tested, not always wisely, against the ever-increas- ing demands for improved buildings which have involved immense cost.^ Previously, of course, to the Education Act of 1903 they used also to protest against the increased cost of the staff and- of the apparatus, but the cost of these is now no longer borne by them, except as citizens in the pay- ment of rates and taxes. These protests, natural enough by men who were fighting a battle against tremendous odds, viz. against the whole power of 1 Undoubtedly in many instances schools have been extrava- gantly built. Local Authorities have been led (or rather misled) by their architects. Equally useful buildings could have been erected for less money. My own impression is that those who build schools in England might learn much from the builders of schools in Switzerland and Germany. INTELLECTUAL WELFARE OF CITIZENS 83 the public purse, have been interpreted in some quarters to mean that the Church, as a body, has been a retrograde rather than a progressive influ- ence in national education. Owing to the relief afforded by the Act of 1903, the Church is far less open to this charge than it was even ten years ago. Still occasional instances do from time to time arise when Churchmen, feeling their inability to raise the large cost which an up-to-date building involves, protest against what they, in the heat of the moment, are apt to term the injustice of the State in demanding a large outlay. But the great difficulty of the earnest and pro- gressive educationalist to-day is not with Church- men. It is first with the ratepayer and taxpayer as such, or rather with the representatives chosen by these to form the Local Education Authorities. The great majority of the members of these Author- ities suffer from two great defects : first, they are compelled to study the pockets of those who have elected them ; secondly, they have little or no knowledge of either the science or art of education. Fortunately, above them stands the Education Office in Whitehall — a body of experts. Otherwise not only our national education, but our future as a nation would both be in a very perilous position. As it is, a great deal of the work done in our elementary schools is extremely inefficient. The classes are generally too large ; very many of the teachers are untrained ; and not a few of the subjects taught are far from being as useful as they might be. Before suggesting a remedy for all this, and before indicating what I believe to be the duty of the Christian citizen, I want to put the whole subject 84 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP of intellectual development on a much higher plane than that of national advantage or national insurance. I come back to my original thesis, that, in the light of the Incarnation, it is our duty to try to obtain for every child, and so for every man and woman, at least the opportunity of becoming the best they have within them the possibility to be. Now the intellectual faculty is a very important and a very lofty part of human nature. And of all men the Christian should be the last to set any but the highest value upon it. The intellectual development of Christ Himself is carefully noticed,^ and no one can read the Gospels intelligently without being struck, I would even say without being astonished, at the intellectual power which He constantly displayed. Was it not His will that men should love, and therefore serve, God ' with all their mind ' ? ^ Did He not highly commend ' discretion ' — surely an intellectual virtue ? ^ Did He not strongly condemn a want of intelligent appreciation of the literature of the past, which was at least some proof of the want of thoughtful study ? « It is on this, the highest of all grounds, that I would plead with Christian citizens — who are ultimately responsible as electors — ^to see that every child in the nation has the opportunity of becoming intellectually the best which it lies within him to be. Probably the fundamental reason why our educational system is so imperfect is that as a nation we are not actually u!!'l;|rested in education i;|res1 vA certain number, perhaps a gjwwing number, are 1 St. Luke ii. 40, 52. ' St. Matt, xxii '37- ' St. Mark xii. 34. * St. Matt. xxii. 29 ; St. Luke xxiv. '25 S- INTELLECTUAL WELFARE OF CITIZENS 85 deeply interested in it ; but these, at any rate at present, are only a small minority. Ask those who know Oxford and Cambridge what proportion of the fathers who send their sons to those ancient homes of learning are really interested in it. Ask the headmasters of our great public schools the same question. And it is very much the same among the mothers in regard to their daughters. If this is the case among the so-called ' educated ' classes, can we wonder that there is very little genuine interest in education among the masses of the people ? I have been a member of a School Board, I have had a good deal to do with several Educational Authorities, I have been a manager of a good many schools both denominational and undenominational, but I could count upon the fingers of my hands the colleagues with whom I have worked who were either genuinely interested in education for education's sake, or who really knew anything about it. Most of them were certainly interested in finance — from the point of view of the economist ; a few took an interest in the buildings and in such matters as proper sani- tation; but in all the managers' meetings I have ever attended there was one subject which never failed to interest — the exorbitant demands of the Board of Education. It is because the Germans and the Swiss are gener- ally — as nations — really interested in education that their systems are superior to our own, and that in this respect they are ahead of us at the present time. Here then is a field, a magnificent field, for work on the part of the Christian citizen. Personally I am inclined to think that the abolition of the School Boards with their ad hoc election was a 86 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP mistake. The average member of the average m.unicipal body — borough or county council — ^is certainly not elected either for his knowledge of, or his interest in, education. As a rule he knows little and cares equally little about it. And the power given by law to co-opt experts upon the education committees is as a rule little used. Our great need to-day is for the average citizen to see not only the necessity, but the duty of becoming interested in education. Ask any em- ployer of labour, ask any mistress of a household, ask, in fact, any one who has to deal with the working classes, wherein lies their chief difficulty in regard to these, and the general answer will be, ' We cannot get them to think,' or ' They do not seem to have been trained to think.' It is here that our education seems chiefly to fail. Far from promoting or encouraging initiative, it seems to prevent it. It is much too mechanical ; it is gained far too much from books and far too little from observation and personal effort and personal ingenuity. It is hopeless to look for reform until the average citizen takes a far deeper interest in the whole subject than what he does at the present time, until he takes a deeper interest in both teachers and children. It is no doubt important that the teachers in our elementary schools should be well educated, that they should possess a considerable measure of general culture. If they are to obtain this, I suppose it is necessary that they should be educated for some years in secondary schools, as is now the custom. But this, of course, has meant the abolition of the old pupil-teacher system, in which from the first days of their apprenticeship the future INTELLECTUAL WELFARE OF CITIZENS 87 masters and mistresses used to practise the art of teaching under the eye of one who had had many years of experience in it. To-day — with the ex- ception of a httle experience gained in the prac- tising school of the training college — ^the assistant teacher, when appointed to a school, knows far less of the proper way to teach than did the much less perfectly educated teacher of twenty years ago. The teacher of to-day has probably a far wider knowledge of hterature and science, to say nothing of a theoretical knowledge of psychology ; but I fear that the average teacher of to-day — at any rate at the beginning of his or her career — has much less real knowledge of the child-mind and of children's ways, and is much less able (from experience) to im- part to the children what it is most important for these to learn. The citizens of this country must demand that the children have a more useful education than they are generally receiving at the present time. That it is not more useful is not altogether the fault of the Board of Education. The various Local Auth- orities are far too slow in making the most of the possibilities open to them ; they seem to be timid in making experiments. They do not take full advantage of the special grants for instruction in handicraft and gardening which the schools may earn. And when we rise above the elementary to the secondary schools, there seems to be 'the same reluctance either to introduce a rural bias into the curricula of secondary schools or to try to claimi the grants available for farm schools.' Two reasons may be quoted for this complaint, quoted from a memorandum by the Board of Education : first, our old friend ' economy ' on the part of 88 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP local authorities ; secondly, a certain reluctance on the part of teachers to move out of old grooves. Teachers are not exempt from the force of conser- vatism, and they, like others, are strongly tempted to walk in the old ways. Then, undoubtedly, it is generally much easier to impart knowledge from books, than first, to make oneself a practical master of an art, and then to train others in the same. And education must not only be more practical, it must be far less uniform than it is at present. The probable future needs of the majority of the children in any particular locality should be care- fully studied. The education given in the schools of some great industrial centre should surely not be identical in every respect with that given in the school of some country village. To-day we hear many complaints of the uselessness and shiftlessness of the boys and girls who at fourteen years of age go into trade. Forty years ago, say old men to-day, when half-time was common, or when children left school at a far earlier age than they do now, they were much more practical. Prob- ably they were from the employer's immediate point of view, but at what cost to the health of the children ? Still, modern methods have not been all gain. What we need is, as I have already said, more diversity, more handicraft, and more demand for self-effort and originality on the part of the children, and less of the mere book-learning — often of a very second-rate quality — ^which it seems to be the chief object of the teachers to impart to-day. I have already pleaded that one branch of know- ledge — ^housewifery — should occupy a leading place in. the education of girls, I would now plead just as strongly that another branch of knowledge INTELLECTUAL WELFARE OF CITIZENS 89 should occupy an equally important place in the education of boys — I mean that which may be comprehended under the general term of ' civics.' The Christian citizen recognises two comple- mentary, indeed inseparable truths : first, that he cannot do his duty to his neighbour without doing his duty to God ; secondly, that he cannot do his duty to God except through doing his duty to his neighbour. These two truths, which are indeed one, may be said to be the foundation principle of the Christian Social Union. For the Christian, who lives and works in the light of the New Testa- ment, sees Christ living and dying for men, but he recognises that in doing these Christ was simply fulfilling the will of God. And a life which in practice ' owns Christ as supreme King and Ruler of men ' in every sphere of activity, must follow Christ's example in this perfect combination of Divine and human duty. We must teach our boys the elements of civics, which is only another name for their duty towards their neighbour in an ordered civil community. We must teach them all about the framework of such a community. To these boys in a few years' time will be committed the ultimate responsibility for the welfare of the village or town in which they live, also for that of the country as a whole. It will ultimately depend on them how existing laws shall be administered, what old laws shall be altered, and what new laws shall be made. But how can they use to the best advantage, how can they improve, an elaborate piece of machinery, like our local or national government, if they have no clear conception either of its nature or how it works ? I would have the elements of civics so taught 90 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP that every boy of the age of fourteen had at least a clear idea in outline of how the country is governed and how the affairs of his town or village are managed. I would have him taught what the work of Parliament is, and what is the function of each of the chief departments of the Government service. I would have him understand how the electors choose the members, how actually (though not technically) the majority of the members choose the Prime Minister, who must consult public opinion in choosing his colleagues in the Cabinet, and how the members of the Cabinet are responsible col- lectively for the government of the country and individually for the management of the different departments of that government. What we need to-day is a more intelligent electorate, and one with a greater sense of responsibility. We need an electorate which understands the machinery of government and how that machinery works, and that if it works badly the final responsibility is with the electors, who choose the men whose duty it is to supervise it and reform it.^ Then to the older boys in the elementary school and in the continuation school much useful instruc- tion might be given upon local government. ^ This will come much more home to the young mind, and might be made both profitable and interesting. Boys might be taught that what is called ' public property ' is really their property, and that every community is really a co-operative society for the good of the individual members. They can easily ' Of course this instruction should be given without political bias. ' At present there may be some little difficulty about suitable text-books. In regard to local government, the teacher would find much help in Trotter's The Citizen and his Duties. INTELLECTUAL WELFARE OF CITIZENS 91 be taught the advantages of pure air and pure water, of clean and well-lighted streets, of cheap and convenient locomotion (where there are corporation tramways), of good drainage and unadulterated food, of secm-ity for property, of public libraries and baths. They can be taught that the provision and management of all these lies with the Local Authority, with the Borough, County, or District Council, who are responsible for choosing all the officials and their assistants, who have to work all the various organisations — ^for public health, for education, for protection (police), etc. — ^which minister to our welfare and comfort. We must teach that the Local Authority is like a small parliament, the great difference between it and the House of Commons being that the Local Authority has to administer the laws while parlia- ment makes them. We must also show that members of Local Authorities do not get paid for their services, that they give their time and their thought for the benefit of the community. Fortunately now in most of the elementary schools lessons are regularly given on temperance, and therefore on the nature and effects of alcohol.^ These are often illustrated by diagrams of various kinds. One duty of the elector should be to see that such teaching is given, and, if it is not being given, to demand that it shall be. But there is another subject to which far more attention should be paid in our elementary schools than, I fear, is actually the case. I refer to the careful teaching of thrift — its true nature, and the duty to practise it. We must not of course confuse thrift with the ' The syllabus issued by the Board of Education on this subject is excellent. 92 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP mere saving of money ; on the contrary, we can show that thrift is much rather ' wise spending.' We can teach boys as well as girls how to use money so as to obtain a good return for what they spend. We can explain to them the nature of rates and taxes, and for what these are needed ; and it would be well if we could try to prove to them that poor people often pay these indirectly without knowing it. We can show them that though they pay no school fees, and possibly their parents live in a house which is free from rates, yet these (from which part of the expenses of the schools are drawn) are paid in the rent. We can show them that the landlord pays the rates and then recoups himself for these by charging a higher rent.^ We must remember, as every practised teacher knows, that anything concrete and personal is far more calculated to rouse interest than what is abstract, and which has apparently no immediate connection with ourselves. Our object is to teach the children to think, in order that they may do their duty better, to make them skilful in order that they may be of more value to themselves and to the community. If these ends were steadily kept in view, many of the subjects and not a few of the methods of our present system of education would be discarded. * The system of ' compounding ' for rates, possibly inevitable where there is much small property, has nevertheless been very detrimental — in failing to bring home these truths to the poor. It has tempted many of the more thoughtless to imagine that an increased rate touches only the well-to-do. CHAPTER VII THE MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE FUTURE CITIZENS My next subject must be that of moral development, that is, of the growth of character in the right direction. We are often told that our modern educational systems must to some -extent be regarded as failures, if judged by the type of character which they generally seem to produce. Education with the factor of character omitted may be a source of positive danger both to the individual and to the community ; for it may put deadly weapons into the hands of men and women who have no sense of moral responsibility as to their proper use. This, I fear, is true, that while crimes of brutality are decreasing, there does not seem to be a proportionate diminution in crimes in which the brain and the intelligence, rather than brute force, are the chief instruments. While highway robberies are far less common than they were, there is still an immense amount of forgery, falsification of accounts, and also of robberies (if necessary with violence) in which very elaborate and ingenious tools, to say nothing of very deadly weapons and of the results of chemical research, are freely employed. The object of Christianity is a certain type of character expressing itself in a certain kind of conduct. The Christian citizen will be anxious 94 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP that this type of character and this kind of con- duct shall become as general as possible. He will therefore pay attention to the means which are best calculated to produce them. It seems to be now widely admitted that characteristics, habits, or tendencies acquired by the parent are not transmitted, except by example and influence, to the children. Thus one excuse which is apt to be all too readily pleaded for wrong-doing is at once ruled out. No man has a right to quote his parents' intemperance or idleness as an excuse for his necessarily being addicted to the same habits : all he could justly plead would be the want of good example and good influence in childhood. Undoubtedly the home is the chief manufactory of character ; therefore the Christian citizen will use every effort towards making the atmosphere and influence of the home as highly moral as possible. I use the word ' moral ' here with, of course, the widest possible meaning.^ Unfortun- ately the word ' moral ' is supposed to refer only to freedom from, as its opposite, ' immoral,' to indulgence in, a particular class of sins, those connected with various forms of sensuality. Really the word moral should be used as a synonym for what is right, and the word immoral for what is wrong, both these being understood in the most comprehensive sense. The ordinary citizen, man or woman, may say. How can I as an outsider interfere in the home life of others ? In what way, except by personal influence upon the few I know, can I improve the atmosphere 1 It would be well if the word ' ethical ' could come into much more general use. Unfortunately at present its meaning is only grasped by the educated. MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF CITIZENS 95 of the family life of the people ? My first answer to that question is : You can as a citizen do all in your power to promote the conditions of morality ; I was going to say, ' to make morality possible ' ; I will say, ' to make morality easy.' We must never forget Mr. Gladstone's dictum that ' the object of all law should be to make it as easy as possible to do right, and as hard as possible to do wrong.' But what are the conditions, the all too common conditions, to-day ? Let me say at once, again from many years' experience in constant visitation in the homes of the poorest, that I am not astonished that immorality (including intemperance and betting and gambling) is as common as it is, but that it is not more common. I will take impurity first. Here we are, again, in the heart of the housing question. Take the case of a large family — ^father, mother, grown-up or growing-up sons and daughters, together with younger children. There are still instances to be found in the slums of our towns where such a family is living in a house with two bedrooms : in country villages the instances are, compared with the population, even more common.