CORNELL 
 
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 A COLLECTION MADE BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 
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 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
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 Vox clamantivm 
 
 olin 
 
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The original of this book is in 
 the Corneii University Library. 
 
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 http://archive.org/details/cu31924030269553 
 
vox CLAMANTIUM 
 
vox The Gospel 
 
 CLAMA of 
 
 NTIVM The People 
 
 by 
 
 Writers, Preachers 
 
 & Workers 
 
 Brought together by Andrew Reid 
 
 London 
 
 A. D. Innes & Co. 
 
 Bedford Street 
 
 1894 
 
 (U)KKM I i 
 
 UIJlVI-.U&l'iV 
 
/{ii^'^xs* 
 
 '">l A YAWS 
 
Go and sell that thoti hast, 
 and give to the poor, and 
 thou shall have treasure in 
 heaven. 
 
 Many that are first shall 
 be last, and the last shall 
 be first. 
 
Thou shalt not covet : but Tradition 
 Approves all forms of Competition. 
 
 A. H. Clough. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The writers in this volume represent varying schools 
 of thought, often very far apart. Each is responsible 
 solely for his own contribution, and is in no way com- 
 mitted to special doctrines laid down by any of his 
 associates. 
 
 In certain cases, the articles were written under the 
 expectation that the volume would be called ^^ Preaching 
 unto the Preachers ;^^ hence they were more directly 
 addressed to the Clergy. 
 
 But there is one central principle common to all — 
 that to every one, but most of all to those who call them- 
 selves Christians, the precepts of the Serm.on on the 
 Mount have not passed away, and belong no less to 
 public than to private life. For this reason, the title 
 of ""Vok" rather than "Voces" Clamantium has been 
 adopted. 
 
 ANDREW REID. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 QUAMDIU, DOMINE ! ^JC HALL CAINE ... ... ... I 
 
 The Christian Church and the Problem of Poverty. By 
 
 Rev. Professor Shuttleworth ... ... ... 6 
 
 In the Matter of Incubus and Co. By S. R. Crockett, 
 
 Author of "The Stickit Minister " ... ... ... 47 
 
 Social Aspects of the Gospel. By Rev. the Hon. James 
 
 Pi.ViVXKL'S.y, Author of " Stephen Remarx" ... ... jS 
 
 Clergy and Laity. By Richard Le Gallienne ... ... 106 
 
 Christian Ethics and Practical Politics. By A. E. Flet- 
 cher, Editor of the " Daily Chronicle " ... ... ... 116 
 
 The Wrongfulness OF Riches. ^;)/ Grant Allen ... 138 
 
 England to HER OWN Rescue, ^j/ Walter Crane ... 162 
 Economic and Social Justice. By Alfred Russell 
 
 Wallace ... ... ... ... ... ... 166 
 
 Social Teaching of the Early Fathers. By Rev. C. L. 
 
 Marson ... ... ... ••■ ••• •■• 198 
 
 Meliora. .5y Lewis Morris ... ... ... ••• 225 
 
xii Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Lay Sermon to Preachers. By Henry Arthur Jones ... 232 
 
 The Ancient Faith in Providence. ^j/John Heather ... 244 
 
 Principles and Practice. By Frank Smith ... ... 269 
 
 Preachers AND Churches, ^j/ Tom Mann ... ... 289 
 
 Christianity and Social Advance. By the Hon. Roden 
 
 Noel ... ... ... ... ... ... 315 
 
 Social Creed of a Christian Democrat. By the Very Rev. 
 
 C. W. Stvbbs, Dean 0/ £ly ... ... ... ... 355 
 
vox CLAMANTIUM 
 
How long, O Lord, how long ! 
 
 From the bosom of God, where Thou re- 
 posest, look down on the world where Thou 
 didst walk as a man. Didst Thou not teach us 
 to pray, " Thy kingdom come " ? Didst Thou 
 not say that Thy kingdom was near, that some 
 who stood with Thee should not taste of death 
 till they had seen it come with power, that when 
 it came the poor should be blessed, the hungry 
 should be filled, the blind should see, the heavy- 
 laden should find rest, and the will of Thy 
 Father should be done on earth even as it is 
 done in heaven ? With that promise didst Thou 
 not leave us for a little while, and in that hope 
 didst Thou not go in meekness to Thy death — 
 betrayed, belied, mocked, smitten, and cursed ? 
 
2 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 But nigh upon two thousand years have 
 gone, O Lord, and Thy kingdom hath not 
 come. Still receiveth the rich man his good 
 things, and likewise Lazarus his evil things. 
 Still doth the unjust steward who cannot dig, 
 and to beg is ashamed, make to himself friends 
 of the mammon of unrighteousness. Was Thy 
 promise vain, and Thy hope in death a dream ? 
 From Thy heavenly place hast Thou seen Thy 
 people watch and wait, and heard the cry of 
 their despair ? When, out of the darkness of 
 the ninth hour on Calvary, at Thy triumphant 
 shout " It is finished ! " Thou enterest Para- 
 dise with the hand of the malefactor in Thy 
 hand, didst Thou hear the awful voice of God 
 proclaim, " Vain, vain, all is vain " ? 
 
 Look down, O Lord, look down. Are the 
 centuries a waste ? Nigh upon two thousand 
 years have gone since Thou didst walk the 
 world, and the face of things is not unchanged. 
 
Quamdiu, Domine ! 3 
 
 In Thy Name now doth the Pharisee give alms 
 in the street to the sound of a trumpet going 
 before him. In Thy Name now doth the Levite 
 pass by on the other side when a man hath fallen 
 among thieves. In Thy Name now doth the 
 lawyer lay on the poor burdens grievous to be 
 borne. In Thy Name now doth the priest buy 
 and sell the glad tidings of the kingdom, giving 
 for the gospel of God the commandments of 
 men, living in rich men's houses, faring sumptu- 
 ously every day, praying with his lips, " Give us 
 this day our daily bread," but saying to his soul, 
 " Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many 
 years : take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." 
 Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs 
 of thistles ? Is it this Thy gospel that yields 
 that Thy fruit ? Then will the master of the 
 vineyard come shortly and say, " Cut it down ; 
 why cumbereth it the ground ? " 
 
 Yet, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary and of 
 
4 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Joseph, Thy heart was single, Thy path was 
 pure, Thy words were as a child's story, and the 
 common people heard Thee gladly. Thou didst 
 preach Thy gospel to the poor. Thou didst 
 show us Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, the good 
 Samaritan having mercy on the fallen of Israel, 
 the publican in the temple smiting his breast, 
 and crying, " God be merciful to me a sinner ! " 
 Thou didst shame the hypocrites, and fear the 
 face of no man. Thou didst forgive the guilty 
 woman, and didst suffer the Magdalene to love 
 Thee. Thou didst teach us to lay up our treasure 
 in heaven, to sell all and to give to the poor, 
 to go forth in Thy Name without purse or scrip 
 or second coat, trusting to our Father for our 
 food, even as the birds of the air, and for our 
 raiment, even as the flowers of the field. Thou 
 didst walk the world as a man and didst not fall. 
 Thou hadst choice of the kingdoms of the world 
 and didst put the prince of it behind Thy back. 
 
Quamdiu, Domine ! 5 
 
 Thou wast poor as Thy children and true as 
 Thy gospel. The foxes had holes and the birds 
 of the air had nests ; but Thou hadst not where 
 to lay Thine head. 
 
 Thy words were simple, and brave, and beau- 
 tiful ; but we have made them strange, and a 
 howling and dark. 
 
 Thy gospel was peace and mercy and love; 
 but we have made it violence and opposition and 
 hate. 
 
 Thy life was human and God-like and finished, 
 but we have made it unlike a man's, unlike a 
 God's, a fragment, a symbol, and a mystery. 
 
 Nigh upon two thousand years have gone, 
 and the world is full of the rumour of Thy 
 Name. On the tongues of men Thou art 
 Saviour, Redeemer, and Christ. But is it from 
 fear that Thou wouldst find no faith on the 
 earth that Thy kingdom doth not come ? 
 
 How long, O Lord, how long ! 
 
The Christian Church and the 
 Problem of Poverty. 
 
 That poverty is an evil, to be minimized by all possible 
 means, and to be got rid of if ;that be practicable, I 
 take to be a statement upon which all Christians, and 
 all earnest men, ought to be agreed. When the Master 
 said, " The poor ye have always with you," it is clear, 
 no less from the context than from the words them- 
 selves, that He was not uttering a prediction, but 
 stating a fact, a fact of His own time, but not necessarily 
 of all future time. The Church has always looked 
 upon the relief of poverty as one of her primary duties ; 
 the only question is as to the best and most useful 
 methods by which relief may be given. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to spend space in an endeavour 
 to define poverty, or to explain the sense in which it is 
 used in this paper. Becky Sharp thought that she 
 could have been a good woman on ;^ 5000 a year, and 
 it may be presumed that in her view poverty meant 
 something less than that sum. Not long since, a writer 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 7 
 
 in one of the monthlies provoked some amusement by 
 discussing the possibilities of living upon a yearly- 
 income of £800, and we are familiar with the little 
 manuals, which profess to show us how we may live 
 comfortably, with due provision for the rainy day, upon 
 less than half of that amount. 
 
 It is not poverty such as this that we have here 
 to discuss, but that which • we all understand suffi- 
 ciently well to be able to dispense with any other 
 definition than is furnished by Mr. C. Booth's maps ; 
 that awful state of degradation and misery which 
 follows upon the want of life's necessaries, and in which 
 tens of thousands of our fellow-Englishmen are existing 
 at this moment, with no faintest hope of ever reaching 
 anything better. Becky Sharp touched the fringe of a 
 deep social truth in her famous saying, little as she 
 thought it ; for poverty is not merely evil in that it 
 brings misery and pain and death, but in that it is 
 beyond question a grave hindrance to the development 
 of all higher and nobler forms of human life. Board- 
 school children, breakfastless and cold, are less capable 
 of being taught than if they were properly fed and clad. 
 Men, whose whole interest is inevitably absorbed in the 
 ghastly struggle to find bread for themselves and their 
 families, can scarcely be expected to think much of 
 their intellectual culture or their moral and spiritual 
 
8 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 development. True, the life is more than meat ; man 
 does not live by bread alone. But he cannot live 
 without bread, and if he has not enough bread he 
 cannot live in health of mind and spirit any more than 
 of body. Too much bread — " fulness of bread " — has 
 the same effect on him. 
 
 Most men are disposed to allow far too little, in 
 considering these questions, for the influence of environ- 
 ment on character. If it is too much to say with some 
 moderns that "environment makes character," it is 
 barely sufficient to say that it has a very large share in 
 the moulding and making of each one of us. Along 
 with heredity, it is one of God's chiefest instruments in 
 the education of man. A healthy environment, there- 
 fore, should be secured, so far as is possible, for every 
 human being. It will not indeed of itself make him 
 either good or wise. The soul, in Tennyson's " Palace 
 of Art," surrounded herself with a perfect environment 
 of culture and refinement ; yet she nearly died of 
 selfish despair. But a healthy environment can help, 
 to an incalculable extent, in the making of good and 
 wise men ; it can remove difficulties out of the path ; it 
 can create as it were a climate and soil suitable for 
 the growth of good seed of all kinds. An evil environ- 
 ment, on the other hand, is one of the worst misfortunes 
 which can befall any man. For one who rises above 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 9 
 
 its influence and conquers his doom, thousands sink 
 deeper and deeper, handing on to their children a 
 heritage of character already fatally loaded in the scale 
 of evil, to be weighted yet more hopelessly by the 
 continued power of degrading surroundings. To ex- 
 pect that men will strive victoriously against such a 
 destiny is to expect them to show forth the virtues of 
 saint and hero at once. Could we ourselves do as 
 much under like conditions ? A famous English 
 reformer once said as he watched a condemned criminal 
 led forth to die, " There, but for the grace of God, goes 
 John Bradford." What should we have been had our 
 own lives been environed as are the lives of nearly one 
 half the families of this country ? 
 
 Poverty is thus an evil, not merely because it is the 
 fruitful source of misery, though that is bad enough ; 
 but because it tends directly to promote the growth of 
 wickedness, and to hamper the advancement of wisdom 
 and righteousness. Even those, therefore, who would 
 contend that the Christian Church is not concerned 
 with the promotion of men's happiness, and the getting 
 rid of misery, in this world, will admit that she is, or 
 ought to be, very seriously concerned to lessen, or to 
 destroy, such a formidable obstacle in the way of the 
 work her Master has laid upon her, as His organized 
 society for warring with the evil and building up the right. 
 
ro Vox Clamantium. 
 
 It may be urged that this is universally admitted, 
 and that, as has been already said, the Church in all 
 ages has looked upon it as a duty to relieve the poor. 
 But that is not enough. It is her office to convert 
 sinners, to snatch brands from the burning ; but the 
 Church has more to do than that. She has to find out 
 how and why they fell into the burning ; to make it as 
 difficult as possible for others to fall in ; to quench, if 
 it may be, the burning itself. The conquest of sin is 
 her high mission, no less than the saving of individuals 
 out of its power. Just so, the relief of the poor is but a 
 part of the Church's work with regard to poverty. She 
 must go on to inquire what influences have combined 
 to make men poor, and how those influences should be 
 dealt with. 
 
 It is just at this point that many of us feel our 
 modern Church organization and work to be defective. 
 We spend strength and money in saving individuals, 
 while we are often forgetful of the larger and heavier 
 task. We deal with the outward symptoms of social 
 disease, while we fail to reach or to grapple with its 
 inner causes. The scientific physician can never be 
 satisfied until he has discovered and attacked the cause 
 which produces the symptoms. Merely to drive the 
 symptoms out of sight is to increase the virulence of the 
 disease. As an illustration of what is meant, let us 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 1 1 
 
 take the temperance movement. That movement has 
 done very noble work, allowing for all qualifications 
 and deductions. But it has concentrated attention and 
 labour upon symptoms, and only in a much slighter 
 degree recognized and done battle with causes. In- 
 temperance is undoubtedly a cause of poverty as of 
 crime ; but is not poverty also a cause of intemperance ? 
 The miserable homes of so many, the uncertainty of 
 employment, long hours of exhausting toil, bad and 
 insufficient food, strain upon brain and nerves, want of 
 wholesome recreation, the sense of hopelessness for the 
 future ; — who shall say that these are not causes, far 
 more frequently than fruits, of intemperance ? Hence, 
 if the evil is to be adequately met, something more 
 must be attempted than fervid personal appeal to 
 individuals for conversion and amendment. The 
 temperance organizations should direct their artillery 
 against bad housing, overwork, and other causes which 
 make for drunkenness, no less than upon the drunkards 
 themselves. 
 
 Similarly in the case of all moral disease. I submit 
 that poverty, and the conditions which make for poverty, 
 are shown to be primary causes of an enormous pro- 
 portion of the sin of London and England ; and that 
 the Church cannot hope to deal with the sin without 
 attacking the cause. If this be " secular work " then it 
 
12 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 is such secular work as was her Master's healing of 
 physical disease. The physical is so closely linked with 
 the mental and spiritual, that they can scarcely be 
 treated apart. Physical evil stimulates the growth of 
 moral evil, and to do battle with the latter involves war 
 to the knife with the former. So Lord Shaftesbury 
 saw when he began his great work for the bettering of 
 the physical conditions under which women and 
 children laboured. It was not a " secular " work with 
 him. To him, as he said in his first speech on the 
 Factory Acts, in 1833, it was "a great religious 
 question." The good earl has gone to his own place, 
 full of years and honours. It is for us to take up the 
 work in which he nobly showed the way, in his own 
 spirit. The struggle against poverty and the powers 
 which make for poverty, is a great religious question. 
 
 But even admitting the existence of an appalling 
 mass of poverty and misery, it is urged that all this is 
 really people's own fault ; that the drunken, thriftless 
 habits of the poor, their utter want of foresight and 
 prudence, are the true causes of social suffering ; and 
 that therefore the remedy lies in persuading them to 
 be provident and sober. 
 
 Unquestionably it is the fact that recklessness and 
 drunkenness will lead to suffering, just as debt and 
 gambling must entail their own bitter consequences ; 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 13 
 
 but although they aggravate the evils of poverty, it by 
 no means follows that they are its chief causes. As 
 has already been said, these vices are produced by 
 poverty, at least as often as they produce it. And will 
 it be contended seriously by any intelligent observer of 
 the facts, that if we were all total abstainers we should 
 thereby abolish poverty? Undoubtedly individuals 
 would be happier and better off, but wages would not 
 be raised, employment would not be one whit more 
 certain. This " argument " always seems to me to 
 resemble the assertion that because in a race a man 
 with five yards' start has an advantage, it would be best 
 to give everybody five yards' start. The evils caused 
 by drink are horrible enough, and no one can deny 
 them, or have any wish except to see them lessened, 
 and help to do it. But, when that is done, you still 
 have the problem to solve. You have been hitting 
 out in the wrong place ; at least for our present 
 purpose. 
 
 So with thrift. Thrift is a good thing. But take 
 the case of a workman who earns good wages, say 
 thirty-five shillings a week. Allowing for rent, trade 
 union payments, and necessaries, how much is left for 
 saving.' Nay, is it right for a man to save, if by so 
 doing he deprives himself and his children of what they 
 ought to have, say, in the way of wholesome recreation ? 
 
14 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Moreover, if all workmen were as thrifty as some are, 
 the result would inevitably be a reduction in wages. 
 The "iron law" tends invariably to reduce wages to 
 the living point, as every economist knows. If, there- 
 fore, the men earning thirty-five shillings a week made 
 thirty shillings serve them for weekly expenses, wages 
 would slowly but certainly sink to thirty shillings ; for 
 the employer, ever on the alert to cut down his out- 
 goings, would soon find that as a thrifty man could 
 live on less than another, he could get him for less. 
 Thrifty workmen would assuredly push out the others 
 and take their places. But they would also take lower 
 wages, and the only real gainer by the workman's 
 increased thrift would be the employer. It will be 
 seen how this argument can also be applied, mutatis 
 mutandis, to the case of the teetotal workman. Clearly 
 we have not got at the causes of the trouble in drink 
 and thriftlessness. They are among the saddest inci- 
 dents of poverty, but they are not its sources. If we 
 could cure them at a blow the ghost would come again. 
 It would never really have gone. The evils exist in 
 countries and districts where workers are sober and 
 prudent, no less than in London, where they often 
 are not. 
 
 It is, I think, unfair to assert that well-to-do people 
 are, as a rule, indifferent to the evils which exist. There 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 15 
 
 are far too many who try not to see them, like the 
 Quaker who is recorded to have driven from London 
 to Plymouth with the blinds of his carriage carefully 
 drawn down all the time, and there are some — more 
 I fear than we commonly think — who see and know 
 something of the facts, and who coldly leave them 
 alone with a cynical shrug and a murmured aprh moi 
 le diluge. But these are the minority, a large minority 
 perhaps, but a minority still. The bulk of the upper 
 and middle classes are painfully alive to the miseries 
 of the poor, and are ready to help, if only they knew 
 how to help effectively and well. That, however, is just 
 what they do not know. They are overwhelmed by the 
 complexity and difficulty of the problem. They hesi- 
 tate about giving money, for they have been warned 
 so incessantly of the evils of indiscriminate alms, that 
 they have ceased to give as they used to do, for fear 
 of doing harm instead of good. If they formerly gave 
 not wisely but too well, they have now reversed the 
 process, and give not well, but too wisely. For myself 
 I confess that of two evils, I prefer the former error to 
 the latter. Better a warm heart, with all its faults and 
 risks, than a cold one. Better charity which forgets 
 prudence, than prudence which forgets charity. I had 
 rather run the risk of giving to an impostor or a 
 drunkard, than the risk of refusing to help a man in 
 
1 6 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 need, the Charity Organization Society notwithstanding. 
 I do not mean that we should make no inquiries, and 
 take no pains to follow up a " case." I do mean that 
 in probably the majority of such cases there is some 
 doubt as to genuineness ; the record is not spotless. 
 Well, let the benefit of the doubt be given in favour of 
 the " case," rather than, as is too usual, against it. Let 
 us cease to use the Charity Organization Society as 
 a convenient means for finding reasons why we should 
 not help the poor. Let us remember that the " case " 
 is a human being in want and suffering. Let us bear 
 in mind that if we make it a rule "never to give to 
 beggars," there are ways enough and to spare in which 
 money may be employed for relieving the poor, apart 
 from the evils of "pauperizing" and encouraging im- 
 posture or carelessness. 
 
 But, when all is said and done, private charity 
 cannot solve the problem. It can only help individuals. 
 It does not touch the causes of the distress ; and so 
 long as those causes are allowed to exist and develop 
 unchecked, we might as well try to fill a sieve with 
 water. If some one invents a machine for making 
 match-boxes, and a company is floated to work the 
 patent, the result would probably be that while the 
 shareholders and directors made fortunes, Bryant and 
 May's match-giris would be thrown in hundreds and 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 17 
 
 thousands out of employment, so flooding the women's 
 labour market, and reducing wages all round. Is 
 private subscription the wisest, most effectual, and most 
 reasonable method of meeting a difficulty which ought 
 to be prevented, surely, rather than need to be reme- 
 died? Let the answer be given by those who know 
 the inner history of the Mansion House Funds. 
 
 The Christian Church might do much to bring us 
 nearer to the abolition of poverty if her preachers would 
 speak out fearlessly upon sotial questions. But it must 
 be observed that even then there are large numbers 
 who lie outside the range of such an appeal. Preachers 
 can only reach those who come to hear them preach. 
 What of the selfish and wicked, who either would not 
 come, or, if they come, would not listen or heed ? 
 What of the still larger number who are indifferent? 
 What of the masses of the men who, like the liberated 
 Israelites, are so dulled and blunted by slavery that 
 they prefer Egypt to the efforts and responsibilities of 
 freedom ? The voice of the most dogmatic and earnest 
 preacher cannot reach these and such as these. Per- 
 sonal appeal can do something, but not all, or anything 
 like all. It can bring Christians face to face with the 
 fact that our modern social organization is not in 
 harmony with the New Testament ; but it cannot touch 
 those larger classes who, for one reason or another, are 
 
 c 
 
1 8 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 insensible to such appeals, or do not recognize the 
 authority upon which the appeal is founded. Moreover, 
 an earnest man, trying to carry the principle of the 
 Christian life into his social and commercial relations, 
 will find himself hampered and thwarted at every turn 
 by the conditions under which his business must needs 
 be carried on. Over and over again I have been told, 
 alike by employers and employed, " You can't be a 
 Christian in business. You can't be honest and truthful. 
 You would be ruined if you tried it." 
 
 Admitting, for the sake of argument, that this is 
 saying too much, it must be granted that the cynical 
 motto, " The golden rule must not come outside the 
 Churches," prevails so widely in business and in social 
 politics, that a man who will not bow the knee to this 
 Baal stands small chance of success. The conditions 
 and influences of his environment will be too much for 
 him. He is caught in a great machine, and he must 
 either go round with it, or be torn to pieces in struggling 
 to go the other way. 
 
 I think I am understating rather than exaggerating 
 the facts of the case. Browning's famous line — 
 "How very hard it is to be a Christian," 
 
 might well be the despairing cry of a man who had 
 striven to carry his Christianity into his trade and 
 social relations. 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 19 
 
 It seems clear, then, that the earnest man must be 
 helped to do what is right, and the selfish man hindered 
 in doing what is wrong. This can only be carried out 
 by one power, the State ; and by one means, legislation. 
 The spirit of the New Testament must be breathed 
 into our laws and their administration. For all our 
 "national Christianity" this is not now the fact, although 
 we are moving towards it more and more quickly. Take 
 a single example. The rights of property are held so 
 sacred among us, that offences against the person are 
 punished more lightly than offences against the purse. 
 Interference with property is still looked upon with 
 the greatest jealousy and dislike. Yet the teaching of 
 our Master is not of this sort. As one of the most 
 judicially minded and calmly impartial of writers has 
 said, "The whole strain of the teaching of Christ runs 
 counter to the glorification of private ownership, and 
 of the right of every one to do what he will with his 
 own." * 
 
 Again, in the New Testament it is clear that idleness 
 is a sin, and that every man ought to work, as a con- 
 dition of life. " If any man will not work, neither let 
 him eat." Yet among ourselves the existence of an 
 idle class who "toil not, neither do they spin," is not 
 regarded as an anomaly. Those who belong to it are 
 
 * Mr. Llewellyn Davies on " Property " in his " Social Questions." 
 
2o Vox Clamantium. 
 
 rather envied than pitied ; they consume the fruits of 
 other men's labour, giving back nothing in return — 
 producing nothing. 
 
 It may be urged that legislation cannot alter human 
 hearts, and that selfish and greedy men will not be 
 made unselfish by Act of Parliament. Most true ; but 
 they can be prevented by legislation from selfishly 
 growing rich at the expense of their fellow-creatures. 
 Lord Shaftesbury did this when, in the teeth of the 
 opposition of the manufacturing interests, he carried 
 the Factory Acts. Since then we have had Mines 
 Regulation Acts, Truck Acts, Adulteration Acts, Land 
 Acts ; all of them movements in the right direction — 
 all efforts (however inadequate and incomplete) to pre- 
 vent the oppression and exploitation of the workers at 
 the hands of selfish employers. Lord Shaftesbury 
 recognized that his work was a religious one, and he 
 was neither afraid, nor ashamed, of being called what 
 he really was — a Christian Socialist. 
 
 The right of the individual is subordinate to the 
 right of the community. It is not lawful for any man 
 to do what he will with his own, if in so doing he 
 wrongs his brethren. Nor is the wrong less because 
 it is done in a manner permitted, or at least not pre- 
 vented, by the law as it stands. Slavery is not less 
 wrong from the Christian point of view in countries 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 21 
 
 where it is allowed by law than in countries where it 
 is forbidden. It must be recognized that it is wrong, 
 although not at present prevented by law, for wealthy 
 railway companies to work their signalmen eighteen 
 hours or more at a stretch, rather than lessen their 
 dividends by employing more men and so thinning the 
 ranks of the unemployed. The property of the share- 
 holders is of more importance, apparently, than the 
 lives of the passengers, the health and strength of the 
 signalmen, and the starvation of men out of work. 
 
 The Christian Fathers were emphatic, not to say 
 vehement, upon the iniquity of the rule of Mammon.* 
 "The rich man is a thief," says St. Basil the Great. 
 " The rich are robbers : a kind of equality must be 
 effected by making gifts out of their abundance." 
 " Better all things were in common " (St. Chrysostom). 
 " Wealth is always the product of theft, committed, 
 if not by the actual possessor, by his ancestors " (St. 
 Jerome). " Nature created community ; private property 
 is the offspring of usurpation " (St. Ambrose). " In 
 strict justice, everything should belong to all. Iniquity 
 alone has created private property " (St. Clement). 
 
 These words read like the ravings of some street 
 orator of to-day. Yet they could easily be paralleled 
 
 * These extracts are quoted from Lavaleye's " Socialism of To-day," 
 Introd., p. xix. 
 
2 2 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 from the great divines and preachers of a later day, 
 and from the sermons of our English bishops and 
 parish priests. The Reformation pulpit was singularly- 
 outspoken on the burning questions of land and 
 property, as the most casual reader of Latimer or 
 Pilkington will remember. 
 
 Are we to carry on this tradition, or to look upon 
 these matters as none of ours ? If we leave them alone 
 we shall lose the greatest opportunity a Church ever 
 had. Whether we like it or not, the progress of the 
 nation tends in a Socialistic direction. It is for us to 
 say whether its basis shall be Christian or not. 
 
 I have no hesitation in urging that the State should 
 be called upon to interfere : (a) to protect the helpless ; 
 {b) to prevent the greedy and selfish from enriching 
 themselves at the expense of others. This seems to 
 me to be the plain duty of a Christian nation. It is 
 simply the principle of Christian brotherhood and love 
 applied to social legislation and to commercial life. 
 The stock reply that this sort of thing is " sentimental " 
 and "unpractical," may be brushed upon one side 
 without much ado. A little more sentiment is just 
 what we want ; and some of us have come to loathe 
 the very word " practical," owing to its misuse in such 
 a connection as this. If it be indeed " sentimental " to 
 maintain that a Christian nation should be Christian in 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 23 
 
 its care of the poor, and in its commercial ideals, then 
 Christ Himself is open to the same criticism. He gave 
 us the true test of a nation's greatness, the crucial point 
 upon which every nation shall be judged of God, in 
 the " parable of the nations," known as the parable of 
 the sheep and the goats. When the Son of man shall 
 sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall 
 be gathered all the nations, what is the one question put 
 to them — the single test, according to which they are 
 separated as sheep or goats, on right hand or on left ? 
 Not wealth, or conquest, or capacity for rule ; but care 
 of the needy, the poor, the oppressed. " Inasmuch as 
 ye did it unto one of My brethren, even these least, ye 
 did it unto Me," is His word to a Christian nation, not 
 to a charitable individual. 
 
 Nor is it of any greater force to talk of interference 
 with " personal liberty," or to repeat stale gibes about 
 "grandmotherly legislation." This is only the old 
 laissez faire argument over again, which, as we have 
 seen, has been blown out of the water long ago. There 
 is no such thing as personal liberty in this sense. 
 Liberty is not freedom to do what you like ; but free- 
 dom to do what you ought. Moreover, " freedom of 
 contract " does not exist between a wealthy capitalist 
 and an unemployed workman. The former can impose 
 his own terms; the latter piust needs accept them, or 
 
24 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 starve. It is merest mockery to tell the workman that 
 he has any "freedom" in such a choice. Freedom to 
 go hungry is at best a doubtful blessing. 
 
 " Independence " is another of the fine words with 
 which objectors to State interference make much play. 
 It is nothing but a name, a false and rotten idol, which 
 needs only one bold blow— like that of the soldier who 
 overthrew the image of Serapis, and sent its inhabitant 
 rats flying in all directions— to dethrone it for ever. 
 Which of us is independent in any real or intelligible 
 sense ? We are dependent upon each other, dependent 
 upon the State, dependent upon God, at every moment 
 and in every action and relation of life. As Maurice 
 was never tired of saying, " No man is really free until 
 he has discovered his own absolute dependence." 
 
 Further, it happens that we have ready to our hand 
 a striking illustration of the inadequacy of voluntary 
 effort to meet present needs, and the necessity of falling 
 back upon the State. The Early Closing Association 
 for a long time set its face against any demand for 
 legislation in favour of shorter hours in shops. It con- 
 fined its endeavours to " moral suasion," like Artemus 
 Ward in the case of the historic kangaroo. But this 
 admirable weapon was as powerless in the hands of the 
 association as in those of the showman. After infinite 
 labour, the secretaries and officers would succeed in 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 25 
 
 persuading, say, the drapers of Camberwell to close 
 early on one evening in the week. All would consent 
 with a single cantankerous exception. This worthy 
 would refuse to do any such thing; and, as a conse- 
 quence, he would secure all the late customers and — as 
 we say in the West — would " sloke them away " from 
 the other shops. This was putting a premium upon late 
 closing; the other drapers could not afford to lose 
 custom to this extent ; it was a weapon in the com- 
 petitive war which would ruin them. So, unwillingly, 
 they gradually yielded, and ceased to close early. This 
 sort of thing happened over and over again, until at last, 
 the Early Closing Association, pressed by a younger 
 society, gave up its reliance upon voluntary effort, and 
 declared that only legislation could meet the need. 
 
 More than mere legislation is wanted. Sir John 
 Lubbock's Shop Hours Regulation Act was carried 
 through Parliament, but no means for enforcing it were 
 provided, and unless a small committee of determined 
 men had taken up the matter, found the funds, and 
 instituted prosecutions, the Act would have been a dead 
 letter, and would not have been renewed when it ex- 
 pired, while all the sweaters and exploiters would have 
 exclaimed in jubilant chorus that no young persons 
 were overworked in English shops, and that employers 
 were the most beneficent and unselfish of men ! 
 
26 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Granting, then, that the true remedy for poverty is 
 to be looked for in the Christianizing of methods of 
 government, and the direct interference of the State or 
 the municipality to protect the poor, and to prevent the 
 exploitation of labour, in what directions and to what 
 definite ends should this principle be applied ? 
 
 It will necessarily be directed towards finding tem- 
 porary remedies for poverty in the first place, and per- 
 manent remedies in the second ; or, to put it in another 
 way, it will endeavour to mitigate the results of poverty, 
 while at the same time it traces and strikes at the causes. 
 I will confine myself at present to temporary remedies, 
 some of which may very possibly be found to apply, in 
 some degree, when we pass on to consider permanent 
 remedies. 
 
 Emigration and one or two other proposals, which 
 we refuse to accept as remedies, may fairly claim to be 
 regarded as temporary means of relief. I believe, how- 
 ever, that they can only be successful, even within this 
 limited sphere, if they are directed by the State, or the 
 local organ of the State. Otherwise there may be iso- 
 lated experiments which succeed ; but, like the many 
 efforts to promote co-operative farms or factories, they 
 will sooner or later languish and fail, as General Booth's 
 much-vaunted scheme is surely doomed to do. 
 
 Let me mention three practical methods by which, as 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 27 
 
 it seems to me, the Government or the local authorities 
 may seek to give temporary relief to the poverty of to-day. 
 I. Useful relief works in town and country. Here, 
 once more, we have practical examples at hand. 
 During the distress in Lancashire which followed upon 
 the cotton famine, Mr., now Sir Robert Rawlinson, was 
 . sent down as commissioner with considerable powers 
 to provide relief works. He organized the starving 
 operatives and set them to road-making, with results 
 that were successful from every point of view. Let any 
 who wish to look into the matter be at the pains to 
 disinter Sir R. Rawlinson's report, and they will cease 
 to question the practicability of relief works. What 
 was done then can be done again. There are acres 
 and miles of sand and marsh, which unskilled labour, 
 properly controlled and organized, could reclaim from 
 the sea. There are places upon our coast — I know 
 more than one such spot among the iron-bound rocks 
 of North Cornwall — where blasting the cliffs and 
 throwing them into the sea would be almost all that 
 is needed to make a harbour of refuge, and to save 
 thousands of lives year by year. England could spend 
 her millions to put down black slavery. Can she not 
 spare a few thousands to put down white poverty .' * 
 
 * On the whole question of the unen- ployed, see Mr. John Burns' 
 "Fabian Tract," and Mr. Llewelyn Smith's very able "Report to the 
 Board of Trade." 
 
2 8 Vox Clamantium, 
 
 Again, in the winter of 1886, the vestry of Chelsea, 
 anxious to deal with the unemployed of the district, 
 gave large powers to their able and kindly surveyor, 
 Mr. Strachan. He opened a registry for the unem- 
 ployed, sifted them carefully, and set them to work to 
 pave King's Road. The experiment was a brilliant 
 success ; the work was done thoroughly well at a reason- 
 able cost, and two thousand hungry men, skilled and 
 unskilled, with their families, were employed and fed. 
 Are there no other districts of the metropolis where 
 roads need relaying or other necessary and useful work 
 wants doing ? Why should it not be done by the local 
 authority, without the intervention of a contractor, into 
 whose pocket all the profit is pretty sure to find its way ? 
 
 II. Let the Government look into their own contracts 
 and see that proper wages are paid — the trade-union rate 
 at least. As a matter of fact. Government contract 
 work is almost the last refuge of the hard-driven and 
 destitute, so hard is it, and so ill paid. Readers of the 
 "Bitter Cry of Outcast London" will remember the 
 pathetic description there given of the making of 
 policemen's overcoats. Surely, with all the wealth of 
 the wealthiest of nations behind it, the English Govern- 
 ment need not give out their work to the lowest bidder, 
 and so really become the most gigantig and unrelent- 
 ing of sweaters ! 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 29 
 
 III. One free meal daily in Board Schools, where 
 needed. This is, I believe, an absolutely imperative 
 necessity ; indeed, it might well be considered a 
 permanent rather than a temporary measure. How 
 can children be taught when they are faint with hun- 
 ger? The stunted bodies and pale faces of average 
 Londoners are admitted to be a consequence of semi- 
 starvation during the years of growth. Voluntary 
 effort cannot overtake the need. It must be done 
 by the community. What argument against State 
 provision of food is not equally valid against State pro- 
 vision of mental nutriment ? Why, if I pay a rate to 
 provide the children of my poorer neighbours with 
 knowledge, should I not be rated to provide them with 
 a yet more elementary necessity — the food, for want 
 of which what I now pay is frequently thrown away .■' 
 " Overpressure is but another name for underfeeding ? " 
 
 I think it is certain that in dealing with so vast a 
 problem many experiments will have to be tried, and 
 many failures and disappointments recorded, before a 
 final solution is found. But I believe that there is 
 very strong reason to look with high hope upon the 
 results of efforts made in these directions. Temporary 
 measures are of course, however, insufficient by them- 
 selves. They are merely makeshifts and stopgaps. 
 We have been too long content with administering 
 
30 Vox Clamantmm. 
 
 temporary relief in times of acute distress, and laying 
 the flattering unction to our souls that we have done 
 our duty as Christians, and subscribed largely in charity. 
 The people, and the workers, are not asking for charity 
 now, in the limited and narrow sense to which we 
 have accustomed them. They are asking for justice. 
 They declare that labour does not receive the proper 
 proportion of its own products ; that unjust and inequit- 
 able social arrangements have created poverty, and 
 keep the great mass of the workers inevitably poor. 
 " The husbandman that laboureth must be the first to 
 partake of the fruits," is the apostolic, the Christian 
 rule. We have made him the last, and have denied 
 him even his fair share. " He that will not work, 
 neither let him eat," is the New Testament precept. 
 We have exactly reversed it, and the class that does 
 the least work is the class that has the most to eat and 
 drink. 
 
 The causes of poverty, according to the best modern 
 economists, are to be found in the results of free com- 
 petition for profit, and the monopoly of land and the 
 means of production. The worker cannot so much as 
 get to his work until he has made terms with the land- 
 lord and the capitalist. He has nothing but his 
 labour-force, and he must sell it to an employer in 
 order to live. The employer competes with other em- 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 31 
 
 ployers, in order to make his profit, and, for the same 
 reason, he buys his labour-force in the cheapest market. 
 He has to buy as much labour as possible for the 
 smallest wage. The workman competes with other 
 workmen for the right to work, which means for the 
 right to live. The man who is beaten in this fierce 
 struggle, in which every one's hand is against his 
 brother, must go to the wall, crushed and trodden 
 under the fighters' feet. He can starve, or he can 
 go to the workhouse, never afterwards to lose the 
 taint of pauperism, or to be able to find regular 
 employment. 
 
 Even the workman who succeeds, and who is 
 allowed to work for his living, must work on his em- 
 ployer's terms. The hours may be long, the wages 
 low, the labour hard, the conditions unhealthy ; no 
 matter, he must take it or leave it. The employers 
 can fill his place in a moment if he leaves ; the vast 
 army of unemployed only loses — and gains — a man. 
 True, in certain trades the workers have, to some 
 extent, protected themselves by their unions. But 
 as yet the unions only represent a minority of the 
 workers, and those less the sufferers from poverty than 
 the aristocracy of labour. Nor can they thoroughly 
 protect even the proportion of workmen belonging to 
 them. As in the case of temporary remedies, so here, 
 
32 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 the State is the only power which can adequately deal 
 with the vast and complex problem. 
 
 I. The first step is in the extension of the principle 
 of Lord Shaftesbury's Factory Acts, and of Sir John 
 Lubbock's Shop Hours Regulation Acts. These laws 
 represent the interference of the State with employers, 
 in order to prevent them from making profits by over- 
 working women and children. They are Acts for the 
 shortening of the hours of labour. 
 
 We have seen that adults need this protection quite 
 as much as children. An unskilled non-unionist work- 
 man is helpless in the employer's hands. Signalmen, 
 tramcar-men, and many other classes less known to 
 the public, are now cruelly and scandalously over- 
 worked, in order that railway and omnibus companies 
 may continue to pay large dividends to the share- 
 holders. I say that the State ought to interfere in 
 the name of the God of right and justice, and of Him 
 who warned us that we cannot serve God and Mammon, 
 to prevent such an exercise of the " rights " of property 
 as this, and to make it punishable by law. 
 
 This can be done by legal prohibition of the 
 exaction of more than a certain number of hours' 
 work in a week from the labourer. Eight hours' work 
 a day is enough for any man. Let all Government 
 employments reduce their hours to this limit; let the 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 33 
 
 exaction of more than forty-eight hours a week be 
 prohibited, and the prohibition enforced by inspectors, 
 as in the Factory Acts. The shareholders might cer- 
 tainly lose a proportion of their profits; but I say 
 boldly that they ought to lose them, if they are not 
 ashamed of making them out of the misery and degra- 
 dation of their brethren. When I see the shareholders 
 of wealthy railway and omnibus companies a little 
 more anxious about the well-being of the men whose 
 labour makes their dividends, and a little less anxious 
 about getting high interest without asking ugly ques- 
 tions as to where it comes from, it will be time to talk 
 about "robbery." As things are, they themselves 
 might conceivably be called by some hard names, if 
 He who denounced the devourers of the poor were 
 face to face with them. 
 
 Reduction of the hours of labour would undoubtedly 
 provide work for the unemployed, and result in better 
 work being done by more vigorous workers, more 
 interested, and more thorough in their work, as all 
 experience goes to show. Nor would it reduce wages, 
 because the main force which keeps wages down is the 
 eagerness of the unemployed to take work on any 
 terms. When the pressure upon the labour market is 
 lightened, as it would be by this proposed measure, this 
 force will cease to be effective, and the more un- 
 
 D 
 
34 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 scrupulous employers will be deprived of the weapon 
 which now they use with such terrible effect. 
 
 II. There is no doubt that this measure must be 
 accompanied by an international labour law, or by the 
 regulation of the immigration of foreign labourers, or 
 both, in order to prevent the employers from flooding 
 the market with cheap foreign labour. If it is possible 
 for nations to come to agreement as to methods of 
 warfare — e.g. as to the Red Cross, and the non-use of 
 explosive bullets — surely it is possible for them to agree 
 upon labour questions. There is a strong feeling in 
 favour of international legislation in not a few European 
 countries whose competition might be formidable, and 
 if a nation or nations should refuse reasonable terms, 
 the democracy will not hesitate to adopt other measures. 
 
 III. The Poor Law must be reformed. In the 
 principles which lie at the root of it, the Poor Law is 
 entirely sound. Every man has the right to live ; the 
 State has the right to exact an equivalent of work from 
 him. But the workhouse system, and the general 
 administration of the law, are admitted on all hands to 
 be unsatisfactory. Mr. Herbert Mills' book, " Poverty 
 and the State," has much interesting information, and 
 many valuable suggestions, upon this matter, especially 
 in regard to the workhouse system of Holland, from 
 which much may be learned. 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 35 
 
 It will be convenient here to contrast the different 
 systems prevailing in America and this country. In 
 the United States there is no poor law and workhouse 
 as such. Workshops are provided by the State, in 
 which destitute persons are found employment at their 
 several trades or callings, for which labour they receive 
 a fair equivalent, according to the measure of their 
 skill. The contract is a mutual one, and they retain all 
 the rights of citizenship, so that, in point of fact, a 
 person so helped to-day may, cateris paribus, become 
 President of the Republic in half a dozen years. In 
 fact, it is a matter of common knowledge that in more 
 cases than one, the rise of the President has been as 
 creditable and as marked as that of Pope Adrian IV. 
 from an English gutter. 
 
 In this country, the unfortunate "casual," who may 
 have paid rates to the poor himself for years, and whom 
 misfortune alone may have rendered destitute, seeks 
 relief at the workhouse — truly no misnomer. For the 
 two blankets and a board which courtesy calls a bed, 
 some "skilly" for supper, and the same with a little 
 bread for breakfast, he is compelled to break some 
 hundredweights of stones — if a woman, to pick a given 
 quantity of oakum — which occupies several hours, and 
 entirely prevents the "casual" seeking employment 
 that day. If he be physically incapable of performing 
 
36 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 this task, from want of strength or knowledge, he may 
 be hauled before the nearest magistrate and — since 
 poor Montagu Williams is dead — will almost inevitably 
 receive seven days^ hard labour ; while, to add insult 
 to injury, after earning his scanty accommodation ten 
 times over, he is still branded a "pauper," and loses 
 all civil rights. If the poor starving family receive 
 only a loaf or two, half a crown, or even medical aid 
 by way of "outdoor relief," the same applies. Some 
 attempt is being made in some parishes to improve 
 upon this state of things ; but still the exception proves 
 the rule. 
 
 IV. At the Wolverhampton Church Congress of 
 1887, Mr. Stanley Leighton, M.P., in his paper on 
 Socialism, uttered the following striking sentence : 
 "Much is required from him who has received much, 
 little from him who has received little. The Christian 
 carries out this principle in practice when he maintains 
 the revolutionary doctrine, which he has preached for 
 centuries, that if any class habitually uses functions 
 guaranteed to it by the State, not for the public 
 service, but against the interests of the community, 
 then the legal conditions of the guarantee should be 
 readjusted. Reform is always a Christian duty ; 
 Revolution may be." 
 
 The time has come for Christians and Church-folk 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 37 
 
 to inquire whether the legal conditions which guarantee 
 the holding of land by a few persons for their own 
 private benefit should not be readjusted. In theory, 
 the land of England belongs to the whole people, and 
 the legal conditions which govern its possession should 
 be adjusted, without injustice or wrong to any, so as to 
 make the land more serviceable to the whole community 
 than it is now. In the country the decay of the old 
 system has divorced the labourer from the land to 
 which it bound him. The result we have seen — de- 
 population of country districts, congestion in the towns. 
 The labourer must be brought back to the land, not 
 by peasant proprietorship, which cannot succeed, but 
 by some wider, equitable, well-considered measure^ 
 through which the State, or the municipality, may 
 gradually resume the possession of the soil, to be used 
 for the advantage of the whole community. In the 
 same way, ground-rents in towns, which are simply 
 created by the industry of the community, should be 
 employed for the benefit of the community, instead of 
 the enrichment of a few. 
 
 V. Finally, a progressive income-tax upon all in- 
 comes, say, above ;£'SOO a year. This proposal receives 
 powerful support from so capable an economist as 
 Professor Symes, and is already within the sphere of 
 practical politics. It is simply the taxation of those 
 
38 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 who can best afford it, for the benefit of the State as 
 a whole ; and if such a task should operate in the 
 direction of lessening the number of millionaires, and 
 people generally who have too much money, I venture 
 to think that little harm will be done. 
 
 "The last triumph of Christianity," said Channing, 
 " will be a triumph over competition." Or, as Maurice 
 independently put it, "Society must be reconstituted, 
 not on the basis of competition, which is Mammon's 
 law of selfishness, but on the basis of Christ's law of 
 brotherhood." 
 
 That great triumph can never be won until we 
 realize that there is something more sacred than private 
 property, viz. public right ; and that, when the former 
 is found to encroach upon the latter, the State is bound 
 to step in and do justice. 
 
 Added to these permanent remedies should be not 
 only elementary education without fee, but free tech- 
 nical education to follow ; and finally, higher-grade 
 education, even up to the universities themselves, will 
 be as free to all alike as now to the fortunate holders 
 of many scholarships — scholarships founded for the 
 children of the poor in the days of unenlightened 
 ecclesiasticism, but which, in our glorious era of 
 " liberal " progress, have been handed over by univer- 
 sity reformers to the sons of men who can afford to 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 39 
 
 pay a first-rate coach. Such is the beauty of "free 
 competition," in which the battle is always to the rich. 
 Only gratuitous education can afford equal opportunity 
 for all. The Church, which in other days did so much 
 for the free teaching of the poor, should be the last 
 to oppose it now. 
 
 I have, finally, to endeavour to give some suggestions 
 by way of answer to the question, "What can I do 
 personally to remedy poverty ? " 
 
 I. The first thing is to recognize, once for all, that 
 poverty is not a mysterious dispensation of Providence, 
 which, for some inscrutable reason, is the stern lot of 
 the majority of our race ; but an evil brought about by 
 causes which can be remedied, an evil to be fought 
 against, and ultimately destroyed. When this is once 
 clearly seen, the sincere and faithful Christian can no 
 longer rest satisfied with private charity, the relief of 
 individual distress. He will feel himself in duty bound 
 to throw his influence as a citizen, his power as a man, 
 into some organized effort for the study of the causes 
 and the cure of poverty. He will press upon his county 
 councillors, his M.P., his local authorities generally, that 
 the supreme question of the day is the condition-of- 
 England question. Unfortunately, very little can be 
 got out of a body of men elected for a term of years, 
 unless you make yourself a nuisance. They are ready 
 
40 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 enough to make promises before an election ; afterwards 
 they are equally ready to forget, or to postpone them 
 until an election is coming round again. Like the 
 unjust judge, they must be importuned and worried into 
 doing their duty. If every parish clergyman were a 
 tribune of the people, watching every sidelong attempt 
 to rob them of their commons, to extend their hours of 
 work, to impose harder conditions of labour, and then 
 fearlessly exposing it in the public press, bringing it 
 before proper authorities, regardless of personal conse- 
 quences, he would do more for the cause of Christ and 
 His Church among the working classes than all the 
 Apologies that ever were written, and most of the 
 sermons that ever were preached. Let the Christian 
 laity who are stirred in conscience on these matters, 
 move their clergy to become leaders in this new crusade, 
 and then stand by them. Let them insist that right 
 shall be done and promises kept. Parliament would 
 soon find time to consider useful measures for the benefit 
 of the poor if the Christian people of England insisted 
 that it should be done, and "turned the world upside 
 down " until it was attempted. I think, then, that my 
 first duty in this matter is to make myself such a 
 nuisance to all those whom I can reach, who are in a 
 position to do something and don't do it, that, for very 
 weariness, they will yield to keep me quiet ; and even 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 41 
 
 then I mean not to be kept quiet, nor bamboozled with 
 fair words and promises, but to keep persistently work- 
 ing on towards the one great end. 
 
 II. We naturally wish to get our clothes, our food, 
 our goods generally, as cheaply as possible; and I 
 should suppose that if we find that we can get, say, our 
 printing done cheaper at Smith's than at Brown's, we 
 shall go eagerly to Smith's, and chuckle over our saved 
 halfpence. Now, does it ever occur to us to ask how it 
 is that Smith can do the same work for a less sum than 
 Brown ? It may be, of course, that the quality of the 
 type or paper may account for the difference in the 
 price. But it may be, and it probably is, the fact that 
 Smith pays lower prices, works his people harder, or 
 employs boys and women to do men's work, which 
 enables him to sell his goods at less cost. In these days 
 when competition is so keen, and profits are cut so fine 
 it may, as a rule, be taken for granted that the cheap work 
 is done by cutting down wages, or cutting down quality. 
 Now, I contend that we cannot rightly put the 
 thing off by saying that it is not our business whether 
 Smith pays fair wages or not. It is our business. For 
 our saving has really come out of the extra hour's 
 labour wrung from that pale, stunted man at the 
 compositor's frame, or from the meat meal which would 
 have given nourishment to his harassed wife, but which, 
 
42 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 with his docked wages, he cannot afford. It is the price 
 of that meal which has gone into our pockets, and over 
 which we are exulting. 
 
 The rage for cheapness is responsible for much of 
 the scamped work, bad conditions of labour, clipped 
 wages, and the like. Let us see clearly what we are 
 doing when we go to the cheap shop. Better pay a 
 few shillings more than have the blood of sweated 
 workmen on our hands. To be sure it is a difficult 
 thing to make certain whether your tradesmen pay 
 proper wages or not. The high-class honourable men 
 will make no difficulty about showing you their books, 
 and their time sheet ; but here of course it is easy for 
 an outsider to make mistakes or to be taken in. Nor 
 can we always be confident, even if we do not go to 
 cheap shops on principle, that the extra prices go into 
 the right pockets. With ordinary care and persever- 
 ance, however, this can be done, and we ought to do it 
 ourselves, and get our people to do it. "Go without 
 rather than buy cheap goods," unless you know that their 
 cheapness involves neither nastiness nor knavery. 
 Never deal at a house which does not pay at least the 
 trade-union rate of wages, or where the hours are more 
 than ten daily, at the very utmost. Rigorously shun 
 any business which pays large dividends to its share- 
 holders and grinds its workers. 
 
The Problem of Poverty. 43 
 
 III. You have some money placed in safe invest- 
 ments, and it brings you in a tidy little income. 
 Perhaps they are shares in a company. Have you 
 ever thought that you are a partner in that company, 
 responsible for its acts, and profiting by its methods of 
 management ? The company's servants are your 
 servants ; tJteir labour produces your dividends ; has 
 it ever occurred to you to inquire into the conditions 
 and circumstances of their labour? what wages they 
 receive for what hours of work ? Your gas shares are 
 profitable ; how about the workmen who get no 
 Sundays, and slave for twelve hours then as on other 
 days, to enrich you? Your money was put into a 
 Limited Liability Company. You don't know much 
 about it, except that it has the name of a great 
 clothier's establishment, and that the dividends are 
 regularly paid. You were profoundly moved when you 
 read in the newspaper of that poor seamstress, a girl of 
 seventeen, who laid her head down upon her work and 
 died, after stitching sixteen hours a day at three 
 farthings an hour for days and months together. 
 That seamstress worked for the man to whom the 
 manager of your company gave out his work. She 
 worked for you, and your dividends went up when her 
 pay was cut down, and she had to work an extra hour 
 per day. 
 
44 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 You have house property. Who lives in your 
 houses, and for what purposes are they let ? Your agent 
 or your lawyer sees to it all, and pays you the rent 
 regularly. Are you sure that your houses are not 
 employed for the very vilest purposes ? Are you sure 
 that they are not among those crowded and unhealthy 
 dwellings where the poor of our great cities herd like 
 beasts ? The best-paying property in London is of this 
 sort. Surely, we should not be satisfied with asking 
 whether our property is safe; we should ask if it is 
 being rightly used, meaning by "rightly" something 
 more than " legally." 
 
 It is no compensation, when we have allowed our 
 money to be used for oppression and guilt, to spend 
 upon good works what we do not spend upon ourselves. 
 We should think at the very outset of others, when we 
 have money to invest ; and be content to be poorer, 
 that our hands may be clear of our brothers' and sisters' 
 blood. It is little enough, after all, that we can do. 
 Let us, at least, do what we can to make this world 
 better than we found it, by helping to brighten and 
 purify our own little corner of it ; and by seeing to it 
 that our carelessness and want of thought does not lead 
 to more harm, than our charity can result in good, 
 while we labour steadfastly at the great task of dis- 
 covering and doing battle with the causes of poverty. 
 
