.SHOP TALKS 
 
 Edward Russell Seaeaed 
 
 
 

 

 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 A SERIES OF ADDRESSES ON JESUS CHRIST 
 AND His Discretes, DELIVERED AT 
 Noon Hour PEriops To 
 Workinc MEN 
 
 By 
 EDWARD RUSSELL STAFFORD 
 
 With an Introduction by 
 
 Tue Rev. Levi GivBert, D. D., 
 
 * Editor of the Western Christian Advocate 
 
 CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
 New York: Eaton anp MaIns 
 

 
CONTENTS 
 
 PREFACE, - - - - - 
 
 INTRODUCTION—THE Rev. LEvI 
 GILBERT, D. D., - - - 
 
 Tue TRUMPETER OF JUBILEE, 
 
 Kine JEsus, - - - - - 
 
 JEsUS THE DEMOCRAT, - - 
 JESUS THE SOCIALIST, - = 2 
 JESUS AND MopERN SOCIALISM, - 
 JESUS THE CITIZEN, : s : 
 JESUS THE CONSERVATIVE RADICAL, 
 THE Economic EmpirE, - = : 
 THE SociaAL VALUE OF A CHRISTIAN, 
 JupDas IscaRioT, - “ 2 4 
 JupDAs IscarRloT—CoNnTINUED, - 
 Simon PETER, - a c 3 
 Simon PETER—CONTINUED, - 
 JESUS AND DOUBTERS,-  - - = 
 
 131 
 139 
 149 
 159 
 171 
 185 
 

 
PREFACE 
 
 
 
 I am not willing that any one should be- 
 gin reading ‘‘Suorp Tatxs’’ under a false 
 impression of their value. He who desires 
 a learned discussion of modern industrial 
 problems must turn to some of the books 
 hereinafter mentioned. This book contains 
 merely a few short and simple speeches de- 
 livered by a preacher to a small company 
 of artisans. The purpose was to put into 
 familiar language and popular form a few 
 studies of Jesus of Nazareth from the stand- 
 point of sociology. That easy task is done, 
 and the fruit of my plan and work is be- 
 fore you. 
 
 These talks were spoken to the men who 
 worked in Strecker Brothers Harness Fac- 
 tory, Marietta, Ohio, from January 21st to 
 May 1, 1909. The meetings were held on 
 the fourth floor of the factory, and were in 
 charge of the local Young Men’s Christian 
 Association secretary, Mr. W. V. Hays. The 
 workmen, the Messrs. Strecker, and Mr. C. 
 
 5 
 
PREFACE 
 
 R. Stevens, president of the Stevens Organ 
 and Piano Company, manufacturers of pipe 
 organs, who assisted with the music, were 
 all kind enough to receive the talks with fa- 
 vor. To the politeness of the few hearers is 
 due this seeking of a larger audience. The 
 addresses were given almost word for word 
 as they appear in this volume, with the sin- 
 gle exception of ‘‘The Economic Empire,’’ 
 which is an elaboration of the ideas pre- 
 sented under the same title to the workmen. 
 Questions were asked and answered. The 
 Socialists were the only men who asked 
 questions. Their questions were honest and 
 respectful and were given honest and re- 
 spectful consideration. 
 
 But few direct quotations have been made 
 from the great leaders in the several realms 
 of thought and original research involved in 
 these discussions. Yet I am so greatly in- 
 debted to many of these men that I can not 
 refrain from acknowledging the obligation 
 by specific mention of their names and works. 
 The following list of authors and books, read 
 and assimilated in the production of ‘‘Shop 
 Talks,’’ will be the most useful part of this 
 little volume if it shall serve the purpose of 
 introducing the readers hereof to some of 
 the master minds of this age. And first let 
 
 . 6 
 
PREFACE 
 
 mention be made of works having to do di- 
 rectly with Jesus of Nazareth: 
 
 ‘*Lire anD T1meEs or JEsus, THE MEss1auH.’’— 
 Edersheim. 
 
 ‘‘Lire oF JEsus.’’—Renan. 
 
 ‘‘Lire or Curist.’’—Stalker. 
 
 ‘““Tae Lire or Jesus or Nazaretu.’’—Rhees. 
 
 ‘““THE Curist oF History.’’—Young. 
 
 *“Kicce Homo.’’—Seeley. 
 
 ‘‘THE CuristoLocy or Jrsus.’’—Stalker. 
 
 ‘““Tar Son or Man.’’—Alexander. 
 
 ‘“Tam Puace oF Curist in Moprern THEOL- 
 oey.’’—Fairbairn. 
 
 ‘Tre PHILOSOPHY OF THE CHRISTIAN RE- 
 LiGion.’’—Fairbairn. 
 
 In the realm of Politicak Economy and 
 Sociology the following are prime factors: 
 
 ‘‘IntropuctTion to Po.itican Economy.’’— 
 Professor Ely. 
 
 *‘Soctan Aspects oF CHRISTIANITY.’’—Pro- 
 fessor Ely. 
 
 ‘‘SocroLoey anp Potitican Economy.’’—Pro- 
 fessor Giddings. 
 
 ‘‘Intropuction To Soctotoey.’’—Professor 
 Fairbanks. 
 
 ‘*PrinciPLes oF SocroLoey.’’—Herbert Spen- 
 
 cer. 
 7 
 
PREFACE 
 
 “‘Data or Erutcs.’’—Herbert Spencer. 
 
 **Socrau Evouution.’’—Benjamin Kidd. 
 
 ‘PRINCIPLES OF WESTERN CrIvILIzATION.’’— 
 Benjamin Kidd. 
 
 ‘“Poverty.’’—Hunter. 
 
 ‘*PRoGREss AND Poverty.’’—George. 
 
 ““Tar Socran Unrest.’’—Brooks. 
 
 ‘*Socraism.’’—Spargo. 
 
 ‘A CriticAL EXAMINATION OF SoOCcIALISM.?’— 
 
 Mallock. 
 
 ‘‘Tae New Era;’’ ‘‘Ourn Country;’’ ‘‘THE 
 TwentietH Century Ciry.’’—Strong. 
 
 ‘“MoneEy AND THE MECHANISM OF EXXCHANGE.’’ 
 
 —Jevons. 
 
 ‘““Tae Work or Watt Street.’’—Pratt. 
 
 “How tHe Oruer Har Lives.’’—Riis. 
 
 ‘““THEe Crown oF Wit Onive.’’—Ruskin. 
 
 ‘‘ Jesus CHRIST AND THE SocraL QuEsTION.’’— 
 Professor Peabody. 
 
 ‘““Tur RELIGION oF AN HEXpucaTep Man.’’— 
 Professor Peabody. 
 
 ‘‘T HE Socra, TEacutnes or JEesus.’’—Profes- 
 sor Matthews. 
 
 ‘CHRISTIANITY AND THE SocraL ORIsis.’’— 
 Professor Rauschenbusch. 
 
 I would like also in this connection to com- 
 mend the various sociological books of Ly- 
 man Abbott, Washington Gladden, Professor 
 
 8 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Jenks, and Professor Ross, none of which, 
 however, were read or consulted in the prep- 
 aration of ‘‘Shop Talks.’’ Professor Rau- 
 schenbusch has made a most notable contri- 
 bution to the literature of Sociology. While 
 not cast, as a whole, in the formal and ex- 
 act mold of scientific discussion, his book 
 presents in elegant and eloquent diction the 
 approved findings of Science. It is all the 
 more influential because both heart and head 
 are involved in his conclusions. No book 
 has done more toward determining the char- 
 acter of this volume than has ‘‘ Christianity 
 and the Social Crisis.’? Yet, I trust the 
 reader will find on the pages that follow 
 something more than a mere reflection of 
 light he has already received. 
 
