CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002692246 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
The Church and the 
 Social Problem 
 
 A ^tubn in Atqiltpd CUtpiBtimtttg 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL PLANTZ, 
 
 President of Lawrtnoe Univenity 
 
 CINCINNATI : JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
 NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 
 
 /<Rt) 
 
corvBirarr, 1906^ sv 
 
 JSNHINGS AHD GSAHAU 
 
This Book is 
 In Loving Gratitude and Fiual Affection 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THIS volume is written with the conviction 
 that the Christian Church of the twentieth 
 century faces a crisis of the utmost importance; 
 and that it can only meet the needs of the age 
 by adapting its teaching and methods of work 
 to the peculiar conditions of our times. This 
 fact has been often pointed out during the 
 past few years by men of masterly power, but 
 it must be confessed that few of the workers in 
 the Church have heard the call and earnestly 
 assumed the task of applying Christian prin- 
 ciples to the social problems of our modern 
 life. Many pulpits seem stereotyped in thought 
 and utterance, and many Churches cemented in 
 the forms of their activity. While this condi- 
 tion pertains, there is a demand for the mul- 
 tiplication of literature on Christian Ethics, 
 and the application of the Gospel to society. 
 It is hoped that the present discussion will con- 
 
 7 
 
Preface 
 
 tribute something to the awakening that is 
 needed, and assist in bringing Christian ideals 
 into the domain of our social and industrial life. 
 When the author was asked about six 
 months ago, by the Book Editor of the Meth- 
 odist Church, to prepare a book on "The 
 Church and the Social Problem," the manuscript 
 to be in by midsummer, he at first refused, 
 owing to the pressure of classroom duties and 
 administrative cares, but later thought he saw a 
 way to secure some time for literary work, and 
 accepted the invitation which had been ex- 
 tended. Unexpected duties, however, soon 
 arose, so that the investigation and reading 
 intended were largely rendered impossible, and 
 revision in the time allotted, seemed out of the 
 question. However, the theme is one on which 
 the writer has long had convictions, and he 
 trusts that his meditations, although somewhat 
 hastily put together, will not be without sug- 
 gestiveness. He regrets that he has not had 
 time to run down quotations which he has 
 taken from notes which have been accumulating 
 for some years, so as to give in all instances the 
 work and page of the author. These state- 
 
 8 
 
Preface 
 
 ments are made more in the interest of the 
 literary form and quality of these pages than 
 the conclusions reached, for these have been 
 matters of opinion which have been maturing 
 for years. 
 
 The subject has seemed to the author to 
 naturally divide itself into three parts: First, 
 it seemed necessary to study the present situa- 
 tion ; second, to consider whether the Church 
 has a special mission to society as well as 
 to the individual; and, third, to bring forward 
 some things the Church can and ought to do 
 in order to meet the obligations which the 
 problems of the hour impose upon her. The 
 purpose and effort of the book are to investi- 
 gate these phases of the subject. 
 
 SAMUEL PLANTZ. 
 
 Appleton, Wis., 
 July 24, 1905. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I. The Importance and Develop- 
 ment OF THE Social Problem, 13 
 
 II. The Church as Affected by 
 
 THE Social Problem, - - 73 
 
 III. The Church and Socialism, - 108 
 
 IV. The Social Mission of the 
 
 Church, 151 
 
 V. The Social Work of the 
 
 Church, Past and Present, 203 
 
 VI. The Proper Attitude of the 
 
 Church in the Social Crisis, - 242 
 
 VII. How the Church May Help 
 
 Solve the Problem, - - - 277 
 
The Church and the Social 
 Problem 
 
 Chapter I 
 THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 
 
 EVERY age has its particular charac- 
 teristics. While the features of 
 earlier times are in a measure car- 
 ried over to those which succeed them, 
 there is, nevertheless, always some move- 
 ment or tendency which projects itself into 
 the foreground to distinguish a particular 
 historic period from others. At one time 
 the characteristic is predominantly mili- 
 tary, at another political, at another relig- 
 ious, and at another industrial. This is 
 as true of the present age as of others, and 
 perhaps more so than heretofore. 
 
 It is often true that men do not under- 
 
 13 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 stand what the characteristics of their 
 own time are, the revolutions which are 
 slowly going on in their midst, the 
 tendencies which are gradually matur- 
 ing, and which will mean, when con- 
 summated, changes the most far-reaching 
 and significant. Few great movements 
 come to a crisis at a stroke. Historical 
 processes require time. They grow from 
 decade to decade, widening their influence, 
 getting more and more acceptance in the 
 minds and hearts of the people, until they 
 become dominant factors, challenging at- 
 tention, and constituting the character- 
 istics of the period. We are unquestion- 
 ably in such an educational stage to-day 
 and we are developing a social crisis which, 
 when it shall have consummated, will 
 be one of the most far-reaching and 
 important which the world has seen. 
 The movement is towards a social re- 
 construction, and it is going on, not 
 in one community. State, or nation, but 
 is international, extending throughout the 
 civilized world. The sentiment is rapidly 
 growing that we need, for the good of the 
 greatest number of the people, a change 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 in the social organization, a change so 
 radical that the present order will be sup- 
 planted by one constituted on new prin- 
 ciples, and working to new ends. 
 
 The evidence of this can be seen on every 
 hand. We note it in the social discontent 
 which everywhere abounds, and which 
 clearly indicates that the machinery of so- 
 ciety is not running smoothly. That there 
 is such discontent no one will be dis- 
 posed to deny. Its rumblings are heard in 
 all civilized nations. It was hoped that 
 this country, a land of freedom, where 
 political power is in the hands of the voters, 
 where there is no titled class, and no hered- 
 itary distinction, where each man can earn 
 the position, place or possession to which 
 his intelligence, industry, and ability justly 
 entitle him, would be spared the struggle, 
 the contention, and the conflict which is 
 characteristic of society in other lands; 
 but the expectation has been vain, for few 
 countries have been the scene of greater 
 conflicts between classes, of more con- 
 tinuous social disturbances, or fiercer con- 
 tentions and struggles, than our own. 
 The social problem throbs in the at- 
 
 15 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 mosphere of the time. It finds expres- 
 sion in the literature of every country. 
 Book and magazine repeatedly discuss 
 it. The daily paper is constantly ex- 
 pressing it. The investigations of schol- 
 ars are seeking to fathom it. It has entered 
 the courses of study in our colleges and 
 universities. The legislators of States and 
 nations are attempting to find means to al- 
 leviate or remedy it. New political parties 
 are developed because of it. All forms of 
 organizations are originated to assist this 
 or that faction interested in it. The wildest 
 and the most diverse schemes and theories 
 are advanced to solve it On every hand 
 agitators and orators are arguing the 
 various phases of it Nothing is more 
 common than for us to hear about the 
 injustice of the present social system, 
 the inequality between the condition of 
 the rich and the poor, the luxury of 
 the capitalist, the hardness of heart of 
 the employing class, the long hours of 
 labor, the smallness of the pay, the in- 
 crease of poverty as the result of social 
 conditions, and a hundred other topics 
 which show that social unrest is a dominant 
 
 i6 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 characteristic of our time. Many persons 
 are becoming alarmed and think the whole 
 social structure is tottering to the fall. 
 They say that we are on the eve of revolu- 
 tion and that the ground is beginning to 
 tremble under our feet. They expect soon 
 to see our whole economic system, built 
 up by centuries of experience and ef- 
 fort, laid waste in a day. Says Wm. 
 T. Stead, one of the keenest observers 
 of the movements of the times: "Every- 
 where the old order is changing and 
 giving place to the new. The human race 
 is now at one of the crucial periods in its 
 history when the fountains of the great 
 deep are broken up, and the flood of change 
 submerges all the old established institu- 
 tions and conventions in the midst of which 
 preceding generations have lived and 
 died." General Lew Wallace, the distin- 
 guished soldier and author, is said to have 
 remarked when on his death-bed that the 
 time is not far off when the workingnrcn 
 will rule this country. 
 
 That there is some justification of the 
 alarm, or, at least, concern of many of our 
 ablest economists, many facts indicate. If 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 the unrest were the result of commercial 
 depression, of a financial panic throwing 
 thousands out of work, the matter would 
 not be so serious, but this is not the case. 
 It persists in prosperity. Few periods in 
 the industrial history of our country have 
 been more favorable for labor than the past 
 five years; and yet these years have wit- 
 nessed the most gigantic social conflicts — 
 strikes of the greatest magnitude having 
 occurred, almost paralyzing for a time cer- 
 tain industries, and causing many mouths 
 to be without bread. Every year many 
 millions of dollars are lost by the great 
 strikes and lockouts which arise. One 
 hundred thousand men are often out of 
 work, because at war with their em- 
 ployers and unwilling to accept the terms 
 they set for labor. The trouble is in all 
 parts of the country and in all industries. 
 Several times State troops have had to be 
 called out, and occasionally the United 
 States has been compelled to take a force- 
 ful hand in settling a difficulty. It is not 
 easy to estimate the financial loss of these 
 disturbances to both labor and capital, but 
 it amounts to many millions. It has been 
 i8 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 stated that, "during seven and one-half 
 years in the principal cities of the United 
 States, there were six thousand controver- 
 sies between employers and employed, of 
 such considerable size that they were worth 
 reporting in the official reports of the 
 United States — almost one thousand a year; 
 and by means of these strikes the employed 
 lost nearly $35,000,000, and the employers 
 lost over $28,000,000. Sixty-three mil- 
 lions of dollars have been spent in indus- 
 trial war in seven and one-half years in the 
 principal cities of the United States." 
 These conflicts, besides financial loss, often 
 lead to violence ; and but for the protection 
 of the police or the State militia, would 
 frequently result in vast destruction of 
 property and loss of life. The only thing 
 that saves us is the arm of the law, the force 
 which makes it difficult to effectively ap- 
 peal to cudgels and brickbats. 
 
 The present industrial situation has been 
 thus described by Dr. Francis Peabody, of 
 Harvard University: "The form of the 
 industrial problem has become determined 
 by the amazing expansion of modern indus- 
 trial methods, the vast combinations of 
 
 19 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 employers and of employed, and the enor- 
 mous prizes which reward strategy or good 
 fortune. These characteristics of modern 
 industry have brought the factors of indus- 
 try to a situation which appears not unlike 
 a state of war. The forces of production 
 are maintained on a war footing. The 
 modern captain of industry is of the same 
 stuff which makes great generals. He is 
 a far-sighted, determined leader of men, 
 with his mind fixed on a single end, and 
 with an industrial army at his command. 
 Over against him are many opposing forces 
 — the force of his immediate competitors 
 in business, the remoter hostility of compet- 
 ing nations, and, more than all, the spirit 
 of industrial disaffection stirring in his own 
 troops and inciting to mutiny. More and 
 more the industrial world finds itself occu- 
 pied by two armed camps — the force of the 
 employers combined to resist what seems 
 the unreasonable demands of the employed. 
 Strikes and lockouts are temporary raids 
 across the enemy's frontier; organization 
 on both sides disciplines and drills the con- 
 tending armies; industrial arbitration, like 
 international arbitration, offers itself as a 
 20 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 last substitute for battle; while, hanging 
 on to the skirts of the two factors, threat- 
 ening the employers with violence, and 
 weakening by its competition the power of 
 the employed, is the unorganized and shift- 
 ing mass which we call the army of the 
 unemployed." 
 
 We note, therefore, that the present con- 
 dition is one of segregation of classes 
 rather than of unity. The close adhesion 
 between labor and capital which used to 
 exist, the social solidarity, is threatened, if 
 not destroyed. In former times the classes 
 were in much closer social touch. There 
 were fewer capitalists, and mutual interests 
 were closer. The feudal lord and his men 
 were held together by common dangers, 
 and by the fate of the one settling that of 
 the other. In our new era of industrial 
 development, labor and capital belong 
 to different spheres, and although the cot- 
 tage may be in the same block as the man- 
 sion, the social chasm between the two is not 
 bridged. The acquaintance between mas- 
 ters and journeymen which characterized 
 the mediaeval guilds is not known under 
 the factory system, where the only bond 
 
 21 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 that exists is the contract on the market 
 price of labor. This develops social 
 cliques, classes, and parties, each ignoring 
 one another's interests, and organizing and 
 combining to promote their own. Self- 
 seeking and self-interest become the rule, 
 with the inevitable result of factional an- 
 tagonisms and animosities. 
 
 This brings us to a point where we may 
 define the social question, or at least explain 
 it. The phrase is not an exact one, and 
 may mean in its particular content quite a 
 different thing in one age from what it 
 means in another. Indeed, diflferent men 
 may understand it differently when it 
 comes to exact definition, some thinking of 
 it as the wage problem, others the accumu- 
 lation of capital in the hands of a few, and 
 still others the injustice of the present 
 social system; but while differing in their 
 thought of its particular content, in its 
 wider bearings there is general agreement 
 as to what the social problem is, namely, 
 that it relates to the economic conditions 
 of society and especially to the way men are 
 to proceed to improve these conditions. It 
 is a movement of a social class to so modify 
 
 22 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 and reconstruct the existing social order as 
 to advance its own interests. It is nothing 
 strange, but a constant factor in race prog- 
 ress and social evolution. Said Karl Marx, 
 in words often quoted : "The history of all 
 society thus far is the history of class strife." 
 Many people overlook this great truth, and 
 speak of the social problem as something 
 new under the sun ; but though modern in 
 its form, modified by the conditions of our 
 own age, it is an old problem, one that dates 
 back to the beginning of social organiza- 
 tion and human advancement. We find 
 it in ancient Egypt and Assyria. Greek 
 and Roman poets sang of a golden age 
 "when there was no violence or fraud, and 
 when all things were in abundance, and in 
 common." iBut poetry and mythology 
 apart, Greek history and Greek philosophy 
 project the social question. 
 
 Says that great student of the philosophy 
 of history, Robert Flint : "But what makes 
 the history of nations like Greece and Rome 
 of vast practical importance to a student 
 of Socialism is not so much any socialistic 
 legislation to which these nations had re- 
 course, or any socialistic theo-ries to be 
 
 23 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 found in some of their writers, as the ex- 
 amples which they have left us of cultured 
 and powerful peoples ruined by failure to 
 solve aright the social question. The direct 
 and immediate cause of the ruin of the 
 Greek cities was neither the falsity of their 
 religion nor the prevalence of slavery. 
 The poor had political rights and powers, 
 and they used them against the rich to ob- 
 tain equality of wealth, sometimes impos- 
 ing all the taxes on them, sometimes con- 
 demning them to death or exile, sometimes 
 abolishing debts, sometimes equally divid- 
 ing property. The rich resisted by all 
 means in their power, by violence and 
 fraud, conspiracy and treason. Each 
 Greek city thus included, as it were, two 
 hostile peoples, and civil wars were inces- 
 sant, the object being in every war, as 
 Polybius says, 'to displace fortunes.' This 
 ruined the Greek cities. . . . Rome suffered 
 and died from the same malady as Greece. 
 Before the close of the Republic she had 
 twice experienced a social revolution of the 
 most sanguinary nature. She sought a 
 refuge and remedy, and at the expense of 
 industry it fed and pampered an idle pop- 
 24 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 ulation. This solution secured rest for a 
 time, but naturally ended in utter exhaus- 
 tion and ruin." 
 
 The same is largely true of the history 
 of the Hebrew people. One can not read 
 the prophetic utterances of Hosea, Isaiah, 
 and Jeremiah, without realizing that Israel 
 had its social problem and its antagonistic 
 classes, and that the calamities of her na- 
 tional history arose largely from them. 
 The same is true of other nations. In the 
 Middle Ages the social problem was in 
 evidence, and brotherhoods and guilds and 
 orders were established to assist men in 
 their efforts for social betterment. But 
 while the social problem is a question of 
 every age and nation, it assumed a new sig- 
 nificance and importance at the beginning 
 of the nineteenth century. The way had 
 been prepared for this by that fearful 
 chapter of history we name the French 
 Revolution, and the conditions which led 
 up to it. Rousseau and the encyclopedists 
 had been proclaiming the equality of men 
 by nature; and while much that they said 
 was false, they nevertheless awakened the 
 spirit of human liberty, and drove nails in 
 
 2S 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 the cofBn of despotism. In the French 
 Revolution, the people learned their power, 
 and the spark of liberty was lighted, not to 
 be again extinguished. Since then i8o,- 
 000,000 Europeans "have risen from a 
 degraded and ever-dissatisfied vassalage to 
 the rank of free and self-governing men." 
 But more than this, the ideas which had 
 been seething in the struggle found most 
 able exponents, and were developed into 
 social theories which have been spread 
 and had tremendous influence in develop- 
 ing the present form and phase of the 
 social problem. The names of Saint 
 Simon, Fourier, iBlanc, Proudhon, Marx, 
 and Lassalle, are sufficient testimony to the 
 affirmation. 
 
 If we turn to study the causes of the 
 present development of the social problem 
 there are various facts which must com- 
 mand our attention. The first of these is 
 the rise of the laboring man, his increased 
 intelligence, and his developed ambition. 
 He started a slave, rose to the condition of a 
 serf, and now has come to be an intelligent 
 freeman. In former generations he was 
 ignorant, did not read, for there was no 
 26 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 school door thrown open, asking him 
 to enter. Few people realize how rapid 
 has been the development of modern 
 education and popular intelligence. They 
 do not stop to think what tons of ig- 
 norance the common school and the news- 
 paper have, during the past fifty years, 
 lifted from the brow of the laboring man. 
 It is stated on good authority that twenty- 
 three of the twenty-six barons who signed 
 the Magna Charta made their marks, and 
 only three could write their names. It is 
 not so long since many men in the English 
 Parliament could neither read nor write; 
 and for the laboring classes to do either was 
 almost unthought of. Mackenzie tells us 
 that fifty years ago the post-office of Great 
 Britain and Ireland carried thirty-six mil- 
 lion letters annually, but now it carries two 
 hundred and fifty millions. The atmos- 
 phere in which the laborer of to-day moves 
 throbs with intelligence. The schoolhouse 
 with its compulsory attendance has come 
 and taught the new generation of labor the 
 elements of learning. The daily paper 
 has become perhaps even a greater edu- 
 cator. It has been affirmed that in the 
 
. The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 United States fifty-four copies of period- 
 icals per year are printed to every one of 
 the population. They come out in all lan- 
 guages, and are hawked on the streets from 
 early morning until late at night. They 
 are full of interesting material; life in all 
 its phases, and especially in its sensational 
 and sinful tendencies, is depicted. They tell 
 the doings of the world, and particularly 
 of the economic world. Besides the news- 
 papers are the free libraries with their 
 well-ladened shelves,. and established in all 
 our cities. Then the "unions" are centers 
 of intellectual quickening, if not always of 
 sound reasoning, for here questions of per- 
 sonal interest are discussed pro and con, 
 and often able addresses are delivered. It 
 is remarkable how many men of talent 
 these organizations have developed. This 
 can be seen in the great organizing ability 
 of the leaders, and the skill with which they 
 represent their constituents in the contests 
 of labor. 
 
 This wonderful quickening of the life 
 
 of the common people can but show 
 
 itself in the desire for improvement, in new 
 
 demands for social justice, in a determina- 
 
 28 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 tion to have more of this world's goods for 
 themselves and their families. It can not 
 help but change the masses from what 
 Carlyle called them, "the inarticulate mul- 
 titude," to a speaking throng whose voice 
 must be attended to. Well has it been said 
 of the new condition, "The economics of 
 the school and of the study do not reign in 
 undisputed supremacy; they are con- 
 fronted and challenged by the economics 
 of the workshop and the trade union." The 
 laborer has become self-conscious. He 
 has at last awakened to realize what it is 
 to be a man, what a man's rights are, and 
 what his possibilities in living are. He 
 has come to believe that his life is not 
 attained when he is a cog in the wheel of 
 general prosperity, when he is the well-fed 
 slave of the industrial system, or one of the 
 factors in another man's wealth and happi- 
 ness. He has awakened to feel that he is 
 meant for larger things than mere 
 drudgery, than to be a mere thing of toil. 
 He finds new wants developed in his life, 
 and he is not content to see a few men get 
 a monopoly on goods which he feels are 
 necessary for his well-being as much as 
 
 29 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 theirs. It is not simply a question of hav- 
 ing his lower needs and wants supplied. 
 The laborer of our time is probably better 
 paid and in a better state than ever before ; 
 but the great fact to be noted is his needs 
 are more; for with education his life has 
 expanded and his wants consequently mul- 
 tiplied. He is a larger and richer man 
 than he was fifty years ago, and hence for 
 his contentment he must have a larger 
 share of the instruments and means of life. 
 The discontent is thus to no small extent 
 an index of progress. The laboring man 
 has developed to feel that right and priv- 
 ilege are not bounded by station or title or 
 possession, but only by the generic quality 
 of manhood; that it is the soul which en- 
 titles the man to certain privileges and 
 opportunities, not the fact that he employs 
 or is employed. The worth of man is in the 
 fact that God has constituted him a person 
 and not a thing, and as a person he 
 has as much value as any other man with 
 like intelligence and moral purpose. He 
 does not object so much that other men 
 have more property than he, if he can see 
 that a free opportunity is given him for his 
 
 30 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 enterprise and talent to assert themselves. 
 As long as, the path is open from the lower 
 station to the higher, as long as there is a 
 fair chance to win in the contest, he will 
 not be especially restless. But where the 
 possibility of advancement is interfered 
 with by industrial conditions, when monop- 
 oly builds a wall around opportunity, 
 when the ladder on which he can climb 
 upward is broken down, when no effort 
 can meet the wants which have been awak- 
 ened in him by his progress and new sense 
 of value, then he comes to hate the exist- 
 ing social order, is ready to listen to the 
 harangue of the agitator, and often to fol- 
 low the revolutionist in seeking to set up 
 a new condition on the ruins of the old. 
 One of the real dangers in the present sit- 
 uation is that men are being rated too low, 
 and their good is being sacrificed to nine- 
 teenth century commercial greed and suc- 
 cess. Labor has a right to feel that the 
 system is not considerate of the man of 
 brawn, that his place as an independent 
 factor is not secured, that machinery, com- 
 petition, etc., are putting him in a position 
 incommensurate with his worth as a man, 
 
 31 
 
The Church and the Social Problem^ 
 
 and out of which he can not rise to take 
 his true place in the march of progress. 
 Having taken a step forward, having 
 grasped the democratic ideal for society, 
 we may be sure he will not retire from the 
 struggle, but will more and more regard 
 the social situation which places wealth so 
 largely in the hands of the few as irrational, 
 immoral, and irreligious — a condition 
 which he must not tolerate, or permit to 
 prevail. Hence we may be sure we are at 
 the beginning and not at the end of the 
 social problem, that it will continue until 
 the laborer feels that he has a living wage, 
 his true rights as a human being, condi- 
 tions of existence in which he can live and 
 be a man, a chance to provide for his 
 family the education and comfort which 
 twentieth-century living demands. 
 
 Another cause of the social unrest is the 
 development of the factory system. Much 
 has been written on this subject, and much 
 that is erroneous has been said. Thus we 
 are told that machines take the place of 
 men, and steal the bread from the mouths 
 of toilers ; but we believe it has been con- 
 clusively shown that machines and factories 
 32 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 have given work to two men where one has 
 been displaced. Nor has the factory de- 
 based men. Ruskin, in "Stones of Venice," 
 makes such an accusation. He says: "It 
 is not, truly speaking, labor which has been 
 divided, but men — divided into mere seg- 
 ments of men, broken into small fragments 
 and crumbs of life; so that all the little 
 piece of intelligence that is left in a man 
 is not enough to make a pin or a nail, but 
 exhausts itself in making the point of a 
 pin, or the head of a nail." But facts do 
 not sustain such accusations. The truth 
 seems to be that the handling of machinery, 
 and the coming of men together in factory 
 groups, whereby they rub up against each 
 other and exchange ideas is favorable to 
 the development of intelligence; and our 
 laborers in the mills of to-day are the brain- 
 iest workmen the world has yet known. 
 Nor can it be shown that the toil of the 
 laborer is harder and his wage smaller than 
 under the old journeyman system; but on 
 the contrary there is every indication that 
 the reverse is true, that men toil less hours 
 and receive better pay than ever before. 
 The strain comes now more on the iron of 
 
 3 33 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 the machine than on the muscles of the man, 
 and the evening hours are the laborer's 
 own, to read or to enjoy social communion. 
 But although wages have increased forty 
 per cent since the walls of the factory went 
 up, and though labor is more abundant, 
 there is one phase of the factory system 
 which has doubtless helped to develop 
 social unrest, and this is the fact that it has 
 tended to place the employer and the em- 
 ployed out of social touch. Formerly 
 individuals initiated, superintended, con- 
 trolled the business. The employer knew 
 his men, and they knew and understood 
 him. Usually they were visibly associ- 
 ated in the work of production. Often 
 they worked side by side. The laborer felt 
 himself a "workman and not a work hand." 
 He talked with his employer and his fellow 
 laborers and their voices were not drowned 
 by the clatter of machinery. But when 
 machinery came and large factories were 
 builded, and stock companies began to take 
 the place of individual ownership, the 
 owners of the business became separated 
 from the men in their employ, and were 
 known to them only by name, if indeed by 
 34 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 that. Personal contact ceased. The head 
 of the great institution came to live in a 
 delightful suburb, or in a country home 
 surrounded by all the luxury wealth can 
 bring. His men, meanwhile, lived in 
 alleys and tenements. Superintendents ran 
 the mills, men who felt more responsible 
 to stock-owners and capitalists than the 
 men; for they knew that promotions would 
 come through the profits they could show, 
 and the amount of work they could get 
 done. If a dispute arose, the superintend- 
 ent told the men he could do nothing; his 
 authority was limited by the rules and 
 demands of the company. If his hand was 
 heavy on their shoulders, he had the excuse 
 that he was acting under the rules of some 
 board of directors, from whose decision 
 there was no appeal. The men soon came 
 to feel that "corporations have no souls," 
 that their lives are in the hands of an im- 
 personal organization with which they 
 have no touch except to feel its force, and 
 that there is no sense of justice, or moral 
 interest or purpose, in it, but it would grind 
 their faces into the earth for more gain. 
 The human elements which used to exist 
 
 35 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 between employers and employed are sac- 
 rificed to the commercial; and sympathy, 
 human interest, conscience are forgotten 
 words. Even in the industrial conflicts 
 which occur, the owners do not, as a rule, 
 talk things over with the men, but conduct 
 negotiations through attorneys, agents, or 
 appointed representatives. Says Arnold 
 Toynbee: "As the result of these changes, 
 the workingman, divided from his em- 
 ployer, and receiving from him no bene- 
 fits, regarded him from a distance with 
 hatred and suspicion as a member of a 
 dominant class. The employer divided 
 from his workman and conferring upon 
 him no benefit, looked upon him uneasily 
 as the member of a subject class, claiming 
 a dangerous independence. The gulf 
 between the two classes seemed, and to 
 many still seems, impassable." 
 
 Another cause for the rise of the social 
 problem in its modern phases is the un- 
 equal distribution of wealth which is 
 characteristic especially of our time. 
 The introduction of steam and machinery, 
 together with the discovery of vast natural 
 resources of a mineral character, has made 
 36 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 it possible for men to amass great fortunes 
 and live in the greatest possible luxury. 
 Few people realize how large a part of the 
 world's wealth is in the hands of a few cap- 
 italists. Mr. G. K. Holmes gives the fol- 
 lowing as a result of his investigations: 
 "Ninety-one per cent of the 12,690,152 
 families of the country own no more than 
 29 per cent of the wealth, and 9 per cent 
 of the families own about 71 per cent of the 
 wealth." "We are now prepared," he 
 adds, "to characterize the concentration of 
 wealth in the United States by stating that 
 20 per cent of it is owned by 300 of i per 
 cent of the families; 51 per cent by 9 per 
 cent of the families (not including mil- 
 lionaires) , and 29 per cent by 91 per cent of 
 the families." "About 20 per cent of the 
 wealth is owned by the poorer families that 
 own farms and homes without incum- 
 brance, and these are 28 per cent of all the 
 families. Only 9 per cent of the wealth is 
 owned by tenant families, and the poorer 
 class of those that own their farms or homes 
 whether under incumbrance, or those to- 
 gether constitute 64 per cent of all the fam- 
 ilies. As little as five per cent of the 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 nation's wealth is owned by 52 per cent of 
 the families, that is, by the tenants alone. 
 Finally, 4,047 [millionaires] families pos- 
 sess about seven-tenths as much as do 
 11,593,887 families. It has been said that 
 Jay Gould made, during twenty-five years, 
 an average of $4,000,000 a year, or 
 $13,000 a day; that Mr. Rockefeller has 
 made an average of over $35,000 a day for 
 every working day since he began business 
 for himself; and that Mr. Carnegie had 
 accumulated a fortune such that when he 
 retired it brought him a daily income of 
 over $50,000." When we remember that 
 the day laborer in this country, the most 
 favored in the conditions of labor, does not 
 receive an average of one dollar a day, it 
 is not strange that many believe with James 
 Russell Lowell in "giving to the hands not 
 so large a share as to the brain, but a larger 
 share than heretofore in the wealth they 
 must combine to provide." 
 
 These vast fortunes which have been 
 built up under the present industrial system 
 have aroused the ire of the laboring class, 
 and the feeling has come to prevail that the 
 few have fattened by despoiling the many. 
 
 38 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 We accordingly often hear it said that "no 
 man can honestly earn a million dollars, 
 and whoever has such a sum is a robber, he 
 has stolen it from the masses." While this 
 is not a statement which can be proved, we 
 can not wonder that the proletariate feel 
 a smarting sense of injustice, when they 
 consider their condition as compared with 
 the rapid development of the capitalist 
 class. They realize that relatively their cir- 
 cumstances have not improved with those 
 of the employing class, and they are strong 
 in the conviction that they have not re- 
 ceived their just and legitimate share of 
 the profits of industry. They consider that 
 they have produced the wealth which their 
 employers enjoy, and that others are profit- 
 ing on the fruits of their toil. Their diffi- 
 culty is not that their economic condition 
 has grown worse — for most of them would 
 admit that the condition of labor and espe- 
 cially in the United States is better than 
 it has been at any other age of the world — 
 but they do hold that relatively they are 
 not receiving as much as is just and due, 
 and that the demands of modern life, the 
 social and intellectual character of the 
 
 39 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 times, is such that men can not participate 
 in it on the wages that have been paid. 
 iThey therefore demand a much larger 
 share of the profits which they have helped 
 to earn. 
 
 In behalf of this position of labor there 
 is much to be said. All have to admit that 
 goods are not ethically distributed ; for we 
 behold many who have such a superfluity 
 of wealth that they are hindered rather 
 than helped in their development, while 
 others have so little that they are shut out 
 from a fair chance of rising to their true 
 selves. There should be such a distribution 
 of economic conditions that the ends of 
 humanity, rather than of favored individ- 
 uals, shall be subserved. This is simply 
 justice. While we do not believe that each 
 should share alike in the possessions of the 
 community, but that some men with higher 
 taste and larger ability should receive more 
 than others, yet we hold that property 
 should not come largely into the hands of a 
 few; for prosperity and the opportunity 
 for self-realization depend on its wide and 
 general distribution. There can never be 
 a true social prosperity where there is a 
 40 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 sharp contrast between the rich and the 
 poor, where wealth is in the hands of a 
 few, while many are deprived of the means 
 necessary for a development of life in hap- 
 piness and virtue. Where there is a society 
 that has affluence on the one hand and 
 poverty and misery on the other, there will 
 always be a society rocked by social dis- 
 content, if not on the eve of revolution or 
 dissolution. We must have in a prosperous 
 State a large middle class of comparatively 
 well-to-do people, not so rich as not to need 
 to work, but also not so poor as to feel con-- 
 stantly that the wolf is at the door. There 
 will always be poverty in society as a result 
 of social conditions, lack of talent, unfa- 
 vorable circumstances of one kind or an- 
 other, and especially as the result of im- 
 providence and vice, just as sickness will 
 arise with the best sanitary arrangements; 
 but poverty should be exceptional rather 
 than general, and misery should be rare 
 in comparison with happiness. 
 
 The selfishness of the rich is also an incite- 
 ment to social unrest. Many men of wealth 
 have not learned their social responsibility. 
 They do not seriously feel that they are 
 
 41 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 their brother's keeper. With some notable 
 exceptions, capitalists regard money as 
 their own and to be expended for their own 
 pleasure.^ Many are as exacting when 
 worth millions as they were when worth 
 hundreds. Others are most extravagant in 
 their tastes and wastes. When the poor 
 toiler learns that his. employer has spent 
 $10,000, or as high as $100,000, on a ban- 
 quet to friends; when he sees him build a 
 $500,600 home ; when he learns that he has 
 spent $10,000 on flowers at a ball; when he 
 sees his daughters ladened with diamonds, 
 and his worthless sons wasting vast sums 
 in riotous living, there is but little wonder 
 that he feels hard about the heart, hates his 
 employer's name, and covets his ill-used 
 possessions. As long as the stables and dog- 
 kennels of the rich have a comfort which 
 the poor man and his family can not enjoy, 
 there will be a social problem. Men will 
 not be content to remain quiet and see their 
 comforts fewer than their employers pro- 
 vide for their brutes. The laborer's in- 
 terests are so vital, taking in not only his 
 own happiness and good, but the welfare 
 of his family as well, that he will not sit 
 42 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 satisfied and indifferent while his em- 
 ployer squanders in luxury the results of 
 his toil. 
 
 The evils which have developed from 
 the old economic system, and they are 
 many, tend to arouse the laborer, and per- 
 petuate the social question. One of these 
 is the hard demands sometimes made on 
 labor through the rapacity of employers. 
 "That's a good man," says Hawkins of 
 Scott in Kipling's "William, the Con- 
 queror." "If all goes well, I shall work 
 him hard." "This," the author adds, 
 "was Jim Hawkins's notion of the highest 
 compliment one human being can pay to 
 another." Many employers seem to have 
 the same gauge. Like the Egyptian task- 
 masters, they lay the whip of greed on the 
 back of toil. They do not think of the 
 weary limbs of the Samsons who lift their 
 burdens, but are ever thinking of the 
 greater gain which a heavier burden or a 
 greater strain will bring. They want to 
 cut down the force and make fifty men 
 do what seventy could fairly accomplish. 
 Many employers, who are themselves 
 human, let the system of which they are a 
 
 43 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 part grind, and grind hard. For examples 
 of this we need but to consider the sweat- 
 shop system, and child labor. Mr. Henry- 
 White has defined the sweating system as 
 follows: "The term 'sweating system' has 
 a general meaning, but is specifically used 
 to describe a condition of labor in which a 
 maximum amount of work in a given time 
 is performed for a minimum wage, and 
 in which the ordinary rules of health and 
 comfort are disregarded." Our great cities 
 are filled with shops of this kind, and it is 
 computed that 65 per cent of all the 
 clothing manufactured in this country is 
 made under this system. The "task," or 
 day's work, is constantly increasing, th'e 
 screw being turned a little tighter from 
 time to time. "Whereas, fifteen years ago," 
 says the Industrial Commision, "the task 
 was eight or ten coats for one day's work, 
 the task is now twenty to twenty-two coats 
 of the same quality. Formerly the opera- 
 tor, baster, and finisher could complete 
 their task in eight or ten hours of leisurely 
 work; now it requires fourteen hours of 
 intense application." In "Labor Prob- 
 lems," by Adams and Sumner, it is stated 
 
 44 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 that in New York City "the secretary of 
 one of the unions was able to point out, 
 from among one hundred and twenty-five 
 persons, sixteen who were working twelve 
 hours, eight who were working fourteen 
 hours, six who were working eighteen 
 hours, and four men who had come over 
 to this country alone and were anxious to 
 send for their families, who were working 
 twenty hours a day. A journeyman tailor 
 of Chicago testified before the Industrial 
 Commission that he knew many men who 
 worked, during the busy season, six days 
 and three nights in the same week, and that 
 he had repeatedly seen men work thirty- 
 six hours without any interruption or sleep 
 or hardly any time to take their meals." 
 The wages received, as estimated by the 
 same authors, from one thousand cases 
 investigated, are for ordinary men workers, 
 not including foremen and cutters, from 
 i$5/.5o to $11 per week, and for women 
 workers, from $4 to $6 per week. In New 
 York City, a woman was found "who 
 earned $70 by twenty weeks' work, which 
 was the entire income for the support of 
 herself, mother, aged fifty-seven years, and 
 
 45 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 sister, aged thirty-two years." Says Miss 
 Sumner: "The evils of the sweating sys- 
 tem can hardly be exaggerated. It is an 
 undoubted breeder of squalor, want, intem- 
 perance, crime, disease, and death." 
 
 Of the rapacity shown by capital in the 
 employment of children, it is not necessary 
 to speak. In 1900 there were in the United 
 States some 1,750,178 children at work in 
 factories and mills, some of them working 
 twelve and fourteen hours a day, and for 
 an insignificant compensation. The law 
 has now come in to limit the evils arising 
 from this source, but the indifference of 
 capital, and often the capital of Christian 
 men, to the welfare of labor is seen in the 
 fact that, before the agitation of Shaftes- 
 bury, one-third of the employees "in the 
 coal-mines of England were under eighteen 
 years of age, and that of these much more 
 than one-half were under thirteen. The 
 census of 1841 showed that about six thou- 
 sand women, half of them under twenty, 
 were employed in mines in Great Britain 
 alone." Children of six were often found 
 working ten and twelve hours a day, and 
 many children were made to toil fifteen 
 46 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 and sixteen hours a day. Such conditions 
 appeal to the ethical sense of the working- 
 men and make them despise the present 
 industrial system. 
 
 The uncertainty of employment also 
 unsettles the laboring class. Under the 
 present system of free contract, the work- 
 ingman is compelled to labor on terms his 
 employer dictates; and if there is a slump 
 in the market, or an overproduction, he 
 may be told at night that he is not wanted 
 in the morning ; and thus be thrown on the 
 pavement without any means of keeping 
 the wolf from the door. He does not enjoy 
 the security in this respect of the slave or 
 serf. The organizations which have been 
 formed to protect him in his rights are not, 
 as a rule, strong enough to greatly assist 
 him. He is at the mercy of conditions; 
 can, as stated, be in demand one day, and a 
 drug on the market the next. A fall in 
 prices may cause his discharge, and want 
 and ruin come to stare him in the face. 
 Nor is it at all certain that a man dropped 
 from one factory or establishment can find 
 a place in another. Even in prosperous 
 times there are a large number of the pop- 
 
 47 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 ulation who have no opportunity to secure 
 employment. Mr. Charles Booth, the 
 statitician, affirms that in London lo to 20 
 per cent of the people are not able to find 
 positions. In Berlin and Paris there are 
 like conditions, except that in Paris the 
 government seeks to find work for the 
 unemployed. In New York there are 
 always thousands of men seeking in vain to 
 find employment. The Brooklyn House 
 of Industry reports that an average of one 
 hundred and fifty men a month who want 
 work are turned away, and this is but one 
 of the small missions of a great city. In 
 1885 it was estimated that there were in the 
 United States a million men out of employ- 
 ment, and in 1 893 about twice that number. 
 While statistics are difficult to gather, no 
 one who is in touch with labor conditions 
 can doubt that there is always an army of 
 men looking for jobs without finding them, 
 and that frequently extreme suflfering 
 results to families and individuals. The 
 one right a man has is the right to labor. 
 Society must afford every person a chance 
 to earn his bread; and when social condi- 
 tions are such that men may lose their 
 48 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 places any time there is commercial de- 
 pression, overproduction, or need for re- 
 pairs, and perhaps wander for weeks and 
 not find another job, we may affirm indus- 
 trial conditions to be far from ideal, and 
 should not be surprised if the laboring class 
 talks about the need of a new social order. 
 But even more than what has been men- 
 tioned, the poverty and suffering, the 
 wretched condition of many of the laboring 
 class, make them hungry to do away with, 
 or at least change, the present system. We 
 do not agree with Henry George's affirma- 
 tion, which has spread widely through the 
 ranks of labor, that the rich are growing 
 richer and the poor poorer every day. It 
 is true that capital is increasing marvel- 
 ously; but it is also true that labor is better 
 housed, better fed, because better paid, 
 than ever before. Indeed, much of the 
 wealth of capital goes into public utilities 
 which are available for labor, and help to 
 make life easier and happier, and fre- 
 quently the cost of it cheaper for the toilers. 
 According to Prof. T. S. Adams, "between 
 1866 and 1903 real wages rose in the 
 United States more than 100 per cent in 
 
 4 49 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 industry and more than 70 per cent in agri- 
 culture." In England such writers as 
 Robert Griffin affirm that while food prod- 
 ucts have not much varied in price, the 
 increase in wages of factory operators and 
 mechanics, during the past sixty years, has 
 been from 20 to 150 per cent. Says Dr. 
 Lyman Abbott: "Never before in human 
 history — ^nowhere else in the world, except 
 perhaps in Australia — shall we find the 
 laborer as well housed, fed, and clothed as 
 in this close of the nineteenth century in 
 the United States. Never before has he 
 had such an opportunity for leisure, educa- 
 tion, and moral advancement." All this is 
 doubtless true, and yet, as already stated, 
 it must always be considered in connection 
 with the fact that the standards of life have 
 changed, wants have multiplied, and that 
 relatively the laborer's condition may not 
 be so much improved as statistics seem to 
 imply. A man who lives in a community 
 of savages may get on with a bow and 
 arrow, a few fish-hooks, and a yard or two 
 of cloth; but a person who lives in the 
 metropolis of a civilized State wants what 
 the shop-windows show and what the 
 50 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 people he meets on the street seem to 
 have. But even admitting the gain, there 
 is a very dark side to the picture which 
 gets hold of the imagination of the work- 
 ingman and makes him restless and dis- 
 turbed. This is the suffering and pov- 
 erty and wretchedness of multitudes of 
 the laboring class. Talk as we may 
 about high wages, the fact remains that in 
 London the number of people shading 
 down from poverty to absolute want is 30 
 per cent of the entire population. In thirty- 
 seven districts, with a population aggre- 
 gating 1,719,000, those in poverty vary 
 from 40 to 60 per cent. In a volume just 
 published (1905) on "Poverty," by Robert 
 Hunter, it is shown that in addition to four 
 million people who are each year recipients 
 of public charity, there are at least six mil- 
 lion who, in spite of industrious and frugal 
 habits, live daily on the ragged edge of 
 want. From this latter body the hosts of 
 pauperism are recruited. "After being 
 haunted by the specter of beggary and the 
 fear of having by and by to ask for public 
 charity, thousands of hard-working, re- 
 spectable men and women, having finally 
 
 SI 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 exhausted their resources and been over- 
 taken by calamity — lack of employment, 
 a strike, a lockout, a spell of sickness — find 
 themselves forced to ask for help from a 
 charitable association, or from the town, 
 municipal, or county poor fund." Says the 
 Northwestern Christian Advocate of May 
 17, 1905: "To have no food, scant cloth- 
 ing, unsanitary lodgings, filthy surround- 
 ings, and, in addition, sickness, endured in 
 an atmosphere charged with vice and 
 crime, is indeed a dreadful plight for any 
 human being to be in. But the estate of 
 those who are 'betwixt' and 'between,' who 
 are forced by their circumstances to a 
 chronic struggle with penury, who get 
 barely enough money return for their 
 labor, exacting and onerous though it may 
 be, to supply meagerly the necessities of 
 life, and not sufficient to maintain the body 
 at its proper working efficiency — their 
 status is not much worse than that of the 
 actual beggar. And yet this is the status of 
 millions of laboring people in the countiy." 
 Few men realize the real poverty and suffer- 
 ing of thousands of the laboring class. See- 
 ing them busy at their work or with their 
 
 52 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 dinner-pails swinging on their arms as they 
 go forth to their labor in the morning, they 
 seem a happy and contented lot. But when 
 one visits the tenements of our great cities, 
 reads the story of "the submerged tenth," 
 or "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London," or 
 "Prisoners of Poverty," or "How the Other 
 Half Lives," he sees the life of the laboring 
 man from a different angle. Says a clergy- 
 man: "I made a recent investigation in 
 the city of New York myself. I went into 
 one room, not more than ten by twelve feet, 
 in which there were eighteen people, men 
 women and children, that ate and lived and 
 slept in that room. And they were not only 
 men and women, but they were blacks and 
 whites gathered together in the same apart- 
 ment." In one block in New York there are 
 seventy-one thousand people crowded to- 
 gether. Says Dr. John B. Devine, of "The 
 Federation of East Side Workers:" "In 
 a house near the river (St. Louis), I re- 
 cently discovered a company of four young 
 Syrian workmen crowded with their fam- 
 ilies into a single room. Three of them 
 were married, and they had six children 
 between them. They had formerly occu- 
 
 53 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 pied separate rooms, but as winter came on, 
 and the men could no longer work on the 
 streets because of the cold, they were com- 
 pelled to give up their individual homes 
 for non-payment of rent. When I found 
 them the women and children were bare- 
 footed, although snow was on the ground, 
 and the rickety doors and windows per- 
 mitted the cold to come in with terrific 
 blasts." 
 