Tke Problem of Poverty. 45 
 
 Why should we teach people to be contented with 
 evil conditions and grinding toil? "The first step 
 towards social improvement," says Mr. Walter Besant, 
 in one of his novels, "is to make people discontented 
 with things as they are, so long as things are not what 
 they ought to be." 
 
 A great subject — the greatest problem of our time — 
 cannot be exhausted in a comparatively short essay. 
 I know how much I have left unsaid, how lightly I 
 have touched even those points I have raised, how many 
 objections may be urged against the remedies sug- 
 gested. Of one thing I am sure, that the gospel of 
 Jesus Christ is the only power that can cast out the 
 devils that oppress our society ; and that of the un- 
 solved social problems which perplex us all, the Church 
 still holds the key. If this is to be a Christian Socialist 
 — and I think it is — then I am not ashamed of the 
 name. 
 
 H. C. SHUTTLEWORTH. 
 
 NOTE ON RELIEF WORKS. 
 
 Essex Side of Thames, 
 
 1 . Reclaim Essex marshes, and turn into pasture or other land. 
 
 2. East Tilbury, past Hole Haven, etc., into Sea Reach. 
 
 3. From Benfleet to Leigh, 
 
 4. One mile below Leigh, to a point [two miles below Southend — say, 
 
46 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 four and a half miles and one wide, dredge and remove sand and mud, 
 letting in the sea, build sea wall, breakwaters, etc., improving the fishing 
 grounds and the district. Local authorities would pay largely to this. 
 
 5. Reclaim part of the Foulness Sand and entrances of the rivers 
 Crouch, Blackwater, Colne, and build sea walls. 
 
 6. Reclaim lands at intervals, including sea walls and dykes, stretches 
 of sometimes four and five miles long by two or three wide at Clacton, 
 Walton, Ramsey, Dovercourt, estuaries of Stour and Orwell, Felixstowe, 
 Southwold, Lowestoft, Yarmouth, right down to, and including the Wash, 
 and along the Yorkshire and Northumbrian coast. 
 
 Kent Side. 
 
 1. Plumstead marshes from just beyond Woolwich right down to 
 Belvedere. 
 
 2. One mile and a half below Gravesend to beyond Francis' Works 
 at Clifie, and Chalk, and well down into Sea Reach. 
 
 3. Approaches to the Medway, Port Victoria, and Sheemess, and part 
 of Sheppey. 
 
 4. Whitstable Flats, and part of Heme Bay. 
 
 5. Beyond Folkestone, Sandwich, Sandgate, Romney Marsh, Dun- 
 church, Lydd, and Dungeness, two miles wide, and build sea waUs, 
 construct dykes for overflow, etc., right on to Sussex. 
 
 Harbours of Refuge all round coast, including Ireland, Wales, and 
 Scotland, thereby saving thousands of lives per year, particularly among 
 our hardy and noble fishermen. Present loss entails poverty to the 
 community. 
 
 7. Improve and set up the Irish fisheries, which alone could furnish 
 food for all England. 
 
 This is coast work only. 
 
 There are millions on millions of acres lying idle in bog land and moor- 
 land, in Yorkshire, Derby, and Wilts. 
 
 In all relief works on a large scale, there is likely to be trouble with 
 the loafer class, who would rather do anything than a day's work. Drastic 
 and summary measures of treatment are necessary. 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 
 
 Thirty years ago Carronbrae feared God. A year ago 
 it feared the Incubus Coal and Iron Company. To- 
 day the fear of the Lord is getting a second chance. 
 The originator of the Incubus Company was a far- 
 seeing German analyst from Dusseldorf, who, upofi 
 departing this life for parts unknown, left his daughter 
 to the senior of the present partners in the business, 
 and his Latinized name to the great concern which had 
 grown up at Carronbrae in the Scottish westlands. 
 
 It was thirty years since Carronbrae entered upon 
 its present career of prosperity. Mining contracts were 
 made. Royalties were arranged ; the railway brought 
 to the works; and the tall stagings, with the swiftly 
 spinning wheels, were set up on the hillside, where for 
 generations only the gowan had bloomed. 
 
 McKill and Grindlay were the sole partners in the 
 Incubus Coal and Iron Company. It was Hector 
 McKill who had wedded Sophia, the serious-minded 
 daughter of Fritz Inkob, the Dusseldorf chemist, and 
 
4^ Vox Clamantium. 
 
 settled himself down to rule Carronbrae with a firm 
 but indubitably pious hand. Grindlay, on the other 
 hand, was an unmarried man who attended to the 
 worldly side of the connection, and did the swearing 
 in the office. He was a red-faced man with a massive 
 watch-chain of shining gold, and was not particularly 
 attached to any of the Carronbrae kirks. But he was 
 known at every drinking-bar within fifty miles of the 
 pithead. 
 
 Hector McKill was ruling elder in the Kirk of the 
 Valley, and a great hand at all the prayer-meetings. 
 Indeed, it may be said, he kept them up ; for if his 
 foremen did not come out to hear their ruling elder 
 and master jerking petitions out of himself much as 
 though he were working a ship's pump, they might 
 discover some fine morning that at the works of 
 Incubus and Company, there was no further use for 
 their services. 
 
 The Valley Kirk was not the fashionable kirk of 
 Carronbrae. The county families did not frequent it, 
 and perhaps that was one reason why it seemed to offer 
 fairer scope for the pecuHar talents of Hector McKill 
 than the Kirk of the Hill. For one thing, the Kirk of 
 the Hill did not believe in prayer-meetings. But it 
 had an admirable and eminently aristocratic Primrose 
 League attached to it, and the minister was said to be 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 49 
 
 shaping for candles on the altar and the eastward 
 position. Also most of its elders were better judges of 
 whisky-toddy than of prayer-meetings. Grindlay, for 
 instance, was a member of the Hill Kirk, for he was 
 a man of no pretensions to religion, and he found him- 
 self at home there. But Hector McKill wrought the 
 piety end of the business to perfection. It does not 
 do, in a thriving business, to overman any department. 
 
 Yet in the Incubus pits this division of labour 
 wrought well. If it were desired to get rid of a man 
 who belonged to the Valley Kirk, and was a regular 
 attendant at the prayer-meetings. Partner Grindlay dis- 
 missed him. He had been taking up with ranters, to 
 the neglect of his proper business. If the man attended 
 the High Kirk (or, what was very much the same thing, 
 if he attended no kirk at all). Partner Hector McKill 
 called him into his office, wrestled with him in the 
 spirit, prayed with him for his soul's good — and then 
 dismissed him without a character. The men on the 
 whole preferred Grindlay's rough "We've no use for 
 you. Get out of this ! " to the suaver methods of 
 Hector McKill. 
 
 Now, so long as the Reverend Silas Sleekman was 
 the minister of the Valley Kirk of Carronbrae, all things 
 went according to the will of Hector McKill. Incubus 
 and Company had the rule all its own way. The 
 
 E 
 
50 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Valley Kirk, with a splendid history of protest against 
 the oppression of king and state, had become only the 
 ecclesiastical arm of Incubus and Company. 
 
 McKill was indeed not so imperious and autocratic 
 in the pits of the Carronbrae hillside as he was in the 
 session of the Valley Kirk. The minister, Mr. Sleek- 
 man, was an admirable man of unblemished character, 
 a great authority upon the typology of the Book of 
 Numbers — in his way, both a gentleman and a scholar. 
 But he was so thoroughly under control of the blatant 
 personality of Hector McKill, that at all meetings he 
 confined himself to saying, " I think what our dear 
 friend has proposed will be best ! " The rest of the 
 session murmured and abode their time, for they were 
 not men to be thus set aside. The congregation 
 seethed in silent and helpless discontent. But there 
 was no mistake that the arm of Incubus and Company 
 reached far in Carronbrae, and the man who openly 
 opposed it in the long run went to the wall. 
 
 Yet somehow Incubus and Company, with all their 
 graspings, did not seem very greatly to prosper. They 
 paid the poorest wages, and, as a consequence, they 
 had only good men in the most indispensable situ- 
 ations. But there was no manner of doubt that in 
 Job Henderson, their underground manager, they had 
 an excellent man. He was firm with the men under 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 5 1 
 
 him, and, in consequence, at first he was not over-well 
 liked. But as the men of the Carronbrae pits grew 
 to know Job Henderson, they found how often his 
 calm, mild strength came between them and the wrath 
 of the partners of Incubus and Company, 
 
 It was at this time that the Act of Parliament was 
 passed requiring all pits whatsoever to provide them- 
 selves with a second exit within a certain time, under 
 pains and penalties to be enforced by the newly 
 appointed Government inspectors. Job Henderson 
 openly rejoiced, and started the construction of the 
 spare shaft at once. McKill and Grindlay were not 
 often down the workings, and it was sorne time before 
 Hector McKill knew that the work was proceeding. 
 But as soon as he heard of the matter, he ordered such 
 nonsense to be stopped at once. It was a waste of 
 money. Besides, there had never been any accident 
 in the Carronbrae pits, and the whole thing was wholly 
 unnecessary and uncalled for. Surely a pit which was 
 under the protection of the prayers of so noted a vessel 
 as Hector McKill could come to no harm. The ruling 
 elder of the Valley Kirk did not put this last into words, 
 but his whole manner inferred it. Job Henderson went 
 to lay the matter before the junior partner, Walter 
 Grindlay. He found him at the bar of the Royal, telling 
 a sultry story, which was causing uproarious laughter. 
 
52 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 To him he stated the necessity, and what had been 
 ordered. Grindlay, in a very brief manner, condemned 
 the expense. 
 
 " But the Government inspector ? " said the under- 
 ground manager. 
 
 "Leave him to me. I know how to work such 
 cattle," said Walter Grindlay, returning to the bar. 
 
 So Job Henderson went back to the works and 
 wrote out his resignation. He was a man with a 
 family, and he did it painfully. But he could not 
 consent to play with the lives of men. He stated the 
 reasons for his resignation in his letter to the firm of 
 Incubus and Company. Walter Grindlay laughed as 
 he read it. 
 
 "Risk to the lives of men," he said. "Well, I 
 suppose we pay them for taking the risk, and they 
 know it as well as we do. I never did read such cant." 
 But the senior partner spoke seriously of it at his 
 prayer-meeting. He had been that day, he remarked, 
 wounded in his tenderest feelings by one whom he had 
 trusted — a serpent whom he had taken from the gutter, 
 and warmed in his bosom. Yet he was eminently sus- 
 tained in his affliction, and enabled to bear it all meekly. 
 So the spare shaft was stopped on the morrow, and 
 a new manager came to the pit whose conditions of 
 service were that he obeyed orders without question, 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 53 
 
 made no complaint, cut down the working expenses, 
 and increased the profits. He was a good man, this 
 new manager, according to his lights; but his lights 
 were the conditions of his managership, and the con- 
 tinued good-will and favour of Incubus and Company. 
 
 The shifts came and went with great regularity. 
 The pit filled and emptied, and the narrow twin air- 
 shaft, which ran alongside the main incline or "dook," 
 was half filled with steam-pipes ; for it was, according 
 to Incubus and Company, a great pity to have an 
 empty space which could be filled with what was useful. 
 But one or two men who spent their lives down there 
 in the deeps of the earth tightened their lips, and said 
 a prayer for wife and bairns that had little in common 
 with the laboured paragraphs of which, on the evenings 
 of the prayer-meeting, the senior partner delivered 
 himself before going home to arrange for cutting down 
 his men's wages ten per cent, all round. 
 
 Then came the Government inspector. The men 
 had heard of his coming, and looked for great things. 
 The obstructions were cleared away from the bottom 
 of the abortive second exit, which had been carried 
 so far and then abandoned at the end of the rule of 
 Job Henderson. 
 
 But Mr. Grindlay had the inspector well in hand. 
 He had treated him generously before he came, and 
 
54 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Grindlay was the best of good company, and made 
 himself liked when he chose. The inspector descended, 
 admiring, as he did so, the perfect working of the cage, 
 and feeling the strong draft of air. He walked along 
 the working faces ; he saw the men at their tasks. He 
 passed the end of the partially constructed tunnel, 
 which Grindlay indicated with a wave of his hand. 
 
 " Our new exit," he explained generally. 
 
 " Ah, indeed ; that is right 1 " said the Government 
 inspector, for who could look too narrowly into the 
 affairs of so pleasant and hospitable a man of the 
 world as the junior partner of the great firm of Incubus 
 and Company ? 
 
 Alas that there was none to tell him that the tunnel 
 ran up to within a hundred yards of the surface, 
 and there stopped where, on the day of Job Hender- 
 son's resignation, the last hole had been driven, and 
 the work dropped to cut down working expenses ! 
 
 " Now," said Mr. Walter Grindlay, hospitably, " we 
 had better go up to dinner. It is hot and stuffy here ; 
 and I told them to ice the champagne. You are to 
 dine with me, of course ; I arranged that. Our old man 
 is a teetotaler, and I thought you would prefer it." 
 
 And the Government inspector did prefer it. 
 
 This was all that the inspection of the Carronbrae 
 pits accomplished, and the report was enough to certify 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 5 5 
 
 that there was no health-resort in Britain so entirely 
 salubrious in climate and appliances as the pits of 
 Incubus and Company. 
 
 But, in the mean time, the senior partner was having 
 trouble considerable in his ecclesiastical relations. The 
 Reverend Silas Sleekman was laid quietly away to 
 rest from his labours in the graveyard in the valley, 
 and there was a vacancy in "McKill's kirk," as the 
 commonalty named it irreverently. This meant the 
 preaching of candidates, and an exceeding interest 
 among all the members in the election. But it was 
 generally thought — indeed, taken for granted — that, 
 though patronage had been abolished. Hector McKill 
 would get in his man. Mrs. McKill {nk Incubus), for 
 her own part, meant to have a young man with at 
 least some tendencies to ritual. Hector did not much 
 care one way or the other, but he was resolved like 
 iron to have a man who would do as he was bidden, 
 and who knew his place. In fact, he had found the 
 very man. Providence had brought him to hand. 
 
 There was yet another Sleekman, and it was thought 
 that the people would like a second of the breed — 
 one of the same meekness and ineffectiveness as that 
 Silas who had recently laid himself down to rest from 
 labours which apparently ought not to have tired him 
 very much. 
 
56 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 The Reverend Alexander Sleekman was a pro- 
 bationer of some standing, meaning thereby that he 
 had been out of college several years without finding 
 a resting-place for his foot in kirk or manse. But he 
 had preached several times for his relative during the 
 summer holidays ; and Mr. Hector McKill, with that 
 interest in the young for which he was famous, had 
 sounded the lad, and found him of a very adaptive 
 and facile disposition. The senior partner thought 
 that this would be most suitable in a minister of the 
 Valley Kirk, who, above all men, ought to be a model 
 of humility. Mr. McKill liked all his sermons from 
 the Old Testament, and especially rejoiced in denun- 
 ciations of the wicked — which, being interpreted, meant 
 those who did not agree with Hector McKill. On the 
 other hand, Mrs. McKill loved expositions of " the little 
 horn," and the settling of the exact year and day of 
 the end of the world. She subscribed to the Prophetic 
 Herald, and questioned all young preachers as to their 
 views on the literal fulfilment of prophecy. 
 
 So the Reverend Alexander Sleekman satisfied 
 both the chief inhabitants of Gripp Castle, which stood 
 among sprouting larches over the hill out of sight of 
 the pits. He was asked there to lunch. He stood with 
 his hat in his hand on the gravel walk when he spoke 
 to Hector McKill, and he expressed the most lively 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 57 
 
 delight at finding a copy of the Prophetic Herald, " my 
 favourite journal," on the drawing-room table. 
 
 Mr. Sleekman did not mean to miss the good 
 things of this life if he could help it. 
 
 He was altogether a suitable young man, and 
 Hector McKill said, " He'll do fine ! " 
 
 Now, the senior partner in the great firm of Incubus 
 and Company had not the least doubt that he should 
 be able to carry the congregation of the Valley Kirk 
 along with him. Indeed, that was a factor which he 
 had not so much as considered. Were not most of 
 the members his own employees } Hector loved the 
 word. He was their employer, their master ; and it 
 would be a strange thing if he could not hire them 
 to think as he thought as well as to do as he bade 
 them. 
 
 Yet it will hardly be believed that there was rank 
 treason and rebellion against so good a master being 
 freely mooted in the pits themselves, and preparation 
 was being made for the congregational meeting, with 
 a view to disappointing his earnest and just expecta- 
 tions. This was a matter to which it is eminently 
 painful to allude. We hardly like to enter into the 
 depths which are to be found in human nature. Hector 
 McKill made it a matter of public prayer that he should 
 get his own way, and Mrs. McKill frequently consulted 
 
58 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 the Prophetic Herald. Who would dare to gainsay two 
 such single-minded and powerful Christians ? 
 
 Now, in the Presbyterian Kirk of Scotland, a selected 
 number of those who have been proposed as candidates 
 for the pastorate have to preach on one or more 
 Sabbaths before the congregation, so that the people 
 may judge as to the merits and popular gifts of the man 
 whom they elect to rule over them in spiritual things. 
 
 Accordingly, the Reverend Alexander Sleekman 
 preached first. He had a plaintive and monotonous 
 voice, and he selected his text from the Prophet Daniel 
 to please Mrs. McKill. But he was far from pleasing 
 the rank and file of the free and independent members 
 of the congregation. They complained that he whined 
 whenever he did not snivel. 
 
 " That craitur can never preach. He can only peep 
 and mutter ! " said Angus Gilruth, gardener and 
 theologian. 
 
 " That piece o' machinery wadna work bena (except) 
 when Hector McKill turned the handle ! " said Sandy 
 McClymont. And so the word ran through the con- 
 gregation. 
 
 But Hector went about the next day, saying to 
 every member and adherent he met, "You were at 
 the kirk yesterday, John. Wasna yon a grand ser- 
 mon ? " 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 5 9 
 
 And John thought that it was, having regard to the 
 fact that he was speaking to his master. But he relieved 
 himself when he sat on his hunkers at the pit-bottom, 
 waiting for the cage. 
 
 But there was one of those who came to preach 
 whose name was David Oliphant. He certainly did 
 not peep and mutter. He had a message to deliver, 
 and, at least, he stood and gave it forth like a man. 
 He had long been wrestling with a poor district, where 
 sin was the handmaid of poverty, and where prayer was 
 not so divorced from the brotherhood of helping as it 
 was]] in the theology of Hector McLean. He prayed 
 with the people in the evening, and saw that they got 
 milk for their babes in the morning. 
 
 In the Valley Kirk he preached on the address of 
 Paul to the men of Athens, from the Hill of Mars. 
 
 " This agitator," he called him, " this inciter of the 
 populace, this socialistic lecturer, proclaimed his 
 message, and the Athenians listlessly hearkened. * For 
 God hath made of one blood all the nations of men that 
 are upon the face of the earth.' And the citizens smiled 
 at one another as they heard the new doctrine. Did the 
 little swarthy Jew think himself of the same race as 
 themselves ? And the Roman centurion smiled behind 
 his hand like a stalwart British policeman in his pride 
 of place. The slave-owner shrugged his shoulders and 
 
6o Vox Clamantium. 
 
 turned away. But on the skirts of the crowd, here and 
 there, one listened and set his head nearer to catch 
 every word. The helot heard a new thing. ' Of the 
 same blood ; equal in the new faith ; neither Jew nor 
 Greek, male nor female, bond nor free ; — all free and 
 equal in Jesus Christ the new Prophet.' Swart Ethiopian 
 and flaxen-haired Goth, they paused ere they went to 
 their task, hearing of ' a new burden and easier yoke,' a 
 brotherhood of man ! There was hope for them in the 
 new faith. No wonder the common people heard him 
 gladly, and the rich and increased in goods passed him 
 by, for it was a helot's faith, this of the Nazarene, and 
 once more to the poor the gospel was preached." 
 
 David Oliphant's words rang through the Valley 
 Kirk like the accents of a new inspired prophet. Such 
 things had never so been spoken there. The workers 
 had been dulled into apathy. Use and wont alone took 
 them to their accustomed places on the morning of the 
 Sabbath day ; but the words of the preacher had fallen 
 dully on their ear as something with no possible bearing 
 upon their daily life. 
 
 And as the kirk emptied itself, there were many who 
 whispered one to the other, "We have heard a new 
 thing to-day ! " 
 
 But they said little aloud, for Hector McKill was 
 condemning the unhallowed doctrine in no measured 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 6 1 
 
 tones. He would write to the officers of the Kirk about 
 the men whom they sent out to preach to vacant 
 congregations. He never had heard the pulpit so 
 prostituted before. It was all he could do to keep still 
 in his place. There was not a word of spirituality in 
 the whole discourse. The young man was a disgrace 
 to the presbytery that licensed him. 
 
 " But he'll no get off with the like of that ! " said 
 Hector McKill. 
 
 Yet he took him over the hill to Gripp Castle for 
 dinner, and tried to overwhelm him with his importance. 
 But David Oliphant was not overwhelmed. He had 
 not met the great ones of the earth in vain, and he 
 could give a reason for the faith that was in him. He 
 told Mrs. McKill several things about Christ and his 
 religion which considerably astonished Hector. More 
 than that, he had the passages at the end of his tongue 
 to bear out his doctrine. 
 
 " He said to me in the smoking-room," said Hector 
 to his astonished wife, " that there was no doubt 
 that Jesus .was a working-man, and His followers 
 Socialists." 
 
 "But you surely did not sit and listen to such 
 doctrine ? " queried his wife, aghast. 
 
 Hector McKill looked uneasy. He shrugged his 
 shoulders and played with his watch-chain. 
 
62 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 " But, Sophia, in a manner he proved it — that was 
 the awkward thing." 
 
 " Nonsense," said Sophia, sharply ; " I wish I had 
 had him through my hands. I would puzzle him with 
 the ' little horn,' and the ' time and a time and half a 
 time.' " 
 
 Which indeed was likely enough, for David Oliphant 
 devoted most of his attention to the vials of wrath 
 which were being poured on the earth at the present 
 time, and the horn that he was interested in was mostly 
 to be found on the palms of the workers with whom he 
 consorted, and in the hearts of such firms as Incubus 
 and Company, whose employees they were. 
 
 So it was decided at Gripp Castle that Alexander 
 Sleekman was to be their minister, and that Hector 
 McKill should write to all the vacant churches, and 
 warn their committee against the life and doctrine of 
 David Oliphant 
 
 " I owed this duty to the Church at large," said 
 Hector ; " such a wolf ought not to be allowed to 
 masquerade in fleecy clothing among the silly sheep." 
 
 But at the congregational meeting a sharp and 
 horrid surprise was waiting for this worthy and notable 
 follower of the apostles. He proposed the Reverend 
 Alexander Sleekman. He lauded his likeness to his 
 worthy predecessor. He called him " a chip off the old 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 63 
 
 block " (an irreverent person in the back benches inter- 
 jected the syllable " head " at this point, which raised 
 , a laugh among the unthinking). Hector McKill 
 repeated his observation with greater emphasis, and 
 again the objectionable syllable came from the back of 
 the church. Then he went on to advert to the excellent 
 doctrine which they had heard in the discourses of 
 Mr. Sleekman, and the admirable manner in which the 
 preacher had settled disputed points in the prophetic 
 interpretation of Daniel. It would be a blessing of no 
 ordinary calibre if they were privileged in the Valley 
 Kirk to listen Sabbath after Sabbath to such teaching. 
 For his part (Hector McKill's part), he asked nothing 
 better than an eternity of such Sabbaths. He concluded 
 by proposing the name of Mr. Sleekman, and he said 
 that, were Mr. Sleekman elected, he should personally 
 make it his business to give him all the assistance and 
 advice in his power in fulfilling his onerous ministerial 
 functions in their midst. 
 
 It will hardly be believed, yet it is a fact that at 
 this point a deliberate wink was observed to pass round 
 the congregation. Hector McKill caught Sandy 
 McClymont in the act, and Sandy coughed and pre- 
 tended that some obstruction in his throat was bringing 
 the water to his eye. Man is by nature depraved. 
 
 Then there was a pause in the proceedings, till one 
 
64 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 of the firemen at the Carronbrae pits seconded his 
 master's motion, as he had been ordered that morning 
 to do. He kept his head down, and appeared very 
 unhappy. But he had ten of a family, and was two 
 quarters back with his rent. 
 
 Then, without note or comment, Angus Gilruth stood 
 up and moved the election of David Oliphant. A 
 member at the back of the hall, believed to be another 
 of the pit firemen — an unmarried man — swiftly seconded 
 the motion. The worthy moderator, who was minister 
 of a neighbouring church, all innocent of the complica- 
 tion of interests, rose to put the matter to the vote ; but 
 Hector McKill, choking with anger, was before him. 
 He fell upon David Oliphant, his character and 
 doctrine, with tooth and nail. His doctrine was un- 
 speakably bad. His opposition to constituted authority 
 showed what manner of man he was better than any- 
 thing else. His character, also, was more than doubtful. 
 He would be a disgrace to the parish, and, for one. 
 Hector McKill would give no support to a congregation 
 which would call such a man to rule over them. 
 
 " I and my wife," said Hector, speaking after his 
 manner, "have had opportunities of diagnosing his 
 character denied to the others here present, and we can 
 vouch that our impressions were not favourable." 
 
 Mrs. McKill nodded her head violently. David 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 65 
 
 Oliphant's views on the " little horn " had been very- 
 unsatisfactory indeed.^ 
 
 " But I do not doubt that this factious opposition to 
 such an admirable man as Mr. Sleekman, against whose 
 character and doctrine there is no breath of suspicion, 
 is confined to one or two irresponsible persons of no 
 particular standing." 
 
 Mr. McKill paused for a reply. 
 
 The people did not reply ; but every man and 
 woman made ready to vote. 
 
 Yet when the election proceeded, and a show of 
 hands called for of those favourable to the candidature of 
 the Reverend Alexander Sleekman, only eleven could be 
 counted ; and there was even a considerable uncertainty 
 about some of these, for as soon as Hector McKill took 
 his eyes off several of those who voted for his candidate, 
 strangely enough their hands instantly dropped to their 
 sides. These were all married men with large families 
 and in the upper places about the Carronbrae pits. The 
 moderator, indeed, declared that he could only count 
 seven at any one time. 
 
 Then came the vote on behalf of David Oliphant. 
 A whole forest of hands arose. The moderator thought 
 there were about two hundred. Hector McKill was on 
 his feet all the time, turning round like a teetotum, 
 trying to focus his attention upon those of his em- 
 
 F 
 
66 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 ployees as were voting against him ; but it is a strange 
 thing that for every one of these whom he really got his 
 eye upon, and by dint of frowning prevailed upon to 
 keep his hands beneath the pew, at least two others who 
 were not so focussed held up their hands, so that the 
 moderator could not in any way make the numbers of 
 those voting for David Oliphant less than two hundred 
 and ten. He rose to give his decision, and was inter- 
 rupted by Hector McKill, But the moderator was not 
 under the thumb of Incubus and Company. He lived 
 in another parish, and so he made short shrift of 
 the ruling elder, who only managed to say that he 
 washed his hands of the responsibility of bringing such 
 a man into their midst. 
 
 When David Oliphant came to Carronbrae, he was 
 welcomed with a great assembly in the Valley Kirk to 
 do him honour, and down in the pits and along the 
 working faces there was joy which did not readily find 
 expression. And, what pleased these swarthy miners 
 as much as anything, their owner, the senior partner in 
 the great firm of Incubus and Company, was explosively 
 indignant, and refused to have anything to do with the 
 ceremony. This was a capital introduction to the 
 confidence of the workers of Carronbrae, and there was 
 a larger contingent of them at church on Sabbath than 
 had ever been there before. But the McKills' pew was 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 67 
 
 empty, and the congregation whispered to each other 
 that Hector McKill, lord of Gripp Castle, and of 
 the serfs of the Carronbrae pits, had left the Valley- 
 Kirk, and betaken himself to the Kirk on the Hill. 
 The " little horn " went with him. 
 
 But this was not yet decided. Hector and his wife 
 were that day deep in debate as to their future action. 
 Should he secede forthwith, or remain to be a thorn in 
 the side of the new minister ? He could not hope to 
 have the same authority in the Kirk of the Hill. On 
 the other hand, the Reverend Septimus Easiman was 
 ready to have any views or none upon the " little horn," 
 and he was entirely sound on the question of the 
 rights of employers ; so that it was finally decided by 
 the conclave at the Castle that immediate withdrawal 
 from the tainted and disgraced Valley Kirk was abso- 
 lutely necessary. So Hector McKill " lifted his lines " 
 and removed his Bibles during the week. 
 
 Then, being without employment for his facility in 
 petitioning, he started a prayer-meeting at the offices 
 of the company, and invited those who attended to 
 send in notices of requests for prayer. But the notes 
 received showed the evil minds of the senders. One 
 stated that the sepulchres of the neighbourhood stood 
 much in need of a new coat of whitewash, and urgent 
 prayers were asked for the same. Another remarked 
 
68 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 upon the tattered condition of the hypocrites' cloaks, 
 and suggested a fresh supply. Another referred to the 
 "second exit" at the Carronbrae pit as a subject for 
 Mr. McKill's petitions ; while yet another suggested a 
 rise of ten per cent, and an examination of the insani- 
 tary condition of the company's houses. The proposed 
 prophetical prayer-meeting in Mrs. McKill's drawing- 
 room was abandoned, and in the town of Carronbrae all 
 things went on as they had done before. 
 
 The Government inspector came every three months, 
 and strolled along the mains of the pit accompanied by 
 the junior (drinking) partner. The senior (whitewashed) 
 partner kept out of the way. Then at a certain fixed 
 point Walter Grindlay proposed a return to the surface 
 in time for dinner. So, with a magnum of champagne 
 before him, the inspector rested from his labours and 
 found all things very good. 
 
 And David Oliphant, cleared of Incubus and Com- 
 pany and all their works, preached the gospel as it was 
 given to him, and instructed his people, among other 
 things, that the fatherhood of God meant the brother- 
 hood of man. 
 
 But on a day unforgotten in Carronbrae, swift and 
 unexpected as lightning, fell the terror of great dark- 
 ness. 
 
 At Carronbrae pit No. i, the day shift had turned 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 69 
 
 out at six in the morning, stolidly taking its way to the 
 pit to do the day's darg. In the little red houses the 
 men and boys breakfasted mostly with little said ; and 
 as silently rose to go, each with his dinner-can along 
 with him, into the still sunshiny morning. 
 
 The men went to labour. The women abode at 
 home, worked, and waited.' The laddies followed their 
 fathers as soon as it was time for them to leave school 
 and go to work. 
 
 "Weel, I'm awa'!" was the more effusive greeting 
 heard as the men shut to the doors. Yet some of the 
 younger of them took a look at wives and bairns ere 
 they went forth, for to all who win the coal from the 
 deeps of the mine, there is the grim risk that they who 
 go forth in the morning with head erect, may be brought 
 home before ever evening come with drooping head and 
 feet that are carried first through the door. 
 
 So in scattered groups, fathers with their boys 
 walking manfully by their side, sometimes running a 
 few steps to keep up, and single men in silent com- 
 panionship with their mates, they took their way up the 
 hill to the pit-mouth. 
 
 The wheels spun round opposite ways on the tall 
 scaffolding. The cage sank and rose. The engineman 
 pulled his levers and tested his throttle-valves. Down 
 to the bottom of the long dark shaft and diagonally 
 
70 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 along the " incline," the parties of men and boys sped 
 to their work. Tools clinked as the men lifted them to 
 their shoulders. 
 
 Fifteen hundred feet beneath the yellow cornfields, 
 fifteen hundred feet beneath the great house of Gripp 
 Castle, where Hector McKill, senior partner in the firm 
 of Incubus and Company, was not yet out of bed, lay 
 the workings where the picks began to play a merry 
 tune. The pony-boys brought the waggons quickly 
 along the dark underground ways. Here and there the 
 lamps glimmered and danced over the mounds of 
 rubbish. From the abandoned workings there came 
 strange faint smells, and the lamp-flame sometimes 
 forsook the centre wick and seemed to cling strangely 
 to the wire of the Davy frame. 
 
 Few of the men in that great pit remembered as 
 they wrought that the yellow sunshine of the autumn 
 day slept above them. For the pit hummed like a 
 hive, and there was little enough time for thought. 
 The door-boys heard the whistle of the men running 
 the coal-trucks through the dark passages, and threw 
 back their doors. Then with a yell and a gust of 
 wind, a long line of cars rushed through the open door- 
 way. Sometimes one of the men upon them would 
 wave a hand kindly to the lonely boy, left by himself 
 in the darkness. And the flames of their hat-lamps 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 7 1 
 
 streamed back like the smoke-track behind a railway 
 engine. 
 
 Suddenly that day in August, as the boys were 
 bringing their loads of coal to the bottom of the 
 "dook," John Roy, the "bottomer," looking upward, 
 saw thick volumes of smoke pouring down the shaft of 
 the long incline. 
 
 " The pit's afire ! " was his quick and terrible cry. 
 There was but one way to the surface ; but one to the 
 outer air, and the flame had gripped it, as John Roy 
 well knew when he saw the red glow in the heart of 
 the smoke. 
 
 Now, doubtless it was his duty to bide by his signals, 
 for the bottomer is the man at the helm, and only he 
 can communicate up that long incline, nearly a third of 
 a mile in length, with the men in the engine-house on 
 the surface, whose levers and wire ropes control in turn 
 the movements of the cage by which alone safety can 
 be reached. But John Roy had little time to think. 
 Bewildered, stunned, not knowing which way to turn 
 for the blinding downpour of smoke and the crackling 
 of the deadly fire among the timbers of the pit, he leapt 
 into the cage, and stood with his hand on the bell-lever. 
 
 But before he " belled himself away," he called to 
 the three boys who stood beneath with their loads 
 ready for the trucks, 
 
72 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 " The pit's afire, lads ; come away with me ! " 
 
 Then these three lads, whose names deserve to be 
 written in golden letters, though no more than boys in 
 years, returned to the bottomer the answer of brave 
 men. They said — 
 
 " No ; we will gang and warn the men." 
 
 John Roy jerked the lever thrice, and was whisked 
 through the smoke and fire just in time, leaving the 
 hundred men below to their fate. 
 
 But the three boys sped on their way. The weight 
 of many men's lives was on their boyish hearts. 
 Breathing deep to give them vigour, they ran through 
 the gathering smother, which, instead of feeding the 
 great pit with pure air, was carrying down the deadly 
 smoke along all the faces of the pit. They raced with 
 bent backs under the black archways. Every moment 
 they were risking their own lives to warn their comrades. 
 
 " The pit's afire ; run, men, run ! " they cried, and at 
 the word each man and boy dropped his tools and ran 
 for the bottom of the incline. 
 
 But when they arrived there they found only the 
 red fire glowing down from above on the dull waters of 
 the "sump," and the cage gone, which ought to have 
 been there to take them to safety. Some started for 
 the air-shaft ; but it was blocked with steam-pipes, and 
 no man could climb thirty yards up it. The legal 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 73 
 
 second exit had, as we know, never been driven, and a 
 hundred yards of solid rock lay between. So down 
 there men and boys were penned, with the great fire 
 roaring in their only exit. They were no better than 
 rats caught in the trap set for them by Incubus and 
 Company, and baited with thirty shillings a week. But 
 the senior partner was a pious man, and had often 
 prayed for them — only he had not finished the second 
 exit. The thought must have been a comfort to them 
 at that moment. 
 
 But on the plans of the pit, approved and passed by 
 the Government inspectors, there were splendid exits, 
 wide and clear. All was completely arranged on paper. 
 It is a pity that men cannot escape on paper. 
 
 And above in the sunlight women wailed and wept, 
 and watched and waited. Through the long and 
 anxious August night the women-folk, many of them 
 with their babies, stood about the pit-head. Hector 
 McKill, in a white waistcoat, moved among them, telling 
 them that they had better go home ; they could do 
 their men no good. 
 
 Suddenly a woman broke down, and the weird, un- 
 forgettable sound of the Irish " keen " went out on the 
 air. It nearly broke the hearts of those that heard it. 
 Grief among the Scottish women was quieter — more 
 patient, stiller. 
 
74 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 But when the dead-carts began to rumble, and the 
 bodies were brought home, the women broke loose from 
 all restraint, and clambered on the waggons, crying for 
 their husbands. Then David Oliphant, who had gone 
 from house to house, ran along to meet each cart, 
 and, reverently laying the cloth aside, he identified 
 the poor clay, and so drove the husband home to his 
 wife's fireside, which he had left sound and well that 
 morning. 
 
 Yes, the boys had warned the men ! The three 
 heroes who thought of no Victoria Cross had done their 
 deed, and now they lay quiet — one in his father's house, 
 with the deadly reek oozing stilly out of his nostrils ; 
 another as quiet, the only son of his mother, and she a 
 widow, ^ut one lay at the bottom of the black water 
 of the " sump," so deep that even the ruddy fire scarce 
 glimmered down upon him. 
 
 But the boys had warned the men. 
 
 On a quiet Scottish Sabbath they were laid in their 
 resting-graves on a breezy hilltop, looking down on the 
 place that had been their death-trap. The fields over 
 them were yellow with the corn, but under the sheaves 
 fifty men lay buried in a deep common grave. They 
 had a service on the green, and the lift of the 
 widowed and orphaned voices as they sang their psalm 
 almost broke our hearts. 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 75 
 
 "Yea, though I walk through death's dark vale, 
 Yet will I fear none ill ; 
 For Thou art with me, and Thy rod 
 And staff me comfort still." 
 
 And at the open-air service, behind the rows of 
 weeping women, the children played upon Carronbrae 
 Green, or stood staring open-eyed as at a show, with 
 never a father among them all. 
 
 But Hector McKill went to the church with a con- 
 science void of offence. He had subscribed a hundred 
 pounds to the relief fund. 
 
 Now David OHphant had a word to say, and he said 
 it. "I do not stand here to apportion blame or to 
 decide legal quibbles ; but I say that the men who are 
 responsible for failing to provide a way of escape for 
 these men are responsible for the loss of these hundred 
 lives, and one day shall have to answer for the murder 
 before the bar of God." 
 
 Two mornings after David OHphant found on his 
 table a legal letter from the solicitor of Incubus and 
 Company. The letter informed him that he had laid 
 himself open to an action for libel, and requested the 
 name of his solicitor. David Oliphant had no solicitor ; 
 but he had an answer, and his answer ran thus : 
 
 " I specially declared in my address that I had 
 nothing to do with apportioning blame before hun»an 
 
76 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 tribunals ; and I shall rejoice to meet your clients at 
 the bar which I mentioned, on the great day when the 
 secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, when all wrong 
 shall be righted, and all evil punished." 
 
 David Oliphant's faith was simple ; but, like many 
 simple things, it wore well and carried him through. 
 He heard no more of the action for libel. 
 
 ***** 
 
 The water had filled the mine. It was seven months 
 before it was again pumped out of the flooded pit. Then 
 once more the explorers enter the dread place where the 
 smoke choked, the fire burned, and the water drowned 
 so many lives that were bright and young. They are 
 again at the pit-bottom. They pass along the dripping 
 passages, from which the great pump has sucked the 
 water. They clamber over falls of rock which have 
 thundered down from the roof. They shade their eyes 
 and hold up their lamps as they go down the slope. 
 
 " Stop ! what is that ? " 
 
 This is what they see — dark shapes, leaning against 
 the wall, some sitting as if in thought, some resting at 
 ease as if asleep, some lying prone on their faces. 
 
 " I declare," said one of the searchers, " they were 
 sitting there, after seven months under water, as if they 
 were waiting for the oversman to call the next shift ! " 
 
 He was right. The Great Oversman had called the 
 
In the Matter of Incubus and Co. 77 
 
 next shift, and every man had answered to his name. 
 One little lad had run upon the first alarm to find his 
 father. The men who lifted him had strong arms, but 
 the tears ran down their cheeks upon their grimy hands. 
 And well they might, for the boy lay lovingly and 
 confidingly with his head upon his father's knee. He 
 had found his father. Perhaps so had they all. At any 
 rate, it was better to die with them than to live with 
 Hector McKill. 
 
 Incubus and Company still survives, but does not 
 greatly prosper, though Hector's white waistcoat is 
 broader and whiter than ever. 
 
 But, though he got clear in the Government inquiry, 
 the Great Court of Appeal has not done with him yet. 
 There is a certain white throne to be set up ; and even 
 if there be no hell, as the new-fangled folk say, God 
 is going to set about making one specially for Hector 
 McKill. 
 
 S. R. Crockett. 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 
 
 When we speak of " the gospel," we mean the message 
 of good news which God has sent to this earth by Jesus 
 Christ. But the gospel is usually taught as dealing 
 with individual men as individuals only. Each man 
 by himself is said to be able to be forgiven, able to 
 be nurtured, able to be changed, able to be saved, 
 i.e. made a spiritually healthy being, a son of God, 
 
 But the question we are asking in these days is 
 this : " Is the gospel no more than this ? " Has not 
 God sent a message to men, as well as to each man, 
 to society at large, for the great body of mankind to 
 adopt and assimilate? Does not God look for a 
 "saved society," as well as a number of isolated " saved 
 souls " ? Is there no " social gospel " ? 
 
 I venture to think that there is such a gospel : not 
 a separate gospel from the other, but one great message 
 which acts in a similar though not identical way, both 
 on society at large, and on individuals in particular. 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 79 
 
 Individuals sin, and God can save them. Society sins, 
 and God can save it. A man is morally deficient ; God 
 can supply his weakness. Society is degenerating; God 
 can regenerate it. Moreover, the two workings of this 
 one gospel interlace one another. Often, as we can 
 see, it is only by the saving of an individual, or of a 
 number of individuals, that society can be saved ; often, 
 on the other hand, it is by the saving of society, as, for 
 example, by the practical adoption of a new social 
 principle, that individuals can save their own souls. 
 
 We are, however, chiefly concerned now with the 
 gospel in its social aspect ; that is to say, with the 
 gospel as delivered to, and to be applied by, great 
 bodies of men, by nations, corporations, classes, masses, 
 societies, neighbourhoods. 
 
 Firstly, the Englishman, with his great love of the 
 Bible, asks, " Is this scriptural ? " Most assuredly, 
 " Yes." The most righteous book in the world reveals 
 to us the characteristic working of God, the " ways of 
 the Lord." And what are His ways .' In the Old 
 Testament, His ways are shown to be most clearly 
 national, social, world-wide. He chooses out a nation, 
 that He may exhibit to the whole world the picture of 
 a perfect State, governed by His merciful, loving laws ; 
 always happy and prosperous in obedience, and cor- 
 respondingly miserable and disjointed and defeated at 
 
8o Vox Clamantium. 
 
 every turn, when it separates itself from Him, and 
 prefers its own way to His. Then, when the fulness 
 of the time is come, He descends to this earth of ours, 
 and enters into human society Himself, in the form of 
 man, to rearrange the disordered mass, disordered just 
 because it refused to be ordered by Him. He goes in 
 and out among men, taking part in their ordinary 
 life. He chooses His twelve apostles, and imparts to 
 them His secret that they may go out and spread the 
 gospel. This gospel is about a kingdom ; a new way 
 of bringing men and women together in one great 
 united body under Himself, their King. All the 
 nations of the earth are to be invited to enter into 
 this kingdom ; not forced into it, but gently drawn by 
 love. This kingdom is to be set up at once upon the 
 earth ; His followers are to pray unceasingly for its 
 coming and its maintenance. The glorious ideal which 
 He puts before His followers is that of gradually 
 claiming the whole world for Him ; society is to be 
 reconstructed on a new basis, the basis of love and 
 brotherhood ; the kingdoms of this world are to 
 become the kingdoms of our Lord. The picture of 
 the perfect state, in the great unseen world, is that of 
 a city, the heavenly Jerusalem, compact and soHd, 
 bright with righteousness, filled with an atmosphere of 
 holy prayers and aspirations — with injustice, sorrows. 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 8i 
 
 miseries, swept away by the all-pervading essence of 
 the holiness of God triumphant. 
 
 Surely this is a social gospel ! Good news to man- 
 kind that there is a better way of organizing themselves. 
 Let God be your King. God in His human nature, the 
 God Who knows the sorrow and suffering, the perversity 
 and selfishness of men, the God Who has submitted 
 Himself to the discomfort of poverty and the humiliation 
 of obedience, the God Who hates wrong and loves 
 right, the God Who will have a new earth in which 
 righteousness shall dwell. 
 
 II. Now, when we look back on the history of the 
 world since the appearance of God on the earth, we read, 
 it is true, a sorry story of violence and selfishness and 
 lust. Does this mean that the social gospel has failed ? 
 
 Certainly not. In the first place, the failure, if any, 
 is not nearly so apparent in the case of the social 
 gospel as it is in the case of the individual one. There 
 are still millions of individual sinners on whose lives 
 the gospel of Christ seems to have made but little 
 effect, and yet we know that, underlying all that, the 
 leaven of Christ has been gradually permeating the 
 lump. The grain of seed dropped on Mount Calvary 
 when Jesus' blood was shed by cruel men, has entered 
 into the earth of men's consciences, and from it has 
 sprung up that wonderful Tree which covers the whole 
 
82 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 world with its greatness. There are amongst us — here 
 there, and everywhere — men of gentleness, uprightness, 
 love, and self-sacrifice, whose very life speaks of the 
 living Spirit of Jesus. They are the leaves of that Tree, 
 the fruitful branches of the True Vine. 
 
 So with society at large, with nations (at least with 
 the nations of Europe and the new world). The broad 
 result may seem to argue failure, and yet we know 
 that great principles of love, justice, liberty, and brother- 
 hood are gradually making their way into the heart of 
 politics and social reconstruction. What are these but 
 some of the foundation truths which Jesus taught? 
 
 " Still," you will say, " there is failure, terrible failure 
 still — the kingdom of God is not a fact." That is, un- 
 fortunately, too true. It is not a fact in the world ; but 
 neither is it a fact to any very large extent in the hearts 
 and lives of individuals, yet we still preach and teach 
 and minister grace ; we still organize Home and Foreign 
 Missions. 
 
 The Christian Church has no right nor reason to 
 despair. She must, however, in these days, take care 
 not to subside into a state of fatalistic despondency 
 and shirk three-quarters of her duty by confining her- 
 self to the conversion of individuals. 
 
 What, then, is her social duty ? 
 
 The social duty of the Christian Church is twofold. 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 83 
 
 She has first to maintain herself as the living perpetual 
 witness to the desirableness, the beauty, the reasonable- 
 ness of united Christian living. She must keep her 
 members together in holy living as the one united, 
 brotherly body, the family of God, the society which 
 moves along guided by the indwelling Spirit of Christ, 
 nourished by the sacred Humanity of the Son of God, 
 obedient to the laws and principles of Jesus. She is, 
 potentially, the kingdom of God on earth, containing, 
 alas ! good and bad members, a field in which wheat 
 and tares are growing; but pressing onward till she 
 attains to that perfect society, the New Jerusalem, the 
 city foursquare, with its triumphant enjoyment of 
 social peace and good will, basking in the sunshine of 
 God's love. 
 
 Secondly, she is to act upon the world at large by 
 her example, her teaching, her persuasion. She is to 
 strive to win the whole human race to herself There 
 is to be no limit to the sphere of her action, no depart- 
 ment of human life which she is to shrink from or 
 shirk. Industry, politics, home life, professional practice, 
 the world of science and art, of literature and recreation 
 — all of it is in the field where the Church must work. 
 
 She is a " City set on a hill," that cannot and must 
 not be hid. Out from the watch-tower must shine the 
 pure light of righteousness in the darkness of the world, 
 
84 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 seeming to say, "Come unto Me, all 'ye that labour and 
 are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Out, too, 
 from the gates of the city, Christian men must go and 
 mingle in the world below and persuade humanity that 
 up on the hill is the true life, the true liberty, the true 
 progress. 
 
 This, then, is briefly the twofold duty of the Christian 
 Church : (i) to exist as a solid body of righteous men, 
 living under Christ and His law, and utterly dependent 
 on Him, believing in complete sincerity in Him as the 
 King, the Lord, the Master ; (2) to go out into the 
 world and spread the knowledge of their Lord, enter- 
 ing deep into the woes and wants of humanity, and 
 endeavouring, by example, by precept, by the infection 
 of enthusiasm for Christ and His all-sufiEiciency, to draw 
 the whole world after Him. 
 
 HI. How shall we of the Christian Church do this, 
 practically, in this nineteenth century of Christendom ? 
 
 First, let us make ourselves absolutely sure that it 
 has got to be done. We are not unnaturally half- 
 hearted about it. The Church has, in the course of 
 ages, got so mixed up with the world that to talk of 
 " existing as a solid body of righteous men " seems 
 almost a mockery. So, too, to talk of acting upon the 
 world from the outside as a " city set on a hill," seems 
 almost impossible, in view of the fact that, as an 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 85 
 
 organized body that can talk and act together, we can 
 hardly be said to exist. 
 
 Despair, however, is a vice which, as a Church, we 
 must never allow ourselves to be guilty of. It is at our 
 peril that we recede by one hair's-breadth from the 
 position that, somehow or other, Christ is to be made 
 known as the King of the whole earth ; that, some- 
 how or other, He is the Way out of social distress, 
 " The true Light which lighteth every man that cometh 
 into the world." 
 
 We must not, then, be fatalists, as Mr. Gore warned 
 us at the Holborn Conference. We must say, "Here 
 are these two duties which the Church is pledged to 
 perform. Let us see to it that they are being done." 
 Complete success will almost certainly not attend our 
 efforts during our short lifetime, but that thought must 
 not hold us back from the task. 
 
 Anything which tends to bring the Christian Church 
 together into compact unity is good for the furthering 
 of the social gospel. Without saying one word in 
 disparagement of the Evangelical movement, which has 
 done so much to impress individuals with an earnest 
 love for the Person of Christ, I believe that the great 
 Tractarian movement of the last fifty years has done 
 m uch in this particular respect. It has made the 
 Church of England realize herself as a visible society. 
 
86 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 with its regular orders of officers and members presided 
 over by Christ. The same movement has also had its 
 influence on the whole mass of Christians in this 
 country. It has substituted the idea of social religion 
 for mere individual devotion. The Broad-Church 
 teachers, too, have done much to raise and widen the 
 ideals of Christian men. " The kingdom of Christ " is 
 felt now to be no mere form of words, but a thing for 
 which Christian men must be looking and working. 
 The age of successful hypocrisy and contentment with 
 platitudes is passing away. Christians are feeling more 
 and more that their religion must be carried out in 
 their lives, if it is to be professed at all. The so-called 
 secular Press often exercises a stimulating effect upon 
 the Church by the steady exposure of Christian incon- 
 sistencies, which is one of the features of the " New 
 Journalism." 
 
 The increased attendance at and reception of the 
 Holy Communion which, thank God, is the most con- 
 spicuous glory of our modern Churchmanship, ought, 
 it seems to me, to be issuing in a greater realization of 
 the social character of Christianity. It is allowed on 
 all hands that it was the Holy Eucharist, in the early 
 days of the Church, which broke down the selfishness and 
 individualism of the heathen world. Why is it that the 
 modern revival is not having more of the same effect ? 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 87 
 
 Is it not that we think too exclusively of the 
 Sacrament as God's gift to each individual, and not 
 enough of it as the great corporate act of the whole 
 Church, and the great instrument of unification in 
 Christ ? We are members one of another, because we 
 all partake of one loaf. The substitution of the expres- 
 sion " Our Communion " for the vulgar phrase " My 
 Communion " would serve to bring about a better idea 
 of the meaning of the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 The circumstances, then, of the age, are in many 
 respects advantageous for the practical extension of the 
 Christian social gospel. Let us now consider the exact 
 directions in which these two branches of social duty 
 can be furthered. 
 
 (i) The inner life of the Christian society has to be 
 carefully attended to. A process of edification must 
 perpetually be going on. The social life of the Church 
 must grow more and more into the likeness of the 
 heavenly city. It has been pointed out by a 
 thoughtful teacher that the distinctively Christian 
 virtues are eminently social virtues. 
 
 Faith, Hope, Love — the three cardinal virtues — are 
 not mere individual perfections ; they are principles on 
 which the fabric of the Christian society is to be built up. 
 There must be social Faith, whether it be the faith of 
 mutual confidence between the members of the Christian 
 
88 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 body, or the tenacious trust of confident believers in the 
 promises of Christ and the power of His grace, or the 
 concerted reliance on the foundation truths of the 
 Christian religion, the facts of the Creed. There must 
 be social Hope, an untiring sense of certainty that 
 Christ holds the key of all complexities, that in time 
 a way out will be found, if only the body remains true 
 to the Head, and answers obediently to His guidance 
 and control ; that the Will of the Almighty Father is 
 wholly on the side of right and justice ; and that so far 
 as there is wrong and wickedness, it is from a disregard 
 of that all-just Will. There must be Love, not a mere 
 sentimental affection, but a deep love, rooted in the 
 innermost heart of the Christian body, and spreading 
 itself out through all the nerves and fibres of the 
 members, and issuing forth into the great world around. 
 Christians must love their neighbours as themselves, 
 and God with all their strength and wills. " For God 
 and for Man " must be the real head and heart motto 
 of the Church. 
 