 I undertook the work of which ‘‘Shop 
 Talks’’ is the visible fruit as a labor of love. 
 My affections go out strongly toward all 
 toilers, and I love the Church of the living 
 God. I regret the feeling of estrangement 
 which many manual laborers have toward 
 the Church. I would like to win such men 
 to the Church and to our Lord Jesus. I re- 
 gret also the hostility existing between Cap- 
 ital and Labor. I entertain the fond hope 
 that this little book may bear a flag of truce 
 between warring factions. It may not be a 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 distant day when the Carpenter of Naza- 
 reth will come into His own in the hearts of 
 all who ‘‘labor and are heavy laden.”’ 
 ‘*Hiven so, come, Lord Jesus.”’ 
 Epwarp RussELL STAFFORD. 
 Marietta, Ohio, September 10, 1909. 
 
 10 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 
 
 A GENEROUS welcome ought to be ex- 
 tended to any book which makes a serious 
 and sympathetic attempt to bring the arti- 
 sans and the Churches into a better mutual 
 understanding and co-operation. This vol- 
 ume has grown out of a practical effort to 
 speak to the religious needs of workingmen 
 and to relate the essential truths of Chris- 
 tianity to their every-day lives. The Indus- 
 trial Situation does not constitute the whole 
 of the Social Question, but it is the largest 
 and most urgent of the Problems calling for 
 solution, and it involves almost every other 
 social complication and perplexity. None 
 too soon have the Churches awakened to a 
 conception of religion as dealing ultimately 
 with the corporate salvation of the com- 
 munity; as being concerned with the hap- 
 piness and well-being—physical, mental, and 
 spiritual—of all men; with their right to 
 life, liberty, justice, a living wage, reason- 
 able hours of toil, decent homes, opportunity 
 for rest, recreation, intellectual improve- 
 
 11 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ment, worship. Individuals are saved to 
 serve—to co-operate with Christ in bringing 
 in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth; and 
 every Church that would meet the demands 
 of this age must break away from any nar- 
 rowing, selfish, individualistic interpretation 
 of Christianity. The religion of Jesus must 
 be seen to be as wide as the multiplied erav- 
 ings of humanity for higher things in every 
 department of life. 
 
 Inconsiderate statements are sometimes 
 made that wage-earners as a class are uni- 
 versally alienated from the Churches. Such 
 representation is wide from the truth. In 
 any Church membership the capitalists are 
 the few, and the men and women dependent 
 upon weekly wages or monthly salaries are 
 the many. But, as a general proposition, it 
 may be correctly said that organized laborers 
 —the membership of the Labor Unions—are, 
 with exceptions, out of touch with the 
 Churches. This is not to say that they are 
 irreligious, or that they have ever formally 
 repudiated Christianity. Their leaders have 
 sanely guided them away from the rocks of 
 any atheistic program of anarchy. In many 
 notable gatherings the artisans have enthu- 
 siastically joined in the singing of the great 
 hymns of our faith; have listened approv- 
 
 12 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ingly to expositions of vital truth; have 
 given warm response to the setting forth of 
 the teaching of the Prophet of Nazareth— 
 the Galilean Carpenter — Himself a day- 
 laborer, with His hands hardened with toil; 
 have proclaimed Christian principles in their 
 industrial and political programs; have 
 found in. the meetings of their Unions that 
 spirit of brotherhood which should be a 
 never-absent essential in every true and liv- 
 ing Church. 
 
 Nevertheless they allege that the Chris- 
 tian Church, as now constituted, is too much 
 financed and controlled by the moneyed 
 classes; that the aristocratic and exclusive 
 spirit is too manifest, and poor people are 
 not made heartily welcome at the services; 
 that too many employers who do not treat 
 their employees justly or humanely are 
 found worshiping in the churches on Sunday; 
 that the preaching is too timid and time- 
 serving, and is held in restraint by a craven 
 fear of the rich pew-renter and salary-payer ; 
 that organized Christianity is quite a differ- 
 ent thing from the simple, sympathetic creed 
 and life of Jesus; that the Church is not suf- 
 ficiently outspoken concerning abuses, op- 
 pressions, and injustices, flagrant and noto- 
 rious in industrialism, and does not identify 
 
 13 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 herself out and out with the cause of the 
 working man in his contention against those 
 employers who do not observe the laws of 
 equitable and humane treatment of their fel- 
 lows. 
 
 It would, perhaps, be difficult to enter a 
 universal and explicit denial to all of these 
 allegations. Occasionally some clergymen 
 retort that the accusations are mostly sub- 
 terfuges— excuses for antipathy to the 
 Church really arising from dissipations in 
 life, disobedience to God’s laws, disinclina- 
 tion to repentance, distaste for religion, and 
 disregard for the Sabbath. But the Church 
 has not been blameless. In some respects, it 
 may be, that nearly every Church has sinned 
 —has been too subservient, too proud, too 
 cautious and fearsome in its pulpit utterance, 
 too ecclesiastical and theological, too luke- 
 warm in its sympathies, and tongue-tied in 
 its official proclamations. But we honestly 
 believe that if the artisans who hold an ex- 
 treme position as to the alleged derelictions 
 of the Church, and who, therefore, will have 
 nothing to do with her, would inform them- 
 selves more adequately concerning her past 
 history, and come to know the spirit and 
 purpose that at present animate her, they 
 would find their attitude a somewhat exag- 
 
 14 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 gerated and distorted one. What they im- 
 “pute to all the Churches would be found to 
 apply only to an unfortunate exception here 
 and there. 
 
 There has been a lamentable misunder- 
 standing on both sides—of the Church by 
 the artisans and of the artisans by the 
 Church. It were well if, in penitent mood, 
 both, confessing that they had not been per- 
 fect, should cease mutual recriminations and 
 seek a basis of amity and agreement. Hap- 
 pily indications are not wanting that such a 
 process is now in operation. The Social 
 Creed of Protestantism as issued by the 
 Commission on Social Service of the Fed- 
 eral Council of the Churches of Christ in 
 America—a broad, bold, warm-hearted dec- 
 laration—has been received by the toilers 
 with joyful acclaim and hearty reciprocation. 
 The pulpits are filled with men who are 
 bravely and lovingly trying to mediate be- 
 tween alienated classes, and to show that the 
 true Church of Christ is neither for rich or 
 poor exclusively, neither for capitalist nor 
 wage-earner, employer or employed, but for 
 all men and women, without distinction, who 
 are to recognize within its walls a real frater- 
 nity, based upon common frailties, sinfulness, 
 needs and aspirations, and the mutual ne- 
 
 15 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 cessities in their relations to God and each 
 other. The Christian press has in many in- 
 stances become socialized and is persistently 
 advocating the great ideas of justice—of 
 fair play and the square deal—between man 
 and man, of capitalist with laborer, of laborer 
 with capitalist. Not only is United Protes- 
 tantism on record in the proclamation just 
 cited, but individual denominations are erect- 
 ing Bureaus of Religion and Labor, or, more 
 broadly, of Social Welfare. The Roman 
 Catholic Church and the Hebrews are like- 
 wise not indifferent or inactive. 
 