 It is no wonder that this large number of 
 what is called the "submerged class," com- 
 prising "one in five of the manual laborers 
 of the country and six of every one hundred 
 of the population," seeing the vast increase 
 of the wealth, beholding the luxury of the 
 rich, and realizing their own destitution 
 and misery, become angered at present con- 
 ditions, and stand ready to strike at the very 
 foundation of the present social structure, 
 becoming the easy prey of the socialist, the 
 nihilist, and the professional labor agitator. 
 
 Another cause for the development of the 
 social problem and unrest of labor is the 
 spread of socialistic and revolutionary lit- 
 erature. Few people realize the tons of 
 tracts, papers, books, all denouncing the 
 
 54 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 present economic system, which are weekly 
 distributed among the masses. The labor 
 press is now a large institution, and has es- 
 tablished itself in every great city and 
 developed a large constituency of readers. 
 Besides the press is the agitator who ad- 
 dresses the laborer in his halls, at his con- 
 ventions, or on the street corner. The agi- 
 tation is constant, and it is abundant. The 
 workingmen are receiving a daily educa- 
 tion in the principles of theorists and re- 
 formers, who are united in this, that they 
 cry aloud against the present industrial 
 system and declare it must speedily be over- 
 thrown. The doctrine taught is for the 
 most part socialistic. The scheme of 
 socialism has the advantage that it is 
 well wrought-out, that it has back of it 
 some remarkably able writers, that it 
 appeals to a flowery ideal, and that it is a 
 world-wide propaganda. The age has 
 every facility for the spread of the new doc- 
 trines. Freedom of speech; inter-commu- 
 nication between nations; the press an- 
 nouncing each morning what has been done 
 in different States and communities the day 
 previous; the reports of the extravagances 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 and luxurious living of the rich; the an- 
 nouncement of a thousand desirable things 
 in which other people are participating, 
 but which are denied the laborer; clubs 
 organized through' which to counsel and 
 work together ; strikes to inflame ; the mass- 
 ing of the people in sections of cities — all 
 these conditions are most favorable to 
 propagate new views, stir up antagonism to 
 existing institutions, or whet the appetite 
 for revolution. 
 
 There are at least two facts very potent 
 with the socialistic agitator in winning a 
 hearing from the proletariate. The first of 
 these is, he is an extremist. He abounds in 
 statements which are exaggerations but 
 which appeal to the imagination of the 
 untrained mind. He does not deal in judi- 
 cial judgments. He dips his brush in the 
 strongest possible colors. Thus when Marx 
 affirms that the reign of the bourgeois 
 tends to convert society into an aggregation 
 of beggars and millionaires, he states what 
 the facts do not warrant. So when the condi- 
 tion of the laboring class is described. The 
 representation is so strong, the facts are so 
 perverted, the evils are so exaggerated, the 
 S6 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 prejudices of the laborer are so appealed to, 
 the language used is so vigorous, that many 
 of the unthinking masses are swept off their 
 feet, and come to believe that "private prop- 
 erty is robbery," that capital is essentially 
 tyrannous, and the great end is to strip the 
 wealthy of what they have and place it at 
 the disposal of the community. 
 
 The other element of power with the 
 labor agitator is his appeal to untrue and 
 unattainable ideals. He is constantly pic- 
 turing Utopias which can never be realized. 
 Thus we are told that in the new order the 
 working day will be reduced to six hours, 
 and the wages will be increased as the hours 
 are lessened, and the result will be "that 
 the commonest and most obscure laborer 
 will live, if he chooses, in dwellings as 
 beautiful and convenient as any which are 
 now monopolized by the wealthy." This 
 prospect fascinates, the wage-earner, for 
 from the beginning men have been 
 charmed with the thought of much pay 
 and little work. There are any number 
 of people who want luxury to fly in at the 
 window, rather than earn it by years of 
 daily toil. No wonder that the socialist's 
 
 57 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 scheme wins enthusiastic assent, and the 
 men who seek the loaves and fishes turn in 
 to join the movement. 
 
 The social inferiority which the laborer 
 is made to feel is perhaps his greatest bur- 
 den, and one of the principal reasons for 
 his dissatisfaction with the present indus- 
 trial situation. He realizes that neither 
 he nor his family are treated with any 
 social consideration". If recognized at all 
 by his employer, it is as a man capable of 
 so much work. It is his brawn and not his 
 brain that is recognized. He is estimated 
 by what he can do, and is frequently treated 
 as a thing rather than as a man. The fact 
 that he works in the mill makes the social 
 barrier for himself and for his family com- 
 plete. With the fact that capital seems to 
 be getting into the hands of a few comes 
 the thought that not only will he not be 
 able to rise to a better social condition, but 
 the fear that his children will be put into 
 a caste as rigid almost as those of Eastern 
 lands, -and will be judged, not by their 
 worth as persons, but by the place in which 
 they chance to have been born. Says one 
 of our foremost writers: "The certainty 
 58 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 .that they are losing ground socially, and 
 the fear that they may come to want and 
 dependence, are the sources of the present 
 tendency to combine for offensive and de- 
 fensive warfare." Our proud American 
 laborers, with their free spirit, with the 
 sense of their worth as men running in their 
 veins, are not willing to accept the pros- 
 pect that they and their children shall be 
 branded as social inferiors because they 
 work. As they see the boy who was with 
 them in the public school, with whom they 
 played, and whom they perhaps excelled, 
 riding in state, living in luxury, and fail- 
 ing to recognize them, and only because 
 he has inherited or made much money, 
 they cry out : 
 
 "I was born as free as Caesar; so were you ; 
 
 We both have fed as well; and we can both 
 
 Endure the winter's cold as well as he. 
 
 . . . Ye gods, it doth amaze me, 
 
 A man of such a feeble temper should 
 
 So get the start of the majestic world, 
 
 And bear the palm alone. 
 
 . . . Men at sometimes are masters of their 
 
 fates ; 
 The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 
 
 59 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 But in ourselves, that we are underlings. 
 'Brutus,' and 'Cassar;' what should be in that 
 
 ' Cffisar?" 
 Why should that name be sounded more than 
 
 yours ? 
 Write them together, yours is as fair a name; 
 Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well; 
 Weigh them, it is as heavy ; conjure with 'em, 
 ' Brutus ' will start a spirit as soon as 'Caesar,' 
 Now, in the names of aU the gods at once. 
 Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed 
 That he has grown so great ?" 
 
 The decay of religion among the people 
 and the materialistic tendencies of the age 
 also have much to do with the development 
 of the social problem. Rocher, the great 
 economist, in stating the causes for the 
 socialistic disturbances, gives the decay of 
 religion and morality the leading and most 
 important place. He says: "When every 
 one regards w^ealth as a sacred trust, or 
 office, coming from God, and poverty as 
 a divine dispensation, intended to educate 
 and develop those afflicted thereby, and 
 considers all men as brothers and this 
 earthly life only as a preparation for eter- 
 nity, even extreme differences of property 
 
 60 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 lose their irritating and demoralizing 
 power. On the other hand, the atheist and 
 materialist become, only too readily, a 
 mammonist, and the poor mammonist falls 
 only too easily into that despair which 
 would gladly kindle a universal conflagra- 
 tion, in order either to plunder or lose his 
 own life. The maxim of the materialist, 
 sunk in poverty and despair is, 'Give me 
 pleasure, enjoyment in this life, or let me 
 die in my misery.' The rich mammonist 
 aggravates this sad condition of things 
 when he casts suspicion on all wealth by 
 the immorality of the means he takes to 
 acquire it, and the sinfulness of his enjoy- 
 ments." There is much in what Rocher 
 says. As long as religion is vigorous, en- 
 gages the enthusiasm of the people, and 
 reaches out eagerly after them; as long as 
 it holds their thought, plays . upon their 
 imagination with pictures of a felicitous 
 future, leads them to consider the present 
 life as disciplinary and probationary, and 
 the true home as yonder ; as long as it moves 
 on the feelings so that delight is found in 
 subjective experiences rather than external 
 conditions, we shall have no great uprisings 
 
 6i 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 because of apparent social injustices, be- 
 cause the goods of this world are not more 
 equally distributed. Indeed there has 
 often been a tendency in deeply religious 
 periods to disesteem worldly possessions, 
 covet poverty, flee the world, and find sat- 
 isfaction in ascetic practices. It is also true 
 that religion tends to bring all classes in 
 society together. When rich and poor, em- 
 ployer and employed, worship together at 
 the same altar, bow before the same God, 
 and go to the same communion, there will 
 be no danger of conflict. It is only as the 
 rich and the poor stay out of the Church, 
 do not come in contact with each other in 
 the sanctuary, that we have anything seri- 
 ous to fear. But, as has been said, "When 
 religion loses its vitality; when its author- 
 ity is resented in secular aflfairs; when the 
 almighty dollar is worshiped, and wealth 
 is sought without reference to the means 
 of its attainment; when a fortune is re- 
 garded as providing the opportunity for 
 personal indulgence, luxury, and display, 
 the heartlessness and materialism of the rich 
 will stir the hearts of the poor with a sense 
 of degradation and the spirit of cruel envy." 
 62 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 There can be no doubt that the infidelity of 
 France in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries led to the blood and riot of the 
 French Revolution; and there is no doubt 
 that the lack of spirituality in the State 
 Church of Germany, and the spread of ma- 
 terialism among the people through the 
 influence of materialistic science, rational- 
 istic criticism, and especially the writings 
 of Marx and Lassalle, have done much to 
 make the people ready to accept the theo- 
 ries of modern socialism, with its atheistic 
 proclamations. When the people lose faith 
 in God and His government of the world, 
 they stand ready to vote a social revolution. 
 We have examined the principal condi- 
 tions and causes which have developed the 
 social problem, and we see behind them all, 
 or in them all, a common element, a com- 
 mon root; namely, that there is a cry com- 
 ing up from the ranks of labor for a larger, a 
 freer, a richer, a more reasonable life. The 
 cry is that of a "suppressed and defeated 
 personality," conscious in a measure of 
 a dignity and value which has not been 
 realized and which the conditions of exist- 
 ence have so far made it impossible to at- 
 
 63 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 tain. It is the movement of an awakened 
 manhood, wishing to climb the ladder of 
 self-improvement, and to come into the full 
 rights and privileges of a man. It has come 
 to be felt by the people at large that the end 
 of society is not to despoil but to complete 
 the individual, to so assist, co-ordinate, and 
 discipline, that while the individual factors 
 shall help develop the communities' wealth, 
 they shall at the same time come to expe- 
 rience an expansion of their own life. The 
 particular thing about it is, that it hopes to 
 secure this enrichment and development by 
 changing the present industrial system, by 
 seeking for the laboring classes better con- 
 ditions, less work, more pay, a larger and, 
 as is believed, a juster share of the profits 
 of present-day industry. As Dr. A. B. 
 Small has said : "Men used to try to better 
 themselves within the conditions in which 
 their lot was cast. They now try to better 
 the condition itself." 
 
 And this brings us to what I may call the 
 bright side of the social problem; for it 
 does not mean that our society is in the 
 throes of a revolution ; or that the condition 
 of labor is worse than in other ages; that 
 64 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 the "man with the hoe" is more oppressed, 
 defrauded, ground down than in times past. 
 But rather it means the reverse; namely, 
 that in our time the workingman has arisen 
 to such a stage of advancement that he is 
 beginning to know and make society feel 
 his rights as a man. He has come to be 
 aware of his value as a social factor, tq re- 
 alize that the world can not get on without 
 his aid, and he has come to feel that he can 
 make his claims and insist on their being 
 heard, that he can make demands on society 
 and compel their acceptance. He is there- 
 fore less despondent and more confident 
 and hopeful than ever before, and the con- 
 flicts of the hour in the industrial world are 
 a proof of the increased self-consciousness 
 and the improved condition of the working 
 classes. Says Dr. A. W. Small : "My in- 
 terpretation of the social movement, then, 
 makes it, with all its faults, a proof that the 
 natural force of humanity is not abated, 
 that social virility is not exhausted. The 
 social movement is to-day's form of the 
 same vital facts which have always been the 
 impulse of human advancement." It man- 
 ifests that labor is coming to a point where 
 5 6s 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 it can take care of itself and fight its own 
 battles; where it can determine its rights, 
 and see that it be given an honorable and 
 just place in the social organism. We have 
 the evidence of this in the way laborers in 
 our day have begun to propose remedies 
 for their condition, have organized and 
 combined for mutual support and assist- 
 ance; for, as has been said, "the men who 
 can design a policy of social and industrial 
 improvement and unite in its support, have 
 become something more and better than 
 day laborers." But besides this the spirit 
 in which their efforts is received is a sign 
 of promise; for the employer has evidently 
 come to the point where he thinks of the 
 'laborer as a fellow-man with rights which 
 he has a duty to present and which must 
 be considered. When labor has come to the 
 point where it can sit in council with cap- 
 ital, affirm its rights, make its demands, and 
 be accorded a respectful consideration, it 
 has moved up the scale of social importance 
 to a high degree, and the hour of its eman- 
 cipation from injustice is almost come. 
 There is no truer test of the advancement of 
 society than the progress of the common 
 66 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 people in liberty, and that is what the social 
 question to-day reveals. The rights of man 
 have come to be recognized as never be- 
 fore, and it is being felt that every person 
 should have the chance to realize himself 
 physically, intellectually, morally; that his 
 end of being is not to be a tool to another's 
 advantage, but rather to make out of him- 
 self a man. The design of society is "not to 
 exploit but to complete the individual." 
 
 Another encouraging feature of the 
 social problem as considered to-day is that 
 it is regarded not simply as an economic 
 question, but also as an ethical one. Under 
 the old economics of Ricardo and his fol- 
 lowers, labor was considered simply as a 
 commodity to be bought and sold in the 
 cheapest market. The man was looked 
 upon as having something to sell, and the 
 price paid was regulated by the law of 
 supply and demand. The seller asked as 
 much as he could, and the purchaser gave 
 as little as he could ; and when the bargain 
 was made the business of the man who had 
 bought was to get as much out of his pur- 
 chase as possible. Self-interest was the 
 controlling motive. The only law known 
 67 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 was the natural law of society; and polit- 
 ical economy looked to individual and 
 national aggrandizement, rather than to 
 establish justice and righteousness in the 
 social system, such that every man could 
 come to attain a developed selfhood, could 
 secure an opportunity to work out his 
 destiny as an ethical and religious being. 
 But in our modern economics the latter 
 conception has entered, and the effect is to 
 make social science not simply a theory 
 how a State can attain the largest material 
 possessions, but how it can produce the 
 noblest type of men, give all its citizens a 
 fair chance in the competitions of life. 
 It has come to be felt that the glory of a 
 nation is not simply in its wealth and com- 
 mercial prosperity, but in the growing in- 
 telligence, happiness, and moral worth of 
 all the people. A nation may be rich and 
 it may be a curse in the face of civilization ; 
 for it may have that wealth in the hands of 
 a few, and wring it out of the life and 
 strength of an oppressed people. The civ- 
 ilization which can produce the greatest 
 intelligence and virtue among all classes is 
 clearly the highest; and therefore the pri- 
 68 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 mary question of society must always be, 
 How can conditions be developed which 
 will give the largest number of men the 
 best chance for support and self-improve- 
 ment? All trade, all labor contracts must 
 come under the influence of this great 
 thought and end of society. Every em- 
 ployer, therefore, must consider the rela- 
 tion of the wages he pays, and the work he 
 assigns, and the conditions under which it 
 is done, to the well-being of the man he 
 employs. He has no right to engage men 
 and set them to work at wages and in con- 
 ditions such that the health and happiness 
 and moral good of those who labor will 
 all be endangered. Says Gladstone: "He 
 is bound to see to it that they take no detri- 
 ment from the work he gives them, or from 
 the environment which he provides for 
 them. Especially is this true if he is pros- 
 pering by the use of their labor. He has 
 no right to grow rich and powerful while 
 the people by whose labor he is thriving " 
 are poor and hungry and helpless. He has 
 no right to wax fat by consuming their 
 strength and their life. It is possible that 
 some of the disciples of Ricardo may re- 
 69 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 quire us to prove these propositions; but 
 I am loath to argue the thesis that a man 
 ought not to be a cannibal." The senti- 
 ment is growing strong in our time that the 
 employer must see to it that, in developing 
 his own business-, he is not sapping the 
 vital force of the nation whose welfare is 
 wrapped up in the good and prosperity of 
 its citizens, and not the citizens of wealth 
 alone, but the plain common people who 
 have as much right in it as have the money- 
 kings. We do not to-day call that a good 
 government, although it would have easily 
 passed muster in previous times, where a 
 few prosper on the life-blood and moral 
 force of the many. 
 
 The social question, therefore, in our day 
 has become an ethical question, arising out 
 of a deepening of the ethical sense of the 
 community, and marking a step in moral 
 progress. The very crux of the present 
 agitation is not whether labor is worse off 
 than formerly, but is the present economic 
 condition just; is the industrial situation 
 right? And that which arouses the labor- 
 ing element so strongly is the feeling that 
 70 
 
The Social Problem 
 
 it is not right; that in the present system 
 capital is selfish; that an unrighteous lust 
 for gain and power has taken hold of the 
 "captains of industry;" and that men who 
 toil are not being treated from the stand- 
 point of justice and brotherhood. There 
 is thus the force of a moral feeling behind 
 every protest against the present system, 
 even when it is made by the wild and ex- 
 travagant voice of the social agitator. This 
 ethical sense, showing itself in the altruism 
 of the present, in the idea and connection 
 of social service, in the philanthropy which 
 is so extensive and so marked, is a leaven 
 cast into the economic lump which is des- 
 tined to make by peaceful means great 
 transformations in the social and industrial 
 condition of the people. It is one of the 
 greatest and most unmistakable signs of 
 social progress; for, as has been said, 
 "there can be nothing but good in the end 
 to come from an agitation which funda- 
 mentally represents a renaissance of moral 
 responsibility." Legislation must necessa- 
 rily follow, expressing this awakened sense 
 of justice, and in which law will deal 
 
 71 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 righteously with both factors, securing for 
 the laborers a living wage and opportunity 
 for self-development, and to capital pro- 
 tection of property and the opportunity to 
 reap a just and fair profit. 
 
 72 
 
Chapter II 
 
 THE CHURCH AS AFFECTED BY 
 THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 
 
 THE social problem has a direct re- 
 lation to the Church and the work 
 it is seeking to do; for the social 
 environment very materially affects the at- 
 titude of the people to religion and its insti- 
 tutions. It is folly to overlook the fact that 
 when men are absorbed in a struggle for 
 social betterment, for shorter hours and 
 more pay, for improved conditions under 
 which to labor; when they are meeting on 
 Sunday in their lodges to discuss the indus- 
 trial situation; when they are feeling op- 
 pressed and down-trodden by the men who 
 are riding to the Church in their carriages, 
 they will not be interested, except in spe- 
 cial cases, in the practical activities of 
 religion. So also if life is hard, work scarce, 
 and the wolf crowding in at the door, 
 we must expect that physical needs will 
 73 
 
The Church and the Social Problem. 
 
 absorb attention over spiritual needs. It 
 has been pertinently said: "In order to 
 worship there must be not only a day of rest 
 for the man, but a rested man for the day." 
 The mental attitudes developed by the 
 social problem, class hatred, a sense of being 
 a victim of injustice, absorption v^^ith the- 
 ories and plans for v^^inning in a war with 
 capital — these and much else stand in the 
 way of an eager acceptance of religion. 
 Dr. A. B. Fairbairn cites a certain York- 
 shire village as an illustration of the fact we 
 are stating. He says : "It was once a great 
 evangelical center, had quite an army of 
 home missionaries, and created congrega- 
 tions and schools in towns much more im- 
 portant but less religious than itself. Its 
 industry was weaving, which it cultivated 
 with old-fashioned leisure. Men wove in 
 their own houses or sheds, regulated their 
 own hours, and were never too busy to dis- 
 cuss a question in politics, or a problem in 
 theology. They had time after breakfast 
 for morning prayers, and in the evening 
 the family assembled for worship. It was 
 the proud boast of the village that at least 
 once every day the sound of psalm and 
 
 74 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 prayer could be heard in its houses. But 
 steam came, and the power loom, and the 
 great factory, with 'hands' whose hours 
 were as rigorously regulated as the looms 
 they tended. The old leisure, with the old 
 home life, was no more. Breakfast be- 
 came a hurried meal, time enough to eat, 
 but time for nothing more; men and 
 women who came home in the evening were 
 tired, so exhausted with the heated atmos- 
 phere that they craved the open air, with 
 a sound ia the ears that made the old, 
 animated talk an irritation. So the old 
 habits were broken off, and new and 
 less excellent habits formed. The women 
 in the mill lost their domestic feeling, and 
 became noisier, coarser, moire masculine, 
 liking the factory as freedom, hating the 
 home as drudgery. And the men lost their 
 old quieter and more intellectual interests, 
 grew fond of excitement, of amusements 
 noisier than the noisy looms. And so the 
 passion was awakened for the athletics 
 that supplied opportunities to drink and 
 gamble, and the more it developed the more 
 averse they became to the old religious life, 
 indeed incompetent for it in its old, staid 
 
 75 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 simplicity. May we not say, then, that this 
 industrial development has created con- 
 ditions that have made religion indefinitely 
 harder to the man who must keep pace with 
 it in order to live?" We cite this only to 
 show that industrial conditions react on 
 religious interests, and that the Church is 
 vitally affected in many ways by the social 
 problem, and the center of emphasis it has 
 given to the workingman's life. We there- 
 fore propose to inquire: What is the gen- 
 eral attitude of the laboring classes to the 
 Church? Is organized Christianity win- 
 ning the support and the help of the large 
 mass of working people? Are the men who 
 are in the midst of the social struggle for 
 the most part active workers in our Chris- 
 tian communions? No more practical or 
 serious problem can engage the attention of 
 the modern Church. 
 
 We believe it must be admitted by every 
 student of the social problem, that for some 
 reason the Church has largely lost its hold 
 on the great mass of the working people. 
 We do not ignore the fact that there never 
 has been an age when all the common 
 people, so called, were in the Churches. 
 76 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 We are aware that, in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, the Churches of Great Britain were 
 largely deserted. We know also that in- 
 crease of Church membership in the United 
 States has exceeded the increase of the pop- 
 ulation; but, with all these facts in mind, 
 we believe it can not be successfully contro- 
 verted that, in the main, workingmen look 
 on the Church with indifference or suspi- 
 cion, and do not feel that it is their friend. 
 The question is not simply one of attend- 
 ance, but one of attitude. If there is only 
 indifference, the problem is not so serious 
 as if there is dissatisfaction, criticism, and 
 hostility. It is a fact that large numbers 
 of laboring men to-day have lost their re- 
 spect for the Church, which threatens the 
 progress of religion among them, and 
 weakens the restraints which religion had 
 upon them even when they paid but little 
 attention to the rites of worship. 
 
 That the working classes are dissatisfied 
 with the Church and inclined to turn 
 toward it a cold shoulder, abundant facts 
 reveal. We hear it admitted, indeed, on 
 every hand. A few years ago a Church 
 committee in Massachusetts sent out cir- 
 
 77 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 cular letters to over two hundred labor 
 leaders asking their opinion about the atti- 
 tude of the laboring classes to the Church, 
 and the almost unanimous reply was that 
 the workingmen were almost entirely 
 alienated. The Rev. Charles Stelzle, in 
 his book, "The Workingman and Social 
 Problems," states that he recently sent out 
 two hundred letters to labor leaders 
 throughout the country, asking them con- 
 cerning the attitude of workingmen to the 
 Church. The replies are very interesting 
 and show a widespread indifference and 
 dissatisfaction. Says Dr. Washington 
 Gladden: "The proportion of wage work- 
 ers in our Churches is diminishing." 
 Rabbi Hirsch affirms: "The painful fact 
 can not be blinked that the masses have 
 been eliminated from the Churches." Says 
 Dr. Thomas: "Somehow the Churches 
 have lost their hold upon the confidence, 
 sympathies, and almost the respect of the 
 laboring people. I asked a leader of a 
 union of three hundred members how 
 many attended Church. 'Practically none,' 
 he said. *A few women may go, but not 
 half a dozen men a year.' Whedier right or 
 
 7? 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 wrong, the laboring men feel that the 
 Churches in general are not their friends; 
 that they are for the rich ; that money con- 
 trols both the pulpit and the pew; that the 
 preachers, as a rule, either do not care for 
 the rights of the laboring man, or that they 
 dare not plead his cause." The best sta- 
 tistics show that there are in the United 
 States fifteen million men between sixteen 
 and thirty-five years, and of these, six mil- 
 lion are more or less in touch with the 
 Church, and nine million are almost en- 
 tirely out of touch with it, Protestant or 
 Roman Catholic, and that the vast majority 
 of the nine million are workingmen. A 
 book has been recently published on Church 
 attendance in Greater London. A count of 
 all the Churches was systematically made, 
 and it was found that 1,114,025 out of a 
 population of 6,240,336 were in the 
 Churches, and of these the larger propor- 
 tion were women and children. It is said 
 that in New York, out of a population of 
 over three millions, only about two hundred 
 and fifty thousand go to Church on Sunday. 
 In (Berlin, the intellectual center of Europe, 
 there is only; one Church to every twenty 
 
 79 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 thousand of the people, and the Churches 
 will not average a seating capacity of more 
 than five hundred. Mr. Bok, of the Ladies' 
 Home Journal, conducted an investigation 
 in sixty cities of the United States concern- 
 ing the Church attendance of young men, 
 and published his results as follows : "Only 
 about twenty-two out every one hundred 
 young men, taken at random in the cities of 
 the country, attend Church on Sunday." 
 As an indication of how little the Church 
 is reaching the workingmen take the follow- 
 ing: "In New York, while two hundred 
 thousand people, mostly laborers, moved 
 in below Fourteenth Street, seventeen Prot- 
 estant Churches moved out," because they 
 could not sustain their congregations. In 
 all our cities many of our Churches are sell- 
 ing out and moving to the suburbs, for they 
 can not maintain their audiences; and 
 yet the population of down-town districts 
 in our cities has never been so dense as 
 to-day. 
 
 That we might get at the attitude of the 
 proletariate to the Church as clearly and 
 accurately as possible, we recently ad- 
 dressed a letter, asking certain questions, to 
 80 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 the secretary of every national organization 
 of labor in the United States, two hundred 
 and thirty-eight letters in all. To these 
 some ninety-three replies were received, 
 many writing at length. The first question 
 asked was, "What do you think is the gen- 
 eral attitude of the laboring class at the 
 present time to the Church, one of cordial- 
 ity, indifference, dissatisfaction, or hostil- 
 ity?" Of the ninety-three replies received, 
 only six stated the attitude to be one of 
 cordiality, eleven said indifference, three 
 hostility, and the balance dissatisfaction. 
 The following are some of the answers to 
 the question: "The laboring classes are 
 indifferent to all Churches." "In my 
 opinion, it is half one of indifference and 
 half one of contempt." "It is a questioning 
 attitude ; the Church offers too much in the 
 future and too little now." "The working 
 classes are distrustful of the Church because 
 so many preachers preach for contributions 
 instead of for salvation. If I were a min- 
 ister of the gospel, I would do more to 
 preach hell out of men than to preach men 
 out of hell." "It is one of lassitude. I was in 
 Birmingham week before last and observed 
 6 8i 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 the men working on two shifts a day in the 
 steel plants, thirteen and eleven hours. I 
 can not see that there is a great deal of time 
 or energy left for the exercises of an intelli- 
 gent religion." "It is decidedly one of dis- 
 satisfaction. The Church hobnobs with the 
 rich." "Dissatisfaction; the Church, as a 
 rule, has, like providence, been on the side 
 of the strong and powerful and against the 
 poor and weaker classes." "More dissatis- 
 faction than hostility." "Uninterested, be- 
 cause the definition preachers give of 
 Christ's doctrine does not meet with the 
 approval of the common people." "There 
 is very little cordiality, a great deal of dis- 
 satisfaction, and some hostility. I think 
 the dissatisfaction is widespread, especially 
 among the intelligent Protestants." "In my 
 opinion, the laboring class, through its 
 leaders, are decidedly dissatisfied and hos- 
 tile to the Church, as has been demonstrated 
 by the several controversies in Denver, 
 notably Bishop Matz." "Dissatisfaction, 
 for instead of being the Father's house, it 
 has become a den of thieves." "Cordiality 
 to some Churches; hostility to the big 
 Churches and showy Churches of the rich." 
 82 
 
As- Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 "I do not believe the labor movement is 
 having any particular effect one way or the 
 other upon the Church." "No citizen of 
 our Republic attends Church more regu- 
 larly, promptly, and with a greater degree 
 of reverence and devotion than the wage- 
 worker. Great credit is due him for faith- 
 fulness in this respect under galling circum- 
 stances." "The tendency is for the toilers 
 to lose confidence in the Church." "The 
 general feeling of the laboring class to the 
 Church is one of apathy." "I know, from 
 long experience in the ranks of organized 
 labor, that the attitude of labor to the 
 Church is one of dissatisfaction." "The 
 laboring people generally have a high re- 
 gard for the moral teachings of the Church, 
 but they would like to see the Churches 
 modernized, and made practical, benevo- 
 lent institutions." "Outside the Catholic 
 Church the laboring man's attitude towards 
 the Church is one of total indifference; it 
 has not yet reached the point of hostility." 
 The other replies reiterate the statements 
 quoted. The testimony is very significant 
 and almost alarming. The men who have 
 replied are national officers of labor organ- 
 
 83 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 izations, and their letters show that they 
 are men of intelligence. They have doubt- 
 less a very wide acquaintance with laboring 
 men, and, therefore, reflect accurately the 
 sentiments of the laboring people. From 
 their replies we must conclude that the atti- 
 tude of the workingmen to the Church is 
 one of widespread dissatisfaction, and that 
 the very people to whom primarily the 
 Church has its mission are practically out 
 of its reach, under the present development 
 of the labor problem in our country. The 
 seriousness of the situation is intensified 
 when we remember that workingmen com- 
 pose the great bulk of society. 
 
 In order to locate the cause of the 
 dissatisfaction of labor with the Church, 
 and especially to see if the social prob- 
 lem as it exists to-day has anything 
 considerable to do with it, a second 
 question was asked, as follows: "What, 
 in your opinion, are the reasons for 
 this attitude?" The replies are most inter- 
 esting, and clearly reveal that the social 
 question has entered very largely to deter- 
 mine the attitude in question; that the in- 
 difference of workingmen to the Church 
 
 84 
 
As Affected by the Social ProbTem 
 
 is in large part due to the supposed position 
 the Church has taken on the labor problem. 
 It will be impossible to present at length the 
 opinions stated, as the material submitted 
 would itself make a fair-sized volume, 
 some of the correspondents having written 
 several typewritten sheets upon it; but we 
 shall give the substance of the replies : "Too 
 much Churchanity; not enough Christian- 
 ity." "Not practicing what they preach; 
 deceitfulness." "Sunday clothes are too 
 elegant for a poor man to sit comfortably 
 in the sanctuary." "Too much collection- 
 box. The poor man can not pay the bills, 
 and is too self-respecting to have a box for 
 money stuck under his nose twice a Sunday 
 and not give something. I am a theater 
 manager and I can vouch for over a dozen 
 of my boys turning against a certain Church 
 where they went on Sunday because they 
 forgot to bring ten cents to pay for their 
 seats." "The laborer does not attend many 
 Churches because he has a well-founded 
 suspicion that his commercial rating, or 
 rather his lack of a commercial rating^ 
 stands in the way of his being the equal of 
 his would-be Church associates. From the 
 
 8S 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 realms of the wealthy Churches the work- 
 ingman very rightly considers himself a 
 social outcast. The ministers of such 
 Churches invariably cater and preach 
 only to the rich. The sermons and the 
 sympathies of the ministers clearly do 
 not fit the workingman's hard lot. They 
 do not suit his spiritual and social needs. 
 In such congregations the workingman 
 is painfully aware that he is a sad mis- 
 fit." "Men who labor through the week 
 look upon the Sabbath as a holiday, and 
 the Churches are not made interesting 
 and attractive," "I think it is the growth 
 of socialistic doctrines among the labor- 
 ing classes, and because our Churches mani- 
 fest a leaning toward the wealthy classes." 
 "There are several reasons for the indif- 
 ference of labor to the Church, i. The 
 spread of ideas among them which have 
 broken down the authority of the Bible 
 and the Church ; 2. The clergymen and the 
 congregations in most cases take on a class 
 and fashionable turn, in which the laboring 
 man does not feel at home; 3. In the eco- 
 nomic and social sense, the Church has 
 come to be constituted mainly of the well- 
 86 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 to-do class, and those following the genteel 
 vocations and embracing the employer class. 
 In this total class, labor sees its organized 
 antagonist. Instead of joining it, the labor 
 class feels like fighting it. It then becomes 
 easy to specialize the complaint. The 
 Church idea, then, comes to stand for aris- 
 tocracy, high living, exploitation, injustice, 
 contempt for toilers and the like. Its char- 
 ity is regarded as a sop. Its proclamation 
 of brotherhood is considered Pickwickian." 
 "Socialism is spreading rapidly among the 
 laboring classes. It advocates a revolution- 
 ary change in the ownership of productive 
 capital. It believes that material things are 
 the underlying basis of the spiritual, the 
 esthetic, and the ideal. It is thus necessarily 
 in avowed antagonism to what the Church 
 seems to represent." "The general feeling 
 among laboring men is that the Churches 
 are largely controlled by the wealthy, em- 
 ploying class, and are conducted largely 
 as social clubs, that the clergy and promi- 
 nent members are not in sympathy with the 
 toiling masses." "The principal cause of 
 dissatisfaction is that it is generally believed 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 that the Church, as a rule, caters to the sup- 
 port of the capitalist class." 
 
 "Ecclesiastical authority over the actions 
 of men in this country is a thing of the 
 past; and, because it is so, other influences 
 must be brought to bear upon the people 
 to win their interest and co-operation. 
 Now, the teachings of Jesus are only the- 
 oretically accepted; they must also be ap- 
 plied and practiced." "The wage-earners, 
 like other classes of society, are becoming 
 more intelligent, and are freer from anti- 
 quated, superstitious ideas. During past 
 centuries the rulers of the Church and State 
 held that the masses of industrial workers 
 could not be kept under control if they 
 were educated, which caused many of them 
 to remain on the altar of superstition. They 
 were controlled through fear of punish- 
 ment; they were led to believe that the 
 Church was God's mouthpiece, and that 
 their only hope for salvation was through 
 the Church. That day is over, and the 
 Church must now show fruits ; it must not 
 be a cloak for the unscrupulous, but the 
 •advocate of humanity and justice." "One 
 of the principal causes of indifference is 
 88 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 that some personages who systematically, 
 both through political skullduggery and 
 theological subsidy, succeed in keeping us 
 in squalid poverty, are almost invariably 
 flaming lights, and substantial pillars of the 
 Church." 
 
 "Were Christ to come to earth to-day 
 He would find it necessary to use a much 
 heavier scourge of cords than He did when 
 He drove the money-changers out of the 
 temple in Jerusalem, for the money-chang- 
 ers are the principal people left in the 
 Church in our day. When men like Rocke- 
 feller and other exploiters of the sweat of 
 other men's brows are received with open 
 arms by the modern Church, it is but nat- 
 ural that the men who are exploited will 
 look askance at a Church that opens its 
 arms to such people; especially when we 
 take into consideration the statement of 
 Christ that 'It is easier for a camel to go 
 through the eye of a needle, than for a rich 
 man to enter the kindom of God.' The 
 Churches are full of men who are a dis- 
 grace to the religion taught by the Founder 
 of Christianity. Men who sit in Churches 
 on Sunday, and listen to the doctrine 
 
 89 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 preached, 'Suffer little children to come 
 unto Me,' and then through the week run 
 cotton-mills, such as are a disgrace to civ- 
 ilization, and many other factories, grind- 
 ing out the very souls and lives of these 
 little ones — certainly such men are very 
 poor representatives of the Christianity 
 taught by Christ, and yet they are promi- 
 nent officers in the Churches." 
 
 "Permit me to say that my father was a 
 Methodist preacher. I was trained in the 
 Church, and was a consistent member until 
 fifteen years ago. I am now fifty-two years 
 of age. I did not leave the Church be- 
 cause I liked to, but because I found so 
 little of the principles I stood for advocated 
 in it, so much attention paid to the man with 
 the money, and so little to the man who is 
 poor. The doctrines are all right, but the 
 Church has ceased to be the Church of 
 Christ, and is now the Church of the well- 
 to-do. The grasping, groveling desire for 
 the almighty dollar has prostituted its or- 
 ganization into a glaring hypocrisy which 
 the laboring men understand and will not 
 tolerate. This is the reason they stay away, 
 and will until the Church is cleansed." 
 90 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 "It is everywhere apparent that the 
 Church is hostile to labor. It teaches that 
 it is God's will that the majority of mankind 
 should always labor and suffer poverty; 
 while the labor movement teaches that 
 under the teachings of Christ all property, 
 with its concomitant evils as we now see 
 them, would disappear. Hence the irre- 
 pressible conflict between the Church and 
 organized labor." "The thinking, reflecting 
 element among the workers, brought often 
 to the verge of destitution by the inade- 
 quacy of the wage system to afford them a 
 security of livelihood, and being convinced 
 that there is injustice somewhere, soon learn 
 that the sympathy for their righteous re- 
 volts and discontents, which they feel the 
 Church should support, is not forthcoming. 
 On the contrary, they are met with opposi- 
 tion. The workers come to feel that min- 
 isters are bound hand and foot by fear of 
 the men of means in their congregations. 
 They dare not express their sympathy with 
 organized labor, even when they feel it. 
 The Unions which laboring men have 
 formed to protect their interests are not , 
 favored by the clergy and the Church. 
 
 91 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 The efforts they make to assist themselves 
 are denounced. The Church seems totally- 
 indifferent to the workingman's material 
 welfare. Preachers do not understand the 
 social question. They have not sympathet- 
 ically studied it, or they lack the courage to 
 take a true stand on it. Years of inquiry 
 and investigation have convinced me that 
 our industrial system is at the bottom of 
 our present Church decay; and the Church 
 will not win back the workingman until it 
 shows sympathy with his cause." 
 
 These quotations have been given at 
 length, for they represent what is stated in 
 one form or another by our correspondents. 
 There is not one of the ninety-three letters 
 which does not locate the indifference of 
 laboring men to the Church in some phase 
 of the labor problem. We believe that 
 these replies are worthy of the most earnest 
 consideration on the part of the clergy and 
 all men interested in the progress of Chris- 
 tianity. Xhey certainly show that the social 
 problem is a live problem for the Church, 
 and that it can not be ignored. 
 
 In order to study as carefully as possible 
 the causes of the indifference of the laboring 
 
 92 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 men to the Church, the question was 
 asked: "Do you think that unbelief 
 in the doctrines of revealed religion is 
 growing among the laboring class?" 
 The answers are very interesting, and 
 there is some difference of opinion ex- 
 pressed, although the general impression 
 one gains from reading the replies is, that 
 skepticism has not made any considerable 
 progress among the working people. Not 
 a single correspondent seems to have any- 
 thing but appreciation of Christ and His 
 teachings. Some depreciate the doctrines 
 of the Church, and many affirm that the 
 true teachings of Jesus are not being taught, 
 that indeed His words are decidedly per- 
 verted. The denunciations of the rich 
 which we find in the Gospels are constantly 
 quoted, and the idea seems generally to 
 prevail that Jesus was in sympathy with the 
 poor, the laboring classes, and if He were 
 on earth to-day He would be their cham- 
 pion in their efforts to improve their con- 
 dition. The incident in the temple where 
 the money-changers were driven out seems 
 to have made a great impression, as has 
 the Golden Rule and the teaching of 
 
 93 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 brotherhood, and in a number of letters 
 the claim is made that Jesus was the first 
 great socialist. 
 
 To abbreviate the replies, we will give 
 a paragraph which is a composite of their 
 substance. As a rule the laboring classes 
 believe in Christianity, and feel that it is 
 the Church, not labor, which has drifted 
 from the teachings of Jesus. In some places 
 where socialism has a strong hold, unbelief 
 is certainly spreading, but not markedly 
 elsewhere. "There is a difference between 
 religion and Christianity. Religion is 
 dying out, and it ought to, but Christianity, 
 although misused and badly abused by the 
 Church, still lives to give hope and comfort 
 to humble mortals, and if preachers would 
 give more attention to Christianity and less 
 to religion, the world would be better off." 
 If unbelief is growing anywhere it 
 is among the more fortunate class; 
 " those who live without rendering a 
 fair equivalent for what they receive. 
 And this is but natural. Revealed religion 
 condemns the rich. It condemns the 
 methods by which they become rich ; there- 
 fore, it is but natural that the rich will grow 
 
 94 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 skeptical. Our industrial system is rapidly 
 spreading unbelief." The reason that 
 "well-fed preachers and sleek priests" think 
 that unbelief is spreading among the work- 
 ingmen is, they do not see the difference 
 between true religion and assumed. The 
 workingmen know that the Christianity 
 practiced by the Church is a gross decep- 
 tion, but they believe in the true religion 
 as preached and taught by Jesus Christ. 
 The practical doctrines, and especially the 
 ethical teachings of Christianity, were 
 never more believed in by the workingmen 
 than to-day, but we do find a growing tend- 
 ency to question the miracles and the super- 
 naturalism of the Church. The authority 
 of the Bible is also not as absolute as it 
 once was, and men believe that they have 
 a right to judge it for themselves in spite 
 of preacher or priest. The modern mind 
 does not take kindly to external domination, 
 whether it be by a Pope or a Book. Cer- 
 tainly men do not talk about the contents of 
 the Scriptures as they did a quarter of a 
 century ago ; very few quote from them in 
 these days. The illustrations drawn from 
 the Scriptures which we used often to hear 
 
 95 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 in the addresses of labor leaders are now 
 almost never heard. Many laboring men 
 also seem to have a vague idea that modern 
 science has disproved many of the old doc- 
 trines, although they do not seem to know 
 which. However, there has been a tend- 
 ency to feel less bound by Scripture doc- 
 trines; and certainly the idea of hell and 
 future punishment has ceased to be believed 
 strongly enough to be feared. We incline 
 to the belief that the Bible is less known and 
 less thought about than formerly, although 
 few laborers would want to be classed as 
 against revealed religion. Perhaps the 
 absorption of labor to-day with getting 
 enough of this, world's goods, their intense 
 feeling about a better time here, has led 
 them to be indifferent to the future of which 
 the Bible makes so much. 
 