^ Possibly the worst cases of all are those of similar families where the mother is dead. I could not describe what I have learnt in more than one such case where there was no mother. In nmnberless cases the poor do everything in their power to ensure that conditions of decency shall be observed. But what of the cases where there is at least care- lessness about this ? And, it will be well under- stood that the step from want of decency or ^ See my Social Relationships in the Light of Christianity, pp. 80 ff. 96 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP modesty to actual immorality is not a long one. The teachers in the day school and the Sunday school, the clergy in their confirmation classes and Bible classes, may do all in their power to teach right living, but, alas ! the mischief is done, and modesty and even purity is lost at a much earlier age than any — except, of course, those who know, i.e. from investigation or having to deal with such people — would imagine. In an appeal recently made on behalf of the Church Penitentiary Associa- tion — ^an appeal ' for fallen children between the ages of eight and sixteen ' — it was stated that ' more than 1500 such cases of children, who have become implicated in sin of the grossest kind, have been reported to the secretary of that Association, and there must be many hundreds more which are never brought to light.' ^ The appeal proceeded to state that many of these children are ' by the nature of things plague-spots of moral contamination in the schools, where many of them can be found, and in the towns where they dwell.' When once the evil is done, what chance has the ordinary teacher, with forty to sixty children under her charge, of effecting a reformation of character ? What chance has she of preventing the evil spreading, as the appeal says, ' by moral contamination ' ? The only possible means of reclaiming children already fallen is by experts under special conditions. I strongly advocate the clearest, plainest, and most directly practical moral instruction, based, of course, upon Christian principles, being given in both day and Sunday schools — I use the word moral again in its widest 1 Letter to the Daily News, January ii, 1911, signed by Canon Newbolt. MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF CITIZENS 97 sense — ^but so long as the moral atmosphere of many of the homes is what it is, much of such instruction is thrown away ; it comes too late. It should be the duty of the Christian citizen to see that by law no house is built with less than three bedrooms, or if such houses are built, that they are only occupied by old couples, young married people, or widows with, at the most, two or three quite young children. But the evil moral effects of bad housing do not end with sensuality. Bad housing has much to do with intemperance, and especially with in- temperance among women. It has been shown that a decrease of intemperance in the army has coincided with an increase of air space in the sleeping quarters of the men. Sleeping in a close and polluted atmosphere implies waking with a feeling of lassitude, which too often means a craving for a ' pick-me-up ' or stimulant. The men in a house mostly go out to work, either in the open air or in some factory or workshop, where the factory inspector sees that there is sufficient breathing space and fresh air. Many of the women stay at home and do their work in tiny houses or still smaller sculleries or kitchens, whose want of fresh air, added to the want of it in the crowded bedroom during the night, increases the feeling for something to sustain them, to give a fillip to their want of energy. The woman feels always tired, always overburdened, not merely from the amount or laboriousness of her toil, but from the atmosphere in which she does it. This is at least one reason why the wave of greater temperance (which certainly has of recent years been coming over the nation) has affected women less than men. 98 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP Probably one of the best ways of attacking the problem of intemperance among women would be to attack it indirectly by improving the housing conditions among the very poor. If, very indirectly, the growing evil of betting and gambling, as this exists among women, may be attributed in part to the same cause. It arises partly from a desire to fmd some excitement, which will give a zest to life and prevent its trying monotony. This subject of the undoubted growth of betting and gambling — a practice certainly most deleterious to moral development — especially among the poor, needs very careful treatment. It is a question which all who desire the welfare of the people should study carefully. That the habit is growing is, I fear, undoubted. To what causes can this growth be attributed ? First, there is among all classes, among rich and poor, among young and old, a growing devotion to what is comprehensively termed ' sport.' This is not confined to English people, but is certainly far greater among them than among other nations. Has it not been stated that while there must be about a thousand golf-hnks in the British Isles, there are still not more than twenty in Germany ? Upon sport and its accessories far more money, even taking into consideration the increase of the national income, is spent than was formerly the case. With tens of thousands of people it now forms the chief interest of life. Instead of plajing in order to work, these people (if they work at all) work in order to play. Even so far, because it gives a wrong proportion to the various interests of life, because it makes the highest things {e.g. MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF CITIZENS 99 duty) not the highest things, it is deleterious to character. Then, owing to everybody being able to read, and the immense sale of halfpenny daily papers and also of cheap so-called ' society ' papers, the doings of the rich are very much more known to the poor generally. Formerly a very rich sporting man's or racing woman's doings were known to a limited circle of associates and servants ; now they can be known by everybody. Even in preparatory schools for well-to-do little boys, whether the blame be attached to the parents or the masters, apparently far more is thought of a boy's promise as a cricketer or at football than of his promise as a scholar. If this exaltation of games tended simply, as to some extent it still does in girls' schools, to a better physical development and improved health, nothing could be said against it. What actually does happen is, that mental development and intel- lectual progress is actually regarded as of quite secondary importance. The same disproportionate estimate of sport is maintained by many rich people all through life. If proof of this is needed they have only to spend a little time in Oxford or Cambridge, or in the majority of London clubs, or in military or country-house society, to find as much evidence as the most sceptical could desire. All this is perfectly well known to the poor, who, it must be remembered, have a natural tendency to copy, in externals, the ways of the better-off. Their devotion to sport has become a fashion, largely through the action of the instinct of imita- tion. Now the love of ' sport ' (as the term is generally understood) may be regarded as a combination of the ' instinct of pugnacity ' and the 100 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP ' tendency to play,' into which the desire to emulate so largely enters. If I have plenty of time, money, and space I may indulge this instinct and this tendency in a fashion more or less harmless to myself. I may hunt and try to be first in the field ; I may breed racehorses (I need not bet on them) and win races ; I may roam over the moors and shoot grouse. If I have little money, httle time, and hardly any space, my desire to emulate must take other forms. With thousands to-day, partly for the sake of excitement, partly for the sake of a kind of reflected emulation — ^the desire to see my hero or heroes (in the football team), or the horse I have backed, win — it takes the form of watching horse races or football matches, or even of being content to bet upon these. Un- doubtedly, however, another factor does enter into much of the gambling and betting which goes on to-day, I mean a belief in the possibility of making money easily, i.e. without working for it. This factor, I fear, is very rapidly growing stronger. It is probably the prime factor with very many of the men and probably with most of the women who bet and gamble. The result of the practice or habit is in thousands of cases nothing less than ruin : it leads to poverty, and very frequently to serious crime. Now what can the Christian citizen do to check this growing social and national evil ? I believe he can act in two directions. First, remembering Mr. Gladstone's saying about the object of law,^ he can demand that, by law, all that makes gamb- ling and betting easy, all that tempts, incites, 1 That it should make it as easy as possible for people to do right, and as hard as possible for people to do wrong. MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF CITIZENS 101 encourages people to do it, shall be forbidden. Already by many laws this principle is conceded. Betting in public places, gambling in public-houses, and various other practices are now forbidden by law. But even the existing law is not administered so stringently as it should be. Therefore the Christian citizen must demand that there shall be a stricter administration. But he must also demand that the law shall be strengthened, and its scope enlarged. It should be made penal to pursue the calling of a ' commission agent ' for arranging bets ; and where convictions in regard to bteaches of the betting laws are obtained, the punishment should be far heavier than is at present the case. Generally there should be no option of a fine. For in many cases the gains from pursuing this calling are so great that the payment of a fine hardly causes even inconvenience ; and if a house used for betting and gambling is closed by the police in one locality, it will in all probability be opened by the same proprietors in another. Then it certainly should be made illegal to publish what are termed ' odds ' and ' starting prices ' in any public print.^ Lastly, as it is illegal either to bet or to gamble in any public-house, it would be well ' I fear that a good many young boys get into an atmosphere and so fall into the temptation of betting from selling evening papers. In the provinces the chief interest of some of these papers seems to lie in their betting (euphonistically ' sporting ') news, upon which their sale seems chiefly to depend. Recently I came upon the following advertisement : ' Boys of over twelve years of age may earn good pocket-money by selling, after school hours, the Chronicle.' The boys know why their customers are so anxious for the paper ; because it contains the names of the winners of that day and the ' odds ' for the following day. The sale of newspapers by children should be forbidden by law. Many a man too old for the high speed work of the factory could earn a few shillings weekly by selling them. 102 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP if public opinion could be so educated that it should be made equally illegal to do either in any registered club. Such repressive measures, if they could be enforced, would certainly tend to lessen the evil. But we must not trust merely to repression. We must find a healthy, if possible a useful, outlet for instincts and tendencies which, at present, find an outlet in these evil ways. Merely to teach people to play and to help them to play may seem a strange employment of useful energy, but it may be an exceedingly profitable method of expending even valuable energy. To- day we sometimes hear complaints about the time and energy expended by the clergy in providing amusements and ' running ' entertainments con- nected with their churches and parishes. I do not think this is the proper work for the clergy, but I do think they should enlist their lay people in this work and encourage them to take it up and carry it on. It is a work which needs to be done with wisdom and discretion ; but, if so done, it may be preventive of an immense amount of evil, indeed it may be productive of a great deal of good. The dulness of the evenings in a country village has been one cause of the immigration of young country-folk into the town. The amusements provided (outside the influence of religion) in the towns are not by any means always conducive to improvement of character ; in other words, they do not always tend to moral development or improve- ment. The ordinary or average lay member of the Church — man or woman, even in their capacity as a citizen — either does not realise the good they may do in this way, or is not willing to make the small amount of self-sacrifice required to do it. MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF CITIZENS 103 viz. to give up an hour or two in an evening once or twice a week. The clergy are, quite justly, constantly complaining they cannot find helpers for their various clubs or societies. Such institu- tions as Children's Happy Evenings, Church Lads' Brigades, Boy Scouts, Girls' Friendly Societies, and various clubs of different kinds are almost always understaffed and languishing for want of helpers. Frequently those who do give the most help are those who themselves live the busiest lives and who work the hardest all day long. It is to those who have more leisure we ought to look ; yet it seems that to many of these we look in vain. To refuse to help is bad churchmanship, it is also bad citizenship ; for it shows a want of care for the future welfare of the nation. The young people of the poorer classes, especially in these days when their occupation is often so terribly monotonous, must have healthful recreation, I would even say, harmless and innocent amusement. They must have a vent or outlet for faculties which during the long hours of work have no opportunities of exercise or expression. The whole subject is much more serious and much more important than even the ordinary worker among the poor seems to realise. Only those who know the conditions intimately know how really important it is. I have seen an immense improvement effected in the character and conduct of a small body of factory lads through two or three (working) men forming these into a little rambling club, which had an excursion each Saturday afternoon. The lads willingly found the few pence necessary for the short railway journey and their tea at some wayside cottage, and these were the only expenses incurred. 104 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP The whole subject of organised games, especially of those which provide a wide outlet for emulation and so meet a natural instinct, deserves the closest possible attention. I believe we might do much by encotiraging rifle-shooting among men. In Switzerland this particular form of recreation — which certainly provides the element of emulation — is exceedingly popular, and we must remember that it trains a large body of men to become first- rate marksmen, and who, with a little drill, would be an immense national asset, who would, in fact, be invaluable in a time when there was a fear or possibility of invasion. If a man is to have the clear eye and the absolutely steady hand of the first-rate shot he must be temperate. I believe it is our duty to encourage such a form of recreation, and to urge the Government to provide ranges, and to a certain extent a subsidy towards ammunition. One of our greatest wants at the present time, especially in our large towns, is many more large public spaces for play, where much larger numbers of people may actually engage in manly games. The playing of a game has not only a better physical, but a better moral, influence than merely watching other people play. In the first case the desire for emulation finds a first-hand outlet in the exercise of personal skill and personal strength ; in the other case the only outlet for these is that of winning or losing by making bets upon the skill or strength of others. Undoubtedly the Boy Scout movement may, if carefully guided, be not only a great boon to the lads physically, but also morally. In the rules of the movement, the moral aspect, the moral discipline and moral advantages are explicitly MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF CITIZENS 105 stated. Why should there not be an analogous movement for young men up to ten years older than the average age of the present scout ? The rich man, who can afford it, knows the many advantages of a day's hunting. The youths at our great pubhc schools thoroughly enjoy the exercise in the fresh air and the emulation provided by the paper chase. Why should we not try to provide some similar form of recreation for the youths of the poor ? Here, again, physical and moral advan- tages would be combined. It is the loafer, the youth that is content to watch (and bet), who is physically ' flabby ' and morally weak, who is a nuisance and source of evil in the community. Then the moral development of our young people, of youths and girls, as well as of young men and women, depends largely upon how they spend their evenings. And we must remember, as I have already noticed,^ that in this country it is impossible, at any rate it is most injudicious (especially for those who have passed the day in heated factories and workshops), to spend half the evenings of a year out of doors. In an average year there are probably not a hundred evenings which even the greatest devotee of fresh air would wish to spend out of doors. 2 We have already seen that in our large towns the side-streets are the chief playgrounds of the children. At present certain main thorough- fares are too often the places where many of our young men and women spend the two or three hours between their evening meal and bedtime. I 1 P. 69. ' The healthy and strong who wish to bicycle or walk might find more than these, but I am thinking of people who have spent the day in laborious work, or in heated rooms or factories, and who mainly wish to rest. 106 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP could mention town after town where, even on damp and cold nights, I could find streets full of young men and young women walking aimlessly about in twos and threes for want of another place in which to spend their time. But some of my readers may ask, What about all the continuation classes which are provided for them in order that they may improve their education or their technical trade-skill ? What of all the various religious clubs and institutes ? Frankly, I would abolish almost all evening continuation schools, except those which are of a recreative or semi-recreative character. What would be thought of asking our high school girls, or the young men of the better- to-do classes, after they have spent several hours in the day over their books or desks, to turn out in an evening to two more hours in a class-room, or to listen to a lecture ? A small proportion of the more or less studious ones might do it ; whether it would be good for their health that they should do it is another matter. What the young man who has been working all the day in the factory, or shop, or office needs, what the young woman who has been sitting all day over a sewing-machine or standing behind a counter needs, is recreation of a not too exhausting nature. They want relaxation ; they want amusement, or to be amused ; they want at least to be interested at the cost of very small mental effort to themselves. They want to live for two or three hours in a different world from that in which they have spent the previous nine or ten. It is not so much their brains or their fingers as their feelings and emotions that want exercise. They long for these to be touched and set in motion. The ' children of this age ' are. MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF CITIZENS 107 according to their kind, or their standard, far more acute, they evince a far deeper insight into the real needs of human nature than do many of the so-called ' children of hght.' The proprietors of cheap theatres and music-halls provide what they know these young people long for. They provide cheap theatres where highly seasoned, and not always very highly moral, plays ^ are at a small expense put upon the stage ; these are such plays as rouse the emotions, and make the sensory nerves tingle or the blood curdle in the veins. Or they provide equally cheap music-halls with two ' houses ' every evening, where, if not over the most refined jokes, the audience can scream with laughter, and between each song or item of the programme they can talk loudly to one another to their hearts' content. They provide ' picture palaces ' and cinematograph shows where moving pictures, again not always of an elevating kind, can be gazed upon and wondered at without any sort of mental effort. Goethe was right when he said the people come for interest and astonishment.^ If, of course, instruction can be combined with these all the better ; but these are what are primarily demanded, and which must at all costs be provided. The problem is how to provide such an entertain- ment as shall meet the actual and perfectly legitimate needs of human natiu-e, and which shall • It is fair to say that both theatres and music-halls vary immensely in their moral standard. I have heard of songs in which verses were omitted or inserted according to the standard of the ' house.' * Wird vieles vor den Augen abgesponnen, So dass die Menge staunend gaSen kann, Da habt ihr in der Breite gleich gewonnen, Ihr seyd ein vielgeliebter Mann. Faust, Part i. 91 ff. 108 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP be as little harmful, indeed as actually beneficial, as possible. I am not an economic socialist. I do not believe that if all the land and the means of production were made common property we should necessarily be any nearer to the millennium. I believe that there are limits, somewhat narrow limits, to the taxation which is for the ultimate welfare of the people. But I do believe that both the State and the municipality might with advantage grant subsidies for such purposes as healthy recreation, that is, for recreation whose issue would be not only the physical but the moral good of the community. To develop as many healthy minds in as many healthy bodies as possible is an object for which it is worth the while of the community to make a very considerable self-sacrifice. Money spent in producing these would be well spent. Far from this being a wasteful expenditure, we should have in return for it an extremely valuable national asset. As I have already stated, there is no difference in principle between paying for public parks and paying for public buildings where people may enjoy themselves under cover. I am therefore prepared to advocate places of amusement under the control of the municipality or the State, and subsidised by them. I would not narrowly limit the nature of these. The ordinary dancing-saloon may be a curse, the ordinary music-hall or even the ordinary cheap theatre may have a debasing tendency, but neither dancing, nor listening to comic songs, nor watching feats of agility has in itself anything wrong ; and the drama may be one of the most highly educative and deeply moral of all influences. It is not these things in themselves, but the very MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF CITIZENS 109 low quality of those commonly provided which causes harm. Even as conducted at the present time, the music-hall is an agency on the side of temperance. Usually very little is spent at the bar — where there is one, — indeed far less than would be spent on intoxicants in the same length of time passed in a public-house or a club. Even under present conditions and management it would probably be found, upon examination and upon comparison with the past, that the amusements now provided for, and so largely patronised by, the people are far less coarse, far less degrading than was formerly the case. Owing to the improve- ment in education, the public taste is rising. If places of amusement are to be supervised and subsidised by the public authority, they must not be too puritanical or they would defeat their object. They must continue to be places of genuine amuse- ment, and this must remain their primary object. I do not advocate that ' only Shakespeare ' should be provided. In a very true sense the State is a great co-operative society for the welfare of the individuals composing it. I see no more harm in co-operating to provide for genuine and healthy pleasure or amusement than in co-operating for improved education. Those who have at heart the welfare of the people might spend their thought and their time to , far worse advantage than in thinking out and working out a means for satisfy- ing, under entirely healthy conditions, what is a genuine need of human nature. Every student of psychology knows the power of ' suggestion,' and especially of evil suggestion, therefore our aim must be to banish this from the amusements of the people, and the best of all ways to do it 110 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP is to put something in its place into which it does not enter. It must not remain true, it actually does not remain true, that the only refuge from the slum is the gin-palace, that this is the only place where a man or a woman can for a time forget their troubles, their weariness, their needs. The music-hall com- petes with the gin-palace. There a man or a woman can have their thoughts, if not raised, at least diverted without drinking themselves into a state of forgetfulness. But looking at the matter from another point of view, we may say that the nature of the poor no less than that of the rich — at bottom they are the same — craves for some kind of excitement in life. The poor are not without the imaginative faculty, and every faculty craves for exercise. The tens of thousands of cheap novelettes sold among the poor, which tell of the love stories of dukes and earls, and of princesses and heiresses of untold wealth, to whom the difficulties caused by want of money are unknown, and who live in gorgeous castles, or those stories which tell of hairbreadth escapes and adventures almost too wonderful to be believed — all these meet a genuine want. Those who have seen poor hard-worked women and girls — ^for the moment oblivious to their actual surroundings — eagerly devouring these stories in the midst of a squalid and poverty-stricken home, cannot blame the poor things who for a brief few minutes are living with the great and rich and prosperous ; it is surely not unnatural that they should desire to feed their emotions, or that they should wish that their faculty for wonder may find exercise in this way. But a play which is seen, as we know from personal experience, makes a far MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF CITIZENS 111 greater demand upon the attention, takes us far more out of ourselves, produces a much greater degree of self-f orgetfulness than the most thrilling of stories which we read. Wisely directed and care- fully supervised, the ' People's Theatre,' even the ' People's Music-Hall,' might be made a very valu- able and useful institution. It is, I know, very easy to quote the panem et circenses of the declining Empire. But it is not difficult to answer the charge implied in the quotation. The panem need not go with the circenses, and I suspect that in Rome both were a free gift. It is wonderful how much in the aggregate the poor can and do spend on their amusements and excitements. I fancy if the proportion of their earnings which goes in this way could be computed, it would be found to be even greater than the proportion so spent among the rich. It may be, nay it probably is, that under present conditions of life and laboiu: the poor find some forms of excitement to be necessaries of life, even of existence. Literally they cannot live without them. Hence the duty of the Christian citizen to see that they get the best possible value for their money. To some extent we exercise a supervision over the food which they purchase for their bodies. We have laws against adulteration and against offering unsound meat for sale. We do not compel the poor to eat only what is easily digestible and highly nourishing, but we do our best to ensure that they shall not eat what is unfit for human consumption. All I would ask for is that a parallel, but not more stringent, oversight shall be provided — even if at some small cost to the community — over what is offered to the satisfaction of their 112 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP hungering emotions, and to quench the thirst of their natural desire for excitement. I ask that they may have healthy and not unhealthy means of excitement provided. The more we learn of human nature, especially of that existing under conditions different and less favourable than oiu* own, the more clearly shall we realise that much which seems to us hopelessly irrational is at bottom often nothing else than a clumsy method of trying to supply something without which human nature, under those circum- stances, finds it difficult, if not impossible, to exist. For all the various reasons I have adduced, I would plead most strongly that among the re- sponsibilities of Christian citizenship one of the most important is that of seeing that healthy amusements, both indoor and outdoor, are within the reach of the people. How people amuse themselves has no small effect upon their character, that is, upon their moral development. CHAPTER VIII MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE In connection with the moral condition, the moral welfare, and the moral development of the people, there is no question which is at once so important and so difficult as that of marriage. Hence there is no question which needs to be approached with greater carefulness. The question is important because it has to do with the source of life, so far at least as man is concerned. It has to do with the source, not only of physical life, but of moral hfe. Even if we deny — and few will go so far as this — all hereditary influences upon character, we must remember that the parents, and especially the mother, are the most important of all the factors in the earliest environment of the child. There is a science of moral as well as of physical eugenics. Those who wish to see a strong and healthy race, judged from the physical point of view, feel they cannot lay too much stress upon a suitable marriage — marriage being here used in the lowest, the merely physical sense — as the most important of all the conditions for producing such a race. They would see that every possible care is taken that all the factors are present, and all the conditions are observed whereby, as far as is possible, a thoroughly healthy stock may be produced. 