 It is our supreme confidence that Jesus 
 Christ holds in His pierced hands the key to 
 this industrial entanglement, as for every 
 other intricacy and perplexity that vexes 
 our race. His words were germinal and of 
 universal application. It is indeed wonder- 
 ful that a Peasant, living nineteen hundred 
 years ago, in a remote corner of the earth, 
 amid conditions almost totally dissimilar to 
 those of this complex civilization, should 
 have anything worth heeding to say to busi- 
 ness men and hand-workers in America in 
 this tumultuous age. But—and this is one 
 large proof of His divineness—this Son of 
 Man, characterized by some as a dreamer and 
 by others as an impossible idealist, whose 
 
 16 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 teachings are utterly impracticable for this 
 era of steam, electricity, huge cities, and in- 
 tense competition, is nevertheless making 
 Himself distinctly heard. He knew what 
 was in man, and He read the human heart, 
 with its motives and impulses, for all time. 
 His great generalizations are being found 
 capable of individual and specific application 
 to the bewildering controversies of our gen- 
 eration. There is no task more imperative 
 than to translate the words of Christ into 
 the vernacular of to-day, and to show how 
 beneficent and remedial they are, if only men 
 would live by them. There is coming a new 
 and nobler social order, based on principles 
 of eternal righteousness and justice, and 
 Jesus Christ is leading the movement and 
 calling upon all men of good-will every- 
 where to direct it on lines of truth and recti- 
 tude. 
 
 The Keynote of Christ’s social teaching 
 is His exposition of the Fatherhood of God. 
 Says a recent writer on ‘‘The Social Teach- 
 ing of Jesus:’’ 
 
 ‘“‘The mere expression, ‘Our Father,’ 
 placed on every man’s lips by such Author- 
 ity involves inferences which in time will 
 revolutionize our social relationships. Here, 
 for the first time in the development of hu- 
 
 2 17 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 man life, we have the full Charter of the In- 
 dividual—a charter which, once divinely re- 
 vealed, no human agency will ever be able 
 to cancel. Its proclamation has already lib- 
 erated the slave and transformed the posi- 
 tion of womanhood and childhood. And the 
 doom of other social wrongs, though unful- 
 filled as yet, was once for all pronounced in 
 these epoch-making words of Jesus. Even if 
 it seem to tarry, it is approaching with a cer- 
 tainty that is irresistible. . . . When He 
 puts the prayer for daily bread into every 
 man’s lips, the right to live is assumed by 
 Christ for every man. Unless the divine or- 
 der of the universe is impaired by human 
 greed, provision is made for the sustenance 
 of the entire human family. Whatever in- 
 terests of property, therefore, render it im- 
 possible that there shall be food and cloth- 
 ing available, under proper conditions for 
 all, ipso facto nullify the divine provision 
 and are at variance with the divine pur- 
 poses.’’ 
 
 The Rev. S. E. Keeble, in his introduc- 
 tion to the above-named volume, quotes 
 Bishop Westcott as saying that ‘‘the real 
 understanding of the Bible rests on the ac- 
 knowledgment of its catholicity, or universal 
 range, in which it includes in its records typ- 
 
 18 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ical examples of the dealings of God with 
 men under every variety of circumstances 
 and being, social and personal;’’ and he him- 
 self holds that the Bible has been too ex- 
 clusively studied from doctrinal and devo- 
 tional standpoints, and that not until we 
 study the Bible socially, as well as theolog- 
 ically, shall we ever do justice to its marvel- 
 ous contents, and to its complete message to 
 mankind, or to convince the masses that the 
 old Book is the charter of their liberties, 
 never too much to be read nor too highly 
 prized. He quotes Charles Kingsley in these 
 words addressed to working-men: 
 
 ‘“We have never told you that the true 
 Reformer’s Guide, the poor man’s book, the 
 true God’s voice against tyrants, idlers, and 
 humbugs, is the Bible. We have told you 
 that the Bible preached to you patience, while 
 we have not told you that it promised you 
 freedom. We have told you that the Bible 
 preached the rights of property and the du- 
 ties of labor, when (God knows) for once 
 that it does that, it preaches ten times over 
 the duties of property and the rights of la- 
 bor. Instead of being a book to keep the 
 poor in order, it is a book, from beginning 
 to end, written to keep the rich in order. It 
 “is the true Radical Reformer’s Guide, God’s 
 19 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 everlasting witness against oppression and 
 eruelty and idleness.’’ 
 
 And, for himself, Mr. Keeble adds: 
 
 “‘Could the day ever come when the Bible 
 should be proved worthless or untrustworthy, 
 that would be the day when the hope of civ- 
 ilization would perish, and the guarantee of 
 freedom and progress be withdrawn; it 
 ‘would be the day when earth’s tyrants and 
 wrong-doers would again lift up their heads 
 and try to prevail over men.’’ 
 
 These are great words, and in their light 
 and by their inspiration the Church of Christ 
 of to-day must go forward. We believe she 
 is not apathetic nor moribund. We are not 
 among those who are asking dolorously, 
 ‘‘What is the matter with the Churches?’’ 
 Everywhere there is intelligent interest in 
 the issues raised; everywhere stir, progress, 
 determination to right wrong conditions in 
 the name of a God of justice. Many of the 
 situations faced are new and very compli- 
 cated and not to be solved in a week or a 
 year. Many are hoary with age, widely 
 ramified, and rooted in the selfishness, sinful 
 habits and vices of men and society. Many 
 men whose hearts are deeply stirred within 
 them are yet at a loss how to commence in 
 any labor of betterment, and are asking in 
 
 20 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 their bewilderment of sociological investiga- 
 tors and students, ‘‘What can we do?’’ 
 The Church is working on humanitarian 
 lines quite as well, seemingly, as the State, 
 which facing the same problems, with all 
 her vast machinery and resources, still makes 
 slow progress in rectifying wrongs and 
 bringing about justice and more ideal condi- 
 tions. But, instead of asking either ‘‘ What 
 is the matter with the Church?’’ or ‘‘ What 
 is the matter with the State?’’ let all fol- 
 lowers of Christ and lovers of their fellow- 
 men go forward without discouragement to 
 proclaim the possibility of that Brotherhood 
 of Man which flows immediately out of the 
 thought of the Fatherhood of God. Let 
 them insist that all unfairness and injustice 
 on either side of contending factions shall 
 cease, and that the two antagonistic camps 
 shall be broken up; that there shall be an 
 armistice, a truce of God, a spirit of con- 
 ciliation that will not refuse to refer any 
 dispute whatsoever to arbitration; that, in a 
 broad common-sense and a fundamental feel- 
 ing of fraternity, employer and laborer shall 
 respectively see and acknowledge their re- 
 ciprocal relation of dependence, one on the 
 other. Let religious believers of whatever 
 faith or form come together on this propa- 
 21 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ganda. Let the Nation and States and the 
 Cities and all philanthropic organizations 
 unite in the endeavor to make religion vital 
 and effective in all industrial relationships 
 and in the whole scope and span of our 
 modern life. The Law of Love—the Golden 
 Rule—the Mind of Christ—is sufficient if 
 acted out and specifically applied, not in 
 vague generalizations, but practically and in 
 particular instances, to end all strife and in- 
 ’ augurate a permanent era of peace and 
 concord in co-operation for the common 
 good of all men the world over. In the hope 
 that this little volume may make some defi- 
 nite contribution toward this long-prayed- 
 for and glorious end, we bespeak for it a 
 wide circulation and a most attentive read- 
 ing. Levi GILBERT. 
 