 Counting the replies, some fifty-one 
 think unbelief is growing among the labor- 
 ing class; while of the forty-two who do 
 not think so, many state that unbelief in 
 religion as expounded by the Church is 
 increasing. 
 
 Another question asked in our corre- 
 spondence and calculated to draw out still 
 96 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 more fully the attitude of labor to the 
 Church was : "Is the criticism of the labor- 
 ing class directed against Christianity and its 
 Founder, or against the Church?" To this 
 question there was but one reply, all agree- 
 ing that there was criticism and that it was 
 against the Church. The universal testi- 
 mony was that Christianity was esteemed 
 and its Founder was reverenced. Says one 
 correspondent: "I should answer emphat- 
 ically that the criticism is against the 
 Church, and not against Christianity or its 
 Founder, and those who may be prejudiced 
 against Christianity and its Founder are 
 prejudiced because of the failure of the 
 Church to fulfill the mission of Christ, and 
 to follow its Founder." Says another: 
 "The criticism of the laboring class is not 
 directed against the principles of Chris- 
 tianity nor against Jesus Christ, but against 
 the Church as it is conducted at the present 
 time; and if any clergyman desires to test 
 the truth of this statement let him establish 
 an independenf Church, the same as Rev. 
 Courtland Meyer has in Greater New York, 
 preach the Fatherhood of God and the 
 brotherhood of man, leaving out the old 
 
 7 97 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 dogmas, and he will be surprised at the 
 number that will be turned away from the 
 door every Sunday, unable to get admis- 
 sion." Says still another : "The very just 
 criticisms of the laboring classes against the 
 Church are against the modern Church, 
 not against Christianity. Christianity has 
 as strong a hold on them as ever; but what 
 they want is the real article, not the sham 
 smeared over with Rockefellerism." I 
 will add but one more opinion, as all prac- 
 tically agree in their testimony: "My 
 opinion is that the criticism of the working 
 classes is directed more against the Church 
 and the attitude of many ministers than it 
 is against Christianity and its Founder. 
 In other words, I incline to the opinion that 
 if ministers were to preach the gospel of 
 original Christianity, as exemplified and 
 taught by Jesus Christ, it would rapidly 
 disarm and melt away all opposition to the 
 Church." It is very interesting to note how 
 many, in replying to this question, pay a 
 high tribute to Christ, claiming Him to be 
 "one of us," who picked a part of His dis- 
 ciples from the poor fishermen of Galilee ;" 
 "the Great Expounder of the principle of 
 
 98 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 human brotherhood and justice between 
 men;" "the Teacher whose doctrines, if 
 correctly interpreted and applied, would 
 end all labor disputes and establish peace 
 between men." 
 
 Another question submitted was the fol- 
 lowing: "Do you think the principles of 
 Chrisitanity are, to any considerable extent, 
 dominant in modern business life?" It was 
 intended by this question to see whether the 
 laboring class feel the power of the Church 
 in human society, whether they recognize 
 principles of action which the Church 
 may claim to be an indication of its 
 social efficiency. The answers are most dis- 
 appointing. With multitudes of Churches 
 and thousands of ministers and millions 
 of communicants, the Church should 
 make itself felt as the most powerful 
 influence in the practical relations of 
 life; but, almost without exception, 
 these intelligent leaders of the great 
 labor movement, these representatives of 
 millions of workingmen, declare that Chris- 
 tianity does not perceptibly dominate the 
 business world. Some of them state that 
 Christianity has doubtless had a profound 
 
 99 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 influence in elevating the moral standards! 
 of society, and that the Church has a good 
 influence to-day, but the feeling seems to 
 be that, in business, Christian principles and 
 feelings have not largely entered. Says one 
 writer: "It appears to me that the princi- 
 ples of Christianity are, to a considerable 
 extent, dominant in modern business life 
 in that they have worked their way into 
 the legal and contractual conditions under 
 which business is done. I can not think, 
 however, that these principles are able to 
 exercise a very decided influence upon the 
 manner in which individuals conduct theii 
 business. A man shows his Christian char- 
 acter in doing what he can to raise the 
 general plane of business activity through 
 agreements with his competitors or through 
 legislative enactment. Beyond this he is 
 really powerless. While in the competi- 
 tive world, he must conduct his business 
 according to the general rules which con- 
 trol." "The word dominate is too strong. 
 The ethical standards Christianity has 
 created of course pertain, but the spirit of 
 brotherhood and justice, fundamental to 
 the teachings of Christ, do not in our com- 
 
 lOO 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 petitive world so strongly prevail as to 
 dominate in the business transactions of 
 society." "No, I do not think that the 
 principles of Christianity are dominant in 
 modern business life. We start in with 
 breakfast, and eat all kinds of adulterated 
 foods. We read the paper, which is 
 mostly 'yellow' and full of blackmail, 
 scandal, and falsehoods; we read the ad- 
 vertisements of our Christian merchants, 
 and ninety per cent are, the year round, 
 'selling their goods below cost,' which is 
 false. For the sake of getting a better 
 price, ninety-nine out of a hundred mer- 
 chants will lie, likewise the seller. In his 
 shipment of his goods he often beats the 
 railroads by his misrepresentation of the 
 commodity or violates our national laws 
 by accepting the unlawful rebates, and takes 
 advantage of his more unsophisticated 
 neighbor merchant." These are fair sam- 
 ples of the opinions expressed. 
 
 Another question asked, and the last we 
 shall discuss, was: "Do you think em- 
 ployers who are members of Churches are 
 more considerate of the rights of labor 
 than other employers?" This question 
 
 lOI 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 seemed to the writer to have a very prac- 
 tical relation to the question under discus- 
 sion. The laborer's respect for the Church 
 must necessarily be largely determined by 
 his experience with those who are the com- 
 municants of it. A tree is known by its 
 fruits. If the mpn who constitute the 
 Church and who control its activities are 
 not different from men of the world; if 
 they are not more just, more sympathetic, 
 more brotherly, we need not expect the 
 laboring classes to be very much impressed 
 with the value of the Church, or have very 
 much regard for it. The attitude of Chris- 
 tian men in dealing with labor is something 
 of a test of the practical power and effi- 
 ciency of Christianity in society. Now, we 
 do not believe that labor will always judge 
 the Christian employer justly. It fre- 
 quently puts forth wild and unjust demands. 
 It does not understand the business and 
 greatly magnifies the profits. What the 
 employer may consider just, and what, in- 
 deed, really is just, may be thought oppres- 
 sion. But, with all this admitted, the 
 Christian man should live before his men 
 such a life of self-control, of uprightness, 
 
 102 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 of brotherliness, that they will be impressed 
 by him and believe in him. The saddest 
 and most discouraging thing in all the tes- 
 timony collected is, that this does not seem 
 to be the case, and the almost unanimous 
 opinion is that Christian men are as hard, 
 as exacting, as oppressive, as willing to cut 
 down wages to the starving point, as any 
 class of men engaged in business. Their 
 Christian profession and belief does not 
 seem to make them more honest business 
 men. We believe that the feeling of labor 
 on this point is so important, and probably 
 so strongly affects the attitude of the work- 
 ingmen to the Church, that we shall quote 
 several opinions which are fair samples of 
 scores of others. "I have found employers 
 who are members of Churches the hardest 
 to deal with." "My experience as em- 
 ployee, and now employer for the past 
 thirty years, is that members of Churches 
 are more often oppressive and inconsid- 
 erate of the rights of labor than other em- 
 ployers." "By no means. The same self- 
 ish interests characterize the Churchman 
 and the non-Churchman alike." "No; 
 I have found to the contrary." "I cer- 
 103 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 tainly do not think that employers who are 
 Church members are any more considerate 
 of the rights of labor than other employers. 
 Many of the employers in Fall River were 
 originally, if not now, Church members, 
 and in my experience of fifty years I can 
 not think of an employer, save possibly one 
 or two, who showed any consideration of 
 the rights of their employees ; for few em- 
 ployers understand the rights of the 
 laborer; they do not consider him as a 
 brother beloved; they think of him only as 
 a hireling whose right and duty it is to 
 labor under such conditions and at such 
 remuneration as they, the employers, see 
 fit to accord them." "I would not care to 
 sit in judgment upon my employers, but 
 will say that, so far as my experience has 
 gone, they have never been any different 
 from those outside of the pale of the 
 Church; in fact, in my large experience 
 in settling difficulties with employers, I 
 have found those men prominent in Church 
 work the most bitter against giving im- 
 proved conditions to their employees. One 
 firm in particular, with whom I came in 
 contact several times, employ about 2,700 
 104 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 people, and most of them women, paid a 
 rate of wages so low that no one of them 
 can live respectably on their income, and 
 are compelled by virtue of their condition 
 to prostitute themselves in order to eke out 
 a miserable existence. This firm, composed 
 of three prominent Church members and 
 officials, know this to be true, and yet con- 
 tinue the conditions which force this upon 
 them." "My feeling is, there is no differ- 
 ence so far as the character of the em- 
 ployer is concerned, whether he pro- 
 fesses Christianity or not. This is partly 
 a matter of human sympathy." "About 
 the most contemptible and tyrannical 
 employers of labor are members of the 
 modern Church. In the West Elnd of St. 
 Louis, where the most aristocratic temples 
 of God are situated, I can go from one to 
 the other, and I can see the pews filled with 
 hypocrites, who are busy from Monday 
 morning to Saturday night grinding the 
 very souls and lives out of little children 
 for profit. They get religion once a week, 
 and think that all that is required is to 
 pay a stiff pew rent. In my estimation 
 
 105 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 the Church of to-day is a mass of in- 
 consistency." 
 
 We have given the result of our investi- 
 gation, not because we agree with the posi- 
 tions taken by our correspondents, or be- 
 cause we think, they have fully analyzed 
 the reasons why workingmen do not go to 
 Church, but to show that the social problem 
 is vitally affecting the Church, obstruct- 
 ing its work, creating dissatisfaction re- 
 garding it among millions of men, leading 
 it to be criticised and in some cases hated, 
 and, to an extent unrealized by the Chris- 
 tian public, lessening its influence. It is 
 our desire to reveal the fact that in the 
 social problem of the day the Church 
 faces one of the most serious facts with 
 which is has to deal, and that it may well 
 give the most thoughtful consideration to 
 the question. What, in view of present con- 
 ditions, is to be done? The laboring 
 classes, representing millions of men, the 
 largest section of human society, can not 
 be allowed to develop this indifference and 
 disgust with the Church which is now so 
 general among them, or the interests of 
 Christianity, the salt and savor of society, 
 
 1 06 
 
As Affected by the Social Problem 
 
 will surely be imperiled. The time has 
 certainly come when the clergy and the 
 Church must study with the deepest ear- 
 nestness, the effect of the social problem, 
 in the present phase of its development, 
 upon the advancement of .religion in our 
 civilization. 
 
 107 
 
Chapter III 
 
 THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM 
 
 ti r~r~MiE drift toward socialism" has 
 I been called "the outstanding fact 
 of human society to-day." The 
 word is not two generations old, but the 
 spirit which lies back of it, the ideas which 
 have crystallized into it, the hopes and the 
 desires which it voices, have been more or 
 less prevalent in all ages. We find them 
 in the "Republic" of Plato, as well as in 
 the "Utopia" of More and the prophecy 
 of Bellamy; they manifest themselves in 
 the Empire of Rome as well as in the mon- 
 archy of Germany and the democracy of 
 America. The guilds and fraternities of 
 feudalism, and the orders and brotherhoods 
 of mediaeval ecclesiasticism, in a measure, 
 expressed them. But they assumed their 
 greatest importance as social theories with 
 the dawn of the nineteenth century. Cer- 
 tain conditions at this time had prepared 
 io8 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 the way for their successful development. 
 In the first place, French infidelity and En- 
 glish deism had shaken the old ideals. 
 Rousseau had sung the praises of a state 
 of nature where there is no individual 
 property, and where all men are equal. 
 The Scotch philosophers had put forth an 
 empiricism which found the standard of 
 value for both individuals and society in 
 utility. Jeremy Bentham invented the 
 phrase usually attributed to Priestley, "The 
 greatest happiness of the greatest number," 
 and affirmed it to be "a plain and true 
 standard for whatever is right or wrong, 
 useful or useless, or mischievous in human 
 conduct, whether in the field of morals or 
 of politics." Mill and others joined in, 
 and demanded changes in society such as 
 would secure a realization of the principle. 
 Babeuf had already drafted a scheme of 
 democracy in which "all inequalities shall 
 be abolished, all superfluities cut off, and 
 all property transferred to the Government, 
 to be distributed to every citizen accord- 
 ing to his needs." These various ideas, the 
 utilitarian philosophy, and the emphasis 
 on the equality of man, which was so large 
 
 109 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 a thought in the upheaval of the French 
 Revolution, made the soil ready for the 
 seed of socialism; and able men arose to 
 sow and cultivate the seed. Among these 
 were St. Simon, Proudhon, Fourier, and 
 Louis Blanc in France, and the high priests 
 of the socialistic movement, Karl Marx and 
 Lassalle, in Germany. These last men- 
 tioned men had grasped the thought of 
 Hegel that the end of each man is to develop 
 to his perfection, and sought to bring it 
 about by a social revolution, or, as Marx 
 expresses it, "an emancipation of man," in 
 which class interests shall be eliminated 
 from society. 
 
 Some tell us that the true cause of the 
 rise of socialism in the nineteenth centUry. 
 was the growth of democracy, of which it is 
 the legitimate fruit. The bourgeois are 
 the plutocrats who rule in the interest of 
 a class. The democrats are those who let 
 the people rule for the good of themselves. 
 Democracy really means that each man 
 shall have an equal chance, which is only 
 possible when he has an equal share. 
 Socialism, therefore, it is argued, must go 
 with democracy to enable it to carry out its 
 no 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 ideals. Government can not secure to the 
 citizen the opportunity to a free and full 
 use of his powers, and it can not give to 
 every man full and equal privileges to 
 the enjoyment and development of life, 
 except on the socialistic basis. In short, 
 as John Ruskin puts it, socialism must 
 "either mean industrial democracy or 
 nothing." In this we must differ with 
 the theorists; for democracy does not 
 necessarily reduce to socialism. De 
 Tocqueville, that profound student of poli- 
 tics and society, has well spoken on this 
 point as follows: "Democracy extends the 
 sphere of individual independence ; social- 
 ism contracts it. Democracy gives every 
 individual man his utmost possible value; 
 socialism makes every man an agent, an 
 instrument, a cipher. Democracy and 
 socialism coincide only in the single word 
 equality. But observe the difference. 
 Democracy desires equality in liberty; 
 socialism seeks equality in compulsion and 
 servitude." A democracy may give an 
 equal chance to all citizens, without going 
 so far as to pool interests, and undertake 
 the administration of industry. Still it is 
 III 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 doubtless true that the emphasis Democ- 
 racy lays on the freedom and rights of the 
 individual, that government is not for the 
 few but for the many, has helped develop 
 the feeling which underlies socialism, that 
 all classes do not have a fair chance in 
 society, and a new social order should be 
 instituted in which this will be the case. 
 
 It may be also that the Church has cre- 
 ated feelings and sentiments which have 
 constituted favorable conditions for the 
 development of the new doctrine. It is 
 certain that the great revivals of the 
 eighteenth and the first part of the nine- 
 teenth centuries awakened a new enthu- 
 siasm for humanity, broke the reliance on 
 ecclesiastical forms, and led Christendom 
 to become more vitally interested in the 
 welfare of the people. This is manifest 
 in the new lines of Church interest and 
 activity which arose, such as the Sunday- 
 school, the new zeal for foreign missions, 
 the larger benevolent spirit which began 
 to prevail as seen in the establishment of 
 educational, charitable, and philanthropic 
 institutions of various kinds. A modern 
 writer, speaking on this point, says: "A 
 
 112 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 freer and broader view of His relation to 
 mankind, and of the relation of men 
 through Him to God, and to one another, 
 opened up vistas both into the truth and 
 the worth of personal life, and into the 
 solidarity of the race headed by the Son of 
 man. Measured by the vision of the Incar- 
 nated Lord, injustices, oppressions, excess- 
 ive competitions of man against man, 
 stood in broad relief, as not only wrongs 
 but as crimes and sins — denials of the 
 brotherhood which is rooted in the son- 
 ship of men to one Eternal Father. 
 Thus climaxes of judgment and feeling 
 were caused to which the exposure of 
 unjust and degraded life-conditions ap- 
 pealed," and a mental inclination was 
 created towards some such movement as 
 socialism. 
 
 But whatever may be the cause, social- 
 ism is here, and is one of the most signifi- 
 cant movements of the modern age. It is 
 now absorbing the attention of scholars, 
 students of history, economists, statesmen, 
 diplomats, and kings. The Church also is 
 awaking to its far-reaching import, and 
 coming to see that its interests are vitally 
 8 113 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 involved in the future of the movement. 
 Romanism, from the Pope to the humblest 
 priest, is earnestly engaged to check its 
 progress. The Protestant Church, also, is 
 beginning to study the problem, and to feel 
 that the individualism of Christianity can 
 not be joined with the collectivism of social- 
 ism. States have enacted stringent laws, 
 intended to check its growth. In Germany 
 the police have stood guard to regulate its 
 utterances in its public assemblages; and 
 some have felt that the government should 
 take a much stronger hand at once, or it 
 will soon overthrow the existing State. It 
 is also a menace in other European nations, 
 and is growing rapidly in almost every 
 country; for socialism is not provincial, 
 not of any one land or clime; but it is a 
 world movement, a movement, its advocates 
 claim, for humanity, for "the emancipation 
 of the people." It, therefore, does not 
 recognize State or national lines, but has 
 organized an international society which 
 has branches on all shores. It has thus 
 become "a universal propaganda." The 
 opinions in one country are modified by 
 those in another, and the violence of the 
 114 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 Old World agitators finds echo in the New. 
 IBy its claim that it is seeking the better- 
 ment of the working classes, that it proposes 
 to lessen their toil and increase their in- 
 come, it appeals to the cupidity of the 
 laborer, and makes him full of zeal for 
 the cause. By means of papers, organiza- 
 tions, agitators, books, it scatters its seed 
 and is reaping an abundant harvest. The 
 hope is "that when universal education has 
 sufficiently enlightened the masses, and 
 universal suffrage has enabled them to use 
 this knowledge, then they will be able to 
 bring about a bloodless revolution; or if 
 not, when universal armaments shall have 
 taught them the use of physical force, they 
 will be able to set up the Universal Social 
 Republic by force of arms. Force, it is 
 added with sardonic cynicism, has more 
 than once been the midwife of revolu- 
 tions." 
 
 Something of the growth of socialism 
 can be seen from the following figures: 
 In Germany the Social Democrat party 
 had 124,655 votes in 1871 ; 312,000 in 1881 ; 
 and 3,008,000 in 1903; the total vote of 
 Germany being less than 7,500,000. Thus 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 from 1 88 1 to 1903 the socialistic vote in- 
 creased from 6 per cent to 40 per cent of 
 the entire vote of the empire. In the last 
 election in the city of Berlin the socialists 
 carried a majority of the votes, and in the 
 kingdom of Saxony the Social Democrats 
 have won eighteen out of the twenty-three 
 seats in the Reichstag. In France the 
 socialist party had 91,000 votes in 1889, and 
 863,159 in 1902 ; Austria had 90,cxx3 social- 
 ist votes in 1895, and 600,000 in 1900; Bel- 
 gium 340,000 in 1894, and 463,000 in 1900. 
 In Russia there is no opportunity for social- 
 ism to express itself at the polls, and its 
 strength can not be counted, but the great 
 uprisings of the laborers at St. Petersburg, 
 Riga, Moscow, Warsaw, Lodz, and other 
 cities during the present year, show what 
 a tremendous hold the doctrine has taken 
 on that despotic country. The total social- 
 istic vote of Europe in countries where it 
 can be counted is at the present time not 
 less than 6,500,000. In the United States 
 the doctrine has only begun to gain a foot- 
 hold, for it is only recently that organiza- 
 tion and propaganda have been attempted. 
 Something of the gain can be seen in the fact 
 116 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 that in 1900 the entire socialistic vote in 
 the United States was 96,961, but in 1904 
 it was 408,230. In four years the gain in 
 Kansas was 865 per cent; in Nebraska, 800 
 per cent ; in Utah, 704 per cent ; in Mon- 
 tana, 701 per cent; in Ohio, 648 per cent; 
 in Illinois, 614 per cent. The vote of 1904 
 resulted not only in more than quadrupling 
 the socialist vote of 1900, but it placed five 
 socialists in the Wisconsin Legislature, 
 and two in the Legislature of Illinois. In 
 the spring of 1904 the socialist party elected 
 nine aldermen in Milwaukee, and several 
 in the cities of a number of other States. 
 Mr. Chas. Stetzle, who is employed by the 
 Presbyterian Church to conduct a kind of 
 mission among the laboring classes, and 
 who has given much attention to the sub- 
 ject before us, says socialism is increasing 
 much more rapidly among the laboring 
 classes than people think, and the question 
 in some quarters is no longer unionism but 
 socialism. He affirms : "For thousands of 
 workingmen socialism has become a sub- 
 stitute for the Church, the idealism of the 
 earthly propaganda taking the place of the 
 visions and ideals of the religious faith." 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 The true meaning of the socialist move- 
 ment, especially in the United States, can 
 perhaps be best presented by a few quota- 
 tions from the platform of the socialist 
 party in 1904: "The socialist movement 
 owes its birth and growth to that economic 
 development, or world progress, which is 
 rapidly separating a working or produc- 
 ing class from a possessing or capitalist 
 class. The class that produces nothing pos- 
 sesses labor's fruits, and the opportunities 
 and enjoyments these fruits aflford, while 
 the class that does the world's real work 
 has increasing economic uncertainty, and 
 physical and intellectual misery for its 
 portion. 
 
 "This class struggle is due to private 
 ownership of the means of employment, or 
 the tools of production. Production, or 
 the making of goods, has long ceased to be 
 individual. The labor of scores, or even 
 thousands, enters into almost every article 
 produced. Production is now social or 
 collective. ... But this co-operation in 
 production is not for the direct use of the 
 things made by the workers who made 
 them, but for the profit of the owners of 
 118 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 the tools and means of production; and 
 to this is due the present division of society 
 into two classes; and from it have sprung 
 all the miseries, inharmonies, and contra- 
 dictions of our civilization. 
 
 "Between these two classes there can be 
 no possible compromise, or identity of 
 interests, any more than there can be peace 
 in the midst of war, or light in the midst of 
 darkness. A society based on this class 
 division carries in itself the seeds of its own 
 destruction. Such a society is founded in 
 fundamental injustice. There can be no 
 possible basis for social peace, for indi- 
 vidual freedom, for mental and moral har- 
 mony, except in the conscious and com- 
 plete triumph of the working class as the 
 only class that has the right or power to 
 be. . . . 
 
 "Socialism means that all those things 
 upon which the people in common depend 
 shall by the people in common be owned 
 and administered. It means that the tools 
 of employment shall belong to the cre- 
 ators and users; that all production shall 
 be for the direct use of the producers ; that 
 the making of goods for profit shall come 
 119 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 to an end; that we shall all be workers 
 together; and that all opportunities shall 
 be open and equal to all men. 
 
 "To the end that the workers may 
 seize every possible advantage that may 
 strengthen them to gain complete control 
 of the powers of government, and thereby 
 the sooner establish the co-operative com- 
 monwealth, the socialist party pledges 
 itself to watch and work, in both the eco- 
 nomic and political struggle, for each suc- 
 cessive immediate interest of the working 
 class; . . . but, in so doing, we are using 
 these remedial measures as means to the 
 one great end of the co-operative common- 
 wealth. Such measures of relief as we may 
 be able to force from capitalism are but a 
 preparation of the workers to seize the 
 whole powers of government, in order that 
 they may thereby lay hold of the whole 
 system of industry, and thus come into 
 their rightful inheritance." 
 
 It would be interesting to discuss social- 
 ism as an economic theory; to analyze its 
 principles and point out their weakness; 
 to show that, while its ideals appeal to the 
 imagination, it is unsatisfactory to the 
 1 20 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 reason ; that if it should become operative 
 it could never be worked; that the inevi- 
 table result would be the tyranny of the 
 community, the loss of the sense of indi- 
 vidual responsibility, the death of initia- 
 tive, and the ruin of the State. But it is 
 not our purpose to consider phases of the 
 subject which our foremost economists 
 have treated with a master hand. We 
 are especially interested in the movement 
 only in so far as it has an ethical and re- 
 ligious reference, and therefore affects the 
 life and work of the Church. Some claim 
 that it has no such reference, and "the pur- 
 view of socialism does not extend beyond 
 the range of politics;" but this is not sus- 
 tained by the affirmation of its leaders, by 
 the nature of its fundamental doctrines, 
 nor by its influence on the conduct of its 
 adherents. There can be no doubt that 
 one of the principal sources of the work- 
 ingmen's disaffection with the Church, of 
 his indifference to the Christian religion, 
 is the spread of socialism among the 
 masses; and the triumph of this creed 
 would certainly mean the ruin of the 
 
 121 
 
The Church and the Social Prohlem 
 
 Church. To show this, is the task to which 
 we now set ourselves. 
 
 First, then, let us inquire. What is the 
 attitude of socialism towards Christianity? 
 We are met at the threshold of our discus- 
 sion with the difficulty that socialism is 
 not a single creed or theory, but that it has 
 many phases, and is divided into diverging 
 schools. There are some, indeed, who call 
 themselves Christian socialists, and who 
 believe that the principles of Christianity 
 are those on which the socialistic propa- 
 ganda should be conducted. Others claim 
 that the organization of society is an en- 
 tirely different problem from the attitude 
 of the individual to God, and the two do 
 not necessarily overlap. In the questions 
 submitted to labor leaders referred to in 
 the last chapter, one was : Is there anything 
 in the cardinal principles of socialism 
 which tends to lead its followers into hos- 
 tility to the Christian Church? One of the 
 most intelligent of our correspondents 
 replies as follows: "No; socialism is an 
 economic theory for the government of 
 the human family in its industrial life 
 based upon the brotherhood of man. 
 
 122 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 Socialism is wholly a political theory, and 
 does not at all consider the spiritual man. 
 The hostility in the case is principally 
 from the side of the Church. The Church 
 denounces socialism without knowing why 
 it so does. Socialism is, however, really 
 the application of Christianity to the 
 every-day business of life, although few 
 socialists realize it." It was somewhat of 
 a matter of surprise to see how many held 
 practically the same opinion. 
 
 There is some justice in the position 
 quoted. Socialism is doubtless largely an 
 economic question; but it is also true that 
 it is a scheme of social organization, a 
 theory of society, and of so revolutionary 
 a kind that all the factors which go to make 
 up a community's life must be affected. 
 You can not fully divorce the elements of 
 society, calling one economic and the other 
 religious. Society is an organism; its va- 
 rious institutions are all related, and hence 
 involved in every reorganization of the 
 social system; what influences one element 
 vitally must influence all. And this has 
 proved to be the case with the theory under 
 consideration. It is an economic theory 
 123 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 essentially, but it has taken a position on 
 the subject of religion, and while some 
 socialists are friendly to Christianity, the 
 large majority are hostile to it. Indeed, 
 the philosophy of the scheme, its leading 
 literary advocates, and its practical influ- 
 ence are all unfavorable to the Church. 
 The so-called Christian socialists are not 
 really socialists; for they do not teach a 
 single principle peculiar to socialism; but 
 confine themselves to "condemning selfish- 
 ness, inveighing against the abuses of com- 
 petition, in urging recourse to co-operative 
 association, and in preaching justice, love, 
 and brotherhood." Prof. Flint has cor- 
 rectly said: "What is called Christian 
 socialism will always be found to be either 
 unchrisitan in so far as it is socialistic, 
 or unsocialistic in so far as it is truly and 
 fully Christian." The fact is that social- 
 ism contains some principles which are 
 distinctly Christian and which are essen- 
 tial in the teachings of Jesus, having been 
 derived from the Christian religion. But 
 it has other ideas and principles which are 
 irreconcilable with Chrisitanity, and must 
 bring it, the more they are understood, in 
 124 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 conflict with the Church. And it is because 
 of these principles that the almost univer- 
 sal hostility of socialism to religion has 
 come to exist. 
 
 That there is hostility can be abundantly 
 shown by the statements of its leading advo- 
 cates as well as by those of its critics. Karl 
 Marx, its greatest prophet, affirms: "The 
 evident proof of the radicalisni of the Ger- 
 man theory, and thus of its radical energy, 
 is its starting point from the decisive, pos- 
 itive abolition of religion." "My religion," 
 says Madam Holm, "is socialism, and it 
 alone is truth, morality, justice, and 
 brotherhood. Down with the priests of 
 every robe and hue! The first reform to 
 be accomplished is to change all Churches 
 into good habitations for workingmen." 
 Proudhon was the author of the statement, 
 "God is the evil." Frederick Engels wrote, 
 "The first word of religion is a lie." Marx 
 sanctions the statements of both by saying: 
 "The idea of God must be destroyed; it 
 is the keystone of a perverted civilization." 
 Herr Most, in a speech in Berlin, was ap- 
 plauded when he said: "The Social 
 Democracy knows that the days of Chris- 
 
 125 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 tianity are numbered, and that the time is 
 not far distant wheii we shall say to the 
 priests, 'Settle your account with heaven, 
 for your hour is come.' " Mr. Box, who 
 has written especially on this phase of 
 socialism, in his work on "The Ethics of 
 Socialism," remarks: "It is useless blink- 
 ing the fact that the Christian doctrine is 
 more revolting to the higher moral sense 
 of to-day than the Saturnalia or the cult 
 of Proserpine could have been to the con- 
 science of the early Christian." Again he 
 says: "The moral side of Christianity is 
 centered in the nofions of individual holi- 
 ness and responsibility to a supernatural 
 Being. This ethical side of Christianity, 
 largely overlaid by other influences during 
 the Middle Ages, with Protestantism, came 
 again prominently to the fore and has re- 
 mained so ever since. But with the grow- 
 ing sense among all earnest men that the 
 social utility is the end of all human en- 
 deavor, an ethic based on the notion of the 
 individual likeness to God is in flagrant 
 contradiction, a contradiction which can 
 only be resolved by its formal surrender." 
 Rea, in his able work, "Contemporary; 
 126 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 Socialism," thus represents the attitude of 
 socialism toward religion: "The fact is 
 certain that most contemporary socialists 
 have turned their backs upon religion. 
 They sometimes speak of it with a kind of 
 suppressed and settled bitterness as of a 
 friend that has proved faithless: 'We are 
 not atheists; we have simply done with 
 God.' " Sombart, in his work, "Socialism," 
 says, "The proletarian movement is doubt- 
 less strongly anti-religious." Schaeffle thus 
 describes the attitude: "Socialists pro- 
 nounce the Church to be a police institu- 
 tion in the hands of capital, and affirm that 
 it cheats the proletariate 'by bills of ex- 
 change on heaven.' It deserves to perish ;" 
 while Levelege uses the following words as 
 characteristic: "Right is an empty word, 
 might decides everything. We have heard 
 enough of your promised heavenly joys. 
 We will cash no more bills upon another 
 world; it is in this world that we wish to 
 have happiness." The Pittsburg manifesto 
 of the International Working People's 
 Association contains this sentence: "The 
 Church finally seeks to make idiots out of 
 the masses and to make them forego the 
 127 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 paradise on earth by promising them a fic- 
 titious heaven." It is not necessary to quote 
 at greater length to show that the attitude 
 of those who have really come to un- 
 derstand the fundamental principles of 
 socialism is decidedly antagonistic to 
 Christianity. 
 
 The opposition to Christianity is due in 
 part to the historical groundwork of the 
 new movement. The Church, in the seven- 
 teenth century, in France had attached 
 itself to a rotten monarchy, and when there 
 was an uprising against the political sys- 
 tem, the Church, which supported it, was 
 also attacked. Men had lost respect for 
 the prevailing religion, destitute of spir- 
 itual life, and entangled in the affairs of 
 State. Hence a wave of infidelity swept 
 over the land, and the leaders in the new 
 thought became the special champions of 
 the people, advocating the rights of men 
 over against the tyranny of kings. Their 
 materialistic opinions became the inheri- 
 tance of those who felt that the social sys- 
 tem was all wrong, and should give way 
 to a new order. This was helped on by 
 the more rationalistic followers of Hegel; 
 128 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 for while this philosopher was a believer 
 in religion, the left wing, so called, of the 
 Hegelian school, represented by Strauss, 
 and later by Feuerbach, embraced a mate- 
 rialism which eliminated the possibility of 
 spiritual conceptions. Feuerbach espe- 
 cially declared that the Absolute above man 
 was an empty conception, and that "the 
 really Absolute or Divine is man himself." 
 God is only the product of men's wishes, 
 and, in short, religion is an idealistic fiction. 
 The real is the material, what the senses 
 reveal. "Man is what he eats." Many 
 came, under the peculiar conditions of the 
 time, to this position, and among them 
 Marx and Lassalle, the real founders of 
 scientific socialism. They believed "that 
 the universe is simply the unfolding of ma- 
 terial forces, and that our spiritual experi- 
 ences are only the products of social con- 
 ditions." Hence, to them, there is no 
 truth in Christianity, and it will pass away 
 as the present society and its ideals are sup- 
 planted by something better. These ideas 
 were woven into the books and theories 
 of these great teachers of the common 
 people, and created an attitude towards 
 9 129 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 religion which we can find wherever 
 socialism is in evidence. This was helped 
 on by the materialistic tendencies of recent 
 science which gave a modern impulse to 
 the older views and helped substantiate 
 them in the minds of the people ; for while 
 the proletariate did not read the works of 
 Darwin, Haeckel, or Huxley, they caught 
 the idea that these great modern scien- 
 tists were on the materialistic side of 
 the controversy, and thus became con- 
 firmed in their inherited beliefs. How- 
 ever, it is doubtful if these abstract opin- 
 ions of the world could have had very 
 great influence with the masses, if there 
 had not gone along with them the convic- 
 tion that the materialistic view of life is 
 especially fitted to express their needs, that 
 this philosophy fits in with the social aspi- 
 rations which the proletariate movement 
 embodies. In this they are doubtless cor- 
 rect; for it is exceedingly doubtful if 
 socialism could have made the phenome- 
 nal advance it has in recent years except 
 on a materialistic basis. We believe Dr. 
 Flint speaks correctly when he tells us: 
 "It is only when the truth of the material- 
 130 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 istic theory is assumed that the socialistic 
 conception of earthly welfare, or social 
 happiness, as being the chief end of life, 
 is likely to appear reasonable. If there be 
 no other life for men than that which we 
 live in the flesh, then, but only then, it is 
 natural to conclude that their sole concern 
 should be to get, while on earth, all the 
 happiness which they can. A philosophy 
 which maintains the existence of God, the 
 supremacy of a divine moral law, the 
 reality of an unending life, plainly, can not 
 forward the designs of those who aim at 
 the entire subjection of the individual to 
 society so consistently or efficiently as one 
 who affirms that there is nothing super- 
 natural, nothing higher than man himself, 
 no life beyond the grave, no absolute good. 
 The adherents of Social Democracy have 
 not erred in thinking that religion with its 
 hopes and fears, theology with its doctrines 
 of the invisible and eternal, the spiritual 
 philosophy based on speculative and moral 
 reasons, are serious obstacles to the realiza- 
 tion of their plans." 
 
 We see, therefore, that multitudes of the 
 proletariate arc being trained in a creed 
 131 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 which, when its basal principles are under- 
 stood is in such utter opposition to the doc- 
 trines of the Church that they can not 
 believe in the one if they hold to the other. 
 And this constitutes the serious fact in the 
 problem. If the masses were out of the 
 Church because of indifference, it would 
 not be so difficult to reach them, but when 
 they are antagonistic because they are filled 
 with the fallacies of a materialistic phil- 
 osophy, and have practical interests in 
 maintaining it, we can see at once the mag- 
 nitude of the task that is before the Church 
 to stem the tide and get the proletariate 
 into the fold of the Master. 
 
 Again, the fundamental thought of 
 socialism is in a measure opposed to Chris- 
 tianity. Christ taught a principle of 
 brotherly love, but His religion is em- 
 phatically individualistic. Man as man 
 had never before His time been properly 
 regarded. Israel had emphasized the 
 nation, and only in the later prophets did 
 the conception of the individual come to 
 the surface with any great clearness. In 
 Greece it was the specially endowed, the 
 man of geniu§, who was of worth. The 
 132 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 orator, the philosopher, the sculptor who 
 could chisel an Apollo or an Aphrodite, 
 the poet who could write the tragedy of 
 the human conscience; in short, the rare 
 and cultured — these men were esteemed; 
 but the common man who earned his 
 bread by the sweat of his brow was 
 little better than a beast. Aristotle, in 
 whom intellectual power culminated, 
 taught that the masses were only fit to be 
 the serfs of the upper classes, and that man 
 found his worth only in the State. In 
 India man is only a wave on the sea, and 
 if he be of the lower caste he finds his only 
 significance in being the servant of his bet- 
 ters. !But Jesus saw the value of the indi- 
 vidual, and made it a primary tenet of His 
 doctrine. He said that each human soul is 
 worth more than the whole world; His 
 salvation was not for classes, or nations, 
 but for individuals, and His whole energy 
 was spent to uplift men. He did not try 
 to change the constitution of society, or to 
 introduce new forms of government, ex- 
 cept as they grew out of the new life He 
 brought to persons. First and last, He 
 taught individualism. His method, of 
 
 133 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 social regeneration was by regenerating 
 the individual factors of which society is 
 composed. When men have attained to 
 goodness, they will do good in the world, 
 and set an example of goodness which will 
 result in the bettering of society and the 
 establishment finally of the Kingdom of 
 God. The end of this Kingdom, however, 
 is not itself, but the free moral factors of 
 which it is composed, whom it is to assist 
 develop into completeness of being. Thus, 
 according to Jesus, society exists for man, 
 and not man for society. Nor is it simply 
 the physical good of men which is its con- 
 cern ; for men are not simply bodies. They 
 are also souls, and have a moral and spir- 
 itual being in which they find their highest 
 life. They are banded together in society 
 to assist each other in the development of 
 that which is highest and best in them as 
 selves; for men in isolation could not de- 
 velop their best nature since some of the 
 noblest virtues are social virtues. Nor 
 can the moral personality retain its vigor 
 except as every man must give an account 
 of himself to God and feels individual 
 responsibility. 
 
 134 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 Socialism has an entirely different con- 
 ception; and instead of teaching that 
 society is made for man, it holds that man 
 is made for society. The good of men 
 which it regards is a collective good. The 
 human race, and not the individual, is its 
 end. Its great thought is the solidarity of 
 humanity. Whatever tends to the benefit of 
 mankind generally, is good and right. 
 "Whatever tends to the advantage of the 
 individual at the expense of the community 
 is evil and wrong. Each one is bound to 
 labor for the community, and not for his 
 own aggrandizement, and his goodness or 
 badness depends on the fulfillment of that 
 duty. The highest aim of all good men 
 should be to increase the temporal pros- 
 perity and happiness of all collectively." 
 The State must control the individual, 
 and this control is so extensive, as planned 
 by socialism, that the liberty of the person 
 is practically destroyed. Paternalism be- 
 comes a social despotism. A man must take 
 the place the State appoints, and be satis- 
 fied with what the State gives. Wages and 
 work are fixed by overseers, or by law. A 
 man has no choice when or where he shall 
 
 135 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 labor; for otherwise the State could not 
 handle the multitudes without getting into 
 a confusion worse confounded. Thus the 
 free initiative of the individual is practi- 
 cally destroyed, and with it would go the 
 sense of individual responsibility, and the 
 motives which lead to the development of 
 the moral person. That striving which is 
 the basis of personal progress would cease, 
 and degeneracy instead of development 
 would surely follow. You can not put an 
 official in place of the individual will, you 
 can not dominate the man by the authority 
 of the State, you can not take away the 
 incentives to individual initiative without 
 both ruining the enterprise and undermin- 
 ing the moral foundations of life and char- 
 acter. Religion especially would be de- 
 stroyed; for this can not exist where the 
 authority of society is over the authority 
 of God, and where the individual can not 
 be free in the choice of his own actions. 
 Thus the collectivism of socialism is op- 
 posed to the individualism of Christianity. 
 The end which Christianity has in view, 
 namely, the growth and perfection of the 
 individual, the development of true free- 
 136 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 dom, the enlarging and enriching of the 
 individual soul, can but be hindered by 
 socialism which seeks the general good of 
 all in the line of material comfort and 
 prosperity. 
 
 The socialist movement is also calcu- 
 lated to lead people away from the Church 
 through the sordid secularism of its ideal. 
 As already stated, its Utopia is a felicitous 
 state here, and the felicity is to be secured 
 by a changed political and social condi- 
 tion. The world's wealth and the world's 
 goods are to be equally distributed among 
 all. It is a gospel for this world and for 
 the material side of this world's life. The 
 happiness sought is not ethic but natural- 
 istic. It is to come from physical ease and 
 temporal enjoyment; not from the king- 
 dom of God, but the kingdom of loaves 
 and fishes. French cooks, good tailors, 
 and managers of playhouses are to con- 
 tribute largely to it. In short, it is a 
 movement in behalf of the secular interests 
 of the laboring class, wanting the material 
 goods of life equally distributed among 
 all, and seeming to think that if this can 
 
 137 
 
''The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 be effected the happiness of man will be 
 complete. 
 
 That there is much in a favorable envi- 
 ronment but few, if any, will deny. That 
 a share of this world's goods is a better con- 
 dition for happiness than poverty, there is 
 little question. The story of the peasant 
 despising the king and telling him to get 
 out of his sunshine, and the oft-repeated 
 affirmation of the monarch to the lad who 
 said he had clothes and board, "Be con- 
 tent, for I have no more," sound well ; but 
 we all live as if we knew them to be untrue, 
 as they are. IBut it is equally wrong to place 
 the secret of life in temporal conditions. 
 Character, intellectual and moral develop- 
 ment, spiritual experience — these are the 
 better gifts of life. The greater needs of 
 our existence are not ease and comfort, 
 but moral purpose and spiritual power. 
 Greatness can not come to men by their 
 seeking personal gratification and physical 
 satisfaction; it rather comes out of self- 
 forgetfulness and self-sacrifice, the pur- 
 pose to give rather than to get. Christ did 
 not make His ideal material, nor did He 
 seek to set up a kingdom of physical goods ; 
 
 138 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 but rather he emphasized the value of the 
 inner experiences, and established His 
 kingdom in the hearts of men. The essence 
 of this kingdom was not worldly ease, but 
 the graces of the spirit, the rich inner life 
 of spiritual feeling. He did not go into 
 a discussion of social organization, or seek 
 the improvement of political principles, 
 but He did endeavor to develop the lives 
 of individuals, and believed that virtue 
 established in men would gradually accom- 
 plish social improvement and reformation. 
 One need but look at the processes of the 
 Divine Spirit in history to see that some- 
 thing larger is meant by the creation of 
 the world than that men shall eat and 
 drink, for to-morrow they die. The imma- 
 nent action of God in the progress of his- 
 tory is not that men may have more physical 
 goods, but that there may be a moral edu- 
 cation of the race such that truth shall be 
 grasped in larger measure and the impulse 
 to goodness shall dominate the world. God 
 provides for men's physical good, sows the 
 fields and hangs fruit on the bough; but 
 He also plants the seeds of spiritual renew- 
 ing, institutes processes and effects condi- 
 
 139 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 tions for moral training, sifts nations and 
 men as wheat, disciplines sternly if need 
 be, that righteousness may be recognized 
 as the great end of life. Hence we claim 
 that socialism is out of harmony with the 
 Christian ideals. Even where it holds to 
 these ideals it ignores them. It really 
 leaves God and His law and the spiritual 
 and eternal life out of account. It would 
 take away from our life that which has 
 given it its higher feelings and nobler 
 products. Art, literature, religion, can not 
 flourish in its atmosphere, and, as has been 
 said, these factors have done more for 
 human progress than all the menus that 
 French cooks have devised. The whole 
 duty of man is not physical enjoyment, 
 and human nature is not primarily phys- 
 ical and animal. Man is made in the image 
 of God, and his worth, dignity, and hap- 
 piness grow out of his spiritual intuitions, 
 insights, and experiences. In so far as 
 Christianity stands for these facts, for the 
 higher life, it is out of harmony with 
 socialism which stands sponsor for the 
 lower. The ideal of socialism is poor and 
 barren, and religion can not flourish where 
 140 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 it rules. Let it become the creed of the 
 laboring classes, as it is fast becoming, and 
 there can be but one result, namely, that 
 the Church will have no power over them, 
 that worldliness will dominate them, and 
 that their motto will be: "Take anxious 
 thought for what you shall eat, and how 
 you shall be housed and clothed, and leave 
 the righteousness of God to those who are 
 content to chase shadows." 
 