114 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP It is equally true that those who would see a strong and healthy race, judged from the moral point of view, cannot lay too much stress upon the moral aspect of marriage. I do not say this because I believe that by an inexorable law the moral and intellectual qualities of the characters of the parents are transmitted to their children : upon such a vexed question as that of the transmission of character — ^whether inherited or acquired — I would neither dogmatically affirm nor dogmatically deny. What I would affirm is that, suppose we have a marriage entered upon in the right spirit and with the highest motives, and that, if the married life is continued under the same inspiration, we have then a moral atmosphere and a moral influence in the home which cannot fail to have a beneficial influence upon the characters of the children from their earliest years. The moral future of the children, the moral qualities of their natures, will to a very great degree depend upon the influence, upon the care and the guidance of their parents. We cannot exaggerate the good influence of a pure home, therefore we cannot exaggerate the import- ance of doing all in our power to make and keep the homes of our country as pure as possible. On the other hand, we cannot exaggerate the danger of permitting — either by law or public opinion — anything which may tend to weaken or to impair this purity. Here lies the infinite importance, from a moral point of view, of the marriage question. That the subject at the present time is one of immense difficulty cannot be denied. It is com- plicated by the fact that we have not on one side those who are anxious at all costs to preserve the purity of marriage and the home, and on the other MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 115 side those who look upon this as a matter of minor importance. It is not as if, so to speak, we had Christianity on the one side and ' the world ' on the other. If this were the case the problem would be very greatly simplified. Actually the problem is complicated by the fact that those who have every desire to see the purity of the marriage tie maintained are not agreed among themselves, they are not agreed upon the exact nature and the right interpretation of Christ's own teaching on the indissolubility or dissolubility of the marriage tie. They are not agreed upon whether He did or did not admit any groimds upon which divorce, and consequently re-marriage, may be permitted. For, of course, if marriage is under all circum- stances indissoluble, then re-marriage is out of the question. On one side we have a large number of Church- men who apparently hold that under no circum- stances, if a marriage is legally dissolved, should either party, whether guilty or not guilty, be allowed to marry again with the Church's blessing ; in other words, they hold that the Church should never recognise the marriage of even an absolutely innocent party in a successful divorce suit. They maintain this because they hold that under no circumstances is a marriage dissoluble. On the other hand, there are a great number of earnest Christian people — both Churchmen and Nonconformists — ^who, while regarding the in- dissolubility of marriage as the ideal, are not prepared to condemn the re-marriage of a person (man or woman) who, after the fullest investigation in a court of law, has been proved to be innocent. They regard a prohibition to such to marry again. 116 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP they regard the refusal of the blessing of the Church upon such a marriage, as an injustice, because it is to punish a person for an offence of which he or she has not been guilty. Of course it may be held that this is a case in which, in the interests of society, the innocent should be prepared to suffer, or rather to be punished, for the guilty. If such suffering or punishment is voluntarily undergone, the effect cannot but be of the highest moral power and worth. But we can hardly attribute a moral value to vicarious punishment which is compulsory. In treating this subject, this distinction is some- times apt to be overlooked. Another point to be remembered is this. From time to time there do arise questions and contro- versies in regard to which the action that the Church takes may be said to be to some extent influenced by material considerations. This might be so in regard to the Church's action where its endowments are threatened, or where there is a danger of its losing grants of public money to its elementary schools. But in regard to the marriage question this charge certainly cannot be brought against those who hold the stricter view. The Church has nothing to gain ; indeed, by enforcing this stricter view, it stands to lose a great deal materially. Consequently those who take a hard and fast, alias a perfectly consistent view, upon the question of re-marriage, who decline imder any circumstances to permit it, can have but two reasons for so doing : first, a conscientious convic- tion that they are right ; secondly, absolute and literal loyalty to what they believe to be the teaching of the New Testament and ' Catholic ' MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 117 tradition, and this last in the best sense of the words. Personally I believe that the two following positions may be strongly held at the same time by the same person : (1) that our laws relating to divorce have already gone too far in the way of making divorce possible ; (2) that an innocent person who obtains a divorce should be permitted to re-marry. There is no matter upon which we need to think more clearly, because two different questions are involved, which are only too apt to be confused ; first, the question of making divorce more easy; secondly, the question of refusing to bless the re-marriage of an innocent party in a successful divorce suit. The first question is very largely a social one, the second is much more a personal one. I say without hesitation that in regard to the first question the evidence is wholly in favour of those who would make the law or con- ditions of divorce as stringent as possible. To see this we have only to think of the terrible results of easy divorce in some of the States of the United States of America.^ And we must also remember that there easy divorce has been accompanied by other evils which undermine the very foundations of the welfare of society. The other question — that of the re-marriage of the innocent party — ^is a much more difficult one, for this reason if no other, that both those who would forbid this and those who would admit it can with no little justification appeal to the New Testa- ment, and in it to the very words of Christ Himself. Those who would forbid re-marriage appeal to our 1 See my Social Relationships in the Light of Christianity, pp. 52 S. 118 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP Lord's words in St. Mark x, 11, 12, also to St. Luke xvi. 18, in both of which places our Lord seems clearly to teach that marriage is indissoluble under any circumstances. This also appears to be the teaching of St. Paul in 1 Cor. vii. 10, 11. Those who would permit re-marriage appeal to St. Matt. V. 32 and St. Matt. xix. 9, for in both these passages our Lord appears to permit divorce ' for fornica- tion.' There is actually yet a further complication. Many New Testament scholars feel convinced that the words containing the exception in both cases in St. Matthew are an interpolation, though they are ready to admit that this interpolation took place at a very early date, in all probability before our Gospel according to St. Matthew took its present form.^ Thus for more reasons than one the question cannot be settled by an appeal to the New Testa- ment, though both parties appeal to it, and both quote it as supporting their particular views. Many of those who would prohibit re-marriage under any circumstances also hold that the excep- tion made by our Lord in St. Matthew is an inter- polation. They take the real words of Christ to have been as these are given by St. Mark and St. Luke. Then they say re-marriage under any circumstances is against the express words of Christ ; His words must be final and binding, and if in exceptional cases the innocent suffer for the guilty, this is not the only class of cases where the necessity for this occurs. On the other side it is argued that, even if our ' The evidence for and against the words in St. Matthew which contain our Lord's reputed exception has been carefully considered by Bishop Gore in his The Question of Divorce, pp. 20 ff. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 119 Lord did not make the exception. His words must be interpreted in the spirit and not in the letter, for it is impossible to believe that our Lord would support what is clearly an injustice. And those who reason thus add that there are many commands of Christ which cannot be literally obeyed, for instance, ' Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also ' ; ^ ' Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.' ^ They say that Christ is setting up a great ideal, that He is stating a great law, but which, like every moral law (so it is stated), must have exceptions, as, for instance, the law of perfect truthfulness. [It must be clearly understood that I am not here stating my own view, but that of many of those who take this particular view of the question before us.] The whole subject, many of my readers will remember, was debated at the last Lambeth Conference (in 1908), when the following resolution was carried, but only by a majority of three ; for eighty-seven bishops voted for it while eighty- four voted against it : ' When an innocent person has, by means of a court of law, divorced a spouse for adultery, and desires to enter into another contract of marriage, it is undesirable that such a contract should receive the blessing of the Church.' Unfortunately (so far as consistency is concerned) this resolution seems to be at least partially contradicted by a resolution (of the Conference of 1888, but confirmed by the Conference of 1908) which inunediately precedes it, and which runs : ' That, recognising the fact that there always has been a difference of opinion in the Church on the » St. Matt. V. 39. » St. Matt. v. 42. 120 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP question whether our Lord meant to forbid marriage to the innocent party in a divorce for adultery, the Conference recommends that the clergy should not be instructed to refuse the sacraments or other privileges of the Church to those who, under civil sanction, are thus married.' ^ Though I hold that we cannot safely base any argument upon our Lord's words in St. Matthew, and that we must interpret His words in St. Mark and St. Luke spiritually, I cannot help thinking that it was a mistake to print these two resolutions together. To ask a man who holds to the second to obey the first seems cruel. To ask a man who agrees with the first to obey the second seems equally unkind. I do not like the conclusion to which I seem driven, but I think that either or both should have been omitted. I hate the impasse, but it surely would have been better plainly to have confessed the question to be one upon which an authoritative judgment (binding upon all) could not be declared until further light was available. As I wish to be scrupulously fair, I will now cite the opinions of two leading thinkers upon the subject, men for whom, whether we agree with them or not, we cannot fail to feel the greatest respect. The Bishop of Birmingham (President of the C.S.U.) has recently published a brief but extremely clear review of the whole question. ^ He divides his little book into four chapters : ' Put quite plainly, we are by these two resolutions forced into this position: We are to refuse the blessing upon re-marriage because we hold re-marriage to be of the nature of bigamy, but we are not to refuse the Holy Communion to one whom we consider to have contracted a bigamous marriage ! ' The Question of Divorce. London, John Murray, 191 1. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 121 (1) ' The Law of the Church in England ' ; (2) ' The Words of our Lord ' ; (3) ' The Mind of the Church Cathohc ' ; (4) ' What We Ought to Do.' It is with the final chapter only that I would deal here. The Bishop is strongly on the side of those who would make no exception, and who would maintain under all circumstances the indissolubility of the marriage tie. He would greatly prefer that the Church refused to bless by the marriage service the re-marriage of even the innocent party. But at the same time he recognises and quotes the Lambeth resolutions, and a little farther on says, ' The question, however, arises whether, if we hold steadfastly to our marriage law and refuse to re- marry any divorced persons, we can with due regard to consistency of principle accept the advice of the Lambeth Conference and admit to com- munion, after whatever period of discipline, the " innocent party " ^ in a divorce for adultery who has re-married, with the partner in the new marriage. ... It is the conviction which has been growing in my own mind that consistency with our own principle ought to lead us to give plain notice to the members of our Church that our law gives no sanction whatever to re-marriage after divorce, and that those who contract such marriages forfeit the privileges of Church communion, without its being within the competence of any bishop or other minister to restore them ' (pp. 51, 52). Nothing can be clearer than this, and whether we agree or disagree with Dr. Gore's advice we cannot fail to admire his courage and his consist- * May I say that I think the words innocent party should hardly have been printed between inverted commas, which seem to cast a doubt upon this innocency ? 122 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP ency. Like a very large number of other scholars and devout Churchmen, he is firmly convinced that our Lord meant under all circumstances to con- demn re-marriage. This being so, his faithfulness to Christ and his wish to obey Him compels him to desire that re-marriage should under no circumstances be recognised by the Church, and that no re-married people should be admitted to Holy Communion. Also I think that, from the proofs which in the earlier chapters he adduces (if we admit and interpret the law of the English Chiirch and the New Testament literally), we can come to no other conclusion than his. The other authority I would quote is that of Dr. Sanday, who is certainly one of our very first authorities upon the interpretation of the New Testament. The following is the essence of his argument put before the recent Divorce Com- mission : 1 ' They were invited to make an absolute choice between these propositions — ^Did our Lord speak in the terms attributed to Him by St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. Paul ? Or did He speak sub- stantially in the sense of the two passages from St. Matthew ? Dr. Sanday proceeded to say that, He asked himself whether it was not possible that our Lord might in certain circumstances and under certain conditions lay down a principle of general application, and in other circumstances and under other conditions state that principle with a certain amount of restriction. He would himself be inclined to answer that question in the affirmative. The difference seemed to him to be that between a positive rule and a moral ideal. St. Matthew v. 27-32 dealt with the question of adultery and divorce. 1 Quoted from the report in The Times, November 22, 1910. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 123 The next section of the Sermon on the Mount, St. Matthew v. 33-37, dealt with the question of oaths. That which followed, St. Matthew v. 38-41 (compare St. Luke vi. 29), dealt with resistance to injuries ; and the concluding verse of the paragraph, St. Matthew v. 42 (compare St. Luke vi. 30), was concerned with borrowing and giving. It was universally recognised that the last two precepts could not be literally and absolutely applied to present-day conditions. They represented the Christian ideal, the inner Christian spirit, not a literal rule of law. And, as a matter of fact, the legislation, even of Christian nations, had been compelled to disregard them. There were two distinct questions : (1) Did the use by our Lord of unqualified language on one occasion preclude the possibility that He should have used qualified language upon another ? and (2) Did the recogni- tion by Christians of a lofty and unqualified moral ideal of necessity prevent a Christian State from legislating (as it were) upon a lower level ? He felt compelled to answer both these questions in the negative. In answer to a question Dr. Sanday also said. His view was that Christ did not teach that in all circimistances and without any exception marriage was indissoluble.' To what purpose, it may be asked, have I dwelt at such length upon this question ? Because I believe it is one of the questions upon which the reaUty of the Christianity of our citizenship is being tested to-day and will be still more severely tested in the future. It is also one of the questions upon which true Christian citizenship and a merely worldly citizenship must come into serious conflict. All round us we see ominous signs of the relaxa- 124 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP tion of the purity, dignity, and holiness of family life. And unfortunately thousands of professing Christians are blind to one of the chief sources of this. Certain people are clamouring for a still further relaxation of the law of divorce. In face of the evidence of the results of this in other countries, and still more in the light of the teaching of the New Testament, rather than permit any further relaxation, we would prefer to see a greater strictness, at any rate in the administration of the law. I want my readers to realise how strong our Lord's teaching upon the subject is, and I fear that many professing Church people do not grasp its strength. On the other hand, I would meet the charge of injustice brought against those who think like the Bishop of Birmingham by asking them to consider whether there may not be exceptional cases — I own they are very exceptional — in which the whole spirit of our Lord's teaching, in its entirety, may not be a safer guide to individual action than an absolutely hard and fast literal interpretation. CHAPTER IX CHRISTIAN TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS OF THE NATION One of the chief responsibilities of the Christian citizen is, I beUeve, to do all in his power to ensure that a Christian education should be given in the schools of the nation. The Christian citizen would have all citizens Christians, because he believes that both the welfare of the community and of the indi- viduals composing it depends ultimately upon their Christianity, that is, upon their being Christians. He believes that a Christian life is the only life which is according to the will of God, and that true welfare, prosperity, and ultimate happiness depend upon the knowledge of God's will and upon obedi- ence to it. If he believes (as he must) that educa- tion is one of the most important factors in life (using the word life in its most comprehensive sense), if he believes that education is the chief factor in the formation of character, how can he acquiesce in leaving religion out of education ? For experience tells us that religion is by far the most important of all the elements of which education is composed. Unfortunately the subject — ^the matter and the method — of ' religious education ' has been one of long and bitter controversy, and the controversy is by no means ended. And the special difficulty in this, as in the previous controversy, lies here, 12S 126 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP that we do not find Christian men, deeply religious men, standing shoulder to shoulder on one side, and men who care little about, or who are actually antagonistic to, Christianity on the other side. On the contrary, here again really earnest Christian people are found on both sides. It is well known that the efforts which have in the past been made to bring about an agreement, even a compromise, are munerous — at the present time more than one such effort is actually in process — ^but, unhappily, so far all these efforts have failed. In what I have to say I do not propose to deal with the history, much less with the details, of this unhappy controversy, it is only upon its chief points that I shall attempt to touch. First of all we must, I think, admit that the controversy exists almost entirely outside the schools. Within them it is almost unknown. Then, I think it will hardly be denied that it has furnished a certain amount of useful capital to party politicians ; the ' unjust demands of Non- conformists ' and ' the domineering influence of the Church ' are both useful platform cries. An opportunity of telling electors to ' look after their interests,' or to ' claim their rights,' is too good a one to be easily lost. In fact, I am sometimes tempted to wonder whether the controversy is not altogether too useful a one to make politicians really anxious about a settlement. Unfortunately the result may — ^by the change of two words — be exactly expressed in the well-known line : quicquid delirant cives, plectuntur alumni. It is the efficiency of the schools, and so ultimately the children, that are suffering. CHRISTIAN TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS 127 Then a considerable, probably a growing, number of the teachers have an objection, usually, however, an objection only of principle, to being subjected to a religious test. With this objection I believe an increasing number of even Churchmen are in sympathy. They see the futility of a ' creed ' test ; they see that a testimonial of in- fluence and character is of far greater value. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of elementary teachers are not only willing, but anxious, to give religious, that is Christian, teaching with a direct reference to its effect upon daily conduct. They know from experience the value of religion as a power in school life, they know its influence upon the characters of the children. In fact, to a very large number of earnest teachers (of every shade of ecclesiastical persuasion) it would be a positive pain to be forbidden to give religious teaching, they would feel its absence to be a distinct hindrance to their work.^ Next with regard to the -parents of the children. Of late years these have met with a very much larger share of attention or consideration than was formerly the case. There is at the present time a widespread demand that there should be in all schools something of the nature of a ' creed register,' and that the parents should state what kind of religious instruction they desire their children to receive. My own experience, gained, as I have already said, in parishes containing a very large proportion of working-class people, is 1 Imagine some of the great headmasters of our public schools, e.g. Dr. Arnold, being told they must not teach religion to their pupils ! I fancy their resignation would not have been long delayed. 