 22 
 
THE TRUMPETER OF JUBILEE 
 

 
 
 
THE TRUMPETER OF JUBILEE 
 
 In the twenty-sixth year of the reign of 
 Cesar Augustus, in an obscure part of his 
 realm and of humble parentage, was born 
 the most revolutionary character known to 
 history or tradition. He is known to many 
 millions who never heard of those who sat 
 “‘in the seats of the mighty,’’ in the days 
 when He toiled at a carpenter’s bench. Ages 
 of evolution had moved forward with un- 
 deviating precision, eliminating the unfit in 
 the struggle for existence until-in the full- 
 ness of the times the Eternal Word was in- 
 troduced as a new factor in God’s way of 
 doing things, making it possible that whoso- 
 ever will may be fitted to survive. When 
 Christ was born in the city of David a new 
 spirit was born in society. Self-preserva- 
 tion, theretofore, had been the first law. It 
 is yet the first law of nature, but the ‘‘grace 
 
 25 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 and truth’’ which ‘‘came by Jesus Christ’’ 
 have made and manifested a new and higher 
 law which evermore must hold. This law 
 of grace, which supersedes Nature’s first 
 law, makes the welfare of our neighbor also 
 a primary consideration. ‘‘Thou shalt love 
 thy neighbor as thyself,’’ said Jesus, and 
 mankind in word, though not yet in deeds, 
 have uttered an age-long ‘‘Amen.’’ 
 
 The Man of Galilee came to establish 
 human happiness. He is making progress 
 toward His goal. Some day His great pur- 
 pose will be accomplished; His ideal will be 
 a reality. There shall be a new earth as 
 well as a new heaven, for the former things 
 must pass away. We have been for nine- 
 teen centuries hastening toward 
 
 “That time by gifted minds foretold, 
 When men shall live by reason 
 And not alone for gold. 
 When with man to man united 
 And every wrong thing righted, 
 This whole world shall be lighted, 
 As Eden was of old.”’ 
 
 26 
 
THE TRUMPETER OF JUBILEE 
 
 Jesus made formal announcement of His 
 mission in the application to Himself of 
 Isaiah’s words upon the occasion of His 
 preaching in the Nazareth synagogue. 
 
 ‘‘And there was delivered unto Him the 
 book of the prophet Esaias. And when He 
 had opened the book He found the place 
 where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord 
 is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to 
 preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent 
 Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach de- 
 liverance to the captives, and recovering of 
 sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that 
 are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of 
 the Lord. . . . This day is this Scripture 
 fulfilled in your ears.’’ 
 
 With such a message to mankind, may 
 we not expect that it will be true now even 
 as it was recorded then that 
 
 ‘“All bare Him witness, and wondered at 
 the gracious words which proceeded out of 
 His mouth?”’ 
 
 In the method by which Jesus seeks to 
 attain His ideal of a race perfected and 
 happy, He displays great confidence in the 
 
 27 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 truth and in men. That truth can not fail 
 and that men will be true to Him and true 
 to the truth, He has never a doubt. He un- 
 falteringly committed His unfinished task to 
 a handful of followers who had become im- 
 bued with His spirit, and the leaven of truth 
 and love, of sacrifice and service, is cease- 
 lessly at work upon the dispositions and 
 characters of men. Upon the part of man- 
 kind there has never been a general betrayal 
 of the trust which Christ reposes in human 
 beings. This is a continuous miracle. Great 
 is grace. By it in the hearts of men our 
 Lord has reproduced Himself countless times 
 in each generation. Men are to-day carry- 
 ing forward the work of Mary’s Son, and 
 will carry it on until every son of every 
 mother shall some day join in a world-wide 
 jubilee. 
 
 There are two classes of men who array 
 themselves against existing laws and social 
 customs. The one class is composed of crim- 
 inals, outlaws. The other class is made up 
 of patriotic and philanthropic reformers. 
 The true reformer is truly a philanthropist, 
 
 28 
 
THE TRUMPETER OF JUBILEE 
 
 and the spirit of reform is a large part of 
 the spirit of patriotism. Both the outlaw 
 and the reformer attack the laws and cus- 
 toms of society; the one from without, the 
 other from within. The object of the out- 
 law is destruction only. The object of the 
 reformer is destruction, to be followed by 
 construction. The reformer tears down, that 
 he may build greater and better. They who 
 look upon the surface of things only, and 
 who have limited horizons, very readily con- 
 fuse the reformer with the outlaw. They 
 see naught but the attack, and can not dis- 
 cern differences of motive and object. Short- 
 sighted conservatives dread the radicals’ 
 vigorous laying of the ax to the root, and 
 aroused fear is most implacable. Isaiah 
 looked across the centuries and saw that the 
 Servant of Jehovah ‘‘was numbered with 
 the transgressors.’’ Jesus died as an out- 
 law with outlaws and in the stead of all the 
 outlawed Barabbases that blind fury hath 
 ever chosen. It was necessary that the 
 things which Jesus abrogated in His own 
 person should be completely annulled and 
 
 29 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 annihilated before there could be ushered in 
 that jubilant age, 
 
 ‘That one far off divine event 
 Toward which the whole creation moves.”” 
 
 The reformer and the demagogue must 
 appeal to the same audience—the dissatis- 
 fied. So the diamond and the paste imita- 
 tion make their appeal to the same man— 
 the buyer of jewels. They who are smugly 
 satisfied are deaf to the cries of the social 
 reformer or political agitator. For the mis- 
 erable only has Jesus a message. To-day, 
 as of old, He stands in the market place and 
 cries, ‘‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and 
 are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’’ 
 
 Many cure-alls for social ills have been 
 offered by various social philosophers. 
 From Plato to Robert Owen, all the Great- 
 hearts of our race have sought to conduct 
 mankind to the Delectable Mountains. In 
 the midst of all the voices sounding clamor- 
 ously from far and near, the gentle voice of 
 Jesus insistently reaches all but those hope- 
 lessly deafened by sin. He offers His spe- 
 
 30 
 
THE TRUMPETER OF JUBILEE 
 
 cific for human woe. Let us hear that voice 
 and learn of that remedy, as we shall in this 
 series of talks, and, hearing and learning, 
 let us accept and apply. 
 
 **T heard the voice of Jesus say, 
 
 “Come unto Me and rest. 
 
 Lay down, thou weary one, lay down 
 Thy head upon My breast!’ 
 
 I came to Jesus as I was, 
 Weary and worn and sad; 
 
 I found in Him a resting place, 
 And He has made me glad.’’ 
 
 31 
 

 
KING JESUS 
 

 
KING JESUS 
 
 WE shall begin this discussion by a study 
 of the term ‘‘king.’’ Let those who speak 
 German, as many of you do, think of the 
 word. ‘‘Koenig.”’ You who speak English, 
 and all of you do, think now of four words, 
 cean,’” **¢on,”’ “ken,” and ‘*“cunning:”” 
 Again, let the Germans present think of 
 ““konnen.’’ Now, with these words in our 
 minds, we have made a fair start in our 
 study of the term ‘‘king.’’ Let us find what 
 all of these words have in common. Take 
 now the words ‘‘con’’ and ‘‘ken.’’? ‘‘Con’’ 
 means ‘‘study,’’ and ‘‘ken’’ means ‘‘know.”’ 
 Both are terms denoting intellectual ability 
 and acquirement. The word ‘‘cunning’’ is 
 also a term by which we denote mental 
 strength. These words with ‘‘can,’’ ‘‘king,’’ 
 and the German ‘‘koenig’’ come to us from 
 the old Saxon ‘“‘kunnan,’’ which means 
 “‘know,’’ ‘‘know-how,’’ ‘‘be able.’? In other 
 words, the king is the man who can, who 
 
 35 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 knows, who is able. Of course, where a man 
 comes to a throne because of birth, and not 
 because of worth, he is frequently not the 
 ‘‘know-how’’ man of ability. It is in the 
 original root sense of the word that we wish 
 to speak of Jesus as King. 
 