 The Church is in contradiction to 
 socialism in many of the duties it pro- 
 claims as incumbent on men. The ethics 
 of the two systems are not in accord either 
 in principles or motives. Socialism teaches 
 that what we call morals is a product of 
 the material conditions of life. Man is a 
 creature of circumstances, and becomes 
 morally what his environment necessitates. 
 His ethical development is dependent on 
 the economic development of society. Says 
 Prof. Flint: "They exaggerate the plas- 
 ticity of human nature and assume the 
 irresponsibility of man. They fail to per- 
 ceive that the history of man has been, 
 mainly, not a product of matter, but the 
 work of man; that society has been far 
 141 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 more the creation of individuals, than indi- 
 viduals of society; that economic develop- 
 ment has been at least as dependent on 
 ethical development as the latter on it; 
 that morality is not only so far the fruit 
 of civilization, but also its root and vital 
 sap; and that the great obstacle to social 
 progress and prosperity is not the defective- 
 ness of social arrangements or of industrial 
 organization, but the persistence of indi- 
 vidual vices." Morality has its roots 
 within, in the moral constitution of man, 
 in his recognition of the moral order of 
 the world, and not in his economic envi- 
 ronment; and this Christianity sees, but 
 socialism overlooks. Duty is not depend- 
 ent on the State. A man must be true and 
 right, no matter what his social condition, 
 his poverty, or his wealth. External con- 
 ditions may affect us, provide temptation 
 to wrong-doing; but they are not compel- 
 ling, do not determine acts, and men may 
 make them stepping-stones to virtue. 
 Some of the noblest characters in the world 
 have risen out of what the socialist would 
 regard as the worst possible economic con- 
 ditions. The right is not the law of the 
 142 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 community, it is the law of God. Duty is 
 not a thing of the State, but of the moral 
 universe. Ethics has its root, not in 
 physical conditions, but world principles. 
 The basis of moral authority is not the 
 collective will of the people, but the moral 
 government of God as expressed in the 
 ethical nature of man and the ethical con- 
 stitution or order of the universe. Social- 
 ism is wrong in its theory of ethical 
 authority, and Christianity, holding to the 
 sovereignty of God, is right. 
 
 The sphere of duty is also too limited in 
 socialism. Christianity conceives of man's 
 duty as threefold — duty to self, to fellow- 
 men, and to God. Socialism disregards all 
 but the social duties, affirming that per- 
 sonal obligations are matters of individual 
 convenience, and the religious are phases of 
 superstition and hypocrisy. Of course 
 there are some who have a wider and 
 truer view, but this is the general concep- 
 tion. Karl Pearson, a prominent socialist 
 authority, expresses this in the following 
 statement: "The modern socialistic theory 
 of morality is based upon the agnostic 
 treatment of the supersensuous. Man in 
 
 143 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 judging of conduct, is concerned only with 
 the present life; he has to make it as full 
 and as joyous as he is able, and to do this 
 conscientiously and scientifically, with all 
 the knowledge of the present and all the 
 experience of the past pressed into his serv- 
 ice; not from fear of hell, nor from hope 
 of heaven ; from no love of a tortured man- 
 god, but solely for the sake of the society 
 of which I am a member and the welfare 
 of which is my welfare — for the sake of 
 my fellowmen — I act morally, that is 
 socially. . . . Socialism arises from the 
 recognition: (i) That the sole aim of 
 mankind is happiness in this life, and (2) 
 that the source of evolution, and the 
 struggle of group against group, has pro- 
 duced a strong social instinct in mankind, 
 so that, directly and indirectly, the pleas- 
 ure of the individual lies in forwarding 
 the prosperity of the society of which he 
 is a member. Corporate society- — the State, 
 not the personified Humanity of Positivism 
 — becomes the center of the socialist's faith. 
 The policy of the socialist is thus his 
 morality, and his reasoned morality may, 
 in the old sense of the word, be termed his 
 144 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 religion. It is this identity which places 
 socialism on a different footing to the other 
 political and social movements of to-day." 
 No statement could more clearly eliminate 
 the obligations of religion from the sphere 
 of duties, or more fully cut men free from 
 any responsibility to God. There are 
 doubtless some socialists who would not go 
 so far, but they are the exception, and do 
 not represent the thoroughgoing socialistic 
 position. But socialism is fully as destruc- 
 tive of personal morality. The moral 
 quality of a man's acts are all determined 
 by the way they affect society. The indi- 
 vidual is not an end in himself. He is to 
 find his mission in the State. As he has 
 no personal end to attain, personal duty, 
 obligation to self is eliminated. The 
 whole sphere of duty becomes social duty, 
 and the individual is sacrificed to the com- 
 munity. Dr. Flint has well criticised the 
 position in the following strong words: 
 "Man is not so related to society, for the 
 simple reason that he is a person, a ifree 
 and moral being, or, in other words, a 
 being whose law and end are in himself, 
 and who can never be treated as a mere 
 lo 145 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 means either for the accomplishment of 
 the will of a higher being or for the ad- 
 vantage of society without the perpetration 
 of moral wrong, without desecrating the 
 most sacred of all things on earth, the per- 
 sonality of the human soul. With refer- 
 ence to the ultimate end of life man is not 
 made for society but society for man. 
 Hence, the sacrifice of the individual to 
 society which socialism would make is not 
 a legitimate sacrifice, but a presumptuous 
 sacrilege." 
 
 Another particular in which socialism 
 differs from Chrisitanity in its ethical 
 conceptions is in its idea of evil and the 
 way to overcome it. It locates the bad in 
 external conditions rather than in an in- 
 ternal state. Sin is an incident arising 
 from a bad social environment. It is 
 nothing the individual is responsible for 
 or can avoid. A criminal is only a natural 
 product of the present social order. He 
 is not to blame, for the environment in 
 which he has been placed has made him 
 what he is. With a change in the indus- 
 trial system will come a new generation of 
 virtuous men and women. Said Adolph 
 146 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 Wagner to an enthusiastic socialist : "Your 
 scheme would work well if all men were 
 to become angels." "Why should they not 
 become angels?" replied the socialist. "It 
 is enough to do away with the preseiit 
 economic injustice, and all men will be- 
 come angels." The theory is, if there 
 could be a proper constitution of society 
 the motive for evil-doing would be done 
 away with, and the changed environment 
 would tempt all men to do right. 
 
 Christianity is tooth and nail opposed 
 to such a view both in relation to the source 
 of evil and the way to overcome it; for 
 while it realizes that one's circumstances 
 very much affect his moral ideals and his 
 disposition, it nevertheless puts the ground 
 of evil in the will, in the fact that the self 
 of appetite, impulse, desire, asserts a pre- 
 dominance over reason. The fact that we 
 have evil men in the most favorable social 
 conditions, and saints in the worst, as well 
 as the facts of personal condemnation and 
 remorse, argue strongly against the social- 
 istic and for the Christian theory. If the so- 
 cialistic conception should prevail, it would 
 wreck society. Lift from men the respon- 
 
 147 ' 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 sibility for their misdoings; tell the thief 
 that not he, but society, is to blame for his 
 theft; lay the passion of the rake upon the 
 community; tell the drunken, the licen- 
 tious, the base, that they are not to blame 
 fo/ what they do and are, and let this be- 
 come believed in society, and society treat 
 all criminals and bad men accordingly, 
 and the gates of perdition would be opened 
 on the earth. Evil would hold high car- 
 nival, and every form of virtue would be 
 wrecked. 
 
 But equally erroneous is socialism's idea 
 of the way men are to be freed from sin. 
 As I have already said, the conception is 
 that this is to be effected by changing the 
 material conditions of society. To save 
 men you must first save the community. 
 Get a new economic condition, and you 
 will get new men. Develop an environ- 
 ment in which all will be prosperous, and 
 you will have a condition in which all will 
 be good. Christianity has an entirely 
 different theory. It believes that the indi- 
 vidual must be awakened, new forces must 
 touch him, a new spirit must be put into 
 him, and not by a process of self-culture 
 148 
 
The Church and Socialism 
 
 merely, but by the renewing power of the 
 Spirit of God. We are all by nature the 
 children of disobedience. Evil resides in 
 the heart. The old Adam is alive within 
 us. Reform can only come by purification. 
 A power above our own must touch us. 
 The heart is the seat of our difficulty. It 
 must be cleansed and renewed. From 
 within out, not from without in, is the 
 Christian formula of moral progress. 
 Socialism, therefore, proposes a new theory 
 of redemption, and, in doing so, denies the 
 central and most fundamental doctrine of 
 Christianity. The two are at this point 
 in irreconcilable contradiction; and if 
 the one is true, it declares the other false. 
 We conclude, then, as a result of our 
 meditation, that in the acquisitions social- 
 ism heaps upon private ownership; in its 
 doctrine of human rights; in its concep- 
 tion of personal liberty; in its utilitarian 
 basis of ethics; in its defective ideas of 
 justice; in its declarations that labor is 
 being cheated out of its true belongings; 
 in its appeals, not to conscience and judg- 
 ment, but to human selfishness, jealousy, 
 envy, and hate; in its call, not so much 
 149 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 for gradual change and reformation, but 
 for revolution by use of force if need be; 
 in its effort to excite class against class; 
 in its whole form of propaganda — ^we find 
 that the spirit of socialism is contrary to 
 that of the Church, that it is a menace to 
 the latter's prosperity, and that the masses 
 taught in the materialistic ideas of social- 
 ism, aroused to seek its sordid and worldly 
 ideals, can scarcely be expected to con- 
 sider the Church except with dissatisfac- 
 tion, if not with antipathy. This social 
 creed, having been widely disseminated 
 among the workingmen of our day, ac- 
 counts in large measure for the fact that 
 the laboring classes are so largely out of 
 sympathy with the forms and life of 
 modern Christendom. 
 
 150 
 
Chapter IV. 
 
 THE SOCIAL MISSION OF THE 
 CHURCH 
 
 IN our previous discussion we have seen 
 that a new consciousness has devel- 
 oped in society. Previously society 
 was more individualistic. The work of 
 the world was done by men toiling alone, 
 or in small groups. Communities were 
 isolated. One neighborhood knew little 
 and cared little about another. Different 
 parts of the world were widely separated. 
 There was a national feeling, a neighbor- 
 hood feeling, but the interdependence of 
 men was not realized. Then came the 
 invention of the steam-engine, and the cen- 
 tralization of industry. Factories went up 
 along the rivers, and in the cities. Men 
 were gathered in manufacturing centers. 
 They could no longer do their work by 
 themselves but must co-operate, and this 
 was especially true as work was organized 
 
 151 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 and labor was divided and subdivided. 
 Cities soon began to grow populous. 
 Railroads came, bringing different com- 
 munities into close contact. Then the tele- 
 graph and telephone were invented, and 
 the whole world was placed next to each 
 man's yard; and its doings were each 
 morning and evening thrown into his door 
 by the boy who delivered the paper. This 
 change in social and industrial conditions 
 developed a oneness in the life of society 
 which was never known before, and pro- 
 duced a new social self-consciousness which 
 is one of the most marked characteristics of 
 the civilization of the twentieth century. 
 Men now feel that society is an organism, 
 no member of which can say, "I have no 
 need of thee." 
 
 This spirit of social solidarity has led 
 to the development of new problems, some 
 of which we have discussed in the preced- 
 ing chapters. Indeed most of the ques- 
 tions which throb in our social atmosphere 
 to-day are the product of the changed 
 conditions. New rights are claimed, an 
 enlarged sense of justice is developed, 
 and men have become conscious of social 
 
 152 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 obligations not thought of before. This 
 is bearing fruit in the greater sympathy 
 which men have with each other's condi- 
 tions, in the growing feeling that material 
 goods should be more equitably distributed, 
 that charity should be more abundant, 
 that the down-trodden nations should be 
 lifted up, that social reforms should sweep 
 away social evils, and that the old world 
 should be made more habitable for every 
 man. Indeed, as a result of the new 
 social spirit, a hundred problems press to 
 the front, and a hundred questions seek 
 solution. 
 
 Into such an environment the modern 
 Church has come, and the question is. 
 What is its duty in the new situation? Dr. 
 Strong answers the question as follows: 
 "Life must always be adjusted to its envi- 
 ronments. A radical change in the latter 
 necessitates a corresponding change in the 
 former. When, therefore, civilization 
 changed from an individualistic to a social 
 type, it constituted a new environment, to 
 which the Churches must needs readjust 
 themselves." They must adjust them- 
 selves by gaining an enlarged sense of their 
 
 153 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 social mission, and taking up, as they have 
 not before, work which relates to the bet- 
 terment of society, to the establishing of 
 the kingdom of God upon the earth. Said 
 the late Dr. Chas. H. Payne: "The great- 
 est forward movement of all ages is upon 
 us. The movement is the saving of society, 
 and that work the Church of Christ must 
 undertake. Not to undertake it is to break 
 step with the march of civilization and to 
 fall out of the ranks. If the Church re- 
 fuses to save society, she will fail to save 
 herself, because she will fail to adapt her- 
 self to the changed conditions." 
 
 The Church of the past laid its greatest 
 stress upon work for the individual, to 
 see that he became reconciled to God. It 
 partook in its activity of the individual- 
 istic character of the civilization of which 
 it was a part. It was impressed with the 
 denunciation of the world found in the 
 New Testament, and also in Greek phi- 
 losophy, and which the asceticism of the 
 early and mediaeval Church embodied, 
 and felt that its mission was to save men 
 out of the world rather than to save the 
 world. Hence it sought to convict men 
 
 154 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 of sin, of righteousness, and of a judgment 
 to come. It set up its mourners' bench 
 and called sinners to repentance. Its great 
 appeal was for men to escape. from the wrath 
 to come. Little was made of the Chris- 
 tian's social duties, of his living to help 
 society, the great thing being to flee the 
 world and make sure of heaven. If a man 
 developed the God-ward side of his nature ; 
 if he was constant in worship ; if he trusted 
 in Christ to save him, he had done his duty 
 as a Christian. The saint was the man 
 who kept freest from the secular and 
 closest to the sacred. The idea of the sal- 
 vation of society was not a living thought. 
 The great problems which affect life — 
 such as wealth, poverty, want, human suf- 
 fering, crime, prison reform, labor, peace 
 and war, charity, co-operation, political 
 integrity, masses and classes, temperance, 
 the social evil, etc. — were considered to be 
 questions for moralists, economists, states- 
 men; but problems to which the Church 
 has no special mission. Its business was 
 to preach Christ, by which was meant the 
 historical Christ, and in His relation, not 
 to the common weal, but to individual men, 
 
 155 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 and to them mostly as related to the fact 
 of their sins and how to get rid of them. 
 It was not seen that a live Church and 
 one adapted to our needs ought to bring 
 all that affects the welfare of man, his ma- 
 terial, his moral, and his spiritual good, 
 within the scope of its thought and pur- 
 pose ; that it should have range enough to 
 include in its interest every human diffi- 
 culty, every human need, every human 
 good, and to work for those conditions 
 which will help develop for man the 
 largest happiness and growth. 
 
 For this idea of spiritualizing the indi- 
 vidual something can be said, as the con- 
 ception is by no means entirely erroneous. 
 The first business of the Church is not to 
 be a mere civilizing agency, but to save 
 men from the fact and consequences of sin. 
 Christ came, we are told, to seek and to 
 save the lost. Our business in the world 
 also is not simply work, but also worship. 
 To love God with all the heart, and to keep 
 His commandments, is still the first duty of 
 man. Hungry souls need most of all to 
 learn of God's forgiving grace, and that 
 He will take up His abode in the human 
 156 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 heart. Eternal life and heavenly beati- 
 tude are still of great significance to weary 
 and aspiring souls. Consecrated devotion, 
 a life fully dedicated to God, illumined 
 by the richness of daily communion, is 
 ever refreshing to behold. The bread that 
 Cometh down from heaven continues more 
 satisfying than higher earnings and shorter 
 hours. The Church must ever remain a 
 center of spiritual dynamics, and from it 
 must flow streams of living water to slake 
 the thirst of the religious nature of man. 
 Evangelism must ever be one of its efiforts, 
 and a part of its mission; for each genera- 
 tion has to be won to God, or at least 
 awakened and instructed in relation to the 
 deeper things of the Spirit. By this means 
 also it will help society — for what is society 
 but the aggregation of individuals? — and 
 hence as men are saved, society will be im- 
 proved. Whenever a bad man has been 
 made good, society has been made a bit 
 better. The emphasis of the Church, there- 
 fore, on the conversion of men 'has been 
 socially regenerating. Dr. Francis Pea- 
 body has well said: "Within this problem 
 of the better social order lies always the 
 
 157 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 problem of better men;" and he quotes 
 Herbert Spencer as saying: "There is no 
 political alchemy by which you can get 
 golden conduct out of leaden instincts." 
 But great as this work is, and as impor- 
 tant, it is not the only task given the Church, 
 nor does it express its full mission. Soul- 
 saving is no more sacred a duty than 
 society-saving. Men are to be helped when 
 we can not get them converted, and society 
 presents problems and needs which can not 
 be settled at the altar. Besides individual 
 sins there are social institutions, customs, 
 and organizations which need to be grap- 
 pled with by the Christian forces of the 
 community and made better. While, as 
 stated, the saving of men is a help in sav- 
 ing society, it is not all of it. We must 
 make the world a right kind of a world 
 as well as save men from its evil. The 
 Church has before it the task of transform- 
 ing human society, of making Christian in- 
 dustrial life, commercial life, art, literature, 
 science, government, all kinds and forms of 
 human activity, to set up the kingdom 
 of God upon the earth. It should try and 
 see that contracts are just, institutions help- 
 iS8 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 ful to human progress, and social organi- 
 zations advantageous to man's spiritual 
 development. Christ should be made to 
 walk in all the avenues of our modern life, 
 social, domestic, political, and His ethics 
 should control in every domain of our exist- 
 ence. God should not be confined to the 
 Church and the life of worship, but should 
 be given place in the factory and the store. 
 Men need to be taught that all they do 
 they do in God's presence, whether it be 
 making a bargain or a prayer, and that it 
 is necessary for them to be as devout and 
 ethical in doing the secular business of 
 life as in carrying out the functions of our 
 public worship. One way the Church can 
 prepare men for another world is to teach 
 them to live justly in this; to teach them 
 also to plant in the world the Spirit of 
 Christ, to make all its life — its life of cul- 
 ture, its life of art, its life of industry, its life 
 of pleasure— thoroughly Christian. The 
 mission of the Church then is to apply its 
 principles to the problems of modern life, 
 seek to save society as well as individuals, 
 try to establish a kingdom of social right- 
 eousness here, as well as prepare men for 
 
 159 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 citizenship in the kingdom of heaven yon- 
 der. The Church must make itself a 
 power in settling the problems on which 
 the peace and prosperity of thousands 
 depend. It must become the embodiment 
 of the sociological principles of the New 
 Testament. If the Roman Catholic Church 
 retains its hold upon the working classes 
 more firmly than does the Protestant 
 Church, one reason is it has done more 
 for their material welfare and participated 
 more fully in the solution of their social 
 problems. 
 
 This social mission of the Church is a 
 dominating thought in the Old Testament 
 which has constantly present the idea of 
 social good. The individual is second to 
 the community, the aim of Jehovah being 
 to secure a holy people. The riation is 
 chosen and is His peculiar possession. 
 "Israel is God's son." "In the religious 
 service of the temple, and in the hope of 
 the blessing of the covenant, the individual 
 Israelite is never separated from the or- 
 ganic whole of Israel; the welfare of the 
 just will be his participation in the pros- 
 perity of the people of the Lord. The good 
 1 60 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 which all the children of the promise are 
 to pray for, and to desire above their chief 
 joy, is the restoration of Jerusalem and the 
 return of the ransomed of the Lord with 
 singing to Zion." God had property rights 
 in every Hebrew's possessions. The cattle 
 on a thousand hills were His. He had 
 loaned the land, and every fifty years it 
 reverted to the family to which it had been 
 given. "The land is mine," is the word 
 of authority. As a token of the Divine 
 claims the firstf ruits of the soil were offered 
 to the Lord as His just portion. But not 
 only in his relation to the land, but in that 
 he held with his fellow- men, the Hebrew 
 realized a moral and religious relation- 
 ship. He looked on his fellows as his 
 brothers. He must deal with them on a 
 moral basis. We see this in the Ten Com- 
 mandments. It is also seen in the demand 
 of the law for "just balances, just weights, 
 a just ephah, and a just line shall ye have." 
 Priests must be honored, the aged respected, 
 the stranger given hospitality, the poor 
 cared for, and this because of the idea of 
 brotherhood, this as a moral and religious 
 obligation. "Thou shalt not shut thy hand 
 II i6i 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 from thy poor brother, but shalt surely lend 
 to him." If a man was hungry he could 
 pass through the field and pluck the ears 
 of corn. The scattered grain was left in 
 the field ungarnered for the poor. Widows 
 were subjects of special consideration. 
 The law of damages was extensive. These 
 and many other features show how fully 
 the rule of religion pertained in the civil 
 and social life of Israel. We see the same 
 in the preaching of the prophets. They 
 are not given to the development of doc- 
 trine, but to the establishing of righteous- 
 ness in the heart of the nation. They do 
 not labor to prepare men for the future, 
 nor do they dwell on beatific states to be 
 enjoyed hereafter, but they demand that 
 duty be done here and now. Indeed, 
 future life is only vaguely alluded to in 
 a few passages in all the Old Testament, 
 while the constant message is that men must 
 live righteously day by day. Nor do the 
 prophets confine their attention to the duties 
 between man and man, but are even more 
 vigorous in attacking the evils of social 
 life, demanding righteousness in the world 
 of trade and in the councils of the State, 
 162 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 as well as in the home and in the services 
 of religion. The prophets went beyond urg- 
 ing the inculcation of personal piety, and 
 laid bare the sins of their age, the oppres- 
 sion of their time, the various social evils 
 which had rooted themselves in the life of 
 the people, and demanded, in the name of 
 God, a ceasing from transgression and a 
 cleansing of society. They did not an- 
 nounce a new social theory, or a new form 
 of government, but they did urge that the 
 moral law should dominate all the acts of 
 rulers and people; that the rich be just 
 and generous to the poor; that mercy and 
 charity and justice everywhere prevail 
 upon the earth. They applied the law of 
 righteousness all round, to all phases of 
 life, political, social, industrial, as well as 
 to life in the home and the Church. The 
 judgment of the Lord was to be swift 
 against "the sorcerers, and adulterers, and 
 false swearers, against those that oppress 
 the hireling in his wages, the widow and 
 the fatherless, and that fear Me not, saith 
 Jehovah of the hosts." 
 
 The spirit of the Hebrew religion is 
 represented by Canon Fremantle in these 
 163 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 important words: "Study the history of 
 the three races (we can spare none of 
 them), and ask, which of the three pre- 
 sents an ideal of life of the most central 
 importance and the most applicable to 
 ourselves? The ideal of the Greek was 
 versatility; that of the Roman, imperial 
 power; that of Israel, righteousness. 
 'Open ye the gates that the righteous na- 
 tion, which keepeth the truth, may enter 
 in.' We learn much, no doubt, from 
 Aristotle's 'Politics,' and from Roman con- 
 stitutional history; but the Greek repub- 
 lics, whatever their form, were an aris- 
 tocracy superposed upon a mass of slavery. 
 Roman history resulted in a despotism, a 
 useless patriciate, and a pauper proleta- 
 riate ; the Jewish community was a brother- 
 hood bound together by a worship and a 
 law of righteousness which is owned as 
 complete where that of Rome and of Greece 
 fails. The idea we seek in modern times 
 is that of a national community knit to- 
 gether in all its relations by righteousness 
 and love, and caring especially for the 
 weaker members. This neither Greece nor 
 Rome did, but only the Jewish nation. 
 164 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 Let those who would make Christianity 
 merely a religious system apart from the 
 common life of men, those who ascribe to 
 it a sacerdotal, or a dogmatic basis, those 
 who conceive of God as apart from human 
 relations, and of religion as a merely indi- 
 vidual connection with Him, see to it, that 
 they do not fall below the Hebrew ideal. 
 Those who appreciate that idea most fully, 
 and dwell most on the divine element per- 
 vading it, will see very clearly that it points 
 to none of these as its proper development, 
 but to an all-embracing society, including 
 the whole range of human interests, and 
 binding all men and classes and nations 
 together in true relations, which are the 
 work and the expression of the Spirit of 
 God." 
 
 Christ carried into His religion much 
 that He received from His Jewish envi- 
 ronment and training. The spirit of the 
 prophets was upon Him, and His view of 
 the relation of religion to society was much 
 the same as theirs. He did not, however, 
 identify religion with the State, as did the 
 Jewish theocracy, which made the civil a 
 
 165 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 function of the religious. His religion was 
 not to be for one people or for one age, 
 but for the human race and for all time, 
 so that it could not be joined to any par- 
 ticular State or civic institution. It must 
 go out into all forms of government, make 
 headway amid diverse types of social organ- 
 ization, and therefore it could not be the 
 special advocate of any. It must needs con- 
 fine itself to those general ethical and 
 spiritual principles which are as universal 
 as the human race, which are binding upon 
 all men and nations. To have committed 
 itself to any form of political or social 
 organization would have brought it into 
 antagonism with all others and hindered 
 its progress in the earth. This is why, 
 when shown the Roman coin, Jesus said, 
 "Render unto Caesar the things that are 
 Caesar's, and unto God the things that are 
 God's." This incident would have afforded 
 Jesus a fine opportunity to set forth His 
 views about the rottenness of the Roman 
 Government, about the evils of despotism 
 and tyranny, or about the value of democra- 
 cies; but He said nothing of this kind, 
 simply declaring that if they were using 
 1 66 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 Caesar's money they should support Caesar's 
 government. 
 
 But while Jesus did not join His religion, 
 as was done in the Old Testament, with 
 any form of political organization, it does 
 not follow that He did not have much to 
 say upon the social relations of life, that 
 He did not relate His religion to the civic 
 and social duties of man. This He most 
 certainly did, and this is one reason why 
 He is so highly regarded by socialists; 
 for while many of them have the bitterest 
 things to say against the Church, all seem 
 to have the highest respect for Jesus. In 
 submitting a series of questions to a large 
 number of labor leaders, many of whom 
 are socialists, the writer was deeply im- 
 pressed with the fact that while all but 
 two criticised the Church, and most bit- 
 terly, and a number attacked the system 
 of the Christian religion, every one spoke 
 well of Jesus, and manifested the highest 
 respect and regard. In harmony with 
 this is the testimony of Prof. Francis 
 Peabody, who says: "The social move- 
 ment has reached a point of peculiar rever- 
 ence for the person of Jesus;" while Mr. 
 167 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 Goehn declares: "Only one quality [of 
 religion] remains — respect and reverence 
 for Jesus Christ. It is, indeed, a new pic- 
 ture of Jesus of Nazareth. He lacks the 
 supernatural light in His eyes, the Divinity 
 assigned to Him by the theologians is a 
 subject for smiles; . . . but they all stand 
 reverently and quietly before His great 
 personality." Frequently we hear social- 
 ists claim Him as one of their number, 
 and articles are occasionally published on 
 "The Socialistic Christ," or "The Social- 
 ism of Jesus." This thought is very short- 
 sighted and erroneous; for one can not 
 read far in the religious teachings of Jesus 
 without seeing that He was much more 
 than a social reformer, having a body of 
 distinctively religious truths, and holding 
 very definite conceptions about God, sin, 
 redemption, and the future life. He did 
 not teach that our duty stopped with men, 
 but emphatically declared that our first 
 duty is towards God. He did not at any 
 time put the body and its needs first, but 
 exalted the value and dignity of the human 
 soul. Not the material, but the spiritual 
 interests of life were uppermost in His 
 i68 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 thought. He did not speak much of the 
 kingdoms of this world, but He took for 
 the base-line of all His teachings the con- 
 ception of the kingdom of heaven. He was 
 ever drawing men away from the outer 
 to the inner life, from external forms to 
 the spirit. He did not discuss the right 
 organization of society, but He did say 
 much about purifying the heart. We can 
 not, therefore, agree at all with Renan, 
 who, in his "Life of Christ," sets Jesus 
 forth as a "Socialist with a Galilean 
 coloring," and adds: "Jesus was, in some 
 respects, an anarchist, for He had no idea 
 of civil government. The government 
 seemed to Him purely and simply an 
 abuse. . . . Every magistrate appeared to 
 Him a natural enemy of the people. . . . 
 A great social revolution, in which dis- 
 tinctions of rank would be dissolved, in 
 which all authority in this world would 
 be humiliated, was His dream." 
 
 But while Jesus does not enter upon the 
 discussion of economic theories, and while 
 His main theme is the spiritual life; while 
 He tells the rich man, whose only concern 
 is the heaping up of larger store, that 
 169 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 he is a fool, for any moment he may be 
 called to give up what he has and answer 
 at the bar of heaven ; while with Him the 
 true riches were spiritual, and righteous- 
 ness was first to be sought, it must not be 
 thought that Jesus ignored the industrial 
 and social world and did not have a mis- 
 sion to men in the complicated relations 
 of civic and business life. It is true that 
 He did not teach any particular form of 
 economic society, and that He did not 
 specifically answer the industrial problems 
 of our twentieth century, but, on the other 
 hand. He did set forth principles which 
 test all such theories and problems, ideals 
 of life which sift them all. He did enter 
 the realm of ethical obligation and make 
 such disclosures, that there would be no 
 social problem if men would hear and 
 obey what He had to say. He taught the 
 principles by which life should be gov- 
 erned, principles so profound and full of 
 meaning, principles so deep and of such 
 wide application, that, if they were gen- 
 erally enforced and practiced, they would 
 settle all social difficulties and establish a 
 kingdom of happiness and peace upon the 
 170 
 
The Social Mission of the ChurcH 
 
 earth. He even went beyond the natural 
 requirements of economic society, and the 
 principles which underlie conduct, and 
 disclosed motives which are so rich and 
 fertile that, if they got hold of the actors 
 on the stage of human society, they would 
 harmonize all interests and settle all an- 
 tagonisms. Thus on one occasion a man 
 tried to involve Him in a dispute about 
 an inheritance, but He refused to consider 
 the rights involved in the specific case, 
 which would have necessitated a discus- 
 sion of the civil law of the land; but He 
 did strike hard at the source from which 
 the difficulty came, and from which most 
 of the troubles in the economic world 
 arise, and said: "Beware of covetous- 
 ness ; for a man's life consisteth not in the 
 abundance of the things which he possess- 
 eth." Let the laborer and the employer 
 hear and obey that word, let them but 
 observe that apparently simple rule of 
 ethics, and the tap-root of our labor diffi- 
 culties would be cut. This illustrates the 
 idea of Jesus. He did not attempt to inau- 
 gurate a reconstruction of society, to give 
 men a new version of the rights of prop- 
 171 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 erty, but He enunciated principles, declared 
 an ideal and philosophy of life which 
 would make social difficulties impossible. 
 iBut Jesus did more than declare a few 
 ethical principles, for a large body of His 
 teachings have a distinctly social refer- 
 ence. He taught spiritual truths, religious 
 doctrines, and facts which throw light on 
 the other world; but He also emphasized 
 the necessity of men's living a pure, good, 
 helpful, and self-sacrificing life here. He 
 not only insisted that they should be indi- 
 vidually good, but that they should make 
 the world good. He Himself set an ex- 
 ample of service. Every human need 
 touched Him and met a response. He 
 possessed an enthusiasm for humanity. He 
 saw great possibilities in every man, and 
 the lower down the individual, the more 
 He labored to assist him. He ate with 
 publicans and sinners, touched the leper 
 and cleansed him, and opened the eyes of 
 the poor beggars who cried to Him from 
 the street. He went about daily, encour- 
 aging the poor, curing the sick, comfort- 
 ing the sorrowing, and ministering to the 
 daily wants and needs of men. He was 
 172 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 "the least academic of teachers" and the 
 least theoretical of reformers. He taught 
 by what He did, enforcing precept by 
 example. His Gospel is full of words 
 which show His sympathy with the com- 
 mon man. He was Himself of the prole- 
 tariate. His father was a carpenter, and 
 He probably assisted in the shop. He 
 blessed the poor, and He uttered woes on 
 the rich. He placed a poor beggar on 
 Abraham's bosom and a rich landholder 
 in hades. He told the wealthy young man 
 to sell all that he had and give to the 
 poor. He sadly asked, "How hardly shall 
 they that have riches enter into the king- 
 dom of God?" It is no wonder that the 
 toiling multitude have come to think of 
 Jesus as belonging to their class, as sympa- 
 thizing with their position, and as one who, 
 if He were on earth, would be a leader 
 in their efforts for social reform and bet- 
 terment. 
 
 But Jesus not only helped the needy and 
 set an example to the Church that, as a 
 part of its mission, it should minister to 
 human ills, but He attacked the social 
 evils of His day. We have said so much 
 
 173 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 about Jesus' sympathy, about His being a 
 Man of heart, about His patience and suf- 
 fering, that we have come to overlook 
 His virility and strength. He was tender, 
 but not effeminate. He had in Him the 
 wisdom and the strength of personality 
 and the power of a great leader. He could 
 have carried through a great reform, or 
 started a revolution. We are impressed 
 constantly with both His fearlessness and 
 His sagacity. "Whence hath this Man 
 His wisdom?" they asked in amazement. 
 Men cowered before His righteous indig- 
 nation. When He drove the money- 
 changers out of the temple court, it was 
 not by the strength of His arm, or the size 
 of His whip of cords, but by the com- 
 manding quality of His personality. He 
 spoke as one having authority, and men 
 obeyed Him. He was vigorous and 
 strong, and faltered not to face any antag- 
 onist. No one but a wonderfully virile 
 man could have stood before the ecclesi- 
 astical leaders of His time, looked into 
 their eyes, not flinched a particle, and 
 cried out, "Ye hypocrites, how shall ye 
 escape the damnation of hell?" He was 
 
 174 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 strongly against the established hierarchy 
 in the Church, and denounced in particu- 
 lar its sins. It made long prayers in the 
 market place to be seen of men; it de- 
 voured widows' houses; it compassed land 
 and sea to make a proselyte, and, when 
 secured, made him twofold more the child 
 of hell than itself. He called the 
 hollow-hearted priests and scribes "whited 
 sepulchers," "a generation of vipers," the 
 "children of the devil." While He had 
 little to say about the special evils of His 
 day — drunkenness, slavery, oppression of 
 the poor — He did have much to say about 
 hypocrisy in worship, and hoUow-hearted- 
 ness in life. No one can read the Parable 
 of the Good Samaritan without seeing that 
 Jesus believed in more than prayer; that 
 He felt that religion was service; and no 
 one can read His terrific arraignments of 
 the Pharisees and Sadducees without be- 
 lieving He felt that religion should be 
 applied to life. 
 
 But it is rather in the structure of Jesus' 
 thought than elsewhere that we see His 
 interest in the salvation of society, in the 
 life-spirit which His teachings were cal- 
 
 ^7S 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 culated to create and which compelled 
 every one who entered into it to seek the 
 welfare of men. Take, for example, His 
 great doctrine of the brotherhood of men. 
 He taught that we should love our neighbor 
 as ourselves ; a command to understand the 
 sweep and measure of which is not easy. 
 It requires the profoundest meditation. 
 It is a formal principle, and does not give 
 a content of action. It is like Kant's "so 
 act that your act could properly be univer- 
 salized." The more we study it however, 
 it assumes a wider application and a fuller 
 meaning. Christ saw the world as we see 
 it, its competition, its contests, its misery, 
 and it moved Him with profound compas- 
 sion ; and He looked away to a new world, 
 or ideal, where love was the ruling prin- 
 ciple, and therefore righteousness the con- 
 stant practice. He saw that the struggle 
 to adjust one's self to environment, or the 
 survival of the fittest, was a law of death 
 to multitudes, and meant progress by tramp- 
 ling on those who were weak; hence He 
 lifted on His banner the law of the love 
 which leads to self-sacrifice for others. 
 "Put up the sword;" "Resist not evil;" 
 176 
 
Whe Social Mission of the Church 
 
 "Forgive until seventy times seven ;" "Love 
 your enemies." He had no place for false 
 individualism, but taught the brotherhood 
 of man, the solidarity of the race. He 
 saw that when society is conceived of as 
 composed of individual units, there will 
 be conflict; but the sense of common love, 
 that the strong bear the burdens of the 
 weak, will save humanity from such con- 
 flict. Not only was this Jesus' ideal, it 
 was His life. He reached forth His hand 
 in the spirit of His command, and touched 
 all human pain and need with healing 
 power. He took on Himself the burden 
 of our sin and distress, and spared not His 
 life in bearing it. "He saved others, Him- 
 self He could not save." Thus with Jesus 
 the law was not simply a kindly sentiment, 
 but a working hypothesis. It was not a 
 beautiful ideal to be realized only in a 
 heavenly existence, but a practical work- 
 ing principle, intended to control the organ- 
 ization of human society. The Church 
 has not been inclined to take it in earnest. 
 It has not been conceived of as practical 
 for business as well as charity. But in our 
 day a skeptical philosopher has vindicated 
 
 12 17'/ 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 it in an independent philosophical and 
 sociological investigation. Herbert Spen- 
 cer, in his "Data of Ethics," has a chapter 
 on Egoism and Altruism, in which he 
 shows that unlimited egoism is self-destruc- 
 itive; and, second, that unlimited altruism 
 is the same; so that to live for self and 
 to live for others are equally irrational 
 principles; and that the only true idea is 
 the proper union of the two ideas. This 
 is nothing more than a philosophical put- 
 ting of Jesus' law about loving our neigh- 
 bor as ourself; not to the exclusion of 
 one's self, not to the exclusion of one's 
 neighbor, but in combination, thy neighbor 
 as thyself. Thus, instead of being visionary 
 and impractical, the best reasoning proves 
 that the law is one which reason and ex- 
 perience verify, and it is the foundation- 
 stone of individual and social welfare. 
 Society can not come into a state of per- 
 fect health until it enthrones and prac- 
 tices it. Jesus intended it should be worked, 
 not hung as a motto on the wall. When 
 He sent forth His disciples He told them 
 to "Go, and as ye go, preach;" but He 
 at once added, "Heal the sick, cleanse the 
 178 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils-, 
 freely ye have received, freely give." In 
 this Jesus carried out the prophetic idea 
 that we are not only to walk humbly with 
 our God, but we are to do justly, and to 
 love mercy, virtues which refer to our 
 relations with men. 
 
 Apply Christ's law of love to prop- 
 erty — and He so applied it — and what does 
 it mean? No one can love his neighbor 
 as himself and hoard his means simply 
 for selfish pleasure, or the desire to amass 
 great wealth. How dwelleth the love of 
 God in a modern man who sees his brother 
 suffering and in need, and shuts up his 
 bowels of compassion, lowers the wages of 
 his men another notch, lays on a heavier 
 burden, and counts at the end of the year 
 great gains — a large surplus in the bank? 
 To love his neighbor he must share with 
 him in his necessity, for this is the real 
 test of love. Personal welfare, where love 
 reigns, can not be the dominant consider- 
 ation. No wonder, then, that Christ had 
 so much to say about stewardship, and 
 looked at property as a trust; that He 
 makes the right use of property one of 
 179 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 the tests of the judgment day. Jesus laid 
 His emphasis, not on hoarding, but on 
 distribution. He called the man who 
 thought only of building additions to his 
 barns a fool. He told the rich young man 
 to sell out and give to the poor. Property 
 was to be gained, but it was also to be 
 given. Every man who used his property 
 solely for himself was "a defaulter before 
 God," and for it must finally render an 
 account. This is why Jesus said so many 
 sharp things to the rich; not that private 
 property is wrong, or the gaining of riches 
 an evil, but because true love for our 
 brother demands that property be used for 
 the good of humanity, that it be distributed 
 to help those who need it, rather than be 
 consumed to further the lusts of the flesh 
 or the pride of life. 
 