128 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP that an immense majority of these people prefer that their children should receive religious instruc- tion, but that, unless pressure has been put upon them, only a minority — an inconsiderable one — take any interest in the particular kind of instruc- tion. By far the greater nvunber would be quite satisfied that their children should receive either ' definite Church teaching ' or what is termed ' simple Bible teaching.' From practical experi- ence I am not a great believer in the Nonconformist grievance, for in each of the five groups of Church schools in which I have taught there have been a considerable number of the children of Noncon- formist parents, though in all but one instance there have been ' provided ' schools close at hand ; and I have never known of a case of a child with- drawn from the rehgious teaching. Personally I do not like the idea of the children being broken up into different groups to receive different kinds of religious teaching ; and suppose such became the custom, I wonder what woiild be the nature of the short rehgious service with which the school would be opened and closed, or whether there would be any such service at all. From practical experience I should say that the ' tone ' of the school depends most of all upon the personahty, the nature of the influence of the headmaster or headmistress ; and I am glad to be able to assert that in the case of almost (though not quite) all the head teachers with whom I have worked this has been distinctly good. Speaking from a long and wide experience in both 'provided' and non-provided schools, I cannot bring myself to favour the ' creed register,' though I respect the object of those who urge its adoption. CHRISTIAN TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS 129 Another plan much urged by many Churchmen, and which would also necessitate a ' creed register,' is termed the ' right of entry.' The effect of this method would be very much the same as the fore- going, though it might differ in detail. In large schools, by appointing teachers of different denom- inations, it might be possible, with a ' creed register,' for the teachers themselves to give the religious instruction ; whereas the right of entry might guarantee definite religious teaching in case that the regular teachers were forbidden or unwilling to give it. Against ' right of entry ' I can see many objections, though, like the last plan, something may be said for it. For the teaching to be really efficacious, at least as much time should be devoted to it as is given to religious instruction at present, that is, forty minutes daily. Is this likely to be conceded ? And is the Church or any of the denominations equal to supplying the teachers — either in number or ability — able to give it daily ? In a country parish with one school, and where the clergyman was an expert in teaching, and also willing to devote the time to the work, he might give it. Though even in this case I do not see how he can effectively, at the same time, teach children, say, of eight and of thirteen years of age. But how many of the clergy are experts in teaching ? Then what would happen in large towns, where the classes in the schools are also large ? Take a school of five hundred, in which half the children were Church, and which might be divided into three groups for this purpose. In each group there would be eighty children. Here three teachers would be required on each of the mornings upon which definite religious instruc- 130 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP tion was given. Only an expert can teach forty children satisfactorily. How many teachers — even highly trained ones, who are teaching all day long — can teach eighty children ? If we require the services of experts we must either train them or pay highly for their services. Where at present is the possibility of our doing either ? Another serious objection to the right of entry is the almost unanimous objection of the regular teachers to this plan. I must say that here to a great extent I feel with the teachers. I appeal to any one who knows what it is to teach a class of children during the hour following that in which they have been taught (?) by one who is not an expert. To begin with, one has to lose time — often a considerable amount of time — in first getting the children ' in hand.' It is astonishing how long a time and how much energy has to be expended in order to overcome the effects of even one hour's comparative disorder. Another objec- tion to the plan — one felt by the best and most conscientious teachers — is that by it the lesson above all lessons which enables them to get a really good influence over the scholars is taken out of their hands. ^ Let us try to look at the problem as dispassion- ately as we can. Practically the children can be divided into four classes — (1) Church, (2) Non- conformists, (3) Roman Catholics, (4) Jews. Where the last two classes of children are found, they are generally found in sufficient numbers to fill schools by themselves. So that actually the main difficulty lies with Church and Nonconformist 1 This I consider to be by far the greatest of all the objections to the ' right of entry.' CHRISTIAN TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS 131 children, who in most schools are found together in varying, but often in almost equal, proportions. The ideal plan would be that all children should receive regular religious instruction from an expert teacher who is a devoted and conscientious member of the same denomination as the children he teaches. Up to the present, in about half of our elementary schools this has been the privilege which the children of the Church have enjoyed. Naturally as Churchmen have built, and also given much towards the maintenance of, these schools, they would prefer that this privilege should con- tinue. On the other hand, it must be remembered that every year an increasing proportion of the cost of maintenance of these schools is drawn from public funds, a fact which in the eyes of the Non- conformists is construed into a constantly increas- ing privilege enjoyed by the Church. When in addition to this fact we remember that a very considerable portion of the children in these schools — sometimes because there is no other school within a reasonable distance — are Non- conformist, we cannot wonder at the restiveness of the Nonconformist bodies. To a certain number of Nonconformists, like, for instance, the late Dr. Dale of Birmingham, and to a large and growing number of Churchmen, the idea that the State — which now, they say, is only in theory Christian — should teach religion is highly repugnant. To teach religion is the function of a Church, they assert, and only by a Church can it be properly performed. They strongly object to the idea of the State, qua State, drawing up a syllabus of religious instruction, and to the idea of State officials, as such, giving this instruction. 132 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP I fully agree with this feeling, but even to-day the State is very largely composed of Christian people, if not Church people, and the immense majority of the elementary teachers are Christian men and women. In idea I grant the plan is repugnant ; but in practice I believe it would be in the future, as it has proved in the past, and is proving in the present, far less objectionable than some consider it would be. I would try to enter as fully and as sympathetic- ally as possible into the position of those whom I may term the stricter Churchmen, a position with which in theory I entirely agree. They assert, and with perfect truth, that religious instruction is not met by giving the children a knowledge of the chief contents of the Bible, and by drawing from these lessons upon personal conduct. They assert, and again quite truly, that Church children should be taught that they have been baptised into a definite society with very definite principles and rules, with a definite organisation, demanding a definite rule of life, and dispensing, as aids to that life, certain definite means of grace. I am ready to admit that by skilful teaching even young children can be made to understand much of the meaning of all these, though I doubt their capacity to under- stand the metaphysical propositions upon which the doctrines of God and of the Church are based. But as practical men and women we have to take things as they are. It may be possible to demand and obtain a ' creed register ' ; but I do not think that the right of entry will be generally conceded. If it were, no rehgious body, except the Roman Catholics, is in a position to make the fullest use CHRISTIAN TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS 133 of the concession. Indeed, without the help of the regular teachers, who almost universally detest it, the plan could not be worked. Things may for a time remain as they are, for on the whole the present system does not work badly. But if a change is to come, I see, though with much regret and considerable misgivings in regard to the future, but two possible alternatives : either, that religious teaching shall find no place in the regular elementary day school curriculum, or, that by the immense majority of the regular teachers, that is, by all who are willing to give it, there shall be given in all schools — except those of Roman Catholics and Jews — what is termed ' simple Bible teaching.' I am told that there are a certain number of Churchmen who, if they were driven to accept one or other of these alternatives, would prefer the ' secular solution ' to ' simple Bible teaching.' Frankly, this is a position which I fail to under- stand ; it is one with which I cannot sympathise. And I fancy that, upon investigation, most of those who maintain it would be found to have rather a theoretical than a practical knowledge of the inside of an elementary school.^ Like others, I have heard stories about individual teachers ^ If I may I should like to make a very drastic, and, I suppose, a perfectly impossible suggestion : that when the so-called ' religious education ' controversy is again opened, no one should be allowed a voice in its settlement who has not given religious instruction in an elementary school for at least five hundred hours. If the matter could be left to those who had this qualification, we should soon be very far advanced towards a settlement. Frankly, the chief difficulty in the whole con- troversy arises from the opinions and action of those who have only a theoretical knowledge of what actually goes on and of what is actually possible within the schools. 134 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP telling their scholars they did not believe this or that in the Bible, and of other teachers giving anjd;hing but a Christian interpretation of certain great Christian doctrines, like e.g. the Divinity of our Lord ; but from a very wide experience I should say that such teachers are in a perfectly negligible minority, indeed, I doubt if they are one in five hundred. The advantages of ' simple Bible teaching ' over no religious instruction should be obvious, for under the first the children do obtain, from competent teachers, at least a clear knowledge of the chief contents of the Gospels and Acts and of the main points in the history of God's Chosen People. For the Sunday school teacher or the clergyman (in his confirmation classes) to be able to assume this knowledge, instead of having to spend time and energy in imparting it, is an immense help. It enables them to turn their attention to the interpretation and application of this knowledge, instead of having first to give what they desire to use. In addition to this advantage we obtain another, viz. at least technically, the general recognition of religion {e.g. by opening and closing with prayer) as an integral part of the life and work of the school, not as an extra or something to be added to this work. To sum up. Personally I believe it is the duty of the Christian citizen to urge that in all the schools of the nation, that is, in all schools sup- ported by national funds, the Bible should be taught, and by the Bible I mean the elementary truths of Christianity — such as a child can under- stand, and also that from this teaching should be deduced simple and practical lessons for everyday CHRISTIAN TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS 135 conduct. At the same time I would have a very definite ' conscience clause,' by means of which any parent would have the right of withdrawing his child from this instruction. It should also be made quite clear that this teaching should be given without any sectarian bias.^ To fall in with this last proviso, the immense majority of the teachers may be fully trusted. Do not let my readers think that I regard this plan as ideal ; but speaking from experience I believe it is the solution which promises best for the national welfare in the future. Some of my readers may doubt whether in this book there should be any reference to the Sunday school. They may ask, What has so purely a voluntary institution to do with citizenship as such ? But surely one of the chief proofs of good citizenship lies in the earnestness with which voluntary institutions for the good of the com- munity are supported ? And the Sunday school has gradually become a really great national institution, one bound up very closely with the best life of the nation, one capable of doing a very great deal of good, and of playing a most important part in the social as well as the religious future of the people. But, until quite recently, compara- tively few Church people have seen its great possi- bilities — as an instrument for Christian social teaching and for a true Christian social develop- ment. Churchmen generally have not realised 1 I know that this is doubted, but only, I think, by those who have never given it or heard it given. That it is so given in the immense majority of both provided and non-provided schools is the chief reason why the ' religious ' difficulty is so little known inside the schools. 136 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP how, by even simple lessons drawn from the Bible, social ideals and social duties and responsibilities can be taught to the children, and especially to the young men and women who attend Bible classes. The ethical and the social cannot be dissevered, — Is there such a thing as individual ethics ? — -and it is an idle question which would ask which of the two should come first in order of thought, because the one cannot be taught properly apart from the other. In the day school children should be taught, from a definitely Christian point of view, their duty towards their parents, and also the duty of members of a family, e.g. brothers and sisters, towards each other. They should be taught from the Bible the need, the duty, and the value of justice, truthfulness, honesty, and kindness. Then in the Sunday school, especi- ally among the elder scholars, we must carry this teaching into a wider sphere and give it a far wider application. We must show the need of these same virtues in the larger life of the outside world — in business, even in our pleasures and amusements, and especially in our life as members of a community, whether that community be the smaller society of a village, or the larger society of some great city or of the nation. Indeed, we may and must pass beyond the nation to inter- national relationships ; and for teaching the right discharge of these, Christianity, the one universal religion which recognises no distinctions of race or nation, is supreme. This teaching must not be ' political ' in the ordinary sense of the word, it must not deal with, it must not even refer to, party politics ; but it must be ' political ' in the true and larger sense of the word, it must through- CHRISTIAN TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS 137 out teach that each of us has duties to every polis, that is community, of which we are members. Then, in the Sunday school and Bible class we may teach as freely as we will about the Church, the Christian Society. We can show the need and the nature of this. We can show how life can only develop in a society, and from this teaching we can show how the relationships which should exist between the members of the Church are just the relationships which must exist between the members of the civil community. We can show that these relationships must be not only moralised but Christianised.^ When we think of what has been done in the past and is being done in the present, I fear we must confess that we have not at all reahsed the possibilities which the institutions of the Church afford for teaching what Christian citizenship should mean. I am perfectly certain that many who are anxious to see a higher and nobler type of citizenship do not grasp, even in idea, what an opportunity both the Sunday school and the Bible class offer for helping to produce this. To- day in hundreds of parishes a double cry is being raised : first, for more Sunday school teachers ; secondly, for more intelligent teachers. One reason for this scarcity is that few even earnest Church- men and Churchwomen understand what a very practical work the Sunday school might do. Com- plaints about the ' inefficiency ' of our Sunday schools have been so loud and so general that many people wonder whether these schools are worth maintaining. They are inclined to wonder whether, if they are doing as little good as is 1 See my Social Relationships in the Light of Christianity, pp. 3 ff . 138 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP asserted, they are really worth preserving. Per- haps the greatest weakness of our Sunday schools at the present time arises from this, that the teaching given in most of them has so little direct reference to daily life and conduct. It is one thing to be able to explain a chapter of the New Testament or one of the parables ; but a much greater exercise of skill is required to show their practical application to present - day social life, to its difficulties, and its responsibilities. Yet the teaching is there ; and the earnest Christian citizen can hardly do a more useful work than showing a class of young men and young women how intimately and practically Christianity bears upon the problems and difficulties of daily conduct and experience. In theory we all agree that the Church must provide ideals, that it must set the standard for life, that it must teach duty and responsibility, that it must both inspire and lead ; but as Church- men and Churchwomen we are slow to turn our theory into practice. Individually we seem want- ing in the effort necessary to enable the Church to fulfil this office. To use the means which are ready at hand for this is one of the tasks to which we must apply ourselves. The opportunity is at hand, the need is urgent, it is the willing and efficient workers who are wanting. We must first equip ourselves and then volunteer for the work. CHAPTER X THE CITIZEN, RELIGION, AND THE CHURCH For many reasons this is a difficult subject, and its treatment must necessarily depend upon the point of view from which it is approached. I write as a Churchman, and primarily, though not onlj^ for Churchmen, because I hope this book may be read by others than members of the Church of England. At one time the State assumed that every citizen was a member of the Established Church ; if this assumption could still be made, which it cannot, the subject would, of course, be very much simplified. But to-day a large number of citizens are not Church people, many are not even professing Christians. Still, whether Christians or not, they have the rights and the responsibilities of citizens ; and very many who from conviction are not Church people, many indeed who are not even professing Christians, do their social duties and discharge their social responsibilities in a very praiseworthy manner. With regard to those who are not Christians, the question may be asked. Whence do they derive the moral power which enables them to live a social life which expresses in conduct many high ethical qualities or virtues ? The question is not easy to answer. We may, of course, point to the past, we may point to many men and women, for instance in ancient Rome, 140 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP who were excellent citizens and who did their duty admirably to the State and to each other. This is not a book upon Comparative Religion, and I am not going to enter into the question as to how much there was in the religion of these people which is also found in Christianity. And we must remember that in those days religion (heathen as well as Jewish) did enter very largely indeed into civic life, so largely that it was a part of that life.^ We know that God has never left Himself without witness ; ^ we know that wherever we discover a refined conscience and a high sense of duty we may feel sure that, however imperfectly, the one possessing these has heard His voice ; God has certainly in some measure spoken to them. It is most important that we should use the words ' revelation ' and ' inspiration ' with care ; still we cannot read some of the writings of the old world peoples, both of Asia and Europe, without feeling that they exhibit at least a measure of what is rightly termed inspiration, and that at least a measure of revelation must have been granted to their authors. On the other hand, when we compare the very loftiest ideals both of the State and of citizen- ship which the greatest of these heathen writers have bequeathed to us with the social and civic ideals of Christianity, we cannot fail to see how immeasurably superior those of Christianity are. This is still more plainly seen when we compare ' The eaxly Christians were regarded not merely as unbelievers, but as anarchists, as traitors to the civil order. * Acts xiv. 17 : of. Rom. i. 18 fit. Some of the ancient philosophies, notably Stoicism, undoubtedly did much for the heathen which for the Jews was done by the Law. See my Social Relationships in the Light of Christianity , pp. 156-7. CITIZEN, RELIGION, AND THE CHURCH 141 the conduct of the best Christians with that of even the noblest heathen citizens. Heathenism, both in conception and practice, at its best was infinitely below the best we have seen in Chris- tianity.i Let us take the ideals first. Let us take such books as The Republic of Plato, or The Ethics or The Politics of Aristotle, or as an ethical treatise The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius — let us study each of these works for instruction upon our duty to our neighbour. We shall find that many of the thoughts, ideas, conceptions, and exhortations which they contain are extremely lofty. We may obtain and we have obtained a great deal of good from studying them. But when we come to com- pare them with the New Testament we feel how different the two atmospheres are, we feel that conduct is inspired by such totally different motives and judged by such entirely different standards. Ask men who are well versed in Greek and Roman ethics, as well as in those of the New Testament, under which system they would prefer to live. There can be no doubt of the answer. Life in Nineveh or Babylon, or Athens, or Rome may have been bearable to the rich and strong men, even to a certain number of well-to-do women. But what was it to the ordinary woman, to the average child, to the poor and the slave ? Those, and tmfortunately only those who are versed in the Uteratures of these old heathen states, know what the everyday hfe, the so-called * The ordinary man, who is unfamiKar with the ancient literatures of, say, Greece or Rome, and who is therefore un- familiar with the moral ideals and moral Ufe of these peoples, fails, from want of the knowledge requisite to form a comparison, to realise how great a change Christianity effected. 142 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP civilised life of these countries was. We may take such a work as the Republic of Plato, and while we find in its pages much to leam and much to admire, we find also ideas and standards of conduct which we cannot contemplate without a shock to our moral nature. The standards of purity, kindness, and mercy, even the standard of justice revealed (e.g. the position, to say nothing of the treatment, of the woman or the slave), strike us as hopelessly inadequate. When we come to the standards and ideals of Christianity all is changed. We have entered a different atmosphere. We look at life — at human nature and human conduct — from a different point of view. The Incarnation, and the Resurrection of Christ, and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit have worked an infinite difference.