 Rudyard Kipling tells us the story of 
 “<The Man Who Would Be King.’’ It is a 
 story of terrible hardships and muscle-strain- 
 ing endeavor. The hero sacrifices time, 
 country, kindred, and everything dear to 
 man. His fall comes through his desire to 
 enliven the desolation and cheer the dreari- 
 ness of his high estate with human compan- 
 ionship. Such greatness is filled with ap- 
 palling loneliness, and the price of worldly 
 power impoverishes its purchaser. The 
 high places of this world are reached by 
 eagles and reptiles only. The eagle soars 
 above the love of others, and the reptile 
 crawls beneath their contempt, while both 
 are without companionship. Eminence at- 
 tained by duplicity or force is a barren moun- 
 tain peak set amid the snows and solitudes 
 of vast emptiness. 
 
 36 
 
KING JESUS 
 
 It was neither by coercion nor crooked 
 devices that Jesus reached His throne, but 
 by sacrifice and service. Czsar, Macbeth, 
 Cromwell, Napoleon may 
 
 ** Wade through slaughter to a throne, 
 And read their history in a nation’s eyes,’’ 
 
 but Jesus Christ permits all men to wade 
 through His blood to crowns and croziers 
 and become kings and priests unto God. He 
 is the maker of kings, therefore hath He do- 
 minion over the Empire of Love. He en- 
 nobles every common vassal, and all His 
 peasants are princes. 
 
 Jesus expressed the underlying principle 
 of His own Kingship in the rebuke He gave 
 the vaulting and vainglorious ambition of 
 His disciples: ‘‘And whosoever of you will 
 be the chiefest, shall be the servant of all.’’ 
 
 Who is it that attains to large authority 
 among men? The willing servant of men. 
 The physician who sacrificed the comfort of 
 his bed that starless January midnight and 
 came to your house and wrestled with death 
 till morning, revealed him worn but flushed 
 
 37 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 with triumph, and your loved one on the 
 road to recovery, is a great man in your 
 eyes. And well he may be, for he has paid 
 for your devotion. 
 
 The man who occupies the chief place in 
 this nation of ours, the President of our re- 
 public, is an overworked man. By the very 
 force of his position he is compelled to be 
 the servant of those who have chosen him 
 for rulership. Among us Americans we 
 have the political ‘‘boss.’’ How does a man 
 reach such a position of authority over his 
 fellows? Simply by serving them. He puts 
 himself in readiness to respond to every 
 one’s beck and call. And, further, be it said 
 that in most cases the political boss, though 
 he may be a bad man in many ways, is a 
 lover of his fellow-men. <A _ hard-hearted 
 man is not a man of influence. The skinflint 
 receives the contempt he merits. 
 
 I knew a man who held almost absolute 
 sway over the politics of a certain city. Be- 
 cause he controlled a city he held the bal- 
 ance of power in the congressional district, 
 and he became a powerful factor in State 
 
 38 
 
KING JESUS 
 
 politics. That man got control of his fel- 
 low voters by being always ready to render 
 them efficient service. Night or day he was 
 always glad to accommodate either friend 
 or foe. From the loan or gift of money to 
 watching beside a sick person, he never re- 
 fused aid. A sixteen-year-old boy driving 
 a team got stuck in the mud. Into the mud 
 waded the ‘‘boss’’ with his patent leather 
 shoes, and, soiling his clothes and blistering 
 his hands, he helped the boy out of his 
 troublesome place. Others, like the priest 
 and Levite, had passed by on the other side. 
 Five years later, who so lusty a shouter and 
 voter for the ‘‘boss’’ as that boy? Ten years 
 later that boy carried a ward for the boss and 
 saved his friend from defeat. This political 
 boss was a saloon-keeper. However far he 
 may have departed from the ways of Christ, 
 at least in that one respect he was like the 
 Nazarene. Yet policy, and not love, may 
 have been his ruling motive. 
 
 Having spoken thus of one who in most 
 ways was not a model citizen, let me tell you 
 of one who differed widely from him in ev- 
 
 39 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 erything except the disposition to be helpful 
 to others. She was a leading member of a 
 church in a little town about twenty-four 
 miles south of Columbus, Ohio. Her name 
 was Josephine Hewitt. Whatever the occa- 
 sion, whether it were one of joy or grief, 
 this woman’s help was required. In their 
 weddings and their funerals she helped. 
 When sickness singed and seared with the 
 hot breath of fever it was she who minis- 
 tered by the bedside. She would sit up all 
 night to comfort the broken heart of a 
 mother bereft of her firstborn. Like Tab- 
 itha of whom St. Luke tells us, she sewed 
 garments for the poor. In the hearts of all, 
 rich and poor alike, she was enthroned. 
 When she departed suddenly for the Land 
 of the Everliving, two hundred and fifty car- 
 riages formed the funeral procession to 
 God’s acre, where, amid universal lamenta- 
 tions, multitudes from far and near bade 
 farewell to one who for them incarnated 
 Christ. So, living or dead, among many she 
 holds a queenly place because she rendered 
 a royal service. 
 40 
 
KING JESUS 
 
 Most assuredly the kingdom over which 
 Jesus rules is not of this world, and yet His 
 is an absolute despotism. The sway of His 
 sovereignty is without qualification or limit. 
 This King asks but to be accorded the privi- 
 lege of blessing, of conferring favors, of 
 serving His subjects. In return it is re- 
 quired that each subject model his life after 
 the pattern set by the Sovereign, and that 
 he hold himself bound absolutely to obey the 
 King. Disobedience annuls the right to citi- 
 zenship in this Commonwealth of Israel. 
 
 Further, be it observed that the Kingship 
 of Jesus is an elective one. He rules only 
 over those who have chosen Him as their 
 King. He does not reign over any involun- 
 tary subjects. Those who elect Him King of 
 their lives do so with a clear understanding 
 of what is involved. They can not elect Him 
 without careful consideration, for it is im- 
 possible to make Him King over any unsur- 
 rendered portion of one’s being. They who 
 wish may go away and cease to follow Him 
 at any time. They who remain have volun- 
 tarily made Him Lord and Master. 
 
 41 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 In every heart there is a cross and a 
 throne—self is on one, and Jesus on the 
 other. In your HEART, IS JESUS ON THE CROSS 
 OR ON THE THRONE? 
 
JESUS THE DEMOCRAT 
 

 
JESUS THE DEMOCRAT 
 
 ApraHam Lincoxn in his Gettysburg ad- 
 dress referred to our democratic national 
 government as being ‘‘of the people, by the 
 people, and for the people.’’ So may we 
 say of a democratic man. Jesus of Nazareth 
 was sprung of the people, produced by the 
 people, and always stood for the people. He 
 is the world’s truest democrat. It is of 
 record that ‘‘the common people heard Him 
 gladly.’’ His enemies justly charged Him 
 with keeping company with publicans and 
 sinners. It is said of Jesus that when He 
 saw the multitudes ‘‘He was moved with 
 compassion,’’ that is, He had a fellow-feel- 
 ing with the crowd. He understood men, and 
 His spirit was in tune with theirs. He and 
 the multitudes with whom He had dealings 
 were in symphony. 
 
 Jesus was no anchorite. A monk is as 
 far from the spirit of the Master he pro- 
 fesses to follow as is a worldly-minded man. 
 
 45 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 In charging His enemies with unjust es- 
 timates of Himself, He admits that His man- 
 ner of life is that of a man of the world. 
 ‘John came neither eating nor drinking, and 
 ye say he hath a devil. The Son of man 
 comes eating and drinking, and ye say, 
 Behold a wine-bibber and a _ gluttonous 
 man.’’ 
 