 The law found its proper expression in 
 the early Church, where an order of deacons 
 soon arose whose function was to distribute 
 the alms of the community, and especially to 
 care for the widows and orphans. It was 
 held as a common rule that it was the duty 
 of the Church to support the weak, to dis- 
 tribute to the necessities of saints, and to 
 1 80 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 remember the words of the Lord Jesus how 
 He said, "It is more blessed to give than to 
 receive." In localities, as at Jerusalem, 
 this went so far that in the enthusiasm of 
 brotherly love men sold their property and 
 "had all things in common," "and not one 
 of them that said aught of the things 
 which he possessed was his own." This 
 was not asked by Christ, nor was it a 
 practice generally adopted in the early 
 Church, or desirable in the Church of 
 our day. Where communities in subse- 
 quent times have tried to imitate it, they 
 have come to naught. 'But the love of 
 one's brother as one's self is a law which 
 should pertain in the realm of poverty, 
 and it should lead to the relief of distress, 
 and the destruction of all the evils which 
 come from selfish greed. It should be 
 applied by the employer to his men in the 
 factory and the mill; and when he asks 
 women to make shirts at fifteen cents a 
 piece, and men to make a suit of clothes 
 for $2.30, he may well ask himself if he 
 is treating his neighbor as himself. The 
 idea of brotherhood as taught by Christ 
 would destroy all class distinctions raised 
 181 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 on artificial standards such as we find in 
 modern society. "The kingdom of God is 
 a commonwealth of peers," When we 
 pray "Our Father," we all stand on a com- 
 mon level. At the communion table rich 
 and poor, high and low, eat the same bread 
 and drink the same wine. In no act of 
 worship is there an aristocracy, God's love 
 for one man is His love for all men. The 
 social duties He enjoins are not for this 
 class or that, but for every living soul. 
 Nothing is clearer than that religion is 
 the source of the idea that society is a 
 body of mutually related and mutually 
 dependent members. It gives no place for 
 artificial barriers to be reared between men. 
 Christ had an interest in and sympathy 
 with both classes. He was Himself from the 
 ranks of the laboring poor. He knew what 
 toil meant, and probably had felt the pinch 
 of poverty. He had slept in an humble 
 home and eaten a peasant's fare. In His 
 ministry His congregations were mostly of 
 the common people. He shared the pov- 
 erty of the poor as He went about from 
 place to place. He chose His apostles 
 from those who were certainly not in afflu- 
 182 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 ence. To the wealthy He showed no 
 preference. If He found them covetous 
 He did not hesitate to rebuke them. And 
 yet He had no hatred of the rich. We 
 are told that when He saw the goodness 
 of the rich young man He loved him. He 
 ate with well-to-do Simon, the Pharisee. 
 He was entertained by well-to-do Lazarus. 
 He let the woman pour the "very costly" 
 spikenard upon His brow. When He 
 died, His body was placed in a rich man's 
 tomb. With Jesus it was not a man's pos- 
 sessions, or his lack of them, but his char- 
 acter which told. It is incorrect, therefore, 
 as is frequently done, to quote Jesus as on 
 the side of the poor and against the rich. 
 When He denounces the rich, it is their 
 misuse of their wealth, their failure to use 
 it for the relief of their brother, rather 
 than the fact that they have large posses- 
 sions, which He aims at. No one can see 
 in the Parables of the Pounds, the Talents, 
 the Unjust Steward, the Foolish Rich 
 Man, Dives and Lazarus, an attack on 
 the intrinsic value of wealth, but only a 
 warning against its wrong use, against 
 the failure to see that it is administered 
 
 183 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 for the common good. The fact is that 
 Christ regarded men, and looked so 
 deeply into human nature that He saw 
 it is not externals which determine 
 human worth and dignity, but it is our son- 
 ship to God. So He loved men for what 
 they really are, and considered them as 
 one great brotherhood in which there 
 should be neither cliques nor classes, one 
 seeking its advantage to the detriment of 
 the other, one in conflict with the other, 
 one out of social touch with the other, but 
 bound in the solidarity of love, and each 
 seeking the good of the other. The spir- 
 itual relation, not the external condition, 
 was to determine the relation of man to man. 
 There is great need on the part of the 
 Church in our time of a fuller realiza- 
 tion of the fact of human brotherhood. 
 The world has grown much in the idea, 
 but it has only very faultily learned the 
 lesson. In one of his books. Bishop 
 Westcott says: "In the half-blind striv- 
 ings towards a larger human communion, 
 we find, I believe, an expression of the 
 characteristic want of our times, the want 
 which Christ is waiting to satisfy. We 
 
 184 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 need the overflow of a spiritual force 
 among us which shall bring the deep con- 
 viction of the reality of this world-wide 
 fellowship of men. We need it in our per- 
 sonal life, in our national life, in our relig- 
 ious life." The bishop is doubtless cor- 
 rect. The old question of the first murder 
 is retained in the attitude of many in our 
 modern world. The hard-hearted priest 
 and Levite still walk the highways of 
 men, and only occasionally does the Samar- 
 itan pass by. The self-centered life rather 
 than the benevolent life rules, even in the 
 Church, to an extent that paralyzes relig- 
 ious activity in many a place of power. 
 There is great need that men in these 
 times awake to feel that all men are broth- 
 ers, and when we worst them by intrigue,' 
 crush them by lust for gain, fleece them 
 by selfishness, and chill them by social in- 
 difference or scorn, we repeat the spirit of 
 the first murderer, who cried out with the 
 blood fresh on his hands, "Am I my broth- 
 er's keeper?" If the sense of human 
 brotherhood, the commandment that we 
 love our neighbor as ourselves, could be 
 really; apprehended and lived by men, it 
 i8s 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 would work wonders of reform ; it would 
 solve all the social problems that trouble so- 
 ciety. After all, therefore, what we need 
 is not so much a new economics as a new 
 spirit; we need more love for our fellows; 
 more interest in others' good. Out of the 
 right moral spirit will certainly come 
 social justice, benevolence, humanity, the 
 desire to give every man the rights and 
 the opportunity which his personality 
 deserves. It will form that bond stronger 
 than law which the commercial world 
 needs, the bond which unites men together 
 and makes them feel their common interest. 
 Law is too formal a bond. It only prohibits 
 one class from too sorely oppressing or 
 inflicting injustice on another. It does 
 not go deep enough and "is not transform- 
 ing." We need a principle which will 
 touch men's wills through their affections, 
 and through their moral sense, so that 
 their treatment of each other will grow not 
 from selfishness, but from justice, from the 
 realization of the dignity and worth of 
 the man; and this bond, this principle, 
 this motive, Christ's law of love alone can 
 supply. When this comes to the front in 
 
 1 86 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 our economic life, our conflicts and social 
 difficulties will pass away. 
 
 There is another doctrine in Christ's 
 teaching, and which the Church embodies, 
 which manifests the importance of a 
 deeper sense of Chrisitanity's social mis- 
 sion, and this is the conception Jesus had 
 of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom 
 is not the same as the Church, although 
 some writers, as Canon Fremantle and Prof. 
 Bruce, so seem to treat it. There is at 
 least this distinction : The Church is a spir- 
 itual brotherhood, with an outward organ- 
 ization, with creeds and rituals and forms 
 of worship, with sacraments and officials, 
 while the kingdom of God is invisible, set 
 up in men's hearts, coming not with obser- 
 vation, and composed of those who are 
 really seeking to do the Divine will. Not 
 all of those who are in the kingdom are 
 in the Church, and not all those in the 
 Church are in the kingdom. However, in 
 some passages of Scripture the Church is 
 represented as the kingdom. Certainly the 
 end of the Church is the kingdom, to get 
 it established on the earth. But in the sense 
 in which Jesus used it in the many parables 
 
 i8z 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 and discourses in which He referred to 
 it, what does the kingdom mean for us 
 to-day? It is a social fact. It means that 
 on the earth there shall come to prevail 
 a social order which shall correspond with 
 the will of God. It means that the Spirit 
 of God shall saturate and mold all social 
 institutions and customs, laws and policies, 
 home life and business life, the Church 
 and the factory; it means that brotherhood, 
 justice, love, good will, interest in one 
 another's welfare, that willingness to bear 
 one another's burdens, shall be the practice 
 of men in their daily life in the world. 
 It means that business and politics and 
 amusement and art and literature and 
 education shall be spiritualized and come 
 under the influence of Christ. Jesus could 
 not have meant by the kingdom that inside 
 of the community of the State He would 
 establish an esoteric community of worship 
 and benevolence. He did not desire to 
 divide life into two spheres, the sacred and 
 the secular. As has been said, with Christ 
 there is no proper secular. The spirit of 
 the citizen of the kingdom of God is to 
 be taken into all the duties of civic and 
 i88 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 social life, and men are, in all they do, to 
 do it to the glory of God. It is just as 
 important to carry the principles of Chris- 
 tianity with us into the mill as into the 
 prayer-meeting; and Christ meant that the 
 life He enjoins should be lived as faith- 
 fully in the market-place as in the sanctu- 
 ary. He meant that men should not go to 
 their business to act with the selfishness of 
 unredeemed human nature, and then to 
 the Church to pray; but that we are to 
 carry our religion into our business, and 
 act as Jesus would, that the world in all 
 its parts and phases may be redeemed. 
 Canon Fremantle thus explains the end of 
 the kingdom: "It is almost, if not quite, 
 an equal misunderstanding to think of the 
 kingdom as merely the assertion of a moral 
 principle without any care for its social 
 or political results. What Christ demands 
 is the carrying of the principle into its full- 
 est practical effect, the entering into all 
 the relations of life under His leadership, 
 the bringing of every sphere of human 
 existence under His spiritual dominion. 
 It was for this purpose that, at the close 
 of His ministry, when His approaching 
 189 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 death made the attribution to Him of self- 
 ish ambition no longer possible, He ac- 
 cepted the part which He had before re- 
 fused, and allowed Himself to be borne 
 into Jerusalem with the triumph of a king." 
 This being the idea of the kingdom, 
 and the Church being constituted to bring 
 in and establish the kingdom, it goes with- 
 out saying that the Church has a great 
 social mission to perform, and it should be 
 at it every day. It can not neglect this 
 mission. It can not ignore it. The call 
 of God is in its ear. To fail to hear and 
 respond is rank unfaithfulness. It is refus- 
 ing to follow the example of Christ. It 
 is to grieve the Spirit. It is to fail to con- 
 tinue the work of Christ which He has 
 committed to it. It is refusing to present 
 every man perfect in Christ Jesus, and to 
 try and transform society into the living 
 expression of the kingdom of God which 
 is within us. This mission of the Church 
 has scarcely begun to be realized, and it is 
 because of this that the Church has not 
 been a greater power in the world. "When 
 men come to see that it is for this world 
 and for every part of it, and not simply 
 190 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 to fit men up for another world, its full 
 power will begin to express itself." 
 
 The conceptions of Jesus were taken up 
 and set forth by the apostles. Paul espe^ 
 cially apprehended and published them. 
 His view of the Church was a social one, 
 in which he makes "human society one 
 living body closely joined in communion 
 with Christ." He had the thought that we 
 are members one of another, that our in- 
 dividualism is limited by the mutual rela- 
 tions of dependence which exist between 
 man and his fellow. But more than this, 
 his philosophy of life is expressed in the 
 thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, 
 where love is crowned not only as chief 
 among the virtues, but the deepest and 
 noblest motive of human action. Paul 
 was well possessed by the thought that each 
 man should bear his brother's burdei^, 
 society is a democracy of love, service 
 is the keynote of every life rightly lived. 
 He carried these ideas over an area ex- 
 tending from Judea to Rome, and planted 
 them deep in the soil of two continents. 
 As the Greek philosophers had presented 
 the idea that the individual citizen should 
 191 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 live not for himself but the State, so Paul 
 pictured a Christian republic, nobler than 
 that of Plato, in which the welfare of 
 each is represented as dependent on the 
 welfare of the whole, and in which each 
 man is looked at as related to society as 
 the individual members to the body. No 
 nobler conception could be developed. 
 Nor did Paul hesitate to give specific ad- 
 vice, as any reader of Philemon will see — 
 a book in which Paul writes to the master 
 of a runaway slave, urging him to treat 
 him kindly now that he has decided to 
 return, and to remember that, while a 
 slave under the law, he is a brother man 
 in the gospel, that he is to be regarded 
 as one for whom Christ died, and that a 
 just and Christian treatment will redound 
 to the Christian worth of Philemon him- 
 self. In other passages he discusses the 
 relation of servants to masters, as well as 
 tells masters how they should treat those 
 in their employ. He also takes up the 
 wider social relations of men to the com- 
 munity and the State, and affirms the eth- 
 ical principles which should control these 
 relations. James also, in the book which 
 192 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 has come down from him, leaves the ques- 
 tions of worship and doctrine pretty much 
 out of sight and discusses the social life 
 and duties of men. Thus we see that the 
 New Testament abundantly sets the prec- 
 edent for the Church to take up the 
 problems of society, and seek to bring its 
 laws, institutions, customs, organizations 
 under the dominion of the gospel of Christ. 
 The appropriateness of the Church dis- 
 cussing the social problem is also seen 
 when we remember that it is largely due 
 to the Church, that it is in great measure 
 the product of its awakening. The modern 
 sense of human worth and human liberty 
 dates back for its beginning to the Teacher 
 of Nazareth. A great lecturer of our day 
 has a very able address on "A Chapter in 
 the History of Liberty," that chapter being 
 the tragedy of Calvary. He shows that 
 this was the greatest stroke for freedom in 
 all the ages. As human liberty secured a 
 great impulse from Jesus, so it has been with 
 human rights and justice. Men have come 
 to see their dignity in a new light, and to 
 feel that the individual has value apart 
 from all circumstances and conditions. 
 
 ^3 193 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 This grasp of the significance of person- 
 ality, of the supreme worth of self, has 
 produced the unrest of the times, and the 
 demand of labor for a better chance and 
 a better living. Emile De Laveleye says: 
 "It was from Judea that there arose the 
 most persistent protests against inequality, 
 and the most ardent aspirations after jus- 
 tice that have ever raised humanity out of 
 the actual into the ideal. We feel the 
 effects still. It is thence has come that 
 leaven of revolution which still moves the 
 world. Job saw evil triumph, and yet 
 believed in justice. Israel's prophets, while 
 thundering against iniquity, announced the 
 good time coming." If Christianity has 
 given the impulse which has developed 
 largely the social problem, it seems fitting 
 that the Church should consider it, that 
 indeed it is a part of its mission to do so. 
 
 And this becomes more apparent when 
 we come to realize the social prob- 
 lem is in part, as we have already 
 shown, a moral question and in many of 
 its phases affects the ethical development 
 of society. It is not a purely economic 
 problem when, in order to live, the laborer 
 194 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 has to contract his time and strength to 
 another at a wage which forces him into a 
 tenement dangerous to health, and contam- 
 inating by its surroundings to the moral 
 welfare of his children. It is not an eco- 
 nomic problem simply when his wage is 
 so small that to sustain his family he has 
 to put his children into ill-ventilated 
 factories and in unhealthy conditions, 
 when they should be securing preparation 
 for life in the schools. It is not an economic 
 problem simply when he can not get 
 enough to dress his family well enough 
 for them to go to Church, secure some re- 
 laxation in amusement, find a chance to 
 develop in intelligence by reading papers 
 and books, and surround themselves with 
 a few of the comforts of life. Here we 
 touch on moral questions, questions which 
 aflfect the welfare of men and society. 
 Every person by virtue of the fact that he 
 is a person, and hence has an end in being 
 to realize, has a right to a chance to develop 
 his soul in knowledge and virtue, and if 
 there is a constitution of society which fore- 
 stalls such opportunity, then economic 
 questions become moral questions, and 
 
 195 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 are to be dealt with on ethical principles by 
 the reformer and the Christian. Just as 
 soon as a social custom or habit or institu- 
 tion or form of organization exists which 
 is ruining men, the Church, which has 
 their moral and spiritual interests in 
 charge, must face it. So in relation to the 
 social problem, the Church may not have 
 the right to ally itsellf with this or that 
 scheme of social reconstruction, but it has 
 the obligation on it to declare the duty of 
 man to man, to show what every man's 
 rights are, and that every person should be 
 given a decent chance by society, not only 
 to exist but to develop his manhood into 
 a complete life. The Church, indeed, 
 should seek to help produce those condi- 
 tions which are most favorable to human 
 progress. Especially such problems as pov- 
 erty, the better housing of the poor, the 
 drink question, the shortening of the hours 
 of labor, living wages, the securing of one 
 day of rest in seven, the proper ventilation 
 of factories, opportunities for educatioi\, 
 recreation, religious training, non-employ- 
 ment of children in factories, the social 
 evil, co-operation, etc., are themes which 
 196 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 the Church should take up, and upon 
 which it should make its influence felt. 
 As Herbert Spencer has said, the ideal 
 man can exist only in an ideal social state. 
 In working out the problem of his life 
 every man is conditioned by his social 
 environment. For the Church to endeavor, 
 therefore, to make the social environment 
 favorable to the development of virtue and 
 intelligence among all men would seem 
 to be but the exercise of its normal func- 
 tion. In all those phases where the social 
 problem has a moral bearing, this bearing 
 is a matter for the Church's consideration ; 
 and not only because the Church is to be 
 a reforming agency in the world, but more 
 particularly because the number of men it 
 can get spiritually regenerated depends a 
 good deal on the nature of the social envi- 
 ronment. If we have any obstacle to the 
 work of the Church to-day, it is that the 
 social environment is not harmonious to 
 spiritual Christianity, and the Church 
 finds that a large part of the population, 
 because of this environment, never come 
 under its direct influence, and hence it 
 has no chance whatever to get them spirit- 
 
 197 
 
The- Church and the Social Problem 
 
 ually renewed. The Church can not get 
 the attention of men who are hungry, or 
 lack clothing and shelter, or whose fami- 
 lies are suffering for the plainest comforts 
 of life. 
 
 But the strongest practical reason why 
 the Church should consider the social 
 problem, at least in its ethical phases, is 
 the fact that it has the only true remedy 
 for our social ills, and is the proper medi- 
 ator between the two contending classes of 
 society. Political economy is not sufEcient. 
 It is based on the ideas of natural law, 
 and these are often heartless and cruel. 
 Says Washington Gladden: "The law of 
 nature would appear to be the survival of 
 the strongest; and it is the workings of 
 this law with which political economy has 
 to do. Legislation can not stop this strife. 
 What, indeed, is law but an edict of force? 
 Behind every law is the policeman's billy, 
 or the soldiers bayonet. ... A gentler 
 influence, a subtler but a mightier force, 
 must take possession of the minds and 
 hearts of the combatants on either side 
 before warfare will cease. If the Spirit 
 of Christ dwell in you, you will learn to 
 198 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 'look not every man on his own things, 
 but also on the things of others;' to love 
 your neighbors as yourselves ; to put your- 
 selves in their places now and then, and 
 judge their conduct, and yours too, from 
 their point of view — ^you will speedily 
 come to terms in all your quarrels." There 
 is much truth in what Dr. Gladden has 
 said. The economic philosopher and the 
 social agitator do not go deep enough. 
 The social reform of this age, as that in 
 others, must come from the development 
 of a social consciousness in a large number 
 of the people which will embody the sense 
 of justice, which will have in it the true 
 love of man for man, which will see, as 
 Chrisitanity does, that a man is by the 
 reason of his manhood a being with per- 
 sonal rights, rights to self-improvement, 
 to a chance to live, and live in a way which 
 will enable him to work out his destiny 
 as a spiritual being. Now, this idea will 
 come into society from the men who have 
 been touched by the Spirit of Christ, who 
 have been trained in His philosophy, who 
 have been assimilated to His Spirit, and 
 who are moved by the humanitarian mo- 
 
 199 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 tives which actuated Him. What we need 
 most of all to settle our labor disputes, our 
 conflicts between laborers and capitalists, 
 is men in the Church who have so felt the 
 Christ ideal, and so attained to the Christ 
 spirit, that they will go forth to practice 
 it. But since men may have a true and 
 pure motive, and yet not see the bearing 
 and full application of the principles in 
 which they believe, it becomes necessary 
 for the Church and its ministry to teach 
 this, to show the social applications of the 
 gospel, to reveal what the civic and social 
 duties of Christians are. Rev. Chas. 
 Stelzle, who has given much thought to 
 this question, thus expresses the important 
 influence the Church can have in settling 
 the social problem: "Since the success 
 of any great social reform is dependent 
 upon a high, unselfish moral character, 
 and since Christianity makes the develop- 
 ment of this character its chief business, 
 it follows that the Church has a most im- 
 portant part in the great work which con- 
 cerns the social life of mankind." An- 
 other writer in this field remarks: "The 
 salvation of society will come, not from 
 200 
 
The Social Mission of the Church 
 
 economics, but from the gospel. The sores 
 of the body politic must be healed by the 
 Divine Physician. The true solution of 
 every great problem affecting man in 
 society is to be sought in the true applica- 
 tion of Christian principles." 
 
 We have seen in our discussion that the 
 Church faces a new condition, and that it 
 has a social mission to perform; that if it 
 fails to perform it, both the temporal and 
 spiritual advancement of men will be 
 stayed. While economic discussion will 
 do much to awaken men's minds and get 
 juster views of men's rights to prevail, 
 Christianity must come in with its renew- 
 ing power, to make the type of man who 
 alone will carry into effect the new ideas. 
 There is no social theory, no matter how 
 good, which can make headway against 
 human selfishness and human greed. Only 
 by waking deeper motives, those which 
 are rooted in the religious nature, only by 
 transforming character by the Christ ideal 
 and the regenerating touch of the Spirit, 
 can social justice be established on the 
 earth. It is here that socialism breaks 
 down. It is a system that can never be 
 20 1 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 worked except in a community of perfectly 
 good men. IBut men are not good, and 
 socialism proposes no true or rational way 
 to make them so. But Christianity takes up 
 the task of making good men, and as it 
 permeates society more and more, estab- 
 lishes the New Testament conception of 
 the worth of the soul, it will lead men 
 to treat each other more justly, and labor 
 and capital to discover that they can merge 
 their interests on the basis of the ethics of 
 the gospel of Christ. 
 
 202 
 
Chapter 17- 
 
 SOCIAL WORK OF THE CHURCH, 
 PAST AND PRESENT 
 
 IN a discussion of the Church and the 
 Social Problem, something ought to 
 be said about what the Church has 
 done and is doing in the fulfillment of its 
 social mission. This becomes all the more 
 necessary, for it is generally overlooked, 
 and especially by the classes in whose 
 interest the Church has been working. 
 This comes out in such attacks as this 
 from Saint Simon: "They had lost their 
 power simply because they had neglected 
 their great temporal mission of raising the 
 poor, and because their clergy remained 
 absolutely ignorant of the living social 
 questions of the times." Many such flings 
 at the Church fill the literature of the day; 
 but are they just, and can they be proven? 
 We readily admit that the Church has not 
 done what it might and ought to have done ; 
 203 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 that it has been filled with men in every 
 age who have been controlled by worldly 
 and selfish motives; that frequently the 
 devotion to humanity characteristic of its 
 Founder has died out on its altars; that 
 its humanitarian and social activities have 
 been, and still are, all too few; that some 
 periods of its history have been a barren 
 waste, burned over by the fires of theolog- 
 ical controversy, or made subversive to the 
 interests of worldly powers, of ambitious 
 kings and potentates; that instead of con- 
 secrated service there has been intrigue, 
 oppression, idolatry, and corruption; but 
 this admitted, we must not overlook the fact 
 that in every age the Church has been 
 a great social force working for the 
 betterment of men in manifold ways, and 
 that the best impulses for social reforma- 
 tion which we find to-day have arisen 
 directly or indirectly from it. History 
 must be our court of appeal; and her 
 pages show that "the Christian Church in 
 the nineteen centuries of its history has 
 penetrated into deeper places of human 
 life than all political forces have done; 
 that it has been the social friend, benefac- 
 204 
 
Social Work of the ChurcK 
 
 tor, regenerator, in ways often unobserved, 
 and through influences never blazoned 
 forth to public view." It has kept the 
 sluggish stream of moral progress moving; 
 initiated reform, created higher ideals of 
 duty, inspired better and juster feelings 
 between men, and done away with much 
 that was evil and advanced much that was 
 good in the condition of the working classes. 
 The proletariate owes to the Church an 
 inestimable debt of gratitude. In every 
 age it has in a measure "subdued kingdoms 
 and wrought righteousness" in its behalf; 
 it has been a power which has transformed 
 society as well as spiritualized character. 
 At the very first the Church, filled with 
 the love of Christ, and standing so near 
 Him in time that it partook in an excep- 
 tional degree of His Spirit, began certain 
 social activities. It had things in common. 
 When two of its members held back a part 
 of the price of their goods for selfish and 
 personal uses, and lied to the Holy Ghost, 
 they were smitten dead in their tracks. 
 We read shortly after that the Hellenist 
 Christians murmured because their widows 
 were not cared for as well apparently as the 
 205 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 widows of the Jews. This soon led to the 
 establishment of the first Church organiza- 
 tion, which was a kind of charity board, 
 composed of "seven men of good report 
 from among them, full of the Spirit and 
 of wisdom," to distribute the charities of 
 the community. As Paul went from city 
 to city, he took collections for the poor in 
 Jerusalem and other places. Thus we see 
 that the Church started on its career pos- 
 sessed by a spirit of true Christian sympa- 
 thy, and seeking not only the spiritual, 
 but also the temporal, good of its members. 
 So much was this regarded that James, 
 in defining religion, made it consist of 
 visiting the fatherless and the widow in 
 their affliction, and in keeping one's self 
 unspotted from the world. Some com- 
 munities even went farther, and regarded 
 their goods as not simply their own, but 
 held all in common; not that there was 
 a pooling of goods, or such a distribution 
 of them that each had the same, but there 
 was such charity that each of the poor 
 and suffering was supplied according to 
 his necessity. There were many poor in 
 Jerusalem, and the spirit of brotherliness 
 206 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 was such that it was seen "that there was 
 not any among them that lacked," or was 
 in want. The rich did not give up all 
 they owned, but they saw that no one 
 who named the name of Christ went 
 hungry. This charity apparently was not 
 compulsory, but it was a free offering of 
 consecrated hearts who caught the true 
 meaning of Jesus' idea of brotherhood. 
 This enthusiasm unfortunately did not 
 long continue; selfishness entered in, and, 
 as stated above, Jerusalem's poor soon had 
 to be helped by contributions from other 
 communities. Mr. Lang says of it: "It 
 was the sign of the heaven which lay 
 around the infancy of the Church. A 
 vision, alas! too soon to fade, yet one in 
 which Christianity may recognize a truth, 
 not to be reproduced in the letter, but in 
 its spirit to persist forever." 
 
 In the centuries immediately succeed- 
 ing the apostolic age, the Church was 
 much engaged in humanitarian work. 
 When attacked by its enemies in the 
 days of Justin Martyr, the first apolo- 
 gist, he defended it by pointing to its 
 charities and forms of social and be- 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 nevolent work. Marshall Lang thus de- 
 scribes its activities in this period: "It 
 interpreted a covenant of sympathy. The 
 sanctuaries of Christians had orphanages 
 or institutions of healing attached to them. 
 We read of provisions for widows, and 
 children bereft of parents, of hospitals for 
 lepers, of hospices, of benevolences of 
 many kinds, of practical philanthropies 
 which moderated the excitements of con- 
 troversy, and were, to all without, a sign 
 of brotherly love. And in our contempla- 
 tion of the earlier Church we must not 
 overlook the ethical and spiritual ideal 
 which it ever kept in view. If Christians 
 were held bound to love one another, it 
 was for the sake of Him who had given 
 them His cross to bear, and had called them 
 to be holy even as He is holy. 
 
 "This society, mirroring, amidst all its 
 imperfections, a lofty ideal of purified 
 humanity, reached many sides of the sur- 
 rounding life. Even the heathenism 
 which opposed it was influenced by it. It 
 tended to form atmospheres of thought 
 and feeling in which the inhumanness and 
 ghostliness of some of the features of this 
 208 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 heathenism were evinced. A public 
 opinion condemnatory of infanticide, of 
 the cruelties of many kinds with which 
 the records of the centuries are filled, had 
 been formed and was rapidly spreading. 
 Bloody spectacles, gladiatorial exhibitions, 
 the brutal sports offered to prince and 
 slave, were discontinued by the diffusion 
 of a gentler type of manners, a higher 
 value was being put on human life, and 
 a new ethic was silently salting the earth." 
 But we find that the early Church was 
 not only interested in philanthropy, but 
 also in those phases of the social question 
 which appear to-day in our labor problem. 
 In the New Testament the foundation was 
 laid for this in the doctrine of brotherhood 
 developed and in the warnings and affirma- 
 tions about the rich which are frequently 
 repeated. The patristic literature often 
 gives us statements which show that the 
 labor problem was brewing. Some expres- 
 sions are strong, and we may say intem- 
 perate. Thus Basil affirmed, "The rich 
 man is a thief," Chrysostom said: "The 
 rich are robbers; a kind of equality must 
 be effected by making gifts out of their 
 14 209 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 abundance. Better all things were in com- 
 mon." Jerome declared: "Opulence is 
 always the product of theft committed; 
 if not by the actual possessors, by his ances- 
 tors." Ambrose gave the opinion: "Na- 
 ture created community; private property 
 is the offspring of usurpation." Clement 
 said: "In strict justice, everything should 
 belong to all. Iniquity alone has created 
 private property." Augustine, while not 
 agreeing with these socialistic declarations, 
 was much interested in the problems of 
 society, and gave the world a Christian 
 philosophy of society which one of our 
 foremost sociologists has said is still worthy 
 of the profoundest study. Laveleye, in 
 his "Socialism of To-day," has collected 
 quite a number of quotations from the 
 Church fathers which show how early the 
 Church considered the social problem. 
 
 In the mediaeval Church, dark as this 
 period was, as much as political power, 
 ignorance, and intrigue corrupted it, 
 as much as paganism entered it and 
 stamped out the spirit of true piety, 
 the Church was not without its social work 
 and influence. It was a time when chivalry 
 
 2IO 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 lifted the position of woman and led to 
 the care of the widow and orphan; and 
 when "guilds and fraternities regulated 
 trade, established relations of protection 
 and sympathy between laborers and em- 
 ployers," and softened the bond of serf- 
 dom. Men were exploited, but the move- 
 ment towards emancipation was begun. 
 "From the tenth century the manumission 
 of serfs became ever more frequent, 'the 
 principal cause,' writes an old chronicler, 
 'being piety and love toward God.' One 
 of the Mendicant orders, established in the 
 thirteenth century, had for its object the 
 tending of the poor." Speaking of this 
 period, Fitzjames Stephen, a brilliant 
 student of society and ancient law, says: 
 "The glory of the Mediaeval Church is 
 the resistance which it offered to tyranny 
 of every kind. The typical bishop of these 
 times is always upholding a righteous 
 cause against kings and emperors, or ex- 
 horting masters to let their slaves go free, 
 or giving sanctuary to harassed fugitives. 
 . . . What is true of the bishops is true in 
 a still more eminent degree of religious 
 orders." Gladstone adds to the testimony 
 
 2IT 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 the following statement: "The power of 
 the keys which the Church put into the 
 hands of the priest was used in behalf of 
 the enslaved in unlocking their shackles 
 and in lightening their burdens. The 
 destruction of the feudal system in Euro'pe, 
 and the abolition of serfdom was, in con- 
 siderable part, the work of the Christian 
 Church." 
 
 In the later periods of the Church's his- 
 tory, especially after the Reformation, the 
 social influence and activity of Christen- 
 dom has been much more marked. Every 
 revival of spiritual life is accompanied by 
 a truer interpretation of the mind of Christ, 
 and a larger application of His Gospel. 
 Especially has the Church been the friend 
 of the poor and the oppressed in that it 
 has generally espoused their cause in all 
 their emergencies and distresses. John 
 Stuart Mill, who was not especially 
 friendly to Christianity, in one of his 
 works, states that the Church has in the 
 past been the friend of labor, and that 
 when the weak were prostrate at the feet 
 of the strong, the Church pleaded the 
 cause of the weak, and succeeded in mak- 
 212 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 ing kings and princes stop to regard his 
 distress. All know the vigorous words 
 which Luther spoke, rebuking the rapacity 
 of the rich, and lamenting the condition 
 of the poor. He brought the principles 
 of Christianity to bear with force on the 
 problems of society. Melanchthon also 
 applied the principles of the Christian 
 religion to the social conditions about him. 
 Richard Baxter wrote a work of over nine 
 hundred pages on the social duties of 
 Christians, and John Wesley was con- 
 stantly urging on the Church its respon- 
 sibility to the poor, and upon society the 
 rights of labor. Other great Church 
 leaders, like Chalmers and Bossuet, have 
 given much attention to social subjects; 
 and, in brief, we may say that while there 
 has been vast neglect and indifference, 
 yet by her insistence on justice between 
 employer and employed, by rebuking 
 wrong and oppression, by her declaration 
 of human brotherhood, by her vast work 
 of charity and reform, the Church of the 
 last four hundred years has had great 
 social influence, and contributed to im- 
 provement of the world's life. 
 
 213 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 At the present time the social activities 
 of the Church are manifold and to be found 
 in all our larger communities. It is no 
 longer deemed sufficient for a congregation 
 to have a building in which to gather for 
 worship, but it must be organized for all 
 forms of philanthropic work. "More and 
 more," says Washington Gladden, "a con- 
 gregation is developing from a company 
 of 'hearers' of the minister into a partner- 
 ship for the carrying out of the objects 
 of the .Christian society." Our labor 
 leaders who so persistently criticise the 
 Church should stop to consider the hos- 
 pitals it builds and maintains, where the 
 sick poor are cared for as tenderly and 
 well as though they came from the houses 
 of the rich; or the orphan asylums, where 
 the fatherless are fed, educated, and pre- 
 pared for the responsibilities of life; or 
 the asylums for the blind, the lame, the 
 aged, the deaf, the dumb, for all who are 
 wounded in the struggle of life. They 
 should think of the schools of lower grade 
 and the colleges and universities which 
 the Church maintains, and from whose 
 walls there go forth every year thousands 
 214 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 of developed men and women with high 
 Christian purposes to serve the world. 
 They should think of the social settlements, 
 the temperance organizations and crusades, 
 the city missions, the eating-houses for the' 
 poor, the lodging-houses, the sailors' 
 bethels, the free dispensaries, the employ- 
 ment bureaus, the Y. M. C. A. and the 
 Y. W. C. A. work, the rescue work for 
 abandoned women, the deaconesses and 
 nurses and Christian workers who are 
 employed or give their time for the good 
 of the poor; and they will see that, while 
 the Church is not doing all it could or 
 should, it is a vast organization of philan- 
 thropic activities whose benefits are being 
 enjoyed by the class from which, in these 
 days, the severest criticism of the Church 
 comes. 
 
 There is one movement for the better- 
 ment of the laboring class to which we 
 desire especially to briefly refer, for it 
 is a new movement and characteristic of 
 the age in which we live; namely, the 
 social settlement work which is develop- 
 ing so rapidly in all our principal cities. 
 
 215 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 It is of the greatest significance, for it 
 makes the doctrine of brotherhood enjoined 
 in Christianity a practical fact. "It shows 
 not the interest of the theorist in the study, 
 telling what ought to be done, without mak- 
 ing the effort to do it; but it is a labora- 
 tory demonstration of the philanthropic 
 and Christian spirit. It works out 'good 
 will toward men' in life." It puts the 
 value on man and not on his circumstances 
 and conditions, on his personality rather 
 than on his culture or possessions, and for 
 this reason can not but be especially ef- 
 fective in the betterment of the working 
 classes, awakening their own self-respect, 
 and securing from the well-to-do a larger 
 regard for them, and a greater apprecia- 
 tion for their needs. Such work helps 
 create a social atmosphere, and so tends 
 to secure social justice. The poor, also, 
 seeing the educated, and often the rich, 
 coming to live among them and devoting 
 themselves to their good, will be led to 
 believe as they have not before in the 
 sympathy of the upper classes and in the 
 Christian spirit of the Church. Class 
 antagonism will surely be modified, and 
 2l6 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 a better understanding of our social prob- 
 lem will result. 
 
 The spirit in which this work is done is 
 well indicated in the purpose which its 
 founder, Alfred Toynbee, affirmed when 
 he established Toynbee Hall. Having 
 come under the influence of Ruskin, he con- 
 ceived the idea of establishing a community 
 of culture and philanthropy in the midst 
 of the laboring poor of London. The 
 purpose was, in his own words, "To raise 
 the level of the social and moral conditions 
 of life, to lessen the evils of sweating and 
 heartless management in workshops and 
 factories, and to stimulate a healthier and 
 more active interest in the educational and 
 municipal movements of the neighbor- 
 hood." A hall was built "as a home for 
 university men, who, after the conclusion 
 of their university curriculum, wish to 
 combine work for others with the duties 
 of their own profession or vocation, or 
 who may be able to devote the major por- 
 tion of their time to such work." The suc- 
 cess of the idea has been great, and an 
 institution has been developed with a large 
 number of activities which has had a trans- 
 
 2IZ 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 forming effect on the community. "To- 
 day," says a visitor, "a wide machinery — 
 educational, recreative, gymnastic — is re- 
 lated to it. Its residents are managers of 
 schools, and serve in public bodies. There 
 are lecture classes, social evenings, friendly 
 societies. Conferences on social questions 
 are held. Lawyers are at hand to help 
 those who can not pay for legal advice. 
 Men and women of social status meet from 
 time to time on equal terms with the people 
 of Whitechapel." From the first the insti- 
 tution has grown in interest and impor- 
 tance. 
 
 So successful has this movement been 
 that it has been taken up and imitated in 
 most of the large cities of the English- 
 speaking world, so that social settlements 
 are a regular part of the work being done 
 for the neglected and poorer classes. Some 
 of these organizations do a more directly 
 religious work than others. A few settle- 
 ments have no religious exercises, but de- 
 pend on the deeds of the workers to speak 
 for Christ. Others combine with the edu- 
 cational work of various kinds distinct 
 religious activities. Thus Oxford House 
 218 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 in London is an institution of this kind. 
 Its purpose is thus expressed in its report in 
 1899: "It was the aim of the promoters 
 of the Settlement to undertake a social 
 work which by improving the condition of 
 social life, by efforts to promote healthy 
 recreation, by the endeavor to widen the 
 intellectual interests of men and boys, by 
 banding together in a common work all 
 who desire the improvement of the district, 
 might strengthen and organize the forces 
 of opposition to irreligion and viciousness 
 of life." It is a very active organization 
 carrying on men's and boys' clubs, night- 
 schools, musical and social entertainments, 
 lectures both on week-days and Sundays, 
 religious services, work in hospitals, homes, 
 and so forth. It has committees appointed 
 to secure better tenements, to wipe out as 
 far as possible special evils in the com- 
 munity, and it tries to encourage thrift, 
 cleanliness, economy, and virtue. It 
 reaches a large number of people and in- 
 creases in influence year by year. 
 
 Mansfield House, the settlement of the 
 Nonconformist colleges of Oxford, was 
 founded to "become common ground on 
 219 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 which men and women of various classes 
 may meet in good will, sympathy, and 
 friendship; that the residents might learn 
 something of the conditions of an indus- 
 trial neighborhood, and share its interests, 
 and endeavor to live among their neighbors 
 a simple and religious life." (Report for 
 1900.) It has the same lines of work as 
 have been described — ^brotherhoods, Sun- 
 day Union meetings, lectures, musicales, 
 reading circles, classes in sewing, cooking, 
 etc., recreation agencies, dramatic perform- 
 ances, clubs and guilds of various kinds, 
 lodging-house, convalescent home, and 
 other forms of helpful activity. 
 
 These settlements, which have been 
 briefly described, well represent the 
 methods and lines of work of the scores 
 of others which have since been founded 
 in all parts of the English-speaking world. 
 The Christian Social Union is a movement 
 similar to the University Settlement plan, 
 but placing more reliance on Christian 
 work and effort to reach the people relig- 
 iously. Its aim is described in one of its 
 reports as follows: "To extend influence 
 further and further, until this one will 
 220 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 join hands with that one across the myriads 
 of despondent toilers, and men shall realize 
 at last that the Fatherhood of God is their 
 inheritance and the brotherhood of man 
 their dearest privilege, and that these 
 together embody and fulfill the highest 
 instincts and truest aspirations of humanity 
 itself." 
 
 Somewhat similar to the social settle- 
 ment is the institutional Church which 
 has arisen in our day, and established 
 itself in many of the centers of population. 
 It, of course, differs from the settlement 
 in the residence idea, but its direct activ- 
 ities are in a measure similar. Instead of 
 making worship the sole end of the Church, 
 it makes service a very vital part of it. It 
 is usually established in a downtown dis- 
 trict where population is dense, and it aims 
 especially to reach the laboring class. The 
 Open and Industrial Church League thus 
 expresses the aims of the institutional 
 Church: "Inasmuch as the Christ came 
 not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
 the open and institutional Church, filled 
 and moved by His spirit of ministering 
 love, seeks to become the center and source 
 
 221 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 of all beneficent and philanthropic effort, 
 and to take the leading part in every move- 
 ment which has for its end the alleviation 
 of human suffering, the elevation of man, 
 and the betterment of the world. 
 
 "Thus the open and institutional Church 
 aims to save all men and all of the man 
 by all means, abolishing, so far as possible, 
 the distinction between the religious and 
 the secular, and sanctifying all days and 
 all means to the great end of saving the 
 world for Christ." 
 
 The institutional Church is an attempt 
 to adapt the Church to the changed condi- 
 tions of the times. Dr. Josiah Strong has 
 so well described it that we can not do 
 better than to quote from him. He says: 
 "It finds that the people living around it 
 have in their homes no opportunity to take 
 a bath; it therefore furnishes bathing 
 facilities. It sees that the people have little 
 or no healthful social life; it accordingly 
 opens attractive social rooms, and organ- 
 izes clubs for men, women, boys, and girls. 
 The people know little of legitimate amuse- 
 ment; the Church therefore provides it. 
 They are ignorant of household economy; 
 
 222 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 the Church establishes its cooking-schools, 
 its sewing classes, and the like. In their 
 homes the people have few books and 
 papers; in the Church they find a free 
 reading-room and library. The homes 
 afford no opportunity for intellectual cul- 
 tivation ; the Church opens evening schools, 
 and provides lecture courses. As in the 
 human organism, when one organ fails, 
 its functions are often undertaken and 
 more or less imperfectly performed by some 
 other organ, so in the great social organism 
 of the city, when the home fails, the Church 
 sometimes undertakes the function of the 
 home. Such a Church we call 'institu- 
 tional.' " 
 
 The number of Churches taking up 
 some such form of work is rapidly increas- 
 ing. In New York alone there are said 
 to be one hundred and twelve Churches 
 which have incorporated some institu- 
 tional features and some of them are vast 
 organizations of social and religious ac- 
 tivity for the betterment of the people. 
 The value of these methods is seen from 
 the fact that it is stated on good authority 
 that the increase in membership of the 
 223 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 institutional Churches in our larger cities 
 is six times as great as in the societies 
 which have not taken up the new methods. 
 
 There are other agencies at work, such 
 as the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A., 
 the deaconess movement^ the city mission 
 work of various kinds, the schools to teach 
 the laboring classes in the evenings, the 
 kindergarten work among the poor, the 
 fresh-air mission, the work among immi- 
 grants, the rescue work, and scores of other 
 forms of activity, by no means overlooking 
 the Salvation Army, which manifest the 
 interest that the modern Church is taking 
 in fulfilling its social mission. 
 
 But the Church is not limiting itself 
 to merely philanthropic and religious ac- 
 tivities ; it is alive to the labor problem 
 which has assumed such vast proportions 
 in our day. We constantly have indications 
 that a new interest is developing in the 
 Church in this all-important question. 
 One needs but read the religious papers 
 to see how repeatedly some phase of 
 it is discussed. Our great theolog- 
 ical reviews which formerly confined 
 themselves to theological and exegetical 
 224 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 discussions now publish elaborate articles 
 relating to the social problem, and our 
 foremost economists are expressing them- 
 selves through these avenues. Any one who 
 will take such a periodical as Bibliotheca 
 Sacra and count the articles published 
 during the first fifteen years of its existence 
 on labor questions and social problems, 
 and then count those that have been pub- 
 lished during the past fifteen years, will 
 awake to the change of attitude. Books 
 also are constantly being published of a 
 sociological or economic character by our 
 leading clergymen and theologians, indi- 
 cating that the cause of the workingman 
 has got the ear of the Church. When we 
 see such great Christian scholars as Dr. 
 Flint and Dr. Fairbairn turning aside 
 from their profound theological investi- 
 gations, with all the pressure for scholarly 
 work upon them in their own field, to pub- 
 lish books on the social problem, we per- 
 ceive how the Church is stirred. The same 
 is manifest when we turn to the pulpit, and 
 note how frequently and how comprehen- 
 sively the labor problem is discussed. 
 There is not a Sabbath but what some 
 15 225 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 phase of, the labor question is considered 
 in every large city in the land, and when 
 there is a social disturbance, a strike, or 
 other difficulty on hand, the pulpit is 
 abundant in its expressions of opinion. 
 Our theological seminaries also, in many 
 cases, have chairs on sociology, or profess- 
 ors who are giving courses on socialism, 
 applied sociology. Christian ethics, in 
 which the problems of labor are discussed, 
 and the principles of Christianity are 
 applied to the questions of the times. We 
 do not mean by this that the Church is 
 fully awake, but we do insist that it is 
 awaking. 
 