 And these virtues must be allowed to grow up 
 regardless of worldly consequences. At all costs, 
 Christ's Will must be done. The works of the flesh, 
 envy, hatred, and all uncharitableness, must be cast out 
 of the society ; they must form no part at all of its 
 stock-in-trade. Now, it is these worldly consequences 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 89 
 
 which at present check the growth of virtue in the 
 Christian community. These are the fashions of 
 society; the ordinary methods of business; the fear 
 of Mrs. Grundy ; the innate, blind conservatism of the 
 vast mass of mankind, which increases with the acquisi- 
 tion of comfort. These, and a hundred things, spoil the 
 free development of true Christian virtue in the Church. 
 No one single person dares to make a fresh departure 
 in ordinary, everyday practice. A single Christian land- 
 lord or employer of labour who fearlessly set himself to 
 live on a very much higher plane of conduct, who 
 dared, in fact, to let his righteousness "exceed the 
 righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees," would find 
 himself in a very uncomfortable position. Our Lord 
 Himself, knowing that this would be the case, organized 
 His followers into a society that should have the in- 
 estimable strength and sustaining power which comes 
 from union. They were of one heart and one soul ; 
 they continued steadfastly in the one fellowship. Hence 
 it was no surprising thing when a Barnabas gave up 
 all his possessions and laid them at the apostles' feet. 
 What we want, then, nowadays, is for Christians to 
 draw together, to live together more, to establish inner 
 circles of religious friendship and mutual interchange 
 of views, to study together in common how to apply 
 the principles of Christ in ordinary conduct. This 
 
90 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 drawing together of Christians would minimize the difl- 
 culty which, it would be foolish to deny, exists in 
 applying religion to life.* Much of the failure of Chris- 
 tians to apply their religion to life arises from ignor- 
 ance of the facts of life. If, for example, we Christian 
 consumers could have it brought home to us vividly 
 how we are directly responsible for a great part of the 
 " sweating system " : if we were to come into more real 
 contact with the lives of the victims of it, I do not 
 suppose we should rest content until we had amended 
 our ways. Hence comes the great importance of the 
 " new philanthropy " which aims at getting knowledge 
 before giving assistance. The University settlements 
 in East London ; the collection of statistics like Charles 
 Booth's ; the increasing desire to get at the truth about 
 social problems, which is witnessed to by the multipli- 
 cation of "inquiries," pamphlets, and books on the 
 social question, etc., are, all of them, the earnest of 
 good things to come. 
 
 But all this must be multiplied tenfold, if the Chris- 
 tian Church is to stand out separate as the righteous 
 society which God means it to be. Shareholders must 
 find out what is done with their money ; employers 
 
 * I must acknowledge my indebtedness here and throughout this paper 
 to two writings by the Rev. Charles Gore, viz. " The Mission of the 
 Church" (Murray), and "The Social Doctrine of the Sermon on the 
 Mount " (Percival). 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 91 
 
 must find out the conditions of life and labour under 
 which their work is done ; clergy must get to know the 
 exact circumstances of the lives of the hearers to whom 
 they preach. Above all, there must be much more 
 frank recognition on the part of Christians of such 
 truths as the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of 
 man, the essential equality of all men in the sight of 
 God, the need of justice to all men. The Christian 
 Church has been wofully remiss in recognizing these 
 truths, which are the very foundations on which Christ 
 told us to build the Church. And this recognition must 
 be something much more than a mere acknowledgment 
 of the truth ; it must be coupled with a courageous 
 determination to incur any risk in order to bring the 
 truth into immediate relation to the facts and acts of 
 life. It ought not to be such an extraordinary thing 
 as it is for rich and poor to live together and share 
 the pleasures and anxieties of hfe. Great acts of self- 
 sacrifice ought not to be so rare as they are among 
 those who call themselves the followers of the Crucified. 
 At present, if a Catholic duke subscribes largely to 
 Church work, and gives thousands instead of hundreds 
 in alms, it is looked upon as a sort of desirable form of 
 lunacy by his fellow-Christians. Correspondingly, there 
 is little or no shock experienced by the Christian com- 
 munity on hearing that a rich fool has given two 
 
92 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 hundred pounds for a single orchid. Great efforts are 
 made by one set of Christians to prevent another set 
 from worshipping an image, while all of us are, more 
 or less, tainted with the love of money, which St. Paul 
 tells us is the real idolatry of the later ages of the 
 world. 
 
 There should also be a much greater desire on the 
 part of Christians to help one another in. leading the 
 Christian life. Are, for example, Christian employers 
 of labour anxious to enable those whom they employ to 
 live as God meant them to live? Do the masters and 
 mistresses of domestic servants assist them in leading a 
 Christian life ? Do parents bring their children up on 
 really Christian principles ? They teach them, perhaps, 
 one or two Christian precepts, and take care that they 
 are confirmed ; but do they bring home to them early 
 in life that, as Christians, they have to live a different 
 life from that of worldly people ? Do they teach them 
 that all men are brothers in a much more than conven- 
 tional sense > Do they teach them that hard work is a 
 necessary part of Christianity ? We are for ever priding 
 ourselves on the beauty and simplicity of our Prayer- 
 book, but it is questionable whether we have ever yet 
 fully and uncompromisingly taught the "duty towards 
 our neighbour " to rich and poor alike. Is it impressed 
 on the minds of our gilded youth at public schools, before 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 93 
 
 they are shovelled in by fifties and hundreds to the 
 sacred ordinance of confirmation, that henceforth they 
 are to " learn and labour truly to get their own living," to 
 do their duty, to love others with all that devotion and 
 attention which they obviously bestow upon themselves, 
 to order themselves lowly and reverently — not to those 
 who are more rich, but — to those who are more good 
 than themselves, to be true and just in all their deal- 
 ings ; especially to be careful of this if they are about 
 to become stockbrokers, landlords, lawyers, or M.P.'s? 
 Why are children brought up to think that " to be able 
 to do nothing " is rather a desideratum than otherwise ? 
 As a Socialist has remarked somewhere, "if a young 
 man comes into a fortune which enables him to live 
 without working, or if he obtains an appointment to an 
 office in which the hours are very short, he is immedi- 
 ately congratulated by his friends on his good fortune." 
 Now, it would be far more Christian if such young men 
 were condoled with, or, at any rate, were warned that 
 it is very hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom 
 of God, or that an idle man is a curse to society. 
 
 Separation, then, not from the world itself, but from 
 the spirit of the world, is what is needed if ever the 
 Church is to perform her first social duty. Christian 
 men and women must " come out of it," in the sense 
 that there must be a clear understanding between them 
 
94 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 that they are bound by a higher law than other men ; 
 that their Master requires it of them that they should 
 present before the eyes of mankind a visible union of 
 those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, who are 
 ready, at whatever sacrifice, to obey God rather than 
 man in all the details of their private and public life. I 
 frankly own that my judgment in this matter must 
 include myself. I feel herein, and throughout this paper, 
 that I am the chief of sinners. I must add that in my 
 opinion "the whole body of the Church" will not 
 advance much in this direction until the lead is given, 
 as in the old times, by the Religious Orders. A revival 
 of Community Life under the three Vows, in a form 
 suited to our changed conditions, may be confidently 
 looked for in the near future. May God, in His mercy, 
 give us a St. Francis ! 
 
 (2) And now as to the second branch of the Church's 
 social duty. She is to act upon the world at large. 
 Objections have lately been taken to the interference, 
 or suggested interference, of the Church in these social 
 questions. It has been said that Christianity is not to 
 be forced upon the State ; that God has not revealed to 
 us what particular form of government or what particular 
 organization of industry is right, and therefore that we 
 have no right to go out into the world in the name of 
 Christ, and call upon men to adopt this or that plan of 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 95 
 
 government or of commerce. This argument is partly 
 true. It would not be right for Christians (at any rate, 
 not with their present limited knowledge and experi- 
 ence) to call upon the State in the name of Christ at 
 once to adopt " Collectivism " as the national industrial 
 system. I say, advisedly, in the name of Christ. An 
 individual Christian might think such a system right 
 and best, and might move heaven and earth to get it 
 adopted, but he has no right to say that Christ demands 
 all nations to be Collectivist. So, in the same way. 
 Christians are exceeding their rights in calling upon 
 their fellow-Christians to oppose Disestablishment in 
 the name of Christ. Such a formula as " God or Glad- 
 stone," a formula used, I believe, in the agitation of 
 1893, is grossly un-Christian and immoral, and no one 
 has a right to use it. 
 
 But though to this extent it is true that the Church 
 must not force on so-called reforms in the name of 
 Christ, she may, and ought, to declare herself distinctly 
 on a particular side where the point at issue is clearly 
 a moral one. Where it is distinctly a matter of right 
 and wrong, there the Church is bound to be openly 
 and avowedly and actively on the side of right as 
 against wrong, justice as against injustice. Now, here 
 comes in the necessity of study and careful discussion 
 of the points at issue, In so many cases the point 
 
96 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 at issue is not quite clear. But the Church is under 
 a distinct obligation to try to find it out. What is 
 wrong is for the Church to hold aloof. She who ought 
 to guide the nation in all moral matters ought not to 
 be standing aside where questions of morals are con- 
 cerned. In almost every great trade dispute, for ex- 
 ample, there is a question of right and wrong involved, 
 and it is clearly the business of the Church, the moral 
 guide of the people, to find out the right, and declare 
 herself for it, and help forward what is a right and 
 just object. Of course, there are many difiScult cases 
 in which the right course is not very clear. In such 
 matters the Church should be at least found declaring 
 principles and advising peace, and recommending 
 patience and justice. We have had splendid examples 
 in such men as Dr. Westcott and Dr. Jayne of what 
 bishops can do in this way, but they are almost by 
 themselves. It is a great mistake to suppose that a 
 clergyman can do nothing in a trade dispute unless 
 he is prepared to offer himself as an actual arbitrator. 
 Probably, as an arbitrator, he would be a failure ; but 
 he can do a great deal, and so can all Church-people, 
 by educating public opinion. Professor Marshall, our 
 leading political economist, says he hopes that "public 
 opinion, based on sound economics and just morality, 
 will become ever more and more the arbiter of the 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 97 
 
 conditions of industry." If this is to be so — if, for 
 example, we are going to have many more disputes 
 settled, as the dock strike undoubtedly was, simply by 
 force of public opinion — then it is most important that 
 public opinion should be educated in a right way for 
 its tremendous responsibilities. Now, I ask, who is the 
 proper educator of public opinion, if not the Church of 
 Jesus Christ ? 
 
 But unfortunately the Church, to a great extent, 
 wants educating herself. Her own conscience is ter- 
 ribly unenlightened. She has kept so much outside 
 the national life so long that now she either cannot 
 speak, or what she says is not listened to. The record 
 of the social and industrial progress of this country 
 during this century is notable for one thing, the almost 
 entire absence of any corporate assistance on the part 
 of the Church to the hation. With the exception of 
 national education, I do not think much social progress 
 could be attributed to the Church. Think of some great 
 national reforms which have come to pass during the 
 last hundred years — the abolition of the slave-trade ; 
 the abolition of capital punishment for trivial offences ; 
 the reform of prisons ; the repeal of the corn laws ; 
 the Factory Acts ; the trades union movement ; the 
 co-operative movement. In all these, grave moral ques- 
 tions were involved ; but, so far as I know, the Church 
 
 n 
 
98 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 as a body remained practically silent and inactive while 
 they were being effected. 
 
 Of course, great Christian men and women like 
 Wilberforce, Howard, Elizabeth Fry, Lord Shaftesbury, 
 John Bright, Frederick Denison Maurice, Charles 
 Kingsley, and others, were prominently connected with 
 these matters ; but the Christian Church as a body did 
 nothing. There was no social gospel at work. 
 
 But there was much excuse in those days, because 
 the Church did not believe in herself or her Divine 
 mission. Now there is no excuse, because she believes 
 in both. The Catholic movement ought to issue in 
 the Christian social movement, just because it is the 
 Catholic movement which has, or ought to have, 
 spiritualized the Church. She knows herself now to be 
 God's own society, pledged to claim the world for Him, 
 entrusted with His Divine grace by which the world 
 can be regenerated. How can she dare, then, to stand 
 aloof when questions of social reform are filling men's 
 minds ? She is bound by every claim she makes for 
 herself as a Divine society, to be in the forefront where 
 the question under consideration is the reform of God's 
 own earth. But in order that the Church may be 
 acceptable to men as their leader, the guide of their 
 public opinion, she must have knowledge. She must 
 be a body which men will not despise. Here, again, 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 99 
 
 Churchmen are lamentably deficient. They will not 
 study the social problem ; hence they have not the 
 knowledge which commands respect. A business man 
 said to me the other day that he was tired of hearing 
 the clergy get up in the pulpit Sunday after Sunday 
 and denounce business men without any real under- 
 standing of their sins or their temptations. So, again, 
 in a trade dispute, unless Christians have some know- 
 ledge, their claims to leadership will be ignored. At 
 the same time, I think there is a danger in the opposite 
 direction of supposing that a very great deal of know- 
 ledge is needed. I think, probably, with just an ele- 
 mentary knowledge, much more might be done by 
 Christians than is done at present. 
 
 All this time I have been speaking of cases where 
 the moral issue is complicated and difiScult to discover. 
 But there are numberless cases where the moral issue 
 is quite plain and on the surface ; and here, too, I am 
 afraid, Christians are quite as much in the background 
 and afraid to act. I have lately been reading various 
 reports on social matters, and I notice how again and 
 again the remedy proposed is a moral one. Mr. 
 Llewellyn Smith, in his admirable Blue Book lately 
 published on the "unemployed," is in despair about 
 all the modern agencies for dealing with the problem. 
 Labour bureaux, labour colonies, charity organization 
 
loo Vox Clamantium. 
 
 municipal relief work, and all the rest, he says, only 
 touch the fringe of the evil, they do not touch the 
 heart of it. We must aim, he says, at "improving 
 character and preventing men from sinking down." 
 Moral reform is needed. The Royal Commissioners on 
 the Sweating System lay the blame on the employers, 
 who, they say, are regardless of moral considerations in 
 allowing sub-contracting without inquiry into the con- 
 ditions of those who do the work. The Report of the 
 Lady Commissioners on Women's Work is practically 
 unanimous about the immoral conditions under which 
 those whom we call our sisters are being allowed to 
 work. Examples of such are the cruelly long hours 
 of shop-assistants and laundresses ; the insanitary con- 
 ditions of workshops ; the bullying ; the vexatious fines 
 and dismissals; the want of decency; the dangerous 
 employment in noxious trades, resulting in early 
 death. 
 
 Only the other day, in the newspapers, we were told 
 of a purely moral reform which the State is about to 
 undertake. I allude to the Report of the Home Secre- 
 tary's Committee on "White-Lead Poisoning." The 
 deadly effects of lead are graphically described. The 
 committee recommends total prohibition of women's 
 labour as soon as possible. 
 
 But why could not the Church have found this out } 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. loi 
 
 Why could not the Church make the recommendation 
 and agitate till it was done? 
 
 These are only a few instances out of thousands 
 where the moral issue in social problems is perfectly 
 clear, and it seems to me criminal that the Church 
 should be resting silent and inactive in the face of them. 
 
 IV. But it is not only by enlightening public opinion 
 and declaring herself boldly on the side of right, that the 
 Church is to preach her social gospel. There is at the 
 present moment a great active movement going on in 
 our midst in the direction of social reform, and it is the 
 duty of the Church to go right into the midst of it, to 
 sympathize with what is good in it, and to moderate 
 or correct what is wrong, and to provide what it lacks. 
 She should sympathize with what is good in it, and 
 there is very much more good in it than Churchmen 
 think. The comfortable Church lady, who scoffs at a 
 trades union leader, and calls him a wretch who ought 
 to be shot ; the sleek business man or the idle aristo- 
 cratic youth who use bad language about strikes and 
 Socialism, only show their complete ignorance of what 
 they are talking of, and, what is worse, their lamentable 
 deficiency in the virtues of the religion they profess. 
 
 I do not believe there is any country in the world in 
 which the social movement is in the hands of such 
 good, honest, straightforward, earnest men as it is in 
 
I02 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 England, and I am proud to reckon many of them 
 amongst my friends. 
 
 All clearly righteous movements, such as co-opera- 
 tion, women's unions, etc., might be heartily supported 
 and furthered by Christians. 
 
 Moreover, the " Socialists," as they are carelessly 
 and ignorantly called, are far ahead of many of us 
 Churchmen in preaching what are distinctively Christian 
 principles, such as some I have already mentioned, viz. 
 the dignity of labour, the equality of men, the beauty 
 of brotherhood, the necessity of work and the abomina- 
 tion of idleness, the duties of property, etc. 
 
 It is sad that the Church, instead of welcoming this, 
 should be found in some cases opposing it. Let us take 
 care lest haply we be found to be fighting against God. 
 
 But the chief work that the Christian Church has to 
 do with the social movement is to guide it and to show 
 how she can provide what it lacks. For though it says 
 much and does much that is distinctly Christian, it is, I 
 fear, to a great extent, avowedly non- Christian. This 
 is partly due to the want of sympathy it has met with 
 from Christians, but it is also very largely due to a 
 failure to perceive what is really essential in social 
 reform. The movement is too materialistic — the 
 leaders do not yet understand that a man's life does 
 not consist in the abundance of things that he possesses. 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 103 
 
 The "living wage," for instance, in most men's minds 
 means a " feeding wage " only. Of course it is a disgrace 
 to a Christian country that there should have to be 
 all this agitation to prevent starvation and to provide 
 men with food and clothing; it is also true that if 
 we could secure to all a "feeding wage" we should 
 have done much to make it possible for men to go on 
 to those higher developments of their spiritual being 
 which we Christians understand to be life in the truest 
 sense. But, when all is said and done, a movement 
 for social reform which leaves out the reformation of 
 man's character is utterly inadequate, and I am always 
 surprised that our labour leaders and others do not see 
 this more clearly. There is not a single plan for social 
 reform which can possibly succeed ultimately without 
 some such moral force as Christianity proposes to supply. 
 " Socialism," or " Communism," presupposes that men 
 will love one another and will be willing to work hard. 
 
 Co-operation necessitates a large amount of un- 
 selfishness. Trade unionism requires mutual confidence 
 and trust. All our modern socialistic legislation, such 
 as the Factory Acts, the Education Acts, the Employers' 
 Liability Acts, the proposed Local Veto Bill, the Parish 
 Councils Act, and such Hke, all demand a great amount 
 of brotherly feeling and a steady growth of mutual love 
 and fellowship, if they are not to be dead letters. All 
 
104 ^c>x Clamantium. 
 
 our social evils are due to sin, to selfishness, unlove, 
 envy, class hatred, individualism, and unbridled com- 
 petition. Consequently, to attempt social reform with- 
 out moral reform of men's character is like building a 
 house on the sand. 
 
 The world will not be made better simply by re- 
 constructing an external paradise. It is no good having 
 a new paradise if you are going to people it with nine- 
 teenth-century Adams and Eves. Christianity offers a 
 new Adam, offers, that is, to regenerate man in Jesus 
 Christ, the Second Adam, and that is why Christianity 
 is the only true basis of reform. Jesus Christ is the 
 only Person who has ever dared to offer to mankind the 
 taking away of sin. He alone offers to make possible a 
 fresh ethical start, to provide a new standard of living, 
 and to give men the power to live it : to pay, in fact, 
 a real " living wage." It is sad, too, that many other- 
 wise good social teachers are so anxious to discredit 
 the old Faith in the Divine Nature of our Blessed Lord, 
 and to reduce Him to the level of a mere Philosopher 
 and Philanthropist, thereby depriving Christianity of its 
 great right to be considered the instrument/^;' excellence 
 of Social Reform. For if Christ be not Divine, He 
 certainly cannot change man's nature ; and if man's 
 nature remain unchanged, the world will remain pretty 
 much what it is for all that Parliaments may do. If 
 
Social Aspects of the Gospel. 105 
 
 you want a New Jerusalem, you must have new Jews. 
 This is the social gospel, and it remains for us who 
 serve the Lord Jesus Christ to preach it and make it 
 a fact in the world. 
 
 James Adderley. 
 
Clergy and Laity. 
 
 Preaching might be defined to be saying as distinct 
 from doing. Cynical as the definition may sound, so, 
 it is to be feared, would the world, which has been 
 cynical from the beginning about its priests and Levites, 
 define that particular form of gaining a livelihood which 
 consists in pretending that you are ever so much better 
 than everybody else, and yet acting like the rest of man- 
 kind ; of promulgating ideals which you expect others 
 to put into practice. The world is, after all, no fool, 
 and it has long since observed that the men whose busi- 
 ness it is to be saints are no more unselfish, no more 
 heavenly-minded, than their poor struggling lay- 
 brethren, buffeted by storms of trial and temptation to 
 which "the fugitive and cloistered virtue" of their 
 spiritual masters is never subjected. The simple truth, 
 of course, is that the estate of the clergy is merely an 
 ingeniously conceived engine of the land-grabbing 
 aristocracy. It preaches the gospel of the poor in 
 order to safeguard the pockets of the rich. Not con- 
 
Clergy and Laity. 107 
 
 sciously, maybe ; and far be it from any one but vulgar 
 demagogues to deny the piety and loveliness of life 
 which are characteristic of many professional teachers 
 of religion. It is not the men, but the system to which 
 they belong that is most to blame. And what ironical 
 paradoxes does that system constantly present ! 
 Clergymen with fat livings preaching the uses of 
 adversity, as they hand the eleemosynary loaf — a loaf, 
 too, not paid for by them, but provided for by the 
 endowment of ancient piety. It shows us poor half- 
 starved curates doing all the work, and the luxurious 
 rector taking nearly all the pay. On what Christian 
 principle, one wonders, does the rector justify that? 
 However, we must guard against seeming to imply that 
 the clergy are worse men than us laymen. All that it 
 is necessary to insist is that, as a body, they are no 
 better ; or, at any rate, that the majority of them have 
 no such clear call to their high office as many a lay- 
 man, whom the caprice of existence has also given the 
 wrong work to do. The whole secret of the failure of 
 the Churches is in the fact that the priesthood is a pro- 
 fession, a business, open to all men, like any other, 
 irrespective of fitness or inclination. We often laugh 
 in our careless way at the threadbare axiom which 
 destines the fool of the family to the most sacred and 
 momentous responsibilities allotted to men. Yet what 
 
io8 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 a melancholy, what a tragic jest ! What a confession 
 truly interpreted, of the immemorial futility of ecclesi- 
 astical methods! The curate is not a recognized 
 comedy type for nothing. Why does the world laugh 
 at him ? Why does it listen with mock deference to 
 his platitudes, and yet never think of applying them in 
 its daily life ? How often have we heard the average 
 hard-driven man of the world exclaim that it is all very 
 nice and pretty for the Reverend Mr. So-and-so to 
 talk, but he doesn't know the city. He lives in a 
 charming fool's paradise of Dorcas societies and tea- 
 parties on the rectory lawn. In short, the implication 
 is that, though he may know a great deal of the life 
 hereafter, he has no practical knowledge of the life 
 here. He underestimates its difficulties, has no ex- 
 perience of its temptations, and generally ignores its 
 conditions. 
 
 What the average man wants is a religion that will 
 help him on week-days. He wants a faith that is wise 
 in doubt, a strength that understands weakness, a purity 
 that has touched the pitch of life and not been defiled. 
 He wants doctrine that lays stress on real and not 
 merely fanciful sin. It has been the custom of the 
 Church for centuries to denounce as sinful many 
 pleasures which the heart of man has known all along 
 to be proper to be enjoyed. Consequently man has 
 
Clergy and Laity. 109 
 
 drawn his conclusion that the Church is a somewhat 
 fanciful institution, not adapted for everyday use. The 
 true teacher — like Him whose messenger he is — "re- 
 membereth that we are dust." He is not a mere symbol 
 of an impossible ideal : he is an elder brother who has 
 gone through the mill of life before us, and he preaches 
 of what he himself knows, of what in his own life he 
 has made stern trial. If he talks of "conversion," of 
 the mystical "second birth," it is not as the ecclesi- 
 astical parrot talks of these things ; and the peace that 
 passes all understanding is to be found on his face as 
 well as in his sermon. There is that convincing sincerity 
 of experience about him which makes these transcen- 
 dental matters seem no longer remote from humanity ; 
 but, verily, as Christ intended them to be — practicable 
 sustaining realities of daily experience. 
 
 If we take the central truth of Christianity to 
 be what we variously call " conversion," " the second 
 birth," that mysterious "change of heart," which is 
 as undeniably a fact of hourly experience as the 
 physical birth from which it is imaged, then we have 
 this startling fact to face — that the majority of pro- 
 fessional Christian teachers have never undergone that 
 experience which they preach every Sunday as the first 
 condition of the spiritual life. "Ye must be born 
 again ! " From how many pulpits every Sunday is that 
 
no Vox Clamantium. 
 
 immortal message thundered and fluted by an uncom- 
 prehending parson to an uncomprehending world ! 
 How many clergymen, one wonders, have anything 
 more than a theological understanding of its signifi- 
 cance ? The dilemma of the Christian Churches is put 
 into a nutshell, the secret of their failure understood 
 at once, when we realize that the majority of clergy- 
 men, and religious ministers of all kinds, have never 
 been " converted " themselves ! How is it possible that 
 they can convince the world of truths which they have 
 not first realized for themselves ? When one remembers 
 the system on which religious ministers are turned out, 
 there is nothing to surprise us in this. Just as there 
 are men in the legal profession with no " legal bias," 
 men in the city without business instincts, painters and 
 musicians with no true imperative " gifts," so there are, 
 and must be, clergymen without any true vocation to 
 their high office. There is but one cure for this — the 
 abolition of the Church as a " learned profession." The 
 teacher should be a free-lance, like the artist, or the 
 literary man. He should be left to discover his own 
 message, and invent his own methods. So it has been 
 with those teachers who have caught the ears and 
 changed the hearts of men. 
 
 So much for the teachers. What of their teaching .' 
 Have they taught the living gospel of the Galilean 
 
Clergy and Laity. in 
 
 or the dead letter of ingenious theological sophists ? 
 Who that has ever been to church or chapel can 
 doubt the answer ? Man cries out daily for the true 
 bread of spiritual enlightenment, and the clergy dili- 
 gently feed him with stones of dogma and symbol, 
 with the east wind of mystical precepts. A sorry 
 diet for any genuine hunger and thirst after righteous- 
 ness. Either they thus send him empty away, or 
 they lull him with the opiates of some such comfort- 
 able illusion as the mischievous doctrine of the Atone- 
 ment, or the Life Hereafter. Instead of strengthen- 
 ing him to bear his own burdens, to fight his own 
 battles, they teach him pusillanimously to leave them 
 to be borne and fought by Another. Instead of en- 
 couraging him to make the best of this present life, by 
 strength to wring out its sweetness, by courage to lay 
 its fears, they feed him with dreams of a life to come, 
 in which everything shall be exactly as his weakness 
 desires it, and his sloth shall recline for ever on per- 
 petual rest. 
 
 The wrong teachers, and the wrong teaching ! What 
 wonder that the kingdom of heaven should be so long 
 in coming to pass ! It has happened with Christianity 
 as it happened with religions before it, as it happens to 
 this day with every new message. The parabolic utter- 
 ances of Christ, daring aper^us of spiritual intuition. 
 
112 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 early became the property of unspiritual men, without 
 understanding of their symbolic significance. Supersti- 
 tion took the place of apprehension, and what had been 
 living truth became dead letter, reverenced and enforced 
 with all the fanaticism of superstitious ignorance. The 
 old religion of rite and formula, the old monopolistic 
 hierarchy, which Christ came especially to overthrow, 
 gained, so to speak, a new lease of life, draining the 
 blood of the new spiritual impulse to reanimate its 
 failing organism. Paradoxically enough, the articles 
 of the new faith soon insisted upon were not the new 
 vital elements it had brought into the world (or, at 
 any rate, brought before the world in a unity and 
 with an urgency unapproached before), but the tags 
 and remnants of that very pagan symbolism and 
 philosophy it had come to displace. The Jewish type 
 of the scapegoat, bearing the sins of the world ; 
 such originally " heathen " rites as baptism ; such 
 metaphysical symbols as the Trinity ; — these, the mis- 
 leading motley in which the message of Christ was soon 
 to be clothed, not to say smothered, were the barren 
 propositions by which men were taught to be saved or 
 lost. The essential matters, the new law of love, the 
 spiritual significance of man, the blessedness and 
 sanctity of life — the clergy, having little or no appre- 
 hension of these things, educated only in the letter, 
 
Clergy and Laity. 113 
 
 uninitiated in the spirit, were unable to preach them 
 with authority or conviction. The utmost they could 
 do was to terrorize or bribe man into virtue, or the 
 appearance of it, by "threats of hell, and hopes of 
 paradise ; " so that he remained virtually what he was 
 before — the slave of a tyrannous and vengeful deity, 
 whom it was his duty to appease as directed by the 
 priests. It is idle to deny that this primitive dread of 
 a Moloch and a Jah is still at the bottom of most of our 
 church-going. 
 
 Given the right preachers, what, then, should they 
 preach to us to-day? Two doctrines they should 
 emphatically cease preaching : the doctrine of the 
 Atonement, and the doctrine of the Hereafter, with its 
 sordid corollaries of rewards and punishments. These 
 two dogmas have, I believe, injured humanity, retarded 
 its progress, more than any delusions that have from 
 time to time dominated the world. They are utterly 
 opposed to the ideal of unselfishness which is the chief 
 corner-stone of Christ's teaching. As Christ taught 
 them they were either parable, or — let us frankly face 
 the possibility — they were delusion. Christ saves the 
 world merely in so far as the nobility of His personality 
 and the force of His words move men to grow like Him. 
 Understood in any other way, the idea of " salvation " 
 is a most dangerous fallacy, whereby men abandon 
 
 I 
 
114 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 individual effort, in fact give themselves up to the 
 unchecked impulses of their natures, on the reliance of 
 a few misinterpreted texts. What the preachers must 
 be bold to tell us, what, to do them justice, some of 
 them are beginning to preach, is the more salutary 
 gospel, that man must save himself if he is to be saved, 
 and not weakly depend (surely an abhorrent idea to any 
 manly soul !) on the ignoble dream that, " He hath borne 
 our trangressions for us ; the burden of our iniquities is 
 upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." 
 
 Similarly, the dream of the hereafter — especially 
 now that the dogma of eternal punishment is practically 
 abandoned — is dangerous to man in that it diminishes 
 the spiritual importance of the life here, distracts him 
 from a determined cultivation of its opportunities, and 
 gives him, so to speak, all eternity to procrastinate in. 
 The idea of immortality is one to which the human 
 heart must perforce cling with tenderness. To be 
 eternally blotted out, to lose our beloved dead for ever, 
 are possibilities that strike a chill into the bravest soul. 
 But is it not better courageously to prepare for these 
 possibilities than to shut our eyes to them and indulge 
 in enervating dreams? The life hereafter may be a 
 blessed reality, but as yet it is nought but an eager 
 perilous conjecture. Would it not be wiser, until we 
 know it true of a certainty, not to place our reliance 
 
Clergy and Laity. 115 
 
 upon it, but rather to live this present life nobly, fully, 
 as though sure we shall be given no other ? What a 
 heightened value is thus added to our mortal days, 
 what a momentous significance to all our actions, what 
 a poignant zest and responsibility to all our relations 
 with our fellows ! Then we should not wait for the here- 
 after to be kind to one another, or put off doing our 
 best work from day to day ; nor would we undervalue 
 the solid blessedness of earth in dissatisfied dreaming of 
 the shadowy joys of heaven. The blessedness of earth, 
 of our present life, and the sacredness of it — that is to 
 be the theme of our true preachers. The fanatic 
 asceticism which has usurped the name of Christianity 
 was no ideal of Christ's. Temperance in the joys of 
 life, and an indulgence in them in no brutish way, but 
 with a sense of their mysterious sacred significance, as 
 symbols, maybe, of joys still more rare — Christ certainly 
 taught us this, but this also is the teaching of all true 
 epicureans. Here again we see how Christ's apostles 
 have misapplied His teaching, and by an insistence upon 
 the letter of one part of it, have destroyed the vitalizing 
 harmony of the whole. 
 
 Richard Le Gallienne. 
 
Christian Ethics and Practical 
 PoHtics. 
 
 As the politics of the future will be more and more 
 determined by ethical considerations, it is worth while 
 inquiring whether Christian ethics and practical politics 
 are reconcilable. Might not the occupants of the 
 Treasury benches profitably seek to apply the doctrines 
 of the Sermon on the Mount to the exigencies of 
 statesmanship ? In other words, is it possible to govern 
 in accordance with the principles laid down by Jesus 
 of Nazareth in that wonderful discourse? To most 
 people, I should hope, it must be a matter for surprise 
 that this question should ever have arisen in this country, 
 where the State shows its profound respect for the 
 apostles by appointing their professed descendants to 
 offices with incomes rising to ;^i 5,000 a year, and 
 where, according to the first article of our great and 
 glorious constitution, it is impossible for the Govern- 
 ment of the country to proceed without the permission 
 of these heavily endowed, but, I trust, nevertheless 
 
christian Ethics. 117 
 
 humble followers of the Carpenter of Nazareth. It so 
 happens, however, that it is one of these right reverend 
 prelates who must be held responsible for having raised 
 the question. 
 
 The late Archbishop Magee stated that if you 
 attempt to govern in accordance with the principles of 
 the Sermon on the Mount, society will tumble to pieces. 
 I have always thought that was a remarkable statement 
 to be made by one, who not only rose to one of the 
 highest positions in the Church, presumably for the 
 learning and piety with which he was able to defend 
 those principles, but who, at the same time, was a 
 member of the Upper House of the Legislature, and 
 therefore helped " to shape the whisper of the throne." 
 How could he reconcile the two positions? If by 
 " society " the bishop meant that charmed circle 
 composed of the British nobs, and worshipped by the 
 British snobs ; if he meant that system of things under 
 which the rich have every facility for plundering the 
 poor; if he meant the system of social and political 
 corruption which Thomas Carlyle described as a " dam- 
 nable cesspool of lies, shoddies, and shams," then he 
 was perfectly right. But, if by "society" he meant 
 the domocracy of England, with all its hopes and 
 aspirations after a higher life, then I say he was 
 hopelessly and radically in the wrong. You can govern 
 
ii8 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 in accordance with the principles laid down by Jesus 
 Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, — that charter of 
 man's redemption, which He sealed with His blood — 
 and it is only in so far as you honestly attempt to do so 
 that you can hope to arrive at anything like a civilized 
 order of things. 
 
 Of course, in the space at my disposal, it would be 
 impossible to go through the whole of that discourse, 
 and to grapple with its many difficulties and apparent 
 contradictions. On the other hand, I have no desire to 
 follow the example of the old Scotch Minister who, 
 when he came to a difficult passage in the Scriptures, 
 of which he could give no satisfactory explanation, 
 remarked : " My friends, we will look this difficulty 
 boldly in the face — and pass on." Now, before 
 passing on, let us look at one of the greatest difficulties 
 in this Sermon on the Mount, one which, no doubt the 
 good bishop had in his mind when he came to the 
 conclusion that Jesus was altogether a failure for serious 
 politicians. I refer to that passage, "But I say unto 
 you, That ye resist not evil : but whosoever shall smite 
 thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." 
 I can imagine some of the sympathizers with the 
 bishop asking me, "Do you really think it is possible 
 to govern in accordance with that doctrine ? Do you 
 really believe that those who are responsible for law and 
 
christian Ethics. 119 
 
 order, can act up to that principle ? " It would be well 
 if they tried to do so. That passage, however diflficult 
 it may be for us as individuals, to carry it out literally, 
 yet, as applied to communities and societies of men, 
 embodies a principles far more dreaded by tyrants and 
 oppressors than all the armies and navies which you 
 can bring against them — the principle of passive resist- 
 ance. It is to the dread of the application of this 
 principle — to the dread of the Government of a general 
 strike against the payment of taxes — that we owe some 
 of the greatest reforms of the century. It is to this 
 principle that labour owes all its triumphs in its conflicts 
 with capital. How was the great lock-out won by the 
 miners ? Simply by taking this advice of Jesus Christ. 
 The mine-owners smote them on the one cheek, by 
 refusing them a substance wage, the miners turned to 
 them the other also, and said, " We will take no wages 
 at all ; we will not storm your offices, or organize 
 rebellion ; we will regard every man who attempts to 
 carry out a policy of violence as the worst enemy of 
 our cause; we will wait patiently trusting to public 
 sympathy and public opinion, for our cause is just." 
 They waited, and they won. 
 
 The leading principles of the Sermon on the Mount, 
 I imagine, are contained in the Beatitudes. Let us 
 take the first of them : " Blessed are the poor in spirit ; 
 
I20 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The theologians 
 have, it seems to me, very inadequately treated this 
 passage. They have interpreted it in the light of the 
 narrowest possible individualism, whereas it is capable 
 of interpretation in the light of the widest possible 
 collectivism. This has been suggested by a French 
 Biblical critic quoted by Matthew Arnold. The 
 theologians tell us that what these words mean is that 
 poverty of spirit, self-abasement, is the first essential in 
 the process of working out our own salvation. Self- 
 abasement may be a very desirable virtue in these days 
 of self-assertion, but it was not of the salvation of any 
 individual or set of individuals that Jesus was thinking 
 about when He uttered these words. He was thinking 
 of the salvation of the whole human family — of the 
 conditions under which alone it was possible to establish 
 the new order of things which He came to introduce. 
 What the words mean therefore is this : Blessed are 
 they who are with the poor in spirit, who dare not 
 become rich by the robbery of the poor ; who if they 
 are rich, are willing to devote their wealth to the 
 betterment of the masses of the people : Blessed are 
 they whose sympathies are with the poor, for theirs is 
 the kingdom of heaven — not alone beyond the clouds 
 and beyond the tomb, but here in this world ; the 
 kingdom of heaven upon earth, the regenerated society 
 
Christian Ethics. 121 
 
 of the future, the new democracy, whose mission it 
 would be, in the beautiful words of William Blake— 
 
 " To baild Jerusalem 
 In England's green and pleasant land." 
 
 Interpreted in this light, these words appear to me 
 to be the sublimest utterance that ever fell from human 
 lips, the text to the greatest sermon that was ever 
 preached, the keynote to the whole of Christ's ethical 
 and economic system, the statement of the Divine 
 principle of the brotherhood of man. " Blessed are the 
 poor in spirit ! " When we have realized the full 
 meaning of that, the days of flunkeyism and of snobbery 
 will be at an end, the poor man will come in for the 
 rightful share of the wealth which he creates ; we shall 
 no longer be faced with the difficult problems arising 
 out of the terrible contrast between poverty and wealth, 
 which is the curse and the shame of this nation ; nor 
 shall we any longer find it necessary to pay arch- 
 bishops ;£'iS,ooo a year for holding out prospects of 
 perdition to workers on fifteen shillings a week. The 
 dear old archbishop and his colleagues in the House of 
 Lords have not, it seems to me, made any desperate 
 effort to realize the meaning of being poor in spirit. It 
 seems to me they are far more eager to look after the 
 interests of Dives, than to promote the welfare of 
 Lazarus. They did their best to destroy two great 
 
122 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 measures — the Employers' Liability Bill and the Parish 
 Councils Bill — passed by the House of Commons for 
 Lazarus's benefit. The descendants of the apostles 
 offered no protest even when the Lord of Hatfield gave 
 Lazarus a contemptuous kick, by telling him that if he 
 wanted to take part in parish meetings the proper 
 place for him is not the parish schoolroom, but the 
 public-house. Now, if these right reverend prelates 
 had been true to the traditions of their own Church they 
 would have welcomed the Parish Council not only to 
 the parish schoolroom, but, if need be, to the parish 
 church. These " old grey churches of our native land," 
 crowning the wooded upland, or nestling in the valley, 
 and within whose shadows sleep the generations of our 
 fathers — these ancient temples were never intended to 
 be utilized by a mere sect ; nor were they built for 
 devotional purposes only. They were originally not 
 only the parish churches but the parish town halls and 
 the parish theatres. I should like to see them restored 
 to their original purpose. It seems to me that if the 
 House of Lords cannot rise to the conception of the 
 meaning of this first Beatitude — if these proud patricians, 
 prelates, and "partridge breeders of a thousand years," 
 cannot understand that Dives has had his day and that 
 the turn of Lazarus is coming, they will soon be sent 
 to swell the ranks of the unemployed. 
 
Christian Ethics. 123 
 
 Again, how can we reconcile with this first beatitude 
 the conduct of the archbishop and some of his colleagues 
 in advising their clergy not to interfere in labour dis- 
 putes ? They were asked to stand aloof, even when the 
 whole country was convulsed by the greatest industrial 
 struggle of this century — the great coal lock-out of 
 1893. We had then, on the one side, half a million of 
 men and women willing to face starvation and death 
 for the sake of an idea, for the sake of a principle, and 
 on the other a ring of capitalists who, in order to save 
 themselves from loss, or to increase proiits, proposed 
 to degrade the worker by reducing his standard of 
 living. Yet, in a struggle of this kind, the clergy were 
 advised not to interfere ! I am afraid the archbishop 
 must think that Aaron, priest of God, was very impru- 
 dent, made a great mistake, when he interfered to bring 
 about a very revolutionary settlement of a certain 
 labour question which arose among the brickmakers 
 in the land of Egypt in the days of Pharaoh the 
 king. 
 
 If the Church cannot understand the significance of 
 these important industrial questions, if it stands aside 
 at these great industrial crises, it appears to me that 
 its religion is a failure, that it has lost all faith in the 
 possibility of establishing the kingdom of heaven upon 
 earth. If the clergy have lost faith in that, let them 
 
124 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 revise their Prayer-book, let them eliminate from it the 
 best thing that is in it — namely, the Lord's Prayer. 
 The first petition in that sweetest canticle ever heard 
 on earth, is that earth may be made as heaven. The 
 second petition suggests the first condition under which 
 this can be brought about, namely, that every dweller 
 upon earth shall have his "daily bread." There you 
 have the principle of the living wage laid down by the 
 highest authority. This young Workman of Nazareth 
 was the greatest political economist that ever walked 
 the earth. He not only insisted on this principle of 
 the living wage. He showed us how it could be carried 
 out in that wonderful parable of the lord of the vine- 
 yard, who, seeing the people standing idle in the 
 market-place, took them into his vineyard, and when 
 the day's work was over paid them all alike. You may 
 think that was very unfair. The old unionists, the 
 regular workers, grumbled that the men who came in 
 at the eleventh hour should be paid at the same rate 
 as those who had borne the heat and burden of the day. 
 But possibly these poor fellows who came in at the 
 finish had been out of work for a considerable time, and 
 the lord of the vineyard was perfectly justified in giving 
 them a fair start, and the other men were very un- 
 gracious in grumbling about it. But what this parable 
 really signifies is this : that you must have a fixed 
 
Christian Ethics. 125 
 
 minimum wage, below which there shall be no discus- 
 sion. You may say that is contrary to the laws of 
 political economy. No ; it is not. It is sound science, 
 and has been proved to be sound science by the greatest 
 political economist still living, John Ruskin, who founds 
 his economic philosophy upon this parable, and takes 
 from it the title to the greatest of all his works, " Unto 
 this Last." What says Ruskin > 
 
 "Pay good and bad workmen alike? Certainly. 
 The difference between one prelate's sermon and his 
 successor's, or between one physician's opinions and 
 another's, is far greater as respects the quality of mind 
 involved, and far more important in result to you 
 personally, than the difference between good and bad 
 laying of bricks. Yet you pay with equal fee, con- 
 tentedly, the good and bad workman upon your soul, 
 and the good and bad workman upon your body; much 
 more may you pay contentedly, with equal fees, the 
 good and bad workman upon your house. Nay, but 
 I choose my physician and my clergyman, thus indi- 
 cating my sense of the quality of their work. By all 
 means also choose your bricklayer. That is the proper 
 reward of a good workman — to be chosen. The natural 
 and right system respecting all labour is that it should 
 be paid for at a fixed rate, but the good workman 
 employed and the bad workman unemployed. The 
 
126 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 false, unnatural, and destructive system is when the 
 bad workman is allowed to offer his work at half-price, 
 and either take the place of the good, or force him by 
 his competition to work for an inadequate sum." 
 
 Then there comes the question of what you are to 
 do with the men who cannot find work. Still follow 
 the advice of the Nazarene. Take them into your 
 vineyard. You have at the present moment twenty-six 
 million acres of land lying idle in the United Kingdom. 
 Professor Schlich, of the School of Forestry, Cooper's 
 Hill, tells us that, upon parts of these waste lands, we 
 might grow all the timber which we now import every 
 year from abroad, to the value of six millions of money. 
 The afforesting of our waste lands would employ, on 
 the professor's estimate, seventy thousand men for forty 
 years ; after which we should begin to get our crop, 
 when the number of men employed would be far greater. 
 This is one of the little schemes by which we might 
 solve this unemployed question, if the Government 
 would only face it honestly. 
 
 Let me pass on to the next Beatitude, " Blessed are 
 they that mourn : for they shall be comforted." Every 
 man who has thought seriously upon the problems of 
 government, every statesman with an element of moral 
 grandeur in his character, knows full well what that 
 means ; which is, that you never need despair of the 
 
Christian Ethics. 127 
 
 democracy, however dark and gloomy the prospect 
 may lie before you. Perhaps the political significance 
 of this second Beatitude was never more finely expressed 
 than by John Bright, in a remarkable speech he delivered 
 in the House of Commons in his old Radical days, on 
 the occasion of the proposal of the Government of the 
 day to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland. 
 After reviewing the efforts of successive Governments — 
 Liberal, I regret to say, as well as Tory — to govern 
 Ireland in accordance with principles which I do not 
 think you will find in the Sermon on the Mount, he 
 appealed to Ministers to know whether they could not 
 find a more excellent way, and concluded a magnificent 
 speech, which made a wonderful impression on the 
 House, with that fine quotation from the sacred writer, 
 " Unto the upright, there ariseth a light in the darkness." 
 That is the meaning of " Blessed are they that mourn : 
 for they shall be comforted," and that is what makes 
 this Beatitude specially applicable to those who under- 
 take the responsibility of governing a nation. 
 
 " Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit the 
 earth." Such is the state of education in this country, 
 that meekness has come to be regarded with a kind of 
 contempt. The meek man is looked upon as a weak 
 man. Let us not run away with this notion. Meek- 
 ness is not weakness ; it is just the opposite. It is 
 
128 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 moral strength, and has been characteristic of great 
 men in all ages ; of men great, not only by reason of 
 their learning, their genius, or their piety, but of men 
 great in action, of some even of our great naval and 
 military commanders — not your jingo generals and 
 pipe-clay field-marshals, not your gallant captains who 
 invade African villages with Maxim guns and seven- 
 pounders ; but your real fighting men, your Wolfs 
 and Nelsons, and Wellingtons and Outrams. Wolf 
 displayed the meekness of his character on the eve of 
 Quebec, when he repeated those wonderful lines from 
 "Gray's Elegy"— 
 
 " The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
 
 And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave. 
 Awaits alike the inevitable hour — 
 
 The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 
 
 " I would rather," said Wolf, " have written those four 
 lines than be the conqueror at Quebec." Nelson showed 
 that he possessed some of the meekness of a childish 
 nature in that pathetic moment of death and victory 
 at Trafalgar, when, looking up into the face of his 
 devoted attendant, he said with his last breath, " Kiss 
 me. Hardy." Wellington, the Iron Duke, also showed 
 that he had some element of meekness in his character, 
 when, on the plains of Waterloo, amid the groans of 
 the wounded and the dying, he gave utterance to that 
 
Christian Ethics. 129 
 
 remarkable expression, "There is nothing more awful 
 than a victory, excepting a defeat." 
 
 I am sorry to say, however, that meekness has not 
 been a remarkable characteristic of our sovereigns and 
 statesmen. Swagger and arrogance, and an insolent 
 disregard of the principles laid down by Jesus of 
 Nazareth in the Sermon on the Mount, have been more 
 in their line. Hence they have reversed the whole 
 policy of Jesus on the land question. In the language 
 of sovereignty and statesmanship, it is not, " Blessed 
 are the meek," but " Blessed are the proud," " for they 
 shall inherit the earth." Hence the greater part of the 
 land of England, of Scotland, and of Ireland, is in 
 the possession of a few aristocratic families who boast 
 of their long descent — about the most foolish thing 
 that any rational being can brag about ! The late 
 Mr. Spurgeon, notwithstanding his grim theology, had 
 a redeeming sense of humour, and, preaching on one 
 occasion on the subject of family pride, he said, "What 
 a ridiculous thing this is, seeing that we are all de- 
 scended from an old gardener, who was turned out of 
 his Master's employment for stealing His apples!" 
 If you prefer the scientific view of our origin, you will 
 find that we have a still less reputable record ; you 
 will find, if you carry the inquiry far enough back, that 
 you have some very near relatives in the Zoological 
 
 K 
 
130 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Gardens. When Sydney Smith was asked by a lady 
 about his pedigree, he said he could only trace it back 
 to his grandfather, who disappeared about the time of 
 the assizes, and the family asked no questions. Now, 
 with regard to the ancestors of some of our great 
 landed proprietors, I am afraid it must be said that 
 they ought to have disappeared about the time of the 
 assizes; but, instead of putting in an appearance at 
 an assize court, they managed somehow to turn up at 
 the Court of Hampton, or Whitehall, or St. James, 
 and so came in for a share of the plunder whenever 
 the sovereign had a confiscation scheme on hand by 
 which the people could be robbed. 
 
 But the English people are not going to submit 
 to our present land system for ever. The fact that 
 we have in the United Kingdom twenty-six million 
 acres of land lying idle — crying out to the workless 
 worker, as Carlyle said, "Come, and till us" — and 
 many more millions of acres only partly cultivated, 
 proves that our aristocratic system of ownership has 
 broken down ; and I believe the day is not far distant 
 when the State will be forced to make provision for 
 the inheritance of the earth by the meek — that is to 
 say, by the general body of the industrious, peace- 
 loving community. All the measures now before Par- 
 liament are but leading up to the one great measure 
 
Christian Ethics. 131 
 
 which, I trust, will be settled before the century 
 is out — the measure for securing the land for the 
 people. 
 
 " Blessed are the peacemakers." I have just stated 
 that Jesus preached the doctrine of passive resistance, 
 which I am glad to. say to-day is being emphasized 
 with marvellous eloquence by him who, now that 
 Lowell and Whitman are no more, now that Browning 
 and Tennyson are gone, and Ruskin has ceased from 
 active work, stands almost alone in his prophetic 
 grandeur as a truly great living man of letters. I 
 mean Count Tolstoi. Still I do not go the whole 
 length with Tolstoi. I do not think that Jesus was 
 for peace at any price. This Beatitude suggests a state 
 of war. It seems to recognize the fact that for some 
 inscrutable reason of Providence all animate life is a 
 struggle for existence. One species of animals preys 
 upon another, and man himself is a fighter from his 
 birth. He comes into the world with his fists clenched, 
 and I need not remind those who are fathers and 
 mothers how desperate a pugilist the baby is in his 
 cradle. These infant struggles are but the prelude to 
 the great battle of life in which he must engage, until, 
 as the poet says, the time comes when the clenched 
 fists open wide at the kindly touch of death, and the 
 struggle ends in the ineffable calm that settles on the 
 
132 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 dead man's brow. Seeing, then, that life is a constant 
 struggle, how important is it that there should be 
 peacemakers — peacemakers not only as regards the 
 prevention of a policy of actual violence, but peace- 
 makers as regards the modification or the abolition of 
 that terrible system of competition in industry and 
 trade by which not only the weakest, but sometimes 
 the strongest — if they happen to be honest and honour- 
 able men — must go to the wall. Blessed are they who 
 are seeking to abolish industrial warfare by the estab- 
 lishment of the principle of the living wage, without 
 which there can be no peace. 
 
 Unfortunately, our statesmen have neglected none 
 of the Beatitudes of Christ more shamefully and more 
 wickedly than this. They, as a rule, have not been 
 peacemakers, but war-makers. Hence they have piled 
 up for us a national debt of hundreds of millions, 
 which has already been paid three times over in 
 interest, and which will continue to hang like a mill- 
 stone round the nation's neck for generations yet 
 unborn. This colossal debt has been piled up by the 
 pursuit of a policy which can best be described as one 
 of blunder and of crime. 
 
 It would be difficult to point to any single war in 
 which England has been engaged, excepting that which 
 resulted in the defeat of the Spanish Armada, which has 
 
christian Ethics. 133 
 
 been justified by the results. We boast of our military- 
 prowess ; but, as a matter of fact, there is no nation on 
 the face of the earth that has suffered greater military 
 disasters than we have. Yet we seem rather proud of 
 our military history — of so long life is Jingoism ! We 
 teach our children in our schools to be proud of it. I 
 am certainly very proud of the British soldier, of the 
 man who will go anywhere and do anything ; I am not 
 proud of the policy that has hounded him on to the 
 slaughter. Every schoolboy can tell you of the glories 
 of the campaigns of the Third Edward, the Fifth Henry, 
 and of Marlborough and Wellington. He can tell you 
 of the glories of Cressy, and Poictiers, and Agincourt. 
 But he cannot tell you, for he has perhaps never been 
 taught, that these were but brilliant episodes in a ghastly 
 drama played out for a period of a hundred years, and 
 resulted, not in the triumph of the British arms, but in 
 our being thrust out of France, bag and baggage, with 
 the loss of every inch of territory we possessed there. 
 We not only lost an empire in France, through mili- 
 tarism, we lost a far more splendid empire across the 
 Atlantic ; and we are threatened with the loss of another 
 in the East, unless we modify the terrible military policy 
 which is involving the Indian people in a burden of 
 debt too grievous for them to bear. 
 
 I may be charged with want of patriotism ; but I 
 
134 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 confess I am not particularly proud of our Indian 
 Empire as it is at present governed. I am not particu- 
 larly proud of the fact that we have some two hundred 
 millions of our fellow-subjects there who are probably 
 the very poorest people on the face of the earth — 'whose 
 poverty is due to the exorbitant taxes we levy upon 
 them in order to maintain one of the costliest military 
 systems the world has ever known. India, it seems to 
 me, is governed by Englishmen to-day either in ignor- 
 ance or in reckless neglect of the great warning uttered 
 by Jesus of Nazareth, " They that take the sword shall 
 perish by the sword." No truer or wiser words were 
 ever spoken, and their wisdom and their truth have 
 been amply illustrated in the history of all the military 
 empires of the past. 
 
 What is to be said of the latest of our little wars — 
 the war undertaken in the Queen's name by a chartered 
 company of Stock Exchange gamblers and land-grab- 
 bers, the war against the Matabele? It appears to me, 
 this beats the record of our national infamy. Yet, 
 strange to say, it has received the blessing of a bishop 
 of the English Church, who had the temerity to defend 
 the policy of Messrs. Rhodes and Co. in the national 
 pulpit in Westminster Abbey. It was afterwards dis- 
 covered that this right reverend prelate, the Bishop of 
 Derry, was a shareholder in Mr. Rhodes's company. 
 