 Your true democrat leads a life of dig- 
 nified simplicity. He recognizes his own 
 worth, and he recognizes also the worth of 
 every other man. He does not bawl from 
 the house tops, ‘‘I am the equal of a king.’’ 
 It has never occurred to him to boast of 
 equality with any man, because it has never 
 occurred to him that any human being could 
 be his superior. By the same token also he 
 does not recognize human inferiority. This 
 is not to say that he fails to discern moral 
 and intellectual and physical differences 
 among men. But there are certain rights 
 which all men share in common, and in re- 
 lation to these rights a man is just a man. 
 His goods and gear, his titles and trumpery 
 no more make him superhuman than the lack 
 
 46 
 
JESUS THE DEMOCRAT 
 
 of social frills make him subhuman. The 
 democrat recognizes that the beginning and 
 ending of life fmd men on a common level. 
 Of old the Chieftain of Uz observed, ‘‘ Naked 
 came I into the world, and naked shall I 
 leave it.’? The democrat realizes that life 
 is as its beginning and ending. To him class 
 distinctions make no appeal. The phrase 
 “‘class consciousness’’ to him is meaningless. 
 He can not be a snob or a toady; he can 
 not be a patron or a tyrant. He is simply 
 a man among men. He does not carry a 
 chip on one shoulder, nor water on both 
 shoulders. He has principles which he will 
 not yield, but he also has courtesy which will 
 not fail. He stands on his two feet, but does 
 not spread them out so far as to leave no 
 room for another to stand. This individu- 
 alist preserves his own integrity without vi- 
 olating the integrity of any brother man. 
 The race has produced but one such dem- 
 ocrat. Yet such a description, which for any 
 other is exaggerated eulogy, is too cheap and 
 coarse to be applied to Jesus. Failing so 
 miserably at the task of describing His de- 
 47 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 mocracy in our own language, let us turn 
 again to the evangelists who were His first 
 biographers. 
 
 St. John tells us of a weary man who sat 
 on a well curb and talked with an ignorant 
 and sinful woman. In this conversation 
 Jesus uses not blandishment, nor bluster, nor 
 tone of command. So naturally does He ap- 
 proach, so little assumption of superiority 
 does He show, that the woman begins her 
 part of the conversation with banter, only 
 to end it, however, with bowed spirit and 
 surrendered heart. And this was a woman, 
 a vicious woman, a Samaritan woman, who 
 with astonishment thought she beheld a man, 
 a Jew, a rabbi Jew, standing on her plane 
 of existence, and later is struck with a thun- 
 derous astonishment in finding herself raised 
 to His level of life. 
 
 St. John tells another illuminative story. 
 Jesus attended the wedding in Cana of Gal- 
 ilee. He entered simply and heartily into 
 the joys of the common folk by whom He 
 was surrounded. Further, He contributed 
 to that joy by contributing to the supply 
 
 48 
 
JESUS THE DEMOCRAT 
 
 of wine. While the greater portion of the 
 wedding guests saw only a fellow-man, 
 ‘<The conscious waters saw their God and 
 blushed.’’ 
 
 St. Luke records the story of Zaccheus 
 and his contact with Jesus. This sinful 
 man found in Jesus a friend. The centu- 
 rion found Him a helper. The young ruler 
 found in Him a lover. Pilate not only found 
 no fault in Him, but found Him capable of 
 commanding the respect of an _ insolent 
 Roman drunk with power. 
 
 So we might multiply examples from 
 ‘‘the short and simple annals’’ of the life 
 of Jesus the democrat, to show that He was 
 ever the friend of His fellows. Yet we need 
 not content ourselves with stories of the long 
 ago, however virile and palpitant with life 
 they may be. Jesus bids us keep company 
 with Him, and that is our privilege. There 
 never was any man or set of men any more 
 unworthy of being the companions of the 
 Nazarene carpenter than you and I, but He 
 bids us keep step with Him as ‘‘He goes up 
 and down the world doing good.’’ 
 
 4 49 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 Let us come to Jesus and, in coming, find 
 ourselves going to every needy man in this 
 wide world. Whoso comes to Jesus finds 
 thereby the fulfillment of the aspiration to 
 
 “* Live in a house by the side of the road, 
 And be a friend to man.’’ 
 
 50 
 
JESUS THE SOCIALIST 
 
JESUS THE SOCIALIST 
 
 Jesus embodied the spirit of His times. 
 Yet, to that Zeitgeist he not only gave body, 
 but direction, illumination, and purpose, and 
 added thereto much that distinguishes His 
 age and makes it unique. 
 
 He gave voice to the half-articulate so- 
 cial yearnings of all the past generations of 
 the Jewish race. Deep into the subsoil of 
 Hebrew history extend those roots whence 
 sprang that fair flowering and fruitage 
 which we call Jesus the Socialist. We must 
 know Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel in 
 order to understand the attitude which the 
 Prophet of Nazareth assumed toward society. 
 
 Many of the ideals of modern socialism 
 were either partially or wholly realized by 
 ancient Judaism. The disposal in perpetu- 
 ity of natural resources was impossible. 
 The year of jubilee occurring every half cen- 
 
 53 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 tury caused a reversion of all property rights 
 to original sources. The right to property 
 did not inhere in the individual, but in the 
 tribe. Theirs was a collective ownership. 
 A study of ancient Israel’s system of taxa- 
 tion will reveal their conception of property 
 and the relation of the individual thereto. 
 Taxes were levied upon production, not 
 upon consumption; upon income, not upon 
 possessions. They did not make a man pay, 
 by an excise or tariff, for what he ate, drank, 
 or wore; but before he could eat, drink, or 
 wear he must make a definitely specified con- 
 tribution to the common store. The first- 
 fruits were devoted to the commonwealth. 
 The private ownership of their extensive 
 natural resources or their very limited pub- 
 lic utilities was not recognized. About one- 
 third of their time was spent in rest and 
 recreation. Though slavery was sanctioned, 
 perpetual involuntary servitude was not al- 
 lowed, and the bondman, like the freeman, 
 worked but two-thirds of his time. Even the 
 means and media of production, as well as 
 the producers, were given the benefit of the 
 54 
 
JESUS THE SOCIALIST 
 
 Sabbath day, the Sabbath year, the year of 
 jubilee, and the periods of the great feasts. 
 A man’s possessions could not be utilized to 
 increase his possessions except in the way 
 of barter. Interest could not be exacted 
 from a borrower, and even in cases of sale 
 of property it was not a permanent transfer. 
 In the exchange of commodities, in most 
 cases, a man engaged in commercial pursuits 
 received no more from his gains for the time 
 and effort expended than if that time and 
 effort had been applied to agriculture. 
 
 That the products of nature were for the 
 common weal received additional recognition 
 in the provision that compelled a man to re- 
 frain from gleaning where he reaped and to 
 leave parts of the field unreaped. The poor, 
 as in the familiar case of Ruth, were ex- 
 pected to gather the portions thus left. A 
 head of a family was responsible not only 
 for the welfare of his direct issue, but for 
 all collateral branches. Wherefore Israel 
 had no poverty such as is familiar to us. 
 Pauperism and all its attendant evils, moral 
 and physical, was practically unknown. 
 
 50 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 Be it noted, however, that it was an agri- 
 cultural and pastoral life to which these laws 
 were held applicable. Our present indus- 
 trial system is altogether different. Whether 
 these principles could apply now and here, 
 will be debatable for some time to come. 
 