 The Church is also doing more than 
 discussing the problem; it is taking a 
 hand in settling it. It is quite noteworthy 
 how often the Church has had an influence 
 in leading the contending parties in social 
 strife to arbitrate. Frequently ministerial 
 meetings, through their resolutions and 
 appointed committees, have brought about 
 a settlement. It is also interesting to see 
 how frequently clergymen have been 
 brought in to help arbitrate labor difficul- 
 ties. Even the President of the United 
 226 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 States recognized their interest in such 
 problems and their competency to act upon 
 them, when he appointed a clergyman on 
 the commission to investigate the coal 
 strike a couple of years ago, the most im- 
 portant committee ever constituted to arbi- 
 trate a labor difficulty. 
 
 Some Churches have also taken up this 
 question in a more direct way. Thus the 
 Established Church in Great Britain has 
 founded "The Christian Social Union of 
 England," having at its head for some 
 years the Lord Bishop of Durham, its 
 object being "To claim for the Christian 
 law the ultimate authority to rule social 
 practice;" "To study in common how to 
 apply the moral truths and principles of 
 Christianity to the social and economic 
 difficulties of the present time;" "To pre- 
 sent Christ in practical life as the Living 
 Master and King, the enemy of wrong and 
 selfishness, the power of righteousness and 
 love." Among the officers are such men 
 as Canon Gore, Professor Sanday, Canon 
 Scott Holland, and leading professors in 
 the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. 
 In the manifesto sent out, this statement is 
 227 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 set forth: "We start with the convic- 
 tion which has been for so long stamped 
 on every heart that feels or brain that 
 thinks, that the time is come to vote urgency 
 for the social question. We believe that 
 political problems are rapidly giving 
 place to the industrial problem, which is 
 proving itself more and more the question 
 of the hour. It is the condition of industry 
 which is absorbing all attention and all 
 anxieties. It is the needs and necessities of 
 industry which are the motive power now 
 at work to mold and direct the fortunes 
 of human society. It is the intolerable sit- 
 uation in which our industrial problem 
 now finds itself, that must force upon us 
 a reconsideration of the economic princi- 
 ples and methods which have such disas- 
 trous and terrible results. There is a 'social 
 question,' and it demands urgency." 
 
 In this country also the Episcopal 
 Church has an organization known as "The 
 Christian Social Union of the United 
 States and Canada." Its objects are de- 
 fined in its constitution to be the same as 
 those of the English Social Union, men- 
 tioned above. The methods to be pur- 
 228 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 sued are: "i. Prayer. 2. The publica- 
 tion of leaflets, monographs, and treatises 
 which relate to Christian Sociology and 
 the recommendation of courses of reading. 
 3. The employment of a suitable person 
 to present the principles of the Union in 
 Churches and other public places, but es- 
 pecially in schools, colleges, and theolog- 
 ical seminaries, as opportunity may offer, 
 and thus to impress Christian people with 
 the urgent need of bringing to the treat- 
 ment of all social subjects the essential 
 truths of the Gospel of Christ. 4. The 
 preaching of sermons by clerical members 
 on topics connected with the Union, espe- 
 cially upon the first Sunday in May, or 
 the Sunday before the first Monday in Sep- 
 tember (Labor-day). 5. The encourage- 
 ment of the study of social science by the 
 establishment of prizes, scholarships, fel- 
 lowships, lectureships, and professorships, 
 in so far as the funds shall be provided 
 therefor. 6. The formation of local 
 circles or branches for the study of courses 
 of reading, the careful observation of 
 existing conditions of social life, and such 
 practical work as may suggest itself. 7. 
 229 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 The encouragement in individuals and in 
 local branches of efforts for the promotion 
 of industrial peace, and for the preserva- 
 tion of friendly relations where they do 
 not exist. 8. Annual conventions of the 
 general body, as well as conventions of 
 the Local Unions of a part of our own 
 territory. 9. Such other lines of work as 
 may be suggested and approved here- 
 after." 
 
 There is another association in the Epis- 
 copal Church called, "The Church Asso- 
 ciation for the Advancement of the Inter- 
 ests of Labor," which indicates the interest 
 of this denomination in the social problem. 
 It was founded in 1887, with Bishop F. 
 D. Huntington as president, and Bishop H. 
 C. Potter as one of the vice-presidents. 
 The association set forth the following 
 statement of principles and methods: 
 
 Principles: "i. It is the essence of the 
 teachings of Jesus Christ that God is the 
 Father of all men, and that all men are 
 brothers. 2. God is the sole possessor of 
 the earth and its fullness; man is but the 
 steward of God's bounty. 3. Labor being 
 the exercise of body, mind, and spirit, in 
 230 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 the broadening and elevating of human 
 lif6, it is the duty of every man to labor 
 diligently. 4. Labor, as thus defined, 
 should be the standard of social worth. 
 5. When the divinely intended oppor- 
 tunity to labor is given to all men, one great 
 cause of the present widespread suffering 
 and destitution will be removed." 
 
 Methods: "i. Prayer. 2. Sermons set- 
 ting forth the teaching of the gospel as 
 the guide to the solution of every question 
 involved in the interests of labor. 3. The 
 proper use of the press and the circula- 
 tion of tracts as occasion may require. 4. 
 Lectures and addresses on occasion when 
 the interests of labor may be advanced. 5. 
 The encouragement by precept and ex- 
 ample of a conscientious and proper use 
 of the ballot." 
 
 Of its practical workings Dr. Josiah 
 Strong thus speaks: "The association, 
 while advising and advocating the organ- 
 ization of labor in trade-unions, is equally 
 willing to aid unorganized labor in its 
 legitimate struggles. It believes in the 
 efficacy of just and humane legislation 
 for the benefit of labor, and gladly joins 
 231 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 in every attempt to secure such legislation 
 or enforce labor laws already on the statute 
 books. 
 
 "In 1893 it was successful in establish- 
 ing a permanent Board of Conciliation and 
 Arbitration, under the chairmanship of 
 Bishop Potter. It has also aided in efforts 
 to minimize the evils of the sweating system 
 and the tenement-house abuses. It assists 
 factory and workshop inspection, both by 
 State officials and by its own efforts." 
 This organization has an organ called the 
 Hammer and Pen, which takes an aggres- 
 sive attitude on the labor question. 
 
 The Protestant Episcopal Church also 
 has a standing committee on "The Rela- 
 tions of Labor and Capital of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church." The commission is 
 appointed regularly by the General Con- 
 vention, and was established by the Conven- 
 tion which met in Washington in 1901. Its 
 duties were defined to be as follows: "i. 
 To study the aims and purposes of the 
 labor organizations of our country. 2. 
 In particular to investigate the causes of 
 industrial disturbances, as these may arise. 
 3. To hold themselves in readiness to act 
 232 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 as arbitrators, should their services be 
 desired, between the men and their em- 
 ployers, with a view to bring about mutual 
 conciliation and harmony in the spirit of 
 the Prince of Peace." Connected with this 
 commission are such men as Bishop 
 Lawrence, Bishop Potter, Dean Hodges, 
 Jacob Riis, and others celebrated in the 
 Church. 
 
 The Congregational Church is much 
 alive on the labor problem. Some of its 
 foremost clergymen, like the late Dr. 
 Behrends and Dr. Washington Gladden, 
 have written able works upon it. Its pul- 
 pits often sound forth its convictions, and 
 its periodicals are full of articles discussing 
 all phases of the question. It has no organ- 
 ization like the Church Union, but like 
 the Episcopal Church it has a standing 
 committee, appointed by its General As- 
 sembly, and composed of some of the 
 ablest men in the denomination. The last 
 report of this commission is full of interest 
 and shows how thoroughly in earnest this 
 Christian body is becoming on the labor 
 problem. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church has recently 
 
 233 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 undertaken to interest in a special way the 
 laboring classes. It has organized a depart- 
 ment for special effort among working- 
 men under its general Board of Home 
 Missions, and the Rev. Chas. Stelzle has 
 been appointed secretary. He is a very 
 competent man, having arisen out of the 
 ranks of the laborers into the ministry, and 
 having been in earlier life something of 
 a leader in organized labor. He is espe- 
 cially well informed on the various phases 
 of the labor problem, trades-unions, social- 
 ism, the single-tax question, and so forth. 
 He spends much of his time on the field 
 seeking to interest the Church in labor, 
 and laborers in the Church. He holds 
 evangelistic services in the cities to which 
 he is invited, speaking at the noon hour 
 in factories, and in the evening in halls 
 wherever workingmen can be best congre- 
 gated. He arranges conferences between 
 labor leaders and ministerial meetings, 
 and tries to secure the appointment of fra- 
 ternal delegates between such organiza- 
 tions. The delegate from the local minis- 
 terial association visits the labor union, 
 and so with the delegate of the labor organ- 
 
 234 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 zation. It is hoped by this means to es- 
 tablish friendly relations and secure mu- 
 tually a better understanding. In many 
 cases this plan has been carried out and 
 succeeded in establishing cordial relations 
 between the two organizations. Confer- 
 ences of Christian workers to discuss the 
 Church's obligation to labor are also held 
 in different localities. When possible, 
 members of individual Churches are or- 
 ganized to study the question, and to meet 
 more efficiently the problems of the com- 
 munity in which it is organized. Besides 
 this is the work of distributing literature. 
 The Board publishes a series of tracts, 
 several by Mr. Stelzle, which relate to 
 various phases of the social problem and 
 the laborer's relation to the Church, and 
 these are widely distributed. With the 
 energy the secretary is putting into the 
 work, it will doubtless result in much 
 good. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church has, 
 from the beginning, been a Church of the 
 common people and taken an interest in 
 their struggles and progress. John Wesley 
 said so much on the social problem that 
 
 235 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 a book has been written giving extracts 
 and statements of his teachings on socio- 
 logical and economic questions. His views 
 were in advance of his time on this as on 
 many other topics, and he manifested a 
 great interest in the laborer's sufferings 
 and the injustices to which he was subject. 
 He had stern words to say to capital when 
 selfish, and strong words to say about the 
 rights of every individual, no matter what 
 his social condition. From his day there 
 has always been much sympathy with the 
 desires of the proletariate to reach a higher 
 social life. At the present time the utter- 
 ances of many clergymen of this denomi- 
 nation are advanced and emphatic. The 
 interest of the Church as a whole is seen 
 in the fact that for more than a dozen 
 years Ely's "Introduction to Political 
 Economy" has been in the course of study 
 prescribed by the Board of Bishops for 
 preachers as the conditions of full admis- 
 sion to Conference and "elders' orders." 
 For some years the same author's "Social 
 Aspects of Christianity" was in the same 
 course. Thus this Church has, at least by 
 implication, recognized the existence and 
 236 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 importance of special social and labor^^ 
 problems. But besides the fact of having 
 its preachers forced to study books relating 
 to the problem, the address of the Board 
 of Bishops to the General Conference 
 shows the attitude of the denomination to 
 the social question. This address is a kind 
 of authoritative statement from the heads 
 of the Church concerning its attitude and 
 position on important matters. In sev- 
 eral addresses the social problem has been 
 treated. The last General Conference met 
 in Los Angeles in May, 1904, and in the 
 masterly address there delivered we find 
 a section which reads as follows: 
 
 "Employers and Employed 
 "Assuredly one of the burning questions 
 of to-day is the relation of employer and 
 employed. It may smolder here or there 
 for a time, but somewhere it breaks forth 
 in volcanic eruption every month, and now 
 and then it shakes the whole social fabric 
 like an earthquake. The marvelous mul- 
 tiplication of labor-saving machinery, and 
 the vast aggregations of capital until many 
 thousands of men are employed by a single 
 
 237 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 firm, have rendered impossible the old- 
 time personal interest and sympathy which 
 existed when the employer knew each of 
 his workmen and met his apprentices daily 
 at his own table. Great labor organiza- 
 tions have become universal, and are offset 
 by vast trusts wielding hundreds of mil- 
 lions of capital. The workers with brain 
 and the workers with hands are often 
 found in hostile camps, between which 
 sharp collisions are alarmingly frequent 
 and disastrous. Strikes break forth, caus- 
 ing the loss of millions of money on both 
 sides, attended by lockouts, boycotts, in- 
 timidation, arson, riot, and assassination. 
 Often the general public is a greater suf- 
 ferer than either of the organizations 
 directly concerned. The police are over- 
 powered, the military are called forth, 
 and for months there is a virtual state of 
 war. The struggle goes on increasing in 
 bitterness until one party or the other in 
 total exhaustion sullenly submits, or a 
 lame and unsatisfactory compromise is 
 effected. 
 
 "A situation leading to such enormous 
 waste, and so fomenting evil passions can 
 238 
 
Social Work of the Church 
 
 not fail to command the intense attention 
 of the Church of God, which was founded 
 by Him who died to save all sorts of men 
 from their sins and from such frightful 
 consequences of sin. The Church must 
 come in between these vast contending 
 forces, holding aloft the banner of the 
 Cross to which both must bow, and offerr 
 ing to both the Sermon on the Mount as 
 the perfect charter of the rights and the 
 duties of both. Never, until the Church 
 shall lay the Golden Rule upon the con- 
 science of capitalists and of laborers, will 
 the golden millennium of industrial peace 
 be ushered in. 
 
 "In all this contention it need hardly be 
 said that the sympathy of the Church 
 must to a large extent be with those con- 
 cerning whom Abraham Lincoln quaintly 
 said: 'The Lord must like the common 
 people, else He would not have made so 
 many of them,' doubtless having in mind 
 the fact that when Jesus was on earth 
 'the common people heard Him gladly.' 
 
 "In spite of all the blunders made by 
 labor leaders and the indefensible acts of 
 their followers, philanthropic men must 
 
 239 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 wish them success in every lawful eflfort 
 to better their condition and secure their 
 rights. But they must learn from their 
 real friends that every act of violence 
 hurts their cause and that law and order 
 must be maintained at all hazards. We 
 recognize as significant and hopeful the 
 recent movement led by certain capitalists 
 to settle by arbitration all disputes between 
 labor and capital." 
 
 Other denominations have, by resolu- 
 tions of their assemblies, official statements, 
 committees appointed, or literature pub- 
 lished, shown that the Church has, during 
 the past twenty years, had a great awak- 
 ening on the social problem, and is now 
 looking it squarely in the face. It can 
 not do otherwise. The industrial question 
 is the greatest that confronts our modem 
 world, and the greatest that confronts the 
 Church. It is gratifying to see what the 
 Church has already done in relation to the 
 problem, but it is also discouraging to 
 realize what yet remains to be done. We 
 conclude this discussion with the follow- 
 ing important utterance of Bishop Bur- 
 gess: "The Church does well to take a 
 240 
 
Social Work of the CHurcH 
 
 deep interest in all questions of capital 
 and labor, and to endeavor to be a com- 
 mon meeting ground, where earnest and 
 faithful men on both sides can meet and 
 understand one another the better. The 
 continual changes in the cost of living in 
 different parts of our country will con- 
 stantly demand reconsideration of the rates 
 of payment for labor. The greed and 
 heartlessness of some men in positions of 
 trust and authority require watchfulness 
 on the part of honest men of all classes. 
 The Sunday must be protected, and the 
 principles of rest one day in seven must 
 be asserted and reasserted. In all these 
 questions the Church must not be silent. 
 She must remonstrate against abuses, no 
 matter whence they come ; she must speak 
 for justice, fairness, honesty, humanity. 
 iBut her leaders must be sure of the facts 
 before they pronounce judgment, and re- 
 member that for any hasty decision the 
 cause of reform may have to pay a heavy 
 penalty." 
 
 i6 241 
 
Chapter VI. 
 
 THE PROPER ATTITUDE OF THE 
 
 CHURCH IN THE SOCIAL 
 
 CRISIS 
 
 THE present is an hour of great re- 
 sponsibility, for it is an hour of 
 crisis, and hours of crisis are 
 times for the Church to awake and work. 
 Says Dr. Richard Ely, who has shown 
 special interest in the ethical and religious 
 bearings of the social problem: "A crisis 
 means an opportunity, and the present 
 social crisis is the Church's unprecedented, 
 unparalleled opportunity. The Church can 
 not stand athwart the path of progress and 
 prevent the outward movement of the 
 mighty social forces which are sweeping 
 over us. Any attempt to stop these forces 
 is reckless madness. The Church may, 
 however, direct these forces into such fruit- 
 ful channels that they may become power- 
 ful for the good of man and the glory of 
 242 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 God." If it does not do this, if it fails to 
 assert its proper and rightful leadership 
 — for in everything which affects its own 
 growth and influence, which has to do with 
 the moral welfare of mankind and the 
 relations of man to man, the Church 
 should lead — the result will be that the 
 movement will fall into the hands of an 
 irreligious materialism, which will not 
 only be disastrous to the Church but to 
 society itself. This is, indeed, as we have 
 seen in a previous chapter, the tendency 
 to-day ; for the Church, failing in its social 
 mission, has lost the respect and sympathy 
 of multitudes of the laboring people, who 
 have come to look for assistance to other 
 ' agencies and organizations, some of which, 
 like socialism, are sodden with unbelief. 
 It is to be feared that few Churches re- 
 alize what the workingmen in their or- 
 ganizations are saying, what indifference 
 they feel to the Church, and what a hatred 
 they have for the present economic system. 
 It is in their minds that men are being 
 consumed, families are being oppressed, 
 and material rights are being taken away by 
 the growth of capital; and the Church, 
 
 243 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 if it will retain their sympathy, must come 
 forward, put itself in the breach between 
 the employing and the employed classes, 
 and seek in earnest to help solve the 
 problems which are beginning to make the 
 foundations of society tremble. Only 
 when the workingmen see that the Church 
 is alive to their interests, is anxious to 
 have their wrongs righted, and their con- 
 dition improved, will they again regard it 
 with favor. 
 
 But beyond this the Church should 
 awake to the importance of the social 
 problem; for the Church alone can solve 
 it as it alone can solve all the deeper 
 problems of society. Economists may 
 write, sociologists may devise, political 
 philosophers may expound, and special- 
 ists may labor; but the world will only 
 be saved by Christ; and the great prob- 
 lems of human society will only be solved 
 as His morals and ideals are applied to 
 them. Men may not wish to admit this, 
 and the skeptical sociologist may laugh at 
 it, but history is witness to its truth. The 
 Gospel has so far proved inadequate for 
 an age of industrial conflict and revolu- 
 244 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 tion; for it has been partially declared, 
 partially applied, and given a narrow 
 interpretation; but when its full meaning 
 for the world is realized, when the rela- 
 tion of its great principles and profound 
 truths to daily life is appreciated, we shall 
 see that all the reforms will come which 
 are so much needed in the social life of 
 the people. 
 
 Having emphasized the fact that the 
 Church must be awake to the importance 
 of the social problem, we now stop to 
 inquire what its attitude in the social crisis 
 should be. 
 
 First, we affirm that the Church should 
 sympathize with the working classes in 
 their effort to improve their condition. 
 As an institution the great effort of the 
 Church is human betterment. From the 
 beginning it has preached the gospel of 
 aspiration, and urged men to realize their 
 dignity as spiritual beings. It wants to cre- 
 ate a higher and better type of men upon 
 the earth. And this we have shown to 
 be the underlying impulse of the social 
 movement. The workingman may be said 
 to have discovered himself, and has done 
 
 245 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 this largely through this appeal of the 
 Church to his worth as a person, to his 
 value as a child of God, and to his need 
 of constant progress. The spiritual indi- 
 vidualism of Christianity has begun to be 
 realized in human society. In the Middle 
 Ages and before, this was obscured in the 
 State by the dominating power of the 
 feudal lord, and in the Church by the 
 dominating power of the priest. The 
 •vox populi was hushed by the authority 
 of the head of the State, reigning, as was 
 claimed, by divine right, and asserting 
 his will in the interests of the nobles and 
 especially of himself; and in the Church 
 by the Pope, the vicar of Christ, ruling 
 through bishop and clergy. In both cases 
 the assumption was that the people were 
 to obey what the potentates above pro- 
 claimed, but no voice was to come from 
 them. When the king came to dominance 
 over the Church, as occurred in some lands, 
 the people were little better off; for the 
 nobles were as rigid and merciless, as in- 
 different to the rights of the people as the 
 feudal lords had been. They were ruled 
 by classes and dumb by necessity of the 
 246 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 condition. But time brought its change. 
 Philosophy and religion both came to 
 champion free speech, and the worth of 
 man. The principle of individualism 
 came into the foreground of thought. The 
 idea of the rights of man found expres- 
 sion in the works of Locke and Rousseau. 
 The dissemination of the principle of 
 Protestantism, necessarily led to the idea 
 of liberty; for its emphasis on the 
 value of personality and the doctrine of 
 human brotherhood created an impulse 
 toward personal independence and a sense 
 of manhood which resulted in the present 
 condition, where the laborer asserts him- 
 self, and demands, on the platform that 
 he is a man, a social condition such as 
 shall assist him in the development of his 
 manhood and the achievement of his God- 
 appointed destiny. The Church being 
 responsible for this advanced position and 
 awakened aspiration, at least in a large 
 measure, must sympathize at least with its 
 underlying purpose and meaning. 
 
 Another reason why the Church must 
 sympathize with the laborer's effort for 
 improvement is that society is the loser if 
 
 247 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 it keep him down, if wages are so low 
 that he can not develop his natural powers. 
 The serfs of Russia are not efficient work- 
 men. An ignorant negro can not earn as 
 much for his employer as an intelligent 
 white. A father once said to his son, 
 when the latter was leaving home: "My 
 son, remember that not he who works 
 hardest succeeds best, but he who thinks 
 best." President Angel told the sultan of 
 Turkey, who asked if he could buy such 
 guns as Dewey used at Manila, "Yes; 
 but what you can not buy is the men 
 behind the guns." It is the quality of the 
 man behind the gun, behind the plow, 
 behind the machine, behind the forge, 
 behind the pen, which determines the re- 
 sult. Says Theremin, "Eloquence is the 
 man;" it is the man who makes toil re- 
 sult in success, who changes barbarism to 
 civilization. Hence the conditions of labor 
 should not be such as to hinder men from 
 that development of intelligence and virtue 
 which will make them most efficient. 
 Capital will reap larger harvests if it pays 
 such salaries and gives such time as will 
 enable the working classes to cultivate 
 248 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 heart and mind, to develop in intellectual 
 and moral worth, and to realize their best 
 development. Standing for human prog- 
 ress and human good, and realizing this 
 important fact, the Church must desire 
 the most favorable conditions for the prole- 
 tariate. 
 
 Nor can the Church be too severe on 
 the workingman if he does many unwise 
 and wrong things in his efforts to elevate 
 himself from a state of misery, poverty, and 
 frequently degradation. He is usually an 
 ignorant man, and he will often follow 
 erratic and injudicous leaders. He feels 
 the burden of his condition, a sense of in- 
 justice has gotten hold on him, and he 
 knows not how to relieve himself, so we 
 may expect him to become an easy prey 
 for socialist and anarchist. He has not 
 learned self-control, nor matured the judg- 
 ment which comes to men with better 
 opportunity, and we must expect that he 
 will at times be stirred to passion, and 
 mob and terrify and resort to acts of vio- 
 lence. We may expect that the sense of 
 injustice he feels will lead some to become 
 fanatical, and resort to high-handed 
 249 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 methods. This is the inevitable result of 
 the social conditions, and the impulse for 
 improvement which has been awakened. 
 We can not expect the laboring man to be 
 always discreet, and we must not judge 
 his cause by what some extremists say and 
 do. We must consider what we might do, 
 if trained as he has been, and influenced as 
 he is. The Church especially must be 
 patient, and must feel that it is not so 
 much its mission to denounce as to get the 
 ear of this man, and advise him and hold 
 him in check, and instruct him in right 
 methods of procedure. 
 
 The attitude of the Church to the social 
 problem must be that of studious consid- 
 eration. It can not discharge its obliga- 
 tions, do its appointed work in the world, 
 and be ignorant in relation to a problem 
 which vitally affects the condition of mil- 
 lions of men. The time was when it was 
 sufficient if it understood abstract theology 
 and Scripture exegesis, but now sociology 
 and economics must be added to the cur- 
 riculum. The Church has a mission to 
 laboring men, and it must know the con- 
 ditions under which they live and how they 
 250 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 think and feel. It will not do for it to 
 content itself in propagating ideas which 
 it has found, but it must realize that each 
 age has its problems, that the social out- 
 look and conditions of each generation are 
 new, and that the Gospel must be applied 
 to the needs of the times. The Church 
 must go deep into the places where men 
 live, into the homes and experiences of the 
 "submerged tenth ;" into their struggles, 
 their passions, their ideas and ideals. To 
 do this, since the problems are dark and 
 difficult, there must be careful considera- 
 tion, sympathetic and earnest investigation, 
 wide reading, and an effort to get down to 
 the facts and principles on which the prob- 
 lem rests. The works of the great econo- 
 mists, like Sedgwick and Marshall, must be 
 earnestly studied. Nothing but evil can 
 result from superficial utterances on a 
 question never fathomed, never earnestly 
 considered or intelligently grasped. The 
 clergy especially must engage in the study 
 of social philosophy. The questions of 
 society press in upon them. They can not 
 get away from them. No amount of 
 knowledge of Hebrew and Greek exegesis, 
 251 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 or the history of doctrine, or the rules of 
 homiletics, will fit a man to preach the 
 gospel properly to this age. As a class, 
 clergymen are not potent and original 
 forces in society; for they simply absorb 
 the social atmosphere of their parishes, 
 and represent the traditional ideas of dogma 
 and religion which have come down to 
 them. They do not see the problems of 
 the hour, for they do not read the labor 
 organs, do not read books on the social 
 problem, do not think on the condition of 
 the lower classes, and do not know life in 
 large and comprehensive relations. They 
 have a philosophy of existence which their 
 study of theology has given them, and it 
 sums up in the idea that all men are sinners, 
 that the evils of society are all evils of the 
 heart, and that they are to preach Christ 
 as a Savior, and let the world right itself 
 by men getting converted. Now, we do not 
 underestimate the fact of sin, nor the 
 power of Christ, but we say without hesi- 
 tancy that the Gospel is the application 
 of the principles of Christianity to the 
 life of man, private and social; and 
 252 
 
'Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 the preacher who confines himself to 
 old and formal presentations of sin 
 and salvation does not preach the 
 Gospel in its breadth and power, and 
 that he will not get much of a hearing, as 
 the facts to-day show; for our Churches 
 are half empty under the discussion of these 
 themes. But if the pulpit understood the 
 problems of to-day; would take up live 
 questions and treat them from the Christian 
 standpoint; would be a prophetic voice 
 denouncing the evils of the time as they 
 assert themselves in social practices and 
 customs; would espouse the cause of the 
 poor and oppressed ; would thunder against 
 dishonesty in business and gambling on 
 the stock exchange ; would demand rest for 
 laborers on the Sabbath, and that the laws 
 against the saloons be enforced; if they 
 would study these great questions, and the 
 ethics of Christ in relation to these matters, 
 and hit actual sin in the face ; if they would 
 study sociology and be wise in these ques- 
 tions of present day needs — then the 
 Churches would fill up, men would turn 
 to the Church, it would become a factor 
 
 253 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 in human society, and the community 
 would be built up and strengthened through 
 it far more than is the case at present. 
 
 Our theological seminaries should appre- 
 ciate this fact and establish chairs of social 
 science, where the problems of the day, 
 and especially the labor problem, should 
 be discussed and interpreted in the light 
 of the principles of the Gospel of Christ. 
 Prof. Ely says : "Half the time of a theo- 
 logical student should be devoted to the 
 study of social science, and theological sem- 
 inaries should be the chief intellectual 
 centers of sociology." Perhaps the pro- 
 fessor has asked a good deal of time for 
 his specialty; but if our greatest philos- 
 ophers and economists, if our universities 
 can find here a subject of the profoundest 
 importance and the greatest interest; if 
 we have in the question the problem of 
 society, of the welfare of millions, of the 
 growth of the Church, of the preservation 
 of the present social and economic system; 
 if the morals of men and the success of the 
 Church are involved, the future clergyman 
 would find it profitable if in his seminary 
 course he could become thoroughly versed 
 
 254 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 in all phases of this great and far-reaching 
 social movement of the day. 
 
 The attitude of the Church must be 
 favorable to all right efforts to secure im- 
 proved social conditions — conditions which 
 are most advantageous for human happi- 
 ness and the development of life and 
 character. We can not too repeatedly 
 emphasize the fact that social condi- 
 tions affect not only the physical well- 
 being, but also the moral and religious life 
 of the people. The community is the set- 
 ting of this life. It is in interaction with 
 the community that we work out the prob- 
 lem of our destiny. We have the com- 
 munity ever crowding its ideals and its 
 atmosphere upon us, and each generation 
 is to no small extent a product of the com- 
 munity into which it is born. There is 
 much truth in the statement of the evolu- 
 tion-moralists : "The moral development 
 of a given period is determined by the 
 corresponding state of the social evolution." 
 An evil society is not favorable to high 
 moral progress. The moralist is a preacher 
 who descants eloquently upon certain vir- 
 tues, but who would probably be violat- 
 
 255 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 ing all of them if he had been reared in 
 the slums of some great city, and were a 
 child of "the submerged tenth." Jean Val- 
 jean was not a bad man, but starving 
 children led him to steal a loaf of bread. 
 Later, in the environment of the galleys, he 
 became morally dead and hard. In the 
 great panic of 1894-6, Church members, 
 who hated the liquor business, took posi- 
 tions in saloons to feed their children, and 
 lost their religion in doing it, and respect- 
 able women, forced by poverty and the 
 desire to feed their offspring, consorted 
 with men without being married to them. 
 Many a Sunday-school girl has fallen into 
 sin in our cities because the. wages she got 
 in the factory or store of some Church 
 member would not pay the expense of liv- 
 ing. Men can sin against the light when 
 pushed hard by circumstances, when the 
 cupboard is empty and the wolf of poverty 
 looks them in the face. If we get too large 
 a class of the poor and unfortunate, we 
 shall see many entering the ranks of pub- 
 licans and sinners, who, under better social 
 conditions, would sit with the saints. Says 
 Mr. Rauschenbusch : "The harder it is 
 256 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 under our social environment to do the 
 plain righteousness demanded by the stand- 
 ards of every-day life, the less likely it is 
 that Christians generally will live up to 
 the more exacting demands of the peculiar 
 morality of Jesus which is theoretically 
 the standard of the Church. . . . For the 
 mass of Christian people obedience to the 
 ethics of Jesus becomes more remote as the 
 social conditions in which they live make 
 the practice of the ordinary virtues the 
 harder." 
 
 But if this is true of Christian people, 
 how much more is this the case with those 
 who are not held by the religious bond! 
 There are social conditions to-day in all 
 our large cities which practically, if not 
 absolutely, preclude the possibility of the 
 development of virtue. Says Mr. F. A. 
 Walker : "Of 309 cottages at Ramsbottom, 
 one of the best districts in Lancashire, 137 
 had but one bed-room each, the aggregate 
 occupants being 771. In Berlin in thou- 
 sands of cases families of from four to ten 
 live in one or two rooms. So in the tene- 
 ments of all of our large cities. A writer 
 tells us that in New York he found twenty- 
 ^7 257 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 one persons sleeping on the floor in an 
 apartment twenty by eighteen feet, and in 
 the crowd were women and children, Ital- 
 ians, negroes, Irish, and Americans." Such 
 conditions can but result in the prostitution 
 of virtue and the increase of crime. The 
 wages of the laborers in the south of 
 Europe and in Russia have led to a lack 
 of virtue and honesty among large num- 
 bers of the working people. A wealthy 
 capitalist, on returning from Europe, said 
 to the writer, concerning the laboring 
 classes in Italy and Greece and in North 
 Africa: "They are not worth keeping 
 alive. It is a question if the world 
 would not be better off if they could be 
 got rid of." He did not think that these 
 people are the victims of economic condi- 
 tions and of a social environment into 
 which they have been born without their 
 own consent, and which made it practically 
 impossible for them to be other than they 
 are. The problem of society is not to kill 
 off the victims, but to redeem the social 
 conditions. It is well for us to remember 
 the words of Ruskin : "The poor we must 
 have with us always, and sorrow is insep- 
 258 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 arable from any hour of life ; but we may 
 make their poverty such as shall be hal- 
 lowed by the hand of the Comforter with 
 everlasting comfort." 
 
 But how shall this be accomplished? 
 It can not be done under a principle of 
 natural selection, and the unrestricted law 
 of competition in the economic world 
 amounts to this. Progress under natural 
 selection may mean that the multitude are 
 to be sacrificed to the advantage of the 
 few who have the power and who shape 
 the environment. What is needed is a 
 reconstructed environment; such a change 
 in social conditions, in economic conditions, 
 in the facts and figures which make up 
 actual society, that the laborer will have 
 a chance to develop his personality and 
 magnify his manhood, rather than be 
 crushed by circumstances from which he 
 can not extricate himself and which he can 
 not overcome. The Church can properly 
 take a hand here ; for it is within its sphere 
 and a part of its mission to be the friend 
 of the weak, the unfortunate, the down- 
 trodden, the thousands who are caught in 
 the chariot wheels of progress. It should 
 
 259 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 insist that the needs of men are more than 
 "meat, malt, and mattress," and that, as a 
 moral person, the laborer should receive 
 from society not only enough for back and 
 mouth, but such opportunities for recrea- 
 tion, intelligence, and moral culture as will 
 enable him to develop a moral character. 
 The Church has the right — ^yea, the duty — 
 to proclaim that the good is the end of all 
 men, and any condition of society which 
 makes it impossible or unduly difficult for 
 them to attain the good, is wrong, and needs 
 reforming. 
 
 In so far as the toiling masses are not 
 permitted to realize the true life of 
 humanity, in so far as a true ethical citi- 
 zenship is not allowed them owing to 
 social and industrial conditions, the Church 
 should denounce these as wrong, and urge 
 they be changed. The working classes are 
 not to have their lives sacrificed as ethical 
 beings, destined to an existence of spiritual 
 value, that a few men may heap up material 
 gain. The industrial must always be joined 
 with the ethical life. "Industry is an 
 ethical activity, and must be regulated by 
 ethical as well as economic law." If all 
 260 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 men were made for were to get bread and 
 at last die, the industrial law might do; 
 but the Church believes that the spiritual 
 transcends the material, and that man 
 exists for the development of a higher 
 than the physical nature. "Man shall not 
 live by bread alone," and "a man's life 
 consisteth not in the abundance of the 
 things he possesseth." When you have 
 fed men you have not met their needs. 
 They are first of all moral beings, and 
 their industrial conditions must not hinder 
 their ethical development. Prof. Adams 
 has made the following profound state- 
 ment: "Unless some way be discovered 
 by which the deep ethical purpose of 
 society can be brought to bear upon indus- 
 trial questions, our magnificent material 
 civilization will crumble to ashes in our 
 hands. , . . A peace born of justice can 
 never be realized by balancing brute force 
 against brute force. . . . The ethical sense 
 of society must be brought to bear in 
 settling business affairs. . . . Above the 
 interest of the contending parties stands the 
 interest of the public, of which the State 
 is the natural guardian, and one way to 
 261 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 realize the ethical purpose of society in 
 business affairs is by means of legislation 
 to bring the ethical sense of society to bear 
 on business affairs." 
 
 This position the Church can and should 
 take, since into its hands is committed by 
 society in large measure the moral welfare 
 of the people. It must be the reformer of 
 the age in that it must insist on the con- 
 trol of ethical principles in the business 
 and industrial world. It can study the 
 times, and it can draw out the ethical 
 facts involved in present conditions. Thus 
 it can discuss the moral limitations which 
 must be put on the principle of compe- 
 tition. Adam Smith taught that there 
 should be the utmost liberty in individual 
 initiative, that each man, stimulated by 
 self-interest, should work for his own 
 advantage as the controlling motive, and 
 that in the end this would contribute to 
 the greatest good of all. The law of 
 nature in which each struggles for himself, 
 and in which the weaker go down under 
 the feet of the stronger, he esteemed to be 
 the correct social law. In our economic 
 world to-day this naturalistic principle has 
 262 
 
"Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 quite complete sway. In the free com- 
 petition for the goods of life, the more 
 potent factors are ability, circumstance, 
 capital ; and those who have these take the 
 prize. This is justified ethically by the 
 thought that competition will arouse the 
 energy and develop the intelligence of the 
 individual. But however this is, and it 
 contains some truth, competition can never 
 be a just principle, unless hedged about by 
 such restrictions as will make the competi- 
 tion as nearly as possible one between equals. 
 "When the deer runs with the tortoise it 
 is a clear case which will come out ahead. 
 When the rich capitalist sets himself in 
 competition with the small dealer or man- 
 ufacturer, there can be but one termina- 
 tion to the contest." The mere principle 
 of nature will crush the weak before the 
 strong. Hence the Church must come in 
 and urge on the industrial world its moral 
 obligation. It must show that both indi- 
 vidual and corporate selfishness must be 
 checked by justice; and that business can 
 not proceed solely on the basis of self- 
 interest. The ethical limitations of com- 
 petition must be set well to the foreground. 
 263 
 
Whe Church and the Social Problem 
 
 The general prosperity, the common weal, 
 not the individual good, must be shown 
 to be the great social end, the making of 
 the many comfortable and intelligent 
 rather than the few rich. 
 
 The Church can also properly encourage 
 a larger care on the part of the State for 
 the workingmen; it can assist legis- 
 lation calculated to check rapacity; it can 
 urge the enactment of laws against the 
 employment of children in factories, excess- 
 ive hours of labor, Sunday work, labor in 
 conditions unfavorable to health, as poorly 
 ventilated factories, unprotected machinery, 
 bad sanitary conditions, and so forth. It 
 may urge that disputes between labor and 
 capital shall be referred to boards of arbi- 
 tration, composed of a judicial middle 
 class. It may encourage all legislation, 
 in short, which shall afford more protec- 
 tion to the laborer in his just and natural 
 rights. 
 
 Social reformers often criticise the 
 Church because it has not taken up and 
 advocated the system, or economic theory, 
 in which they have become especially 
 interested. They would like to commit the 
 264 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 Church to certain tenets which they hold. 
 iBut it is not the mission of the Church to 
 teach economics. No one social theory 
 has been demonstrated to be correct, and 
 where specialists disagree it would be folly 
 for the Church to play the role of economic 
 agitator or social reformer. Few men in 
 the Church, and especially in the pulpit, 
 are well enough informed to take the place 
 of the social philosopher. The Church 
 can not solve all of men's intellectual 
 problems, nor all of their economic prob- 
 lems. A true political economy will have 
 to be worked out by long experience and 
 gradual improvement. But the Church 
 can and should, as has been suggested above, 
 discuss the moral principles which are in- 
 volved. 
 
 Concerning the attitude of the Church 
 in cases of conflict between labor and 
 capital, we would say that it has no right 
 whatever to interfere in an official capacity. 
 The case would have to be very exceptional 
 where it would be proper for the Church 
 to take sides, and for the reason that it is 
 very difficult to get at all the facts so as 
 to fully understand the case, and because 
 265 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 both parties are usually to blame, and be- 
 cause the mission of the Church is not to 
 settle disputes of this kind, but to proclaim 
 moral and spiritual truth. Jesus set us a 
 good example in this particular. One 
 day a man interrupted His discourse by 
 saying: "Speak to my brother, that he 
 may divide the inheritance with me." 
 There had evidently been a family diffi- 
 culty, and one son had taken more than 
 his brother felt was his share. But Jesus 
 did not look into the merits of the case, 
 and act as a judge. The civil law was for 
 that, and while it existed it was useless 
 and not wise for Him to usurp its prerog- 
 atives; but He did use it as an oppor- 
 tunity to discuss the ethical principle in- 
 volved in the dispute; and after asking 
 who made Him a judge in the case. He 
 said: "Beware of covetousness, for a 
 man's life consisteth not in the abundance 
 of the things which he possesseth." Of 
 course there may be cases where the out- 
 rage of justice is so apparent, where the 
 moral fault is so clear, where the abuse 
 is so flagrant, where the community is so 
 aroused, that the Church is not only war- 
 266 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 ranted, but where it is in duty bound, to 
 denounce the evil, and afRrm what should 
 be done in the matter. In other instances, 
 where the merits of the case are doubtful, 
 or where the regular order of business 
 has been followed, the Church should con- 
 tent itself in declaring that principles of 
 honesty, justice, and brotherhood should 
 pertain in the industrial world without 
 making specific application to a particular 
 dispute or difficulty. Or if it speaks more 
 specifically, it can urge consideration and 
 kindness on the part of both classes. It 
 can emphasize the need of fair and honest 
 pondering of the other's position, and can 
 counsel justice. It can bring into men's 
 minds the fact that the relations of men in 
 business are not simply economic, but that 
 we are each our brother's keeper and must 
 consider our brother's interests. Thus the 
 Church may become a peacemaker in 
 human society. She may help settle con- 
 flicts and bring the conflicting elements 
 together by trying to get each side to act 
 on Christian principles. 
 
 While the Church should not attempt 
 to advocate particular economic theories 
 267 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 and should content itself with discussing 
 their ethical implications, while it should 
 not seek to overthrow an existing economic 
 state, we believe the case is different with 
 relation to the social theories which are 
 not in force, but which are proposed by 
 political reformers, and which are leading 
 hundreds and thousands of men to be dis 
 satisfied with society, to hate the State, to 
 depreciate some of the most sacred of our 
 institutions, not excepting the Church 
 itself. We believe the Church may prop- 
 erly be a critic of wild social theories, and 
 endeavor to hold the proletariate steady 
 on matters which involve the good of 
 society, if not the perpetuity of our civili- 
 zation. It can properly teach the laborer 
 that his deliverance can not come from any 
 of the schemes talked by demagogues 
 and street reformers. Revolution will not 
 be the source of his salvation. God is in 
 history, and He has not brought the world 
 on, that civilization may collapse in a con- 
 flict of classes. Sometimes there has been 
 progress by revolution, but even then the 
 victors have built on the past. It is pos- 
 sible to improve society, to grow into a 
 268 
 
"Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 better social and economic condition, but 
 nothing will be gained by the cry, "Down 
 with the State!" "Down with the present 
 economic system!" "Down with capital!" 
 "Divide the spoil!" The laborer should 
 be taught that it is useless for him to raise 
 his hand against the great bulwarks of 
 human society. In so far as the proleta- 
 riate enlists under the red flag and listens 
 to the anarchist's cry, in so far as he trusts 
 to dynamite rather than argument, he will 
 but set back his progress and forge chains 
 for his own neck. He must value our great 
 social institutions, government, the family, 
 the Church — institutions developed out of 
 the past by the experience and effort of 
 generations — and come to feel that the hand 
 will be paralyzed, and should be para- 
 lyzed, that seeks to tear them down. "They 
 are the ark of God for civilization, and 
 must be respected." It may be well for 
 labor to organize, to agitate, to call for 
 larger justice, but the Church must teach 
 it to respect human rights, human authority, 
 to win by justice and the strength of its 
 ideas, and not by intimidation and the bomb. 
 269 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 "You can not reconstruct society by howling 
 mobs and flying bullets." 
 
 The working people should especially 
 be warned by the Church against the dan- 
 gerous features of socialism which is, as 
 we have shown, making such progress in 
 recent years among the proletariate. The 
 socialistic conception is one thing, and the 
 socialistic theories now genearlly advocated 
 are another. Whatever may be the possi- 
 bility of presenting a socialist theory which, 
 as the Christian socialists tell us, would be 
 in harmony with Christianity, the socialism 
 which is being preached and accepted is 
 a decidedly diflferent article. Dr. Behrends, 
 in our opinion, is correct when he says: 
 "I have carefully read the utterances of 
 the socialist leaders, and the more dili-- 
 gently I have endeavored to master their 
 philosophy, by so much the more irre- 
 sistibly has the conclusion been forced upon 
 me that the supremacy of the socialistic 
 political economy involves the elimination 
 of religion and the overthrow of the 
 family." It is built on a materialistic 
 philosophy, and assumes man is largely 
 a creature of desires which, if ever satis- 
 270 
 
^Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 fied, must be met in this world. Material 
 well-being is the only goal of his life. 
 Utility is the test of moral value. Property 
 is not a right but a social convention. It 
 makes the social problem one of the 
 stomach rather than one of the soul. 
 