Ghristian Ethics. 135 
 
 A bishop booming the Chartered Company over the 
 grave of David Livingstone in the national temple, was 
 a sight for gods and men ! The bishop defended the 
 war on the ground that it was undertaken to protect 
 the meek Mashonas against the cruel Matabele. But 
 does any man in his senses imagine that the lust of 
 gold had nothing to do with the invasion of poor 
 Lobengula's territory ? Because some of us raised our 
 voices against the treatment which this cruelly wronged 
 potentate received — because we cried shame upon the 
 murder of his envoys and the slaughter of thousands 
 of his brave men by Maxim guns and seven-pounders — 
 we were charged with advocating a policy of cowardice. 
 It seems to me the cowardice was all on the other 
 side. Some people may think it heroic to violate the 
 Queen's solemn word, and, in defiance of treaties, and 
 without condescending to make a formal declaration 
 of war, to invade with horse, foot, and artillery, the 
 territories of a chief who did his best to be on friendly 
 terms with us, and who could only defend himself, at 
 fearful odds, by men untrained to modern warfare. If 
 war, on the methods of the Chartered Company, is a 
 necessity of our civilization, it is something for which 
 we ought to put on sackcloth and ashes. It is certainly 
 nothing to be proud of. I protest against the assump- 
 tion that we, as a so-called civilized and Christian 
 
136 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 nation, have any right, prescriptive or otherwise, to 
 exploit the territories of alien races on the ground that 
 they are savages and barbarians. In many respects 
 these native African races are far more civilized than 
 we are. They have neither gaols, nor workhouses, nor 
 gambling hells, nor other dens of infamy, which we 
 consider necessary to our beautiful civilization. More- 
 over, they are collectivists to a man, and sink the 
 interests of the individual in the interests of the 
 tribe. 
 
 Then, I am told, that I am for a little England. 
 No, I am for a great England ; an England great in 
 her peaceful commerce and her industrial enterprise ; 
 an England great in her literature and her art, and in 
 the glory of her adventurous sons, her great navigators 
 and explorers, of whom Franklin and Livingstone, and 
 not Cecil Rhodes and Co., are the true types. I am 
 for a great England — great as the mother of free com- 
 munities beyond the sea ; great in her loyalty to her 
 old traditions as the land of religious liberty, the home 
 of constitutional freedom ; great, not by the extent of 
 her military frontier, but in the strength of her moral 
 position — in that righteousness which exalteth a nation ; 
 an England great for Christ and humanity. These 
 are some of the principles, as I conceive them, of the 
 Sermon on the Mount; and the man who tells me 
 
Christian Ethics. 137 
 
 that you cannot govern in accordance with them, to 
 him I say what Cobden said to the man who told him, 
 with regard to his great agitation, " It can't be done." 
 "Then," said Cobden, "if that is the only objection, 
 the sooner we set about it the better." 
 
 A. E. Fletcher. 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. 
 
 " There must always be rich and poor," say the smug 
 middle-class optimists by their cosy firesides. "Of 
 course we are very sorry for our poorer brethren. We 
 send them to nice hospitals when they're ill or injured, 
 and we mete them out little doles of bread and blankets 
 at Christmas — a season at which some vague sentimental 
 recollection of Christian principles comes home to us for 
 a moment : but as to supposing we can ever get rid of 
 the fundamental distinctions of rich and poor, why, that's 
 all pure moonshine. The Lord has ordained it so. We, 
 who are well-to-do and warm and comfortable, mustn't 
 dare to quarrel with the Lord's ordaining." 
 
 If I thought like those unctuous hypocrites, I wouldn't 
 care to go on living. It is just the hope of seeing this 
 ancient wrong one day redressed — the belief in moral 
 progress as possible for humanity — that enables one to 
 live on in the world as we find it. Let us bear up and 
 be brave. Perhaps we may help to make it better. But 
 better it can never be so long as people suppose it is 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. 139 
 
 naturally and necessarily divided into two classes, one 
 of which must always live on the plunder, spoliation, and 
 degradation of the other. 
 
 Acquiescence in the wrong is itself wrong-doing. 
 
 Let me put a little parallel. " The world," says the 
 robber chief, " must always consist of the robbers and 
 the robbed. Of course, I'm very sorry for my poor 
 robbed brethren, whose fields I ravage, the fruit of whose 
 harvests I seize and carry off, and whose cattle I drive 
 away to my fortress in the mountains — to say nothing 
 of their wives and daughters, whom I often take captive. 
 But there! 'tis Heaven's will. There will always be 
 robbed and robbers. Providence has chosen to make 
 me one of the spoilers, not one of the spoiled ; and it 
 would be crass ingratitude in me to complain of it. Not 
 more than others I deserve — if indeed as much, since I 
 never do anything for it — but Heaven (not unaided by 
 my own good sword) has given me more. How thank- 
 ful I ought to be that I was born a robber ! Whene'er 
 I take my walks abroad, how many robbed I see ! and 
 how vividly I realize the pious fact that 'tis I who have 
 been graciously permitted to rob them ! It is all very 
 sad, I admit; and we must all deplore — quite in the 
 abstract, that is to say — that such distinctions of class 
 and function should exist among us ; but as to supposing 
 that a strong man, with a castle in the hills " (or a few 
 
140 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 thousand acres of his own, or a factory by the river), 
 "could ever be induced to cease from robbing" his neigh- 
 bours, why, that's all pure Utopianism. And don't we 
 do our best, we robbers, for the good of the robbed ? 
 When seasons are bad, don't we often give them back, 
 as a special favour, some small percentage of the corn 
 and meat of which we robbed them before ? Don't we 
 help the poor devils with little presents of money, just 
 to tide them over bad times, and enable them to raise 
 a fresh crop for us next summer ? Oh yes, we do our 
 duty by the robbed, I can tell you. Depend upon it, 
 this is a very well-ordered world. We robbers don't 
 envy the robbed their easy life of growing crops and 
 beasts for us to steal. Why should they envy us our 
 castles in the hills, and our hard mental work in collect- 
 ing and eating it ? " 
 
 Change but a word, and it is the case of the rich 
 with the poor among us. Wealthy people think they 
 have done quite enough by their poorer neighbours 
 if they merely give " charity," as we absurdly call it ; 
 if they return to some few feeble members of the class 
 they have robbed some miserable fraction of the wealth 
 they have robbed them of. They seldom go back to 
 inquire with themselves where their wealth came from. 
 They seldom ask themselves, " Is it mine at all ? Who 
 made it .' Who produced it ? Why is it in my hands, 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. 141 
 
 instead of in the hands of those who begot it ? Why 
 am I living in excessive comfort and in debilitating 
 and effeminate luxury, while the people who make the 
 wealth I use so ill are toiling underground in darkness 
 and nakedness, are facing the stormy sea in cold and 
 fog, are labouring long hours for dear life at whirring 
 wheels, are tending endless sheep on dry Australian 
 plains, are massacring helpless seals amid arctic 
 icebergs ? " The propertied classes never think these 
 things. The conventional language of "capital and 
 labour" blinds their eyes to the simple underlying 
 human truths of the matter — that others have toiled, 
 and that they, by dint of false and cruel social arrange- 
 ments, have entered into their rest, doing nought in 
 return for it. 
 
 It is not true that there must be always rich and 
 poor. Rich and poor are made by deliberate human 
 contrivance. It is not true that the rich have done their 
 entire duty when they have returned to the needy some 
 small part of the wealth of which they have deprived 
 them by means of man-made social arrangements. It 
 is not true that tea-parties on lawns to " the deserving 
 poor," and doles of flour or flannel at Christmas, and 
 donations to infirmaries on Hospital Sunday, can redress 
 the wrong inflicted on the workers by our wicked and 
 immoral political economy. What is wanted is, not 
 
142 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 charity, but justice. We say to the rich man, not " Give 
 half thy goods unto the poor," but, " Go and sin no 
 more." People must wake up to the consciousness of 
 the fact that to be rich is in itself a wrong thing ; that 
 no man has a right to monopolize to himself the product 
 of many men's labour ; and that the bare existence of 
 poverty and destitution in our midst is a fatal blot upon 
 the character of our civilization. Instead of saying, 
 " There must always be rich and poor," we say boldly, 
 " There need never be rich and poor." And what we 
 aim at is such a reconstruction of society from its base 
 as shall make the existence of poverty in our state an 
 absolute impossibility. 
 
 Not the relief of poverty, but the abolition and 
 prevention of poverty, is the end to be held in view. 
 We look forward to a time when no man will be poor, 
 because the conditions which produce either poverty or 
 wealth have been deliberately and strenuously eliminated 
 among us. 
 
 One man can only be rich by making many men 
 poor. To say he is wealthy is merely another way of 
 saying in one brief sentence that he has concentrated 
 upon himself the wealth produced by many of his 
 fellows. That is of the very essence of opulence. It 
 springs from spoliation. Others have toiled and not 
 enjoyed ; the rich man has not toiled, neither has 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. 143 
 
 he spun ; but he enjoys the product of all their 
 labour. 
 
 Thoughtless people sometimes say, "How strange 
 that where there is the greatest wealth there is often 
 side by side with it the deepest poverty ! " Poor 
 innocent souls ! They might as well say, " How strange 
 that where there is a great despot there should often be 
 side by side with him a number of slavish subjects ! " 
 Or, " How strange that where one person in a community 
 gets too much, somebody else should frequently get too 
 little ! " Wealth means just that. Viewed from one 
 aspect, it means that one man has juggled into his own 
 hands almost all the wealth produced by many of his 
 neighbours. Viewed from another aspect, it means that 
 one man has obtained the practical right to command 
 the labour of so many dozen or hundreds of his fellow- 
 creatures. On the one hand, he is keeping so many 
 toilers at work producing what we call an income for 
 him alone ; on the other hand, possession of that income 
 gives him in turn the practical power to keep so many 
 other men employed in producing the things which 
 minister to his comfort, his whims, or his luxury. 
 
 And, one way or another, all this concentration of 
 wealth, or of the power to command labour, into single 
 hands, is the result of injustice. Wealth is always, or 
 almost always, based upon wrong-doing. I say " almost 
 
144 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 always," because there are a few special cases (such, for 
 example, as those of the great doctors) where it seems 
 at first sight as if wealth had been well acquired, and 
 where, so far as the individual is concerned, it has in all 
 probability been blamelessly heaped up ; though even 
 there we have to face in the end the wrongfulness of its 
 employment for selfish purposes. But this wealth itself 
 is only rendered possible in the last resort by the pre- 
 vious accumulation of excessive riches in the hands of 
 capitalists and landowners, who are thus enabled to pay 
 extravagant sums for the ablest professional attendance, 
 and at the same time to divert it from the service of the 
 men who are really doing the best work for the com- 
 munity. So again with the artist. His function ought 
 to be to produce beautiful things for the enjoyment of 
 his kind ; too often he is compelled to prostitute his 
 genius to the task of painting or moulding useless and 
 ugly things for the over-wealthy patron. Wealth thus 
 earned may be a trifle less wrong in its origin than the 
 wealth directly wrung from land or capital, but indirectly 
 it springs from the same tainted source, and it bears 
 upon it the curse of its unjust derivation. 
 
 Incidentally, I cannot help remarking how much 
 nobler and happier the life of the artist of every sort 
 would be in a free and equal community, where, instead 
 of having to produce work which is often distasteful to 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. 145 
 
 him, in order to please the low and vulgarized tastes of 
 a wealthy patron or a wealthy public, he would be able 
 to deliver direct to a sympathetic world the message 
 which his genius or his conscience imposes upon him. 
 
 But, directly or indirectly, in the last resort all 
 wealth springs from some form of injustice. This truth, 
 long perceived by the deeper thinkers and the higher 
 natures, we have now, in this generation, to drive home 
 to the souls and consciences of the wealthy. Already 
 there are a few better types here and there among the 
 opulent class who realize the fact about certain trades 
 or certain forms of property. For instance, to take an 
 extreme case, there were slaveholders (all honour to 
 them !) before the American War, who refused to owe 
 anything to the accursed thing, and who manumitted 
 their slaves, in spite of the anger and rage of surrounding 
 slaveowners. So, too, in our midst, there are a few men 
 to-day who have inherited wealth connected with the 
 hateful and degrading liquor-traffic, and who have 
 declined to benefit by money which they believe to be 
 ill-gotten and blood-stained. I can easily imagine, 
 again, that a sensitive soul, coming into property derived 
 from the iniquitous Chinese opium trade, might refuse to 
 accept any share in wealth which had its origin in pander- 
 ing to the hopeless corruption of a whole nation, and 
 which had been forced upon the indignant authorities of 
 
 I. 
 
146 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 a heathen people by one of the vilest and wickedest 
 wars in the history of Christendom. But as yet, very 
 few people of the capitalist and landowning class have 
 seen that the selfsame taint clings round all great 
 wealth, from whatever source derived ; that it has been 
 acquired by what is, at bottom, essentially robbery ; and 
 that to benefit by it is as wrong as to benefit by the 
 profits of encouraging drunkenness, or debauchery, or 
 opium-eating. 
 
 I say " very few," for there are already some ; and 
 we may hope that in time, with strenuous preaching of 
 the word, their numbers may increase ; that the con- 
 science of the capitalist and landowning class may 
 gradually wake up to the uselessness and wickedness of 
 capitalism and landowning. 
 
 On one or other of these two, all great wealth is 
 ultimately based. And of the two, landowning is 
 perhaps the wickedest and most unjustifiable, though 
 capitalism is now answerable for the larger part of the 
 world's misery. For landowning has not a leg to stand 
 upon, morally speaking. I do not remember ever to 
 have heard or seen any one attempt to justify it on moral 
 grounds. On grounds of what is called expediency, 
 indeed, I have heard it defended, feebly and fatuously ; 
 but on grounds of morality, never. No man could ever 
 show a clear and certain title to the possession (or rather 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. 147 
 
 to the monopoly) of land. Either he stole it himself, 
 like some extreme squatters in South Africa or else- 
 where, in which case his criminality is obvious and 
 unconcealed ; or else he inherited it from those who 
 stole it ; or else he bought it from the thieves or their 
 representatives, who clearly could not give a title to that 
 which came to them as the result of rapine and plunder. 
 No matter how acquired by the individual holder, land 
 is always unjustly held ; and no lapse of time or antiquity 
 of injustice can make that right which was wrong from 
 the beginning. 
 
 " But surely," many people will say, " if a man has 
 inherited vast landed estates from his father, and he 
 again from his, and so on ad infinitum, there can be no 
 great harm in his continuing to hold them ; nobody in 
 particular is wronged, because nobody else has any 
 special claim to them. All the others were born land- 
 less, and inherited the landless condition from their 
 fathers." I beg your pardon. Somebody is wronged. 
 Everybody is wronged. The soil of the world belongs 
 by right of nature to the inhabitants. If you permit 
 one man to monopolize a large part of it — a larger part 
 than his own fair share, a part which he does not occupy 
 or cultivate himself, but which he lets out to others, 
 receiving and monopolizing the fruit of their labour — you 
 allow him to do an obvious injustice. For he is clearly 
 
148 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 keeping all the rest of us out of it. He is tabooing soil he 
 did not and could not create himself, and he is preventing 
 any one else from enjoying his fair share of the gifts of 
 nature. Such a man is a malefactor ; and as a malefactor 
 he will be regarded in the society of the future. Men's 
 moral instincts are getting enlarged and purified ; before 
 very long all the world (with the exception of the male- 
 factors themselves) will feel that to live in idleness on 
 the toil of others is a shame and disgrace to any man. 
 The landowner and the capitalist will be scouted as 
 mean and vile creatures ; just as we scout nowadays the 
 grasping, usurious money-lender, or the keeper of a 
 gambling-hell like the tables at Monte Carlo. 
 
 For the political questions of the future will all be 
 moral questions. It will be the wrongfulness of opulence 
 in the midst of squalor that will engage attention. 
 People will be shocked at the callousness of the classes 
 who can amuse themselves with horse-racing, with 
 coursing, with vulgar ostentation, with hateful orgies, 
 while their fellows are starving. People will shrink from 
 contact with the rich as polluting and degrading, instead 
 of admiring and fawning upon them as the unenlightened 
 conscience too often does at present. For snobbery is 
 not, as most men imagine, a mere absurd little personal 
 weakness ; it is a deep-seated index of acquiescence and 
 satisfaction in an essentially unjust and cruel social 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. 149 
 
 system. It is a slavish adulation and admiration of 
 those on whom we ought rather to look down with scorn 
 from the conscious height of moral superiority. 
 
 The landowner does a wrong to every member of 
 the community, in that he makes a personal claim to 
 that which is the common property of us all, and com- 
 pels us to pay for the use of what is really our own 
 inheritance. But he is unjustest of all to the poorest 
 and most helpless, whom he deprives of the bare means 
 of earning a subsistence. Have you ever reflected with 
 what equipment of rights the average citizen is born 
 endowed in England ? With the right of moving up 
 and down the public roads till he drops from exhaustion. 
 That is all. Literally and absolutely all. He has no 
 more than that. He cannot even lay down his head to 
 rest anywhere without paying rent for it. If he does, 
 he is liable to be prosecuted as a rogue and vagabond. 
 In town or country, there is nowhere he can pause for 
 sleep or repose without being requested to " move on " 
 by the paid representatives of the propertied classes. 
 He cannot live at all without paying rent to some land- 
 lord for the pittance of ground he builds his hut upon. 
 He cannot exert his industry upon any raw material 
 without the landlords' leave. Every stick and stone, 
 every rood of soil, every plant or herb, every mine and 
 mineral, every fragment of coal, or wood, or iron, is 
 
150 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 already monopolized. The citizen must pay rent for 
 leave to sleep on the bare, bare ground ; rent for every 
 mouthful of food he eats ; rent for every object on 
 which he can exert his intelligence or his capacity. 
 Nature does not exist for him ; she gives him nothing. 
 He may not till the soil, for that is another's. He may 
 not kill the wild beasts, for those are the landlords'. 
 He may not make anything to sell or exchange for 
 food or clothing, out of wood or metal, unless he can 
 satisfy the demand for blackmail on the part of the idle 
 man who taboos them. In every way, and at all times, 
 he is at the mercy of the robbers and their representa- 
 tives. Coal and wood for his fire are theirs ; every 
 blade of grass, every grain of wheat, is theirs ; one thing 
 only can we landless ones claim as our own — the 
 public highway; and along that we can but tramp 
 till we drop with fatigue ; when the propertied classes 
 carry us off to their jails to "learn us to be land- 
 less." 
 
 Is it not an appalling and horrible thought that the 
 vast majority of Britons have absolutely no legal right 
 to anything whatsoever on the soil of Britain ? That 
 they are in everything at the mercy of a handful of 
 landlords ? Does it not make us pause and ask in 
 horror whether these things are so .' Does it not give 
 us qualms of conscience to think we ourselves have 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. 151 
 
 acquiesced so long and so tamely in so horrible a 
 system of injustice and cruelty ? 
 
 I suppose it is old use and wont alone that blinds 
 most comfortable souls to the wickedness of permitting 
 such a system to continue. But imagine for a moment 
 there were a family in England which had possessed 
 from the Plantagenet times onward the right, or rather 
 the privilege, of cutting off the heads of any ten people 
 they chose on Christmas morning. What should we 
 think of anybody who defended their horrible claim 
 like this ? — " Well, you see, they've always had the 
 right, and their fathers had it before theni. It's worth 
 them a good deal of money, because they threaten to 
 kill well-to-do people ; and the threatened persons pay 
 heavily to be let off from Christmas to Christmas. It's 
 a vested interest, don't you see? and it's always 
 dangerous to meddle with vested interests. Besides, 
 all the rest of us have always been brought up with the 
 knowledge that the privileged family — Grosvenors, or 
 Hamiltons, or Stanleys, or somebody — might any day 
 cut our heads off; so we're all accustomed to it. And 
 the desire to have money to buy one's self off acts as an 
 additional incentive to industry. Only the very poorest 
 ever really get killed ; and nobody cares about them in 
 a Christian country ! " 
 
 Now, is it not just as bad to starve people to death 
 
152 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 as to kill them suddenly ? Is it not just as cruel to cut 
 off their food as to cut off their heads ? Is it not just 
 as deadly to keep a whole people in poverty, misery, 
 and degradation, as to murder a few of them annually ? 
 The argument, which is absurd when applied to the one 
 form of wrong-doing, is equally absurd when applied to 
 the other. What is unjust in its inception becomes no 
 more just by long prescription. On the contrary, the 
 longer the injustice continues, the wider do its effects 
 spread and multiply on every side. Landowning, 
 which was a comparatively small evil two hundred 
 years ago, is now in effect a criminal system only com- 
 parable in its horrors with American slavery. 
 
 The element of ethical wrongfulness in capitalism is 
 less immediately evident than the same element in 
 landowning ; but it is there all the same, in a less hate- 
 ful manner. For the capitalist does seem, at first sight, 
 to have contributed something towards the production 
 of the wealth he possesses and monopolizes. Often, 
 indeed, he even deceives himself; he says, and really 
 believes, he made it all by his own exertions. He does 
 not see that no one man can ever be truly entitled to 
 more than the product of one man's labour. What he 
 calls " making " money is really the power of cleverly 
 juggling into his own hands the product of the labour 
 of many other workers. Capitalism is at bottom 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. 153 
 
 identical with slave-owning. It has in it the same 
 ethically hateful principle. The sooner people clearly 
 see and recognize this fact, the better for our consciences. 
 The slave-owner has many slaves, to whom he renders 
 out of the fruit of their toil the bare necessaries of life 
 — food, clothing, fuel, a hut to shelter them : all the 
 surplus product of their labour he keeps for himself, 
 that he may live in luxury in his own great house, 
 while they live in penury in their wattled shanties. 
 The capitalist employs many operatives, or " hands," as 
 he contemptuously calls them ; like the slave-owner, he 
 gives them, in the form of wages, what is necessary to 
 sustain them in the barest requisites of life : the re- 
 mainder of the product of their united labour he keeps 
 for himself, that he may live in luxury in his splendid 
 mansion, while they fester and pullulate in the noisome 
 slums to which landlordism relegates them. The differ- 
 ence is but slight. The slave-owner pays in kind : the 
 capitalist generally pays in money. The slave-owner 
 allows his slave some site for a cabin ; the capitalist 
 lets him make his own bargain for himself with the 
 grasping and stingy urban landlord. The slave-owner 
 can dispose of his slave outright ; the capitalist allows 
 him the privilege of being dismissed when trade is bad, 
 and of finding a place for himself, if he can, with some 
 other capitalist. The free labourer has an advantage 
 
154 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 over the slave, in that he can strike for higher wages, 
 can to some extent improve his class standard of com- 
 fort, and can refuse to work for an exceptionally hard 
 or cruel master. But the slave, on the other hand, has 
 security of tenure. Industrialism is the form of slavery 
 which immediately succeeds the condition of serfdom. 
 It is slavery still in all its essentials. The labourer still 
 labours, not for himself and his family, but for the 
 benefit of his master. The master, doing nothing him- 
 self, still absorbs the surplus product of the labourer's 
 industry. A state of moral feeling which permits and 
 condones such injustice as this is a very low one. We 
 must outgrow it in time : we are now outgrowing it. 
 
 Slavery was a greater evil than industrialism. I do 
 not deny it; I admit it freely. The labourer has con- 
 quered on some points of importance. He has gained 
 the right to his own person ; the right to preserve intact 
 his family relations ; the right to locomotion, migration, 
 free choice (so far as it goes) of masters. But in some 
 ways what he has lost partially counterbalances what 
 he has gained. For the slave was always found in 
 work, and in food and clothing, no matter what hap- 
 pened. Hard times never threw him out of employ- 
 ment, or drove him into starvation. He was not forced 
 into a cut-throat competition with his neighbour work- 
 man. He was not driven into the vilest slums, the 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. 155 
 
 most undesirable quarters of towns and cities. In 
 sickness and old age he was often well tended. The 
 spectre of no-work-to-do did not loom continually 
 before his mental vision. Industrialism has failed ; our 
 mass of unemployed, our East-end dens, the poverty 
 and misery of so many of our people, are the confessions 
 of its failure. It has got to be changed. Our con- 
 sciences must be roused to a knowledge of the fact that 
 we have to deal to-day with an evil in some ways as 
 great as slavery, and, in the squalor and wretchedness 
 which accompany its developments in our northern 
 climates, perhaps even more terrible. For poverty 
 with us means cold as well as hunger — means homes 
 more wretched than southern climates with their warmth 
 and sunshine can ever emulate. 
 
 It is the callous selfishness of the wealthy class that 
 has brought these evils upon us. And we have now 
 reached the point where even the wealthy are beginning 
 to be ashamed of themselves. As yet, indeed, I do not 
 see much sign that they are ashamed of their wealth, 
 or of the dubious means by which they have acquired 
 it. They do not seem to realize that it has all been 
 piled up in their hands partly by chance opportunity, 
 partly by an exceptional knack in manceuvring against 
 others, partly by unscrupulousness or hardness of heart 
 or selfish determination to get as much as they can 
 
156 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 into their own pockets. There is little or no remorse 
 as yet about the acquisition of wealth ; there is begin- 
 ning to be some remorse about the mode of its employ- 
 ment. Rich people still continue to suck up like 
 sponges all they can absorb of the earnings of the 
 community, but they are beginning to be uneasy about 
 what they do with it. It is the position of the slave- 
 owner who still believes in and upholds slavery,' but 
 whose conscience is pricked by a nascent sense that he 
 ought to do something for his slaves with his money. 
 So far as it goes, this is a step in advance. It is well 
 that the wealthy, while the wealthy exist, should use 
 their wealth for public or unselfish purposes. But it 
 would be better to get rid of the wealthy altogether. 
 
 Still, we have taken a first step in the right direction 
 if we have shamed the opulent into feeling that they 
 owe something to the public in return for all that the 
 public does for them. This point we have now begun 
 to reach. The wealthy are groping their way dimly 
 towards some vague conception of what the world 
 expects of them — that they shall devote at least some 
 portion of their useless wealth to unselfish objects of 
 general utility. Hence the greater frequency at the 
 present day of the rich philanthropist. If men are to 
 be rich at all, the least they can do, if they pretend to 
 possess a sense of right and wrong, is to render to the 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. 157 
 
 people a little of what they owe to the people, and not 
 to spend what was never truly theirs on the merest 
 selfish and personal amusements. "Property has its 
 duties as well as rights," was the high-water mark of 
 public opinion on these questions a generation since ; 
 " Property has its duties, whether it has rights or not," 
 is the watchword the present generation must attain to. 
 Most rich men, however, still use their wealth, no 
 matter how acquired, for nothing but the most selfish 
 and often the vilest purposes. Unthinking observers 
 are astonished at this ; they wonder the rich do not 
 wish to use their riches better. How could it well be 
 otherwise? They are rich, for the most part, just in 
 virtue of this very selfishness in themselves or their 
 ancestors. People of fine moral fibre are hardly likely 
 to grow rich. They think too much of the rights and 
 claims of others ; they are not perpetually occupied 
 with the one pressing question of how they can feather 
 their own nests at all hazards. They are more anxious 
 to do good in the world than to make money. The 
 people who make money are, as a rule (I do not say 
 always), the most selfishly calculating, the coldest, the 
 hardest-hearted among us. They get their labour at 
 the cheapest possible rate ; and, provided they have got 
 it, and got their pound of flesh out of it, they care 
 nothing for its comfort, its convenience, 'its decency. 
 
158 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 As long as we are organized on a system of unrestrained 
 competition, this is almost inevitably so ; for if a man 
 does not beat down his unskilled labour to the lowest 
 possible figure, and does not grind out of it the largest 
 possible amount of work, some other man, less scru- 
 pulous and more cruel, will do so and undersell him ; 
 and the public will buy the cheapest goods in the 
 market, however produced, irrespective of the producer. 
 Hence it happens that wealth is for the most part 
 concentrated in the hands of the sternest and crudest 
 people in the community, who use it entirely for their 
 own bad purposes. 
 
 The actual first founder of a wealthy family is almost 
 necessarily a bad man, judged by any high moral 
 standard. His wife is pretty sure to be a woman of 
 low aims and no moral beauty of character, who has 
 been attracted to such a man by his excessive wealth, 
 and who has attracted him in return by the way she 
 appeals to his sensuous passions. The offspring of such 
 people are hardly likely, on the ordinary principles of 
 heredity, to possess or develop much moral elevation ; 
 and so it results that even in the second generation, to 
 reverse Tennyson's saying, "the rich in the lump are 
 bad." Furthermore, children brought up in the enjoy- 
 ment of extreme and luxurious wealth, while they see 
 their fellow-creatures wanting for everything around 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. 159 
 
 them, are prone to grow callous to the sufferings of 
 others, as we observe habitually among the wealthy 
 classes ; they are prone to look upon the grades of 
 society beneath them as altogether outside the pale of 
 their sympathy, and to be only seriously affected by the 
 misfortunes or pains of the small fraction of humanity 
 which they call their equals. Hence it comes about 
 that the hereditarily wealthy are often less actively 
 cruel, but more passively callous, than the first genera- 
 tion of wealthy people. 
 
 " But all rich men are not so bad." No ; some few 
 are better, and an insignificant number are really help- 
 ful. The action of heredity is to some extent fitful and 
 incalculable. Moral qualities, in particular, sometimes 
 crop up unexpectedly; and even among the rich the 
 occasional influence of a good mother, imported as by 
 .chance into the opulent class, may here and there do 
 wonders. Among the Quakers, for example, and to 
 a less degree among the Unitarians, the accumulation 
 or inheritance of wealth has not entirely killed out all 
 moral impulse. Even the landowning caste, as a rule 
 the most selfish and cruel of any, sometimes produces 
 by exception some lusus natura of a real philanthropist. 
 But at best the possessor of extreme wealth can but 
 use with reasonable consideration the money he has 
 taken from other people. What is wanted is rather a 
 
i6o Vox Clamantium. 
 
 resolute determination not to be rich one's self, and not 
 to tolerate the possession of riches in others. 
 
 At the present day, indeed, this is for every one of 
 us the one really great and pressing moral question. 
 Are you or are you not on the side of progress ? Are 
 you for the rich or the poor, for the oppressed or the 
 oppressor ? Are you trying to set these social injustices 
 right, or are you trying to perpetuate them ? Do you 
 wish to get wealthy yourself at all hazards, or do you 
 wish to see others enjoying the fruits of their own 
 labour ? Most people treat these as political questions. 
 They are nothing of the sort ; they are moral questions. 
 Political questions are mere questions of policy, and 
 belong to the rigime of the selfish classes, who care 
 only for policy, and not at all for principle. But these 
 are moral questions — questions of right and wrong ; 
 and according as a man answers them one way or 
 the other is he on the side of good or on the side of 
 evil. 
 
 There is no other effective test of high morality at 
 the present day save this. If you are on the side of 
 the spoilers, then you are a bad man. If you are on 
 the side of social justice, then you are a good one. 
 
 Critics of the middle-class type often exclaim, of 
 reasoning like this, "What on earth makes him say 
 it? What has he to gain by talking in that way? 
 
The Wrongfulness of Riches. i6i 
 
 What does he expect to get by it?" So bound up 
 are they in the idea of self-interest as the one naotive 
 of action that they never even seem to conceive of 
 honest conviction as a ground for speaking out the 
 truth that is in one. To such critics I would answer, 
 "The reason why I write all this is because I profoundly 
 believe it. I believe the poor are being kept out of 
 their own. I believe the rich are for the most part 
 selfish and despicable. I believe wealth has been 
 generally piled up by cruel and unworthy means. I 
 believe it is wrong in us to acquiesce in the wicked 
 inequalities of our existing social state, instead of trying 
 our utmost to bring about another, where right would 
 be done to all, and where poverty would be impossible. 
 I believe such a system is perfectly practicable, and 
 that nothing stands in its way save the selfish fears 
 and prejudices of individuals. And I believe that even 
 those craven fears and narrow prejudices are wholly 
 mistaken ; that everybody, including the rich them- 
 selves, would be infinitely happier in a world where 
 no poverty existed, where no hateful sights and sounds 
 met the eye at every turn, where all slums were swept 
 away, and where everybody had their just and even 
 share of pleasures and refinements in a free and equal 
 community." 
 
 Grant Allen. 
 
 M 
 
England to Her Own Rescue. 
 
 Oh, what avails thee, England fair, 
 Thy hoard of toil-wrung gold, 
 
 If, 'midst thy wealth, ill-clad they fare — 
 Thy children hungry, cold ? 
 
 Oh, what avail thy sea-girt shores, 
 
 Thy fleets beyond the foam, 
 If direst foes are at thy doors, 
 
 And ravage hearth and home ? 
 
 Oh, what avails thy empire's pride, 
 Thy banner world-wide spread, 
 
 If greed and cunning it doth hide, 
 To mock thy heroes dead ? 
 
 What boots it, all thy gilded spoil 
 
 Of commerce, east and west, 
 If still, at home, tax-burdened Toil 
 
 Is joyless, and none rest ? 
 
England to her own Rescue. 163 
 
 Hast struck the fetters from the slave 
 
 To bind thy factory hand ? 
 How may thy faith the heathen save 
 While unredeemed thy land ? 
 
 Of what avail to teach life's laws, 
 Cram brain, with heart unfed, 
 
 With stones of knowledge at the Board, 
 While children cry for bread ? 
 
 Why raise for Beauty still a plea, 
 And praise Art's flower and fruit, 
 
 If yet for gain ye sell the tree. 
 Or sap it at the root ? 
 
 What home-fed virtue sweet atones. 
 
 Or spotless flocks in fold. 
 While in thy streets thy fairest ones 
 
 For vice are bought and sold ? 
 
 Shall Britons e'er be slaves, or lose 
 
 Liberty, while lions ramp ? 
 The landless Briton still may choose 
 
 To trespass or to tramp. 
 
164 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Let England to herself be true, 
 And, rising in her might, 
 
 Lift up the lamp — the beacon new 
 That soon shall pierce the night. 
 
 Strike down the coiling worm of greed, 
 With poison-breath that blights 
 
 The country-side with bitter need, 
 And steals the common rights. 
 
 Let honest labour win the right 
 
 To work in joy and health ; 
 Let England's brain and hand unite 
 
 To build the Commonwealth. 
 
 With words of comfort and good-will, 
 
 Forgetting caste and creed. 
 The fallen raise, the hungry fill — 
 
 Help each and all at need. 
 
 Dear country, then, to see thee freed, 
 Should each true heart be glad. 
 
 From wolves of want, and hounds of greed. 
 Thy fields with plenty clad. 
 
England to her own Rescue. 165 
 
 O England, could this be thy state — 
 
 United, joyful, free. 
 My country should indeed be great, 
 
 Though small her borders be. 
 
 February, 1894. Walter Crane. 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 
 
 During many past centuries of oppression and wrong 
 there has been an ever-present but rarely expressed 
 cry for redress, for some small instalment of justice to 
 the down-trodden workers. It has been the aspiration 
 alike of the peasant and the philosopher, of the poet 
 and the saint. But the rule of the lords of the soil 
 has ever been so hard, and supported by power so 
 overwhelming and punishment so severe, that the born 
 thralls or serfs have rarely dared to do more than 
 humbly petition for some partial relief; or, if roused 
 to rebel by unbearable misery and wrongs, they have 
 soon been crushed by the power of mailed knights and 
 armed retainers. The peasant revolt at the end of 
 the fourteenth century was to gain relief from the 
 oppressive serfdom that was enforced after the black 
 death had diminished the number of workers. John 
 Ball then preached Socialism for the first time. " By 
 what right," he said, "are they whom we call lords 
 greater folk than we? Why do they hold us in 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 167 
 
 serfage ? . . . They are clothed in velvet, while we are 
 covered with rags. They have wine and spices and 
 fair bread ; and we oat-cake and straw, and water to 
 drink. They have leisure and fine houses ;. we have 
 pain and labour, the rain and the wind in the fields. 
 And yet it is of us and our toil that these men hold 
 their state." John Ball and Wat Tyler lived five 
 hundred years too soon. To-day the very same claims 
 are made by men who, having got political power, 
 cannot be so easily suppressed. 
 
 A century passed, and the great martyr of freedom. 
 Sir Thomas More, powerfully set forth the wrongs of 
 the workers and the crimes of their rulers in his ever- 
 memorable' "Utopia." Near the end of this work he 
 thus summarizes the governments of his time in words 
 that will apply almost, if not quite, as accurately to- 
 day : " Is not that government both unjust and 
 ungrateful that is so prodigal of its favours to those 
 that are called gentlemen, or such others who are idle, 
 or live either by flattery or by contriving the arts of 
 vain pleasure, and, on the other hand, takes no care 
 of those of a meaner sort, such as ploughmen, colliers, 
 and smiths, without whom we could not subsist ? But 
 after the public has reaped all the advantage of their 
 service, and they come to be oppressed with age, sick- 
 ness, and want, all their labours and the good they 
 
1 68 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 have done is forgotten, and all the recompense given 
 them is that they are left to die in great misery. The 
 richer sort are often endeavouring to bring the hire of 
 labourers lower — not only by their fraudulent practices, 
 but by the laws which they procure to be made to that 
 effect ; so that though it is a thing most unjust in itself 
 to give such small rewards to those who deserve so 
 well of the public, yet they have given those hardships 
 the name and colour of justice, by procuring laws to 
 be made for regulating them. 
 
 " Therefore I must say that, as I hope for mercy, 
 I can have no other notion of all the governments that 
 I see or know than that they are a conspiracy of the 
 rich, who, on pretence of managing the public, only 
 pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and 
 arts they can find out ; first, that they may, without 
 danger, preserve all that they have so ill acquired, and 
 then that they may engage the poor to toil and labour 
 for them at as low rates as possible, and oppress them 
 as much as they please." * 
 
 Here we have a stern demand for justice to the 
 workers who produce all the wealth of the rich, as 
 clearly and as forcibly expressed as by any of our 
 modern socialists. Sir Thomas More might, in fact, 
 be well taken as the hero and patron-saint of Socialism. 
 * Cassell's National Library — "Utopia," p. 17. 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 169 
 
 A century passed away before Bacon in England, 
 and Campanelli in Italy, again set forth schemes of 
 social regeneration. Bacon's "New Atalantis" sup- 
 posed that the desired improvement would come from 
 man's increased command over the powers of nature, 
 which would give wealth enough for all. We have, 
 however, obtained this result to a far greater extent 
 than Bacon could possibly have anticipated ; yet its 
 chief social effect has been the increase of luxury and 
 the widening of the gulf between rich and poor. 
 Although material wealth, reckoned not in money but 
 in things, has increased perhaps twenty or thirty fold 
 in the last century while the population has little 
 more than doubled, yet millions of our people still live 
 in the most wretched penury the whole vast increase 
 of wealth having gone to increase the luxury and waste 
 of the rich and the comfort of the middle classes. 
 Campanelli, more far-sighted than Bacon, saw the need 
 of social justice as well as increased knowledge, and 
 proposed a system of refined communism. But all 
 these ideas were but as dreams of a golden age, and 
 had no influence whatever in ameliorating the condition 
 of the workers, which, with minor fluctuations, and 
 having due regard to the progress of material civili- 
 zation, may be said to have remained practically 
 unchanged for the last three centuries. When one- 
 
170 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 fourth of all the deaths in London occur in workhouses 
 and hospitals, notwithstanding that four millions are 
 spent there annually in public charity, while untold 
 thousands die in their wretched cellars and attics from 
 the direct or indirect effects of starvation, cold, and 
 unhealthy surroundings ; and while all these terrible 
 facts are repeated proportionately in all our great 
 manufacturing towns, it is simply impossible that, 
 within the time I have mentioned, the condition of the 
 workers as a whole can have been much, if any, worse 
 than it is now. 
 
 At the end of the seventeenth, and during the 
 eighteenth century, a new school of reformers arose, of 
 whom Locke, Rousseau, and Turgot were representa- 
 tives. They saw the necessity of a fundamental justice, 
 especially as regards land the source of all wealth. 
 Locke declared that labour gave the only just title to 
 land ; while Rousseau was the author of the maxim, 
 that the produce of the land belongs to all men, the 
 land itself to no one. The first Englishman, however, 
 who saw clearly the vast importance of the land 
 question, and who laid down those principles with 
 regard to it which are now becoming widely accepted, 
 was an obscure Newcastle schoolmaster, Thomas 
 Spence, who in 1775 gave a lecture before the Philo- 
 sophical Society of that town, which was so much in 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 171 
 
 advance of the age that when he printed his lecture the 
 society expelled him, and ; he was soon afterwards 
 obliged to leave the town. He maintained the sound 
 doctrine that the land of any country or district justly 
 belongs to those who live upon it, not to any individuals 
 to the exclusion of the rest ; and he points out, as did 
 Herbert Spencer at a later period, the logical result of 
 admitting private property in land. He says, "And 
 any one of them (the landlords) still can, by laws of 
 their own making, oblige every living creature to 
 remove off his property (which, to the great distress of 
 mankind, is too often put in execution) ; so, of con- 
 sequence, were all the landholders to be of one mind, 
 and determined to take their properties into their own 
 hands, all the rest of mankind might go to heaven if 
 they would, for there would be no place found for them 
 here. Thus men may not live in any part of this 
 world, not even where they are born, but as strangers, 
 and by the permission of the pretender to the property 
 thereof." He maintained that every parish should have 
 possession of its own land, to be let out to the inhabi- 
 tants, and that each parish should govern itself and be 
 interfered with as little as possible by the central 
 government, thus anticipating the views as to local 
 self-government which we are now beginning to put 
 into practice. 
 
172 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 A few years later, in 1782, Professor Ogilvie pub- 
 lished anonymously, "An Essay on the Right of 
 Property in Land, with respect to its foundation in the 
 Law of Nature, its present establishment by the Muni- 
 cipal Laws of Europe, and the Regulations by which it 
 might be rendered more beneficial to the Lower Ranks 
 of Mankind." This small work contains an elaborate 
 and well-reasoned exposition of the whole land question, 
 anticipating the arguments of Herbert Spencer in 
 "Social Statics," of Mill, and of the most advanced 
 modern land-reformers. But all these ideas were 
 before their time, and produced little or no effect on 
 public opinion. The workers were too ignorant, too 
 much oppressed by the struggle for bare existence, 
 while the middle classes were too short-sighted to be 
 influenced by theoretical views which even to this day 
 many of the most liberal thinkers seem unable fully to 
 appreciate. But the chief cause that prevented the 
 development of sound views on the vital problems of 
 the land and of social justice, was, undoubtedly, that 
 men's minds were forcibly directed towards the great 
 struggles for political freedom then in progress. The 
 success of the American revolutionists and the estab- 
 lishment of a republic founded on a Declaration of 
 the Rights of Man, followed by the great French 
 Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, entirely obscured 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 173 
 
 all lesser questions, and also led to a temporary and 
 fictitious prosperity, founded on a gigantic debt the 
 burden of which still oppresses us. These great events 
 irresistibly led to the discussion of questions of political 
 and personal freedom rather than to those deeper 
 problems of social justice of which we are now only 
 beginning to perceive the full importance. The rapid 
 growth of the use of steam-power, the vast extension 
 of our manufactures, and the rise of our factory system 
 with its attendant horrors of woman and infant labour, 
 crowded populations, spread of disease, and increase of 
 mortality, loudly cried for palliation and restrictive 
 legislation, and thus occupied much of the attention of 
 philanthropists and politicians. 
 
 Owing to this combination of events, the nineteenth 
 century has been almost wholly devoted to two classes 
 of legislation — the one directed to reform and popu- 
 larize the machinery of government itself, the other to 
 neutralize or palliate the evils arising from the unchecked 
 powers of landlords and capitalists in their continual 
 efforts to increase their wealth while almost wholly 
 regardless of the life-shortening labour, the unsanitary 
 surroundings, and the hopeless misery of the great body 
 of the workers. To the first class belong the successive 
 Reform Bills, the adoption of the ballot in elections for 
 members of Parliament, household and lodger suffrage. 
 
174 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 improved registration, and the repression of bribery. 
 To the second, restriction of children's and women's 
 labour in factories and mines ; Government inspection 
 of these industries ; attempts to diminish the dangers of 
 unhealthy employments and to check the ever-increasing 
 pollution of rivers ; the new poor law, casual wards, and 
 other attempts to cope with pauperism ; while various 
 fiscal reforms, such as the abolition of the corn laws 
 and the extension of free trade, though advocated in 
 the supposed interest of the wage-earners were really 
 carried by the efforts of great capitalists and manu- 
 facturers as a means of extending their foreign trade. 
 Later on came the Elementary Education Act of 1870, 
 which was thought by many to be the crowning of the 
 edifice, and to complete all that could be done by legis- 
 lation to bring about the well-being of the workers, and, 
 through them, of the whole community. 
 
 Now that we have had nearly a century of the two 
 classes of legislation here referred to, it may be well 
 briefly to take stock of its general outcome, and see how 
 far it has secured — what all such legislation aims at 
 securing — a fair share to all the workers of the mass of 
 wealth they annually produce, a sufficiency of food, 
 clothing, house-room and fuel, healthy surroundings, 
 and some amount of leisure and surplus means for the 
 lesser enjoyments of life. And it must be remembered 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 175 
 
 that never in the whole course of human history has 
 there been a century which has added so much to man's 
 command over the forces of nature, and which has so 
 enormously extended his power of creating and dis- 
 tributing all forms of wealth. Steam, gas, photography, 
 and electricity, in all their endless applications, have 
 given us almost unlimited power to obtain all neces- 
 saries, comforts, and luxuries that the world can supply 
 us with. It has been calculated that the labour-saving 
 machinery of all kinds now in use produces about a 
 hundred times the result that could be produced if our 
 workers had only the tools and appliances available in 
 the last century. But even in the last century, not only 
 was there produced a sufficiency of food, clothing, and 
 houses for all workers, but an enormous surplus, which 
 they had to give to the landlords and other wealthy 
 persons for their consumption, while large numbers, then 
 as now, were unprofitably employed in ministering to 
 the luxury of the rich, or wastefully employed in 
 destroying life and property in civil or foreign wars. 
 
 Taking first the anti-capitalistic or social legislation, 
 we find that, though the horrible destruction of the 
 health, the happiness, and the very lives of factory 
 children has been largely reduced, there has grown up 
 in our great cities a system of child-labour as cruel and 
 destructive, if not quite so extensive. Infants of four 
 
176 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 years and upwards are employed at matchbox-making 
 and similar employments to assist in supporting the 
 family. A widow and two children, working all day and 
 much of the night, can only earn a shilling or eighteen- 
 pence from which to pay rent and support life. Children 
 of school age have thus often to work till midnight after 
 having had five hours' schooling ; and till quite recently 
 a poor mother in this state of penury was fined if she 
 did not send the children to school and pay a penny 
 daily for each, meaning so much less bread for herself 
 or for the children. Of course for the children this is 
 physical and mental destruction. The number of women 
 thus struggling for a most miserable living — often a 
 mere prolonged starvation — is certainly greater than at 
 any previous period of our history, and even if the 
 proportion of the population thus employed is somewhat 
 less — and this is doubtful — the fact that the actual mass 
 of human misery and degradation of this kind is abso- 
 lutely greater, is a horrible result of a century's remedial 
 legislation, together with an increase of national wealth 
 altogether unprecedented. 
 
 Again, if we turn to the amount of poverty and 
 pauperism as a measure of the success of remedial 
 legislation combined with a vast extension of private 
 and systematized charity, we shall have cause for still 
 more serious reflection. In 1888 the Registrar-General 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 177 
 
 called attention to the fact that, both throughout the 
 country and to a still greater extent in London, deaths 
 in workhouses, hospitals, and other public charitable 
 institutions had been steadily increasing since 1875. 
 A reference to the Annual Summaries of deaths in 
 London shows the increase to have been continuous 
 from i860 to 1890, the five-year periods giving the 
 following results : — 
 
 In 1860-65 of total deatlis in London, 1 6 "2 percent, occurred in charitable 
 
 institutions. 
 1866-70 (no material at hand). 
 
 i870-75of total deaths in London, I7'4 ,, ,, 
 
 1876-80 „ „ l8-6 
 
 1880-85 ,, „ 20-8 „ „ 
 
 1886-90 „ „ 26'0 ,, „ 
 
 When we add to this the admitted facts, that orga- 
 nized charity has greatly increased during the same 
 period, while the press still teems with records of the 
 most terrible destitution, of suicides from the dread of 
 starvation, and deaths directly caused or indirectly due 
 to want, we are brought face to face with a mass of 
 human wretchedness that is absolutely appalling in its 
 magnitude. And all this time Royal and Parliamentary 
 Commissions have been inquiring and reporting, Mansion 
 House and other committees have been collecting funds 
 and relieving distress at every exceptional period of 
 trouble, emigration has been actively at work, improved 
 
lyS Vox Clamantium. 
 
 dwellings have been provided, and education has been 
 systematically urged on, with the final result that one- 
 fourth of all the deaths in the richest city in the world 
 occur in workhouses, hospitals, etc., and, in addition, 
 unknown thousands die in their miserable garrets and 
 cellars from various forms of slow or rapid starvation. 
 Can a state of society which leads to this result be 
 called civilization ? Can a government which, after 
 a century of continuous reforms and gigantic labours 
 and struggles, is unable to organize society so that 
 every willing worker may earn a decent living, be called 
 a successful government ? Is it beyond the wit of man 
 to save a large proportion of one of the most industrious 
 people in the world, inhabiting a rich and fertile country, 
 from grinding poverty or absolute starvation ? Is it 
 impossible so to arrange matters that a sufficient portion 
 of the wealth they create may be retained by the 
 workers, even if the idle rich have a little less of profuse 
 and wasteful luxury ? 
 
 Our legislators, our economists, our religious teachers, 
 almost with one voice tell the people that any better 
 organization of society than that which we now possess 
 is impossible. That we must go on as we have been 
 going on, patching here, altering there, now mitigating 
 the severity of a distressing symptom, now slightly 
 clipping the wings of the landlord, the capitalist, or 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 179 
 
 the sweater ; but never going down to the root of the 
 evil ; never interfering with vested interests in ancestral 
 wrong ; never daring to do anything which shall 
 diminish rent and interest and profit, and to the same 
 extent increase the reward of labour ; never seeking out 
 the fundamental injustice which deprives men of their 
 birthright in their native land and enables a small 
 number of landlords to tax the rest of the community 
 to the amount of hundreds of millions for permission 
 to cultivate and live upon the soil in the country of 
 their birth. Can we, then, wonder that both workers 
 and thinkers are getting tired of all this hopeless 
 incapacity in their rulers ? That, possessing education 
 which has made them acquainted with the works of 
 great writers on these matters, from Sir Thomas More 
 to Robert Owen, from Henry George to Edward Bel- 
 lamy, from Karl Marx to Carlyle and Ruskin ; and, 
 possessing as they do ability and honesty and deter- 
 mination fully equal to that of the coterie of landlords 
 and capitalists which has hitherto governed them, 
 they are determined, as soon as may be, to govern 
 themselves. 
 
 Now, I believe that the great work of this century, 
 that which is the true preparation for the work to be 
 done in the coming twentieth century, is not its well- 
 meant and temporarily useful but petty and tentative 
 
i8o Vox Clamantium. 
 
 social legislation, but rather that gradual reform of the 
 political machine — to be completed, it is to be hoped, 
 within the next six years — which will enable the most 
 thoughtful and able and honest among the manual 
 workers to at once turn the balance of political power, 
 and, at no distant period, to become the real and per- 
 manent rulers of the country. The very idea of such a 
 government will excite a smile of derision or a groan of 
 horror among the classes who have hitherto plundered 
 and blundered at their will, and have thought they were 
 heaven-inspired rulers. But I feel sure that the workers 
 will do very much better ; and, forming as they do the 
 great majority of the people, it is only bare justice that, 
 after centuries of misgovernment by the idle and wealthy, 
 they should have their turn. The larger part of the 
 invention that has enriched the country has come from 
 the workers ; much of scientific discovery has also come 
 from their ranks ; and it is certain that, given equality 
 of opportunity, they would fully equal, in every high 
 mental and moral characteristic, the bluest blood in the 
 nation. In the organization of their trades-unions and 
 co-operative societies, no less than in their choice of the 
 small body of their fellow-workers who represent them 
 in Parliament, they show that they are in no way inferior 
 in judgment and in organizing power to the commercial, 
 the literary, or the wealthy classes. The way in which. 
 
Economic and Social Justice. i8i 
 
 during the past few years, they have forced their very 
 moderate claims upon the notice of the public, have 
 secured advocates in the press and in Parliament, and 
 have led both political economists and politicians to 
 accept measures which were, not long before, scouted 
 as utterly beyond the sphere of practical politics, shows 
 that they have already become a power in the state. 
 Looking forward, then, to a government by workers and 
 largely in the interest of workers, at a not distant date, 
 I propose to set forth a few principles and suggestions 
 as to the course of legislation calculated to abolish 
 pauperism, poverty, and enforced idleness, and thus lay 
 the foundation for a true civilization which will be 
 beneficial to all. 
 
 I. That the ownership of large estates in land by 
 private individuals is an injustice to the workers and 
 the source of much of their poverty and misery, is held 
 by all the great writers I have alluded to, and has been 
 fully demonstrated in numerous volumes. It has led 
 directly to the depopulation of the rural districts, the 
 abnormal growth of great cities, the diminished cultiva- 
 tion of the soil and reduced food-supply, and is thus at 
 once a social evil and a national danger. Some petty 
 attempts are now making to restore the people to the 
 land, but in a very imperfect manner. The first and 
 highest use of our land is to provide healthy and happy 
 
1 82 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 homes, where all who desire it may live in permanent 
 security and produce a considerable portion of the food 
 required by their families. Every other consideration 
 must give way to this one, and all restrictions on its 
 realization must be abolished. Hence, the first work of 
 the people's Parliament should be, to give to the Parish 
 and District Councils (which will by that time be in 
 full working order) unrestricted power to take all land 
 necessary for this purpose, so as to afford every citizen 
 the freest possible choice of a home in which he can 
 live absolutely secure (so long as he pays the very 
 moderate ground rent) and reap the full reward of his 
 labour. Every man, in his turn, should be able to 
 choose both where he will live and how much land he 
 desires to have, since each one is the best judge of how 
 much he can enjoy and make profitable. Our object is 
 that all working men should succeed in life, should be 
 able to live well and happily, and provide for an old 
 age of comfort and repose. Every such landholder is a 
 gain and a safety instead of a loss and a danger to the 
 community, and no outcry, either of existing landlords 
 or of tenants of large farms, must be allowed to stand 
 in their way. The well-being of the community is the 
 highest law, and no private interests must be allowed to 
 prevent its realization. When land can be thus obtained, 
 co-operative communities, on the plan so clearly laid 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 183 
 
 down by Mr. Herbert V. Mills in his work on " Poverty 
 and the State," may also be established, and various 
 forms of co-operative manufacture can be tried. 
 