 Israel was always more of a social or- 
 ganization than it was a nation. The suc- 
 cessive captivities and conquests by more 
 powerful peoples which they suffered, and 
 their firm adherence to their peculiar cus- 
 toms and racial principles, made them ever 
 a kind of empire within an empire. Their 
 own national government in the days of 
 their kings seems to have been superim- 
 posed upon the existing social strata of 
 family and tribal relations, rather than to 
 grow out of and be involved by such rela- 
 tions. When that long line of austere moral 
 heroes and patriots whom we know as Is- 
 rael’s prophets saw the steady waning of na- 
 tional strength, they began to depict the pos- 
 sible glories of a perfected society. And 
 this was to be Israel’s mission—the leaven 
 of social righteousness among all mankind. 
 
 56 
 
JESUS THE SOCIALIST 
 
 To change human nature and thereby hu- 
 man customs, and to establish right rela- 
 tions between man and God and between 
 man and man, was to be the task of the 
 chosen race. That the priests and scribes 
 failed to properly interpret the prophetic 
 view is not an occasion for astonishment. 
 Their training would be likely to impose such 
 limitations. 
 
 Jesus caught the prophetic vision. He 
 declared that He came not to destroy the 
 law and the prophets, but to fulfill. And in 
 what large measure does He fulfill! ‘‘Ye 
 have heard that it was said by them of old 
 time’? . . . ‘*But I say unto you’’— Be- 
 tween the high teaching of Jesus and that 
 of other seers lie the clouds and fogs of 
 speculation and error in which confused men 
 grope. 
 
 He enjoins love for enemies, non-resist- 
 ance of evil, generosity to the extortioner, 
 efforts at reconciliation to proceed from the 
 injured. He calls the poor in spirit, the 
 meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, blessed. 
 His golden rule of conduct, ‘‘ All things what- 
 
 o7 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 soever ye would that men should do to you, 
 do ye even so to them,’’ and His doctrine 
 of the Fatherhood of God form the only 
 possible bond of a universal brotherhood, 
 the only possible antidote for all the ills 
 arising from the quarrels of men and na- 
 tions. 
 
 By many He is believed to be an imprac- 
 tical idealist. It is said that the precepts of 
 Jesus can not be applied to modern condi- 
 tions. But let it be observed that Jesus 
 Himself gave evil its deathblow by refusing 
 to resist it. Evil platted for Him a crown 
 of thorns and pressed it down upon His 
 brow; it spat in His face and mocked Him; 
 it nailed Him to a cross. Ever since to 
 Jesus it did its worst, evil has been hanging 
 its head in shame. It put Jesus on the cross, 
 Jesus put it in an everlasting pillory. On 
 that pillory and of that shame evil must die. 
 Hate is not stronger than love. Extortion 
 can not thrive in the atmosphere of gener- 
 osity. ‘‘The pomp of power”’ seems childish 
 and small when brought into contact with 
 meekness, which is the result not of self-con- 
 
 58 
 
JESUS THE SOCIALIST 
 
 tempt but of self-control. Upon a basis of 
 common virtues, and not upon a basis of 
 common interests, does the Socialist of the 
 Nazareth carpenter shop expect to secure 
 the unity of society. By a process of sur- 
 rendering rights, not of demanding them, 
 will He bring all men together. 
 
 Jesus does not array one class of men 
 against another class. He makes no appeal 
 to class consciousness. Though His most 
 forceful invective was hurled at the rich and 
 ruling classes, it was not because they were 
 rich and rulers, but because they were wicked 
 and were satisfied with their riches and their 
 power. It was the state of mind produced 
 by such possessions that aroused His oppo- 
 sition. He would have them feel that in 
 God’s judgment they were neither better nor 
 worse than other men. 
 
 Jesus stands and invites all men, however 
 they may have classified themselves, to for- 
 sake their present attachments, to leave all, 
 and come to a common level in coming to 
 Him. He would unite all men, in the bonds 
 of righteousness, for the common good. Let 
 
 59 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 us center our being in Jesus Christ. So shall 
 we be delivered from evil, social and indi- 
 vidual, by the power that appertains to the 
 kingdom and glory of Our Father who is in 
 Heaven. 
 
 60 
 
: 
 : 
 
 
 

 
JESUS AND MODERN SOCIALISM 
 
 THE aim and purpose of modern social- 
 ism are identical with a part of the aim and 
 purpose of Jesus. Yet the Galilean Prophet 
 intends to do far more for society than so- 
 ciety, following a socialist program, can do 
 for itself. There is also a difference in the 
 methods by which each works for the desired 
 end. Socialism would change the circum- 
 stances and conditions of the individual’s 
 life, expecting the changed environment to 
 react upon his disposition and character. 
 Jesus would change the individual’s disposi- 
 tion and character, expecting that these in 
 turn will work a change in environment. So- 
 cialism centers its activities and hopes in 
 society—the aggregate of all individuals. 
 Jesus centers all human activities and hopes 
 in Himself. Socialism would establish a gov- 
 ernment which concerns itself with the mi- 
 
 63 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 nutest details of a man’s life; a government 
 paternal in its concern for individual wel- 
 fare. So also would Jesus. But Jesus would 
 establish a kingdom with Himself as the 
 wise and good monarch. The subjects of 
 the kingdom of God, which Jesus would set 
 up among men, derive their rights and pow- 
 ers from the King. All things, all beings, 
 belong to the King. The subjects are but 
 stewards, trustees, agents. The rules and 
 regulations under which socialism would op- 
 erate depend upon the sanction of a major- - 
 ity of the citizens. With socialism ‘‘govern- 
 ment derives its just powers from the con- 
 sent of the governed.’’ With Jesus this is 
 true to the extent that His Kingship is an 
 elective one. 
 
 Socialism expects to reach its goal by ar- 
 raying proletariat against patrician, laborer 
 against capitalist, and thus bringing to pass 
 that condition which was formerly the sub- 
 ject of school-day debates; an irresistible 
 force operating against an immovable mass. 
 By developing class consciousness it expects 
 to see the time when the oppressed, realizing 
 
 64 
 
JESUS AND MODERN SOCIALISM 
 
 their power, shall make demands for justice 
 from oppressors, which demands must be 
 granted. Jesus would not merely thwart 
 oppression, but supplant it with generosity. 
 In society Jesus would produce not a merger 
 of interests, but a symphony of affection. 
 He works for social reformation through in- 
 dividual regeneration. 
 
 Let us grant that there is much truth in 
 the contention that environment affects (not 
 to say effects) human character and conduct. 
 Yet there is more truth in the converse prop- 
 osition that environment results from human 
 character and conduct. Why does the pig 
 wallow? Because there is a wallowing place? 
 No; it is a pig’s nature to wallow. So long 
 as he remains a pig he will make himself a 
 mudhole, even though to do so he has to 
 tear up with his nose a flower bed or a mac- 
 adamized highway. Why does a bird fly? 
 Because the upper air, the bright sunshine, 
 the green foliage are the birds’ element. 
 The bird would not wallow, though all North 
 America were a mudhole. You and I, doubt- 
 less, believe that the best and most beauti- 
 
 5 65 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 ful of material conditions that it is possible 
 to have is every man’s right, but we do 
 not believe that every possible possessor 
 of such a right would appreciate it, nor 
 if his right were granted would he appre- 
 ciate the good and beautiful material things 
 that would then be his. Fine feathers may 
 make a pretty bird, but fine clothes, a 
 fine house, a fine motor car do not make a 
 fine man. That is not to say that some pos- 
 sessors of such things are not good men and 
 gentlemen. But neither having them nor 
 failing to have them has any absolute con- 
 trol over what kind of a man one shall be. 
 