^ If we are reminded of the good lives lived by many non-professing Christians to-day, we shall not forget to point out what these people owe to Christianity. They may be quite unconscious of their debt to it, they may even attempt to repudiate it. But to deny a debt is not to prove that it does not exist. If their standards of life (as expressed in conduct) are practically Christian, where, we ask, did they leam these standards ? The atmosphere they breathe is permeated by the diffusive power of Christianity ; the influences under which in all probability they were educated were Christian ; many of the influences under which they are now living, and which are hourly acting upon them, undoubtedly are so. And we do not always realise how many people there are who ^ For an admirable survey of early Christian conduct and ethics, see a quotation from Aristides in Dbbschiitz, Christian Life in the Primitive Church (trans.) , pp. xxv. ft. CITIZEN, RELIGION, AND THE CHURCH 143 to-day are living upon their moral, e.g. their Christian, capital, which has been accumulated for them by others in the past, and which has by these been bequeathed to them. Upon this they are daily drawing, and, since they do not add to it, they are in considerable danger of exhausting it. This, alas ! is also true of many merely professing Christians, who are not in actual present com- munion with the source of Christian life and power. ^ It is by no means easy to maintain a high standard of civic life or civic duty. It is far more difficult to maintain than is a high standard of family life. To-day there are far more good fathers and mothers than there are good citizens. Again, it is far easier to maintain a higher standard of family life than of commercial life. There are more good parents than there are good employers of labour. The interests of civic life demand a larger outlook and a more comprehensive sym- pathy than do the interests of the home ; they also demand a much wider knowledge. Also the performance of civic duties demands far more self-sacrifice than do the duties of the family — which is sometimes little else than an enlarged self. Family selfishness is a subtle and insidious form, but it is a very common form, of selfishness. I am not going to deny the existence of a party selfishness, or of a class selfishness ; these are also common ; but there can be little selfishness about the man or woman who devotes time and thought and energy for the welfare of thousands whom they do not even know by name, and who are apt to treat their self-sacrificing efforts by apathy, if 1 The result of living solely upon Christian capital is gener- ally much more evident in the third generation than in the second. 144 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP not by positive opposition. If a man does his duty as a father or a son he generally meets with at least a measure of reward ; for personal welfare is to a certain extent bound up with family welfare. But little or no reflex comfort, advantage, or honour — other than the testimony of a good conscience — must be expected by the civic worker, who seeks no personal advantage, and whose aim can only be the greater good of the community. Hence of all men the civic worker, the Christian citizen, stands most in need of motive power and of inspiring ideals. And the Christian citizen, as I have shown in the earlier part of this book, finds both of these in Christianity. Like his Master Christ, he is fired with ' the love of souls,' with the ' enthusiasm of humanity.' He would ' save,' in and for this world, as much as for the next, men and women and children. He determines to do all that lies within him to see that they have at least the opportunity to become what Christianity tells him they were meant to be. The Christian citizen has ideals. He has in his mind the ideal father and mother, the ideal son and daughter, the ideal ruler, the ideal employer, and the ideal workman. Towards the reaUsation of these ideals he works. He is a ' realist '; he is no mere 'nominalist,' which is much the same being as a mere opportunist, or a mere utilitarian. It is because non-Christian ethics are either opportunist or utUitarian — ^what else can they be except possibly naturalistic or materialistic ? ' — ^that non-Christian workers gener- 1 I am of course referring to the ' ethics ' of the average Englishman, who does not accept the Christian point of view. I am not thinking e.g. of Buddhist or Jewish ethics ; and of course not of Old Testament ethics, which had a very great deal of Christianity in them. CITIZEN, RELIGION, AND THE CHURCH 145 ally have such narrow horizons and such limited ideals. It is because Christianity is the greatest of all moral motive powers, and because it is the creator and maintainer of the loftiest ideals, that it is essential for the best and highest and most permanent of all kinds of Christian work. I pass from the thought of religion to that of the Church. The ideals of the Christian citizen are not personal but social. His object is not simply to make good men and women but good citizens. To him man is a social being, one made to be a mem- ber of a great society ; therefore he regards man as a socius, that is in his social capacity ; and he knows, as I have said before, that the perfect man or woman will be found only in the perfect society.^ The Christian citizen knows that just as surely as a man acts upon his environment, so his environ- ment acts upon him. He knows that man can only develop morally in a suitable human or moral environment, as he can develop physically only in a suitable physical environment. He knows that ' man cannot live by bread alone,' but that he needs the influences which come to him through the society of good men, through whom the Divine sustenance which he requires for life and work must be obtained. For this an ordered social life within a society is necessary. I would go further and assert, that as a true man has a definite pur- pose in view, so for the accomplishment of that purpose life within a definitely ' purposive ' or ' constituent ' society is necessary. Now the Church is, in the widest sense of these words, essentially such a society. This not only all 1 On this subject see Canon Ottley's Christian Ideas and Ideals, pp. 208 fi. 146 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP earnest and well-instructed Churchmen, but also Nonconformists, realise. We certainly cannot with truth charge the Orthodox or Trinitarian Non- conformist with individuaUsm in religion. If any school of Christians are specially open to that charge, it is rather a section of the Church of England — that of the older and narrower members of the so-called, but mis-called. Evangelical school of thought. This is not true, or only to a very limited extent true, of the younger men of this school. If ' High Churchmanship ' means laying stress on the value and importance of the ' Church,' then I venture to say that many, indeed most well- instructed Nonconformists are very High Church- men. I fancy it would be found that not only outstanding men like the late Dr. Dale and the late Dr. Paton, and Dr. Fairbaim and Mr. Arnold Thomas teach an extremely lofty conception of the Church, but that the average Nonconformist among the Congregationalists, Baptists, and Wesleyans has a far higher and also a far clearer idea of the corporate life of the Church than has the average older fashioned member of the so-called Evangelical section of the Church of England. At any rate, judging from their teaching, many of these so-called Evangehcals are very distinctly ' Low ' Churchmen. It has been asserted, and I believe with truth, that in proportion to their numbers. Nonconformists supply more civic workers and fill more civic offices than do Churchmen. One reason for this may be, that in many of the Nonconformist churches there is a clearer perception and a fuller realisation of the duty of the individual towards the community or CITIZEN, RELIGION, AND THE CHURCH 147 society, or ' Church,' than is often the case among members of the Church of England. Compara- tively speaking, in the Nonconformist churches there are probably far more office-bearers and a greater number of active workers than is the case in the Church of England. There are probably far more men who, within the Church itself, learn the duty and the art of corporate service, and then, having learnt these, follow them out in the larger life of the city. If we could make an inves- tigation into the past histories of all the men who during the last twenty years have served the office of city or borough councillors, we should, I believe, find that a very considerable portion of them had previously filled some office, if only a minor office, in connection with the work of some Nonconformist church. Thus the Churchman cannot charge the Non- conformist with having a want of the sense of the value of corporate life ; neither can he charge him with slackness to undertake civic duties. What he may, from one point of view, charge him with is a wrong conception of the nature of the Church. This, however, is a matter of different interpretations of the New Testament and of early Christian history, and it is not a subject upon which I can enter here. The Churchman may also assert that by his campaign on behalf of Disestablishment, by his efforts to bring about a separation of Church and State, the Nonconformist is running serious risk of lowering the civic ideal, of lowering the conception of the State as such, that is, of taking a far less noble view of its nature, its purpose, and its work. Bishop Westcott has shown how of recent years 148 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP the conception of the nation, and of its necessity for the full development of the life of the individuals composing it, has risen into clearer and clearer consciousness. We can now see, he says, that the nation is as essential for the perfect life, for the full development of human powers, as is either the family or the Church. He then asks whether that which is regarded as essential for the welfare of both the individual and the family — ^two entities or organisms — ^must not also be essential for the welfare of the nation, as such. For both the individual and the family we feel the need of religion ; we feel the need of that which corresponds to the spiritual element, the spiritual capacities and faculties of both. And as Bishop Westcott asks, ' Can the recognition of the spiritual life be less vital to the highest welfare of the nation ? ' He then very appositely asks, ' Shall we cast away for ever that which proclaims that the life of the nation is divine ? ' ^ Of course the honest Churchman is quite ready to admit that the Church has failed in the past — that even to-day it fails, if far less than in the past — to realise the high ideal of what a truly spiritual national Church should be. The Church still suffers from a measure of worldliness and from more than a measure of narrowness, and to some extent her members are, upon various subjects, disunited among themselves. In some respects the Church may have failed to keep pace with its duty, which is not simply to keep abreast of national needs, but to anticipate these, to be ready before- hand to teach the meaning of the ever fresh revela- tions which God is constantly making of Himself, * Christian Aspects of Life, pp. 60 fif. CITIZEN, RELIGION, AND THE CHURCH 149 and to guide present energy into the highest and most useful channels. To do all this is probably the greatest of all the services which the Church can render to the nation. But even if the Church has in the past failed to do what it might and ought to have done, this is surely a very inadequate reason for taking away from it the opportunity for doing that work to-day; for even its bitterest adversaries are constrained to admit that the Church is filling its true place, and doing its true work better with each succeeding year. In their eyes probably excess of zeal, rather than want of zeal, is now the Church's crime. That the Church of England needs reform is generally admitted by most reasonable people, and it would be well if its members were more generally urgent in bringing about reform. Some, alas ! seem to regard it as almost a duty to prevent the Church from reforming itself. I am not referring here to members of the House of Commons who are supposed to have a sinister object in doing this, but to men who are not only members of the Church, but pride themselves upon the strength and devotedness of their Churchmanship. It is no doubt strange to accuse such men of such a spirit, but if their opposition to reform is not due to want of faith, or to fear, it is difficult to give a reason for their conduct. They cannot believe that God has ceased to speak to men, or that the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit is alto- gether a thing of the past. Actually their opposi- tion has this effect — to prevent the Church meeting more adequately the needs of the present, to hinder it from being much more widely useful. It causes the Church to fail to do the work for the nation 150 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP which it might do, and which, I beUeve, God is caUing it to do. In the face of this opposition, what is the duty of the Christian citizen, not only as a Churchman but as a citizen, towards the National Church ? I believe it is nothing less than to demand and to strive to accomplish such reforms in the Church as the needs and conditions of the age demand. This is not the place to go into details, nor to indicate at length the reforms which need to be made in order to increase the usefulness of the Church, and to enable it to supply more adequately the spiritual needs of the people. Still in what follows I shall try to point out one or two of these reforms which seem to be specially needed at the present time. Together with Disestablishment is generally associated Disendowment, by which is usually meant that at least the ancient revenues of the Church shall be taken from it and devoted to other purposes. That they would be devoted to more useful purposes, or that they would be administered more economically, past experience of similar alienations of property does not give us much ground for assurance, even for hope.^ That many of the revenues of the churches — I must use the plural, for the Church as the Church has no revenue — are not at present used to the best advantage I am fully prepared to admit. If, of course, it were possible to ' pool ' these revenues, and then distribute them according to the work needing to be done, such a distribution would be ^ Recent experiences in France — where the waste of the property alienated from the Church is notorious — are a further strong proof of this. CITIZEN, RELIGION, AND THE CHURCH 151 not only an advantage but a duty. Something in this direction has already been done ; a little from time to time is being done ; but very much more requires to be done. As I said above, the Church of England as a Church has no property ; what is usually regarded as her property really belongs to a multitude of greater and smaller corporations. For instance, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have property ; Queen Anne's Bounty has property, and the majority of parish churches have property, and, of course, a large number of individuals have life interests in these properties. All this must be carefully remembered. Still, if the nation, the community, acting through the majority of its representatives in Parliament, can take away these various properties, it should be equally able to redistribute them ; though doubtless this latter process would be a much more intricate one than the former. But to call a work intricate or diffi- cult is not to say that it is impossible, and I believe it is the duty not only of Churchmen, but of all Christian citizens to-day, to do as much as possible to see that the revenues belonging to the various ecclesiastical corporations are as equit- ably distributed and as usefully expended as possible. Another reform which must be attempted, if the Church is to be made more representative and more efficient, is that of patronage. As this is at present administered it is at least an anachron- ism ; it is frequently a cause of people being alienated from the Church ; in a few cases it can hardly be regarded as anything less than a scandal. But here, again, we are met by the cry against inter- ference with the rights of the individual, that is. 152 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP of the individual patron. Still, can these ' rights ' be allowed to weigh against the highest possible, the spiritual and moral, interests it may be of thousands of men and women ? Can we demand that the rights of a single individual shall be literally enforced when the spiritual and moral needs of thousands are disregarded ? What the Church of England needs to-day is ' Boards of Patronage,' upon which the parishioners, who know the circumstances, the needs, and the possibilities of the parish, may have at least some representation. There woiild be no difficulty in constituting such a board as would be well able to choose a clergyman suitable for the particular parish in view. The bishop and the rural dean might be two members, the present patron might have two or three votes, and the parishioners might have two representatives. In this way the patron's rights would at least in a measure be conserved, the bishop would bring a wide know- ledge of possible candidates, the parishioners could help to decide whether a man was or was not suitable for the special features of the particular work. To-day I know there are many advocates of Dis- establishment, even of Disendowment, within the Church itself.^ I do not wish to repeat old and well-worn, though not on that account unsound, arguments ; but I would ask those who do advocate 1 I am in the fullest sympathy with their desire for more power of self-government and for a more spiritual rule in the Church ; but whether the Church would be wise to purchase the possibility of these, hastily, and at the cost of her endowments, which ultimately are for the spiritual instruction of the poor— who cannot pay for this for themselves — is, I think, open to the most serious question. CITIZEN, RELIGION, AND THE CHURCH 153 these changes to consider how, in the event of Dis- endowment, is the pastoral oversight and pastoral care of our great slum parishes, and of our scattered country villages, to be provided for? Here is a recent striking testimony to the difficulty which would ensue. There are some two hundred ' Free Church Councils ' in England. Some time ago it was very strongly recommended that, with a view to the better pastoral visitation of Nonconformists, the areas of influence of these councils should be divided up into ' Free Church parishes.' Though the advisability, indeed the need of this was strongly urged, up to the present time only one in ten of these ' areas of influence ' have responded to the suggestion. Even if a clergyman is not as efficient as he should be, if he is neither so good a preacher nor so strong a spiritual influence as he might be, it is surely something to have within the reach of all a man with at least some measure of education, and certainly in the great majority of instances with an honest desire to do good. Such a man in a definite position, and with a definite area of responsibility, can do, and generally does, far more to help the people in that area, to raise them to a higher moral and spiritual level, than the wandering preacher who preaches two sermons in the village chapel or the slum mission hall on a Sunday, and possibly also gives an address on one evening during the week. The itinerant evangelist does what he can, but it is impossible for him to exert the same steady personal influ- ence as the resident minister, who is always at the service of the people. I have dwelt upon this subject at some length, because I wish to impress upon my fellow-church- 154 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP men as strongly as I can that there really is no subject of greater importance. I would appeal to them not only as Churchmen, but as citizens, to give the matter their most careful thought. And for this reason, because the greater the efficiency, the spiritual efficiency of the Church, the greater will be its influence for good upon the community ; and it is to nothing less than the Christianisation of our national life in all its parts, and especially in all its relationships, that our best energies should be directed. In this sphere of reform, as in every other, we shall be met with indifference and apathy, we shall also arouse the more positive opposition arising from attempting to interfere with any kind of vested interest, especially of material or financial interests, in the maintenance of things as they are. But if the work of Christianity is to be done, these obstructions must be overcome. Of one thing we may feel certain, viz. that two and only two possible alternatives lie before us : first, a very large, practical, and far-reaching measure of Church reform; or secondly. Dis- establishment and Disendowment. Even should the second be inevitable, all that has meanwhile been done towards the first would not be lost labour. I am far from wishing to make the utilitarian the only measure of the Church's claim to consideration, but it is a claim which will be very strongly regarded whenever the question of Disestablishment becomes one of practical politics. An institution which is proving itself to be for the highest and fullest advantage of the people is far less likely to be interfered with than one which clearly lacks this quality. Our aim should be directed towards making the Church CITIZEN, RELIGION, AND THE CHURCH 155 as indispensable as possible in the life of the nation.^ To-day Churchmen are sadly too apt to waste their energies upon questions and subjects which are of comparatively minor importance. Con- troversies upon ' uses ' and upon niceties of ceremonial, even those upon certain disputed points of doctrine, can hardly be regarded as on the same level with the question of how to promote greater efficiency in bringing the fundamentals of Christian truth and Christian conduct into the lives and homes of the people. The skill of a leader, that is, in other words, the success of a campaign, generally depends upon the ability to bring the greatest possible force against the enemy, and this can only be done by the wise disposition and employment of available resources. It is as to how the Church may most successfiilly bring all her resources to bear upon the moral and social life of the nation, so as to elevate and purify it, that our thoughts must be directed. 1 I am not unmindful of various very practical measures of ' Church reform ' which were passed by Parliament during the last century, viz. the establishment of the Ecclesiastical Commission, the pooUng of the property and incomes of bishops and of superfluous prebends, the endowment of new parishes by the Ecclesiastical Commission, the increase of bishoprics, the enforcement of residence, and the mitigation of some of the evils of private patronage ; only, unfortunately, it seems more and more difficult for Parliament to find time for such measures. CHAPTER XI THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR In almost every chapter of this book I have tried to consider the duty or duties of the Christian citizen towards the poor. Not that we must think only of the poor, for the word ' neighbour,' according to Christ's teaching, cannot be more narrowly explained than as synonymous with ' every one who comes within the sphere of our influence,' or ' every one to whom, even by example or influence, we may render service.' ^ As a parish priest I have seen and heard much about the neglect of the well-to-do. Hence I would strongly urge upon all who would, in a Christian spirit and from a Christian motive, try to fulfil the duties of citizenship, that the needs of no one, whatever their social or financial position, should be neglected. But undoubtedly the poor (if for no other reason) from their comparative helplessness — a helpless- ness arising from various causes and of very different kinds and degrees — ^have a special claim upon the community, that is, upon citizens acting in their social or corporate capacity. It is because of the helplessness of which poverty is so often both the effect and the cause that poverty itself is so difficult, and consequently so important, a factor in almost every social problem. ^ See p. 1. 156 CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR 157 Poverty in money only, or by itself, is rarely found. Financial or economic poverty is generally preceded, accompanied, or followed by other kinds of poverty — ^by poverty of intelligence or education, by poverty of character or will-power, by poverty of physical health, or of opportunity. And in the great majority of these cases it seems well nigh impossible for the victims of poverty, without some kind and measure of extraneous help, to lift themselves simply by their own exertions out of their unfortunate condition.^ For hundreds of years it has in this country been regarded as the duty of the State to maintain those who are unable to maintain themselves and those dependent upon them, that is, those who, without this help, would die. Here is at once the origin and the object of the Poor Law in its present form and as at present administered. Technically at least, the Poor Law does not take any account of, or attempt to deal with ' poverty,' but only with ' destitution.' Actually the Poor Law now does deal, not only with various forms, but with various degrees of poverty. Many of the sick and imbeciles who receive help from it are not actually ' destitute.' Still if, as most people would admit, medical attention, and the care of those who cannot take care of themselves, are ' necessaries of life,' then the provision of these quite rightly comes within the scope of the Poor Law Authority. The English Poor Law is the result of the development of legislation extending through several centuries, and those who would understand its present condition and present scope must 1 Upon poverty for which others than the poor themselves are responsible, see Additional Note at the end of this chapter. 