 II. The next great guiding principle, and one that 
 will enable us to carry out the resumption of the land 
 without real injury to any individual, is, that we should 
 recognize no rights to property in the unborn, or even 
 in persons under legal age, except so far as to provide 
 for their education and give them a suitable but 
 moderate provision against want. This may be justified 
 on two grounds. Firstly, the law allows to individuals 
 the right to will away their property as they please, so 
 that not even the eldest son has any vested interest, as 
 against the power of the actual owner of the property to 
 leave it to whom or for what purpose he likes. Now, 
 what an individual is permitted to do for individual 
 reasons which may be good or bad, the State may do 
 if it considers it necessary for the good of the com- 
 munity. If an individual may justly disinherit other 
 individuals who have not already a vested interest in 
 property, however just may be their expectations of 
 succeeding to it, ex fortiori the State may, partially, 
 disinherit them for good and important reasons. In the 
 second place, it is almost universally admitted by 
 moralists and advanced thinkers, that to be the heir to 
 a great estate from birth is generally injurious to the 
 
184 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 individual, and is necessarily unjust to the community. 
 It enables the individual to live a life of idleness and 
 pleasure, which often becomes one of luxury and vice ; 
 while the community suffers from the bad example, and 
 by the vicious standard of happiness which is set up by 
 the spectacle of so much idleness and luxury. The 
 working part of the community, on the other hand, 
 suffers directly in having to provide the whole of the 
 wealth thus injuriously wasted. Many people think 
 that if such a rich man pays for everything he purchases 
 and wastes, the workers do not suffer because they 
 receive an equivalent for their labour ; but such persons 
 overlook the fact that every pound spent by the idle is 
 first provided by the workers. If the income thus spent is 
 derived from land, it is they who really pay the rents to 
 the landlord, inasmuch as if the landlord did not receive 
 them they would go in reduction of taxation. If it 
 comes from the funds or from railway shares, they 
 equally provide it, in the taxes, in high railway fares, 
 and increased price of goods due to exorbitant railway 
 charges. Even if all taxes were raised by an income 
 tax paid by rich men only, the workers would be the 
 real payers, because there is no other possible source of 
 annual income in the country but productive labour. 
 If any one doubts this, let him consider what would 
 happen were the people to resume the land as their 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 185 
 
 right, and thenceforth apply the rents, locally, to 
 establish the various factories and other machinery 
 needful to supply all the wants of the community. 
 Gradually all workers would be employed on the land, 
 or in the various co-operative or municipal industries, 
 and would themselves receive the full product of their 
 labours. To facilitate their exchanges they might 
 establish a token or paper currency, and they would 
 then have little use for gold or silver. How, then, 
 could idlers live, if these workers, in the Parliament of 
 the country, simply declined to pay the interest on 
 debts contracted before they were born .■' What good 
 would be their much-vaunted " capital," consisting as it 
 mostly does of mere legal power to take from the 
 workers a portion of the product of their labours, which 
 power would then have ceased ; while their real capital — 
 buildings, machinery, etc. — would bring them not one 
 penny, since the workers would all possess their own, 
 purchased by their own labour and the rents of their 
 own land .' Let but the workers resume possession of 
 the soil, which was first obtained by private holders by 
 force or fraud, or by the gift of successive kings who 
 had no right to give it, and capitalists as a distinct class 
 from workers must soon cease to exist. 
 
 III. Another principle of equal importance is to 
 refuse to recognize the right of any bygone rulers to 
 
1 86 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 tax future generations. Thus all grants of land by- 
 kings or nobles, all " perpetual " pensions, and all war- 
 debts of the past, should be declared to be legally and 
 equitably invalid, and henceforth dealt with in such a 
 way as to relieve the workers of the burden of their 
 payment as speedily as is consistent with due considera- 
 tion for those whose chief support is derived from such 
 sources. Just as we are now coming to recognize that 
 a " living wage " is due to all workers, so we should 
 recognize a maximum income determined by the stan- 
 dard of comfort of the various classes of fund-holders 
 and State or family pensioners. As a rule, these persons 
 might be left to enjoy whatever income they now 
 possess during their lives, and when they had relatives 
 dependent on them the income might be continued 
 to these, either for their lives or for a limited period 
 according to the circumstances of each case. There 
 would be no necessity, and I trust no inclination, to cause 
 the slightest real privation, or even inconvenience, to 
 those who are but the product of a vicious system ; but 
 on every principle of justice and equity it is impossible 
 to recognize the rights of deceased kings — most of them 
 the worst and most contemptible of men — to burthen 
 the workers for all time in order to keep large bodies 
 of their fellow-citizens in idleness and luxury. 
 
 By means of the principles now laid down, we may 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 187 
 
 proceed to see how to deal with the present possessors 
 of great estates, and with millionaires, whose vast 
 wealth confers no real benefit on themselves, while it 
 necessarily robs the workers, since, as we have seen, it 
 has all to be provided by the workers. It will, I think, 
 be admitted that, if a man has an income, say, of ten 
 thousand a year, that is sufficient to supply him with 
 every possible necessary, comfort, and rational luxury, 
 and that the possession of one or more additional ten 
 thousands of income would not really add to his enjoy- 
 ment. But all such excessive incomes necessarily 
 produce evil results, in the large number of idle depen- 
 dents they support, and in keeping up habits of 
 gambling and excessive luxury. Further, in the case 
 of landed estates the management of which is neces- 
 sarily left to agents and bailiffs, it leads to injurious 
 interference with agriculture and with the political and 
 religious freedom of tenants, to oppression of labourers, 
 to the depopulation of villages, and other well-known 
 evils. It will therefore be for the public benefit to fix 
 on a maximum income to be owned by any citizen ; 
 and, thereupon, to arrange a progressive income tax, 
 beginning with a very small tax on a minimum income 
 from land or realized property of, say, ;£'soo, the tax 
 progressively rising, at first slowly, afterwards more 
 rapidly, so as to absorb all above the fixed maximum. 
 
1 88 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 When a landed estate was taken over for the use of 
 the community, the net income which had been derived 
 from it would be paid the late holder for his life, and 
 might be continued for the lives of such of his direct 
 heirs as were of age at the time of passing the Act, or 
 it might even be extended to all direct heirs living at 
 that time. In the case of a person owning many landed 
 estates in different counties, he might be given the 
 option of retaining any one or more of them up to 
 the maximum income, and that income would be 
 secured to him (and his direct heirs as above stated) 
 in case any of the land were taken for public use. 
 In the case of fundholders, all above the maximum 
 income would be extinguished, and thus reduce 
 taxation. 
 
 The process here sketched out — by which the con- 
 tinuous robbery of the people through the systems of 
 land and fundholding, may be at first greatly reduced, 
 and in the course of one or two generations completely 
 stopped, without, as I maintain, real injury to any living 
 person, and for the great benefit both of existing 
 workers and of the whole nation in the future — will, of 
 course, be denounced as confiscation and robbery. That 
 is the point of view of those who now benefit by the 
 acts of former robbers and confiscators. From another, 
 and I maintain a truer point of view, it may be de- 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 189 
 
 scribed as an act of just and merciful restitution. Let 
 us, therefore, consider the case a little more closely. 
 
 Taking the inherited estates of the great landed 
 proprietors of England, almost all can be traced back 
 to some act of confiscation of former owners or to gifts 
 from kings, often as the reward for what we now con- 
 sider to be disgraceful services or great crimes. The 
 whole of the property of the abbeys and monasteries, 
 stolen by Henry VIII., and mostly given to the worst 
 characters among the nobles of his court, was really 
 a robbery of the people, who obtained relief and pro- 
 tection from the former owners. The successive steps 
 by which the landlords got rid of the duties attached 
 to landholding under the feudal system, and threw 
 the main burden of defence and of the cost of govern- 
 ment on non-landholders, was another direct robbery 
 of the people. Then in later times, and down to the 
 present century, we have that barefaced robbery by 
 form of law, the enclosure of the commons, leading, 
 perhaps more than anything else, to the misery and 
 destruction of the rural population. Much of this 
 enclosure was made by means of false pretences. The 
 general Enclosure Acts declare that the purpose of en- 
 closure is to facilitate "the productive employment of 
 labour" in the improvement of the land. Yet hundreds 
 of thousands of acres in all parts of the country, espe- 
 
IQO Vox Clamantium. 
 
 cially in Surrey, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and other 
 southern counties, were simply taken from the people 
 and divided among the surrounding landlords, and then 
 only used for sport, not a single pound being spent in 
 cultivating them. Now, however, during the last twenty 
 years, much of this land is being sold for building at 
 high building prices, a purpose never contemplated 
 when the Enclosure Acts were obtained. During the 
 last two centuries more than seven millions of acres 
 have been thus taken from the poor by men who were 
 already rich, and the more land they already possessed 
 the larger share of the commons was allotted to them. 
 Even a Royal Commission, in 1869, declared that these 
 enclosures were often made "without any compensa- 
 tion to the smaller commoners, deprived agricultural 
 labourers of ancient rights over the waste, and disabled 
 the occupants of new cottages from acquiring new 
 rights." 
 
 Now, in this long series of acts of plunder of the 
 people's land, we have every circumstance tending to 
 aggravate the crime. It was robbery of the poor by 
 the rich. It was robbery of the weak and helpless by 
 the strong. And it had that worst feature which dis- 
 tinguishes robbery from mere confiscation — the plunder 
 was divided among the individual robbers. Yet, again, 
 it was a form of robbery specially forbidden by the 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 191 
 
 religion of the robbers, a religion for which they pro- 
 fessed the deepest reverence, and of which they con- 
 sidered themselves the special defenders. They read 
 in what they call the Word of God, " Woe unto them 
 that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there 
 be no place, that they may be placed alone in the 
 midst of the earth ; " yet this is what they are constantly 
 striving for, not by purchase only, but by robbery. 
 Again they are told, "The land shall not be sold for 
 ever, for the land is Mine ; " and at every fiftieth year 
 all land was to return to the family that had sold it, 
 so that no one could keep land beyond the year of 
 jubilee ; and the reason was that no man or family 
 should remain permanently impoverished. 
 
 Both in law and morality the receiver of stolen 
 goods is as bad as the thief; and even if he has 
 purchased a stolen article unknowingly, an honourable 
 man will, when he discovers the fact, restore it to the 
 rightful owner. Now, our great hereditary landlords 
 know very well that they are the legal possessors of 
 much stolen property, and, moreover, property which 
 their religion forbids them to hold in great quantities. 
 Yet we have never heard of a single landlord making 
 restitution to the robbed nation of workers. On the 
 contrary, they take every opportunity of adding to their 
 vast possessions, not only by purchase, but by that 
 
192 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 meanest form of robbery — the enclosing of every scrap 
 of roadside grass they can lay their hands on, so that 
 the wayfarer or the tourist may have nothing but dust 
 or gravel to walk upon, and the last bit of food for the 
 cottager's donkey or goose is taken away from him. 
 
 This all-embracing system of land robbery, for which 
 nothing is too great and nothing too little, which has 
 absorbed meadow and forest, moor and mountain ; 
 which has secured most of our rivers and lakes, and the 
 fish which inhabit them ; which often claims the very 
 seashore and rocky coast-line of our island home, making 
 the peasant pay for his seaweed-manure and the fisher- 
 man for his bait of shellfish ; which has desolated 
 whole counties to replace men by sheep or cattle, and 
 has destroyed fields and cottages to make a wilderness 
 for deer; which has stolen the commons and filched 
 the roadside wastes ; which has driven the labouring 
 poor into the cities, and has thus been the primary and 
 chief cause of the lifelong misery, disease, and early 
 death of thousands who might have lived lives of honest 
 toil and comparative comfort had they been permitted 
 free access to land in their native villages ; — it is the 
 advocates and beneficiaries of this inhuman system, the 
 members of this "cruel organization," who, when a 
 partial restitution of their unholy gains is proposed, are 
 the loudest in their cries of " robbery ! " But all the 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 193 
 
 robbery, all the spoliation, all the legal and illegal 
 filching has been on their side, and they still hold the 
 stolen property. They made laws to justify their 
 actions, and we propose equally to make laws which 
 will really justify ours, because, unlike their laws which 
 always took from the poor to give to the rich, ours will 
 take only from the superfluity of the rich, not to give to 
 the poor individually, but to enable the poor to live by 
 honest work, to restore to the whole people their birth- 
 right in their native soil, and to relieve all alike from 
 a heavy burden of unnecessary taxation. This will be 
 the true statesmanship of the future, and will be justified 
 alike by equity, by ethics, and by religion. 
 
 And now, what has been the conduct and teaching 
 of those priests and bishops who profess to be followers 
 of Him who declared that a rich man shall hardly enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven, and who gave this rule as 
 being above all the Commandments, " If thou wilt be 
 perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, 
 and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." Have they 
 ever preached to the squires and nobles restitution of 
 some portion of the land so unjustly obtained by their 
 ancestors ? Have they even insisted on the duty of 
 those who hold the land to allow free use of it to all 
 their fellow-citizens on fair terms ? Have they even set 
 before these men the inevitable and now well-known 
 
 o 
 
194 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 results of land-monopoly, and the deadly sin of using 
 their power to oppress the poor and needy ? It is 
 notorious that, with some few noble exceptions, they 
 have done none of these things, but have ever taken the 
 side of the landed against the landless, and too often, 
 whether in the character of landlords or magistrates, 
 have so acted as to lose the confidence and even gain 
 the hatred of the poor. We look in vain among priests 
 and bishops of the Established Church for any real 
 comprehension of what this land question is to the 
 poor ; but we find it in the following words of a 
 dignitary of the older Church, that good man and true 
 follower of Christ, the late Cardinal Manning : 
 
 " The land question means hunger, thirst, nakedness, 
 notice to quit, labour spent in vain, the toil of years 
 seized upon, the breaking up of houses ; the misery, 
 sicknesses, deaths of parents, children, wives ; the despair 
 and wildness which spring up in the hearts of the poor, 
 where legal force, like a sharp harrow, goes over the 
 most sensitive and vital rights of mankind. All this is 
 contained in the land question." But our archbishops 
 and bishops know nothing whatever of all this ! They 
 are truly blind guides ; and, as pastors of a Church 
 which should be pre-eminently the Church of the poor, 
 how applicable are the words of Isaiah, " They are all 
 dumb dogs, they cannot bark ; sleeping, lying down, 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 195 
 
 loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which 
 can never have enough, and they are shepherds that 
 cannot understand : they all look to their own way, 
 every one for his gain " ! 
 
 And now, in conclusion, I will give one or two 
 extracts from a book written by a self-taught worker 
 for workers, to show how workers feel on the questions 
 we have here touched upon. 
 
 "At present the working people of this country 
 live under conditions altogether monstrous. Their 
 labour is much too heavy, their pleasures are too few ; 
 and in their close streets and crowded houses, decency 
 and health and cleanliness are well-nigh impossible. 
 It is not only the wrong of this that I resent, it is the 
 waste. Look through the slums, and see what child- 
 hood, girlhood, womanhood, and manhood have there 
 become. Think what a waste of beauty, of virtue, of 
 strength, and of all the power and goodness that go 
 to make a nation great, is being consummated there 
 by ignorance and by injustice. For, depend upon it, 
 every one of our brothers or sisters ruined or slain 
 by poverty or vice, is a loss to the nation of so much 
 bone and sinew, of so much courage and skill, of so 
 much glory and delight. Cast your eyes, then, over 
 the Registrar-General's returns, and imagine, if you 
 can, how many gentle nurses, good mothers, sweet 
 
196 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 singers, brave soldiers, clever artists, inventors and 
 thinkers, are swallowed up every year in that ocean 
 of crime and sorrow which is known to the official 
 mind as 'the high death-rate of the wage-earning 
 classes.' Alas ! the pity of it." 
 
 And again, from the same writer — 
 
 " A short time ago a certain writer, much esteemed 
 
 for his graceful style of saying silly things, informed 
 
 us that the poor remain poor because they show no 
 
 efficient desire to be anything else. Is that true ? Are 
 
 only the idle poor ? Come with me, and I will show 
 
 you where men and women work from morning till 
 
 night, from week to week, from year to year, at the 
 
 full stretch of their powers, in dim and fetid dens, and 
 
 yet are poor, ay, destitute — have for their wages a 
 
 crust of bread and rags. I will show you where men 
 
 work in dirt and heat, using the strength of brutes, for 
 
 a dozen hours a day, and sleep at night in styes, until 
 
 brain and muscle are exhausted, and fresh slaves are 
 
 yoked to the golden car of commerce, and the broken 
 
 drudges filter through the union or the prison, to a 
 
 felon's or a pauper's grave ! And I will show you how 
 
 men and women thus work and suffer, and faint and 
 
 die, generation after generation ; and I will show you 
 
 how the longer and harder these wretches toil, the 
 
 worse their lot becomes ; and I will show you the 
 
Economic and Social Justice. 197 
 
 graves, and find witnesses to the histories of brave 
 and noble and industrious poor men, whose lives were 
 lives of toil and poverty, and whose deaths were 
 tragedies. And all these things are due to sin; but 
 it is to the sin of the smug hypocrites who grow rich 
 upon the robbery and the ruin of their fellow- 
 creatures." 
 
 These extracts are from a shilling book called 
 " Merrie England," by Nunquam. In the form of a 
 series of letters on Socialism to a working man, it 
 contains more important facts, more acute reasoning, 
 more conclusive argument, and more good writing than 
 are to be found in any English work on the subject 
 I am acquainted with. When such men — and there 
 are many of them — are returned to Parliament, and are 
 able to influence the government of the country, the 
 dawn of a new era, bright with hope for the long- 
 suffering workers, will be at hand. 
 
 Alfred R. Wallace. 
 
Social 1 caching of the Early 
 Fathers. 
 
 Those of us who owe most to the Tractarian move- 
 ment cannot but regret the fact that the High Church- 
 man of to-day is content merely to occupy ground 
 already won. He considers himself to be the lineal 
 descendant of the Puseyites just because he can mimic 
 their tones and wrap himself in their old chasubles. But 
 when it comes to extending their principles, with their 
 old zeal, their strenuous and bold piety, their crusading 
 spirit, it never seems to cross his mind that such new 
 applications are possible, or if possible desirable, to any 
 other matters than ecclesiological ones. Granted that all 
 the Tractarians' reform began at the altar ; granted that 
 they showed that the associative principle is of the very 
 essence of the Faith ; still it does not follow that they 
 wanted to stop those reforms at the west door or the 
 lych-gate ; still less that they wished to store the leaven 
 of the Faith in the vessels of abstract and general 
 statement, and never to use it. Their work was to set 
 
Social Teaching of the Fathers. 199 
 
 in order the Church ; to draw attention to her misunder- 
 stood doctrines, her broken discipline, her neglected 
 decencies, and her belittled claims. They had no time 
 to extend the rule of the principles they fought for, 
 to the street and the shop, the market and the law- 
 court. These and many other applications remain for 
 us, who come after ; and would that we could brace 
 ourselves to this work with anything like their reverent 
 and manful spirit ! 
 
 Yet an application of Catholic principle to political 
 and social questions has been more than hinted at by 
 the Tractarians themselves. Let us take one extract 
 from the leader, who to us, in these later days, seems the 
 pre-eminent genius of the whole movement : " Strictly 
 speaking, the Christian Church, as being a visible 
 society, is necessarily a political power and party. It 
 may be a party triumphant or a party under perse- 
 cution ; but a party it must always be, prior in exist- 
 ence to the civil institutions with which it is surrounded, 
 and from its latent divinity formidable and influential, 
 even to the end of time. The grant of permanency was 
 made in the beginning, not to the mere doctrine of the 
 Gospel, but to the Association itself, built upon the 
 doctrine (St. Matt, xvi. i8) ; in prediction not only of 
 the indestructibility of Christianity, but of the medium 
 also through which it was to be manifested to the world. 
 
200 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Thus the ecclesiastical body is a divinely appointed 
 means towards realizing the great Evangelical blessings. 
 Christians depart from their duty, or become in an 
 offensive sense political, not when they act as members 
 of one community, but when they do so for temporal 
 ends or in an illegal manner ; not when they assume the 
 attitude of a party, but when they split into many. If 
 the primitive believers did not interfere with the acts of 
 the civil government, it was merely because they had 
 no rights enabling them legally to do so. But where 
 they have rights the case is different (Acts xvi. 37-39) ; 
 and the existence of a secular spirit is to be ascertained, 
 not by their using these, but their using them for ends 
 short of the ends for which they were given. Doubtless, 
 in criticizing the mode of their exercising them in a 
 particular case, differences of opinion may fairly exist ; 
 but the principle itself, the duty of using their civil 
 rights in the service of religion, is clear ; and since there 
 is a popular misconception that Christians, and espe- 
 cially the clergy as such, have no concern in temporal 
 affairs, it is expedient to take every opportunity of 
 formally denying the position, and demanding a proof 
 of it. In truth, the Church was framed for the express 
 purpose of interfering, or (as irreligious men will say) 
 meddling with the world. It is the plain duty of its 
 members not only to associate internally, but also to 
 
Social Teaching of the Fathers. 201 
 
 develop that internal union in an external warfare with 
 the spirit of evil, whether in kings' courts, or among the 
 mixed multitude ; and if they can do nothing else, at 
 least they can suffer for the truth, and remind men of it, 
 by inflicting upon them the task of persecution." * 
 
 A candid examination of the writings of the " primi- 
 tive believers" must lead us to see that if they had 
 possessed rights enabling them to interfere with the acts 
 of the civil government, they would have used these on 
 behalf of the frankest Socialism, and that in exact 
 proportion to their own orthodoxy.f 
 
 Where the Catholic Faith is merely latent, there the 
 Socialism is also less explicit. When the writer is un- 
 sound in his orthodoxy, then he is almost sure to favour 
 some form of individualist law or possession. When the 
 writer is sound and saintly, then he is always entirely 
 and unhesitatingly in favour of the common holding of 
 goods, of equality of opportunity, of social freedom ; and 
 even when he is not quite sound, he is always fiercely 
 opposed to the covetousness which calls itself enter- 
 prise, smartness, natural incentive to exertion, thrift, 
 and the like. 
 
 * Newman's " History of the Arians," pt. ii. ch. iii. p. 264. 
 
 t Of course, by " Socialism " we must understand the principles set 
 forth by the "Fabian Essays," and not the mere railing accusations which 
 sometimes usurp the name. 
 
20 2 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 The whole meaning of the New Testament word 
 "righteousness" has been narrowed down to include 
 only the personal virtues. Yet the word SiKaioaivti, 
 which is used eighty-six times in the New Testament, 
 has no such limitation. It ought, in the present state 
 of our language, to be rendered "justice;" and its 
 opposite, adiKLa, which is used twenty-five times, should 
 be rendered "injustice." Without this clearly before 
 us, we should never be able to understand the patristic 
 use of Holy Scripture. 
 
 St. Clement of Rome* asks the question how we 
 may be found among those who wait for God and receive 
 the promises ? and he answers not only that we must be 
 mentally settled Godwards, but also that "we must 
 bring about a state of things agreeable to His holy Will, 
 casting out from us all injustice, anarchy, covetous- 
 ness, competition, ugly customs and deceitful ways, 
 slanders, detractions and hatred of God, class arro- 
 gance, pretence, pomposity, and cliquiness. Those who 
 peddle in such matters are hateful to God — ay, and 
 not only those, but they too who compromise with 
 them." St. Clement f pits the sympathy of the Gospel 
 against what some modern Churchmen dare to praise as 
 a thing natural and inevitable, the greed and grab of 
 modern business. Then, again, St. Clement regarded 
 * I Cor. XXXV. 2, Leipsic edit. t 2 Cor. iv. 
 
Social Teaching of the Fathers. 203 
 
 the world to come, not as a mere continuation of this 
 world, but as its mortal foe. Yet he did not push his 
 revolutionary tenets so far as to neglect present facts. 
 He found rich and poor, and bade the former supply the 
 needs of the latter, and the latter thank God for giving 
 him a helper. We may say that the apostolic Fathers 
 no more elaborated Christian Socialism than they did 
 Catholic theology. But they laid down social principles, 
 and those clearly — St. Clement of Reform ; St. Ignatius 
 of Social Union ; and St. Polycarp of that Unworld- 
 liness without which no great reforms have been or 
 ever will be carried. Yet St. Polycarp pointed out 
 that the greatest obstacle to the work of the Church 
 was money-loving.* St. Ignatius insists upon the power 
 of Christ's grace to break every bond,t and distinctly 
 tells us that indifference to social wrongs and woes is a 
 note of heterodoxy,! although he did not specify either 
 the way the bonds were to be broken, or the medicines 
 to be used against social woes. The Shepherd of Hermas 
 is perhaps of a slightly later date than these, if for no 
 other reason, because the social teaching has grown. The 
 rich Christians are there shown to us as round white 
 stones, unfit for building into the Church triumphant 
 until they be squared, by the paring off of their riches. § 
 
 * Phil. iii. 3- t Phila. v. 8. 
 
 X Smyrn. vi. 2. § Vis. iii. 8, 
 
204 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Indiscriminate alms is insisted upon,* and the writer 
 even assumes that the- natives of the city of God are 
 likely to lose their lives at the hands of the ruler of this 
 world, " as rebels against his law," 
 
 This charge is, of course, the one which alone 
 accounts for the persecutions the Church endured. 
 Other things might be pretexts, but the reason for per- 
 secution was that the Faith was suspected of contra- 
 dicting the constitution, of breeding slave wars, and of 
 denying the sovereignty of Caesar. Hence the test 
 applied to Christians — the sacrifice to Caesar, the god 
 of things as they are. Hence too, perhaps, the symbols 
 of the Lamb and the Dove, which marked the spiritual 
 warfare against the Wolf and the Eagle. 
 
 We should not be likely under these circumstances 
 to find the Apologists insisting very explicitly upon 
 the social bearing of the Faith. Yet Aristides,t in his 
 long-concealed Apology, tells us that the Christians 
 allowed no class distinctions. Athenagoras, who casually 
 admits that Christians held slaves, yet found Plato and 
 his social schemes not to be practical enough. It is 
 not a little curious that both he, Tatian, Theophylus 
 of Antioch, and Hermias, the literary Apologists of the 
 second century, should all ridicule the kings of old 
 
 * Sim. i. 6. Compare AiSax^ i- 5 and Ap. Constit. vii. i. 
 t c, XV. 
 
Social Teaching of the Fathers. 205 
 
 philosophy as mere " sky pilots "—the very charge which 
 secularists now bring, not without reason, against some 
 of our clergy. St. Justin Martyr had already explained * 
 that "what human law had been unable to accomplish, 
 the Word came to do ; " and that meant, and was under- 
 stood to mean, that Christ came to fulfil our social and 
 political deficiencies, and therefore to act also upon the 
 plane of politics and the social life. St. Justin boldly 
 applies the second great commandment to equality of 
 possession, even in a stronger way than our modern 
 Socialists would quite relish : " If one really loves one's 
 neighbour as one's self, one will both work and pray to 
 get him all the good things one gets one's self."t Justin's 
 pupil Tatian distinctly tells us J that he fell in love with 
 the Church, not only because of the low morality of the 
 Greeks, but because of their political anomalies ; " but 
 these are the principles which will free us from our 
 host of rulers, and enable us to have what God has 
 sent for us." The Epistle of Barnabas, which cannot 
 be later than Tatian's time, and which the most educated 
 early Church — the Alexandrine — received as genuine, 
 gives the whole pith of Christian Socialism : § " Thou 
 shalt have all things in common with thy neighbour, 
 and not call them thy private property ; for if ye hold 
 
 » Apol. c. xi. t Tryph. 95. 
 
 J § 29. § cxix. 8. 
 
2o6 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 the imperishable things in common, how much more 
 the perishable ? " Is not this exactly like the words of 
 the Rev. Stewart Headlam : " Those who come to the 
 Holy Communion are bound to be holy Communists " ? 
 
 Such teaching is all the more striking, and stands 
 out in bolder belief, when we remember that ^there was 
 no State then, in our sense of the word. There were 
 governors above and subjects below, but the people 
 were not, and indeed are hardly even yet, so organized 
 as to be able to hold common property. Socialists had 
 to be content for a very long time with almsgiving, 
 bounty, and little communes, like the monasteries, in 
 their slow approach to the new Jerusalem of Justice. 
 
 Irenseus, St. Polycarp's disciple, continued the same 
 tradition. In his synodical letter from Lyons, he 
 writes, " In whatsoever direction a man can do good 
 to his neighbours and does not do it, he shall be deemed 
 an alien from the love of God." Clemens Alexandrinus 
 was a great and learned writer, and, though no saint, 
 yet necessary to us for the defence of the canon. He 
 has always been beloved of scholars from St. Hilary 
 down to John Selden ; and in him we find that 
 enthusiasm for Plato, especially for his Republic, which 
 grew with the Church, as she grew in intellectual 
 stature. Plato is for him the Attic Moses. Plato pre- 
 figures the Republic of Christ, St. Chrysostom thought. 
 
Social Teaching of the Fathers. 207 
 
 His teaching is "hardly ever alien from the Church," 
 and he is " the noble philosopher, whose disciples can 
 with very little change bow their necks to Christ," as 
 St. Augustine puts it. His philosophy has not un- 
 reasonably been called "the meshing of the gospel 
 net." Clement takes pains to show us that it is Plato's 
 Communism he approves of; and, indeed, so zealous is 
 the Christian author for Socialism, that he actually 
 wrests Holy Scripture on behalf of it. "Pythagoras 
 poetically sums up the Mosaic teaching on justice, when 
 he says one must not turn the balance (Zvyov) of the 
 scales ; that is, out of respect to justice one must not 
 overstep equality in distribution. 
 
 ' Friend leans on friend, and State depends on State ; 
 Each comrade bears about a comrade's fate. 
 Equality is man's most natural law ; 
 But always strife and days of war abide,' 
 When Have and Have-not live here side by side ' — 
 
 as it is poetically put. It was for this that the Lord 
 said, ' Take My yoke (^vyov) upon you, for it is easy and 
 light ; ' and to those who were competing about social 
 precedence, He gave one simple word of command — 
 ' equality.' He bade them become as little children. 
 Likewise the Apostle writes that in Christ no one is 
 slave or free, Greek or Jew ; for the new creation in Christ 
 is non-competitive, non-covetous, and a just equality." 
 The entire condemnation of usury is so strong and 
 
2o8 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 so well known that we need not insist upon that, for the 
 Church continued her warfare against it until the days 
 of the prophet Jeremy Bentham — so successfully that 
 Renan * accuses her of putting back civilization for a 
 thousand years ; because she would not allow that a 
 man may lawfully take what he has neither frankly 
 begged nor fairly earned. 
 
 But it is more significant that Clemens utterly departs 
 from Plato on the slavery question.! " We must treat 
 slaves as we do ourselves ; for if we would but see it, He 
 is equally the God of the slaves and the free." St. 
 Chrysostom, too, says that of course, when the Holy 
 Ghost fell upon the Church, the slaves were all manu- 
 mitted. St. Augustine contends that slavery is as 
 unnatural as sin, and says that no Christian may " own 
 a man, as he would own a horse or money ; " and, 
 indeed, it seems to have been a received opinion 
 among primitive believers that, as Innocent I. put it,J 
 "nature bore men free, fortune made men slaves," and 
 a slave "has such treatment as no man would inflict 
 upon himself ; " and therefore that the conditions 
 clashed with Christian law — an argument which also 
 admits of wider application. 
 
 Of course, Clemens Alexandrinus fell foul of Plato 
 
 * Marcus Aurelius, c. xxxii. f Fed. iii. 12. 
 
 X " De Vilitate Conditionis Humanse." 
 
Social Teaching of the Fathers. 209 
 
 upon the community of wives question. His attitude 
 was that of Tertullian, who sarcastically tells the 
 Imperial pagans "our Socialism ends just where yours 
 begins." Indeed, the Christian criticism upon the Re- 
 public during the first six centuries is singularly unlike 
 that one now hears passed. It is from the standpoint 
 not of our genteel academies, still less from that of our 
 episcopal palaces, but rather from that of the Guild of 
 St. Matthew. St. Chrysostom, for instance, contrasts 
 Plato's Republic and Christ's ; " His doctrine can only 
 be understood by the learned, but labourers, sailors, and 
 masons can see ours ; his plans are all city ones, but 
 ours do in deserts too ; his way needs full-grown men, 
 but ours does even for babes." Or, in loose modern 
 phrase, Plato was an aristocrat, but Christ democratic. 
 
 The early Christian writer who most nearly denies 
 the Platonic Communism is Lactantius. " Plato adopted 
 the Socratic teaching that the force of justice resides in 
 equality. He says, ' Since all have an equal status at 
 birth, they should own no private property whatsoever ; 
 but to get this equality which rational justice demands, 
 they should possess everything in common.' This is 
 sufferable so long as the question is merely one of 
 money ; but even that, how impossible and how unjust 
 it is, I could show with much matter. But let it pass, 
 and let us suppose it to be practicable." He then falls 
 
 P 
 
2IO Vox Clamantium. 
 
 savagely upon Plato's proposed community of wives, and 
 shows that it would result in mere anarchy.* But even 
 Lactantius could write thus : " Democritus is praised 
 for throwing up his lands and letting them lapse into 
 public pasture. I should like him if he had given them 
 to the public ; but nothing is wisely done, which if it 
 were done all round would be useless and evil." And 
 later on in his life he was wiser still, and gave us plenty 
 of excellent Socialism in his book on " Justice." 
 
 Clement of Alexandria, once more, has strong views 
 upon what we should now call women's rights,t holding 
 that as both men and women already have one God, 
 one schoolmaster, one Church, common virtues and com- 
 mon senses, a common grace and a common salvation, 
 equality in the Love-feast and an equal education, so 
 they must have but one moral code. 
 
 The thesis that the Christian Church was strongly 
 Socialist in tone at this time, is borne out not only by 
 the attacks of her enemies, but by the exaggerations of 
 heretics. 
 
 We have already noticed the great fact of the 
 persecutions, which sifted the cceremonia illicita from 
 the ccsremonia licita, and decided that our Faith was one 
 of the worships which contradict the constitution. Let 
 us now turn our attention to Clement's great pupil 
 * " De falsa SapientiS," lib. iii. t Fed. i. 4. 
 
Social Teaching of the Fathers. 211 
 
 Origen, and his controversy with Celsus. The gravest 
 charge made by the latter against the Church was "that 
 the Christian and the Jewish religions both originated 
 in revolution (crramg)." * 
 
 The charge was cleverly made, for " Israel came out 
 of Egypt " with something very like a great brick- 
 makers' strike, and the Christian Society is assuredly 
 one which aims at turning the world upside down. 
 Origen's answer was first a challenge to his opponent 
 to name any armed rising the Christians had caused ; 
 and secondly, an appeal to Christ's law, which works no 
 violence, nor does men to death ; but the defence evades 
 the gist of the charge, and merely emphasizes the fact — 
 possibly well known to Celsus — that the Church does 
 not appeal to that clumsy weapon the sword. 
 
 . As to the exaggeration of heretics, we may mention 
 Epiphanes and Basilides, who both taught Communism 
 very much in the acrid spirit of some of our anti- 
 religious Socialists. Among other things, those heretics, 
 like some modern writers, laughed to scorn the notion 
 that one should not lust after one's neighbour's wife ; 
 and when they were confuted, since this was the only 
 tenet which was attacked, may we not say that the rest 
 of their teaching, though not their tone, was approved 
 by implication ? 
 
 * Origen (Migne), iii. 7, p. 451. 
 
212 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Origen, in his zeal for allegory, often dissolves the 
 plain New Testament denunciations of the rich into 
 warnings against the pride of intellect, and makes the 
 blessings pronounced upon the poor fall upon the head 
 of the Gentiles. Nevertheless, when he does take these 
 literally, his fierceness of invective against those "unclean 
 and twisty camels " the rich, knows no limits, and he 
 bears emphatic testimony to the fact that the Word 
 teaches equality. " As you can see in most of the 
 orthodox Churches, especially in the large towns, the 
 leaders of God's people take no precedence ; and they 
 make no exception even for the most perfect disciples 
 of Jesus." * 
 
 We are now passing on to the Arian heresy and the 
 times of the Greek Doctors. This heresy, for all its 
 subtilty, not only had a political and social bearing, but 
 this side of it was to the civic authorities the chief side. 
 The question as to whether the Divine Son was in any 
 way inferior in essence to the Eternal Father, meant in 
 effect : Is the Mystical Body of Chri.st, the Church, in any 
 way inferior to that Natural Society, the State, which in 
 its way expresses the natural order, and God the Father ? 
 In other words, is the Empire to rule the Church or to 
 get out of her way ? This is why the emperors were 
 Arians. This is why the Imperial party first pooh- 
 
 * iii. § 724. 
 
Social Teaching of the Fathers. 213 
 
 poohed the Catholics, and then persecuted them with 
 such inconceivable fury. The history of the fourth 
 century is no less a history of social reformers fighting 
 against reaction because the battle was fought out in 
 the schools and on the lofty plane of accurate and 
 technical theology. SS. Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and 
 Athanasius were none the less Socialist because they 
 were fighting for the very citadel of fundamental theory 
 and not for mere legal applications. Often they declare 
 the same themselves. St. Basil, for instance, says bluntly 
 that "the Word calls us to socialism, altruism, and 
 realism " * (or correspondence with Nature), " for man is 
 a social and an interdependent animal." So far from 
 thinking poverty and slavery to be natural and inevitable, 
 these Fathers regarded them as the diseases which were 
 bred of sin, and which the Church has been founded to 
 cure. Here is St. Gregory Nazianzen's view t — 
 
 " Do let us remember God's law, which is highest 
 and first. He rains upon the just and upon sinners, and 
 makes His sun to rise upon all alike. He has prepared 
 the earth, field, springs, rivers, and woods for all the 
 dwellers upon dry land ; the air for the winged things, 
 and the water for those whose life is of that. He has 
 given the necessaries of life to all jointly, without limit 
 or stint ; not impossibly conditioned or legally hedged, 
 
 * In Psalm xiv. 6. t xiv. 2$, Oratio. 
 
214 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 not prescribed by partitions ; but He has bestowed the 
 same in common and richly, and has left no want 
 unsupplied. He regards the natural equality of rank 
 by an equality of gift, and displays the riches of His 
 kindness. But men must needs get gold and silver 
 and all sorts of soft clothes, and useless shining stones, 
 and all such matters, which are the symbols of war 
 and rebellion and tyranny. With these they are 
 stupidly elated, and shut up their mercy against their 
 kindred in distress, and refuse to succour them even 
 with necessities out of their own superfluities. What 
 blockishness ! What stupidity ! Whatever we do, 
 pray let us reflect that poverty and riches, what we 
 call freedom and slavery, and similarly named things, 
 are later effects on the race of men. They are the 
 common diseases which have fallen upon our baseness, 
 and the symptoms of that. But in the beginning it 
 was not so. He who first formed man, made him free 
 and a master, bound only by the law of God's command- 
 ment, and rich in the luxury of Paradise. All this He 
 wished to bestow upon the rest of mankind, who should 
 spring from the first man's seed." 
 
 St. Athanasius also is far from thinking that the 
 Divine Word operates only in the sphere of the personal 
 and immaterial life, and provides some ready-made here- 
 after for those, who have despaired of God's republic 
 
Social TeacKing of the Fathers. 215 
 
 here. He goes out of his way to tell us that the work 
 of atonement would be incomplete, and Christ would not 
 have reeeived His due, unless all things were given Him, 
 including the earth, including food and rest for the 
 workers and burden bearers ; and that if we did not have 
 rest and food, the primal curse would not be removed.* 
 While SS. Athanasius, Gregory, and Basil were de- 
 fending the Catholic theory, St. Chrysostom was speak- 
 ing to the common people, and speaking clear and 
 concrete things. Take his sixth sermon on the First 
 Epistle to the Corinthians. He is examining into the 
 checks which the Church has received, though the Word 
 abides still with her, and concludes that these checks 
 have come, not because we have no miracles, but be- 
 cause we have let go the Pentecostal Communism, " the 
 angelic life," and fallen back on private property. " But 
 if we lived as they did (with all things in common), we 
 should soon convert the whole world, with no need of 
 miracles at all." Indeed, St. Chrysostom is full of the 
 plainest and most emphatic Socialism. Take his ex- 
 planation of ttXeove^io, covetousness,t as the desire for 
 more things than those to which our faculties can cor- 
 respond — over-endowment we might call it ; whereas 
 ^iXapyvpia is that " thrift " which is now preached to 
 the poor as a virtue, and practised by those of us 
 
 * Migne's Athan., i. p. 212. f Horn. xxv. Acts 
 
2i6 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 whose wills are sworn under such huge sums. St. 
 Chrysostom was always impressing upon people that the 
 Communion which the Apostles taught "was not only a 
 matter of prayer and doctrine, but extended into their 
 political and social relations." * 
 
 In his eleventh sermon on the Acts, St. Chrysostom 
 points out that private bounty tends to vainglory, but 
 the early Christians gave in their corporate capacity — 
 . nationalizing everything, as we should say. Waxing 
 warm over that beautiful text, " Great grace was upon 
 them all, neither was there any that lacked," he points 
 out that thus, and thus only, can we get great grace. 
 He thunders against social inequalities. He points out 
 how all could be made rich by a total renunciation of 
 private property. Amid the cheers and groans of his 
 hearers, he sketches the effects of the Apostolic Com- 
 munism applied to his own city ; urges that if it were 
 possible when believers were so few, much more is it 
 possible now ; and he then descends into political 
 economy, and shows how much cheaper co-operative 
 methods are than separative and competitive ones. To 
 St. Chrysostom the Christian warfare was no scramble 
 for the best in a hereafter. It was a war of eman- 
 cipation here.f He had a keen sense of the horrors 
 of competition, and is as furious at it in labourers 
 * Horn. vii. Acts. t Ephes. vi. 
 
Social Teaching of the Fathers. 217 
 
 and hucksters as in society ladies and merchant 
 princes.* 
 
 If the Greek writers excelled in sTriyv(i)(nQ, the Latins 
 bear the bell for aUOrimg. If the former are deeper, 
 quicker, and more subtle, the latter put their principles 
 more immediately to work. In them, too, it is true to 
 say that they are Socialist in exact proportion to their 
 orthodoxy. 
 
 Tertullian, in his Apology,t redeems a rather con- 
 servative and questionable passage, wherein he prays 
 for " the delay of the end " by a splendid passage upon 
 the fraternity, which Christians so believed in, that they 
 extended it even to their pagan persecutors. "Why, 
 we are even brothers in income, the very question 
 which almost tears your fraternity to tatters. So we, 
 who are one in mind and soul, make no balk at 
 common property. Everything we have is our common 
 and equal property, except wives. Our Socialism ends 
 just where yours begins." 
 
 St. Cyprian J insists that none of the gifts of God 
 are given us to be our private property, or ought to 
 be claimed to the exclusion of others. The land and 
 its products ought to be as common to men as are the 
 sun, clouds, winds, sleep, stars, and moon ; and he calls 
 
 * Horn. X, I Thess. t Ap. 39. 
 
 t " De Opere et Eleemosynis." 
 
21 8 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 upon landlords and crop-lords to use these, as God 
 shows how, for the common benefit. That this is 
 " bounty " and not " State Socialism " is, of course, only 
 because, as we have said, the State, in our sense of the 
 word, was not yet evolved. 
 
 St. Jerome again and again points out that salvation 
 without active labour is impossible,* and ordered the 
 Egyptian monasteries to let no one off his work and 
 labour. Indeed, the monastic life altogether is itself 
 a witness to the fact that throughout the ages the 
 Church has believed that the higher life is inconsistent 
 with private property. 
 
 St. Ambrose, too, held opinions which would certainly 
 have brought him into no little trouble in the modern 
 Church. This is how he regards the fowls of heaven : 
 " They are a great example, truly, and one worthy of 
 our faithful imitation ; for if God's providence never fails 
 to supply the fowls of heaven, albeit they use no hus- 
 bandry, and trouble nothing about the prospects of the 
 harvest, the true cause of our want would seem to be 
 avarice. It is for this reason that they have an abun- 
 dance of suitable victuals, because they have not learnt 
 to claim as their private and peculiar property the 
 fruits of the earth, which have been given to them in 
 common for their food. We have lost common pro- 
 
 * Cf. "Ep. ad Rusticum Mon." 
 
Social Teaching of the Fathers. 219 
 
 perty by the claims of private property. Yet nothing 
 can be one's own, when all is so transitory ; nor can 
 there be an assured plenty, when the disposal of it is 
 uncertain." This is how he meditates upon Naboth 
 the Jezreelite : " How far will your mad lusts take you, 
 ye rich people ? Till you dwell alone upon the earth ? 
 Why do you at once turn Nature out-of-doors, and 
 claim the possession of her for your own selves ? The 
 land was made for all ; why do you rich men claim it 
 as your private property? Nature knows nothing of 
 rich men : she bore us all poor." With this we can 
 compare another passage : * " The philosophers thought 
 that justice might be defined as keeping common or 
 public things for public purposes, and private ones for 
 individual uses. This is quite unnatural, for Nature 
 lavished all things for all in common. So, likewise, 
 God bade all things to be produced, that all should have 
 common pasture, and the land should be a kind of 
 property common to all men. Nature, then, produced 
 common property ; robbery made private property." 
 Proudhon himself could have hardly put it more 
 bluntly ; and these are no isolated instances. Justice 
 is as much associated by St. Ambrose with nationalized 
 property as it is with Plato himself. 
 
 St. Augustine was not one whit behind his great 
 
 * " De Off. Minist." cap. xxviii. 
 
2 20 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 teacher.* "That is a most harmful counsel which a 
 man gives to himself — to seek his own, and not the 
 things which are God's. But in His heritage because 
 He is ours, when He deigns for our solace to manifest 
 Himself, we with the saints shall suffer none of the 
 social miseries which come from love of what is our 
 own, the so-called private property. Indeed, that most 
 glorious city of God, when she comes into her promised 
 inheritance, where none is born and none can die, will 
 not have citizens who privately enjoy their separate 
 possessions, for God will be all in all. And whosoever 
 in this our pilgrimage faithfully and earnestly has 
 longed for His society, makes a practice of always 
 preferring common things to private ones, seeking not 
 his own, but the things which are Jesus Christ's." In 
 a similar vein he interprets the psalm Memento David. 
 If a man has a house or bed of his own, he will never 
 find or be a " place for the Lord." " Private property is 
 the cause of lawsuits, jars, duels, revolutions, party feuds, 
 scandals, sins, injustice, and murders ; " and " so let us 
 keep from private property altogether, or, if that is 
 impracticable, at least from the love of it." 
 
 St. Augustine also struck a note which the Church 
 has never let die, and which is a death-knell to the 
 pseudo-social reforms such as vegetarianism, teeto- 
 * Enarr. in Psalm cv. (Vulg.). 
 
Social Teaching of the Fathers. 221 
 
 talism, and the like. " It was not for pork, but for 
 pippins, that the first man met death ; and Esau lost 
 his birthright, not for poultry, but for pottage. I know, 
 too, that Noah was given for food, all kinds of flesh 
 which can be eaten ; that Elijah was refreshed with 
 flesh food ; and that John, endowed as he was with 
 marvellous abstinence, was not defiled with the 
 animals — to wit, locusts — which fell to his food. Yes, 
 I know Esau was deceived with the lust of pottage ; 
 and David severely rebuked himself for his desire for 
 water ; and that our King was tempted, not with 
 butcher's meat, but with bread." * 
 
 St. Leo, in one of his sermons, lays down the usual 
 maxim that collective property is always to be preferred 
 before private property, because the general watch 
 and ward over is more likely to secure a right use of it. 
 
 There is one author with whom we may fittingly 
 close this essay, St. Gregory the Great, the friend of 
 the English. Both the necessity of his unhappy, 
 disorderly time, and his own ruling spirit, tended to 
 make him a friend to authority and a foe to innovation. 
 His teaching upon social subjects is cautious, and he 
 tries to balance his utterances. If he tells us that 
 riches are very dangerous to the spiritual life, he 
 almost immediately tells us that the faithful Abraham 
 
 * Cf. S. Bernard in Apologetic. 
 
222 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 was rich.* If he tells us that the Gospel calls equally 
 to men of every class, he is careful to add that to each 
 type of character the call comes in a different manner.f 
 If he has to point out that men who have heard the 
 voice of God often defy the powers that be, he is 
 careful to show that they also burn with charity 
 towards those whom they rebuke, f 
 
 Yet St Gregory, in his " Pastoralis Cura," a book 
 which " has always been a text-book for the formation 
 of members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy," § and 
 which more than any of his works bears the mark 
 of extreme care and compressed thought, distinctly 
 explains his theory of almsgiving, and explains it from 
 a strongly socialist standpoint. This is all the more 
 telling, because the boundless generosity of the saint, 
 and his severe attention to sympathetic almsgiving, 
 are the keynotes of his whole life. He was more 
 renowned for his almsdeeds even than for anything 
 else in his strenuous and valorous career ; and those 
 who came after him blamed him, if for anything, for a 
 charity which exceeded his very powers of giving. 
 His words to those who are called upon to teach the 
 Faith are these : || " This is how we must preach to 
 
 * Magna Moralia, iv. 60, 61 ; x. 41-49. t Ibid., vi. 21, Z2. 
 
 X Ibid., vii. S3, 54. § Father H. J. Coleridge, Preface to Dialogues. 
 II De Cura Pastorali, Tertia pars, c, xxi. 
 
Social Teaching of the Fathers. 223 
 
 those who neither covet other men's goods nor yet 
 bestow their own in alms. We must make them clearly 
 understand that the land which yields them income is 
 the common property of all men, and for this reason 
 the fruits of it which are brought forth are for the 
 common welfare. It is therefore absurd for people to 
 think they do no harm when they claim God's common 
 gift of food as their private property, or that they are 
 not robbers, when they do not pass on what they have 
 received to their neighbours. Absurd ! because almost 
 as many folk die daily as they have rations locked up 
 for at home. Really, when we administer any neces- 
 sities to the poor, we give them their own ; we do 
 not bestow our goods upon them. We do not fulfil 
 the works of mercy ; we discharge the debt of justice. 
 Hence it was that Very Truth, when He told us to be 
 careful to show mercy, said, ' See that ye do not your 
 justice before men.' In harmony with this the psalmist 
 too said, ' He hath dispersed. He hath given to the poor. 
 His justice remaineth for ever.' For when he reviewed 
 a lavish generosity to the poor, he chose to call it 
 justice rather than mercy, because what is given us 
 by a common God is only justly used when those who 
 have received it use it in common. Such people must 
 also be told to consider carefully the barren fig tree. 
 The husbandman quarrelled with it, because it merely 
 
2 24 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 held the land. Indeed, a barren fig tree holds the 
 land when the mind of the owners idly keeps what 
 could benefit so many. A barren fig tree holds the 
 land when a fool overcasts with the shadow of his 
 inactivity a place which another could use with the 
 sunshine of good work." 
 
 It is with social teaching of this sort that the 
 English people received their Church — teaching which 
 was no idle whim of a few loose thinkers, but the 
 settled conviction of the highest and saintliest of the 
 Church's own teachers. And when, after a long winter 
 of protestant discontent and commercial individualism, 
 such teaching is once more found among us, we might 
 expect that our leading and most learned Churchmen 
 would welcome it indeed. Such, unhappily, is not yet 
 
 the case. 
 
 Charles L. Marson. 
 
Meliora. 
 
 The feeble folk wane through the ages, and careless 
 the Mighty Ones smite them ; 
 Who is there that shall avenge the shedding of inno- 
 cent blood ? 
 Over the earth and the sea, the spoiler and slayer 
 triumph, 
 Till the low sobs grow to a shriek, and the tears to a 
 flood. 
 Careless are they, the strong, secure of the fathomless 
 Future ; 
 As it has been, shall it be down to the pitiless end ? 
 
 In dark dens, by the hills, or the sea, long ages the 
 bickering cave-men. 
 Armed with their sharpened flints, rob and ravish 
 and slay ; 
 The smoke of the Aztec victims steams up from the 
 Mexican altars, 
 
 Q 
 
2 26 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 And the quivering heart is torn by the priests from 
 the living breast ; 
 The bearded Assyrian treads on the necks of the van- 
 quished foemen ; 
 The shafts from the chariots pierce the huddled 
 wretches who fly. 
 On the tombs of the Nile's grave lords still marches the 
 doleful procession — 
 The captives go forth to swift death or the lifelong 
 doom of the slave. 
 Laurel-crowned, up the Capitol's steep the heavy-eyed 
 Caesar advances ; 
 Splendid the triumph rolls by, with the fettered 
 captives behind ; 
 The famished lions leap forth on their prey in the 
 bloody arena, 
 And for ages no pitying thrill touches those merciless 
 hearts. 
 Thro' all time under African skies, the tyrant or slaver 
 oppresses. 
 The red man slays and is slain on the limitless plains 
 of the West. 
 Thro' the weary suffering Past, far and wide, on land 
 and o'er ocean. 
 The feeble are trampled down, and only the mighty 
 are blest. 
 
Meliora. 227 
 
 Comes there no end of these things ? shall men murder 
 and ravage for ever ? 
 Shall not a mightier hand give to the desolate 
 Peace ? 
 
 And thou, my Britain, unconquered, untrod by the foot 
 of the foeman, 
 Hast thou deep Peace indeed in thy borders, or 
 imminent strife ? 
 Thou who slayest the savage with bolts from thy mur- 
 derous death-dealing engines. 
 And lettest thy children starve in the midst of the 
 plenty around, 
 Tho' to-day thou seemest at rest, shalt thou scorn the 
 lesson of ages. 
 Singing thoughtless paeans of Peace in a time wherein 
 no Peace is ? 
 When the graves of the slain lie thick, Lorraine, on thy 
 vine-covered hillsides. 
 And the New World groans and throbs with the stress 
 of a fratricide strife ; 
 When Europe, half ruined, reels 'neath the load of her 
 arm^d battalions, 
 And the peoples, affrighted, shrink back from the 
 thought of the terrors to be ; 
 
2 28 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 When fiends plot together in secret, driven mad by un- 
 reasoning hatred, 
 Flinging death and destruction unmoved, tho' only 
 the innocent bleed, 
 And the groans of the strong men rise, who fain would 
 labour, but may not. 
 While their pale-faced children starve or rot in their 
 fever-fraught dens ; — 
 What heart has a man to tell of an Infinite Mercy and 
 Pity, 
 Whose ears grow deaf with the noise of the woes and 
 the sorrows around ? 
 