 The socialist gets a large hearing and 
 following, for he appeals not to the reason 
 but the self-interest of his hearers. He is 
 very strong in detailing the evils of society, 
 in pointing to the luxury of the rich, and 
 the misery of the poor. He does not go 
 into the causes of the difference in the 
 social condition; he does not discuss the 
 good features of present-day civilization, 
 or the hopeful features of it for the labor- 
 ing classes, nor the progress they have made, 
 nor does he grasp and explain the phi- 
 losophy of social development; he simply 
 flouts the abuses, and cries out, "Socialism 
 is the remedy." He lays all the bad things 
 he tells about to the present economic 
 system, and cries out that it be overthrown. 
 It is just the kind of a propaganda to carry 
 the unthinking element of the proletariate 
 off their feet, and unless some check soon 
 comes, one can not tell what results may fol- 
 271 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 low. The time has arrived for the Church 
 to speak with a warning voice on this great 
 question of the hour. "So long as these 
 doctrines are not discredited," says Dr. 
 Behrends, "we are erecting our own scaf- 
 folds and digging our own graves. . . . 
 The socialists' creed is well wrought out 
 and backed by an army of facts and argu- 
 ments. It can not be tabooed, nor can it 
 be nonsuited by indifference. It will grow 
 to sturdier proportions unless the fallacies 
 underlying it are lifted to the light and 
 made to stand before the eyes of the masses 
 in their deformity." 
 
 The Church should show that socialism 
 is wrong in its doctrine of property. It 
 starts with the premise that "Labor is the 
 source of all wealth," and by labor is meant 
 manual labor — a statement by no means 
 correct. It must be shown that labor 
 operates on material which is as much a 
 source of wealth as labor. We have vast 
 resources of nature and it is by using this 
 that wealth is produced. Nor is it by the 
 application of muscle to material that the 
 greatest results come. The plans developed 
 in the office count for more than the muscle 
 272 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 expended in the mill. The thinker who 
 invented the process to extract ore by 
 electricity did more to create wealth than 
 the strength of ten thousand men flinging 
 their picks. It is not the application of 
 muscle but of mind, not force but skill, 
 which produces results. Watt's steam 
 engine and Morse's telegraph have done 
 more to develop the wealth of nations than 
 the strong arms of a million laborers. 
 There is a labor of brain more taxing and 
 important than physical labor, and the 
 capitalists are probably the hardest 
 workers in the world. Moreover, the social 
 estimate of the importance of the thing 
 labor is engaged in comes in to create 
 value. A man may work very hard for 
 years in trying to build a perpetual motion 
 machine, but society will not attach value 
 to his mechanism unless it works. On the 
 other hand, a man may think out some 
 useful contrivance which everybody wants, 
 and a dozen factories will offer him large 
 sums for his invention. Thus the opinion 
 of society as to the utility of a thing and not 
 simply the amount of work expended comes 
 in to determine value. There are other ele- 
 i8 273 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 ments also which enter in to fix the worth 
 of a thing, so that the amount of labor 
 necessary to produce it is not the decisive 
 criterion. A painting made by Millet in 
 a week may be worth more than the 
 amount of wood a lumber Jack can cut in 
 a year. 
 
 The impossibility of working the social- 
 ists' scheme should also be pointed out. 
 It means that instead of many capitalists 
 there is one, the State. Each man has to 
 serve the State, and has no choice about 
 the matter. Free contract is wiped out, 
 and compulsion takes its place. Collect- 
 ive capital owns everything, and each man 
 serves in an appointed place. It would not 
 do to let men choose their work, for all 
 would want the easy places, or the more 
 responsible places, and the drudgery of 
 the world would never be done. The only 
 way out is for the State to dominate the 
 preferences of the individual, and make 
 him serve according to a fixed program. 
 He would have no chance practically for 
 advancement, and there would be no in- 
 centive for individual initiative. There 
 would be little to develop the man, to 
 274 
 
Proper Attitude in the Social Crisis 
 
 arouse his power, to create the sense of 
 responsibility, or to bring forth the energy 
 which makes the wheels of the world's 
 industry turn successfully. Life would 
 become a deep monotony; for much which 
 gives variety and zest to life in a modern 
 state would be done away with. 
 
 The erroneous ideas of socialism about 
 the ground of evil should be pointed out, 
 locating it in social conditions, rather than 
 In an undeveloped personality and a per- 
 verted will. So also its theory of redemp- 
 tion, that you are to get a new economic 
 condition and then you will get gbod men. 
 Its idea that the family should be sup- 
 planted by the mere association of men and 
 women, and that this would be "a great gain 
 to morality and sentiment;" its depreciation 
 of patriotism, holding that existing States 
 are the product of evil economic principles 
 and should be supplanted by the idea of 
 humanity, and a score of other doctrines 
 which space does not remain to even men- 
 tion — all these should be discussed by the 
 Church, their fallacies exposed to the 
 people, and the proletariate should be 
 saved from rushing into the acceptance of 
 
 275 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 these Utopian schemes, which can profit 
 nothing, but which will foster discontent 
 and result in injury and loss at last. 
 
 We conclude, then, that the attitude of 
 the Church towards the social problem 
 should be one of sympathetic interest, of 
 deep appreciation of the importance of 
 the questions involved; that it should not 
 advocate special economic theories, but 
 that it may criticise the erroneous ones 
 which are leading away the people, and 
 especially if they have a moral and re- 
 ligious bearing; and above all that the 
 Church should bring out the ethical prin- 
 ciples involved in the social problem, and 
 enforce on the attention of society these 
 principles. 
 
 276 
 
Chapter VII. 
 
 HOW THE CHURCH MAY HELP 
 SOLVE THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 
 
 THE most important question which 
 the Church can ask itself, as it 
 confronts the industrial situation 
 of the twentieth century as well as the in- 
 difference of the laboring class to it as a 
 religious institution, is, What can it do to 
 help solve the social problem? Much has 
 been written on the subject, and much is 
 thought about it by every pastor and friend 
 of the people and of the Church, That the 
 Church may have profound influence every 
 person who knows the religious nature of 
 man, the function of the Church, and the 
 nature of the Christian system will be ready 
 to admit. This influence, however, will 
 not be in any one thing it does, any one 
 position it takes, or any one theory it advo- 
 cates, but in various things which it may 
 and should do, all of which would tend to 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 help solve the problem by creating good 
 will, a better spirit and understanding, a 
 larger sense of responsibility and obliga- 
 tion, and a better apprehension of Christian 
 duty. In the present chapter we desire to 
 make some practical suggestions in the 
 direction indicated. 
 
 First, we remark the Church may help 
 solve the social problem by staying with 
 the people, showing an interest in them by 
 its activity, and seeking to educate them 
 to appreciate Christian ethics and the 
 Christian philosophy of life. In all our 
 cities we find a tendency on the part of the 
 stronger Churches to immigrate to aristo- 
 cratic districts. This is not because the 
 people do not throng the downtown streets, 
 but because the wealthy members have 
 moved away and taken the Church with 
 them. Says Dr. H. G. Mitchell: "Of 
 course we know why the Protestants left 
 the north end of Boston and the corre- 
 sponding quarters of other cities. 'Our 
 members,' they said, 'are moving to the 
 newer wards, or into the suburbs, and the 
 Church must go with them.' That might 
 be a reason for moving a club, but it is 
 278 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 not a warrant for leaving a house of wor- 
 ship. In the first place, it assumes the con- 
 trary of a fundamental principle of Chris- 
 tianity. It implies that the religious ad- 
 vantages to be given to the community 
 may be measured by the ability, or dispo- 
 sition of said community to pay for them." 
 If men can come downtown to attend to 
 their business, and women to do their shop- 
 ping ; if the theaters can best afford to stay 
 downtown and the people can come from 
 the uptown districts to attend them; if 
 lecture halls and amusements of all kinds 
 can stay on the crowded business streets 
 and yet be patronized by the classes that 
 have moved out, it is difficult to see why 
 truly Christian people may not come down- 
 town to attend Church and to do religious 
 work. America is the only country where 
 this immigrating tendency seems to prevail. 
 "In Rome," says one of our prominent 
 pastors, "it is never thought of that because 
 St. Peter has to be reached by a bridge, 
 and to reach the bridge one must go through 
 dark and filthy streets, therefore St. Peter's 
 must not be thought of as a sanctuary. In 
 Vienna St. Stephen's is in the midst of the 
 279 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 darker and more repellent streets, yet it 
 is never argued against it that it is too far 
 downtown, and not in the West End. In 
 Berlin and Paris the same rule applies. 
 St. Paul's in London is surrounded still, 
 as centuries ago, by small shops, while the 
 city stages and cabs run around it, and make 
 a perpetual din on every side; y€t people 
 go from palace and noble residence far 
 away to get to that beautiful temple. St. 
 Margaret's and Westminster are by no 
 means in the midst of fine residences; yet 
 all these places are visited by people of 
 every class. Why should we cry that the 
 Church must follow the people? Who 
 are the people? They do not consist merely 
 of the few. They are also to be found in 
 the cellars and garrets and in the basements 
 of our cities." The difficulty, we fear, is 
 that the Church has come to be regarded 
 as a place for entertainment, and we want 
 it of easy access, rather than a place where 
 we are to do business for God, reach His 
 lost sheep, teach His truth to those who 
 need it most, extend charity as well as 
 counsel, and bring the power of Christian 
 principles to bear on the life of the com- 
 280 
 
■May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 munity. If the Church is a place to attend 
 that we may keep respectable, it is proper 
 to have the Churches follow the people 
 who can pay its bills; but if it is a center 
 of Christian propagandism and helpful 
 activity, it should stay among those who 
 need it most, and the well-to-do should 
 come downtown to it, as they do their 
 business and entertainment. This will 
 lead the people to feel it is for them, and 
 not simply an institution for the well-to-do 
 and the rich. 
 
 The Church must come into personal 
 touch with the working people. The two 
 classes which are so out of social con- 
 tact in so-called society, must find this in 
 the house of worship. All men are equal 
 before God, and they should be in His 
 sanctuaries. The poor should here find a 
 sympathizing brother. Love should break 
 down the barriers of kid=gloved aristocracy. 
 Life should go out and touch life. Men 
 are social beings, and the laboring people 
 find happiness, not in books, but the com- 
 panionship of men. Now, Christianity, 
 the religion of love, is intensely social in 
 its quality, and it should show its love for 
 281 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 humanity, not by drawing social circles 
 about the well-to-do, but by imitating Jesus 
 who ate with the publicans and sinners, of 
 whom it is said, "The common people 
 heard Him gladly," and who sought to 
 help and to bless the poor and the laboring 
 class. No one can fail to see that Jesus 
 loved the man who was sick and needed 
 a physician. He did not visit kings' 
 houses, or often the homes of the rich, but 
 He did mingle largely with the so-called 
 lower classes, the burden-bearers of the 
 world. The Church must show the same 
 compassion and interest in the men who 
 toil. It must make practical and genuine 
 the doctrine of human brotherhood. Such 
 an activity would wipe out the suspicion 
 with which the Church is now regarded, 
 and lead the laboring man to look upon it 
 as his friend. What the proletariate wants 
 is not the love which preaches at him from 
 the pulpit, but the love that takes him by 
 the hand and gives half of its goods to feed 
 the poor. It is a fine thing for a rich man 
 to build a chapel in a downtown district, 
 but it would be worth one hundred times 
 as much in solving the social problem if 
 282 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 he would go to that chapel and work in 
 it, hand to hand and shoulder to shoulder, 
 with the poor people who are there enlisted 
 in the Master's service. Says George May 
 Powell : "What is wanted even more than 
 money is for every Christian man, woman, 
 and child to be an active, every-day mis- 
 sionary. No man or woman is likely to be- 
 come an anarchist, or, in an unwise sense, 
 a labor agitator, who has been the subject 
 of personal mission work by any Christian 
 worker, old or young. When the sons and 
 daughters of the Church are simply doing 
 the kind of daily mission work which their 
 own spiritual health, nay life, demands, 
 labor troubles, and others like unto them, 
 will vanish like morning mists when the 
 sun arises in its strength." This testimony 
 is enforced by another from Dr. A. Pearson, 
 which shows the practical side of Chris- 
 tian living which the age needs to settle 
 the social problem: "I care not about the 
 alienation of the people from the Church 
 of God, if you will give me one man like 
 the Earl of Shaftesbury, that goes among 
 the costermongers and buys a donkey and 
 a barrow, and puts his arms on the barrow 
 283 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 and lends it to the poor costermongers to 
 carry their wares through the streets, and 
 puts himself on the level with the poorest 
 and puts off everything that will prevent 
 his carrying out the glorious mission of his 
 life — give me one man like the Earl of 
 Shaftesbury, and I will show you one man 
 that in his individuality and personality 
 can offset the antagonistic influences of 
 fifty Churches in persuading the poor man 
 that there is something in a true Chris- 
 tianity that is in sympathy with his poverty 
 and misery, and intends and is constantly 
 striving to uplift him nearer to God and 
 heaven." 
 
 But this is just the work which few 
 Christians will undertake. Some years ago 
 an article appeared in the Review of 
 Reviews which spoke so forcefully upon 
 this fact, that we cut out the following 
 extract: "It must be by life-by-life in 
 fellowship, by life that becomes flesh and 
 tabernacles among those who are to be 
 helped. This is the one issue religious 
 people too generally refuse to face. They 
 will organize preaching campaigns; they 
 will subscribe largely to religious chari- 
 284 
 
May Help^ Solve the Social Problem 
 
 ties; they will hire city missionaries and 
 parsons and nurses to go and do work for 
 them ; but live among the people who need 
 them, and whom they need too, they will 
 not. They will play at philanthropic sen- 
 timent; they will give freely of their crit- 
 icism, and even of their cash; they will 
 write glowing articles, and maybe novels, 
 on the woes of the slums; but they will 
 not give themselves. They will not take 
 wife and children with them and settle 
 among the poor; they will not take the 
 people of the abyss to their hearts as neigh- 
 bors and brothers. We need a heroism of 
 souls, of men and women great enough to 
 go down and live with men, and win them 
 by the witchery of a true and tireless com- 
 radeship; a chivalrous comradeship of 
 souls; a mighty multitude of brave folk, 
 full of faith in God, and men; a sort of 
 holy friarhood of men, working to leaven 
 and lift the world, forever charmed and 
 cheered by the courage of Christ." This 
 would solve the social problem. 
 
 This social touch of the Church must 
 be accompanied by benevolent activity. 
 The Church will not get a dominating in- 
 285 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 fluence over the proletariate by the Sunday 
 sermon, or the Thursday prayer-meeting, 
 or the occasional revival. The present 
 condition shows this. The Church must 
 do more; it must not only preach about 
 serving, it must serve ; it must not only tell 
 about doing good, it must begin the prac- 
 tice. It must not only tell men to feed the 
 poor, it must send out food and clothes. 
 It must practice as well as preach. It must 
 help find men and women work; train in- 
 competent persons to earn a living ; visit the 
 sick; help released prisoners to find situ- 
 ations; seek to bring fallen women back 
 to a virtuous life ; care for neglected chil- 
 dren; support deaconesses to go about 
 speaking encouragement and doing helpful 
 deeds; it must administer charity, soothe 
 the pillow of the suffering, and speak to 
 the dying of the mercy of Christ Benevo- 
 lent activity is as much a part of the 
 work of the Church as instruction or 
 worship. Activity, we said, not giving. 
 Giving is a noble Christian act, but it does 
 not excuse us from getting to work in the 
 community, and helping the needy hu- 
 manity about us by benevolent deeds. The 
 286 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 Church has as its duty all needed forms of 
 philanthropic activity. It should look 
 back to the Church of apostolic times and 
 learn this lesson; for in the first Christian 
 Church, to help men in thei'r temporal 
 necessities was closely linked with serving 
 them in their spiritual needs. If Christ 
 were on earth He would walk the streets 
 of the tenement district, and enter the 
 wretched homes to heal the sick, feed the 
 hungry, and afford help and blessing. He 
 has commissioned His Church to do His 
 work ; and when it does it in earnest, when 
 its members go forth from the temples to 
 make some faint heart strong, to feed the 
 hungry, and cheer the disconsolate, the 
 breach between the masses and the Church 
 will be healed, and the social problem will 
 lose its threatening aspect and giant pro- 
 portions. 
 
 Again, the Church can help solve the 
 social problem by adapting its methods to 
 the age. The Church has a new problem 
 of adaptation and mission in every age, 
 and must not rest entirely in the past, con- 
 tenting itself with the methods and achieve- 
 ments of preceding generations. Nor must 
 287 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 it feel that to keep alive the fires that the 
 past has put on the altars of faith, to per- 
 petuate former beliefs, and reincarnate the 
 spirit of a former age is its great mission. 
 We acknowledge the continuity which 
 exists between the present and the past, and 
 that we can not do the work before us 
 except as we take our stand on what those 
 who have preceded us have worked out 
 for us. Progress is evolution. We are 
 leaning more and more to the genetic con- 
 ception in our interpretation of history. 
 IBut we are also men of the present age 
 who have the advantages of the past in 
 our possession, and we must make a contri- 
 bution to human progress, and hand down 
 to the generation that shall succeed us 
 some advance in. the social conditions of 
 men and in the development of the kingdom 
 of God. We need to look more deeply 
 into the principles of Christianity, and their 
 special application to the problems of the 
 age, the needs of human society, than did 
 our fathers. We need to study the ques- 
 tions which human progress has thrust to 
 the front in our own time, and to see what 
 Christianity, profoundly understood, has to 
 288 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 say on these questions. The Church can 
 only hold its place in the modern world as 
 it realizes this thought, and so adapts its 
 methods to existing conditions that it can 
 enter practically and helpfully into the life 
 and struggle of the age. 
 
 That the Church has not done this is 
 the great complaint of many of our most 
 intelligent observers and ablest men. This 
 point is so vital that we desire to quote 
 a few opinions, hoping that they may im- 
 press more than anything we can ourselves 
 write. In Carlyle's "Past and Present," 
 Book IV, chapter one, are to be found 
 these words : "There is not a hamlet where 
 poor peasants congregate, but, by one 
 means or another, a church-apparatus has 
 been got together; roofed edifice, with 
 revenues and belfries; pulpit, reading 
 desk, with Books and Methods; possibility, 
 in short, and strict prescription that a man 
 should stand there and speak of spiritual 
 things to come. It is beautiful; even in 
 its great obscuration and decadence, it is 
 among the beautifullest, most touching 
 objects one. sees on the earth. This speak- 
 ing man has indeed, in these times, wan- 
 19 289 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 dered terribly from the point; has, alas, 
 as it were, totally lost sight of the point; 
 yet, at bottom, whom have we to compare 
 with him? Of all public functionaries 
 boarded and lodged on the Industry of 
 Modern Europe, is there one worthier of 
 his board than he? A man even, professing, 
 and never so languidly making still some 
 endeavor, to save the souls of men; con- 
 trast him with a man professing to do little 
 but shoot the partridges of men! I wish 
 he would find the point again, this speak- 
 ing one; and stick to it with tenacity and 
 deadly energy; for there is need of him 
 yet! . . . Could he but find the point 
 again, take the old spectacles off his nose, 
 and looking up, discover almost in contact 
 with him, what the real Satan and soul- 
 devouring, world-devouring Devil, now is! 
 Original sin, and such like are bad enough, 
 I doubt not; but distilled Gin, dark Ig- 
 norance, Stupidity, dark Corn-laws, Bas- 
 tille, and Company, what are they? Will 
 he discover our new real Satan, whom he 
 has to fight ; or go on droning through his 
 old nose spectacles about old extinct Satans ; 
 and never see the real one, till he feel him 
 290 
 
May Help, Solve the Social Problem 
 
 at his own throat and ours? That is a 
 question for the World." 
 
 Scarcely less severe is the criticism of 
 Tennyson in his "Northern Farmer," 
 where we read the following lines: 
 
 "And I always came to his Church before 
 my Sally were dead, 
 
 And I heard him bumming away like a buz- 
 zard-cock over my head; 
 
 And I never knew what he meant, but I 
 thought he had something to say, 
 
 And I thought he said what he ought to 
 have said, and I came away." 
 
 Dr. A. B. Fairbairn passes this judg- 
 ment: "Society has changed as the Chui-ch 
 has not; it falsifies its living past by 
 attempting to retain in a new world the 
 organization, methods, and ideals that were 
 made in an old, and were excellently 
 adapted to the world in which they were 
 made, and to the vigorous life within it. 
 Adaptation to environment is a necessity 
 to all organisms; it is only by variation 
 of form that continuity of life can be se- 
 cured. Where the Roman Church has been 
 most successful in maintaining her ancient 
 291 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 ascendency in the ancient form she has 
 either annihilated progress — i. e., stopped 
 the evolution of a higher order of society, 
 as in Spain — or she has helped to reduce 
 it to a mediaeval turbulence, as in the South 
 American Republics. iBut in Protestant 
 countries, the social development has out- 
 grown the religious, and it will only be 
 by the religious development overtaking 
 the social that the Church will be able to 
 retain the masses." 
 
 Without quoting other criticisms we 
 shall give a summary of current comment 
 as presented by Rev. C. Waldo Cherry. 
 He says: "First, it is said the sermon to- 
 day lacks timeliness. The minister is not 
 up-to-date. His message smacks too much 
 of the cloister and the literary, and not 
 enough of knowledge of men and affairs. 
 It is molded too largely in the forms of 
 an outgrown theology and an outgrown 
 religious phraseology. There are few 
 preachers who have so little sense of the 
 fitness of things as Dr. McBride in 'The 
 Virginian,' but the fact that we recognize 
 in him a type of preacher proves that there 
 is some truth in the charge that the 
 292 
 
May Help, Solve the Social Problem 
 
 preacher's message to-day lacks timeliness. 
 Again, it is said that the sermon to-day 
 lacks robustness. It has too much of the 
 quality known as 'other-worldliness,' and 
 lays not enough square, manly, ringing 
 emphasis upon the facts and duties of the 
 life that now is. We have much acute 
 and accurate thinking in the pulpit, much 
 elegant diction and faultless logic, but our 
 sermons do not 'hit men where they live.' 
 It is said, thirdly, that the sermon to-day 
 fails to sound the heroic note with enough 
 insistence. It is the call to do and dare 
 and suffer for a noble cause which has 
 drawn men in every age ; the heroic spirit 
 which is ready to be brave and self-sacri- 
 ficing and manly in the world of men for 
 the sake of principle and faith. No preach- 
 ing can reach and hold men long which 
 does not strike the heroic note and call 
 them to do and suffer for Christ." 
 
 This criticism we have quoted, and 
 which is, in a measure at least, just, goes 
 to substantiate our point, that if the Church 
 wishes to help settle the social problem by 
 bringing its ethics and principles to bear 
 upon it, and by holding the people and 
 
 293 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 permeating their life by its spirit, it must 
 be alive to the times, and adjust its teach- 
 ing and methods of work to them. Its 
 pulpit utterances must not be reiterative 
 and abstract, but pungent, practical, earnest, 
 full of vigor. If our preachers had a 
 wide grasp of the principles of Christianity 
 as related to man's life in art, in education, 
 in politics, in business, in domestic and 
 social life; if they knew what Christian 
 ethics demands in relation to questions of 
 labor, of poverty, of crime, of such social 
 evils as improvidence, indolence, untruth- 
 fulness, intemperance, divorce, profanity, 
 gambling; if they handled the themes of 
 daily life, they would win a hearing not 
 possible otherwise. The Church needs to 
 realize that the conflict between justice and 
 injustice is yet a present one, and there is 
 as much need of flaming forth on it to- 
 day as there has ever been. The Church 
 has probably never faced greater problems 
 than "temperance, graft, monopoly, civic 
 virtue, selfish luxury, pleasure-seeking, 
 greed, lack of sense of social responsibility, 
 wrongdoing, justice, charity, the relation 
 between the creation of wealth and its 
 294 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 equitable distribution, between the rights 
 of property and the rights of man, the 
 rights of the individual and the greater 
 rights of society;" questions of poverty, 
 tenements, sweating system, child-labor, 
 socialism, and a score of other creeds and 
 theories pervading the social and religious 
 world; and the Church has a vast task 
 on hand to throw on these problems the 
 searchlight of Christian ethics, to sift them 
 by the principles of the Christian religion. 
 Let not the Church think it is doing its 
 duty when it passes by these questions, and 
 confines itself to themes which bear upon 
 the next world and the inner life. This 
 is preaching but a partial gospel, a half 
 message; for the kingdom of heaven, the 
 Golden Rule, and the will of God to be 
 done on the earth, and the loving our 
 neighbor as ourselves, mean that capital 
 must be just to labor and labor to capital; 
 that money should be used to relieve dis- 
 tress; that the speculations of the stock 
 exchange should be regarded as gambling; 
 that the saloon should be compelled to shut 
 its doors; that houses of prostitution should 
 be driven out of town; that good men 
 295 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 should be put in office ; that poverty should 
 be relieved; that institutions for the ad- 
 vancement of civilization, like libraries, 
 colleges, and so forth, should be built up; 
 that the condition of the masses should be 
 elevated; that all good causes and works 
 should be helped; that a righteous com- 
 munity should be built up on the earth. 
 Not only the themes, but the methods of 
 work, must be adapted to the times. The 
 institutional. Church, with its sewing cir- 
 cles; its provisions for recreation; its 
 gymnasium and its guilds; its reading- 
 room and its committees on visiting the 
 sick; its employment bureau; its lectures 
 and concerts; its kindergartens and its 
 missionary societies and bands; its prison 
 and hospital work; its circles for the 
 study of social topics; its manifold and 
 varied activities to help men, varying ac- 
 cording to the needs of the community — 
 this is the Church for the age. Let 
 Christianity apply the Gospel to modern 
 problems, and let the Church organize for 
 social as well as religious work, and the 
 social problem will soon cease to be a pre- 
 dominant issue in the life of the people. 
 296 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 As soon as the principles of the Christian 
 religion begin to be operative in the indus- 
 trial world, the problem must dwindle into 
 insignificance. 
 
 The Church can help solve the social 
 problem by insisting that its members shall 
 practice as well as believe in the ethical 
 principles of Christianity. "Our religion 
 is not a system of doctrine, not a religious 
 experience, not a philosophy of conduct, 
 but a life.' It is ethics to be practiced; 
 it is a religion to be exemplified; it is 
 worship to be performed; it is benevo- 
 lence to be extended." A profession of 
 religion does not make one religious; and 
 Church membership and Church attend- 
 ance do not make it a working hypothesis. 
 In the early Church it was something that 
 was lived; but soon it became something 
 that was believed; a system of dogma, not 
 a practicing of dogma. This gave us an 
 age of intellectualism, in which the great 
 thing was to maintain the doctrines of the 
 Church. Then came an organized eccle- 
 siasticism, with its formulated traditions. 
 Then came the Reformation and Mysti- 
 cism, in which Christianity came to be 
 297 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 something to be felt. We have all these 
 ideas with us to-day — Romanism looking 
 at religion as dogma and ecclesiasticism, 
 and Protestantism as faith and experience. 
 There are elements of truth in these con- 
 ceptions, but Christianity is more. Jesus 
 represented it as a life, by which He meant 
 an inner principle that determined ex- 
 ternal manifestation. It is the life of the 
 tree which determines the character of its 
 fruit. Life always expresses itself out- 
 wardly. To be a Christian is to have the 
 Christ life in us which manifests itself in 
 our doing, which makes us act in the world 
 as Jesus would. "If a man have not the 
 Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Says 
 Paul Tyner: "Religion is real religion 
 only when it is part and parcel of all 
 men's daily life; only when it rules buy- 
 ing and selling; when it rules service (in 
 server and served) ; when it governs pay- 
 ing and receiving, sowing and reaping, 
 building up and tearing down, sewing and 
 hammering, cooking and cleaning, stitch- 
 ing and teaching; only when it rules all 
 our business and pleasure, 'our going forth 
 and our coming in,' our rising up and 
 298 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 sitting down, our eating and drinking, and 
 whatever we do." To be a Christian is 
 to regulate one's life in all he does for 
 seven days in the week by the ethical 
 principles of the teachings of Jesus Christ. 
 Orthodoxy of life rather than orthodoxy 
 of belief is the true test of the religious 
 character of a man. 
 
 There is probably no sadder aspect of 
 the Church than the failure of its mem- 
 bers to carry the practice of Christian 
 ethics into the industrial world. Mark 
 Guy Pearse said, in an address at Chau- 
 tauqua, "Men are ready to oflfer their 
 prayers on Sunday, if on Monday they may 
 go into the market-place and skin their 
 fellows and sell their hides." This is 
 probably rhetorical exaggeration, as is 
 the modern putting of the Golden Rule, 
 "Do up others as they would like to do 
 up you;" but it points to a sad truth, 
 namely that there is a large shrinkage 
 in present-day Christianity between be- 
 lief and practice. Jacques Ferrand, in 
 Eugene Sue's "Mysteries of Paris," op- 
 presses the poor, and ruins young girls; 
 but the people say of him, "Do you observe 
 299 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 how devout he is? how regular his attend- 
 ance on Church?" The Church is con- 
 stantly under the criticism that it does not 
 seem to have power to so transfigure life 
 that it will influence conduct perceptibly 
 in the world of trade. It is held that, in 
 spite of preaching, the Church has not 
 succeeded in making its members benev- 
 olent, honest, pure, self-sacrificing; that 
 it has not influenced conduct so that those 
 who pray on Sunday are more scrupulous 
 than other people during the week. It is 
 claimed "The professing Christian legis- 
 lator, or manufacturer, or railroad director, 
 does not let his religion influence the laws 
 he makes, the bairgains he drives, or the 
 relations that exist between him and his 
 employees." The reason for this is, we are 
 told, that the Church is so anxious to save 
 men in another world that it has not taught 
 them to live Christlike in this. 
 
 The Church can help solve the labor 
 problem by seeing to it that it maintains 
 no class prejudices and distinctions. One 
 of the charges made against the Church is, 
 that it is hand-and-glove with the well-to- 
 do, and that in many congregations laborers 
 300 
 
IMoy Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 are really not welcome. Such Churches 
 are aristocratic centers, where the mag- 
 nificent display of dress and the rented 
 pews- effectually drive the poor from their 
 Father's house. In many cases we have 
 Churches which boast that they are made 
 up of the elite, that the society of the 
 town patronizes them, and any one who 
 wishes to get into the best circles should 
 join them. Every year thousands of people, 
 moving into new communities, leave their 
 own denomination, and join the Church 
 of another for the sole reason that it is 
 a fashionable Church, largely made up of 
 the social aristocracy. In short, there is 
 a tendency for Churches to follow the social 
 drift. They need money, especially those 
 which have large buildings and high- 
 priced preachers and choirs to maintain, 
 and consequently they court the rich. 
 Their governing boards are composed 
 quite exclusively of men of means. Often 
 the more a man has, the more he is put 
 forward. This the laborer feels. He 
 sees that those who go to Church are 
 dressed as he and his can not be, that the 
 rich are given the best seats in the sanc- 
 301 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 tuary, and the poor are relegated to the 
 rear, and that apparently men are appreci- 
 ated for what they wear and pay. The 
 result is the laborer stays away. 
 
 Some claim that this is inevitable, and 
 that as long as we have a well-defined 
 wealthy class and a well-defined poor class 
 we shall have class Churches. It is said 
 it is not possible for the Church to resist 
 distinctions which have become permanent 
 and which are thoroughly recognized in 
 society. The Churches will naturally be 
 like the neighborhood in which they are 
 planted, and as the value of property shuts 
 the poor out of some sections, the Churches 
 in them will become centers of fashionable 
 society. The poor, not being able to sup- 
 port anything better, will have chapels and 
 missions in the neighborhoods where they 
 live. 
 
 This claim forgets two things — first, 
 that it is not true of the Catholic Churches, 
 which have rich and poor in all their 
 large parish Churches, and on the same 
 footing, and whose temples in the poorer 
 quarters of our cities are often as magni- 
 ficent as in the communities of the well- 
 302 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 to-do; and, second, that a true Christian 
 spirit will level social distinctions. If the 
 Spirit of Christ dwells in the sanctuary, 
 it will make the members realize the 
 brotherhood of man sufficiently to ob- 
 literate classes. In Green's "History 
 of the English People we read of 
 the Puritans: "Their common call, their 
 common brotherhood in Christ, annihilated 
 in the minds of the Puritan that overpow- 
 ering sense of social distinctions which 
 characterized the age of Elizabeth. The 
 meanest peasant felt himself ennobjed as 
 a child of God. The proudest noble recog- 
 nized a spiritual equality in the poorest 
 saints." This will always be true where 
 the Chruch really has the mind of the 
 Master. 
 
 Nothing can be worse for the Church 
 than to be an institution of classes. If 
 wealth controls, spiritual Christianity is 
 sure to suffer. A few people of means are 
 earnest, humble, godly saints. Some of the 
 most consistent and truest Christians we 
 have ever known have been possessed of 
 wealth. But this is not the rule. With 
 money goes pride, selfishness, indulgence. 
 
 303 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 A Church made up of rich people and dom- 
 inated by them is not a center of spiritual 
 vitality. It is said that at one time the 
 Pope remarked to Thomas Aquinas, "Peter 
 could not say now, 'Silver and gold have 
 I none.' " "No," replied Thomas ; - "no, 
 your Blessedness, nor could he say now, 
 'In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, 
 rise up and walk.' " It is far better for the 
 spiritual welfare of the rich that Churches 
 be democratic, that they be the one place 
 where men rise above the false and super- 
 ficial standards of society, and consider 
 men on the basis of their social worth. 
 Phillips Brooks once called the idea that 
 some are called to govern and others to be 
 governed, "the universal blunder of his- 
 tory." Certainly we can call the idea that 
 some men are to be welcomed to Church 
 because they are rich, and others dises- 
 teemed because they are poor, the blunder 
 of aristocratic Christianity. The Church 
 can not be a true voice of Christ unless 
 she keep herself untrammeled, unless she 
 refuse to join hands with any class. The 
 Church must seek the good of all the 
 people, and she must speak with honest 
 
 304 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 convictions on all the questions of life, and 
 not have the juice taken from her message 
 for fear of offending some rich pew-holder. 
 Let the Church cleanse itself from class 
 distinctions, realizing that, as Dr. Fairbairn 
 has said, the laboring classes "will not re- 
 spect a society which claims to represent 
 God on the earth, and yet puts its trust in 
 the House of Lords, or boasts its aristo- 
 cratic connections, or leans for support on 
 some plutocrat who is loudly generous 
 without being plainly just. ... If wealth 
 were wise, there is nothing it would more 
 dread than the separation of classes in the 
 house of God, or the separation of dif- 
 ferent houses of God to different classes; 
 and if it were good as wise, there is nothing 
 it would so little allow. The master who 
 goes to worship only where other masters 
 are, does his best to alienate himself from 
 his people, to lower religion in their eyes, 
 and to bring on the social revolution; for 
 the only salt that can preserve society is 
 sympathy and communion in the most se- 
 rious things of the spirit between all 
 classes." The Church can only become a 
 power in establishing social stability bjj 
 20 305 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 rising to the altitude of Christ's conception 
 of men, where not wearing apparel or bank 
 accounts, but spiritual meekness and worth 
 are the basis of estimate. Let men come 
 to respect each other as equals, as brethren 
 in Christ in the sanctuary, and much of 
 the antagonism arising out of economic 
 conditions will disappear. Class conflicts 
 can not make headway in a community 
 cemented by Christian brotherhood. 
 
 We believe that the Church can help 
 solve the social problem by urging on 
 society the principle of co-operation. The 
 old competitive system under which we 
 have been working has developed the 
 greatest abuses and the gravest dangers. 
 It has of late concentrated business in 
 great corporations, that it may not be 
 destructive of the profits of capital. It is 
 therefore not working freely, but is manip- 
 ulated in. the interests of the few. Co- 
 operation has supplanted it in the manufac- 
 turing world, and the trust, the monopoly 
 has arisen. But this is the co-operation of 
 a class to the injury of another class. It 
 means that money is flowing into a few 
 pockets, that fabulous fortunes are being 
 306 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 piled up by a few men of genius for organ- 
 ization. Often the investment of a few- 
 millions by a small number of men enables 
 them to control billions, and through these 
 billions to control the wages, the opportu- 
 nities, the welfare of millions of people. 
 The result of this is that the industrial 
 classes are becoming aroused and are advo- 
 cating a new form of social organization. 
 It is this which has made possible the rapid 
 growth of socialism in recent years, and we 
 may depend upon it that we shall have 
 some form of socialistic economy, or the 
 principle of competition, playing into the 
 hands of a few, who are getting the nation's 
 wealth into their pockets, will, have to 
 be checked by moral suasion and wise leg- 
 islation. The continued development of 
 monopolies and trusts will in fifty years 
 work havoc to the interests of small capital 
 and labor. 
 
 The Church can be of service in "such 
 a situation in calling attention to the value 
 of the principle of co-operation, or profit- 
 sharing. Our competitive system is based 
 on selfishness and self-interest, and socialism 
 is based on the idea of benevolence. Both 
 
 307 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 principles are necessary in a developing 
 society. Self-interest is essential to secure 
 independence, self-reliance, initiative, en- 
 terprise — the qualities which make strong 
 men. Benevolence is necessary to secure 
 the rights of the weak against the strong, 
 the less efficient against the more able 
 members of society. If either principle 
 prevailed exclusively, there could be no 
 other result than that the weak would go 
 down in the struggle, and that the strong 
 would grow weak. The present wage- 
 system, for example, being on a competi- 
 tive basis, because of the number of 
 laborers, will force wages down to a point 
 where the workingman will have little 
 chance to improve his condition or to any 
 proper extent develop his personality. One 
 can see this in Europe to-day, and, in a 
 century, unless there is a changed system, 
 it will be seen in the United States. We 
 need to retain private property and indi- 
 vidual enterprise, but we need to check 
 their rapacity by extending their domain, 
 and thus making them more helpful. This 
 can be done by co-operation, a system in 
 which the laborer is taken into partner- 
 
 308 
 
May Help Solve tHe Social Problem 
 
 ship with capital. If the projfits of the 
 year equal a certain per cent on the money 
 invested, the laborer, in addition to his 
 wages, shall have a certain share in the 
 returns. If nothing is made above salaries, 
 repairs, and expansion, he shall have none. 
 A reserve fund should be created, so that, 
 in an unfavorable year, capital may be pro- 
 tected against loss. The value of this 
 method is, that it checks the evil of mo- 
 nopoly and enables all classes to prosper 
 together. It makes extravagant and ille- 
 gitimate profits impossible. It links the 
 lower and higher classes together by com- 
 mon interest, and will effectually do away 
 with class conflicts, thus bringing the peace 
 which is so much needed for permanent 
 prosperity into the industrial world. It 
 will give the laboring class a chance to 
 rise in its condition as is possible in no 
 other way. Ambition will be stimulated. 
 Work will be better done, and the profits 
 of business will accordingly increase. It 
 will bring the Christian principle of altru- 
 ism, if not of brotherly love, into trade. 
 Carlyle commended it in the following 
 words: "Co-operation with the real tend- 
 
 309 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 ency of the world indicates the insight of 
 genius;" and Prof. Robert Flint has thus 
 spoken of it : "Co-operation, even of a free, 
 non-socialistic kind, although incapable of 
 suppressing competition, may thus organize 
 it, modify its character for the better, and 
 lessen its abuses. And so far as it does this. 
 Christian men can not fail to welcome it 
 as a practical manifestation of the love and 
 brotherhood which their religion demands ; 
 as a confirmation through action of faith 
 in the truth that Christian society as well 
 as the Christian Church ought to be a body 
 which God has so tempered together that 
 there should be no schism in the body, but 
 the members should have the same care 
 one for another, and whether one member 
 suffereth, all the members suffer with it, 
 or whether one member is honored, all the 
 members rejoice with it." 
 
 The Church can help solve the labor 
 problem by teaching capital some very im- 
 portant principles which are vital in Chris- 
 tianity, and which bear closely upon its 
 relation to the laboring classes. First, the 
 Church should teach men of wealth the 
 obligation of stewardship. This conception 
 310 
 
'May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 is rapidly coming into the foreground of 
 human thought. Formerly wealth was 
 looked at as a possession, as entitling its 
 holder to be free from service, and as 
 enabling him to spend his life in self- 
 gratification. The thought has been, "A 
 man can do what he will with his own." 
 Concerning its use he is responsible to no 
 one. But now it is being realized that 
 the possession of riches is a responsi- 
 bility. Wealth is power, and all power in 
 the hands of rational beings must be eth- 
 ically used. Says Rev. Chas. G. Ames: 
 "God is not a Bookkeeper; but our moral 
 situation is the same as if every cent that 
 comes into our possession were charged to 
 us and we were held accountable ; for all 
 we have is a trust." The wealth men 
 accumulate they have by virtue of the com- 
 munity, they have through the community. 
 There are many other facts besides the push, 
 intelligence, and labor of the individual, 
 which enter into the accumulation of 
 wealth. Set a Vanderbilt or a Rockefeller 
 in the midst of the Soudan, and limit his 
 activities to its boundaries, and he could 
 not make a fortune. Says Frederick Har- 
 
 3" 
 
\The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 rison: "All wealth is really the product 
 of thousands working together in ways of 
 which they are not conscious, and with 
 complex and subtle relations that no anal- 
 ysis can apportion." This is precisely the 
 case, and because of this the community 
 has a right to say something about how 
 the rich man shall use his acquisitions. 
 And it is going to say something as the 
 laws on inheritance, income tax, the social- 
 istic schemes proposed, and the literature 
 circulated on the theme, abundantly prove. 
 But besides the obligation to the com- 
 munity, is the obligation to man and to 
 God. The Christian law prohibits the ex- 
 travagant and selfish use of wealth, as long 
 as human necessities are great and human 
 needs abundant. We would count a strong 
 swimmer despicable who stood by a 
 stream and saw a small boy drown when 
 he might have plunged in and saved him, 
 simply because he was too selfish to use his 
 strength for another's good; but we do not 
 see that a man is more under obliga- 
 tions to use his strength than his wealth for 
 others' good. We have no right to do 
 what we will with our own. We can not • 
 312 
 
^May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 use our right hand to do evil, or our brain 
 to plot mischief, and we can not use our 
 riches to promote pride, selfishness, or 
 jgreed. "The moral law comes in and 
 claims every dollar, holding him account- 
 able just as for his hand or his brain. If 
 he hoards idly, invests harmfully, or if he 
 wastes and destroys, he commits a breach 
 of trust." The public is justly growing 
 increasingly impatient with men's dissi- 
 pating fortunes on frivolities, and the reck- 
 less squandering of wealth in luxury. It 
 repudiates the idea that the rich man is 
 an irresponsible proprietor, and insists that 
 he is a trustee. A man's wealth consti- 
 tutes an estate of which he is appointed 
 an administrator. The idolatry of money 
 is wholly evil. To seek to get more money 
 simply to have it is base. Those who say, 
 "To money be the honor and glory and 
 power forever, Amen," are enemies of the 
 State, and foes to social welfare. To be- 
 come so crazed with the money-making 
 habit that all obligation to humanity is 
 forgotten is as wicked as theft. Mammon 
 has no right to be God. Wealth is an 
 ethical fact, as Ruskin has taught us. This 
 
 313 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 sentence from one of the wealthiest men 
 the world has ever seen, and, if we can 
 judge from the use he is making' of his 
 money, one of the best, is a noble and note- 
 worthy statement of the obligations of 
 wealth — Mr. Andrew Carnegie, who has 
 poured out more money than any other 
 man who has ever lived for the common 
 weal, says : "To set an example of modest, 
 unostentatious living, shunning display or 
 extravagance, to provide moderately for 
 the legitimate wants of those dependent 
 upon him, and, after doing so, to consider 
 all surplus revenues which come to him 
 simply as trust-funds which he is called 
 upon to administer and strictly bound as 
 a matter of duty to administer, in the 
 manner which in his judgment is best cal- 
 culated to produce the most beneficial 
 results for the community; the man of 
 wealth thus becoming the mere trustee 
 and agent for his poorer brethren, bringing 
 to their service his superior wisdom, expe- 
 rience, and ability to administer, doing for 
 them better than they would or could do 
 for themselves." 
 The Church can help solve the social 
 
 314 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 problem by forcing on the consciousness 
 of the age this fact of the responsibility 
 and obligation of wealth. It has not in- 
 sisted on this fact of stewardship. It has 
 not made the well-to-do in its pews realize 
 the wrong of spending money for extrava- 
 gance and selfish ease. It has not, like 
 Carlyle, Kingsley, and Maurice, hammered 
 at the thory which discriminates against 
 the poor, and looks at them as victims which 
 wealth can exploit to its advantage. It 
 has not condemned the Church member 
 who seeks money as an end rather than a 
 means, who worships the shining dollar 
 rather than makes it serve. If capital had 
 been taught the stewardship of money, and 
 used it conscientiously for the public good, 
 labor would not have risen up against it. 
 It is the luxury and extravagance and 
 spendthrift ways of the rich which anger 
 the toilers. If these men of means had 
 used their money for the common good, if 
 they had bettered the condition of the poor, 
 built colleges and hospitals, erected hab- 
 itable tenements, made factories pleasant 
 and sanitary, we should have had no social 
 problem, and no clashing classes in society. 
 