158 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP remember this.^ It has grown and been altered and made more and more elaborate (not always wisely) with the growth and increasing intricacy of our national life. Now it is so intricate that when we take into consideration, not only the various Acts of Parliament, but the various ' Orders ' of the Local Government Board, under which it is administered, we reaUse the truth of the assertion, that to understand it is becoming more and more the privilege of the expert only. Still, strange as the paradox may seem, the adminis- tration of the Poor Law is still largely in the hands of amateurs who do not understand it. Here, as always, when we think of the welfare of the people, two factors have to be considered: first, the law itself ; secondly, the administration of the law. For both, of course, the citizens are ultimately responsible. Only unfortunately in the case of the Poor Law the average citizen shows very Uttle interest. For proof of this I may state that in the last two elections of Poor Law Guardians in London, in one case only 28 per cent., and in the other only 21 per cent., of the electors have taken the trouble to go to the poll ! Here is at once a proof, not only of bad citizenship, but of the want of Christianity in our citizenship. Christianity is careful of the welfare of the poor ; whereas the average citizen to-day appears to take very little interest in their welfare. The present Poor Law, on the whole, is not a bad law. Were it properly administered, it would require only certain altera- tions in detail to make it into a very fair law. But * See History of the English Poor Law (3 vols.), by Sir G. NichoUs and T. Mackay ; also The English Poor Law System, by Aschrott and Preston Thomas. CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR 159 probably no other body of law is so variously,^ so ignorantly, and so inefficiently administered. Does the average citizen know this ? If he does not, his ignorance is culpable. If he does, then he takes very little trouble to see to its amendment. In the Poor Law the expert or trained servant works under the direction of the amateur ; the relieving officer's work is under the control of the guardians. Were it not for the supervision exercised by the central authority, which has constantly to be keeping the guardians up to their work, the condition of things would be even worse than it is. Here, then, are two crying needs : first, at least some amendment in the law itself ; secondly, a very drastic reform in its administration. Yet how often during the last three parliamentary elections, i.e. since the last Poor Law Commission was appointed, has a candidate for Parliament been questioned by an elector upon his opinions in regard to this law ? How often has the fitness of a candidate to deal with this question weighed with the electors in their choice ? In spite of the immense number of books and pamphlets which, within recent years, have been published on the Poor Law and cognate subjects, the ignorance and apathy of the average well-to-do citizen with regard to these is astonishing. In dealing with poverty we must always consider the complexity of human nature. We cannot separate the financial from the moral. ' For a striking proof of this see Minority Report, part i. chap, ii., section (A) on ' Local Byelaws as to Outdoor Relief ' ; also part. ii. chap, i., sections (B) ' The Outdoor Labour Test,' (D) ' The Able-bodied Test Workhouse,' (E) ' The Casual Ward.' 160 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP Not only does the possession of money, or the want of it, affect the character, but so does the way in which a person obtains what he needs, or what he accumulates. Every really intelligent worker among the poor knows this. The decree, ' in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread ' ^ — too often regarded as a curse or a punishment — is for human nature, as it exists, an essential condition of welfare. The ideal at which we should aim is that every one capable of earning his own living should earn it, that is, he should have the opportunity, and should feel the moral obligation of earning it ; ^ also, that as many as possible of those now apparently physically or morally in- capable of doing so should be made capable ; while the children, the sick, and the aged should be relieved of the necessity of working. This may sound like universal compulsion, if not universal slavery. But in the last resort we must use com- pulsion with the idle : the Scripture gives us authority for this.^ Still those who care for the moral welfare of the people will regard compulsion strictly as a last resort ; for, generally speaking, only that which is done willingly has the highest moral influence. One great danger connected with all public provision for the poor — which is also a danger attached to all forms of charity — is that it may deter from, or weaken, personal effort by remov- 1 Gen. iii. 19. « On the ' Right to Work ' demand of the Socialists, see Mr. J. R. Macdonald's The Socialist Movement, pp. 163 ff. |The subject is, of course, treated purely from the Socialist point of view, the objections and dangers being either discounted or ignored.] ' 2 Thess. iii. 10. CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR 161 ing the necessity for effort. If it does so, it will weaken the character of the recipient. On the other hand, at least the opportunity and the means of making effort — which are not always present — ■ should be provided. This, I think, may fairly be stated in favour of our present Poor Law system, that comparatively few are assisted by it who are quite capable — physically and mentally — both of earning their own living and also of providing for those naturally dependent upon them. The number of able- bodied men or of able-bodied single women, even of able-bodied widows, in our workhouses is small, as is also the number of able-bodied people — except widows — in receipt of out-relief. If we take away the sick, the aged, the widows with young children, and the feeble-minded, we have removed all but a very small fraction of those in receipt of aid from the State. ^ Of course all round the circumference of the circle within which people are in receipt of some form or other of State relief, there is an immense mass of poverty, some of it of a very severe kind. From this mass, just outside the circle of pauperism, there are those who are con- stantly sinking into pauperism. On the other hand, some within the circle of pauperism, especi- ally at certain seasons of the year, emerge, if only temporarily, from it. This large number of persons who are now inside and now outside the circle of pauperism form one of the most difficult ' ' The Poor Law is at the present time only to a small extent concerned with the man who is able-bodied. The various sections of the non-able-bodied — the children, the sick, the mentally defective, and the aged and infirm — make up to-day nine-tenths of the persons relieved by the Destitution Authorities.' — Minority Report, part, i., Introduction. L 162 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP of all the problems connected with the Poor Law. Because included in these we have, first, the great and apparently growing army of persons who are intermittently in receipt of indoor relief — those technically known as the ' ins and outs ' ; and secondly, another great army, that of the tramps and casuals who are constantly claiming the shelter of the ' casual ' ward. At the present time two schemes of Poor Law reform are before the country. One of these suggests immense alterations in the present law and in its administration ; the other demands what is tantamount to the abolition of the Poor Law altogether. They start from entirely different principles, and while the object of both is the same — the reduction, and, if possible, the extinction of severe poverty — the methods they would employ to effect this are almost entirely different. The watchwords of the first scheme are practically three — first, deterrence (as in the present law) ; ^ secondly, the demand for self-effort ; and thirdly, the co-ordination with, and fullest employment of, charity or voluntary help : the single watchword of the second scheme is, ' Prevention is better than cure.' These, of course, are the two schemes embodied in the ' Majority ' and ' Minority ' Reports of the last Poor Law Commission, of which by this time most people have heard some- 1 The following words from the Majority Report, part ix. sect. (3), seem to be conclusive as to this : ' We do not recommend any alteration of the law which would extend the qualification for relief to individuals not now entitled to it. . . . The term " destitute " is now in use to describe those entitled to claim relief.' Also in sect. (23), ' The Public Assistance Authority ' (alias the Poor Law) " can help only those who are destitute, ... it cannot help many others who are, from various causes, steadily slipping downwards in the social scale.' CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR 163 thing ; but which, I fear, have been sufficiently studied by very few, except by officials and experts. Yet for one reason, if for no others, these Reports demand, and should receive, the most careful study by all who have at heart the welfare of the poor, and certainly by all citizens who wish to discharge their duties in a Christian spirit, for they contain a mass of information about the actual condition and treatment of the very poor which is nowhere else available — that is, when the Reports themselves are read in conjunction with the evidence on which they were based ; they also contain the judgments, the reasoned opinions, of a body of men and women who are probably second to no others in their experience of work among the poor. Yet, as far as I can learn, the proportion of ' average citizens ' who have carefully studied either the evidence or the opinions based upon it is very small.^ This is only another addition to the large number of proofs that are constantly coming to hand, that while the number of so- called workers among the poor is considerable, while the number of those who profess to desire to help the poor is very large, the number of those who will take the trouble to equip themselves to give this help efficiently is really very small. The first scheme practically says. Use every means possible to encourage the poor to employ as much self-effort as possible ; co-ordinate and use as wisely as you can every voluntary source or instrument of charity, and then, but only then, if these are found to be insufficient, let the poor 1 Those who have not time to study the original documents may find excellent summaries of the Report, e.g. in a New Poor Law or no Poor Law, published by J. M. Dent & Co. 164 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP be the recipients of Public Assistance (the new synonym for the Poor Law). This scheme, in the eyes of many who understand the subject well, has two very great blemishes : first, it perpetuates the old evil principle of the strongest possible deterrence, i.e. it is only when every other means of help has failed that ' Public Assistance ' is to be given ; secondly, it perpetuates another and equally evil practice, that of putting the expert {alias the paid official) under, and therefore to a , great extent at the mercy of, the unpaid amateur. The other scheme aims at abolishing the Poor Law altogether,^ and it proposes to do this ulti- mately by removing the necessity for it. It woTild consider the poor before they reach the stage of destitution, and it would not consider them as a class by themselves, but according to their age and condition, and the cause of their poverty ; it would place, for instance, the children under the Education Authority, the sick under the Public Health Authority, the unemployed under an authority dealing with this difficulty. It would practically put Public Assistance at once within the reach of all who need it, but with this con- dition attached, that all who claim it, should they be found able to pay for it, should be compelled to pay for the assistance they have received. While this scheme has, at any rate in theory, the advantage of preventing poverty becoming absolute destitution (with its attendant and consequent evils), it has this disadvantage, that a much more 1 ' The scheme of reform that we recommend involves the final supersession of the Poor Law authority by the newer specialised authorities already at work.' — Minority Report, part i. chap. xii. sect. (B). CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR 165 stern, indeed rigid, application of the law or pro- cess of recovery will be required than we seem likely to obtain from a magistracy which is largely unpaid, and which is by no means universally independent of political and other pressure. But actually not only two, but four schemes of reform appear to be appealing for the support of the Christian citizen at the present time. Two of these would be to accept either the ' Majority ' or the ' Minority ' scheme as each appears in the Report. A third is to accept a compromise between the two ; but as these start from different points of view, and embody different principles, a com- promise between them will not be very easy to effect. The fourth scheme is to make such altera- tions in the present law as seem to be imperatively demanded in the light of the evidence which the Commission has accumulated. I do not think it is in the least degree probable that either of the schemes set forth in the Report will be accepted by Parliament in its entirety. The scheme of the ' Majority ' is far too intricate and involved. Its application would demand all over the country an immense number of really efficient voluntary workers, working both as in- dividuals and in associations. And there is abso- lutely no evidence to show, either that such workers exist, or that they could be provided and trained for the work. In almost every union we are suffering to-day from the fatal mistake made by Parliament in 1834 (against the expressed opinion of the Commissioners of that date) of placing the paid expert at the mercy of the unpaid amateur. As the social conditions of the people, and with these the administration of the Poor Law, have 166 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP become more intricate, this evil has become more and more accentuated. The country is hardly likely to repeat this mistake. It almost appears from their Report that the ' Majority ' Commissioners had measured the knowledge, zeal, skill, and enthusiasm of the available Guardian and potential philanthropic worker by their own. Therefore we may say, without fear of contradiction, that the scheme of the future will not be that of the ' Majority ' as it stands in their Report.^ The chief objection to the ' Minority ' scheme is almost as strong. We English people are apt to pride ourselves on the way in which the law — all kinds of law — ^is administered in this country. We are apt to speak about our admirable Judiciary System, and to compare its excellences with the want of these in other countries. So far as the law is administered by highly trained and highly paid experts — ^that is, in the higher and more important courts — ^this is probably absolutely true. But it is not true where justice is adminis- tered by the unpaid amateur — ^the average magis- trate. One of the main principles of the Minority scheme, we have seen, is that ' prevention is better than cure,' and this implies just what the scheme provides for, viz. that every necessary assist- ance shall be placed within reach of all, so that all may claim it ; but that, having claimed and enjoyed it, those who can afford shall then be made to pay for it. This, of course, implies that, if necessary, the force of the law must be applied to recover this ^ The contradiction in terms between the ' Majority's ' opinion of the average Guardian to-day and their faith in the wisdom and skill of the amateur workers to whom they would entrust so much is one of the most striking (and illogical) features of their Report. CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR 167 cost. And who but the magistrate is to apply this force ? Will the magistrates as a body be prepared to do this ? Judging from their treat- ment of those brought before them by the relieving officers to-day — ^to obtain repayment from those liable to contribute for paupers who have become chargeable — ^we should very much doubt if the law will be so administered as it must be, if recovery, where it can be afforded, is to become the rule. If all magistrates were stipendiaries, who were absolutely independent of local and political pressure, and who were prepared to see the law properly enforced, then the scheme might work well. But the way in which ' Justice's justice ' is now too often administered is, in my opinion, a very serious objection to its acceptance. As a third alternative, a movement is already on foot to see if a compromise cannot be effected between the two schemes which we have been considering.^ The movement is as yet too young for us to feel justified in prophesying of its prob- able future. But this at least may be said, that if even the points on which both Reports are agreed — and they are neither few nor unimportant — could be enforced by law, we should have gained much in the way of essential reform. The weak point of such a compromise would lie in its want of constructive reform. It would accomplish little more than the remedy of notorious abuses.^ Whereas those who know most about the causes and conditions of pauperism to-day, know that if 1 See County Councils' Association's Proposals for Poor Law Administration (published by P. S. King & Son). * These paxticular proposals, however, being far-reaching in changes of administration, do not seem to be open to this objection. 168 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP these causes are to be checked and these conditions permanently improved, much more than a mere negative policy is required. The fourth scheme — that of a reform of the present Poor Law — may be said to hold the field at the present time. As a matter of fact, such a reform is actually taking place. By various ' Orders ' and ' Circulars ' which have been issued since the Report of the Commission, the Local Government Board is showing its determination to reform, as far as the existing law will permit, abuses and evil conditions which have been brought to light by the evidence which the Commissioners collected. No doubt much may be done in this way ; but what I said in regard to the third scheme — that of a compromise — holds good here, viz. that no mere changes or improvements, even to the utmost limit which the existing law will permit, can meet the real needs of the present. During the nearly eighty years which have elapsed since the basis of the present Poor Law was settled (by the Act of 1834), the conditions under which great masses of the poor are living have entirely changed. Entirely new needs and new problems have come into being. ^ Also the ' social con- science ' of the country has become infinitely more sharpened. A machine which worked fairly then has ceased to work adequately, in any sense of the word, now. We have only to think of the needs of four classes of poverty-stricken people to see the truth of this : first, the children ; secondly, the sick ; thirdly, the vagrants ; and fourthly, the immensely increased number of those temporarily or permanently unemployed. For 1 On this subject see Majority Report, part vi. chapter i. CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR 169 the adequate treatment of each of these classes, to say nothing of others, entirely new methods, involving new administrative machinery, whatever may be its exact nature, is urgently needed. In the face of all this, it is clear that a great and anxious and most responsible problem lies before the earnest Christian citizen. And it is by no means an economic problem only.^ Not only the economic but the moral welfare of an immense number of people is involved. The proofs of this are constantly accumulating. I will give a single instance. It has been asserted, and probably quite truly, that after a man's religion the way in which a man earns his living is probably the strongest of all influences upon his character.^ Regular honest work, at which a man does his best, and which he can feel to be useful, is a great character-forming power. Now during the last few years many schemes have been tried to find work for those who are unemployed. Many municipal bodies have, so to speak, practically made work with this object. The numbers demand- ing such work have been large, while the work itself has been often limited in extent ; there has not been ' enough to go round.' Consequently men have been given so many hours a day for so many days a week; the work has been intermittent. It was hoped that the men would earn, at any rate, sufficient to keep themselves and their families from starvation, and that they would use the time * ' The causes of distress are not only economic and industrial in their origin and character, they are largely moral.' — Majority Report, part ix. sect. (38). 2 See p. 49. 170 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP when they were not at this work in looking for places where they might find regular work. But in numberless instances it has been found that the men would earn perhaps a couple of shillings or half-a-crown, and then pass the time during which they were idle in drinking this money. So that actually neither they nor their families were economically improved, while under this inter- mittent work their characters were rapidly deteri- orating. Had those who devised this method of helping the unemployed known or remembered how regular factory hoiu-s— together with the intro- duction of machinery — ^had tended to increased sobriety, they would probably have hesitated for a long time before offering any kind of intermittent employment. For it is well known, for instance in the shoe trade, that with decreasing home-work (which a man could do at his own time, and which he could leave at any moment to go and drink), and owing to an increasing number of men being com- pelled to work steadily, say from seven in the morning until six in the evening (with a single hour's interval for dinner), the sobriety of this class of workers has enormously improved.^ Then in considering every scheme for the reform of the Poor Law (or its abolition), one question of paramount importance for the Christian citizen must be — What, in all probability, will be its effect upon the character of the poor ? Unfortun- ately it seems that any evidence we have accumu- lated towards helping us to answer this question is largely negative in character. We know much more what not to do than what to attempt to do. * In most workshops it is forbidden to bring drink on to the premises. CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR 171 Many of the experiments of the past, Hke the instance I have just adduced, seem to be rather warnings than encouragements. It may be, in many cases it probably is, true that we have imagined that what we wished to do could be done at far less cost than is actually the case. No doubt if we could have found regular work for the un- employed, under quite sufficient supervision (efficient supervision has generally been wanting), and if the period during which such work lasted could have been sufficiently extended, so that the men had time to improve in both physique ^ and character, much more permanent benefit might have accrued. But by the average citizen and by the average public body, the cost of fulfilling these conditions would be regarded as absolutely pro- hibitory. Still, even if the financial difficulty could be overcome, experience seems to show that work which is found for men, and which they can retain so long as they are not obviously idle, has not the same moral effect upon them as work which they find for themselves, and which they will only be allowed to retain so long as they are obviously doing their best. After many years' experience in trying to help people in a great variety of ways, I am inclined to lay down the following principle : We must call upon them to make self-effort ; at the same time we must see that it is within their power to make the self-effort which we demand. It is at once evident that this principle is one of very wide application. For instance, it is the principle which lies at the basis of all successful ^ Many of the unemployed — sometimes through long privation — are of very poor physique : this must always be remembered. 