 Shall the common lot take thee too, O dear land, the 
 doom of the feeble, 
 When the strength that was thine is spent, and the 
 foemen beleaguer thee sore ? 
 Nay ; spare thou the reckless savage, who flings his rude 
 manhood against thee. 
 Whom thy pitiless engines mow down as a mower the 
 grass of the field. 
 But keep thou thy Power unassailed, and be just and 
 fear not the future ; 
 With equal and merciful laws make thou thy wide 
 Empire, rejoice ! 
 
Meliora. 229 
 
 Be to thy children a mother, be they as brother to 
 brother, 
 Acting the precept divine which was taught by their 
 Teacher and Lord. 
 Let thy strong sons raise up thy weak, through a Christ- 
 like strength of compassion, 
 Bearing each other's burdens, and lightening each 
 other's woes. 
 Let not the State any more turn with careless aspect 
 averted 
 From the sight of the people's pain, unheeding their 
 pitiful cry. 
 Scorn thou the pedants who prate of dead laws stern 
 and unbending, 
 Based only on selfish instincts, and spurning the 
 general good. 
 Knowing one limit alone to the Commonwealth's pro- 
 vince of mercy ; 
 That no action of all shall mar the life-giving effort 
 of each. 
 Let thy Empire of self-governed men prove how weak 
 is the arm of the despot. 
 How mighty the sum of the strength of myriads 
 obeying the law. 
 Save thou the weak from themselves when strong temp- 
 tations assail them. 
 
230 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 The Curses of Greed and of Sloth, the Demons of 
 
 Lust and of Drink. 
 By patient toil without price, raise thou in the hearts of 
 
 the lowly, 
 The white bloom of knowledge, to swell to wisdom's 
 
 ineffable fruit. 
 
 Destroy not the humble home, when the strength of the 
 worker has vanished, 
 And the young have gone from the nest, and the 
 cottage is silent and still. 
 Let the State, with wise providence, aid the faithful 
 servants of labour 
 To an honest wage for their toil, and relief from the 
 sorrows of age. 
 Raise the myriads of poor and cast-down from the 
 sloughs where to-day they languish. 
 Teach them the civic sense ; their duty to man and 
 to God. 
 Join thou and thy children your strength, till the nations 
 learn the unreason. 
 The folly, the mischief, the crime of the murderous 
 evils of war ; 
 Let a mightier Union of Peace dispel the jealous sus- 
 picions. 
 
Meliora. 231 
 
 The anger, the senseless rage, which divide and 
 
 distract men to-day. 
 Till the clear Voice of Justice is heard, August, Inviolate, 
 
 Awful, 
 Where now are the myriad cries of causeless passion 
 
 and hate. 
 
 Then let the Judge ascend to his Throne, and the strong 
 and the weak be judged. 
 
 Lewis Morris. 
 
A Lay Sermon to Preachers. 
 
 It is not without a sly feeling of good-humoured 
 revenge that a layman, who in his early days suffered 
 much at the hands of preachers, finds himself at length 
 in possession of the pulpit with his former tyrants for 
 victims. 
 
 There is something so sweetly seductive to English- 
 men in preaching and being preached at ; it suits our 
 national character and climate so well, that I do not 
 doubt when the present unintelligent and unintelligible 
 gabble of our two hundred sects is at length silenced, 
 or at least neutralized, by the bawling of mutual con- 
 tradiction, the desire of being preached at will still be 
 the fiercest prompting in the average Englishman's 
 breast, and he will demand from other teachers that 
 spiritual profit which he now supposes himself to derive 
 from the various expounders of the various systems of 
 current theology. In those perhaps not far distant 
 future days he will possibly ask the lights of science er 
 the drama to edify him on Sunday evenings and to see to 
 
A Lay Sermon to Preachers. 233 
 
 it that his valuable Day of Rest is not wasted in mere 
 idleness or relaxation, but is turned to account and 
 made the means of his moral and spiritual improve- 
 ment. For I take it that spiritual "profit " is what our 
 nation chiefly demands from its spiritual teachers. 
 That same keenness and business persistence which 
 scourge Englishmen to the pursuit of money-making 
 for six days, till the end is entirely lost in the means 
 and the pursuit of money becomes an end in itself, also 
 scourge them on Sundays, and make them as greedy 
 and " pushing " for the good things of the next world 
 as on week-days they are greedy and pushing for the 
 good things of this. 
 
 Nothing gives me greater food for thought than 
 to watch the various English congregations streaming 
 in and out of churches and chapels on Sundays. 
 Indeed, so instructive and suggestive do I find it to 
 watch church and chapel goers from the outside, that 
 it is only by the rarest chance that I go inside. I 
 do, indeed, number amongst my most valued friends 
 priests, clergymen, and ministers of all creeds, sects, 
 and denominations, but I find them so generally obliging 
 and tolerant that they make no more ado about my 
 unbelief than my doctor does when I express doubt as 
 to the efiicacy of his drugs. He merely replies good- 
 naturedly that he has no very great faith in theni 
 
2 34 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 himself, but that they work all sorts of marvels on those 
 who do believe in them. And, besides, the drama has 
 lately been so cordially recognized by the Church as a 
 fraternal institution, that I hope there is no presumption 
 in my dealing with theological abuses and absurdities 
 in a spirit of kind inquiry and brotherly interest — in 
 short, as one of the craft. Only, as I say, I find so 
 much is to be learnt, so much spiritual instruction is to 
 be gained outside churches and chapels, that I have no 
 time to spare for the minor controversial matters which 
 occupy the preachers and congregations within. 
 
 But I will first let off my intended victims and 
 descend from the pulpit. You are free, reverend friends. 
 I have myself suffered too much from preaching to 
 wish to subject any fellow-creature of mine to such 
 useless torture. I have no wish to preach to anybody 
 upon any subject under the sun. Nothing amuses me 
 more than to find myself described as having theories 
 about education, about the drama, about this, that, and 
 the other. God be praised I haven't a theory to bless 
 myself with, and as for pretending to elevate my fellow- 
 creatures, or to be any better than the rest of them, 
 I hope I shall never do anything so mean and disagree- 
 able. 
 
 So, reverend gentlemen, I will not preach to you. 
 AH I will ask you to do is just to chat these matters 
 
A Lay Sermon to Preachers. 235 
 
 over with me, and perhaps you don't mind if your 
 congregations stand by and listen. 
 
 Well, first of all, reverend and lay friends, suppose 
 some Sunday morning you each lay aside that rather 
 greedy and selfish wish you have to profit your own 
 soul by repeating that you are a miserable sinner; 
 suppose you stay outside and watch church and chapel 
 goers in London or some great English city. In short, 
 dear good people, try for once to see yourselves from 
 the outside on Sunday. Shall we go through London 
 one Sunday? 
 
 Very well — what do we see ? Here are thousands 
 of churches and chapels, wherein are being taught 
 nearly two hundred different sets of doctrines. Do 
 try and realize what that means. Either one hundred 
 and ninety-nine of them are teaching what is false : or 
 one hundred and ninety-nine of them are teaching what 
 is non-essential and useless : or, in varying proportions, 
 they are teaching, on the one hand, what is false, and, 
 on the other, what is useless and non-essential. There 
 is no escaping from one of these three conclusions. 
 
 Now, my dear Mr. Brown, do, please, for a moment 
 leave off trying so earnestly to save that soul of yours 
 next Sunday, and try to see in how ridiculous a light 
 your own particular persuasion appears if judged by 
 this test. You will say, my dear Mr. Brown, that you 
 
236 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 are sure your own sect is right and all the other one 
 hundred and ninety-nine wrong. With all respect for 
 your judgment, my dear Mr. Brown, I cannot think, if 
 you will lay aside your own notions for a moment, 
 you will really affirm that you are any more likely 
 to be right than Mr. Smith, who holds notions so very 
 contrary to yours. He is quite as good a business 
 man as you, and I, who have no notions to enforce, and 
 am not very anxious to save my soul, must really beg 
 you to acknowledge that our friend Smith is quite as 
 likely to be right as you. But if Smith is as likely to 
 be right as you, how, my dear sir, can you, who are 
 such a good business man in other matters, continue 
 to keep up a separate organization from Smith, and 
 support a different expensive agency, and send mis- 
 sionaries into all parts of the world to teach notions, 
 which by your own acknowledgment may be non- 
 essential and useless, or possibly even false ? 
 
 And by the way, my dear Mr. Brown and my dear 
 Mr. Smith, how is it that this stupendous supernatural 
 scheme of yours is so often housed in such shabby 
 architecture "i Granted your own notions on justifica- 
 tion, sanctification, or the eastward position, or what 
 not, are correct ; and granted that I shall be damned 
 for not being able to comprehend them ; granted this, 
 my dear Browp and Smith, I don't think you have 
 
A Lay Sermon to Preachers. 237 
 
 any right to make our English streets ugly, even if you 
 are quite sure you are saving your soul and doing a 
 good turn to your co-believer Robinson the builder, 
 in the process. 
 
 I do beseech you all, without for a moment preaching 
 to you — I do beseech you to dwell for one moment on 
 the absurdity, the waste of time, the waste of money, 
 the waste of resources, the waste of brain power, the 
 waste of opportunities of gaining knowledge, the waste 
 of opportunities of healthy enjoyment implied in the 
 present organization of religion in England. Two 
 hundred sects all mutually contradicting each other on 
 notions that none of them can clearly explain ! Now, 
 my dear Mr. Brown, do watch all these people coming 
 out from other churches and chapels, all of them sup- 
 posing that in some way or the other they have bene- 
 fited their souls by affirming curious metaphysical 
 doctrines they do not understand, and that they have 
 in some indefinite, unimaginable way helped on the 
 movement of the universe and the march of events 
 in this planet in certain complex matters where the 
 efficacy of their prayers cannot be put to proof. 
 
 Of course I know, my dear Mr. Brown, you recoil 
 from the alternative that one hundred and ninety-nine 
 of these sects can be engaged in expounding and 
 propagating useless and non-essential doctrines. But 
 
238 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 granted this, or granted the other alternative — that one 
 sect only is right and all the others wrong — either way, 
 see what your belief implies. Every member of each 
 of these two hundred sects, every believer in any one 
 of them, must of necessity also accept (though he will 
 not own it to himself) this monstrous and necessary 
 deduction from his belief. Every believer of the 
 accepted doctrinal Theology must also believe that 
 the Author of this universe, whose remote stars flash 
 light that started on its voyage to our eyes hun- 
 dreds of thousands, and perhaps millions, of years 
 ago ; — that the Author of this universe, at certain 
 periods a few thousand years ago, so far departed 
 from His apparently eternal method of governing the 
 universe as to vouchsafe a miraculous dispensation to 
 this planet, and to authenticate it in Person ; — that this 
 extraordinary supernatural message which gave Him 
 so much suffering and weariness to deliver was so 
 loosely conveyed and so badly understood by those 
 to whom it was confided, that from the very beginning 
 there have been all sorts of quarrels and quibbles 
 about it ; that after taking the trouble to deliver 
 it in Person, He did not take enough trouble to see 
 that it was plainly and unmistakably written down 
 and attested in such a way as to prevent you, my dear 
 Mr. Brown, and you, my dear Mr. Smith, and dozens of 
 
A Lay Sermon of Preachers. 239 
 
 other equally intelligent and earnest Browns and Smiths, 
 from all holding different and mutually contradictory 
 notions as to what is or is not necessary to believe for the 
 salvation of your souls. Now, my dear Mr. Brown, I do 
 not care a fig to which of these two hundred sects you 
 belong ; I do not care a fig about historical criticism upon 
 the authenticity of sacred documents ; I say that if 
 there is only one honest, intelligent doubter on the face 
 of this planet, one man who, with the strength of the 
 reason given to him, as you will say, by that same 
 Power, calls in question the authority, or the reasonable- 
 ness, or the righteousness of this supernatural scheme 
 of yours, the whole of it is condemned. See how you 
 degrade your Maker by supposing Him to have hung 
 the eternal happiness or misery of you His children 
 upon the comprehension of a curious, illogical, meta- 
 physical scheme, of which scheme there have been 
 during the ages all sorts of conflicting interpretations 
 or misinterpretations ; of which scheme there are to-day 
 in England two hundred conflicting interpretations or 
 misinterpretations ; and concerning which scheme, what 
 parts are necessary and essential, what parts are 
 unnecessary and non-essential, and what parts are 
 false and mischievous, scarcely two honest searchers 
 can be found to agree. 
 
 But, my dear Mr. Brown, you will say that you 
 
240 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 are all agreed about essentials. Then do pray tell 
 me what are essentials. Will the next Church Congress 
 or the next Congregational Union affirm what are 
 essentials ? — for instance, is Hell an essential ? I am 
 not preaching to you, reverend fathers, God forbid ! I 
 am only asking you to make up your minds what my 
 friends Brown and Smith are to believe. For my 
 own part I have been in perfect peace for many years 
 about all these things. What are essentials ? What 
 belief is necessary .' Plainly and simply, is there a 
 Hell to which my friends Brown and Smith will go if 
 they don't believe in it .' Yes or No ? And is it eternal ? 
 Yes or No? And is it physical or spiritual torture? 
 Yes or No ? Will the next Church Congress answer 
 these questions } Surely this is not asking too much ? 
 Surely if there is a revelation it must be definite and 
 unmistakable, at least on such vital points as these ? 
 And what about other dogmas no less in dispute ? 
 Don't think me irreverent, reverend fathers in God. 
 While you are squabbling about miracles, and the 
 Atonement, and this, that, and the other, England is 
 getting at bottom less and less religious. You have 
 so bound up incredible dogmas with the simplest 
 dictates of honesty and morality that the rough 
 common sense of the people, plainly seeing your 
 dogmas to be so much moonshine, is making short 
 
A Lay Sermon to Preachers. 241 
 
 work with them, and in the summary process is making 
 short work too with morality and honesty, thinking 
 them to be moonshine also. 
 
 I believe — I stand accountant for the words to That 
 which gave me the power of thinking and writing them 
 — I believe that if the time and money and thought 
 now given in England to the propagation of wholly 
 incredible doctrines, which are no sooner uttered in 
 one pulpit than they are repudiated in another — if 
 this time and money and thought were given to the 
 understanding and scattering abroad of the simplest 
 laws of national economy, of physiology, of health and 
 beauty, in another generation our England would be 
 greater and mightier than she has ever been. I believe 
 a knowledge of the necessity of fresh air, of the value 
 of beauty, of the certain disease and national cor- 
 ruption and deathfulness hidden in our present com- 
 mercial system, to be worth far more than all the books 
 on theology ever written. I believe faith in constant 
 ventilation and constant outdoor exercise to be a 
 greater religious necessity than faith in any doctrine 
 of any sect in England to-day. 
 
 At the last Church Congress at which I assisted, a 
 reverend gentleman was wildly applauded because he 
 condemned certain young ladies for playing lawn-tennis 
 on Sundays. When I remembered the great physical 
 
 R 
 
242 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 development of our upper-class English girls in this 
 generation, I thought how much better a preparation 
 these girls were making for their duties of motherhood 
 by playing lawn-tennis than by repeating barren Church 
 formulas. I remembered that spiritual and mental 
 demoralization are always caused by physical demora- 
 lization, and I thought how wise these girls were, and 
 how religious to spend their Sundays in lawn-tennis 
 and keep themselves healthy, thereby saving their 
 descendants from the necessity of bothering clergymen 
 with their hysterical distresses in days to come. How 
 is it that clergymen and ministers are always the last 
 to understand the religious necessities of the age ? 
 
 But I forget — I'm getting preachy. Think these 
 things over, my dear Mr. Brown and my dear Mr. 
 Smith. Meantime, you gentlemen in black, suppose, as 
 there seems to be great disagreement amongst you 
 as to what is religion and what is not, and what is 
 sound doctrine and what is not — suppose we take it 
 that religion consists in just what Jesus Christ is re- 
 ported to have said it consists, especially as we are 
 all agreed about so much, " Thou shalt love the Lord 
 thy God with all thy heart," which, by your leave, good 
 gentlemen, I will interpret as standing reverently in 
 face of the mystery of the Universe, and loving our 
 Mother Earth with so deep a love that we dare not 
 
A Lay Sermon to Preachers. 243 
 
 make her ugly and profane: "and thy neighbour as 
 thyself," which I will interpret, good gentlemen, as 
 meaning, amongst other things, not grinding his face 
 if he is poor, not cheating him by promoting rotten 
 companies, not hurting his body by selling him quack 
 bodily medicines, or his spirit by selling him quack 
 spiritual medicines. 
 
 " Oh, but this is too simple ! " I hear my friends 
 Brown and Smith saying. Alas ! it is because religion 
 is so simple that it is so much misunderstood 1 
 
 Henry Arthur Jones. 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 
 
 The Market or the Temple, that is the question. 
 
 The Auctioneer or the Redeemer, that is the issue. 
 
 I or Another, that is the cry. 
 
 There are two gospels — which will you preach ? — the 
 one of the Mallet, which estimates man at the market 
 price ; the other of the Cross, which proclaims that man 
 was bought with the precious blood of the Martyr, and 
 that he is not for sale. 
 
 Between the Exchange and the Temple there is a 
 deep gulf fixed. Between the Auctioneer and the 
 Redeemer there is an abyss yawning. Between the 
 two gospels of the Mallet and the Cross, of Cain and 
 Abel, there is a gaping chasm. 
 
 It is impossible to place a beam across the fissure, 
 and pass the sons of men over into the Temple ; baptize 
 them ; title them " heirs of God," " inheritors of 
 heaven," " dearly beloved brethren," " immortal souls," 
 dismiss them for six days into the Market, to be 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 245 
 
 brought and sold as cattle, to be ticketed " labour," to 
 be knocked down at the hammer. Impossible save in 
 pantomime and panorama. 
 
 There are the two ideas, and an abyss is between 
 them as deep as that 'twixt the burning veined limbs of 
 Dives and the cool streams of heaven — man is a brother 
 and in the Temple ; man is another and in the Market. 
 
 The one idea has no religion. It may have — it 
 has — priests, churches, sacraments, salvations ; but in 
 truth it is more atheistic than any Voltaire. The other 
 is the very idea and the very blood and the very soul 
 of Jesus. 
 
 " Oh, what extreme ideas ! " 
 
 How snugly the Lilliput Christians imagine that 
 they have built the Church in the valley of Com- 
 promise between these two ideas ! How musically 
 ring the bells in the ears of the labourer, as he washes 
 his large, melancholy, weather-beaten face, and puts on 
 his sabbath clothes ! Behold him at last in his pew ! 
 Behold Hodge, peasant, pauper, " labour," transformed 
 into " the dearly beloved brother " ! 
 
 Only eighteen hours ago, at five o'clock p.m., 
 Saturday — it is now twenty minutes past eleven, Sunday 
 morning — O immortal man, thou wert estimated at half 
 a guinea and thy small beer. Three months ago— well, 
 it was in December, and it is now the middle of March — 
 
246 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 thou, O child of God, wert too dear at any price. Thou, 
 O brother, worth a soul's ransom, didst not last winter 
 fetch a worm's ransom. Not a brother would bid for 
 this brother sixpence a day. The heir of heaven failed 
 to command a quotation. ( The organ strikes up.) 
 
 How beautiful might the music of the sanctuary be ! 
 The ploughman looks thoughtful. Is he wondering 
 how it is that He who hath made such melodies for the 
 human ear hath set such miseries for the labourer's 
 flesh ? Does he query why it is ordained to quiver 
 with hunger ? Is there no sacred music of rest for the 
 toiler's limbs ? No divine music of food for the 
 peasant's stomach ? Ah, the devout ploughman excuses 
 God and accuses man. He is a real religious fellow is 
 Hodge. There is not one of this sanctimonious con- 
 gregation who would touch with the tips of his fingers 
 in gloves the keys of this grand organ here in the 
 smock frock — their brother. No ; they can play to 
 God on instruments of brass and wind made by man, 
 but not on this instrument of life and mind made by 
 the great Organ-builder Himself Yet, if ye strike not 
 these human keys, my sacred music-masters, woe unto 
 your temples — they are already sepulchres ! 
 
 The book is opened, and the Rev. Timothy Glebe- 
 lands, M.A., reads, "Are not two sparrows sold for a 
 farthing ? and one of them shall not fall on the ground 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 247 
 
 without your Father. But the very hairs of your heads 
 are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of 
 more value than many sparrows " (Matt. x. 29-31). 
 
 Is the ploughman so stupid that he cannot think, 
 my lord in the pew ? He is thinking, I assure your 
 lordship. He is slowly, but surely, untying the knot 
 why his mate, Jack Coulter, is at this moment in gaol. 
 It was hard times with Coulter when he picked up that 
 pheasant. He and his family were starving. Were 
 they not of more value than the pheasant .' My lord 
 in the pew and my parson in the pulpit were the judges 
 on the bench, and they gave him three months for his 
 crime of overestimating the value of five human beings. 
 Jesus said that they are worth much more than the 
 bird ; the judges said that they are worth much 
 less. 
 
 This priest who was reading the Scriptures, and is 
 now expatiating upon the precious value of the im- 
 mortal .soul, is the same who (under the alias of J.P.) 
 three days ago pronounced Jack Coulter's soul and 
 body together to be not worth half a crown. 
 
 I will not allow you to interrupt me. You preachers 
 do not allow us pewmen to interrupt you. I know 
 there is something more than the mere bird — "the 
 sacred rights of property." Yes, the sacred rights of 
 property which Jack Coulter possesses in his life and the 
 
248 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 life of his family. Still you interrupt me, "There 
 was no necessity for them to starve — there is the Poor ■ 
 Law and the workhouse." Silence, sirs ! silence ! you 
 preach Jesus and accept His valuation of a human 
 being. The Poor Law valuation is another affair. It 
 arrives at another figure. It is just what I want you to 
 tell us when you are in the pulpit next time — and your 
 words are heard in Heaven as well as in church — I 
 want you to tell us how you explain two such valuations 
 of one man, the Poor Law valuation and Jesus Christ's 
 valuation. 
 
 Shall we slip out of the steeplehouse into the 
 conventicle over the way? There are some simple 
 folk amongst the Dissenters who believe that if religion 
 is once freed from " State patronage and control " even 
 the ring-marks on her ankles would soon disappear. 
 Tom Flail, whose white hairs the child can number — 
 how much more the Heavenly Father ! — has not found 
 that the air of the Baptist Chapel is altogether perfumed 
 with liberty. There is the stench of patrons and con- 
 trollers even in the conventicle. What matters it to 
 Flail whether the State or the Church governs religion, 
 if the mill to which she is yoked grinds him betwixt 
 the same hard stones of oppression and starvation ? 
 What matters it to the labourers whether the Church 
 is a State institution managed by State ministers, or 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 249 
 
 a laissez faire kirk managed by free ministers, if in 
 either case they are not free ? 
 
 No, this little Baptist Chapel was not freed from 
 " patronage and control." Flail's master is in the cloth 
 pew, and though the preacher hath the roar of the lion, 
 and looketh to have the back of a Cromwell Ironside in 
 the pulpit, yet hath he his masters also in the cloth 
 pews, which problem you would see demonstrated and 
 chalk up Q.E.D. on the door, on looking into the 
 minister's vestry after the sermon is over, and behold 
 you the Reverend Pastor under " the patronage and 
 control " of Deacon Gold (stockbroker and gambler) and 
 Deacon Brass (thimble-rigger and flesh-grinder). 
 
 O sad spectacle in the vestry, the voice and the 
 spine of the minister of God have become the voice and 
 spine of the flunkey of men. No doubt, however, the 
 good pastor prayeth in secret for backbone. Would 
 to God it was whispered, he prayeth to eternally preach 
 in secret ! 
 
 And yet how keenly one feels for the fine preaching 
 organisms here and there in the Free Churches — fine- 
 bred animals, whose sides oft spurt with blood from 
 the spears of the vulgar money savages and insolent 
 heresy hunters who corner the Temple as they corner 
 the Market ! Shall these preachers come out and enter 
 the Establishment? Sometimes they feel tempted, I 
 
250 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 dare say. Yet they must reflect that the curates, who 
 form the vast majority of the State clergy, are no 
 better off than themselves. Not any form of Church 
 constitution at present in existence seems to secure the 
 ideal both for teacher and congregation, either in the 
 State Church or the Free Church. 
 
 But the Reverend Charles Unction — for that is the 
 name of the minister of the Baptist Chapel — is not yet 
 in the vestry, but in the middle of his sermon, and a 
 pious " sister " hands us his text, which is, " Consider 
 the ravens : for they neither sow nor reap ; which neither 
 have storehouse nor barn ; and God feedeth them : how 
 much more are ye better than the fowls ? " 
 
 How much more is Tom Flail better than the 
 fowls .' The white-haired old tasker sits in the chapel, 
 and is no doubt reflecting, " After fifty years of sowing 
 and reaping and stowing of corn, I have not a fowl-house 
 to roost in, nor a fowl's picking at the barn doors. I am 
 much worse off than the fowls, and " — shall he think it ? 
 is it blasphemy for him to think it? — "Jesus is no longer 
 to me the Truth ; He is a betrayer like Judas Iscariot, 
 and a parable-spinner like Unction, and a gambler in 
 providence like Gold, and a taker-in like Brass, and a 
 false brother's keeper like Straw. God is not a Father ; 
 He feedeth the fowls, perhaps, but He has left me to 
 fill my belly with air." 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 251 
 
 O ye Christians, who scoff at infidels, and turn men 
 out of the House of Providence, and ticket to eternal 
 perdition those who believe not on Jesus and you — see 
 for the price of a few sacks of corn, how nearly you 
 (not the devil) tempt Tom Flail to deny his Lord and 
 perish his soul ! 
 
 Here is the story of Tom Flail, real Christian. The 
 great crisis had come against which he had trembled 
 and hoped and prayed for years. His body (being 
 seventy-three winters old) could no longer be main- 
 tained at a profit, and as the relations of Straw to 
 Flail outside the conventicle were £ s. d. relations, and 
 as £ s. d. standeth not for "Lord save Demos," but 
 " Lord save Dives," Flail's name (after being on the 
 dirty pages for forty-two years) was on Saturday 
 (yesterday) struck out finally and for ever from Straw's 
 book of life. In too real a measure it was to Flail 
 God's Book of Life, though only Straw's wages diary. 
 It seems strange, by the way, that whilst God keeps, 
 with His own hand, the ledger of providence for the 
 ravens. He lets such a cheat as Straw (the farmer could 
 hardly help himself, poor man !) square his accounts with 
 His labourers. Who knows, if God hath inspired men 
 to write the Scriptures, it may be that He hath sent 
 also chartered men to tot up Straw's figures, and to 
 show that after one half-century's toil (for Flail began 
 
252 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 to work in the fields at the age of seven) a larger 
 balance than one half-sovereign on Flail's side. 
 
 Verily, the Church wants not preachers, but God- 
 chartered accountants — divine wranglers, who can go 
 into the Lord's figures, and do such a sum as this — 
 
 Given, " The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness 
 thereof," what is the equitable share of fulness and 
 emptiness due separately and individually to Flail 
 (labourer). Straw (farmer). Acres (landlord), and Gold 
 (usurer) ? 
 
 If you Christians will only read your Bibles as well 
 as the infidels do, you will find an old wrangler there 
 who dismisses the last two as equitable empties, with 
 no claim to eat a snail. 
 
 Now, Straw and Flail were baptized in the same 
 water, have partaken of the same Lord's Supper, are 
 members of the same household of faith. Inside " the 
 Church " Flail is declaredly and undoubtedly in name 
 Straw's " brother ; " outside, he was (for forty years 
 ended yesterday) Straw's " hand," and now is (shame !) 
 Straw's CASTAWAY. What relation are they to one 
 another ? What relation is Straw to himself? 
 
 However puritanical at times she seems. Religion 
 is the child of the drama. It does not follow, however, 
 that God is not her father. And here, in her dramatic 
 environment, we have a half-explanation of the curious 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 253 
 
 and immoral inconsistencies of the Christian. This 
 " one man in his time plays many parts." He is 
 elaborately theatrical in his representation of God and 
 himself. His Deity, for example, appears on the grand 
 stage in three persons ; so does his man. And some- 
 times Satan, in the theological play, does not get 
 " behind " God, as Jesus ordered him, but takes a 
 leading part. This man appears in three personalities 
 — body, soul, and spirit ; his enemies in the piece are 
 three also — the world, the flesh, and the devil. There 
 are his three ages of man — original Adam, travailing 
 Adam, new-born Adam. There are, at least, three 
 acts — election, belief, baptism. There are two com- 
 partments — the World and the Church. And one great 
 partition divides his fabric — the spiritual from the 
 material. As for geographical scenery and historical 
 situations, these are many; but in broad impressive- 
 ness these three are his main continents and crises- 
 earth, heaven, hell. 
 
 The Indian philosopher, we may add, with a still 
 further eastward and oldward position than the 
 Christian, has also his three Da's. His Vedantic plays 
 have likewise their several acts. His Vedanta, like 
 our New Testament, is a scriptural rejection of his 
 Old Testament— his Samhitas and Brahmanas. It is 
 impossible here to go into the Indian faith, with its 
 
2 54 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 atman (or self), its parama-atman (or highest self). 
 These two selfs run astoundingly parallel with St. 
 Paul's two egos (so pathetically described by him in 
 Romans vii.). 
 
 I don't think in St. Paul there was any moral 
 danger, even though he says, "Now if I do that I 
 would not, it is no more I that do it, but Sin that 
 dwelleth in me." But there is a great moral danger 
 with such a doctrine rattling inside a man like Brass. 
 Now, I wish to ask Christians to make surer of their 
 identity in the future. Paul was a tent-maker, and 
 worked with his own hands; he did not employ a 
 thousand hands, like Brass, thimble manufacturer, to 
 do his work and get his Hving for him. The apostle 
 carried his Christian identity into the world as well 
 as into the Churches. In the Tent he was the same 
 simple hero as he was in the Church. (When will some 
 bishop resolve to be a shoemaker, and lay once more 
 the hard and thorny palms of toil upon the heads of 
 the " successors of the apostles " ?) 
 
 I say, with all this " one man's many parts " and 
 many compartments, with all these back doors and 
 side doors and front doors, and with all this "one 
 ma.n's" dramatis per soncs, how can you expect him to 
 know what relation he is to himself, or what relation 
 another man is to him ? It is true that a good man 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 255 
 
 must be like Paul, a tent-maker, and, like Truth, a 
 tent-dweller. He must always be on the move towards 
 his brother and his Father. There is something healthy, 
 cheek-glowing, broadening, plain-seen and plain-seeing 
 in migrations and campings-out under the great skies 
 and over the wide prairies. But these bandbox 
 migrations, these soul and body flitations, these church 
 and world doors, these acrobatic somersaults, confuse 
 a man's conscience and lose a man's entity, where he 
 is only too glad to lose it. I believe in conversion — 
 in more than one conversion. I rejoice that Simon 
 and Saul should be so transformed that it is even well 
 that, like the actors, they should take the new names 
 of Peter and Paul. But I see a danger in these aliases 
 and doubles, in these compartments sacred and secular 
 — that men may play at hide-and-seek with themselves 
 and their duties. 
 
 Look at Deacon Gold, saint and stockbroker. 
 Yesterday he had the visage of Satan and the pulse 
 of—well, not of a saint, for yesterday he was in the 
 Exchange, staking the million mites of the poor. As 
 he sits there now in his pew, he looks as refreshingly 
 cool as if he had just come up out of the baptistery. 
 Indeed, he has in his own mind no connection whatever 
 with Gold, of Capel Court. He has tossed that trans- 
 gressor and all his transactions (especially his losses) 
 
256 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 upon Jesus (he takes good care to retain the old 
 rascal's gains), and he is listening to Unction as 
 though in those heavenly ears of his there never had 
 sounded the yells of bulls and bears (verily, there never 
 hath sounded therein the flying blood-spats of his 
 murdered Africans, or the eternal pat, pat, pat of the 
 sweat of his Country's brow) ! Now he is listening ; 
 but harken thou to-night to his voice in the con- 
 venticle prayer-meeting. How soft and wet it is, as 
 if his lips were dripping with the very milk and honey 
 of the promised land ! You would, if there, indeed 
 exclaim, " Of a truth, this saint deals in eternal 
 futures ! " and even though an angel from heaven 
 whispers the soft impeachment, "This pious fraud is 
 a boomer of cotton futures and war and famines, and 
 his wet lips will crack to-morrow with gambling hell- 
 fire," you would not believe that angel. 
 
 It is well for a man to be " on 'Change." Without 
 growth and change there is no life and no use in him ; 
 but Gold's change was skipping between Hell and 
 Church. To say that he did not know what "conversion " 
 is would be wrong, for it takes place with his coin every 
 day at the bank. 
 
 In short. Gold the saint is only paint — wet paint. 
 Sirs, be so good as to put up a notice outside your 
 steeplehouses and conventicles : " Beware of the Paint," 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 257 
 
 This is the second time I have spoilt my Sunday 
 clothes, rubbing against your saints. Better far — carve 
 these letters in eternal stone over each entrance, and 
 put an angel on guard at each door, with a flaming 
 sword : " No Golds admitted here save on the business 
 of true repentance, and on solemn oath that they never 
 will speculate in futures and God's sweat any more." 
 
 Now, as to these fearful fluctuations in human 
 values, some authoritative information can be got from 
 Gold. He is professor of the science of fluctuations. 
 He specs in famines, and locusts, and blights, and dearths, 
 and wars. He bets on plagues and whirlwinds. To 
 look at his long list of current prices, it is plain that 
 the earth is not the Lord's, but Gold's. I thought that 
 the Almighty was the Universal Provider. I am wrong ; 
 it is Whiteley ; and Gold is his broker. I was simple 
 enough to imagine that, as God found all the capital at 
 the creation for most of His joint-stock companies, 
 at least some shares would still stand in His name. 
 He has apparently sold out. If Gold was God's broker 
 at the time of this big sale, he must have made a good 
 thing of it. I presume this is how we came to have 
 landlords — they are the rich men who bought up God's 
 shares, and took the Lord's title. It puzzles me (I am 
 
 not learned, like the Duke ) where they got the money 
 
 from. It is hardly likely that the Great Inventor would 
 
 S 
 
258 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 part with His patent riglits in the universe, with all its 
 wonderful contrivances of sun and moon, winds and 
 rains, seed-times and seasons, growth and food, for a 
 mere song. And, so far as I can read up Rent's ancestors, 
 it was only a doggerel verse or two they could offer 
 for the universe. I have always had the reverent fancy 
 that God must love music and poetry. Perhaps Rent's 
 ancestors were Alpine herdsmen, who exchanged copy- 
 right for freehold, and bartered their ranz des vaches to 
 the Almighty for cattle ranches. Yet I can hardly 
 believe that the Great Artist would sell His exquisite 
 landscapes for a mere song. Then there comes in a 
 trifling ethical question. Suppose the ass were to say 
 to her Maker, " I will sell you my music if we can 
 come to terms ; " would it not be possible that the Maker 
 might reply, " You ass, how could you bray or pray 
 unless I gave you the trumpet ? " 
 
 " Enoch walked with God : and he was not ; for 
 God took him." Rent bargained with God (it seems) ; 
 it has yet to be written, " He was not, for God took him." 
 I am not an infidel ; I am not going to blaspheme 
 against the sacredness of contract. I am not an 
 anarchist ; I am not going to dynamite private property. 
 Yet I must observe that there is a religion more ancient, 
 more simple, more solid — yea, more majestic than any, 
 and that is the religion of Providence. And, sirs, if 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 259 
 
 God has no property in the earth ; if He be without 
 means ; if He has sold out ; if Rent, Gold, Brass, Straw, 
 and Company have acquired His universe and His 
 rights ; — what is the use of His religion ? Is it not more 
 politic to fall down and worship Rent, Gold, Brass, and 
 Company than the Almighty (so called)? Verily, it 
 seemeth to me that the poor better pray to the promoter 
 than the Creator, under these sorry circumstances. 
 
 Who is surprised that, with this bad environment, the 
 Church is a social failure, and that Glebelands and 
 Unction — the " State " and " Free " parsons respectively 
 — are not the priests of the Most High, but of the 
 Main Chance? Whenever you find in history the 
 Chimney corner disestablished, and the Exchange 
 corner endowed, you will be sure to know where to 
 find the priests — round the corner. But as to God 
 and the true religion — they are not to be found this 
 side of the creation, for Rent and Company have 
 purchased (as we have seen) the whole tract 'twixt here 
 and there, and even a large sweep beyond. No wonder 
 that Tom Flail becomes a stone-broker, munching 
 flints, if there be no God, or (what is the same thing) if 
 Lord Rent is the man in possession. 
 
 Until the Church can return to her simple and 
 ancient and beautiful business of Many-making (the 
 business which Jesus followed), and can convert the 
 
26o Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Christians to the faith that their calling is not Money- 
 making; until the Church can restore Providence and 
 the Father to the human body and child ; until she has 
 the courage to take a scourge in her hand and lash out 
 the land-sellers and sweat-dealers from the temple of 
 nature; — there must remain, and remain, the present 
 miserable state of afifairs. 
 
 Let the Church restore once again to her temples 
 and her bosom the truths of Nature and Providence ; 
 let her put in her creed St. Paul's dogma of divine 
 crescendoism — that doctrine which acknowledges that 
 " God gave the increase ; " and that this increase is 
 common property ; and she shall behold again the 
 Shekinah upon her altars and the people within her 
 congregations. 
 
 " What then is Apollos ? And what is Paul ? 
 Ministers through whom ye believed ; and each as the 
 Lord gave to him. I planted, Apollos watered ; but God 
 gave the increase. . . . Now he that planteth and he 
 that watereth are one : but each shall receive his own 
 reward according to his own labour. For we are God's 
 fellow-workers, God's tilled land, God's building." 
 
 Here you have the doctrine of " the unearned 
 increment " laid down with much larger grip than the 
 touch of the two Mills. It is true that in another 
 connection John Stuart Mill wrote, "No man made 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 261 
 
 the land ; " but, if my memory serve me rightly, he 
 never wrote, "No man made himself." Paul says, " The 
 Lord gave to him " what he is. How can a man who 
 cannot claim private property in himself, claim private 
 property in the earth, or others, or the products even of 
 his labour? If his hand is not his own, how can that 
 which his hand makes be his own .' In truth, a man 
 makes nothing alone. And the apostle takes us this 
 step when he writes, " He that planteth and he that 
 watereth are one." 
 
 In other words, the world is a stage, and so intricate 
 and multiple are the parts, so interlaced and interlooped 
 is the web of the great drama of society and nature ; 
 so much of it is an inheritance from the past ; so much 
 the spinning of insects and weaving of plants ; so much 
 the work of cattle and birds, and winds and floods ; so 
 much do we owe to the innumerable fingers of the ages ; 
 — that though each one plays even many parts, it is 
 utterly impossible for that one to shout (unless he is 
 mad), "Get away, all ye ages and ye men and ye 
 vermin ; I can play the parts without you." And hence 
 we find in history that the great Caesar has to give 
 up the stage to a worm, and that the dread Herod's 
 thunder has to be stopped for the " muling and puking " 
 of an infant. 
 
 It is claimed that one man shall only count one. 
 
262 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 This is a great bill of rights against the millionaire who 
 counts himself a million. But can one man be reckoned 
 as one ? Shakespeare says — 
 
 "Learning is but an adjunct to ourself ; 
 It adds a precious seeing to the eye." 
 
 These "adjuncts to ourself" — to its eyes, to its ears, to 
 its hands, to its feet, to its world, belong as much to 
 another as to me, and I am really unable to define my 
 " one." And as science goes on making telescopes and 
 telephones, and society goes on making "adjuncts to 
 ourself," while the " one " grows larger every year, yet 
 it is becoming less " one " at every age — that is, it is 
 more and more a common property of the All. Science 
 seems at times to lead as with a torch of lightning, 
 leaving us in greater darkness than ever. Yet behold 
 her — what rapid tracks she is taking towards heaven ! 
 She is making inevitable the final breaking up of the 
 individual, and the turning of the world into one 
 common. The phenomena of the millionaire and the 
 imperataire are simply the last chaotic upheaval of 
 laisses faire. These gigantic " trusts " must force on 
 trust in the people. And these "rings," — pray don't 
 fix them to the snout of the swine — we will use them 
 presently at the marriage of All and One. 
 
 Come with me into St. Paul's temple, ye labourers. 
 Come in your work-clothes and with your watering- 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 263 
 
 pots. There, don't wipe the drops from your brow. 
 The baptism here is the baptism of sweat. (Look how 
 like is Paul to Gladstone ! The same face and eyes. 
 The same doubt of women, and faith in man and God. 
 One's a wood-chopper, the other a tent-maker — that's 
 all the difference 'twixt them. Equally scholars and 
 gentlemen, conservatives and liberals, equally word- 
 drawers, and always both coatless democrats — "hard at 
 it") This is the apostle's text : " Ye are God's pals 
 and mates, for He works in the same universe as you, 
 and we are all on the same job." And then he makes 
 a word-tent of matchless imagery (what a cooling 
 shelter for the labourers on a hot day!): "For we are 
 God's fellow-workers, God's tilled land, God's building." 
 Unction's sermon is over, so is Glebeland's, and 
 Paul hath finished ; no, he is an eternal preacher. And 
 here is Flail also finished, and — well, when I met him 
 some weeks after my visit to the Baptist Chapel, I found 
 him broken-hearted and broken-winded, and with the 
 great tears rolling down his face. Unction had aban- 
 doned him, and so had Saint Gold and Saint Brass. 
 Had God done likewise ? Now, my answer to this 
 question shall not be that of these brace of saints and 
 of their pastor. Here is the answer : The Church 
 has abandoned Providence. (I think Providence has 
 abandoned it.) 
 
264 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 It has abrogated its function of fellow-workers with 
 God. It has given up the old social occupation of its 
 primitive days. It has turned its temples into spiritual 
 distilleries, with tall chimneys for steeples. It has for- 
 saken nature and God's increment, and the planting 
 and watering business — so healthy, so quiet, so good 
 for mind and body — for supernatural and superfine 
 and very smoky manufacturing. 
 
 This is how it has all come about. The strong 
 seized hold of the land. The artful seized hold of 
 the Hand. Then the two took possession of the 
 Church. When the landlords came in, we find bodies 
 chucked out of the Church, and souls put in their place. 
 When the handlords and the Manchester School came 
 in, with laisses faire for master, we notice the introduc- 
 tion of mansions in heaven, and glory and hallelujah 
 factories. The Church is bound to go into the other 
 world for its stock-in-trade if you turn it out of this. 
 When Rent, Gold, Brass, and Company seized the 
 property of Providence, it is plain that the Church could 
 no longer keep on with its old social business. It is 
 true the State Church has still some glebelands, and a few 
 slums, and one or two public-houses left to it, but these 
 scarcely pay the salaries of its archbishops and bishops. 
 
 Instead of a State Church, it is possible we may have 
 again a Church-State, but these are idle questions. The 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 265 
 
 People are God's Church. It was with the multitude 
 Jesus left His gospel. It is they who will become the 
 voice of God in the future. Aristotle said that the 
 multitude had many eyes and many ears and many feet, 
 and that they were more philosophers than the few. 
 Jesus agreed with Aristotle. All His gospel was 
 preached to the people — they know it by heart — and 
 now the people will re-preach it to themselves, Jesus 
 was impressively a Socialist. He lived in the midst of 
 a labour crisis. Thousands of workmen had been dis- 
 charged from the building of the Temple, and hundreds 
 of His hearers must have been "the unemployed." The 
 two thieves that were crucified with Him were probably 
 no thieves at all, but half-starved workless artisans, who 
 had taken from some rich man what he had robbed from 
 them. All the parables of the young village Carpenter 
 are perfumed with nature, and lilies, and cornfields, 
 and sheepfolds, and labourers. 
 
 All the words of His mouth sound of rural work and 
 wages and hours. He had dangling at His waist the 
 key of the social problem. He unlocked the door and 
 showed the rich out of Heaven and State and Church. 
 Peremptorily He locked and bolted the door of the 
 Kingdom of God against them. Only two rich men 
 were even distantly His disciples — we do not find 
 that they were let into His inner society — the one 
 
266 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 said he gave half his goods to the poor, and restored 
 mucli of the remainder to the wronged ; and the other 
 was a secret disciple, and only appeared on the scene 
 by night to bury the Lord's body. Jesus deposited 
 with the people a terrible gospel to be preached to the 
 rich, and, as the Church has abdicated its social 
 functions, the people have put the State in its place, 
 and to-day from the pulpits of the people the gospel 
 of Jesus is being preached (and with power) to the 
 multitude by the multitude. 
 
 If two men are on an island, unless they be Cain and 
 Abel, they can get along with very little religion. But 
 when there are thirty millions of people on an island, 
 it is necessary to have a great deal of really good 
 religion. 
 
 And Providence, therefore, hath two Hands — with the 
 one He institutes the law of increase in the plant, and 
 with the other He establishes the law of increase in the 
 heart, so that the will of men towards each other shall 
 co-operate with Him in His will towards them. 
 
 Here are a few figures which show that the first 
 Hand does its work well (and rest assured that in the 
 evolution of society the second Hand will also do its 
 work well). Prince Krapotkin, in the Forum, of 1890, 
 writes : — 
 
 "Mr. Hallett, by a simple selection of grains, will 
 
The Ancient Faith in Providence. 267 
 
 obtain in a few years a wheat which bears 10,840 
 grains on each stem grown from a single seed ; so that 
 from seven to eight hundred of his stems of wheat 
 (which could be grown upon a score of square yards) 
 would give the yearly supply of bread for a full- 
 grown person." 
 
 This would make out that one acre could furnish an 
 annual budget of bread for two hundred and forty-two 
 persons ! Lord Lauderdale computed that one acre 
 would feed four persons. Those who doubt that the 
 dear soil of old England cannot hold her own against 
 the world should read this. It is from a letter (dated 
 February 20, 1894) written by Sir J. Henry Gilbert, who, 
 and Sir John Bennet Lawes, Bart., have done more for 
 English agriculture than any other two men : — 
 
 " The average yield of wheat per acre in the United 
 Kingdom is about twenty-eight bushels. We can get 
 more than this by special manures, but such practice 
 could not be followed on the large scale. The yield 
 above mentioned is higher than the average in any 
 other country in the world. Indeed, our unmanured 
 plot, kept free from weeds, has for fifty years in suc- 
 cession given an average of thirteen bushels per acre, 
 which is more than the average of the United States, 
 and is, in fact, the average of the whole of the wheat 
 lands of the world ! " 
 
268 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 According to the Rothamstead Tables, we find that 
 the "special manures" give in some years an increase 
 of ten bushels, making thirty-eight bushels to the acre. 
 If, therefore, you had the two million acres of wheat 
 land in the United Kingdom put under "the small 
 scale " — which really means "the large scale" — we should 
 add to our wheat-yield twenty million bushels, and cer- 
 tainly one labourer per acre. Our total " agricultural 
 and fishing class " only numbers in England and Wales 
 1,284,919! We should, with "special manures," add at 
 least two millions to these on our present bread lands. 
 But with special labourers, and without special manures, 
 we could, on a moderate and careful policy, put back 
 five million people on good soil in England within five 
 years, and five millions more in the next five. If we 
 cannot place the man, let us put the child, on the land. 
 He will grow. 
 
 England to her own rescue ! Scotland to her own 
 rescue ! Ireland to her own rescue ! And gallant little 
 Wales to hers ! After all, God inspires the Nation, 
 if not the Church. Thy land is crushed with stones 
 and lords ; crown it with bread and men ! It is the 
 promised land ! Arise, thou, and be the Promised 
 People 1 
 
 John Heather, 
 
Principles and Practice. 
 
 Is Christianity used up, or does there yet remain any 
 effective good in the principles of Jesus of Nazareth ? 
 Are those ideas of Jesus applicable to the affairs of 
 modern society and practical life ? and if not, why ? If 
 God is the Father of all, and caring for all equally, how 
 is it that so many of His children are in a condition 
 such as should shame an ordinary savage ? 
 
 When talking of these things, we often hear it 
 remarked that " One half of the world does not know 
 how the other half lives." There may be, and no doubt 
 is, lack of knowledge of the sufferings of the "other 
 half," but ignorance on this subject cannot be accepted 
 as an excuse for the " one half," or relieve them from 
 their responsibility in the slightest degree. In this as 
 in other matters, what we do not know will not be the 
 standard by which we shall be judged, but what we 
 ought to know, and, by the application of common sense, 
 could know. 
 
 We will give due weight to the fact that this is a 
 
270 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 busy age, and admit that even a Christian cannot be 
 expected to know and do everything. Nevertheless, 
 there are some things which that portion of the com- 
 munity calling themselves Christians cannot neglect 
 with impunity and at the same time retain their 
 Christian standing ; for example, the investigation and 
 consideration of those circumstances and conditions 
 which hang like a black pall over Society, and which 
 are too often looked upon as a fabric of nature that 
 must not be touched, much less removed ; or even as 
 irremovable. 
 
 Man is declared by Scripture to have been created 
 "a little lower than the angels." We find, however, 
 that the majority of men live a devilish rather than an 
 angelic existence ; all lofty aspirations are crushed, all 
 noble faculties abortive — their heartstrings strained and 
 broken. In numberless cases, homeless, breadless, 
 workless, diseased, and degraded to a level lower than 
 the beast of the field — their little children are crying for 
 bread in the land of plenty ; their daughters making 
 their very virtue a marketable commodity on the streets 
 in order to provide for themselves and others the neces- 
 saries of life. 
 
 While few, if any, can be found who will deny that 
 a social sore exists on the body politic of a character 
 and extent which can scarcely be estimated, and while 
 
Principles and Practice. 271 
 
 expressions of sympathy are often heard — how little is 
 being done by the Christian world to rectify those 
 foundation wrongs upon which the social problem 
 stands ! 
 
 It is not an answer to say that ever since Society 
 has been, these things have always existed to a greater 
 or lesser degree. It is not sufficient to argue that these 
 things are not so bad as they once were. What we as 
 Christians have to ask ourselves is, Is it right that these 
 conditions should exist at all ? Is it in accordance 
 with the will of God that they should continue ? Will 
 any one dare to assert that the " All-Father " has called 
 into being a larger number of His creatures than His 
 provisions in nature can provide for or for whom the 
 earth can iind sufficient space ? To admit, or even to 
 think, such things would be surely to commit "the un- 
 pardonable sin," and to put in the place of the All-wise 
 Father, a monster of iniquity whom every true man 
 should loathe instead of love. 
 
 We who profess the name of Christ cannot allow 
 that either the Divine love or the Divine plan is, or can 
 be, a failure in any degree. 
 
 If this last proposition is sound, why, then, are 
 things socially in the wretched condition they are? 
 Who is to blame ? and what action ought Christians to 
 take to deal with the situation .' 
 
272 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 The view, however, which Christians will take of 
 their responsibilities depends upon the value they are 
 prepared to place upon Christ's utterances. Before 
 these can be rightly gauged, there must be a decision 
 as to His personality. Permit me, therefore, to ask you, 
 What think ye of the Nazarene ? 
 
 Was He the Christ of God or an impostor ? 
 
 Both He could not be, even in degree. 
 
 If we apply this principle to Christ, and give Him the 
 authority which He claimed for Himself, then we are 
 bound to accept what He says, without attempting to 
 read into His words our own opinions or preconceived 
 ideas. 
 
 "When ye pray say. Our Father. . . . Thy kingdom 
 come, Thy will be done on earth as in heaven." 
 
 This is a very simple and plain direction, and one 
 concerning which there does not appear to be much 
 room for misunderstanding ; and yet, plain and simple 
 as it is. Christians have failed utterly to grasp it. 
 
 The faith they have in Divine declarations is 
 perfect enough, when dealing with the "joys laid up 
 for the saints " in the " sweet by-and-by " ; but faith they 
 appear to have none, when the claims of humanity in 
 general as regards temporal things are pressed upon 
 their attention. Yet, if the words of Christ mean any- 
 thing, they make it clear beyond dispute that He was 
 
Principles and Practice. 273 
 
 concerned with things temporal as much as with 
 things eternal. Every parable He told — every word- 
 picture He painted — showed His practical human 
 sympathies. 
 
 Christianity, however, in practice, whatever may be 
 its theories, refuses to admit that in the Divine plan 
 there is any concern for things temporal. The latter- 
 day Christ remains crucified on Calvary — a distant his- 
 toric or angelic figure. His self-styled followers to-day 
 do not pretend their Christ has anything but a spiritual 
 connection with poverty-stricken, struggling humanity ; 
 in fact, should any urge that the principles of the Son 
 of man are for practical application here and now, the 
 religious convictions of these dear souls are greatly 
 shocked, and they sanctimoniously declare that what 
 is proposed would " drag religion in the gutter." 
 
 If the Divine plan, however, is two-sided — body and 
 soul — the Christians have become one-sided. That 
 which God joined together, they seek to put asunder, 
 the soul from the body. The separation of religion 
 from so called "worldly " aflfairs has consequently tended 
 to make those connected with religious movements 
 intensely impracticable. Religion and business, religion 
 and politics, religion and pleasure, we are taught must 
 be antagonistic. The affairs of the world are handed 
 over to the devil. It is no uncommon thing, therefore, 
 
 T 
 
274 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 to find that those, who on the sabbath are intensely 
 religious, are during the other six days of the week 
 intensely " worldly." 
 
 The teachings of the Christ of the gospels are 
 considered to be too far-reaching to be taken literally, 
 and are only accepted as a mere ideal concerning which 
 it is the duty and privilege of Christians to sing 
 sentimental songs — an ideal to be worshipped afar off, 
 but never possible of attainment in this life. 
 
 " He that would be My disciple," said Jesus, "let him 
 take up his cross daily and follow Me," at once dis- 
 proving the notion that religion was concerned only 
 with the inner life and a world which is to come. 
 
 If we are His disciples, we must take Him as a 
 whole, or throw Him overboard as a whole. 
 
 I know it is argued by many good people that the 
 Scriptures cannot be taken literally, that there must be 
 compromise in all things. Whatever may be said for 
 compromise in other directions, so far as the principles 
 of Christianity, as laid down by Christ, are concerned, 
 to compromise is to give place to evil. 
 