 315 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 li the Church can teach wealth to use its 
 accumulations for the good of humanity, 
 it will solve the labor question. 
 
 The Church can do much in bringing 
 a better day into the industrial world by 
 teaching employers to look more carefully 
 after the good of those whom they em- 
 ploy. The trusteeship of the capitalist does 
 not extend simply to the right use of his 
 wealth, but to the care of the men in his 
 employ. A writer in the Forum a few 
 years ago made the following statement: 
 "I admit — ^no, I assert — the demands of 
 charity on every human being, but charity 
 and business are, and forever ought to be, 
 divorced. An employer is under no more 
 obligation to his workingmen after he has 
 paid their current wages than they are to 
 him, or to a passer-by on the street whom 
 they never saw." To this Dr. Lyman 
 Abbott, justly, as it seems to us, replied: 
 "I believe this is an unchristian heresy. 
 Every man who has workingmen in his 
 employ is a trustee for them. He and they 
 are in a true sense partners, engaged in a 
 common enterprise. He owes them an ob- 
 ligation which wages do not meet. The 
 316 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 first duty of an employer to his employed 
 is the duty of loyalty." The fact that a 
 wage has been paid is not a full discharge 
 of obligation, for the employer has a touch 
 with his men which others do not have; 
 he has at hand the means of learning their 
 needs; they are associated with him in a 
 special sense; he is reaping benefits from 
 their labor, and often more than the cur- 
 rent wages demand that he pays for it; 
 and therefore, more than any one else, he 
 should be interested in them, and in all 
 ways in his ability seek their good. The 
 business relationship itself entails a special 
 obligation, and makes him emphatically 
 his brother's keeper. If the Christian rule, 
 "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so ful- 
 fill the law of Christ," has any meaning, 
 it is applicable here. 
 
 Many things may be included in this 
 obligation, one of the most important of 
 which is kindly interest and courtesy. This 
 does not cost anything, but it is worth more 
 to a laboring man than gold, and will do 
 more to relieve the social problem than a 
 rich man's charity. Laborers are human 
 beings with human feelings, and one of the 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 greatest burdens of their condition is their 
 social ostracism and sense of social inferi- 
 ority. No man with a spark of true man- 
 hood wants to feel that he is depreciated 
 and considered as belonging to "the lower 
 classes." It is this which makes him bitter 
 against capital, and it is a wound that only 
 a touch of human sympathy and kindly 
 words of good will can heal. In these 
 times of great industries and of the factory 
 system, as we have previously shown, 
 the owner and his men are out of 
 social touch. They live in Poverty Row, 
 and he in a mansion on the hill. They 
 come to their toil with their dinner-pails 
 on their arm in the early morning. He 
 drives down in his carriage late in the fore- 
 noon, and seeks the privacy of his inside 
 office. The superintendents and overseers 
 alone meet the men. The owner passes 
 them on the street, does not know them as 
 his men, and does not care to. In the old 
 days of industry it was different. Then 
 employer and men worked together in the 
 small shops, and the apprentice generally 
 lived in the home. The two classes knew 
 each other and human feeling entered 
 
 318 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 in. All this has changed. iBut it should 
 be made up by Christian employers seek- 
 ing a closer personal touch with those in 
 their employ, showing them a hunian in- 
 terest, passing among them at their work, 
 saying encouraging and kindly things, 
 learning of their families and their needs, 
 doing gracious little things for them, 
 which may not cost much, but which will 
 mean a great deal; making them feel that 
 they count for more to them than the 
 amount of work they can perform, that they 
 think of them as fellow-men, as human 
 souls. The employer can in case of diffi- 
 culty speak kindly and considerately to 
 the employee, even when the man has to 
 be discharged, showing him the need and 
 justice of it. When the workingman comes 
 in with a request, he can receive it cour- 
 teously and treat it considerately. In 
 giving orders he may do it without dis- 
 playing harshness or arrogance. He can 
 always keep in mind the fact that he is 
 dealing with men, and that they have 
 rights by virtue of their moral personality 
 and sonship to God equal to his own. 
 There is something in all of us that resents 
 
 319 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 domineering manners and stern, unfeeling 
 words, but which responds at once to kind- 
 ness. And the employer can insist that 
 his superintendents and overseers main- 
 tain uniformly an attitude of courtesy and 
 kindness, employing the type of men who 
 will adhere to his business principles in 
 this respect as well as others. Such em- 
 ployers will keep their men, and strikes 
 will not make headway in their mills. The 
 good will engendered will lead the men to 
 have an interest in their employer's busi- 
 ness, because they believe in him, and there 
 will even be a financial return. 
 
 This sense of responsibility for his men 
 which the employer should feel should 
 lead him to look after the health of his 
 employees, the sanitary condition of his 
 factory and mill. Many factories are 
 almost death-traps. They are poorly ven- 
 tilated; machinery is poorly protected; 
 the light Is bad; the dust is abundant; 
 they are not properly warmed or cleaned; 
 there is nothing attractive in or about 
 them. These matters mean much for the 
 happiness and well-being of the workers. 
 They ought to be one of the first cares of 
 320 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 the employer. No one can tell the evils 
 that the working classes suffer from these 
 causes, the thousands who are yearly inca- 
 pacitated for toil, and their families thus 
 reduced to poverty. Every employer is 
 morally bound, and if he be a Christian 
 is religiously bound, to provide comfort- 
 able places for his men to work; places 
 properly warmed, ventilated, lighted. 
 Money spent in these directions, health, 
 cleanliness, decoration, add to the cheer- 
 fulness and contentment of the working 
 class, and will be more than compensated 
 for in the better service which will be ren- 
 dered. 
 
 Employers should look after the moral 
 and intellectual development of their men, 
 at least should seek to encourage it. If 
 there is a large number of younger men 
 and women employed, a reading-room, a 
 library, the formation of lyceums or de- 
 bating societies, is often very valuable, and 
 especially if the employer observes any 
 movement for self-improvement being 
 started. The following description of a 
 visit to one of our factories will enforce 
 what is meant: "In Lonsdale, R. I., I 
 3x 321 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 found, on a recent visit, a large and beau- 
 tiful building erected by the proprietors 
 of a mill, and devoted almost wholly to 
 the instruction and diversion of the work- 
 ing people. It contained a well-selected 
 library, rooms for debating clubs and social 
 meetings, and a fine hall, capable of seat- 
 ing more than a thousand people, in which 
 every winter a course of entertainments, 
 consisting of literary, scientific lectures, 
 and popular amusements, is given at a 
 very low cost to the operatives and their 
 families. The hall is free; each pays for 
 procuring from ten to twelve good enter- 
 tainments one dollar. It was pleasant to 
 see the effect of this provision upon the 
 character of the work-people. I found in 
 that hall one of the largest and most intel- 
 ligent lecture audiences I ever addressed 
 in New England." 
 
 The Church can also help solve the 
 labor problem by interpreting to capital 
 Christ's idea of human brotherhood. What 
 the social problem demands for its solution 
 is some organization which can come for- 
 ward with a principle broad and great 
 enough to reconcile the interests of the 
 322 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 different classes. Our social difficulties 
 come from the disintegration of society, 
 arising out of the complexities of modern 
 civilization. Business interests divide men, 
 for they appeal to the selfishness and self- 
 interest of each class. If they can be brought 
 together so that they will look into each 
 other's faces as men, they will see much 
 in common. Thus the employer will see 
 that the laborer has other needs than bread, 
 that he is capable of refinement and cul- 
 ture, of enjoyment and service, and that he 
 should be treated as a man and given a 
 man's chances and rights. He will then 
 feel that the man has claims on him above 
 his wage, and a selfish business basis is not 
 the only one on which to treat with him. 
 The laborer also will learn by this per- 
 sonal touch that the capitalist is not a hard- 
 hearted, soulless oppressor of his fellow, but 
 often a kindly, generous, noble soul, with 
 a real interest in his men, and that his social 
 distinction is not so much one of heart as 
 of environment and conditions. Now, the 
 Church has the principle or bond which 
 is needed to unify social life, bring men in 
 touch, and lead them to mutually esteem 
 
 323 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 each other; for this is the great truth so 
 central in Jesus' thought of human brother- 
 hood. This idea puts all men on the same 
 level, and places the hand of every man 
 in the hand of his tcWovf. It would do 
 away with all industrial strife if fully op- 
 erative, and lead both labor and capital to 
 see that they are both bound by a higher 
 principle than that of natural law. It will 
 make the classes mutually willing to con- 
 sider each other's interests. It will widen 
 their point of view and help them, after 
 the advice of the Golden Rule, to put 
 themselves in each other's place. It will 
 help them to transcend their individual 
 interests and take a universal view. The 
 capitalist will think of the interests of 
 humanity and especially the part of it in 
 his shops, rather than simply of his own 
 gains and desires. "Outside of the advan- 
 tage to me he will think of the duty to 
 you." He will consider the laborer's need 
 of a comfortable home, of the need of his 
 children for education, of what is necessary 
 to ehable this little social group to live 
 proper human lives. If a certain young 
 man had been possessed by this doctrine of 
 
 324 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 human brotherhood he could not have 
 uttered the words which led Dr. N. D. 
 Hillis to make the following remarks: 
 
 "The saddest words that have been writ- 
 ten in this generation were spoken before 
 Brown University by a young man who is 
 to inherit one of the greatest fortunes in 
 this country. They were spoken in defense 
 of the trusts. Listen to them: 
 
 " 'The American Beauty rose can be 
 produced in all its splendor only by sacri- 
 ficing the early buds that grow up around 
 it' 
 
 "The rose has one thousand buds, and 
 in order to produce the American Beauty 
 the gardener goes around it with a knife 
 and snips 999, in order that all the strength 
 and beauty may be forced into one bloom. 
 
 "In his economic arguments this young 
 man tells the working classes brutally 
 that 999 small business men must be snuflfed 
 out of existence in order that his American 
 Beauty, the trust, may be produced. Listen 
 to Christ: 'Let the strong bear the bur- 
 dens of the weak;' and again, 'Give and it 
 shall be given unto you.' 
 
 "These words in defense of the trusts 
 
 325 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 are the most heartbreaking things in lit- 
 erature to those who know what is going 
 to come in the future. Can you wonder 
 that after that, when a man gives gifts, 
 we have no gratitude to return?" 
 
 "Therefore I command thee, saying. 
 Thou shalt surely open thy hand unto thy 
 brother, to thy needy and to thy poor in 
 the land. Thou shalt not be grieved when 
 thou givest unto him ; because that for this 
 thing the Lord, thy God, shall bless thee 
 in all thy works, and in all thou puttest 
 thine hand unto." The trouble with many 
 of our Christian men is, that while they 
 have accepted the fact of Christ's doctrine 
 of human brotherhood, they have not 
 awakened to realize the tremendous con- 
 tent of the thought; for, as has been said, 
 this conception realized would transform 
 not only the conditions but the meaning of 
 life. It would, as nothing else, spur men 
 to bring the power of a spiritual motive 
 into all the relations of human experience. 
 It would turn our material into a spiritual 
 civilization. According as its influence 
 would prevail, all life would become an 
 energy of fellowship, service would mul- 
 
 326 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 tiply, the vision of life and duty would be 
 greatly enlarged, and the desolations made 
 by sin and selfishness would largely be 
 destroyed. 
 
 The Church can also help solve the labor 
 problem by making capital see the Chris- 
 tian end of economic activity, or the Chris- 
 tian view of the end and philosophy of life. 
 Trade has not simply physical, it has also 
 a moral value. It serves a place in the 
 Divine purpose in history. God has not 
 placed the human race on the planet to 
 get life's true worth out of its gains and 
 pleasures. The natural and secular find 
 their purpose and their true interpretation 
 in the spiritual. Men have written their 
 philosophies of history, but the end pro- 
 posed has been the expansion of liberty, 
 or the reign of prosperity and peace, or 
 the culture or enrichment of the individual, 
 or the worship of humanity; but Jesus 
 had, as His key to the world-wide and age- 
 long struggle, the establishment of the 
 kingdom of God, which is a brotherhood 
 of spiritualized personalities, in whom 
 God dwells, and whose activities are con- 
 ceived in moral purposes and executed in 
 
 327 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 righteousness. It is a kingdom rooted in 
 love and progressively unfolding in human 
 experience, molding by an assimilative 
 process all men, all institutions, all relations 
 of life into conformity to the will of God. 
 The material existence we live but serves 
 as the physical basis of the spiritual proc- 
 ess. Our industrial activities and accu- 
 mulations do not find their end in them- 
 selves, but are related to the higher spir- 
 itual purpose. We live on the platform of 
 nature, buy and sell, eat, and wear clothes, 
 but that we may have the opportunity to 
 let the kingdom of God grow in our souls, 
 and that we may help plant it in the lives 
 of others. If, then, the end of all economic 
 activity is that men may have a chance to 
 live, and in living develop their spiritual 
 natures, grow into spiritualized men and 
 women, then it follows that capital can 
 never so conduct its business that laborers 
 will be hindered in this moral and relig- 
 ious end of their existence. Where an 
 industrial condition exists in which their 
 rights and opportunities are disregarded, 
 when they are made the mere tools of other 
 men, when they are oppressed and deprived 
 328 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 of any chance for self-development, those 
 who uphold it come square across the will 
 of God for every man, and the purpose for 
 which every man has been given the priv- 
 ilege of life. Let the Church, therefore, 
 teach capital that the true end of economic 
 action is not the exclusive good of any in- 
 dividual or any class, but the welfare of 
 humanity as that welfare is interpreted in 
 Jesus' conception of the kingdom of God. 
 All human business should be so conducted 
 as to help establish the kingdom of heaven. 
 Capitalists, we repeat, should be taught 
 that God did not round the planet to make 
 them rich, but to spiritualize and perfect 
 the human race. 
 
 This being true, the true test of an eco- 
 nomic system is the kind of men it produces. 
 It may develop wealth, and yet not 
 strengthen character. It may indeed drag 
 men down as it heaps money up. The 
 system which leads men to think that 
 wealth is all, and which will therefore 
 Idad to almost any sacrifice to get it; the 
 theory which will render less sensitive the 
 public conscience to the natural rights of 
 all men and the moral welfare and progress 
 
 329 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 of all men, and, above all, which will lead 
 them to hunger and thirst after the ma- 
 terial gains of life and forget the worth 
 of the more ideal elements of every great 
 civilization, culture, knowledge, art, re- 
 ligion, the beautiful, the good, the true — 
 that system is wrong, and worse, in the 
 conception of Christianity, it is ruinous to 
 the race. 
 
 Having considered some things which 
 the Church should teach capital in help- 
 ing solve the social problem, we turn to 
 consider some things which it should teach 
 labor in order to assist in accomplishing 
 the same desirable result. The first of 
 these to which we call attention is justice 
 to employers. The idea seems to prevail 
 in the camps of labor, that the property 
 of the capitalist is the result of his avarice, 
 when often it is rather the result of his 
 superior industry and intelligence. Nor is 
 he a hard-hearted man, indifferent to the 
 poor, and seeking only his own profit. 
 There are many men of wealth who have 
 accumulated fortunes with the controlling 
 motive that they may do good with it. 
 And this purpose many are fulfilling. The 
 
 330 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 benevolence of the world is a constantly 
 swelling stream. The gifts of the year 
 now amount in the United States to over 
 $100,000,000, and this comes mostly from 
 the pockets of the rich, and is given for 
 the common good. By this means they 
 vastly enrich civilization, make possible its 
 more rapid progress, and make it more 
 blessed to live. They also largely bear the 
 burdens of the community; for the taxes 
 of the well-to-do and the rich sustain our 
 public institutions which the poor enjoy, 
 provide the protection of the State, the 
 public school, the public park, and the 
 eleemosynary institutions of many kinds. 
 Nor can the laborer speak, as he some- 
 times does, of the idle rich, for while this 
 may be true in a few cases, the majority 
 of our men of means are among the hardest 
 workers in our communities. There is no 
 severer work than brain-work; and the 
 carrying forward of a great business, with 
 its vast details and its worry and care, is 
 a strain on the forces of life of which the 
 hand worker knows little. Such men often 
 add a third to the number of hours which 
 they labor over those they ask of their 
 
 331 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 men, and many are carrying financial 
 burdens and . obligations of which the 
 laborers in their employ know nothing. 
 The interests of their employees is also 
 often close to the hearts of employers, and 
 frequently mills are run at a loss that the 
 men may not be thrown out of work and 
 thus left without means of support. In 
 times of serious depression this is not the 
 case with the occasional mill, but some- 
 times it is almost the rule. The number 
 of owners, superintendents, and agents who 
 try to practice the Golden Rule is far larger 
 than labor assumes. 
 
 Often the criticism of employers which 
 labor gives is wild and extravagant, cal- 
 culated to arouse hatred, jealousy, and 
 envy. Thus we hear of "bloated capi- 
 talists," "plutocratic thieves," and other 
 such terms. In one of Mr, Groulund's 
 books he lays down such propositions as 
 these: "Every millionaire is a criminal;" 
 "Every one who amasses $100,000 is a 
 criminal;" "Everj^ one who loans his 
 neighbor $100 and exacts in return $106 is 
 a criminal." Especially do labor agi- 
 tators exaggerate, appeal to the worst pas- 
 
 332 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 sions of their listeners, often urge to acts 
 of violence, excite prejudice and suspicion, 
 make men who are really treated well 
 feel that they are oppressed, and that capital 
 is their natural enemy. The effect of this 
 can only be evil, and it is the function of 
 the Church to counsel moderation, justice, 
 and consideration. The battles of labor 
 will not be won by calling names. When 
 capital hears itself called a thief and robber, 
 it is not put in a mood to be generous. 
 Every man is sensitive to public abuse, and 
 if what is spoken misrepresents motives 
 and facts, it is sure to arouse animosity. 
 Labor will lose, and always lose, when it 
 is intemperate in act and speech, and seeks 
 to carry its point by abuse. 
 
 The Church can contribute to the social 
 problem by teaching workingmen the dig- 
 nity of labor. Work is the proper func- 
 tion of man, and not a curse, but a blessing. 
 Nothing is more honorable and nothing 
 more clearly indicated in the constitution 
 of nature. But somehow it has come to 
 be regarded as something to get out of. 
 Men try every scheme to get a living with- 
 out work, and in all labor literature and 
 
 333 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 speeches the awful burden of toil as carried 
 on by workingmen is eloquently dilated 
 upon. It seems to be felt that the 
 horny hand is not as honorable as the 
 kid-gloved palm. The Utopia is much 
 pay and few hours of toil. 
 
 We believe this view that has got a large 
 hold of our toilers is a glaring mistake. 
 Labor is the law of life. God has made 
 everything to be at work.- Every atom is 
 pulling and pushing. Forces ply to and 
 fro in the tiniest sand grain. Life is not 
 meant to be free from stress and strain. 
 To be engaged in earnest toil is one of 
 our greatest sources of pleasure. Nothing 
 can far surpass the misery of a completely 
 inactive man, or the joy of a toiler when 
 all his powers are excited in the interest 
 he has in his work. Mr. Gladstone once 
 said: "There are worse things than heavy 
 labor, and I will tell you what is worse 
 than heavy labor, and that is idle wealth. 
 In vain a man escapes from the destiny 
 of hard work, even hard work with some 
 degree of poverty, to attain wealth, if that 
 wealth is to bring with it the curse, the 
 unmitigated curse, of idleness and self- 
 
 334 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 indulgence. The laborer has his legiti- 
 mate, his necessary, his honorable and hon- 
 ored place in God's creation; but in all 
 God's creation there is no place appointed 
 for the idle wealthy man. Wealth can 
 only be redeemed from danger by one 
 law and one curse, and that is by associ- 
 ating it with active duty to the honor of 
 God and the benefit of mankind." Our 
 laborers need to be taught this fact. They 
 need to be led to see the blessing of en- 
 gagement, the pleasure of accomplishment, 
 and that a man who puts interest in his 
 work, no matter how humble, can get joy 
 in it. If this view comes to pertain, our 
 laboring classes will not be so restless or 
 so easily inflamed by socialistic Utopias 
 of much to enjoy and little comparatively 
 to do. 
 
 The Church can help the laborer by 
 teaching him to be a faithful and honest 
 workman, who renders a fair equivalent 
 for the pay he gets. Employers would 
 have much more consideration and respect 
 for labor, if it were not so careless and 
 shiftless and incompetent. Few men com- 
 paratively put themselves into their work. 
 
 335 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 They take advantage at every turn. They 
 have to be carefully watched by overseer 
 and superintendent, or little will be done, 
 especially correctly done. They cover up 
 all sorts of evils by paint and varnish. 
 Says Washington Gladden: "A vast 
 amount of bad work is done in these days, 
 slovenly work, dishonest work. That is 
 one way the moral sense of the people is 
 blunted and depraved. Lies and shams 
 are all around us; and we become so ac- 
 customed to them that truth and integrity 
 sometimes seem to be quite out of place 
 in this world." Dean Briggs, of Harvard 
 University, describes it thus : "Street labor- 
 ers, elbow to elbow, feebly lift their picks 
 a few inches above the surface of the earth 
 and trust the fall to the force of gravity. 
 Washerwomen charge you by the hour for 
 eating copious and frequent meals in your 
 kitchen; carpenters light their pipes over 
 your sawdust and shavings, and chat pleas- 
 antly at your expense with whoever passes 
 by. 'Less work for more money,' is the 
 constant cry. ... I have known a man to 
 leave a block of stone in the road where 
 it wrecked the next carriage, for five 
 
 336 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 o'clock had come, and nothing (with an 
 oath) could make him work after five 
 o'clock. Charles Dudley Warner prophe- 
 sies that when labor gets to be ten dollars 
 a day, the workmen will not come at all 
 — they will send their cards." No wonder, 
 finding his men trying to cut the day at 
 both ends, spending three times as long in 
 getting a drink as is necessary, resting on 
 their shovels to talk to the men who work 
 at their sides, doing all languidly, perfunc- 
 torily, and shirking at every step — no 
 wonder when these shiftless workmen come 
 and clamor for more pay and less hours 
 in the day, the employer has no sympathy 
 with the demand. There are many men 
 who would not mind almost any increase, 
 if they felt those in their employ would 
 try to do their best, that they could be 
 trusted and need not be watched, and that 
 they would give an honest return for the 
 increase asked in wages. Many a man 
 with a fine spirit of humanity in him, when 
 he has had laboring men under him for 
 a time, has become so exasperated by their 
 dishonesty in work, that he has become 
 severe and exacting, instead of generous 
 
 337 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 as he is by nature. The Church can teach 
 the laborer to be a faithful and earnest 
 man, and in so doing will help him get 
 his rights. 
 
 The Church can also perform a service 
 by showing the laborer that happiness does 
 not depend on external conditions. The 
 laborer is discontented and ready to dynam- 
 ite the present industrial system, because 
 he has not more wealth which he thinks 
 is the basis of happiness. This is not true. 
 External conditions do not hold the secret 
 of happiness, but internal states. Says 
 Mr. Chas. Stelzle: "Automobiles, pianos, 
 and summer homes, with steam yachts, do 
 not hold the secret of happiness. No man 
 was ever made happy by wealth. No man 
 was ever made unhappy by poverty. Hap- 
 piness and unhappiness, if they have come 
 to you, have come because of something 
 from within you, not because of something 
 from without." There are many persons 
 in misery in brown-stone fronts, and there 
 are many exceedingly happy in the hum- 
 blest homes. John D. Rockefeller said 
 recently, "Wealth does not bring happi- 
 ness." Frequently men of large means tell 
 
 338 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 us that the happiest days of their lives 
 were when they were poor and working 
 hard to get a foothold. It is not the prop- 
 erty a man has, but the man he is, which 
 brings happiness, A man can sing with 
 his feet in the stocks. The good are the 
 happy people. This is what labor needs 
 to be. taught to make it more contented in 
 these days of unrest, and the Church has 
 a mission here, for the socialistic fallacy 
 has led the men of toil to believe that 
 happiness is in the abundance which a 
 man possesses. If the Church shall call 
 attention to those moral and spiritual 
 values which are the true source of a man's 
 peace, if it shall lead men who toil to 
 appreciate the higher things, it will make 
 discontent less abundant and the evil spirit 
 of envy more calm. 
 
 The Church can also do something in 
 the emergency that is on us by stoutly 
 maintaining the right of men to work, free 
 from the dictation of labor organizations 
 and labor leaders. The tyranny of social- 
 ism should not show its hand in our trade 
 unions and workingmen's societies. The 
 most sacred possession labor has is liberty. 
 
 339 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 It is the natural right which it has been 
 hardest for it to secure. In all lands men 
 have been ground down and forced into 
 slavery and serfdom; but in our age the 
 man of toil has become a free man. The 
 last thing labor should do is to interfere 
 with the free exercise of this most precious 
 possession. We understand the arguments 
 made for interference — the special finan- 
 cial inducements which capital in time of 
 conflict is willing to offer men who will 
 sell out the interests of labor for gold, the 
 great necessity because of the vast inter- 
 ests involved of keeping the ranks intact, 
 and not lose a just cause by disintegration 
 — these and other arguments often seem 
 forceful, but they do not constitute a right 
 to invade a man's privilege to make a free 
 contract where and with whom he will. 
 To use the arguments of persuasion with 
 such persons is permissible, but to use 
 force and vicious epithets is in no case jus- 
 tifiable. The fact that in nearly every 
 strike non-union men are terrorized, 
 assailed, maltreated, has only injured the 
 cause of labor, divorcing the sympathy of 
 the community, embittering capital, and 
 340 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 creating dissension in its own ranks. If 
 labor can not win by fair means it will 
 make no real progress by foul. If it can not 
 convince the non-union man by arguments, 
 it has no right to try to do so by blows. 
 Brute force is the last thing that any one 
 should resort to who feels that he is fight- 
 ing for principle, that his cause is just. 
 Organized labor needs the good will of 
 all members of the community, and it can 
 not secure this unless it acts with dignity 
 and on a high plane. To commit a wrong 
 to fight a wrong is bad ethics and poor 
 policy. Every person has a right to say 
 for whom he will labor, and if a third 
 party steps in to interfere with this right 
 he invades the most sacred territory of 
 personality. Let the word "scab" be 
 dropped from the vocabulary of labor, 
 and let violence never be used against a 
 fellow-workman acting within the sphere 
 of his natural rights. 
 
 The Church can accomplish good by 
 encouraging labor in pointing out the rapid 
 progress that has been made in improv- 
 ing its condition. There is much said in 
 the labor literature, and especially in the 
 
 341 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 literature of socialism, to lead the prole- 
 tariate to think that the clouds are con- 
 stantly becoming blacker over his head. 
 Dire pictures are drawn setting forth 
 the distressed condition of working- 
 men. The call is sent out for labor to 
 arise against capital, if it would save itself 
 from being ground to powder under the 
 heel of the oppressor, as if some great 
 calamity were impending. A great many 
 laborers have come to feel that their future 
 is being imperiled, and their rights inter- 
 fered with as scarcely at any other time. 
 The Church, therefore, can be of service 
 by setting forth the opposite side of the 
 picture, showing the steady progress of the 
 laboring classes during the past century in 
 wages, in the comforts of life, in the oppor- 
 tunities for education and enlightment, in 
 all that goes to make existence more tol- 
 erable. It can show how legislation has 
 come in to cut down hours of work, Sun- 
 day labor, child labor; how it has ap- 
 pointed factory inspectors to see that the 
 conditions under which men toil are as 
 favorable as possible; how benevolent or- 
 ganizations have been established to help 
 
 342 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 in times of distress and necessity; and how 
 the entire age has awakened to sympathize 
 with the proletariate movement for im- 
 provement. The literature of the day on 
 the social problem, abundant above almost 
 any other economic or scientific literature, 
 shows a wide sympathy with the laborer's 
 contention, and the purpose of the intelli- 
 gence and scholarship of the land to assist 
 him in his struggle. Everywhere there 
 are signs of progress, and everjrwhere it is 
 indicated that complete emancipation from 
 injustice and oppression is at hand. The 
 outlook does not call for revolution, but 
 for satisfaction with the evolution that is 
 going on. Labor heeds to appreciate what 
 is being done in its interests, and have the 
 strength to wait for the results which con- 
 tinued progress is sure to accomplish in 
 its behalf. 
 
 The Church can exert a helpful influ- 
 ence by teaching labor that it can in large 
 measure save itself socially by self-improve- 
 ment. Law will not save the laborer; an 
 organization, or a new economic condition 
 will not. He will improve in his condition 
 as he improves himself. When the wage- 
 
 343 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 earner becomes more intelligent, he will 
 understand his rights better, and he can not 
 be put down. As he becomes trained in 
 the common school, he will be able to look 
 out for himself, and he will do it and 
 society will recognize him. If he plans 
 for his own good, if his ambition is quick- 
 ened, he will come to be a greater power 
 in the economic world and his voice will 
 be heard. He will also learn how to com- 
 bine to promote his rights and interests. 
 The State can not do more than protect men 
 in their rights; it will not provide them 
 with the conditions which must come out 
 of their own effort, care, and intelligence. 
 It is the upbuilding of personality which 
 lies back of all progress. Now, the 
 Church can do much to inspire the work- 
 ing classes with a desire for self-develop- 
 ment. This work, as we have shown, 
 is being finely done in the social settle- 
 ments. Located in the tenement sections 
 of our great cities, and in the midst of the 
 poor, and often the degraded, they are 
 touching this life with Christian ideals; 
 they are setting before them examples of 
 high living; they are awakening ambition, 
 
 344 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 training minds, arousing interest, and, best 
 of all, leading these classes to feel that 
 Christian people care for their welfare. 
 The reading clubs, women's meetings, de- 
 bating societies, gymnasium classes, lec- 
 tures, entertainments, games, night-schools, 
 cooking-schools, are features which mean 
 the reconstruction of the life of whole 
 neighborhoods. At present this work is 
 being largely done independent of the 
 Church, and often as a purely philanthropic 
 and not a religious movement. Of course 
 the religious spirit is in it and back of it ; 
 but the Church ought to take up the work, 
 and should add institutional features of a 
 similar character, to the Churches located 
 in downtown districts, and could accom- 
 plish vast good if it would, helping settle 
 the social problem in one of the most prac- 
 tical ways. 
 
 However, the real mission of the 
 Church is moral, and the greatest need 
 of the laboring classes in order to rise 
 to better conditions is a development 
 to ethical consciousness. All perma- 
 nent social improvement must rest on 
 a moral basis. You may get men eager 
 
 345 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 for an easier time, and for more material 
 gains, but you can not get a social organi- 
 zation which will accomplish this without 
 improving the moral fiber of men. While 
 individuals are selfish, passionate, low in 
 aim and desire, dishonest, untruthful, while 
 they are lacking in strength of conscience, 
 you can not get an ideal society, no matter 
 what change is made in the social organi- 
 zation, or in the economic basis of the in- 
 dustrial world. Bad men will defeat the 
 success of the best schemes. The self-denial 
 and willingness to serve which alone can 
 permanently improve society, can not come 
 from men who are not moved by high 
 motives and exalted impulses. To secure 
 this, individual character must be sancti- 
 fied by the touch of some renewing grace. 
 If one should change the social organization 
 and give all men equality in the new condi- 
 tions, and leave them morally as they are, it 
 would not be long before the strong, the 
 sharp, and the selfish would have fleeced 
 the innocent, and things come again into a 
 state of social antagonism. While we 
 must recognize the influence of environ- 
 ment on character, social progress will 
 
 346 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 come, not by new social organization, but 
 by men who are possessed by the true 
 spirit. Men can organize, elect presi- 
 dents, secretaries, have meetings and ad- 
 dresses, proclaim theories and policies, 
 and expect to see the world turned up- 
 side down in consequence, but no such 
 machinery will do the work. "What is 
 needed in our day as never before, is not 
 new social machinery, but new personality, 
 more wisdom, sanity, patience, light, ca- 
 pacity to control the already elaborate 
 mechanism of time ; and without these the 
 wheels will soon run down and work will 
 be undone, and the workers be smitten with 
 despair;" and the proletariate left in a 
 stage where the last is worse than the first. 
 "Make better men, and you will have 
 better times," was the wise word of the 
 German philosopher, Zeller. When Dr. 
 Frank Gunsaulus returned from a trip to 
 Europe in 1903, he said to his people in 
 Central Church: "The solution of the 
 great problems of to-day is a religious 
 one. . . . We have tried everything else 
 but Christ. But labor, smutty and be- 
 grimed, will become calm at last, not by 
 
 347 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 might, power, the sword, or by arms, but 
 by Gethsemane and Calvary." The heart 
 of man must be developed to be just and 
 unselfish, and labor will get its rights. But 
 the heart of labor must also be developed 
 so that it will rightly use its rights. It 
 will not get on while it is unfaithful to 
 its tasks, while it dulls its intelligence by 
 drink, while it lowers and depraves itself 
 by beastly talk, while its mouth is full of 
 curses for God and man, while it is selfish 
 and low and degraded and brutal. Here 
 the Church must do its greatest work. It 
 must reclaim the moral nature of the labor- 
 ing man, lift his ethical ideals, teach him 
 to drop his vices, renew his will, surrender 
 his selfishness ; in short, it must elevate his 
 life, and in doing this it will advance his 
 social state, increase his prosperity, and 
 intensify his happiness. 
 
 The following statement of Dr. Robert 
 Flint, in his work on socialism, we believe 
 to be eminently sound: "The social ques- 
 tion is largely a moral question; and the 
 key to every moral question is to be found 
 in the state of the heart of individuals, in 
 goodness or badness of will. The king- 
 
 348 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 dortt of heaven on earth does not begin in 
 the world without, but works outward 
 from the heart within. It can be based 
 on no other foundation than the moral 
 renovation of individuals — the metanoia 
 of John the Baptist, and the precepts of 
 the Sermon on the Mount. The great bulk 
 of human misery is due, not to social 
 arrangements, but to personal vices. It 
 is unjust to lay the blame of the suffer- 
 ings caused by indolence, improvidence, 
 drunkenness, licentiousness, and the like, 
 chiefly on the faulty arrangements of 
 society, instead of on the evil disposition 
 of those who exemplify these qualities or 
 habits. Society may not be indirectly or 
 wholly guiltless in the matter, but those 
 who are directly and mainly guilty are, in 
 general, the individuals who involve them- 
 selves and others in misery through shirk- 
 ing duty and yielding to base seductions. 
 The scholastic teaching which studiously 
 refrains from offending the lazy loafer, 
 'the wicked and slothful servant,' the 
 drunkard whose self-indulgence is the sole 
 cause of his poverty, the coarse sensualist 
 who brings on himself disease and destitu- 
 
 349 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 tion and the like, and which even encour- 
 ages them to regard themselves not as 
 sinners, but as sinned against, the badly- 
 used victims of a badly constituted society 
 — this teaching, I say, is the most erro- 
 neous, the least honest, or faithful, and the 
 least likely to be effective and beneficial 
 that can be conceived." 
 
 In concluding our discussion it may be 
 of interest to give some of the replies of 
 the secretaries of national labor organiza- 
 tions to the following question, which was 
 submitted in connection with those to which 
 previous reference has been made: "What 
 would you suggest the Church should do 
 in order to attract the laboring class more 
 closely to itself?" Says one of our cor- 
 respondents : "The ministers of the Church 
 should study the conditions of the laboring 
 class, learn of the treatment accorded 
 them by their employers, and, if wrong 
 exists, use their influence to right it. The 
 fact that the rich and powerful may not 
 find it palatable to have their sins de- 
 nounced, should not deter those whose duty 
 it is to condemn wickedness and praise 
 virtue, from doing their duty. A more 
 
 350 
 
''May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 general acquaintance on the part of 
 Churchmen with the laboring people in 
 their parishes and in the vicinity of the 
 Churches is necessary. The idea preva- 
 lent among laboring people is that the 
 preacher has no particular interest in 
 them; that he prosecutes his ministry 
 simply for a livelihood; so, without the 
 preacher makes some sacrifice, thus prov- 
 ing by his efforts that he has the welfare 
 of the people at heart, the idea will con- 
 tinue to prevail. The laboring man needs 
 sympathy, needs it more than any other 
 class of men, and if he receives it he will 
 be attracted to the Church which gives it." 
 "Church pews should be made free, 
 equality exist, and wealthy members should 
 greet the working classes with cordiality, 
 thus encouraging them to attend." "The 
 Church, as at present constituted, can not 
 make itself attractive to the laboring class. 
 It could do so only by a revolution in its 
 purposes and methods, going back to the 
 socialism of the Founder and the labor 
 class' consciousness of the disciples and 
 early Christians." "Preach 'the laborer is 
 worthy of his hire,' and let employees prac- 
 
 351 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 tice the principles of Christianity in daily 
 life." "People are attracted by love, by 
 good-fellowship. The Church's love to 
 the poor is not the Christ love. It is true 
 that the Church often patronizes the poor, 
 sometimes makes pensioners or paupers of 
 them, but as a rule the Church is with the 
 opponents of the laboring class. I would 
 suggest that the preachers study the New 
 Testament, and try to follow Him whom 
 they profess to love." "If the clergymen 
 would preach, teach, and practice the 
 Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood 
 of man in its simplicity, the Churches 
 could not contain the vast army of work- 
 ingmen who would attend. All that is 
 necessary to reach them is to manifest a 
 spirit of brotherhood and associate with 
 them on terms of equality. If they reach 
 the workingman to-day they have to go 
 where he is instead of drawing an imag- 
 inary line, establishing themselves upon 
 a mountain-top, intrenched about with 
 their so-called religiousness, and shouting 
 across the valley through a megaphone, 
 'Come over to us and we will do you 
 good.' " "In order to attract the laboring 
 
 352 
 
May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 class more closely to itself the Church 
 should co-operate more thoroughly with 
 the laboring class instead of catering to 
 those who, as a rule, are antagonistic to 
 the laboring people." "Talk less of hell 
 and heaven, of which the people are be- 
 lieving less than ever, and speak of the 
 mother earth and of the conditions under 
 which the majority of mankind, that is the 
 laboring classes, live and work." "Cease 
 to be a rich man's institution, and get back 
 to first principles of contending for the 
 right and opposing the wrong, no matter 
 who does it." "The Church should use 
 the tremendous influence that it has at its 
 command to elevate the material as well 
 as the moral welfare of the working 
 people." "The Church must take up the 
 study of political economy. It must dis- 
 cover and present to the people those just 
 laws God has enacted for the government 
 of societies. Political economy is as much 
 a God-given science as astronomy or 
 physics." "The Church should get nearer 
 to industry, and express more respect for 
 labor than it does for contributing robbers. 
 Christ drove the money-changers from the 
 
 »3 353 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 temple to redeem a house of prayer from 
 a den of thieves, but now the Church ex- 
 tends an embossed invitation to welcome 
 back into the temple the sparkling 
 diamonds which represent the congealed 
 tears of widows and orphans. I love 
 Christianity; and hate no man because he 
 is rich. My hopes would be vain, and of 
 all men I would be most miserable, if I 
 were not a Christian; but Christianity 
 was never intended as a harbinger for 
 commercial pirates nor a bargain counter 
 where the idle holders of wealth could 
 purchase a passport to heaven." "Hew 
 close to the line, let the chips fall where 
 they may." "Teach justice; if labor re- 
 ceived justice there would be little need of 
 charity." "I recommend lectures on the 
 labor question to be held in the churches, 
 where prominent speakers might discuss 
 the subject from the standpoint of the em- 
 ployer, the wage-earner, and the clergy- 
 man." "Cut out class distinctions." "Give 
 attention to social science, realize the sit- 
 uation of the working classes and their 
 needs, come to the point where the poor 
 man has as much voice and prestige in its 
 
 354 
 
'May Help Solve the Social Problem 
 
 affairs as the rich man." "Enter into a 
 helpful relation with the trades-union 
 movement." "The ministry should speak 
 much and often in trying to get employers 
 and employees to accept and practice in 
 their mutual dealings the principles of 
 Christianity. The Church is at fault be- 
 cause of its silence on the question of 
 labor." "Mingle with the people. The 
 Salvation Army does, and is respected 
 where the Church is hated. Do n't hang 
 out your banner and expect the people to 
 come to the Church, but go to those whom 
 the Church wants to attract, and work un- 
 ceasingly by ministering to their sick and 
 those not in a position to care for them- 
 selves. Do something besides talk." 
 "Preach, teach, and live love to all man- 
 kind regardless of conditions." "If the 
 Church would follow in the footsteps of 
 Jesus, who never had a roof covering Him, 
 whose sole work was among the masses 
 of the people, and who was hated by 
 plutocrats, monopolists, and exploiters, 
 and do like Him — go among the poor and 
 lowly, and not only preach, but practice 
 true Christianity, not moving away from 
 
 355 
 
The Church and the Social Problem 
 
 the people into uptown districts, then the 
 working people might have more faith in 
 the preachers and Churches of to-day." 
 "Let the laboring man come in the best 
 clothes he can afford, without being in- 
 sulted by the scowls of moneyed people in 
 silks and broadcloth." 
 
 Other replies are much of the same 
 nature, and cover pretty much the same 
 points. Out of nearly one hundred answers 
 from these recognized leaders of labor, 
 there is not one who does not criticise the 
 existing Church, show that he has in a 
 measure lost confidence in it, and imply 
 that its lack of interest in the temporal 
 welfare of the people is its greatest present 
 deficiency. The demand is constantly 
 made that the Church study and discuss 
 the labor problem, and the prophecy is 
 given that the people will only be won 
 when this is done. While we do not in- 
 dorse many of, the statements and sugges- 
 tions made, they, in the .main, express 
 important truths which those who are 
 interested in the Church's prosperity] 
 should earnestly ponder. 
 
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 The church and the social problem; a stud 
 
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