172 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP education ; it is the principle which prompts and justifies all public expenditure upon education. Without education (which, of course, implies dis- cipline, and the training and development of character, as well as increase of knowledge and improvement of equipment) — ^without such an education the power of self-effort will be small, and will probably be extremely inefficient. Again, it is the principle which justifies the establishment of all kinds of training institutions, both for children and adults, e.g. ' schools for mothers,' and labour colonies. It is the principle which should govern, as far as possible, the distribution of all State relief and private charity. Apart from the aged and the hopelessly chronic invalid — whether in mind or body — ^the object of all help should be to enable the recipient to do without help. If help has not this tendency, if it is not assisting to accomplish this, it is being unwisely given. Of course we must be patient in working out any scheme, and one of the great dangers to which the philanthropist is always exposed is the temptation to take ' short views,' to think only of the present and to forget the future. This is also a tendency connected with most legislative proposals which emianate from all but the best and wisest members of the working classes ; for neither their education nor their experience seems to help them to take long views. I am not inclined to be as pessimistic as some, even of our wisest, social workers are about the evil which they assert has already been done to the poor by tempting them to slacken in the matter of self-effort. There are those who assert that we have already gone much too far in teaching the CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR 173 poor to look for external aid. This may be true in certain directions, while it may be quite untrue in others.^ I think, for instance, that there is a real danger of its becoming true in our methods of teaching the children in the schools, where more and more helps to learning seem to be supplied, while less and less effort on the part of children to overcome difficulties seems to be demanded. Another sphere in which the same tendency seems to be operative to-day is that of the parental relationships — fathers and mothers are relieved of duties which it seems natural for them to do. A certain number of Acts of Parliament have been passed whose immediate results seem to be to remove from the parents certain responsibilities with regard to their children. For instance, education is now ' free ' — at any rate in name. In towns where the Provision of Meals Act has been adopted, school children of very poor parents may obtain a ' free ' meal. Then, besides what is being done by law, charity is much more active in regard to the children. More help is given to mothers at the time of their confinements and afterwards ; and charity does much, if somewhat spasmodically, to provide free meals and occasional free holiday excursions. There are far more hospi- tals and other aids for sick children. Indeed, when we come to reckon the help of all kinds given to the children, or, in other words, the relief afforded ^ We must always ask whether recent social changes have not made it harder and harder — sometimes even impossible — for the very poor to discharge their naturtd responsibihties. Among these changes we might instance, in addition to the increase of rents in towns, the displacement of many workpeople by the introduction of machinery. Other instances might easily be given. 174 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP to the parents by this help, it certainly is, in the aggregate, very large. On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that indirectly, if not directly, the parents pay for a large proportion of this help. They may not pay school pence, but, by the increase of their rents, they pay both rates and taxes. Their children may obtain a free meal, but this meal, or at least a proportion of its cost, comes from the public funds. Again, if the children play in a public park, this park is maintained from the rates. It must not be forgotten that in recent years some of the disabilities of the poor,^ and among these their inability to discharge their parental responsibilities, have considerably increased. We have only to think of the rise in rents to see this. Many a working man in a large town to-day pays a full third of his income in rent. Seven shillings a week out of an income of twenty- one shillings, or nine shillings out of twenty-seven, greatly diminishes what is left for food and Ught and clothing and other necessaries of life. And the Christian citizen will remember that the evils of poverty are neither seen nor felt at once. Why is phthisis so much more common among the poor than among the well-to-do ? Frequently because the constitutions, especially of the town poor, are often so feeble.^ Not very long ago some slum children were taken into the country for the day and were given two excellent meals. On the return journey a child of twelve remarked that what she had most enjoyed, and what had struck her most, 1 See the chapter on this subject in my Social Relationships in the Light of Christianity, pp. 73 £E. * I.e. from privation — insufificiency of the means of life — often extending over years. CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR 175 was being able to have a good feed twice in one day ! There are tens of thousands of children to-day whose parents — ^let them be as thrifty as they can — are not able to provide them with sufficient food to maintain them in physical efficiency. The Christian citizen who thinks of the develop- ment of human nature will not be content to think what this want of means implies in the present ; he will form a clear conception of its issues in the future. He will compare the amount of sickness and the death rate in what is termed a ' good ' neighbourhood with those in a slum quarter of the same great town. He wiU realise that the causes of much of this sickness and mortality do not lie in the present conditions, but in that want in the past which has produced enfeebled constitutions and delicate health, such delicate health as offers little resisting power to the attacks of disease. It is when he remembers these facts that he may wonder whether a Poor Law, or system of Public Assistance whose principle is strongly ' deterrent,' and whose help can only be claimed when desti- tution has supervened upon poverty, is really economical. It may be cheaper at the time, but is it cheaper in the long run ? Is it ultimately economical ? As I have already stated, the expenditure due, directly or indirectly, to sickness is by far the most costly of all the factors in Poor Law expenditure at the present time. Personally, I believe that much in our present system of relief is ultimately wasteful in the extreme ; and I cannot but think that in the scheme of the Majority — which would to a great extent endorse and perpetuate the principle of deterrence — this 176 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP wastefulness would be continued. I believe that we ought to give relief far more carefully than we do at present, that the moral conditions or moral requirements for its claim ought to be much more strict than they now are ; but, at the same time, I hold that in many cases where it is given, it ought to be given earlier ; it ought, so to speak, to be more easily available, and a far lighter stigma of reproach should be attached to an application for it, and also that where it is given, it ought to be given far more liberally ^ than it now usually is.^ These principles hold good to an even greater degree in regard to Medical Relief. Here to be able to obtain easily, promptly, and sufficiently is essential. It is because the rich man can do this that he and those dependent upon him suffer in sickness far less, as a rule, than what the poor do. If any one wishes to prove this, let him spend a few weeks in a large general hospital, and make a careful note of the various cases which come in, and then hear what the doctors and nurses say about these. ' That case ought to have come in a week ago ' ; or, ' this case should have had atten- tion three months ago ' ; or, ' we might have saved that case if we had had it a fortnight ago,' are examples of what is said daily. To permit all this is to be guilty of the greatest possible waste- fulness. You cannot reckon the waste of life exactly in pounds, shillings, and pence ; but estimates have been made of the number of ' work- ^ The great temptation to which most Boards of Guardians succumb is to spread their relief over far too many cases. " I much regret to find the following in the last edition of Mr. Booth's Poor Law Reform : ' The Poor Law rightly waits for destitution to occur. To prevent the oncoming of distress is beyond its legitimate scope ' (p. 133). CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR 177 ing days ' which have been added to Uves by speedy admission into some of the great German working men's sanatoria, and the figures are extremely striking. A highly efficient Public Health Service, available at once for every one, might, regarded in itself, be very expensive, but it might prove in the issue to be highly economical to the nation which would invest in it. A rich man promptly sends for a doctor because, among other reasons, he tells you he cannot afford to be ill ; if he is, his business will go wrong, or his professional income will suffer. Can the nation afford that its workers shall be ill ? Would not prevention here be actually much cheaper than cure? But besides the economic factor, we must think of the moral effects of the principle of deterrence. At first sight we might think these would be altogether beneficial ; in other words, that it must be good for people to be obliged to make the greatest possible effort towards self-support. But we must remember that many of those who suc- cumb to the Poor Law are mentally and morally children ; the higher faculties of their nature are either deficient or undeveloped. What is the result of setting children a task which, without aid, is beyond their powers ? Is it beneficial ? Does it not rather tend to discourage or prevent effort instead of producing it ? To make failure penal under all circumstances may, in a small proportion of instances, call out a greater expenditure of energy ; but in the great majority of cases it rather prevents effort. Encouragement, so long as it is not permitted to pander to idleness and waste, is much more likely to draw out the best in most people. Then, again, in what are termed 178 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP ' bad times ' certain forms of crime do show a tendency to increase. The hopeless are inclined to become reckless, if not desperate. Physical hunger, and especially to have to witness those dear to him suffering from hunger, does not make a man more moral. There is a truth underlying the well- known assertion of Becky Sharp — ^that if she had an assured comfortable income she would find it much more easy to live a virtuous life. Thus, from a moral as well as from a physical point of view, there is much to be said against the deterrent principle of the present Poor Law, and which, so it appears, the scheme of the Majority would per- petuate. The whole question is full of diflBculties. Prob- ably the only real solution lies in differential treat- ment, which implies expert treatment. But such treatment, it will be objected, is extremely expen- sive. But even if it is so in the present, the ultimate saving may more than pay for the expenses of the treatment. The present expenditure upon pauperism is an expenditure which is almost wholly unremunerative. The expenditure involved in pre- vention might be larger, but, from the very fact that it was preventive, it would be remunerative. A ten-pound note, or even a fifty-pound one, spent on preventing an illness is a small sum compared with the cost of a chronic invalid, which is what the majority of sick paupers, from an economic point of view, actually are. Of course, if more Christian citizens would train themselves to become real experts in dealing with the poor, and would then bring expert advice or treatment to bear privately upon individual cases (not doing harm from inefficient treatment). CHRISTIAN CITIZEN AND THE POOR 179 many and many a case might be saved from coming upon the public funds. The real diflficulty lies in getting a sufficient number of people to submit themselves to such training as would render them efficient in this work. Here, to the Christian citizen, the principle of self-sacrifice should enter. For training means humility of mind and readiness to learn ; it also implies considerable sacrifice of time and expenditure of thought. But what evidence have we at present that any large number of people are prepared to offer these ? For where we have voluntary helpers, if the work is to be done properly, they must be many : because their work will be largely personal, i.e. the bringing of personal influence upon individuals. At the same time, it must be remembered that each one who can be enlisted in this work, and can do it efficiently, is an additional force for righteousness and for justice, is an additional lever for raising, not only those who have fallen into poverty, but those who are liable to do so. There are few calls to which the Christian citizen can respond with greater advantage than to become an expert worker in the cause of helping those who stand in need of the help, which only a strong and wise personality can give. Additional Note The Responsibility for the Poverty which exists It may be thought that in this chapter I have laid insufficient stress upon our responsibility towards the poverty which, to some extent, is due to evil conditions from which we are reaping a benefit. This is a large subject, and to treat it adequately would require at least an additional chapter. That much of the poverty which exists to-day ought never to have come into existence is true, and that much of it is not directly or even 180 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP indirectly due to the fault of the poor themselves is equally true. A measure of it may be due to the rapacity of individuals in the days when legislation regulating the methods by which wealth is made was far less stringent than it is now. But here, as in the case of the laying out of towns fifty or seventy or one hundred years ago, the results of action were often quite unfore- seen. Above all, the fatal issues of a policy of laissez-faire were certainly not understood as we now understand them. If a certain number of people have reaped wealth by this policy, the community has undoubtedly reaped a very painful harvest. And however guiltless we ourselves may have been in the creation of poverty, we cannot ignore our responsibility towards it. Above all, we must be careful, not only to mitigate it to the utmost of our power, but to see that no action of ours hands down to our children a further, and possibly an even greater amount of it. Certainly the doctrine of equality of opportunity may, with advantage to the community, be pushed practically much further than it is at the present time. CHAPTER XII 'THE HINDRANCES TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP' An admirable book upon The Hindrances to Good Citizenship has been written by Mr. James Bryce, our American ambassador. In the first three chapters Mr. Bryce deals with what he regards as the chief of these hindrances, viz. ' Indolence,' ' Private Self-interest,' and ' Party Spirit.' That where these rule ' good citizenship ' is impossible all will agree ; for all three are forms of selfishness which, of course, more than anything else, prevents men and women doing their duty to their fellows. In the concluding chapter of his book Mr. Bryce explains ' How to overcome these obstacles.' ^ To effect this, he believes there are two classes of remedies : first, those which may be called ' Mechanical ' — ' which consist in improving the structure or the customs and working devices of Government,' " i.e. the laws and the institutions or political methods ; and secondly, those which may be called ' Ethical,' by which he means ' those which affect the character and spirit of the people.' ' Under the first of these two heads Mr. Bryce considers the ideals of those whom he terms ' Philosophical Anarchists,' but who are more generally known as extreme Individualists ; also he deals with the exactly opposite views of those 1 p. io6. » P. io6. ' P. io6. 181 182 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP termed ' Socialists ' or ' CoUectivists.' He also considers such methods as ' Proportional Repre- sentation,' ' Obligatory Voting,' and ' The Referendum.' ^ But while all these suggestions may demand consideration, and while some of them may be of importance, Mr. Bryce clearly sees and readily admits that ' the central problem of civic duty is the ethical problem.' I will quote his own words : ' Indifference, selfish interests, the excesses of party spirit, will all begin to disappear as civic Ufe is lifted to a higher plane, and as the number of those who, standing on that higher plane, will apply a strict test to their conduct and to that of their leaders, realising and striving to discharge their responsibilities, goes on steadily increasing until they come to form the majority of the people. What we have called " the better conscience " must be grafted on the wild stock of the average man.' ^ Then Mr. Bryce naturally asks, ' How is this to be done ? ' To this question he replies, ' One must try to reach the Will through the Soul ' (notice the capitals). ' The most obvious way to begin is through the education of those who are to be citizens, moral education combined with and made the foundation for instruction in civic duty.' ^ But Mr. Bryce himself sees that ' moral educa- tion ' and ' instruction in civic duty ' are of them- selves quite incapable of making good citizens. He realises quite clearly that knowledge by itself is a very imperfect motive power. Experience teaches us that no amount of the most complete and detailed instruction is. of itself sufficient to ensure right action, much less persistent right » P. I06. * p. 121. 3 Pp. 121, 122. HINDRANCES TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 183 conduct. The whole history of the teaching of rehgion is one long and painful commentary upon, indeed proof, of this. The most exact knowledge of the Bible and of Church history will not enable a man to live a Christian life, though they may help him to do it. Hence Mr. Bryce is driven to admit that, ' Valuable as instruction may be in fitting the citizen to comprehend and judge upon the issues which his vote determines, there must also be the will to apply his knowledge for the public good. What appeal shall be made to him ? ' ^ To this question Mr. Bryce's first answer is as follows : ' We may appeal to his enlightened self- interest, making self-interest so enlightened that it loses its selfish quality. We can remind him of all the useful work which Governments may accomplish when they are conducted by the right men in the right spirit.' ^ I must confess that this appeal does not strike me as a very lofty one, nor as one likely to have a strong or far-reaching effect. The second answer adduced by Mr. Bryce is : ' We may also appeal to every citizen's sense of dignity and self-respect. We may bid him re- collect that he is the heir of rights and privileges which our ancestors fought for, and which place him, whatever his birth or fortune, among the rulers of his country. He is unworthy of himself, unmindful of what he owes to the Constitution that has given him these functions, if he does not try to discharge them worthily.' * Is this second appeal likely to be stronger, or to appeal to a wider audience than the first ? Upon what, I would ask, does the citizen base his claim to dignity ? What is his justification for self-respect ? Still more, 1 P. 123. ' P. 123. ^ P. 125. 184 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP what about the value of other citizens ? A Uttle further on Mr. Bryce writes : ' The ebbs and flows of ethical life are beyond the reach of scientific prediction. . . . Every man can recall moments in his own life when the sky seemed to open above him, and when his vision was so quickened that all things stood transfigured in a purer and brighter radiance, when duty, and even toil, done for the sake of duty, seemed beautiful and full of joy.' ^ We all know these ebbs and flows. But some of these ebbs are both painfully low and of extremely long duration ; and some of the flows mean, I fear, little more than times (often very brief ones) of wild excitement governed by unreasonable and unreasoning passions rather than by really lofty ideals.^ A little further on Mr. Bryce teUs us that ' Nations, too, have moments of exaltation, moments of depression. Their ideals rise and fall. They are for a time filled with a spirit which seeks truth, which loves honour, which is ready for self- sacrifice. . . . Sometimes, and usually at one of these crises, a great man stands out who helps to raise the feeling of his people, and inspire them with his own lofty thoughts and aims. Such a man was Mazzini, seventy years ago in Italy.' ® I am glad Mr. Bryce mentions Mazzini ; because it compels us to ask what was the chief inspiration, indeed the persistent source of the strength of this great patriotic leader and citizen ? Upon what conviction was Mazzini's appeal to his fellow- countrymen based ? He shall answer for himself. ' The origin of your duties is in God. The definition of your duties is found in His law. The progressive ^ p. 126. * E.g. during the heat of a contested election. » P. 127. HINDRANCES TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 185 discovery and application of His law is the task of humanity.' ^ And again, ' For every advance in religious belief we can show you a corresponding social advance in the history of humanity : but for your doctrine of indifference in the matter of religion you can show us no other consequence than anarchy.' ^ Again, ' We want to form a nation ; how can we succeed in this unless we believe in a common purpose, in a common duty ? And whence can we deduce a common duty, if not from the idea we form of God and of His relation to us ? ' 3 ' Without God you will find that what- ever system of civil government you choose to attach yourselves to has no other basis than blind, brutal, tyrannic Force.' * And finally, ' How shall we demand of the people self-sacrifice ? . . . In the name of our individual opinions ? Shall we transform theory into practice and abstract principle into action, on the strength of our interests alone ? Do not be deceived. As long as we speak as individuals in the name of whatever theory our individual intellect suggests to us, we shall have what we have to-day, adherence in words, not in deeds. The cry which rang out in all the great revolutions — the cry of the Crusader, God wills it ! God wills it! — alone can rouse the inert to action, give courage to the fearful, enthusiasm of self- sacrifice to the calculating, faith to those who 1 The Duties of Man and other Essays, p. 21. ' Ibid., p. 24. ' Ibid. , p. 25. Has not experience proved how feeble in high moral influence is the idea of ' fraternity ' unless based upon the conviction of the ' Fatherhood ' of God ? If it be denied that the idea of Duty can be ' deduced ' (Mazzini's apparent contention) from the idea of God, it will at least be admitted that the idea of God is necessary fully and adequately to explain and justify the immediate consciousness of Duty. « Ibid., p. 28. i86 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP reject with distrust all merely human ideas. Prove to men that the work of emancipation and of progressive development to which you call them is part of God's design and none will rebel. Prove to them that the work which has to be accom- plished here on earth is an essential portion of their immortal life, and all the calculations of the moment will vanish before the importance of the future. Without God you can command, not persuade ; you can be tyrants in your turn, never educators and apostles.' ^ Mr. Bryce's advice upon the discharge of the responsibilities of citizenship is excellent, his diagnosis of the factors of bad citizenship is ad- mirable ; but his remedies for this, and still more the motives he adduces for good citizenship, are hopelessly insufficient. What the ' average man ' needs is not so much the ' self-regarding ' virtues as, first, knowledge ; secondly, inspiration ; and thirdly, a motive power which exerts a strong and persistent pressure upon him to act zealously in the right direction, and for the highest objects. Among the ' hindrances to good citizenship ' which he mentions, I think Mr. Bryce fails to give a sufficiently prominent position to ignorance ; which, however, may come under the head oiE indolence, which indeed is often the primary cause of it. For this we may be devoutly thankful, viz. that excuses for ignorance are being rendered less and less valid day by day. Reports and Blue Books giving intimate, exact, and detailed infor- mation of various evil social conditions are being issued in a stream which never ceases to flow. The daily press now frequently gives analyses and ' The Duties of Man and other Essays, p. 29. HINDRANCES TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 187 summaries of these, and devotes more and more space to social questions generally.