 Christ by His pronouncements proved Himself to 
 be the regenerator of conditions, as well as of men. 
 Christians, however, instead of giving to His utterances 
 their all-round application, cramp them into narrow 
 bigoted doctrinal channels, which at once destroy their 
 
Principles and Practice. 275 
 
 practical utility in temporal affairs, and make them only 
 an emotional sentimentalism. 
 
 Christ was not a mere word-spinner, neither was He 
 a manufacturer of riddles. In spite of all the mystery 
 that organized religion has endeavoured to weave about 
 Christ's words, "On earth as in heaven" meant both 
 the possibility and practicability of an organization of 
 earthly affairs in which truth, love, and happiness 
 would prevail. Surely a condition of things as reason- 
 able as it is desirable. 
 
 Christ's foes are indeed of His own household. 
 They seek to strike off the shackles of mythology, 
 simply that they may replace them by the shackles of 
 theology. Ofttimes a distinction without a real differ- 
 ence. A new heaven they profess to believe in, but it 
 is the heaven of dogma. 
 
 It is part of the creed of some that heaven and earth 
 are, and must be, in deadly combat. That the ideals of 
 time and eternity are, and must be, antagonistic. Some 
 even tell us that it is part of the Divine plan that the 
 powers of evil shall rule and govern things temporal — 
 that the starving of the multitudes and the sufferings of 
 the poor are but evidences of their sin, and directly 
 ordained to give to the " elect " an opportunity for a 
 display of their generosity. Hence we have the damn- 
 able doctrine that suffering and affliction are in accord- 
 
276 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 ance with the Divine will, and that contentment with 
 injustice on earth will act as a passport to the favoured 
 circle in the world which is to come. It is a fact worth 
 noticing, however, that they who preach this doctrine 
 take every care to suffer themselves as little as possible. 
 
 Judged from the standard which Christ Himself set 
 up, the present-day Christianity could not be in a worse 
 condition or farther away from the realization of those 
 ideals which its Founder intended. Why is this ? Is it 
 because the principles of Jesus are impracticable, or is 
 it because Christians are impracticable? The latter. 
 And I will tell you- where you can find the reason for 
 these ideals remaining in the clouds. 
 
 It is to be found in the fact that Dives reigns, to 
 please whom the family of God has been rent and 
 riven into classes, with all the accompanying evils of 
 a divided brotherhood of man. On the one side the 
 rich ; on the other side the poor. Between the two — 
 the middle classes. Yes, Dives reigns, and to this fact 
 can be traced the failure of the truth and the failure 
 up to the present of Christ. 
 
 Dives has cursed and corrupted the Church, as he 
 has cursed and corrupted the world. The golden calf 
 is set up as of old. That Dives reigns is demonstrated 
 in the gorgeous equipages and powdered flunkies, who 
 wait while land grabbers, capitalistic sweaters, brewers. 
 
Principles and Practice. 277 
 
 and slum rack-renters mumble their prayers in " dim 
 religious light " with less sincerity, and certainly with 
 less expectation, than is felt by the " heathen Chinee " 
 who prostrates himself before his "joss." 
 
 Dives, the rejected of God, is the accepted of the 
 Churches. Hence the Churches have no power, either 
 with God or the people. 
 
 In spite of the truths contained in the " needle's eye " 
 parable. Dives goes on accumulating riches, adding 
 increment upon increment, increasing the gains of the 
 luxurious classes, while at the same time the toiling 
 masses are sweated, starved, and slain. 
 
 Dives reigns in pulpit and pew, creed and choir. 
 They all play to his habits, tastes, and wishes. 
 
 Christ's response to the rich young man, who sought 
 counsel of old, was, " Go sell that which thou hast." 
 The young man turned away " sorrowful, for he had 
 great possessions." Wealth was his curse ; it has cursed 
 men since ; it curses men still. Experience proves to 
 us that millionaires should be considered monsters ; 
 since one individual cannot accumulate great wealth 
 without directly or indirectly denying to other members 
 of the human family those necessaries and comforts of 
 life which that wealth could procure. 
 
 If the distribution, and not accumulation, of wealth 
 was in old time the first condition of discipleship, it 
 
278 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 must be so still. But whoever hears of any leaving 
 the church sorrowful in these days because they are 
 rich ? It is their wealth which makes men desirable 
 acquisitions to religious institutions. Wealth ensures its 
 possessor the best seat in the church, and even the 
 church itself is his " gift." 
 
 Dives simply, because of his riches, becomes the 
 patron of the " house of God," and the paymaster and 
 employer of His "servants." Is it any wonder, there- 
 fore, that the latter fail to make war upon those con- 
 ditions which enable their patrons to fatten and 
 flourish ? 
 
 Dives dominates the church as truly as he governs 
 the world. The sanctuary is often nothing more than 
 the receiving house for stolen property. For that is 
 what the costly altars represent when erected by men 
 whose wealth has been wrung from the very life's blood 
 of the poor. What are many of the " endowments " 
 but the results of plunder ? Organized religion may, in 
 truth, be said to have committed a double sin — the 
 taking of Dives' bribes while neglecting Dives' victims. 
 
 To be true to Christ's principles the Church should 
 be the tender nurse of all the people, without regard 
 to class or distinction. The Church should be the first 
 to demand from those in authority practice as well as 
 precept, and stand in the breach as the champion of 
 
Principles and Practice. 279 
 
 the weak against the strong. Does the Church rise to 
 these responsibilities ? 
 
 We read that it is righteousness that " exalteth a 
 nation ; " but how shall the nation learn righteousness, 
 if by example the Church fails to demand from those 
 within her own borders a practical compliance with the 
 fundamental principles of righteousness ? 
 
 Wealth is the power in the Christian Church, and, 
 as a result, Dives has usurped the place of the Divine 
 Founder. 
 
 The representatives of organized religion make much 
 of their charities; but it is justice, not charity, the 
 people need. Charity demoralizes. It is the dole that 
 curses and saps true manhood. 
 
 Rich men and the grinders of the faces of the poor 
 salve their consciences by restoring a portion of their 
 illgotten gain to its owners. They build cathedrals 
 with beer-barrels, and mash-tub millionaires are wel- 
 comed as they endow the sanctuary. 
 
 The reign of Dives in the Church is to be seen in 
 the existence of that curse of man — competition. Do 
 not so-called Christians compete with each other as 
 they fawn and flatter Dives to secure his patronage 
 and legacies ? Within the Church is not competition 
 fostered ? Are not churches built, restored, beautified 
 at "the lowest tender," thus nourishing a form of 
 
2 8o Vox Clamantium. 
 
 competition which has its firstfruits in dishonesty and 
 sweated labour ? 
 
 Within the borders of the Church we find extremes 
 of the most pronounced form — bishops with palaces 
 and retinues ; archbishops with ;£'300 per week salary ; 
 bishops at £ioo per week ; deans ^50 to £60 per 
 week ; canons from £10 to ;£'20 per week. By the side 
 of these unnecessarily high salaries place the wretched 
 conditions of the drudges of the Church — the curates ! 
 
 Of a truth we need not go to the Gentile capitalist, 
 or the Israelitish taskmaster, to find worse sweating 
 dens than those in the Church of England of to- 
 day. 
 
 There can be no room for Jesus] or the practical 
 application of His teachings while Dives rules and 
 reigns within the Churches. Christ and His teachings 
 must be forsaken in the tenacious clinging to old 
 abuses. 
 
 The reign of Dives has destroyed even common 
 consistency. There are, amongst orthodox Church- 
 men, those who would not hesitate to drive a Non- 
 conforming teacher from a Board School as a heretic 
 and a sinner. Yet they joyfully join hands with any 
 propertied politician, though a Unitarian or a Jew, in 
 their anxiety to retain their hold upon the parish 
 charities. They will fight for creed to the last gasp. 
 
Principles and Practice. 281 
 
 but they will compromise when it is only the principles 
 of righteousness and justice which are concerned. 
 
 The reign of Dives in the Church is demonstrated 
 by the greed and demand for fees, which meet us at 
 every turn. A man can neither be religiously born, 
 wed, nor buried without a fee. A stone to mark the 
 spot of his last resting-place cannot be erected without 
 a fee. The most sacred feelings are played upon, so 
 that the dust of our loved ones cannot be laid away in 
 what is termed " consecrated ground " without a fee. 
 Over ;^8ooo a year are paid by cemetery companies 
 in London to the representatives of the Established 
 Church in nine parishes alone as toll for the dead. 
 There is more of Shylock than Jesus in proceedings 
 of this kind. 
 
 The reign of Dives is again clearly to be found 
 in the traffic of souls which shamelessly goes on. 
 " Spiritual " charges and church preferments are sold 
 at public auctions as so much merchandise. Could 
 anything be farther from the teachings of Him whose 
 chief aim was to bring heaven to earth .' 
 
 Is it too much to say that in these practices lie the 
 causes which have destroyed the power of Christian 
 doctrines, and provide a sufficient answer to those who 
 ask " why the Church, as an institution, has lost touch 
 with both the human and Divine " ? 
 
282 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 She has sold herself to Dives, and, as a consequence, 
 partakes of his damnation. 
 
 These facts have in a measure forced themselves to 
 the attention of those in authority, and latterly they 
 have been setting their caps at the masses, coquetting 
 with Radicalism in general, and " labour leaders " in 
 particular, the object being to attract the masses once 
 more. But all these efforts will fail unless Dives be 
 dethroned. 
 
 Do not suppose that by the Church the Establish- 
 ment alone is alluded to. This institution is by no means 
 the solitary instance of the damnation by wealth. The 
 democratic denominations are in the same damnation. 
 It is true they have not the rotting influence of a State 
 endowment to sap their foundations ; but here, as else- 
 where, Dives is the man in possession, holding mortgage 
 on the heritage of the children of the King. Is it unjust 
 to say that in many instances money, and not piety, is 
 the standard by which men are valued even in Noncon- 
 formist bodies ? The publican and distiller, for example, 
 may enjoy the luxury of the best pew, while the poor 
 and pious widow of a ruined drunkard must needs take 
 a back seat because she cannot pay. 
 
 Such is the existing condition of things within the 
 Churches, a condition which should cover us with shame 
 and fill us with a spirit of true repentance. 
 
Principles and Practice. 283 
 
 In spite of the social problem existing in the most 
 unmistakable form at their very doors, so-called 
 Christians do not realize it. There are thousands of 
 churches and chapels from whose pulpits the affairs of 
 everyday life, and the wrongs suffered by the poor, are 
 never mentioned from year's end to year's end. Can 
 the occupants of such claim to be doing God's will ? 
 Surely it is the duty of the pastors and teachers to 
 concentrate the intellectual and spiritual forces of their 
 flocks towards the solving of the social problem ! They 
 should be directed as to the part they ought to take in 
 the emancipation of their fellows from material burdens 
 as clearly as their duty is pointed out and action coun- 
 selled for the spiritual emancipation of man. 
 
 Many excuse themselves from interference with 
 temporal matters because they hold that such efforts 
 belong to the political arena, and say that " religion 
 has nothing to do with politics." ' That religion should 
 have no connection with " party " politics I admit. That 
 the principles of Christ are opposed to political action 
 on the lines of justice and reform I deny. 
 
 I know also the argument is frequently used that the 
 spiritual emancipation of man is of greater importance 
 than any material question. 
 
 Is it a matter of no moment that a hundred thousand 
 homeless souls roam the land condemned to beg, steal, 
 
284 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 or starve, the majority of whom have been thrust into 
 that plight by circumstances over vi^hich they had and 
 have no control ? 
 
 Is this the will of God ? 
 
 Are the claims of the pauper class too insignificant 
 a matter for the Christians to pick up ? They are a 
 class as large as the population of London. Is this 
 social blot a matter of no importance to us as Christians, 
 or do we say it is the will of God ? 
 
 What of the ninety per cent, of the actual producers 
 of wealth, whom Mr. Frederic Harrison so graphically 
 describes — who " have no home that they can call their 
 own beyond the end of the week ; have no bit of soil, 
 or so much as a room that belongs to them ; have 
 nothing of value of any kind except as much old furni- 
 ture as will go in a cart ; have the precarious chance of 
 weekly wages which barely suffice to keep them in 
 health ; are housed for the most part in places that no 
 man thinks fit for his horse ; are separated by so narrow 
 a margin from destitution, that a month of bad trade, 
 sickness, or unexpected loss brings them face to face 
 with hunger and pauperism. . . . This is the normal 
 state of the average workman in town or country " ? 
 
 Will Christians go on praying with the lip for the 
 coming of His kingdom, but never raise a hand to 
 assist in the bringing of that kingdom .' 
 
Principles and Practice. 285 
 
 Is it a matter of no importance to Christians 
 that three children die in some parts of London and 
 our great towns to one in other parts, because of the 
 vile and insanitary conditions which surround them 
 in the hovels and slums to which poverty condemns 
 them? 
 
 Not a day passes without our newspapers containing 
 accounts of death from starvation of the most shocking 
 character. Is this the will of God ? or are these things 
 possible simply because Christians neglect their duty ? 
 
 It is true that now and again there is a spasmodic 
 burst and a conference. We have had one lately at 
 the Mansion House, where Dives, anxious to appear to 
 be moving in the right direction, held solemn inquest 
 on Lazarus, assisted by a jury of capitalists, guinea- 
 pigs, and dividend-mongers, with a cleric or two staged 
 in for effect. This capitalistic mountain, after passing 
 through the throes of its stupendous labours, has 
 brought forth a mouse, in the shape of the usual report, 
 which, under the influence of the Charity Organization 
 Society, has the impudence to suggest that the miseries 
 of the poor are the result of their criminality and vicious- 
 ness. Yet hardly a word of protest is heard from any 
 of our pulpits against this cold-blooded document. 
 
 Turn, again, to the Conference of the "Jerusalem 
 Chamber" on the "Living Wage." How hopefully 
 
2 86 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 beat the hearts of many as that day of meetuig drew 
 near ; but how those hopes were shattered ! Dignitaries 
 of the Established Church and Nonconformity — alike in 
 the enjoyment of a luxurious wage — ^joined hands with 
 Dives and shouted in chorus that a living wage was 
 "indefinable." 
 
 To have arrived at the conclusion their Master 
 would have advocated would have offended Dives. 
 They preferred, therefore, to belie the principles of 
 Jesus. 
 
 If Christians want the kingdom of heaven to come 
 to earth, they must insist upon the right of each to 
 live by their labour, as well as to enjoy all the fruits 
 of that labour. They must destroy once and for all 
 the iniquity of one class living in luxury on the toil 
 of another class. Some will say that drastic action of 
 this kind amounts to "confiscation." My reply is, that 
 if any have robbed, they must restore. The restoration 
 of stolen property, be it land, or the resources of nature, 
 or anything else, is but common honesty. Those who 
 exist on the manipulation of capital and "vested in- 
 terests " are aware that heavenly conditions mean their 
 destruction, and Dives, therefore, is only too willing to 
 subsidize handsomely Church institutions for the pulpit 
 to cry peace, when there is no peace. Therefore it is 
 that Dives packs the Legislature to resist reforms, 
 
Principles and Practice. 287 
 
 making the political representatives of the people 
 mere pieces of a party machine, the object of which 
 is to crush, instead of elevate, the people ; and thus it 
 is that amidst starvation and suicide, smug Christianity 
 covers his face with his hands and thanks God for 
 " inexorable economic law." 
 
 But what shall we do? Attack those who make 
 sin, as well as damn the sinner. Let the prophets of 
 God in these days be as uncompromising as they were 
 of old. Thunder out the truth that the earth is the 
 Lord's, and not the landlords'. Trumpet that the 
 earth, and all that is in it, is the gift of the Creator 
 to all men, and that they who rob men of, or hinder 
 them in any way from enjoying, the full use and benefit 
 of the Divine gift, are enemies of humanity of the worse 
 kind. 
 
 Send forth the fiery cross against unholy competi- 
 tion. Sweep out from all religious communities the 
 makers and sellers of strong drink, as those upon 
 whom a share of the -drunkard's damnation will fall 
 in time as well as eternity. 
 
 The duty that lies first to the hands of followers 
 of Christ is the overthrow of Dives within the borders 
 of the Church. We " cannot serve God and mammon." 
 
 The next step is the dethronement of Dives in the 
 Legislature, so that party politics will be known no 
 
2 88 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 more, and principle in place of policy be the guiding 
 force. Then the dethronement of Dives in the com- 
 mercial world. 
 
 These are the foundations upon which the heavenly 
 kingdom will rest ; and when these are laid, as men 
 and women of religion could and should lay them, we 
 shall neither have to wait or pray for the kingdom of 
 heaven to come — it will be with us. 
 
 Frank Smith. 
 
Preachers and Churches. 
 
 I MAKE no apology for writing this chapter upon 
 preachers and Churches. In our day every institution 
 is open to criticism, and rightly and necessarily so ; and 
 although — if this should meet the eyes of preachers — 
 many of them will doubtless consider it presumption 
 on my part to attempt even to deal with such a sub- 
 ject, let it be so. We live in England, and not in 
 Russia — plutocratic England, it is true, but with de- 
 mocracy getting a good grip. And if by writing this 
 I simply lay myself open to criticism, it may still be 
 the case that I shall have served some small purpose 
 by helping to make clear what it is we object to in 
 orthodox preachers, with their orthodox doctrines and 
 congregations. It cannot be that I am wholly correct, 
 it may be I am very wrong ; but feeling strongly upon 
 the subject, and often indulging on Labour platforms 
 in sentiments identical with those I have here given 
 expression to, I now venture (upon invitation) to place 
 
 U 
 
290 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 before another audience the views I hold, as well as 
 those I condemn. 
 
 At the outset, I desire to say that I am fully alive 
 to the fact that there are clergymen, ministers, Sunday- 
 school and Bible-class teachers, who cannot be covered 
 by the general terms of censure I have made use of 
 in what follows. I am happy in possessing the close 
 friendship of not a few who, I am quite sure, are not 
 merely as devoted as any men and women on earth 
 to the cause of truth and righteousness, but strive con- 
 tinuously to make right-doing prevail in every sphere 
 of life. But it is just these who, more than others, feel 
 and know what a terrible responsibility rests upon 
 preachers and teachers as a whole ; and who also know, 
 to their sorrow, how shamefully deficient the Churches 
 are in supplying the much- needed correction and 
 stimulus and light. 
 
 The Churches set up a claim to be the moral and 
 spiritual guides of humanity, to whom all men should 
 look for guidance as to their conduct in this life, and 
 qualifications for life hereafter. The question I propose 
 to examine is : Do they fulfil these functions ? 
 
 In a complex society like ours, where the average 
 person, on reaching girlhood or boyhood, must perforce 
 begin work of some kind to obtain a maintenance, a 
 very large share of one's time, thought, and energy 
 
Preachers and Churches. 291 
 
 must of necessity, under present conditions, be devoted 
 to the mere work of obtaining a living. Indeed, it is 
 the paramount question, by the side of which all others 
 fall into comparative insignificance. Consequently, if 
 guidance is needed anywhere, it is in connection with 
 the means whereby a livelihood is to be obtained. The 
 virtues — including honesty, sobriety, and obedience to 
 superiors — are all emphasized in the Sunday schools, 
 Bible-classes, and churches ; exactly how to apply them 
 being, of course, too great a task. A general condem- 
 nation of "sin," and urgent advice to "flee from the 
 wrath to come," and find salvation by reliance upon 
 the sacrifice in the crucifixion of Jesus, sums up the 
 teaching of the average school, church, and chapel. 
 Where does this land a man ? Judging by a lengthened 
 experience, I unhesitatingly declare that I find that 
 the average church or chapel goer, who is influenced 
 primarily by what he obtains from its functions, be- 
 comes a narrow, saving, squeezing creature, taking 
 little or no part in the vigorous life of the community, 
 but very commonly becoming, by his isolated action, a 
 source of weakness in any real democratic movement. 
 If he takes part in municipal or political life, he usually 
 does so on the flimsiest party lines. He generally 
 attributes the cause of the poverty of the poor to their 
 utter degradation, caused by their dissolute habits, 
 
292 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 brought about by their unchecked evil tendencies, the 
 human heart being desperately wicked and deceitful 
 above all things. Very rarely is he connected with a 
 trade union. As a rule, he is most loyal to the 
 injunction, "Servants, obey your masters," and will 
 side with his kindred " brethren " to blackleg against his 
 fellows. 
 
 The tricks of trade he necessarily becomes familiar 
 with ; and, like a business man, he not only indulges 
 in them, but becomes an expert thereat. He will 
 attend a prayer-meeting and bless God for the good 
 things of life, and pray for the salvation of the poor 
 sinners in the slums, and will take, as evidences of 
 God's blessing in return, the possession of a few more 
 shares that will pay ten per cent. ; and if fifteen per 
 cent. — why, the more cause for thankfulness, of course ! 
 Let none tell me I am concocting a case ; such men 
 can be counted by thousands. And why } Because 
 that upon which they have been fed is devoid of real 
 vitalizing force. Instead of giving moral discernment 
 to enable a man to understand how, where, and when 
 moral or, if you will, religious principles should be 
 applied, the preachers land him in a complete fog. 
 Beholding those who are held in high esteem in the 
 Churches, that they include the bankers and stock- 
 jobbers, and the company promoters and capitalists 
 
Preachers and Churches. 293 
 
 and landlords, he follows them rather than the simple 
 carpenter's Son. Between such select and exalted per- 
 sonages and mere labour agitators, trade unionists, 
 socialists, etc., there is, as surely there ought to be, he 
 concludes, a great gulf. 
 
 The Church is in a helpless backwash, having lost 
 the true courage, mental and moral vigour, power of 
 discernment, and hence capacity, to apply what 
 humanity now demands. The parsons, clergymen, and 
 ministers are, for the most part, a feeble folk, who, 
 daring not to lead, are therefore bound to follow. 
 
 Other men labour, and in the course of years the 
 Church slowly is dragged along; for the pioneers of 
 righteousness we must look elsewhere than to so-called 
 Christians. The man who is truly religious wants no 
 driving to do his duty. He does not try to make all 
 manner of excuses for the exploiters of the industrious 
 community, and pile up the trifling misdeeds of an 
 unfairly handicapped proletariat. A truly religious 
 body of men, whose religion enabled them to understand 
 between right-doing and wrong-doing, and furnished 
 them with the requisite courage to face all foes, would 
 never be content with the sunny complacency of the 
 average parson in the midst of the life-destroying con- 
 ditions of our industrial centres. 
 
 Shame, say I, and a thousand times shame, upon so 
 
294 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 feeble a religion as that which can tolerate the awful 
 social life which exists in London at this very time. 
 There are not less than four hundred thousand persons 
 in London alone in a state of semi- or actual starvation. 
 There are among these at least a hundred thousand 
 adult males out of work ; tens of thousands of women, 
 having no one to rely upon to support them, but in 
 multitudes of instances being responsible for children 
 (or aged or crippled relatives) in addition to themselves, 
 who, over and over again in the course of a year, are 
 deprived of the means of obtaining a livelihood ; tens 
 of thousands of children setting off to the Board schools 
 every morning with less than a tenth part of that which 
 is necessary for physical sustenance. Scores of miles 
 of streets, with wretched dens in the background, furnish 
 enormous rents — to whom ? To the men of the world ? 
 No; to the rich membersofyour congregations, the great 
 subscribers of your salaries, O preachers ! who turn up 
 at your church or chapel service and follow you in pray- 
 ing, " Thy kingdom come ; Thy will be done, as in heaven, 
 so upon the earth." Can they, do you think, believe 
 that there is anything in heaven corresponding to the 
 wretched slum-dwellers of Whitechapel or Spitalfields ? 
 Are there any in heaven corresponding to these Christian 
 rent-takers, who wax fat at the expense of the down- 
 trodden ? What are you ministers and plutocratic 
 
Preachers and Churches. 295 
 
 members of the rich churches and chapels doing to make 
 earth like heaven ? Why, it would need an entire change 
 in the basis of society, and the means whereby incomes 
 are obtained. Are these religious plutocrats and 
 preachers trying to change the basis of society, so that 
 better conditions shall prevail? Assuredly not. On 
 the contrary, they are determined opponents of those 
 who do try to make such changes. 
 
 The fact is, preachers and congregation are bound 
 hard and fast in a system that is grossly materialistic, 
 utterly soulless in good, and without a single noble 
 aspiration. The Hobbs & Co. Liberator phenomenon 
 indicates how completely swamped is the average Non- 
 conformist soul. Not only did it make haste to get 
 rich, but by the most damnable means that the most 
 cunning Jews and Gentiles combined could devise. 
 Morality ! Religion ! Where is the religion or the 
 morality in taking ten per cent, usury ? Yet who among 
 the orthodox in faith and practice objects to ten or 
 more per cent. ? Honesty ! Righteousness ! Who that 
 believes in the doctrines of Jesus can uphold industrial- 
 ism whose very basis from top to toe is ten per cent. ? 
 " The man that will not work, neither shall he eat," is an 
 apostolic injunction ; but how many ministers or members 
 of our swell churches and chapels believe it? "Yes, 
 but even Hobbs and Wright worked," some will say. 
 
296 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Ah, so they did ; as did also Mr. Charles Peace of 
 burglar notoriety — the latter with less scoundrelism 
 than the former. 
 
 The average preacher or church-goer does distinctly 
 believe, not only that it is right to eat without working, 
 but to get fed, clothed, housed, insured, and buried into 
 the bargain. Who among them condemns as a religious 
 duty the taking of interest and rent ? And if these are 
 defended, and I can get sufficient interest or rent to 
 keep me and mine without working, what religious 
 principle comes in after that to say I must work ? Or, 
 am I to work like the Yankee millionaire — on six days 
 a week endeavouring to amass the biggest fortune on 
 record, entirely irrespective of how many will be ruined ; 
 and on Sunday attending church, receiving the bless- 
 ing of the minister, and helping to carry the collecting- 
 plate to show how godly I am ? If ever Deity was 
 insulted, it is by these devourers of widows' houses, who 
 receive direct sanction and approval from orthodox 
 exponents of orthodox religion. Let none rise to say, 
 " Oh, but we would never endorse the enormities of 
 the Liberator Company." If not, where, then, would 
 you stop ? The whole shoal of interest-takers and 
 stockbroking gamblers are specimens of the same 
 type in embryo. Not so successful as the millionaire, 
 perhaps — why? Because they lacked opportunity. 
 
Preachers and Churches. 297 
 
 Never had the brains to scheme like the others, and the 
 courage to come down a resounding crash at the end. 
 Why? Because they hadn't had time to go far enough. 
 The difference isn't in kind ; it is only in degree. As in 
 the time of Nahum, so now, to describe London we 
 must indeed say, " Woe to the bloody city ! it is full of 
 lies and robbery." 
 
 I do not state or imply that all this is done hypocriti- 
 cally ; what I do say is " that the truth is not in them." 
 Christians need to be " born again." Orthodox religion 
 is acquiescing in an irreligious condition of Society, 
 Christianity is made part and parcel of the national 
 commercialism, and wholly subservient to the individual- 
 istic acquisitiveness of the age. The Fatherhood of 
 God and Brotherhood of Man have come to be mere 
 threadbare phrases when used by an ordinary religionist. 
 Church or chapel is regularly attended, not indeed to 
 obtain guidance out of the industrial and social wilder- 
 ness, but to maintain tradition and keep up appearances. 
 Some Christians positively believe, doubtless, that 
 religion consists in church-going, hymn-singing, and 
 muttering over the words found in the Prayer-book, or 
 offered up by the minister ; failing to realize that these 
 are but the means to an end. If they are used as the 
 end itself, then indeed does moral darkness assert 
 itself 
 
298 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 It does appear to be the case that with industrial 
 England, as with pastoral Israel in the time of Amos, 
 the outward ritual is made the chief concern. At that 
 time the Mosaic ritual was jealously attended to, but 
 the message was : " I hate, I despise your feast-days, 
 and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though 
 ye offer Me burnt offerings, I will not accept them : 
 neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat 
 beasts. Take thou away from Me the noise of thy 
 songs ; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. 
 But let justice run down as waters, and righteousness 
 as a mighty stream" (Amos v. 21-24). This is a 
 sweeping condemnation of fashionable church -going 
 whilst the state of society is unsound. See v. 11 of 
 the same chapter : " Forasmuch therefore as your tread- 
 ing is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of 
 wheat : ye have built houses," etc. 
 
 Now, it was not the custom even in brutal Israel for 
 one man to literally knock another down in order to 
 take his wheat from him. There were more refined 
 methods of exploitation then as now — though, doubtless, 
 modern civilization even in Christian England could 
 give the old Jews many points, and beat them at 
 legalized robbery ; for it is this legal robbery that is 
 here condemned as much as any other kind. 
 
 But nothing puts the case more clearly than the 
 
Preachers and Churches. 299 
 
 condemnation by Jesus of the orthodox professors of 
 religion of his time (see St. Matt, xxiii. 13, 14) — 
 
 " But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! 
 for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men : 
 for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them 
 that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and 
 Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye devour widows' houses, 
 and for a pretence make long prayer : therefore ye shall 
 receive the greater damnation." 
 
 No language could be stronger, and yet this was 
 directed against the respectably religious of that day. 
 These Pharisees have their exact counterpart to-day in 
 England. 
 
 I know the risk I run by any attempt to deal with 
 the subject of future salvation. But with a keen re- 
 membrance of the influence orthodoxy exercised over 
 me, — of the years of unrest, of the flimsiness and mimicry 
 with its pretences of solemnity and make - believe 
 solidity, — I feel bound to deal with the subject. I know 
 many young men who have striven hard to find " salva- 
 tion ; " and with blind guides to lead them, many years 
 were spent in finding what ought to have been reached 
 in a few months. The talk about the one thing needful 
 under orthodoxy (it will be noted that I continually 
 guard myself by referring to "orthodoxy") means 
 nothing more than fixing attention upon Jesus as the 
 
300 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Saviour, He having been sacrificed to reconcile mankind 
 to the Father. I make no comment upon this doctrinal 
 point. What I want to expose is the demoralizing 
 effect produced by the individual being taught that 
 salvation for him consists in reflecting upon and 
 believing in his acceptance with God, because of Christ's 
 sacrifice, irrespective of the life he leads. " No one says 
 this," some will cry. Yes ; but, indeed, it is said and 
 taught in nineteen churches out of twenty, and the 
 effect is to cause the individual to think of himself or 
 herself, and to value, out of all proper proportion, his 
 or her own personal salvation. Selfishness begins this, 
 and with selfishness it usually ends. Whilst one can 
 admire the energy put forth and the trouble taken in 
 the voluntary street-corner preachers and singers, one 
 can only pity those who speak, as well as those who 
 may in any way be influenced by what is said. A 
 million times over is the same story told — personal 
 salvation by faith in Christ. It seems to me it would 
 be a truly religious act if all such received a severe 
 castigation for wasting so much time trying to assuage 
 the sorrows primarily brought about by a vicious 
 industrial system, instead of boldly tackling that in- 
 dustrial system itself. 
 
 Salvation surely consists in living in accordance with 
 Divine harmony, — in loving order and living it, — in 
 
Preachers and Churches. 301 
 
 hating disorder here on earth, and striving might and 
 main to remove it so that earth may be more like 
 heaven. Oh, the unworthiness of followers of Jesus 
 being primarily concerned about their poor little souls ! 
 He that seeks to save his soul on these lines will lose 
 it ; but he that will lose his own life by working for the 
 salvation of the community, — all such must be saved. 
 Up ! off your knees, young men ! Let us have more 
 effort directed to the removal of evil ! Don't go con- 
 tinually begging of God to do that which you ought to 
 do 1 This world is wrong, and wants righting, and you 
 and I are responsible for doing our share towards right- 
 ing it. What horrible villainy have you been guilty of, 
 that half your time needs be taken up in praying for 
 forgiveness? The man that loves righteousness will 
 seek to live righteously, and all such are already saved. 
 His duty is to be at work removing the cause of wrong- 
 doing. 
 
 A little less time spent at orthodox mission meetings, 
 and more time spent in helping on effective industrial 
 organization, to ensure right-doing in the business of 
 life, is sadly needed just now. This orthodox mission 
 work is exactly what our exploiting plutocrats rejoice 
 in. It is so gracious of them to give an occasional ten 
 pounds to keep a mission going, that they may with 
 reasonable safety exploit an additional twenty from 
 
302 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 their employees, and still receive the praise and bless- 
 ings of the faithful. 
 
 " Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your 
 miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are 
 corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your 
 gold and silver is cankered ; and the rust of them shall 
 be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it 
 were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the 
 last days. Behold the hire of the labourers who have 
 reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by 
 fraud, crieth : and the cries of them which have reaped 
 are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth " (St. 
 James v. 1-4). 
 
 What have our landed aristocrats and capitalistic 
 plutocrats who go to church and chapel regularly to 
 say to St. James ? Dare they claim to be better than 
 those whom James condemned ? If so, in what way ? 
 And if not, are they not condemned by the book in 
 which they make a pretence of reading? Not that 1 
 am affirming that every rich man is necessarily a 
 candidate for hell. What I do contend is that, be we 
 rich or poor, if our mental and moral standard is such 
 that we continue to support the present hellish system, 
 — which the ordinary capitalist upholds, and is sanc- 
 tioned in upholding by the average Church, — then we 
 are violating every genuinely religious principle. 
 
Preachers and Churches. 303 
 
 I am not condemning religion, but the lack of it. 
 Religion to me consists of those ethical principles that 
 serve as a guide in all matters of conduct — social, 
 political, and industrial alike ; and the essence of the 
 whole thing is this : the choice between a life whose 
 actuating motive shall be self, either in acquiring wealth, 
 renown, prestige, or power, and a life which shall have 
 primary regard for the well-being of the community as 
 a whole. To do this is to engage in making it possible 
 for " His kingdom to obtain on earth as in heaven." 
 If I am asked, " Do I think that all that is necessary is 
 a perfected industrial machinery on socialistic lines ? " 
 I say emphatically, " No ! I don't think that is all." 
 
 I do distinctly believe in the necessity for Socialism 
 out and out, and that it is my duty to work for its 
 realization. But I know also that something more 
 than good machinery is necessary, if really good results 
 are to be obtained. I desire to see every person fired 
 with a holy enthusiasm to put a stop to wrong- doing. 
 Before this is possible, individuals must submit them- 
 selves to much and severe discipline. The baser sides 
 of our nature must be beaten down, that the higher and 
 nobler side may develop. Regard for the brethren 
 (brethren meaning all) must be the mainspring of our 
 action; the development of the highest possible 
 qualities in ourselves is undoubtedly a religious duty, 
 
304 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 but for this chief reason — that we may be of the greater 
 service. 
 
 " He that would be greatest among you, let him be 
 servant of all." 
 
 This to me is the ideal test and standard. As Jesus 
 was the servant of mankind, so I, as a follower of Jesus, 
 must learn to be of use. The irreligious man is not 
 only the deliberate maker of mischief, but equally so 
 the indolent and useless man. Swedenborg has well 
 said — 
 
 "All religion has relation to life, and the life of 
 religion is to do good." Further : " Heaven consists of 
 those of all nations who love God supremely, and their 
 neighbours as themselves. Hell is the assembly of the 
 selfish, — of all who love themselves supremely and 
 gratify their lusts at any cost to others." 
 
 The astounding anomaly of our time is the complete 
 separation of religious principles from everyday indus- 
 trial life. Spiritual pastors teach the young to regard 
 God as the common Father ; and when the young be- 
 come of age to reflect upon the shameful inequalities 
 created and maintained by our social system, they are 
 discouraged by their elders from trying to alter it, and 
 are treated as agitators and destroyers of the peace. 
 
 Honesty demands a frank statement that the so- 
 called religions of our time are afraid to apply the 
 
Preachers and Churches. 305 
 
 principles of Jesus. They make a pretence of cham- 
 pioning His cause ; but in reality the Socialist agitator 
 and the Trade Union organizer is doing far more 
 than the preachers and the Christians, the Missionary 
 Societies and the Bible Societies to make Christ's 
 gospel prevail. The Churches are afraid of Socialism. 
 Why ? Because the wealthy in their congregations are 
 anti-socialists. If any say this is not so, then it will 
 not be difScult to give an effectual reply by quoting in- 
 stances where the minister has seen the light and dared 
 to proclaim the truth, and where the men who "have 
 great possessions " (relatively) have very soon taken 
 their departure. I have heard of complaints from one 
 or two such ministers that they not only lost the 
 employer class by their boldness, but that they did not 
 succeed in securing the adhesion of any counteracting 
 proportion among the workers. There is less to be 
 surprised at in this than some seem to think. The 
 Churches having gone astray worse than lost sheep, are 
 not likely very easily to win back democracy. Whether 
 they will ever do it or not is an open question. 
 
 The clergyman is undoubtedly at a serious discount 
 as an adviser. " Serve him right," say I. Nor will he 
 ever redeem his position except by honest effort on 
 behalf of democracy. Not that democracy will suffer 
 materially if this is not done. The greatest trouble is 
 
 X 
 
3o6 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 past. Democracy is learning how to provide for itself, 
 and never was the democracy so truly religious as now. 
 And it is gradually getting more so. This religious 
 evolution will increase as the bad environment is altered 
 on one side, and the ethical gospel is lifted up and 
 followed truthfully on the other. 
 
 I know that many preachers contend that industrial 
 and economic matters are nothing to them ; theirs is a 
 religious work, and men must be left to themselves to 
 find out how to apply religious truths. " If they were 
 to take sides, it would mean the break up of the 
 Church," and so on. To endorse a religion apart from 
 principles that are to guide our everyday behaviour is 
 monstrous. If one's religion does not compel one to 
 take sides in favour of a righteous basis of society, the 
 sooner it ceases to encumber the earth the better for all 
 concerned. A minister who can't find time to make 
 up his mind as to the direction in which he should 
 travel on industrial and economic matters, will probably 
 not find time to be of any practical use to the world, 
 nor yet to the denomination to which he may belong. 
 I am fully aware of the fact that by declaring in favour 
 of Socialism, many who might have been disposed to 
 consider the possibility of some mild action favourable 
 to democracy, now stand off. To such let me say : I 
 have purposely avowed myself a Socialist here, so that 
 
Preachers and Churches. 307 
 
 those who read this may know what I expect from 
 those on whose behalf I can speak. We do not want, 
 and will not have a person's patronage, or goody-goody- 
 advice. If there is to be a rapprochement it can only be 
 by the parson getting off his high horse, stopping his 
 goodyism and meeting men and women frankly as 
 such. If he doesn't, he'll get left high and dry for a 
 certainty. 
 
 I am not here demanding that every parson who is 
 to be of use, shall be an out-and-out Socialist right off. 
 I am telling him that we workmen who happen to be 
 Socialists are adding largely to our numbers every 
 month, that the whole trend of modern effort in our 
 Trade Unions, Co-operative Societies, Town and County 
 Councils, and Parliament is distinctly socialistic, and if 
 parsons and ministers want to stop it, they had better 
 refurbish their weapons. I can easily understand that 
 some genuine men among the clergy will be dis- 
 quieted by wondering whether the Socialists are coming 
 round their way for a general sharing-out arrangement, 
 and so they are slow to make a move. Such is the 
 enlightenment that exists in these quarters ! Let me 
 hasten to reassure all such that if they are to subscribe 
 to the following very mild statement of John Ruskin, 
 they need not be seriously alarmed : — 
 
 "So far am I from invalidating the security of 
 
3o8 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 property, that the whole gist of my contention will be 
 found to aim at an extension in its range, and whereas 
 it has long been known and declared that the poor have 
 no right to the property of the rich, I wish it also to be 
 known and declared that the rich have no right to the 
 property of the poor" (" Unto this Last"). 
 
 That surely should be a self-evident proposition to 
 the mind of a moralist, but it goes rather a long way, as 
 it would mean nothing less than a righteous distribution 
 of wealth. It is to be hoped that no preacher will ask 
 what business is this to him. Surely " Thou shalt not 
 steal " is emphatic enough, and when we add Carlyle's 
 trifle to it, " Thou shalt not be stolen from," it gains a 
 little in clearness. The Church will doubtless concern 
 itself in a few generations to come about such an elemen- 
 tary subject as the enforcement of honesty. We work- 
 men contend that honesty of distribution should become 
 a fact. Forty-nine-fiftieths of present-day poverty, and 
 the bulk of the crime and villainy that now disgrace our 
 country, would disappear, if the Society thieves were to 
 disappear. 
 
 But timid Christians and their preachers are likely 
 to reply that, " to bring about such a change is impos- 
 sible ; human nature won't admit of it." If not, what 
 becomes of the Lord's Prayer: "Thy kingdom come 
 ... as in heaven so upon the earth " ? If this is a 
 
Preachers and Churches. 309 
 
 pious fraud, please be frank enough to say so. Some 
 of us, when we say the Lord's Prayer, do indeed mean 
 it, amongst whom I am glad to be one. I am not willing 
 to be included with those cowards who say it is im- 
 possible of realization. Whatever is right we are bound 
 to work for, even if its fruit is in the dim and distant 
 future. We believe that the Lord's Prayer is not only 
 realizable, but we are of those disciples who will make 
 it so. This done, the question of a " living wage " will 
 be settled. 
 
 As yet in this Christian land we haven't been able 
 to establish a living wage, even when it means nothing 
 more than a sufficiency of material necessities to main- 
 tain life. Many in connection with the Churches have 
 recently said that a living wage is impossible, i.e. that 
 it is impossible in this " religious " country to see that 
 each of God's children, our own brothers and sisters, 
 shall be as well fed as a horse. Let Carlyle again be 
 heard — 
 
 "There is not a horse in England, able and willing 
 to work, but has due food and lodging, and goes about 
 sleek-coated, satisfied in heart. And you say, 'It is 
 impossible.' Brothers, I answer, if for you it be im- 
 possible, what is to become of you ? It is impossible 
 for us to believe it to be impossible. The human brain, 
 looking at these sleek English horses, refuses to believe 
 
3IO Vox Clamantium. 
 
 in such impossibility for Englishmen. Do you depart 
 quickly ; clear the ways soon, lest worse befall. We 
 for our share do purpose, with full view of the enormous 
 difficulty, with total disbelief in the impossibility, to 
 endeavour while life is in us, and to die endeavouring, 
 we and our sons, till we attain it, or have all died and 
 ended ! " (" Past and Present "). 
 
 This is the correct spirit in which the modern 
 crusade against our social villainies is to be conducted. 
 It is especially the work of the Church to set the pace. 
 It ought, but we don't expect it will, and yet, I feel sure 
 that those young men and women who are certain to be 
 touched by the devotion and fervour of our modern 
 crusaders, will not require much converting to our side. 
 They are too noble to remain in the ranks of the 
 inactive and selfish. They too will come forth to join 
 in the noble work of social reconstruction. We have 
 a glorious and an inspiriting work in hand, — nothing 
 less than the purifying of the industrial and social life 
 of our country and the making of true individuality. 
 For, let it be clearly understood, we labour men are 
 thoroughly in favour of the highest possible develop- 
 ment of each individual. We seek no dead level of 
 uniformity and never did. Our ideal is : " From each 
 according to his capacity, to each according to his 
 needs." We can't reach that right off, but when we 
 
Preachers and Churches. 311 
 
 have done so, we shall not be "far from the king- 
 dom." 
 
 To engage in this work, is to be occupied in the 
 noblest work the earth affords ; to do it well, we want 
 not only men and women of good intention — the 
 Churches have these now — we shall want men and 
 women of sound sense who will understand the science 
 of industrial economics, as well as of the highest 
 standard of ethics. To mean well is one thing, to be 
 able to do well is a better thing, and we cannot do well 
 except by accident, unless we know something of the 
 laws that underlie and control the forces with which we 
 shall have to deal. By way of indicating what we hope 
 to reach, it may prevent fear and trembling if I say it 
 is neither more nor less than that set forth by John 
 Stuart Mill, in his " Autobiography," where he says — 
 
 " The Social Problem of the future we considered 
 to be, how to unite the greatest individual liberty of 
 action, with a common ownership in the raw material 
 of the globe, and an equal participation for all in the 
 benefits of combined labour." 
 
 Nothing very awful in that surely, and yet there is 
 sufficient to revolutionize modern society ! What does 
 a really religious man care how far it goes ? To him 
 the one important question is : " Is it right .' " Does 
 duty demand_^that he shall endorse it and work for its 
 
312 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 realization? To me all other duties sink into com- 
 parative insignificance. I will yield to none if I know 
 it in facing the straight path, and honestly endeavouring 
 to walk in it. I dare not take my eyes off this big 
 problem. 
 
 Much has already been done in removing barriers. 
 The work of the Trade Unionists for the last sixty years 
 has borne good fruit. In the early years of the present 
 century, capital had complete sway. Unrestricted 
 industrial competition was the accepted gospel univer- 
 sally applied in Great Britain. In Parliament the 
 landed aristocracy had complete power. In industrial 
 life, the then infantile but now powerful plutocracy had 
 undisputed control. The law was against combination, 
 consequently there were few Trade Unions. Neither 
 was there anything in the nature of Factory Acts. And 
 what was the result ? Our industrial history of that 
 period is the blackest page in England's life. Not only 
 men, but women and children had to work fifteen to 
 sixteen hours a day. Children too, of six, even five 
 years of age, were called to the mills at five o'clock in 
 the morning ; if they were a minute late, an overseer 
 with a slave-driver's lash stood there to thrash them 
 and the girls and women like dogs. Some power of 
 revolt existed, and this country owes more than it 
 thinks to the revolutionary course of the early Trade 
 
Preachers and Churches. 313 
 
 Unionists. We still have England's industrial prestige 
 maintained by child labour at ten and eleven years of 
 age. 
 
 In thousands of instances the standard of life is such 
 that when a man is in full work, so little does he earn 
 that the wife and mother must not only get up herself 
 at five o'clock in the morning, but must also wake her 
 children, and take the infant out into the raw wintry air 
 to leave it with some nurse, while she, the mother, must 
 go to the mill, reaching there at six, to take her stand 
 by the men, work all day, and return home at night to 
 commence house duties, and this because the family 
 would starve if she did not. Oh, Church people! if 
 ever a crusade were needed it is here in England now. 
 The honour of our country is left with us to guard. 
 For humanity's sake, let us see to it that we wipe out 
 these accursed blood-red stains. There is much to be 
 proud of in Britain's history, but whilst such conditions 
 remain, we cannot wait to comment upon the work 
 done in face of so much waiting to be done. Who shall 
 do it ? Every man and every woman is expected to 
 contribute a share. The social salvation of the entire 
 community is the religious duty in which you preachers 
 and people are called upon to engage. 
 
 Oh ! rich women of the Churches, have you no 
 social and political duty ? You, who spend so much on 
 
314 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 your own persons, have you no care for the body of 
 society ? Yea, I tremble for your future, women of the 
 middle classes, who have a great power ; will you not 
 use that power to wipe out these stains on our national 
 and Christian character ? If you take up a determined 
 stand in connection with the Churches, they will be 
 compelled to become active. The work will be done 
 with or without you, but quicker with you than without 
 you. 
 
 Women ! who shall one day bear 
 Sons to breathe New England air, 
 If you hear without a blush 
 Deeds to make the roused blood rush 
 Like red lava through your veins, 
 For your sisters now in chains, 
 Answer ! are ye fit to be 
 Mothers of the brave and free ? 
 
 Tom Mann. 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 
 
 The Christian Church has surely occupied herself dis- 
 proportionately with endeavouring to map out dognaas in 
 a realm of high and sublimated truth, which admits of 
 little accurate definition, where intuition, vision, symbol, 
 are rather at home and appropriate than exact proposi- 
 tions for the understanding. Hence interminable, barren 
 disputes, quarrels, and persecutions, and a comparatively 
 meagre record in undertakings of practical, secular 
 advantage to mankind. I say "comparatively," yet 
 we must admit that many temporal benefits of the 
 highest value have come to men through Christianity. 
 Can it be doubted that the proclamation of Christ, as 
 the Elder Brother of men, and as One who revealed, 
 through His Incarnation, the very mind and heart of 
 the Highest ; as One who abased Himself from heaven 
 to earth, from a condition of equality with God to that 
 of a poor mortal man belonging to the working, not 
 even to the privileged class ; who is venerated as having 
 
3i6 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 borne our sins and carried our sorrows, lived a life of 
 lowly ministration to human need, and, lastly, submitted 
 to an ignominious death for our sakes ; — can it be 
 doubted, I say, that such a proclamation must have 
 had an incalculable effect in restraining the natural 
 selfishness of men, and inspiring them to the redress 
 of injustice and mutual service? As a matter of fact, 
 we do find it so. The Christian community at the 
 beginning had all things in common, neither said any 
 man that " aught that belonged to him was his own." 
 Now, this was evidently the more immediate result and 
 outcome of Christ's personal influence, and His personal 
 teaching, as well as that of His apostles. For it is pretty 
 evident from 2 Cor. viii. 13-15, that if communism 
 actually prevailed only in Jerusalem, it was the desire 
 of St. Paul that it should also be the rule in the early 
 Christian societies which had been formed elsewhere. 
 Christianity succeeded, says Professor Sidgwick, "in 
 dominating the social chaos to which the barbarian 
 invasions reduced the Western Empire;" it played an 
 " important part in producing out of this chaos the new 
 civilized order to which we belong." 
 
 One is unquestionably impressed, in reading the early 
 Fathers, with the very democratic tone of their utterances 
 concerning the relations which ought to exist between 
 employers and employed and the possession of private 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 317 
 
 property. " The communism attempted," says Professor 
 Sidgwick, " in the Apostolic Age was cherished in the 
 traditions of the early and medieval Church as the ideal 
 form of Christian society." "Private property and 
 slavery were both regarded as encroachments on the 
 original rights of all members of the human family, 
 since men were naturally free and the fruits of the 
 earth naturally common ; both would disappear in the 
 future when Christ's kingdom came to be realized." 
 He adds, that the Church maintained the Jewish pro- 
 hibition of usury, with certain reserves and accommoda- 
 tions, down to quite modern times.* 
 
 In the Middle Ages the Church certainly stood often 
 between the poor and the grinding tyranny of kings 
 and nobles, though she also invoked the secular arm to 
 punish and prevent doubt or disbelief of her own dogmas 
 and the progress of free thought. She has produced a 
 St. Catherine, a St. Teresa, a St. Francis, and a Curd 
 D'Ars ; while in her later reformed history we find an 
 Oberlin, a Mrs. Fry, a Sister Dora, Wilberforce, Henry 
 Martyn, Livingstone, and Gordon. When we are rightly 
 denouncing corrupt and interested hierarchies, worldly, 
 luxurious, and bigoted priesthoods, for their narrow 
 intolerance, fierce cruelty, immorality, ambition, greed, 
 and blind obscurantism, for their opposition to social 
 
 * " Hist. Ethics." 
 
3i8 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 and political, as to intellectual progress, let us in justice 
 remember that to the leaven of Christian ideas also we 
 owe many of those great reforms which the more retro- 
 grade, self-seeking, and short-sighted Churchmen banned 
 and sought to arrest. In whose name, if not in that of 
 Christ, did Wyclif, Savonarola, John Huss, Luther, 
 Erasmus, and the Puritans inaugurate and carry out 
 their great forward, religious, popular movements ? They 
 fought with an open Bible in their hand against aristo- 
 cracies of privilege, whether religious or secular ; they 
 fought the battle of the common people, of the enslaved 
 multitude ; though it must be granted that the peasant 
 wars waged by Wat Tyler and Munzer were not approved 
 by Wyclif or Luther. 
 
 Yet these popular movements were indirectly, and in 
 great measure, the result of their preaching, or of the 
 spirit and temper aroused by them and that revolutionary 
 iconoclasm, with which the moral and intellectual atmo- 
 sphere of the time was highly charged. The fanatical 
 and immaturely educated pushed their principles to 
 extreme consequences. Yet W. Morris has rehabilitated 
 John Ball for us. 
 
 But Savonarola became himself the champion of 
 popular liberty in the pulpit. " Feeling," says Mr. 
 Symonds,* "that in the people alone lay any hope of re- 
 * " Renaissance, Age of the Despots." 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 319 
 
 generation for Italy, he made it the work of his whole life 
 to give the strength and sanction of religion to republican 
 freedom. This work he sealed with martyrdom." " The 
 spirit of the creed which he bequeathed to his partisans 
 in Florence was political no less than pious." "What 
 prophet of Israel, from Samuel to Isaiah, was not the 
 maker and destroyer of kings and constitutions ? " For 
 many years the name of Savonarola remained the watch- 
 word of Florentine freedom. But, on the other hand, 
 that illustrious prince and monster, the head of the 
 Christian Church, Alexander Borgia, was his mortal 
 enemy, and a Bishop of the Christian Church was the 
 man who conducted his execution and stripped his 
 friar's frock from him. 
 
 Yet all great Christian reformers have endeavoured 
 to bring back their religion to its primitive simplicity 
 and purity, to its popular, human, democratic ideal. 
 
 The second of our great revolutions in favour of 
 constitutional liberty, that of 1688, was made, like the 
 first, to a great extent by religious men in the name of 
 Christ. The trial and acquittal of the Anglican bishops 
 for resisting the king's authority was the culminating 
 point of the crisis under James II. 
 
 It was in defence of religious liberty, too, that the 
 good ship Mayflower carried the Pilgrim Fathers to the 
 shores of America, where they helped to found those 
 
320 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 colonies that grew up from so small a seed into the 
 greatest of modern democracies. 
 
 Of the Liberal movement in Scotland again (1577), 
 Green, in his " History of England," says, " Amidst the 
 turmoil of the Reformation a new force had come to 
 the front. This was the Scotch People, which had 
 arisen into being under the guise of the Scotch Kirk." 
 With splendid boldness the preacher Melville told 
 James, "There is Christ Jesus the King, and His 
 kingdom the kirk, whose subject James VI. is, and of 
 whose kingdom not a king, nor a lord, but a member." 
 
 The French Huguenots, persecuted and exiled by 
 their own king on account of their religious convictions, 
 carried to other countries, to the shores of England 
 and to the mountains of Switzerland, the sterling 
 excellence and strength of their moral qualities, as well 
 as their characteristic industrial skill. These were 
 found again in Spitalfields and at Geneva, while, by 
 intermarriage, the exiles invigorated the current of 
 free blood, stiffened the backbone of liberty in those 
 peoples among whom they settled ; though in elimi- 
 nating these Protestants from their own race, the short- 
 sighted bigot was depleting French veins of very life. 
 