^ But to say that ignorance is inexcusable is not to say it does not exist. Indeed, considering the increase of knowledge readily available, it is not only extraordinary, it is simply appalling, how general and how dense is still the ignorance which exists among the well-to-do in regard to the conditions under which many of the poor still live and labour. If I were asked what I consider the chief of all the hindrances to good citizenship, I should answer. Ignorance, ignorance of actual evil conditions, and ignorance of remedies which have been proved to be successful on a small scale, and which should be applied on a large scale. Hence I believe that the first duty of the Christian citizen is to learn, and that his second duty is to teach. He must, above all things, make widely known any evils of which he is aware, and he must so do this that he will compel people to demand the reform of conditions which are detrimental to life and to healthy development. We must not forget that unfortunately it is to the material interest of a good many people that evil conditions should continue to exist. Those who live by inducing others to sin are not a few : those who get rich by providing temptation are a much larger number. It is to these people's material interest to maintain things as they are. Some of them will deny that evil conditions exist, others will do all in their power to prevent light * If people would only realise that it is not the want of infor- mation, but the rate at which information is being made available, that is to-day one of the real difificulties of the earnest social reformer who, naturally, desires to act upon this information ! 188 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP being thrown upon them. It is to their interest that public officials should actually not do their duty. I have known at least two cases where the condition upon which public officials were allowed to continue in office was that they should acquiesce in not doing what they were appointed and paid to do. ' You shall continue in office, and your stipend shall be paid you, so long as you keep silence and do nothing ' was practically the con- dition upon which the continuance of their positions depended. And if a man has to live — especially in these days when the competition for public appointments is so keen — ^the temptation to agree to even such a condition as this is very strong. If indolence prevents us from reading Reports, it is still more likely to prevent us from taking the trouble to make personal investigations. It also prevents us from doing all we can to find out how far those who offer themselves for election to public bodies are not only properly qualified for holding office, but are likely to act efficiently and without fear and favour. Bribery to silence, that is, to maintain present conditions, is not wholly a thing of the past. But even if officials keep quiet, that is no reason why citizens should do so. It is not only navvies working in gangs who require an overseer, it is not only the men working in factories who require a foreman — to see that they do their work. The employer needs the Factory Inspector, the Poor Law Guardians require the Poor Law Inspector, and both managers and teachers of elementary schools require the watchful eye and the surprise visit of H.M.I. It is all very sad, but human nature being what it is, apparently none of this supervision can be dispensed with. HINDRANCES TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 189 What we have to remember is that above the officials stand the people, the citizens whose work they are supposed to do. If the work is not done it is the citizens, individually and collectively, who are finally to blame. Things are only hope- lessly wrong when the citizens cease to try to get them right. The weak point, the great danger, indeed the frequent cause of failure in an appeal to the people, that is, to the citizens generally, lies here, that what is the duty and the responsibility of every one is too often the duty of no one. Each is apt to think that some one else is more fitted to move in a matter than he is. But if Christianity teaches the importance of the society, it teaches just as strongly the duty of the individual. This is one reason why it is so essential that the general level of the conception of the responsibility of citizenship should be raised. Doubtless in great movements, as Mazzini asserts, the chief inspiration will come through some particular individual who is raised up to lead them. But even then the response evoked, the number and the earnestness of those who follow him, will largely depend upon the conception of citizenship held by the ' average man.' The great danger of all demo- cracies, that is, of conditions in which the people are actually supreme, is the danger of delegated responsibility. I do not say that the responsibility of administration must not be delegated. As a matter of fact, it cannot be otherwise. But the choice of administrators, and the steady pressure maintained upon those who are chosen, lies with the citizens. It is because good laws which are in advance of public opinion are generally inopera- tive that we must raise public opinion. 190 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP With the motives suggested by Mr. Bryce for good citizenship, let us compare or rather contrast those given by Bishop Westcott. The first given by Mr. Bryce was ' enlightened self-interest,' the second was the ' sense of dignity and self-respect.' Both of these — it is surely fair to say — are frankly self-centred ; may we not also say that they are simply appeals to self-interest ? And self-interest, in itself, cannot be wholly separated from selfishness.^ Now what is Bishop Westcott's appeal ? By what motives would he have the average man inspired ? Bishop Westcott is, in the old philo- sophical sense of the term, a great and thorough ' realist.' He is convinced of the existence, ' in heaven,' of a pattern city, the conditions and essential features of which have been revealed by Christ and His apostles. This is the City which has the true foundations,^ in fact, the only possible foundations upon which the highest human welfare can be built up. ' If,' he says, ' we accept this pattern we shall strive to make the standard of heaven the standard of our own service.' ^ The motive of even ' enlightened ' self-interest has no place here ; but, instead, we have the high altruistic thought of service — of service to God through service to men, and of true and real service to men, because the nature of that service will be regulated by the revelation of what service should be from our knowledge of the ' pattern ' city. At once, that is, as an inevitable corollary to this, we see that ' because we are citizens of heaven we ^ I am far from denying a value to such motives as ' sense of dignity ' and ' self-respect.' What I do assert is that they are far lower, and in experience have been found far weaker, than the genuinely Christian motives. ' Heb. xi. lo. " Christian Aspects of Life, p. 107. HINDRANCES TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 191 shall be more resolute, more courageous, more enduring in the discharge of our earthly citizen- ship.' ^ But the Christian citizen has not only an ideal or pattern which he must keep in mind, he believes he has also a strength by which he may be helped towards doing his share to realise it. ' If, as we believe, all life answers to a Divine archetype, if the Word, Himself God, became flesh, and by living hallowed life, and by dying conquered death, then we, with all our infirmities and failures, are brought near to an inexhaustible spring of strength : we have a promise, in deed, and not in word, which cannot fail : we have a full assurance that there can be no final defeat of God's righteous love. . . . God gave, and God gives, us the strength which we severally need : He provides for us the means and the occasions for doing Him service.' ^ Thus the Christian citizen has a clear and definite ideal ; he has also, if he seeks it, strength provided for him whereby he may strive after the realisation of this ideal. But the Christian citizen is a member of another society besides the civil society of his town or village or nation. He is a member of the Church. The unattached or detached Christian is, according to the teaching of the New Testament, unthinkable ; he cannot exist. Bishop Westcott, in the light of this truth, shows how churchmanship and citizenship must go hand in hand ; ^ how each can and must help the other; how from their frequent severance in the past evil has happened to each. In their position and capacity as members of the Church most men will, at least in theory, 1 Christian Aspects of Life, p. 107. * Ibid., p. 108. ' Ibid., p. 112. 192 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP admit that they have spiritual ties and moral responsibilities towards each other. The weak- ness of what is termed ' Church life,' when divorced from civic life, is that there is not a sufficiently wide and practical field for the practical discharge of these responsibilities. To teach children, to manage clubs, and to give alms to the poor is a narrow range of activities for a man who desires to be largely helpful to his fellows. On the other hand, civic life detached from Church life is apt to forget the spiritual ties and moral responsi- bilities which are the true and real bonds of con- nection between man and man, when it is admitted that man is a spiritual and moral being. The ' cash nexus ' in its various forms, especially if the motive power of conduct be even an ' enlightened ' self-interest, is in danger of being regarded as the only bond worth consideration. There is another immense advantage in bringing Church life (when that life is real) into the midst of civic life. In theory at least the Church is a pure democracy, in theory it knows no class distinctions. The poor man is of equal value with the rich man ; he has the same rights, he has also the same responsi- bilities, though in practice it is often difficult to convince him of this latter fact. The value of the Church in civic life is thus described by Bishop Westcott : ' She vindicates for spiritual influences a place in every national work. She offers a hospitable welcome to every patient labourer for the truth. She finds a place for every form of service. She covers with her activities the whole range of human needs and human endowments.' ^ This is the ideal, and if it is not realised, if it is ^ Christian Aspects of Life, p. 115. HINDRANCES TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 193 not being realised, what is the reason ? The bishop asks, ' Do we believe in the Holy Ghost ? If we believe, all things are possible to us ; if we do not believe, then for us Christ has not risen.' Here the motive power (and the cause of its absence) of the Christian citizen is made perfectly clear. It is infinite in power, for it is divine. It is entirely unselfish, for it is the Spirit of Christ, who gave His life that all might live. Our work for others demands this power, and it is in this Spirit that it must be pursued.^ ^ It may be contended that we do meet viith. occasional examples of ' pure devotion to duty ' and of ' enthusiastic love of humanity ' in persons who have no definite Christian or even Theistic belief. But we must remember how wide and how strong has the ' diffusive ' influence of Christianity become. Such persons have almost certainly (if quite unconsciously to themselves) come under Christian influences which have affected their outlook upon life and also their conduct towards others. CONCLUSIONS In the different chapters of this book I have con- sidered what I beheve must be the attitude of the Christian citizen towards the various social problems and social difficulties of the present time. As that attitude, if Christian, cannot be a passive one, the word will of course imply the discharge of his duty in reference to each of these. I have defined ' the Christian citizen ' as one who is firmly convinced of the truth of the Incar- nation of our Lord Jesus Christ (with, of course, its corollaries, the Atonement, Resurrection, and Ascension), and who also has an intelligent grasp of its issues, both doctrinal and practical, that is, in the spheres of both thought and conduct. I have insisted that a belief in the Incarnation must be our starting-point. For there can be no justification equal to this, for each member of the Church as such, and for the whole Church, as a united society, entering practically into a dis- charge of the duties and responsibilities of citizen- ship. We have seen that the Incarnation renders every- thing legitimately connected with human life and human society sacred. It makes perfectly clear the true issue of life and the true purpose of society, without which, of course, the individual CONCLUSIONS 195 life could not exist, much less come to its right development.^ It consecrates to a noble purpose every legitimate possession and sanctifies every human faculty. It teaches us of the progress and development of the individual in the midst of an ordered civil society, and shows us how it is the duty of each member to minister to the improve- ment of every other member. A truly Christian society, one composed exclusively of Christian citizens, would be but the divinely appointed ' extension ' of the Incarnation. From these convictions it is clear (1) that every human life in all its parts, however degraded or worthless in the eyes of the world, is in essence sacred ; (2) that every so-called ' material ' thing, like wealth or the sources of wealth, or the means whereby wealth is increased, is also sacred. If to human life and the ' material ' means of life we add any superhuman (other than divine), or possibly more correctly, extra-human intelli- gences in the universe, and to these, again, we add all forms of force (this addition is especially necessary under the very imperfect conditions of our knowledge of the material), and if we remember that force may be physical, moral, or intellectual (the last two implying some form of personality as origin and channel), then we can see the meaning of St. Paul when he defines the purpose of Christianity, ' the religion of the Incarnation,' as ' the gathering up of all things ' (the universe) in a single harmony with, which impUes a single reference to, the Christ ; whether ' the Christ ' (here simply an adjective) means the individual ' In order of time (ii we can so speak in such a connection) the idea of the society must precede the idea of the individual. 196 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP Christ, the Christ society, or the Christ State or reign.^ All this being so, it is clearly evident how im- portant it is that these truths and these ideals be constantly asserted, namely, in order that those who profess Christianity may be continually reminded what such a profession must involve. Unfortunately to-day a profession of Christianity seems to imply very little, little more, indeed, than a general and often very hazy theoretical agree- ment with the truths enunciated in the New Testament. What is most needed is, first of all, a clear conception of what these truths are ; and secondly, an equally clear idea of what the pro- fession of a belief in them implies in conduct. To-day thousands of men and women who pro- fess to be Christians are guilty of social conduct, are guilty of a treatment of others, which Christ and His apostles condemned, and which is entirely incompatible with Christianity. Such people need to be reminded that ' he who nameth the Name of Christ must depart from iniquity,' ^ or rather from conduct whose nature is that of a want of justicej In this assertion we have brought before us another conception of Christianity, namely, that of the fulfilment of the Divine law.^ Christ Him- self was entirely obedient to the Divine law estab- lished for the welfare of man — the moral law, and to all that helped towards the practice of morality. If Christ was obedient to this law, so surely must the professing Christian be. And we must remember * Kph. i. lo. dvaKe^aXaiwaaffSai rb. ttclvto. iv ti^ xP'^^V- ' 2 Tim. ii. 19. ' Which is the law of righteousness or perfect justice, and therefore opposed to dSixia ; see Bishop Westcott's address on ' The Christian Law ' in Christian A spects of Life, pp. 242 fi. CONCLUSIONS 197 that our civil code performs for us much which the ' law of Moses ' performed for the Jews. The duty of the Christian citizen is — first, to see that the law of his country, the civil code under which he lives, approximates as closely as possible to the principles laid down by Christ in His teach- ing ; for Christ fulfilled the offices of Lawgiver and Prophet, two functions which are much more closely related than we generally realise : ^ and then secondly, to see that the law is justly and fearlessly administered and without respect of persons. The practical test of the approximation of any law to the Divine law — ^the law whose end is liberty — will be found in an affirmative answer to this question : Does it tend to the highest and most complete welfare of man ? But should it, while claiming to do justice to one section of the community, actually be found to be committing an injustice to another section, such a law cannot be a true embodiment of the Divine law. We cannot in the sphere of law, any more than in any other sphere, hope with evil means to attain a good end. To redress one injustice by the infliction of another is no promotion of righteousness. It is also a short-sighted policy, for if it allays dis- content among one section of the population, it creates it among another section. It does not ' make for peace.' And one principal object of law is that we may dwell in quietness, so that energy may be economised and carefully directed to good ends, and not be wasted in strife which serves no good purpose.^ ' Is not the law as a revelation — ^ declaration of the Divine will — of the nature of prophecy ? • I Tim. ii. a. 198 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP Let me once more insist that the administration of the law is of not less importance than the law itself ; and that a law badly administered does more than^ breed contempt for that particular law, it tends'to produce a want of respect for all law. What the average citizen needs to remember is that he is ultimately responsible both for the law and for its administration. Both law and administration may be said to represent or express public opinion ; and if a good law is permitted to become more or less a dead letter, it is clear that public opinion is to blame. One of the chief duties of every Christian citizen — ^possibly the most far-reaching and widely influential of all his duties — ^is the creation of a strong Christian public opinion, which, in other words, is only a lofty sense of public duty. But while a good law well administered is an exceedingly valuable asset to the community, being a protection to the weak and helpless, as well as a means of restraint to the lawless, the Christian citizen will clearly and practically recognise that his behaviour towards his fellows must in helpfulness go far beyond what the law demands, and in harmfulness must fall far short of what the law forbids.^ We are told that we must ' in love serve one another ' ; ^ we are reminded that ' love is the fulfilling of the law,' ' and that the ' perfect law ' is the ' law of liberty.' * Those who recognise that the Gospel implies the service of others will give such service in far greater measure than the law requires. For instance, the ' It is here that the Church — as the exponent of ideals — should be far in advance of the State. ' Gal. V. 13. • Rom. xiii. 10. ♦ St. James i. 25. CONCLUSIONS 199 most perfect system of national education would not abolish the necessity for some forms of voluntary instruction and care. The most perfect Poor Law would not render personal service unnecessary. At the same time, the law should at least guar- antee to each such an opportunity of self-develop- ment as each is capable of profiting by. It should not be possible for any man, woman, or child to say that, however much effort they may make, they have not the opportunity or the means of living a truly human life. If it, is true that there exist to-day conditions which prevent an honest, industrious, temperate, and thrifty man from bringing up a family in physical efficiency, then every possible effort should be made to alter such conditions. If any man can with truth assert that, after he has done his utmost to maintain his wife and children in health and decency, circumstances are too strong for him, then we must do all in our power to see that such circumstances are changed.^ The question of the right limit to State inter- ference is a very complicated one ; it may be- come even a dangerous one. It is complicated because so many factors, some of which are little understood, enter into it ; it is dangerous because, unless great care is exercised, we may easily impair the stability of society. We may concede that the State is ultimately responsible for the lives of its members without admitting that it is the duty of * This must not be held to imply that I agree with the so-called ■ right-to-work ' theory according to the crude conditions in which it is sometimes stated. I prefer to speak of ' the duty of the regularising of labour.' Upon the whole subject see Mr. J. R. Macdonald's recent book, The Socialist Movement, pp. 163 fl. 200 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP the State to find work for all. Here, as so often, we must try to steer carefully between two extremes. On the one hand, the State must protect the weak and the oppressed ; on the other hand, it must so act as to call forth as much self- effort as those requiring help can make. The moment we cease to do this last, we are not only wronging the State, we are also wronging the individual ; we are failing to cause him. to make that self-effort which means the development of character. On the other hand, we must see that if he does make every effort possible — ^where effort includes thought and skill — ^he does not make it in vain. The Christian citizen, like his Master Christ, must know human nature ; therefore he must be a careful, which implies his being a sjnnpathetic, student of character ; he must know its weakness and its strength ; in short, he must try to get the best out of it, and he must be careful, even with a good object, not to put temptations in its way. The first of these conditions is met by all such institutions as those having as their object im- proved technical or trade instruction, by Labour exchanges, by attempts to make work more regular and less seasonal, also by assisting emigrants to settle in countries which are as yet largely un- developed ; the second condition will be satisfied by reducing as far as possible such intermittent and irregular work as (in ignorance of its results upon character) has been provided by unemployment committees ; it will ;also be helped by curtailing unwise charity. Thus the Christian citizen, in virtue of his Christianity, makes character his first consideration; CONCLUSIONS 201 but while he does this (remembering the Incarna- tion) he does not forget the many factors which enter into character. He thinks of the influence of both heredity and of environment ; he knows that human nature is very composite, that it is neither all body nor all soul ; he neither treats man from the point of view of the materialist nor yet as if he was a disembodied spirit. He knows the value of good physical health, and the effect of this upon man's spiritual development. He is also careful to take into consideration the need of both moral and intellectual growth, and the means whereby both are made possible. He is therefore zealous for the healthiness of the stock from which the individual comes, he is equally zealous that the physical conditions of the home, and the moral influences of the family, should be as good as possible. He tries to see that education should be as useful as this can be made, and that it should tend to produce an all - round efficiency. He knows that a man's or a woman's employment is not without effect upon their physical health and moral character, hence he is careful of trade con- ditions, e.g. that people shall work in a wholesome atmosphere, both physical and moral. Lastly, he thinks also of the wider circles of man's environ- ment, of the means whereby self-education may proceed during the years when childhood is over, also of how the adult citizen may, apart from temptation and evil, find the recreation or pleasures which are a real need in every truly healthy life. I have said the Christian citizen does all these. I ought rather to have said that when Christian citizenship is widely realised we shall see a wide- 202 CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP spread effort made towards obtaining these neces- saries for leading a truly human life. We shall see all in such a position that they have at least a fair opportunity for self-development. What then is specially needed at the present time ? This and nothing less than this, that professing Christians realise that they cannot neglect the plain duties of citizenship without at the same time practically denying the truth of their Christianity. What the duties of citizenship are I have tried to show in the foregoing pages. When we once realise that the community — whether it be that of the parish, the city, or the nation — is as essential to the development of the true human nature as is the home, then, but not till then, shall we see the necessity of Christianising our civic and our national life. May this little book do something towards hastening the process of that much-needed Christianisation of the wider, but not less essential nor less influential environ- ment in the midst of which each one of us is living ! THE END Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh University Press y^/ •' jC W/^/^ /*' ■y U'/I. .^^/, <* ^ //li?^ / !/#• ^ X^