 The Swiss patriots on the Griitli, by the shores of 
 their dark water, in the presence of eternal mountains, 
 as they vowed to achieve the independence of their 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 321 
 
 native land, raised their hands, rough with holy toil to 
 the winter stars, making solemn appeal to that God, 
 before whom king, governor, and serf are equal. 
 
 But it must be granted that, while the vindicators 
 of a righteous cause have sought help from Him whom 
 the founders of their faith proclaimed righteous, the 
 officials of the Churches that call themselves by His 
 name have too often been found ranged on the side of 
 injustice. Self-interest has too often pointed in that 
 direction — ambitions, pomps and vanities of this world. 
 If it be so that in our own day sweaters, or land- 
 grabbers, or money-makers at any price, now and 
 again elect their deacons and ministers, or present their 
 clergy to good livings, even as a board of slum-owners 
 elects the sanitary inspector, what can you look for? 
 Modern papal Rome again, before it became part of the 
 Italian kingdom, was probably as badly governed as 
 any city in Europe. While of the rival popes at 
 Avignon and Rome, and their proceedings, the less 
 said the better — or of the welcome they extended to 
 the revelations of men like Galileo, Bruno, or Savonarola, 
 organs of the Divine-Human Spirit in process of 
 evolution. But all this only shows that official 
 Christendom needs perpetually to return for purification 
 to the pure fountain head of her Faith, and that her 
 
 broad river, as it flows through the ages, should welcome 
 
 Y 
 
322 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 tributary streams from every region — alike from modern 
 philosophy, ancient wisdom, and Indian lore, for in all 
 these God speaks to man, — as of old that same river 
 gathered volume from Greece, Alexandria, and Rome. 
 
 The great war of liberation in the Netherlands, 
 under William the Silent, was waged for the vindication 
 at once of civil and religious liberty, as well as for the 
 delivering of a nationality from a detested foreign yoke. 
 It was, however, in the main, a religious war. But here 
 again Christ is found arrayed against Christ. That 
 good and conscientious king, Philip of Spain, with his 
 satellite Alva, thought it right to burn, torture, and 
 massacre, in the sacred name of that ancient two-headed 
 idol, Tyranny-Superstition. But the " infidel " may be 
 found now and again fighting on Christ's side, and the 
 " orthodox " fighting against Him, for He has no party 
 save that of justice and mercy, then or now, and all the 
 world over. Whatever he call himself, the leader, 
 ecclesiastical or secular, who fights against these Divine 
 attributes is an Antichrist, an adversary, a Satan, For 
 the kingdom of Christ is not of this world ; it is the 
 moral order of humanity. 
 
 I maintain, therefore, that there are now, as there 
 have always been, two antagonistic tendencies in the 
 Christian Church, the Conservative-reactionary, and 
 the Liberal-progressive. When Christianity became 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 323 
 
 the State religion under Constantine, there began to 
 creep in the worldly spirit of self-aggrandizement ; the 
 corrupting influence of power and prosperity began to 
 prevail. Much of the failure to sympathize with 
 popular causes may, in every age of the Church's 
 history, including our own, whether in England or on 
 the Continent, be attributed to this same paralyzing 
 and malignant blight. In England the clergy have, 
 as a rule, belonged to the higher and privileged class ; 
 many of them are wealthy ; peculiar worldly honours 
 and distinctions are accorded to their bishops, and 
 other dignitaries, over and above large emoluments. In 
 Ireland, on the other hand, where the Roman Catholic 
 clergy spring from the proletariat, they are one with 
 the people in their aspirations ; they are leaders and 
 powerful auxiliaries of the people. 
 
 It is sometimes contended that the Church should 
 refrain from taking any part whatsoever in politics ; so 
 far as temporalities are concerned should confine herself 
 to relieving the wants of individuals and the adminis- 
 tration of charities. But, as a matter of fact, she has 
 not done so. She has interfered very much when her 
 own authority and emoluments were threatened, as 
 under Henry VIII., and perpetually in favour of the 
 rights of private property, even when that property has 
 consisted of human beings. Thus the clergy in the 
 
324 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Southern States of America thundered from every 
 pulpit in defence of slavery, when that institution was 
 imperilled ; while her members to-day are generally 
 found to be in sympathy with the English squire on the 
 magisterial bench when he passes his severe sentence 
 upon the poor man who steals a crust of bread for his 
 starving family, or a stick from the park to keep them 
 warm ; upon the poacher who appropriates one of the 
 sacred birds ; upon the little ragged child who picks a 
 flower from the hall garden, even if it be only in 
 innocent ignorance, as her offering of affection to a sick 
 mother. The propertied clergy have often and often 
 endeavoured to steal common lands from the people, 
 and to enclose them for their own benefit. 
 
 But, then, it is not fair to charge all this upon the 
 religion of Christ. In any human institution, which 
 becomes established and powerful, the baser and more 
 evil elements in human nature are bound to come to 
 the front. I think it would be equally unfair to 
 designate such a temper as " the pagan " spirit ; Epic- 
 tetus would repudiate it as indignantly as Jesus ; but it 
 may certainly be designated as the satanic, worldly, and 
 anti-Christian spirit, against which precisely the religion 
 professed by these men protests, although such are the 
 self-sophistications we practise upon ourselves, that 
 Christians have been too ready to do what Christ 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 325 
 
 would have disapproved and repudiated, in the very 
 name of their Founder. 
 
 But, on the other hand, when we come to later 
 times, modern philanthropy may be said to date from 
 the religious Evangelical revival under Wesley and 
 Whitefield. The lethargy and luxury into which the 
 Anglican clergy had sunk in the early part of the 
 eighteenth century, produced no measure for the benefit 
 of the people. But following upon the Methodist, and 
 concurrent Evangelical revival in the Church of Eng- 
 land, we find the beginnings of popular education, the 
 building of hospitals, the endowment of charities, 
 endeavours to abolish the slave-trade, together with 
 efforts to reform our prisons and criminal system. 
 
 I am not for a moment maintaining that the sources 
 of human progress are only to be found within the pale 
 of Christianity. The polity of our Teutonic ancestors 
 was essentially democratic. The Pagan nations have 
 their own characteristic lessons for us. The love of 
 abstract truth, the intelligent delight in beauty, and in 
 art, the genius for jurisprudence, may have to be sought 
 elsewhere ; but ]^the ethical and religious impulse so 
 essential to the direction and regulation of life, and, 
 above all, the " enthusiasm of humanity " do flow in 
 fullest volume from Christ. 
 
 The revival of learning that was accomplished at 
 
326 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 the end of the (so-called) Dark Ages counted for much 
 in the emancipation of the human soul from darkness 
 and error. But surely the impulse to universalize, and 
 impart to the people in general this intellectual illumi- 
 nation was due to the specially Christian idea of human 
 dignity and human brotherhood. Eventually, at any 
 rate, it would come to be regarded impossible (as of 
 old in the Pagan States founded upon slavery) to 
 reserve culture for a few elect spirits, in order that they 
 might tyrannize by virtue of it over the weaker and 
 ignorant majority ; at least, so far as that spirit did 
 prevail in the mediaeval republics and monarchies, it 
 was a survival of the Pagan spirit, and in conflict with 
 that of Christ. Though, indeed, we must admit that 
 the privileged hierarchy had tried to keep whatever 
 learning they possessed very much to themselves, their 
 pretension to supernatural authority and miraculous 
 power tempting them to arrogance and spiritual tyranny. 
 There is, I admit, a great apparent difficulty in the 
 reflection that serfdom, and even slavery, continued to 
 be the rule for so many centuries after the proclama- 
 tion of Christianity. But may not this be accounted 
 for by the fact that such institutions were part and 
 parcel of the tribal systems, of the national customs, 
 among those who were converted to Christianity, 
 whether Roman or barbarian, and that the organization 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 327 
 
 of the new society according to Christian principles, 
 could only proceed very gradually in transforming 
 institutions so rooted in racial character by long habit 
 and custom ? Human nature is a tough and stubborn 
 thing to mould, — even when the Spirit of God is the 
 moulder, not over-malleable, no very ductile clay for the 
 potter's hand. The primeval matter, or " hyle" on which 
 the Creator was, by some thinkers, conceived to work, 
 was tractable to the reception of His image in com- 
 parison. And, even if it be right, as I believe, to regard 
 the human soul as itself the Divine Spirit fallen into 
 conditions of limitation in time and space, the same 
 difficulties remain to hinder the regenerative process 
 from within — the resistance being, indeed, essential to 
 the process. 
 
 Thus I found, when travelling in Corsica, that the 
 " enlightened " conscience of Corsica still insists on the 
 traditionary blood-feud from generation to generation 
 as strictly just and honourable ; while the arbitrament 
 by private duel in cases of mere trivial difference 
 between man and man is still sanctioned by the con- 
 tinental code of honour. But Herbert Spencer, for one, 
 has abundantly shown that institutions which appear 
 quite immoral to those who live under changed con- 
 ditions, may not only seem right, but be really advan- 
 tageous and indispensable under less developed and 
 
328 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 earlier stages of civil polity. Social evolution is the 
 law, and, like physical evolution, it is necessarily slow ; 
 yet the principles of universal freedom were implicated 
 in the truths proclaimed by Christ, just as the typical 
 glory of a full-blown flower lies folded in the germ. 
 They require, however, for their full consummation the 
 maturing iniluences that correspond to sunshine, rain, 
 and a more genial season. 
 
 Secularists may urge that when we come on to the 
 French Revolution, the ideas of liberty, equality, and 
 fraternity, which inspired it, did not derive their origin 
 from that religion which so many intelligent minds had 
 ceased to believe, but rather from the teachings of 
 philosophy and science, giving birth to the conviction 
 that man as man has rights, and to a purely natural 
 benevolent passion for human happiness. Undoubtedly 
 these counted for much. Intellect and character were 
 ripening. There was a desperate and furious revolt 
 against monstrous injustice, against the selfishness of 
 privilege, secular and spiritual, against the corrupt 
 Christianity of interested classes. Yet may it not be 
 contended that the work of Rousseau, which counts for 
 so much in that volcanic outburst of the revolutionary 
 era, derived much of its inspiration from a desire to 
 rediscover the simplicity, sense of human brotherhood 
 equality before God, and universal benevolence of primi- 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 329 
 
 tive Christianity, overlaid, forgotten and confused amid 
 the corruptions and perversions of a selfish hierarchy, and 
 its monarchical or aristocratic allies ? Surely we may 
 infer as much from the doctrine of Rousseau's " Vicaire 
 Savoyard." Renounce luxury, return to the simplicity 
 of primitive manners. Help your fellow-creatures, learn 
 that we are equals and brothers. Remove unjust re- 
 strictions and barriers ; that is the gist of the doctrine. 
 " The noble savage," so unhistorical, was but an acci- 
 dental feature of this philosophy. Though on the 
 Continent, no doubt, the reaction against gross super- 
 stition and tyranny, priestly or feudal, was more violent, 
 sudden, and sweeping than it was in England, where 
 changes came little by little. 
 
 Certainly the revolt of fettered thought against arro- 
 gant, but blind uninformed authority, and the emanci- 
 pated use of understanding, unchastened by reverent 
 feeling, affection, and conscience, has led many thinkers 
 far in the anti-religious, in some cases even in the anti- 
 ethical direction. The new scientific study of physical 
 nature has absorbed attention so exclusively as to 
 become positively disqualifying for the study and com- 
 prehension of philosophical or spiritual truth, the organs 
 that function in these sciences becoming atrophied 
 through disuse, and the mind acquiring an exclusive 
 crook toward an entirely different order of investiga- 
 
330 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 tions. Thus the Encylopaedists, and more recent 
 English, as well as German scientists, became material- 
 ists through their exclusive devotion to physical re- 
 search. This Darwin virtually confesses to have become 
 more or less true of himself. But the benevolent and 
 humane bias given to successive generations by Chris- 
 tian education remained in the kindly and virtuous 
 natures of many such men, and they have often taken 
 up the popular cause with genuine earnestness. They 
 feel that the education which has lately been given to 
 the masses makes their demand for further correspond- 
 ing privileges imperative on all. For through their 
 political enfranchisement they have become the real 
 governing power. 
 
 But save for such considerations, what are the social 
 and political lessons to be learned from modern scien- 
 tific doctrine ? Theories of natural selection, and the 
 survival of the fittest, suggest — that the weakest must 
 go to the wall — devil take the hindmost — Vae Victis — 
 eliminate feeble and diseased individuals for the benefit 
 of the race. Indeed, unless I have misunderstood him, 
 a conviction that this is the wisest course for statesmen 
 to pursue has been avowed by Professor Huxley and 
 others who think with him ; while Herbert Spencer is 
 an uncompromising individualist, and foe to State 
 regulation. So that though the older school of Radical- 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 331 
 
 ism, the Manchester School, bound up with the elder 
 political economy, may claim the high-priests of science 
 as allies, the newer Socialism, the co-operative, as dis- 
 tinguished from the competitive ideal of human society, 
 can hardly expect to enlist them as very ardent sup- 
 porters. 
 
 I admit, of course, that many modern anti-religious 
 or agnostic thinkers have lately put themselves in the 
 van of the new political economy ; the less hope of 
 redress elsewhere, the more need they feel of just con- 
 ditions here ; yet I must maintain that those to whom 
 we are entitled to look for most effective assistance are 
 the followers of Jesus Christ. For how can it be ques- 
 tioned that the social ideal, which has lately emerged 
 into so much prominence and favour, is entirely in 
 accordance with the principles by Him proclaimed ? It 
 was not only, as I have said, the rule of life that com- 
 mended itself to the early Christian, as also to those 
 who bound themselves by vows of poverty in the Middle 
 Ages, but it was an ideal which inspired the protesting 
 Lollard, the German mediaeval Protestant, and those 
 eminent founders of Modern Christian Socialism, 
 Maurice and Kingsley. It commends itself now to the 
 great creative poet of Russia, Tolstoi ; to the English 
 poet-critic and political economist, Ruskin ; to the true 
 poet and disciple of Walt Whitman, Edward Carpenter, 
 
332 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 as also to the clerical members of those influential 
 Anglican bodies, the Christian Social Union, and the 
 Guild of St. Matthew, which number among their ad- 
 herents men like Bishop Westcott, the Bishop of 
 Rochester, Charles Gore (late of Pusey House, Oxford), 
 and Canon Scott Holland, of St. Paul's Cathedral ; to 
 these, as also to Stopford Brooke, Dr. Clifford, and 
 other prominent Nonconformists. Nor should the often 
 admirable and impressive secular work of "General" 
 Booth and his " Salvation Army " be forgotten. 
 
 But if, as I believe, religious worship, and the quest 
 after truth or beauty flow from one common fountain, 
 and find, although meandering, the same great sea, one 
 would expect the same maxims of human conduct as 
 were enunciated by Jesus, and incarnated in His life, to 
 be ultimately discoverable by metaphysical, as well as 
 physical philosophy, and to be capable of systematic 
 application to the circumstances of daily life. There- 
 fore that men who do not believe in the dogmas of 
 Christianity — men, for instance, like the poet William 
 Morris — should arrive independently, by their own 
 different methods, at conclusions similar to those truths, 
 which the Divine vision of Christ enabled Him autho- 
 ritatively to teach on the subject of the ideal common- 
 wealth centuries ago, is only what might be expected. 
 Only you cannot be sure that at any given period there 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 333 
 
 will be perfect coincidence in the religious and secular 
 teachings upon a given subject, because, until the ripe 
 season arrives, secular thought cannot attain to certain 
 conclusions, thought being an organic growth, with pro- 
 gressive stages of evolution and development, while, on 
 the other hand, the religious magnetic needle is liable 
 to be deflected by subtle influences from interested 
 prejudice, and confusing intellectual theory. But in 
 recent years German philosophy, notably that of 
 Fichte and Hegel, and physical discovery, notably in 
 the regions of history and biology, have established 
 the solidarity and organic unity of the human race, 
 which reflects intelligible illumination upon the Christian 
 doctrine of Divine immanence, and God's incarnation in 
 humanity. 
 
 Personally I cannot pledge myself to any ready- 
 made or complete system of socialistic teaching as 
 indubitably true, and, even in the case of those maxims 
 which I recognize as well-founded, to their immediate, 
 or unconditional adaptability for realization in our code 
 of law. But still I hold this new democratic agitation 
 to be on the right tack, its current setting towards the 
 best and safest political haven. Surely that man or 
 woman is no Christian at all, except in name, in so far 
 as he or she remains indifferent to the awful abyss that 
 
334 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 yawns between rich and poor; to the insufficiency of 
 the share in our immense wealth which falls to the lot 
 of those who produce it ; the unjust, inhuman, and 
 horrible condition of the toilers in monstrous cities, 
 herded together like swine, with no leisure or oppor- 
 tunity for living a human life, perpetually starved, 
 stinted, stunted, maddened by carking care and anxiety 
 for the health, well-being, and very life of themselves 
 and of those nearest to them ; the image of God well- 
 nigh crushed out of them by the cruel machinery that 
 makes us clean, comfortable, and virtuous, with a virtue 
 and happiness that have their root in a misery, and 
 moral degradation a millionfold more terrible than 
 those of the slave in Greece, Rome, or modern 
 America ! 
 
 I do say that he or she who will acquiesce in an 
 earthly paradise for himself or herself, which is founded 
 upon this hell of innocent fellow-creatures, whatever 
 else he may be, cannot be a Christian. A Christian, on 
 the contrary, will move heaven and earth to alter it, 
 whatever risk and loss may be entailed upon him and 
 his. Orthodox and precise may be his definitions of 
 the human and divine natures, chaste and continent he 
 may be in his sexual relations, puritanical or ascetic 
 in his attitude toward certain forms of amusement, 
 though (somewhat arbitrarily) much less so towards 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 335 
 
 luxury and good living. But he can hardly be a 
 follower of Him who appeared as the poor working 
 Carpenter, a friend of publicans and sinners, denounced 
 the rich man and proud religious Pharisee, uttered the 
 terrible saying that a rich man can hardly enter into 
 the kingdom of heaven, bade the virtuous and amiable 
 youth whom he loved sell all he had and give to the 
 poor. 
 
 The teaching of Christ is simply saturated with 
 contempt poured upon the great and powerful, the 
 ambitious master seeking great things for himself; its 
 note throughout is exaltation of the weak, humble, 
 poor, and despised, as more capable of the true inward 
 spiritual riches ; for it was the common people who 
 heard Christ gladly ; while the greater part of His life 
 was devoted to making the outward condition of needy 
 men more tolerable and happy, healing their sickness, 
 ministering to their necessities, exhorting the wealthy 
 and powerful to do justice and show mercy, although at 
 the same time enforcing patient submission to the in- 
 evitable as God's will, with an unseen purpose for good at 
 the heart of it. " Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." 
 " Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth." 
 
 It is true that He did not urge men to violent 
 revolution. The hatred and cruelty implied in violence 
 was foreign to His Spirit, nor were the times ripe for 
 
336 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 anything of the kind ; moreover, as Wyclif said, " God 
 must sometimes serve the devil ; " yet Christ was in 
 revolt against the orthodox religious rulers of his race, 
 who crucified Him, and He knew that the actual result 
 of His teaching would be to bring "not peace, but a 
 sword." The slave was not emancipated without war ; 
 the oppressive man will resist interference with those 
 unjust but time-honoured privileges before which, if 
 only they be effectually guarded, the slaves and cowards 
 of the world cringe, nay bow in devil worship, that they 
 may so propitiate and conciliate the powers of evil. 
 But violence, tending as it does to reaction, can only be 
 justified as a last resort. Rather would Jesus permeate 
 men with His own Spirit, and then will new institu- 
 tions grow quietly in place of the old, which will fall 
 like the leaves of yester-year. 
 
 What St. Paul says to the elders of Ephesus in 
 Acts XX. 33-35, is absolutely to the same effect as the 
 words of Jesus — that we ought to labour with our own 
 hands in order to support the weak, which is certainly 
 the principle of modern Socialism. And there are 
 many similar passages in the epistles, notably i Tim. 
 vi. 17-19. But if anything in the Bible can be stronger 
 still, it is the Epistle of St. James. 
 
 Charitable, helpful, and kindly indeed, many of our 
 present clergy and ministers are, very fathers of their 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 337 
 
 flock, helpful to them in many ways. But I would urge 
 that they ought to go further, for I have already 
 traversed the plea that they ought not to interfere in 
 politics. The spiritual guides ought certainly to urge 
 upon the rich and powerful the duty of showing justice, 
 mercy, and kindness toward those dependent on them ; 
 while it becomes increasingly evident that the funda- 
 mental relations existing between these classes of the 
 community are wrong and indefensible, because incom- 
 patible with the claims of justice toward the producers 
 as a body, although the injustice be capable of redress 
 in a particular instance by a good master. And if that 
 should turn out to be so, it is clearly as much the duty 
 of a spiritual guide to proclaim the fact as it was the 
 duty of John the Baptist, according to his lights, to 
 withstand Herod in the matter of Herodias. In fact 
 the same cause will assume a new guise in matters of 
 detail at different periods, and in different circum- 
 stances. 
 
 The emphasis now laid by modern research upon 
 the organic unity of the race suggests that it is only 
 possible in a very imperfect fashion to save your own 
 soul, or the individual souls of other people from 
 future penalties in another world, and from bad habits 
 in this, unless you pay due attention also to the present 
 welfare of the race or nation as a whole, to the conditions 
 
 z 
 
338 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 under which the majority, or a great multitude, are in 
 this world obliged to live, think, and feel. Such is now 
 known to be the influence of atmosphere and environment 
 that you can hardly count upon remaining yourself, with 
 your family and belongings, permanently healthy in 
 body and soul — which (note it well) are now known to 
 be only phases, or integral correlative elements of the 
 same one entity, spirit, or person, — if you leave the 
 moral and physical slums around you severely alone. 
 Hence the growing sense that charity and justice should 
 aim rather at a radical and general, however judicious 
 and timely, alteration of established institutions, than 
 at the relief of isolated individual wants, although of 
 course these, in the meanwhile, cannot be left un- 
 regarded. 
 
 You may depreciate the " dark ages " and feudal 
 times ! At least in those days there was an acknow- 
 ledged human and humanizing fellowship between the 
 classes, though the members of one class might not be 
 able to step over into the other. But while the one 
 gave service, the other gave protection, food, and 
 shelter ; the lord and his dependent ate at the same 
 table — at least, that was the theory ; though the absolute 
 rights claimed by the lord led to many instances of 
 individual cruelty. But now there is no human relation 
 at all existing, or even pretended, between employer and 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 339 
 
 employed. A master — and far worse a company — 
 regards " the hands " as mere impersonal machines for 
 producing so much of material, exchangeable commodity ; 
 and the only question with them is, how cheaply 
 will " the hands " do it ? how little may we pay them ? 
 how nearly like the ownerless Pariah curs of some 
 Eastern city will they be content to live ? How much 
 will Just keep body and soul together, that they may 
 work for us ? How long, for how many hours out of the 
 twenty-four will they consent to abrogate their rich and 
 multiform humanity on our soulless, unbeautiful, and 
 monstrous treadmill ? For how many hours will the 
 pale-faced, unfed, sick English girl do it, while the 
 dingy room swims before her hollow eyes, while the 
 mean walls go round, and even in the brief fevered sleep 
 snatched by her burning head upon the poor pillow, she 
 still stitches, and sews in a dream ? In what asphyxia- 
 ting and venomous sty will " the hands " be content to 
 wallow ? But no matter ; out of our ill-gotten gains we 
 will endow churches, and give considerable sums, that 
 cost us no self-denial, in charity. If " the hands " do 
 not like it, there are thousands of hungry dogs waiting 
 to snatch their morsel, and to take their places. In this 
 way one may rob, starve others, and grow rich quite 
 legally, quite respectably. 
 
 Out of the immense national wealth "the hands" 
 
340 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 are indispensable for creating, what is their portion ? 
 "What porridge had John Keats?" Such is this 
 vaunted modern demon-system of competition, such 
 these innumerable, warring human atoms, unlinked by 
 love or justice, untrammelled by mutual kindness, per- 
 fectly realizing before our eyes the imaginary " Levia- 
 than " of Thomas Hobbes, the lowest hell of selfishness 
 and anarchy. 
 
 Meanwhile the bishops, by their recent votes in the 
 House of Lords, are giving us an object-lesson in the 
 kind of attitude toward public questions peculiar to 
 dignified ecclesiasticism in high places. Meanwhile 
 counties are depopulated that landlords may shoot 
 game ; families are evicted from humble ancestral 
 homes ; barbarian plutocrats, hereditary legislators, 
 claim a monopoly of forest, lake, and mountain, which 
 they are often too stupid and uncultured, or too satiated 
 by long and habitual possession, to appreciate or 
 understand. 
 
 Yet, from the spiritual rights of man proclaimed by 
 Christ, the secular rights of man proclaimed by Tom 
 Paine are an inevitable corollary — the secular rights of 
 every individual. It is, of course, easy for us who enjoy, 
 to sneer at and undervalue them. The inference, or 
 corollary, stands out as rigidly logical to-day, starts 
 forth as a deduction demonstrable and clear under 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 341 
 
 these changed conditions of the world, as a conclusion 
 that the veracities and facts of the case compel us to 
 draw, nay, ^to act upon without delay. For a man 
 cannot enter into possession of or exercise any spiritual 
 rights, if you utterly circumscribe and restrict him in 
 the possession or exercise of rights, physical and secular. 
 And these were little threatened when Christ spoke. 
 Indeed, man had hardly awakened to the sense of 
 them ; populations were less dense and hungry. But 
 now human rights are threatened ; man is deprived of 
 them ; yet education has made him desire them. 
 "Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a 
 cage," says the poet. Certainly this may be true of the 
 hero or the saint ; " Minds innocent and quiet take that 
 for a hermitage," he adds ; but such obstacles are apt to 
 prevent the average, uninheriting, unmoralized, untrained 
 man from even beginning to approximate to heroism or 
 saintliness. The evil heritage and the evil environment 
 smother and stint his virtue. There is not enough of 
 it to be braced by adversity. When men prove unjust 
 and unkind, God is apt to seem so too. You blow out 
 the puny flame with the same breath that kindles the 
 stronger, though smouldering fire into a blaze. A plant 
 will not flower without congenial soil, manure, air, and 
 water, much as you may look down upon these common 
 things from your serene religious heights. 
 
342 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 If you expect a man to sing, why you must first 
 allow him to breathe. If he is to dance, you must give 
 him room to turn round. A consumptive person is not 
 strengthened, but killed, by going naked in a snowstorm, 
 or by poor diet, though a Spartan athlete may profit by 
 his black broth, or by roughing it all round. During 
 the Wars of the Roses there was no literature to speak 
 of; men were fighting for bare life. And so they are 
 fighting now. What time or opportunity have th^, 
 and what heart, for the cultivation of virtue, let alone 
 reason, or a taste for the beautiful? The Christian 
 martyr was called upon to suffer for a great cause — the 
 consciousness of that supported him through the flames ; 
 but for what great cause are these martyrs consciously 
 suffering? Unconsciously? Yes, they are ; but that is 
 another matter altogether. They are victims sacrificed 
 to prove that society is built on a rotten foundation. 
 And our "pillars of the State" are letting the edifice 
 collapse. Upon other foundations, with other piers 
 must it be raised anew. 
 
 But then it may be asked. If the secularist and unbe- 
 liever take these matters up, why be so anxious that the 
 Christian should do so likewise ? And I answer : first, 
 because we do not want our popular progress to fall 
 into the hands of Anarchists of the type of Ravachol 
 and Vaillant, a recent pamphlet, issued by that party, 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 343 
 
 as Karl Blind informs us, having for title "Up with 
 Bestiality!" And secondly, while we rejoice that 
 Secularists should advocate the popular cause — and 
 they do not always advocate it by any means — we 
 think that the Christian has in his keeping certain 
 important truths which cannot, without danger and 
 injury to the Commonwealth, be dispensed with, I 
 cannot, for my part, sympathize with those who regard 
 the Christian message as valuable, only in so far as it is 
 purely and directly ethical. (A clever book * recently 
 written by a young poet, Mr. Le Gallienne, takes this 
 view.) For though I believe much evil has resulted 
 from over-insistence on minute shades of dogma, yet as 
 scientific knowledge is valuable in the application of 
 scientific principles to practical purpose, so do I believe 
 also that certain important ideas are capable of being 
 reflected from spiritual intuition, or faith into the 
 understanding itself, and that man, consisting as he 
 does of both intellect and emotion—elements which 
 can by no means be isolated in his constitution — 
 requires some guiding light in his understanding, so 
 that conscience and emotion may be nourished, informed, 
 and regulated by reason. 
 
 Christ, unlike Buddha, proclaimed three great 
 intellectual truths, which are also moral, full of satis- 
 * "The Religion of a Literary Man." 
 
344 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 faction for the noblest and deepest feeling. These 
 appear to be, first, the Fatherhood of God; second, 
 the divine sonship of man ; third, the immortality 
 of the individual soul. He, unlike Spinoza, and the 
 Indian philosophy, taught that God, the Source and 
 Substance of our being, is both conscious Intelligence, 
 and moral, emotional Intelligence also ; that Man, in 
 his deepest and truest individuality, is Image, or Word 
 of God, organically one with Him ; that the highest 
 spiritual, human nature truly mirrors and expresses the 
 divine, however imperfectly, after its measure, even in 
 this mortal life ; and that every individual soul in its 
 own distinctive personality is immortal, eternal, while 
 also organic, solidary, universal in essence; therefore 
 of quite infinite importance. Wiser than other great 
 teachers, Jesus does not exaggerate the duty of Altruism 
 into the Brahmanical idea of absorption into one dis- 
 tinctionless blank Unit, by philosophy named " Being," 
 though indeed a mere abstract idea of philosophy, with- 
 out counterpart in Reality, which is concrete, living 
 Spirit. 
 
 He bids us "love our neighbour as ourselves," thus 
 admitting that we owe a duty to ourselves, to our own 
 free and full development ; that we cannot jump off our 
 own shadows. Which spiritual and moral proclamation 
 corresponds with the philosophical truth that there 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 345 
 
 cannot be unity without variety, that the two notions 
 are correlative and necessary to one another ; more- 
 over that the conscious, self-identifying individual is 
 indeed substantial, not merely modal or accidental. 
 For without self-identification in conscious memory, 
 without comparison by such self-identifying conscious- 
 ness, both differentiating and identifying the data of 
 sensation and perception, there can be no knowledge or 
 experience of anything whatsoever, there can be no 
 classified, known order of phenomena, contemporaneous 
 and successive, — no world of Nature therefore, which is 
 the name we give to the invariable relations or laws 
 that are found to obtain among phenomena, and con- 
 stitute our experience of what we call the material 
 world. Even the faintest distinguishable sensation 
 implies a one distinguishing personality behind it. 
 Conscious individuality, therefore, is the permanent 
 substance, underlying and supporting alike our own 
 internal world of thought and feeling, and the so-called 
 external world of phenomena, which we name material ; 
 soul and body. But death of the body, being itself 
 only one of these phenomena, or appearances, can 
 hardly be conceived to affect the conscious substance, 
 or subject of experience, in whose consciousness alone 
 death can be regarded as an actual fact at all.* 
 
 ♦ The Kantian and post-Kantian German Idealism, otherwise so help- 
 
346 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Now in such beliefs must undoubtedly be involved 
 much ethical impulse, much moral strength and sus- 
 tainment, through apparent failure or slow and laborious, 
 progress. He who holds them has faith in one Divine 
 purpose that runs through the ages, in a continuity of 
 development for the human mind and character, under 
 Divine guidance, whatever obstacles maybe encountered ; 
 he believes that even these make for education and 
 growth, for the bracing of moral muscle and sinew, 
 through that long and tough wrestle with difficulty 
 imposed. He is sure that this stage of existence, what- 
 ever disappointment, suffering, and ill-success may 
 attend it, is only a stage in the infinite life and progress 
 of every man or woman. Pessimism and discourage- 
 ment, therefore, may invade the effort of another, not 
 his. Cynical contempt for the petty, malign and des- 
 picable ephemeron of an hour, be it man or woman, 
 may paralyze now and again generous desire for human 
 welfare, but not his. Another may feel how little, after 
 all, can be accomplished, how paltry our poor ability to 
 contend with unknown and incalculable hostile powers. 
 
 ful, fails to inculcate the truth, that the universal Ego implies particular 
 Egos, and that the latter are as essential and permanent as the former. 
 But particular individuals are not fully developed until they have acquired 
 a full realization of their solidarity with the race, of their universality, 
 which is quite compatible with the perfect fruition of their own peculiar 
 distinctive natures, as it was in Christ ethically, in Shakespeare intellec- 
 tually. 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 347 
 
 The stern and awful sphinx, Nature, impassive and 
 cold, regards man with blank, unspeculative eyes, till 
 the wings of the animal-angel droop and wither, till the 
 sword of the warrior breaks in his hand, the sword-arm 
 falls numb and nerveless, as in the pessimistic poet's 
 superb vision. Then darkens again primaeval night, 
 and the everlasting ice enshrouds our weary, wandering, 
 unpiloted planet, now the tomb of men and of all life. 
 Shall we pine overmuch, wear heart and eyes and 
 brains out to build the city of God — here ? 
 
 Therefore do I prefer that Christians, who have a 
 firmer hope, a surer and more ennobling word of 
 prophecy, should lead our little army, whose faces 
 though yet darkling, are turned toward the dawn, even 
 though they be associated in command with those truly 
 noble men who march forward, who wave the soldier 
 on to victory, with despair in the inmost heart of them, 
 or looking haggard forth from stern-set eyes. Nay, 
 but hear some of the spiritual guides, " Pray, gentlemen, 
 take our place, for our sacred rights of private property 
 must be secured at all risks. Go forward, if you will ; 
 in the name of Christ we turn again to nose out pesti- 
 lent heresies, and to pursue the cultus of our golden 
 calf." But if these will not show us the way, then the 
 people, marching forward, will trample upon them and 
 upon their creed, which some of us will be sorry to see. 
 
348 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 For the fact remains that, in order to the efficiency of 
 any institutions, and more especially of institutions 
 collective in character, mutual good-will, public spirit, 
 righteousness and honesty are essential. Without these 
 there will be failure, as without ripeness for a funda- 
 mental change there will follow reaction. But the 
 worship of a concrete personal Ideal, believed once 
 to have historically existed on earth, so proving the 
 nobler life to be possible, even here, and to be living 
 now in the unseen, gifted with a threefold power to 
 help, obtained for Him by this mortal triumph, this, I 
 believe, is capable of supplying the strongest motive 
 force, and the most reliable influence in securing the 
 result, we the friends of freedom, desire. Patient endur- 
 ance in face of disappointment and slow progress, per- 
 severance in hope and effort, mutual forbearance, 
 generous intelligent sympathy, confidence that One is 
 working in and for us, who cannot fail to conquer, 
 although His mills grind so slowly, this temper is 
 needed, and is most likely to be fostered by the religion 
 of Christ, purified from encumbering superstition, as 
 from antiquated and exploded dogma. 
 
 The proposition that politics and religion should be 
 kept apart seems mischievous and untrue, not more 
 true and profitable than the corresponding one that 
 politics and morality should be kept apart. Given a 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 349 
 
 religion which insists upon morality, or the performance 
 of our duty to our neighbour as a religious duty, as 
 the best way of serving God, or at least the one 
 indispensable way of serving Him, then to affirm that 
 religion and politics ought to be kept apart, is to affirm 
 that in this sphere of the State's relation toward the 
 citizens that compose it, and their relations toward 
 the State, as well as in the relations of races and 
 nations toward one another, such considerations as 
 duty, justice, and honesty, are irrelevant. No more 
 absurd and pernicious notion than this could be put 
 into words. 
 
 The pagan states of antiquity may set us a good 
 example as regards their inculcation of each individual's 
 duty toward the state of which he is a member ; and 
 we are now returning to their conception of the indi- 
 vidual as member of a human society, of an organic 
 body politic. The Christian religion has hitherto treated 
 the individual soul too much as if it were absolutely 
 apart from its fellows and alone, teaching each to seek 
 primarily his own everlasting salvation, or deliverance 
 from wrath to come, and from bad habits here, by 
 means of certain beliefs, or good works, partly consisting 
 in religious observances, partly in acts of charity, and 
 partly in abstinence from a few authoritatively specified 
 pleasures, chiefly sexual. Little stress has, as a rule, 
 
350 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 been laid upon the ordinary duties of man to his 
 fellow-men as a citizen of one state, or as a member 
 of the comity of nations. Still less on the inter- 
 national obligations of one people toward another. 
 
 And yet it is a familiar fact of every-day experience 
 that the gross injustice and cruelty, or fraudulent con- 
 duct of which a person in his private capacity could 
 not possibly allow himself to be guilty, he will yet be 
 guilty of with small scruple in his corporate or public 
 capacity, as member of some public body, say as director 
 or shareholder in a joint stock company. For one 
 who, by his own private speculative transactions, will 
 ruin without scruple thousands of innocent and helpless 
 families in pursuit of private gain (and alas! such 
 Neros and Borgias of our modern capitalist system 
 are all too common now), there are hundreds who will 
 do the same thing by shifting all moral responsibility 
 off their own shoulders, as members of a corporation 
 or company. And, again, a modern capitalist will avail 
 himself of any abstract maxims of a bloodless, inhuman 
 (though happily now nearly discredited), political 
 economy that may be current in justifying his hard 
 and unscrupulous dealings with those dependent on 
 him for employment, with no sort of reference to the 
 obligations which his Christianity might be supposed 
 to impose on him toward all men in general regarded 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 351 
 
 as brothers, and toward certain men and women in 
 particular, as very closely connected with him in his 
 capacity of master or employer, making use of their 
 labour ; although to him surely must consequently be 
 committed the regulation and best disposal of their 
 labour as a trust from God. To God he must neverthe- 
 less be answerable for his unjust, inhuman, and unmerci- 
 ful exploitation of these human lives, which men and 
 women and children are constrained, on pain of death, 
 to place at his disposal in our competitive and over- 
 crowded society, according to the conditions of its 
 actual constitution. 
 
 And yet his religion, which prevents him from 
 " stealing " a shilling, in the accepted criminal interpre- 
 tation of that term, dost not prevent him from stealing 
 the lives and health, the souls, hearts, and minds of 
 innumerable sweated, trade-poisoned, and swine-styed 
 fellow-creatures, who create his wealth ; although the 
 human rights and prerogatives which he denies them 
 with a light heart and without a qualm, are claimed 
 for them expressly by the very first principles of his 
 religious creed. Howbeit this man may be a shining 
 light, an eminent example of all the virtues as a family 
 man, or as a member of his particular religious sect. 
 
 Now, does not the inconsistency arise from this 
 arbitrary relegation of religious duty to the domestic, 
 
352 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 private, and other-worldly sphere, from the implicit 
 and explicit denial of its authority in the province of 
 public, or semi-public transactions? As a public man, 
 as a wheel, or cog, or pinion, in the great machine, 
 as the director and organizer of a large industry or 
 business, which is indeed an integral element in our 
 great national commercial system, a very artery of 
 our complex national life, or one of its countless ramifi- 
 cations — in this capacity he must follow the usual 
 course, the average current morality — into this province 
 his religion cannot enter. Christian principles applied 
 literally here would be too Utopian, too ridiculously 
 unpractical. Business is business after all. And since 
 this Christian does not in words draw the logical 
 inference with respect to the Founder of his religion, 
 which one would have supposed to be inevitable, why, 
 his church or chapel is not obliged to call him a 
 blasphemer, being indeed very far from desirous to do 
 so, since it probably agrees with him. 
 
 But if one answers that all this is inevitable under 
 the existing constitution of society, then I urge in my 
 turn that assuredly a good Christian as such must 
 desire to "interfere in politics," and get the existing 
 constitution of society fundamentally altered, gradually 
 and peacefully, if you will; organically; but as soon as 
 possible. The Church has over and over again induced 
 
Christianity and Social Advance. 353 
 
 the State to enforce her own pretensions, as well as 
 those of property or privilege by fire and sword ; let 
 her now interfere to urge the claims of the people at 
 large upon her sister, the State. The common people, 
 who are suflfocated and trodden upon in our English 
 Black Hole of Calcutta, cannot well afford to wait for 
 the better arrangements, which comfortable ecclesi- 
 astics assure them will be provided in some other 
 world, to which, if they behave themselves, they may 
 hope to emigrate after death. " While the grass grows," 
 the proverb is somewhat musty. But the recent Jeru- 
 salem conference of clergy, which met to confer on 
 the " living wage " of miners, was disappointing in the 
 scanty attendance of eminent Church officials, and some- 
 what abortive in result. 
 
 We may remark, in conclusion, upon the notorious 
 cynicism, cruelty, and profligacy, which have dis- 
 tinguished the proclamation and prosecution of inter- 
 national European wars, and especially the dealings 
 of Christian peoples with those darker races, whom 
 they are pleased to stigmatize as barbarian or inferior, 
 though, indeed, we have ourselves not a little to learn 
 from these. I believe that this may partly be ex- 
 plained by our refusal to apply the principles of our 
 Christianity to the determination of public and political 
 questions, save at least in the most haphazard and 
 < 2 A 
 
354 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 unsystematic manner. Whence it comes that passion 
 and self-interest, inscribing certain isolated texts upon 
 their banners, often applicable only to quite different 
 periods and circumstances, have claimed the religion 
 of Christ as a powerful advocate of evil causes, and with 
 profane rites, have chanted " Te Deum " over Satan's 
 victory. 
 
 Old Testament moral maxims adapted to an earlier 
 and less developed condition of human nature have been 
 regarded as equally sacred and binding with those 
 higher revelations which have been made at a later time, 
 and have been actually preferred as rules of action, in 
 proportion as they proved more congenial to characters 
 and dispositions, that are indeed a survival from primi- 
 tive stages of moral growth. But, unfortunately, such 
 survivals are the rule, while morally advanced natures 
 are the exception ; and yet the Old Testament, espe- 
 cially the prophets, are full of noble morality bearing 
 upon the relations between rich and poor. I feel that I 
 cannot conclude this essay in greater and more emphatic 
 words than those of our Lord Himself : " Inasmuch as 
 ye have done it unto one of the least of these My 
 brethren, ye have done it unto Me." 
 
 RODEN Noel. 
 
The Social Creed of a Christian 
 Democrat. 
 
 1. We believe in one God, tlie Father and Educator 
 of Humanity. 
 
 2. We believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our 
 Lord, the Redeemer and Emancipator of men's souls 
 and bodies. 
 
 3. We believe that Jesus Christ, in proclaiming a 
 Fatherly Will as the origin of all Life, and the root of 
 Humanity, revealed to man the Divine Order under 
 which he is living. 
 
 4. We believe that the Christian Church, in the 
 idea of its Founder, had for its object the reorganization 
 and restitution of Society, no less than the salvation 
 and deliverance of the Individual. 
 
 5. We believe, therefore, that there is an Order of 
 Society which is the best ; that towards this Order the 
 world is gradually moving according to a definite 
 Divine plan. 
 
 6. We believe that in the life and teaching of Jesus 
 
356 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 Christ and His apostles, as recorded in the pages of 
 the New Testament, the eternal principles of that 
 Divine plan — the laws of the kingdom of heaven — 
 were revealed. 
 
 7. But we believe also in the Holy Spirit of God as 
 the living and acting motor of civilization, the inspirer 
 and the purifier of the thoughts of men's hearts, "the 
 light which lighteneth every man who cometh into the 
 world." 
 
 8. We believe, therefore, that an educational revela- 
 tion is ceaselessly descending from God to man, and 
 that in each age of the world new portions of eternal 
 truth are thus revealed. 
 
 9. We believe, therefore, in conscience, the revelation 
 of life to the individual, and in tradition, the revelation 
 of life to humanity, as the means given to us by God to 
 comprehend His design, and that when the voice of 
 conscience and of tradition are harmonized in an 
 affirmation, that affirmation is the truth, or a portion of 
 the truth. 
 
 10. We believe, therefore, that the revelation of the 
 providential scheme is to be found in the witness of the 
 facts of daily life, and is unceasingly continuous. 
 
 11. We believe that to limit that revelation to a 
 given portion of time, to one sole people, to a single 
 individual, to a single book, is essential Atheism. 
 
Creed of a Christian Democrat. 357 
 
 12. We believe, therefore, that there is no finality in 
 Divine Revelation, that the Will of God, the Word of 
 God, is not yet all revealed, that — 
 
 Slowly the Bible of the race is writ, 
 
 And not in paper leaves or leaves of stone. 
 
 Each age, each kindred, adds a word to it — 
 Texts of despair or hope, or joy, or moan. 
 
 13. We believe in the Bible of God's continuous 
 revelation, whose chapters are History, Politics, and 
 Science, as well as in that other revelation of spiritual 
 truth which we rightly reverence as the very Word of 
 God. 
 
 14. We believe, therefore, in the duty of man to 
 study the providential laws by which humanity has 
 gradually been impelled along the path of social order 
 and progress, and to co-operate with those laws in 
 order that in human society this double manifestation 
 of progress may be seen — all men approximating to 
 a common level, but a level which is continually 
 rising. 
 
 1 5. We believe, therefore, that in the " Notes " of 
 the Christian kingdom — " righteousness, peace, joy " — we 
 have the Christian translation of the old battle-cry of 
 revolution — "liberty, fraternity, equality" — in which 
 nothing of the old truth is lost, but all is interpreted, 
 purified, transfigured. 
 
358 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 16. We believe in Liberty — freedom — not to do what 
 one likes, but freedom to do what one ought, and 
 that, therefore, respect for individual rights must never 
 blind us to the higher reverence we owe to social 
 duty. 
 
 17. We believe in Fraternity — that we are all "one 
 man in Christ Jesus," but that no man can say sincerely, 
 "Our brothers who are on earth," who has not 
 previously learned to say, "Our Father which art in 
 heaven." 
 
 18. We believe in Equality — equality, that is to say, 
 not of condition, but equality of consideration, and we 
 express it in the maxim that everybody is to count for 
 one and nobody for more than one. 
 
 19. We believe that in all the disputes and conflicts 
 — industrial, social, political — which rend the body 
 politic of this Christian State to-day, the prime neces- 
 sity is frank Justice between class and class. 
 
 20. We believe that the first principle of Christian 
 Justice is this — that the loss of one cannot, on the 
 whole, be the gain of another in the unity of the one 
 life. 
 
 21. We believe that to identify the increase of 
 national wealth with the increase of individual wealth, 
 is a gross social mistake ; that, on the other hand, 
 national wealth ought always to be treated with con- 
 
Creed of a Christian Democrat. 359 
 
 stant reference to national life, and that therefore, in 
 all questions of dispute between Capital and Labour, 
 in the last resort it must be remembered that it is not 
 a question about wealth, but about men. 
 
 22. We believe that the competition of Trade has 
 been assimilated to the competition of War, and stands 
 condemned by the assimilation. 
 
 23. We believe that in Christ's kingdom the law 
 of life is service, not competition, and that no money 
 therefore is legitimately earned which is not an 
 exchange value for actual services rendered — services 
 which minister to life and help on the common good ; 
 and that consequently no wealth is honest wealth which 
 is accumulated by taking advantage of the weakness or 
 the ignorance of our neighbours, and rendering them 
 no equivalent in reciprocal service. 
 
 24. We believe that although Christian Economics 
 may quite justifiably show that Interest on invested 
 capital is legitimate, when the advantage to the bor- 
 rower is evidently as great or greater than it is to 
 the lender, yet that the sin of Usury is not extinct 
 so long as money remains the master, and not the 
 servant of labour and industrial power ; and thus con- 
 stantly falls under the temptation of making profits at 
 the expense of wage. 
 
 25. We believe, therefore, that every Christian man 
 
360 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 or woman who lends money and receives Interest upon 
 it — who takes part, that is to say, in a commercial 
 concern, and receives a proportion of profits in the 
 shape of dividend, is bound not only to ask whether 
 the business is safe to pay, but whether the business 
 deserves to pay. 
 
 26. We believe, therefore, in the principle of the 
 " living wage," by which we mean such a wage as will 
 allow the worker not only to maintain his own working 
 powers in the highest state of efficiency, but also to 
 enable himself and family to live a decent, a joyous, 
 and a reasonable life, according to "the standard of 
 comfort " of his class. 
 
 27. We believe, therefore, in St. Paul's doctrine of 
 wages, that " the labourer who worketh must be first 
 partaker of the fruits ; " in other words, that the living 
 wage must be the bed-rock of price, the first charge 
 on the product of work, and that, therefore, some way 
 must be found in a Christian system of trade for prices 
 to follow wages, not wages to follow prices. 
 
 28. We believe that high civilization is not the 
 destined lot of the few, while the destined lot of the 
 many is to support the few by unremitting, joyless toil ; 
 that it is no use any longer quoting or misquoting 
 Scripture to prove that God wills the mass of mankind 
 to be always poor and always dependent on the rich ; 
 
Creed of a Christian Democrat. 361 
 
 that if there is a text in the Bible which says, " The 
 poor ye have with you always," there is also another 
 text which speaks of the time " when there shall be no 
 poor among you." 
 
 29. We believe that the justification of Trades 
 Unionism is to be found in the justice of the aim that 
 "such as are in need and necessity have right," and 
 that although the rough prosecution of this aim may 
 often be irritating to those who inherit moods of feudal 
 haughtiness, and may even interfere with and disturb 
 the process of making money, yet still the postpone- 
 ment of the interest of an individual to the interest 
 of the class to which he belongs is a nobler, a more 
 Christian thing than the desire to drive a large trade, 
 or to scheme for personal enrichment. 
 
 30. We believe, however, that Justice is not always 
 on the weaker side, and that never does organized 
 oppression wear so ugly a look as when it is practised 
 by those who inscribe " Liberty " and " Fraternity " 
 on their banner, and that never does the contemptible 
 cry, " Every man for himself," sound so forbiddingly 
 as when it is uttered by those who have not hesitated 
 to infringe personal liberty and to imperil social order. 
 
 31. We believe that society exists not for the sake 
 of private property, but private property for the sake 
 of society. 
 
362 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 32. We believe that the right use of property must 
 be insisted upon as a religious duty ; that as capital 
 arises from common labour, so in justice it should be 
 made to minister to common wants. 
 
 33. We believe that wealth does not release the 
 rich man from his obligation to work, but only enables 
 him to do unpaid work for society ; the only difference, 
 indeed, according to Christian Ethics, between the rich 
 man and the poor man seeming to be this — that the 
 poor man receives his wages at the end of the week, 
 and does not get them unless his work is first done, 
 whereas the wealthy man receives his wages first, and 
 is bound, as a matter of honour, to earn them after- 
 wards. 
 
 34. We believe that life, labourous life, self-denying 
 life, must be graced with beauty and filled with many 
 pleasures, but that the highest pleasure is the pleasure 
 of helpful life itself, the joy of love, of fellow-help, of 
 comradeship, and that, therefore, no luxury, in fact, is 
 culpable, no wealth is wasted, which serves to make 
 its consumer a more useful, a more loving, a more 
 helpful member of the community. 
 
 35. We believe that it is not the equalization of 
 Capital that is needed, but its moralization. 
 
 36. We believe that as all life is of the kingdom 
 of God, and the Church of Christ is concerned in the 
 
Creed of a Christian Democrat. 363 
 
 ways of His disciples, however secular they may seem 
 to be, it is the duty of the Christian citizen to build 
 up, as far as his influence extends, the life of the great 
 civic brotherhood to which he belongs, and of every 
 sphere of action which it contains, in j ustice, righteous- 
 ness, and the fear of God. 
 
 37. We believe, therefore, that it is the duty of the 
 Christian city, in the interests of its citizens, to provide, 
 first, for the three essentials of physical life — pure air, 
 pure water, pure food ; and, secondly, for the three 
 essentials of spiritual life — admiration, hope, and love ; 
 and with these objects in view we believe that such 
 a city will take legal measures to prevent the pollution 
 of air, water, food ; will preserve open spaces and town 
 gardens, will provide playing fields and gymnasiums 
 and baths in connection with all Elementary Public 
 Schools, will pass not only a Sunday Closing Act for 
 public-houses, but a Sunday Opening Act for public 
 libraries, museums, art galleries, and other drawing- 
 rooms of the people. 
 
 38. We believe that in such a city the citizens will 
 have full control over the regulation and licence of 
 all trades, and that the drink traffic, as at present 
 organized, standing condemned by Christian principles, 
 will, if not suppressed altogether, be very largely cur- 
 tailed, and in the meantime compelled to compensate 
 
364 Vox Clamantium. 
 
 the ratepayers of the city for the Increase of poor-rate 
 and police-rate directly traceable to its influence. 
 
 39. We believe that in any truly Christian city 
 there would undoubtedly be a by-law of the council 
 suppressing the scandalous indecencies of the Divorce 
 Court, and the brutalizing horrors of the police court, 
 in the public prints, and prohibiting the publication 
 in any newspaper of all betting lists, the odds on 
 sporting events, and any information likely to stimulate 
 gambling, whether on the Turf or the Stock Exchange. 
 
 40. We believe that the conception of family life 
 is not only human but Divine, and that therefore it 
 is the duty of the Church of Christ to unite men in 
 actively opposing the corruption of national and social 
 life, which springs from neglect of the principle that 
 personal purity is of universal obligation upon man 
 and woman alike, and when necessary to co-operate 
 with the civil and municipal authorities in police efforts 
 for the repression of prostitution and the degradation 
 of women and children. 
 
 41. We believe not only in Progress, but in man's 
 solidarity in Progress. We believe that the glory of 
 a nation, like the glory of a citizen or a class, lies not 
 in supremacy but in service, and that therefore the 
 ruling principle of International Policy should be not 
 to secure the conquest or the weakness of other nations 
 
Creed of a Christian Democrat. 365 
 
 through War or Diplomacy, but the betterment of all 
 nations through the co-operation of all, the progress 
 and full development of each, for the benefit and the 
 widest good of all. 
 
 42. We believe, finally, that Christ's whole earthly 
 life is a direct command to His Church to spend a 
 large part of her time and energy in fighting against 
 all circumstances and conditions of living which foster 
 disease and hinder health, in delivering people from 
 evil environment and fatal heredity ; that, in fact, the 
 whole secular history of the Church should be an 
 endeavour to realize in act the daily petition of her 
 dominical prayer, " Father ! Thy Kingdom come. Thy 
 will be done, on EARTH ! " 
 
 Charles W. Stubbs. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON AND BECCLES. 
 
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