 A legislative body enacts a law. Certain 
 evilly disposed men at whom the law is 
 aimed will perhaps not be made better 
 thereby. But, if their power for evil is cur- 
 tailed and their evil example restrained, a 
 better environment may be produced in 
 which a better acting generation can live and 
 move and have its being. It may be ques- 
 tioned whether the individual is made 
 stronger by being forcibly restrained from 
 doing wrong, but it is not a matter of ques- 
 
 66 
 
JESUS AND MODERN SOCIALISM 
 
 tion that the body social is benefited thereby. 
 Though the individual may not be made bet- 
 ter or happier by legislative enactment, so- 
 ciety can be. A statute which by its opera- 
 tion will decrease the amount of poverty, will 
 decrease the amount of sin and crime and 
 physical disease. Poverty causes some of 
 the prostitution, theft, and other crimes and 
 misdemeanors which afflict our civilization. 
 In turn, prostitution causes many diseases 
 which weaken the race. Poverty increases 
 drunkenness by causing the clamorous de- 
 mands of poorly nourished nerves, and, in 
 turn, drunkenness increases poverty. Thrift 
 can not be legislated into a man, but a stat- 
 ute can make it possible for a pauper’s chil- 
 dren to be properly nourished physically 
 and trained mentally so that the second gen- 
 eration may be thriftier than the first, and 
 thus a gradual and growing improvement 
 may be effected. When all of a man’s 
 strength and time are devoted to the mere 
 maintenance of physical life, art and re- 
 ligion and all things which appeal to his 
 higher nature must be ignored. Jesus Christ 
 67 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 will have a better chance to do His work 
 among men when there is less poverty. 
 With their material possessions men are 
 often satisfied. The rich fool who intended 
 to take his ease because he had much goods 
 laid by for many years is not an uncommon 
 character. It would be just as hard for 
 Jesus to reach Harry K. Thaw as it would 
 for Him to reach the unknown and name- 
 less prostitute victim of the sweatshop. 
 Neither the satisfied nor the hopeless can 
 hear the gentle wooings of religion. Jesus 
 Christ will have a better chance to do His 
 work among men when there is less riches. 
 Wise Agur prayed, ‘‘Give me neither 
 poverty nor riches.’’ To this the socialist 
 and the Christian would both say ‘‘ Amen.’’ 
 But it is one thing to have a goal, and an- 
 other thing to reach it. Though the Chris- 
 tian and the socialist set before them the 
 same goal so far as this earth is concerned, 
 they are striving in different ways to reach 
 it. The socialist would attain his desires by 
 having one class make certain demands of 
 and wrest certain concessions from another 
 
 68 
 
JESUS AND MODERN SOCIALISM 
 
 class. The Christian, following Jesus, would 
 realize society’s highest good, not by hav- 
 ing one class of men demand rights, but by 
 having all men surrender all rights. ‘‘To 
 leave all and follow Him”’’ is the familiar 
 formula of the Jesus’ method of solving so- 
 ciety’s problems and adjusting the wrong 
 relations of men. 
 
 Two words bulk large in any such dis- 
 cussion as this: competition and co-opera- 
 tion. Ever since men came out of the for- 
 ests and began to dwell in the shepherd’s 
 tents, co-operation has been a term of grow- 
 ing importance. Far be it from me to say 
 that competition has not done much to de- 
 velop the individual. Competition has been 
 the whetstone of courage, toil, and shrewd 
 foresight. The struggle for existence has 
 been a merciless one, but sometimes the 
 hugely strong have attained to a position 
 where they could show mercy and be a tower 
 of refuge for many of the weak. Competi- 
 tion seems to be the order of nature, and 
 the evolution of the race seems to have pro- 
 ceeded upon that basis. Co-operation, how- 
 
 69 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 ever, received a renewed impetus, a larger 
 meaning, and a new direction with the com- 
 ing of Jesus. There are some thoughts about 
 God which Jesus gave us, and which even yet 
 we but dimly apprehend. He told men that 
 God is a loving Father, upon whom rests 
 responsibility for the welfare of His chil- 
 dren; that God is a tireless toiler, and that 
 He invites all men to join His great labor 
 union and become co-workers with Him. In 
 the scheme of co-operation set forth by the 
 Nazarene Carpenter, God is the Master Me- 
 chanic, the Head Workman, and all men fel- 
 low laborers. Instead of having as the mo- 
 tive for effort the common good, about 
 which men might disagree, Jesus gives the 
 incentive of working for the glory of God. 
 All sons of God are to be united in a com- 
 mon desire to promote their Father’s glory. 
 The bond of unity is to be the love of God. 
 On such a basis the old objection to the prin- 
 ciple of co-operation, which declares that 
 competition is the only thing furnishing an 
 adequate incentive to endeavor, is obviated, 
 for when the spur of necessity, which compe- 
 70 
 
JESUS AND MODERN SOCIALISM 
 
 tition applies to men, has been removed, we 
 still have under the Christian thought of all 
 working for the glory of One the tonic of 
 emulation, by which men will provoke one 
 another to good works. Through Jesus of 
 Nazareth, a child’s desire to please his Fa- 
 ther is to supplant the brute’s desire for a 
 full stomach. By seeking first the kingdom 
 of God and the righteousness of God, all ma- 
 terial requirements such a seeker may have 
 will be added. 
 
 This address has been so full of defini- 
 tions and, because of the limits of time, so 
 condensed, that I shall now depart from my 
 usual custom and give a summary of all 
 that has been said. 
 
 1. We declare that the aims of the dis- 
 ciple of Karl Marx and those of the dis- 
 ciple of Jesus Christ are in many respects 
 identical. The Christian, however, aims to 
 accomplish more things than does the social- 
 ist, and if the socialist were to wake up in 
 the morning and find all his work done, the 
 Christian would wake up to multitudinous 
 days of toil. For Jesus must not merely 
 
 fe! 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 reform human laws and customs, but trans- 
 form human lives. 
 
 2. We declare that, though there is sim- 
 ilarity of aim, there is difference in method 
 of work between the Christian and the so- 
 cialist. The government which the Chris- 
 tian would set up among men and that of 
 the socialist’s ideal are alike in having un- 
 limited extent. In either case there would 
 be government control of everything. But 
 in form the two governments are different, 
 for, whereas the socialist wants a pure de- 
 mocracy, the Christian desires an absolute 
 monarchy. The center of the socialist sys- 
 tem is society; the center of the Christian 
 system is Jesus, the Son of God. Under the 
 socialist system all work together for the 
 common good; under the Christian system 
 all work together for the Divine Glory, and 
 the common good is realized as an indirect 
 result. : 
 
 I think, my friends, whether we be Chris- 
 tian or socialist, or Christian socialist, or 
 something else, that we can all stand to- 
 gether on a common platform of prayer, say- 
 
 72 
 
JESUS AND MODERN SOCIALISM 
 
 ing, God hasten the time when all that sep- 
 arates man from man shall be removed, and 
 each man shall treat every other man as a 
 brother beloved. 
 
 73 
 

 

 
JESUS THE CITIZEN 
 
 To say that Jesus was a citizen of two 
 worlds is to state an obvious truism. To 
 say that He was a citizen of two nations at 
 one and the same time may not be such a 
 commonplace statement. To Rome Jesus 
 quietly and uncomplainingly submitted; but 
 to Israel He gave a patriot’s devotion. De- 
 siring to see Him as a citizen, we must look 
 upon Him in His relation to Rome as well 
 as to Israel, and endeavor to determine how 
 far His earthly citizenship was qualified by 
 His allegiance to heavenly and eternal poli- 
 cies. Perhaps our study may lead us to con- 
 clusions as to what would be His conduct in 
 regard to our government were He now in 
 the flesh and dwelling among us. 
 
 We have referred to the Man of Galilee 
 as Jesus, the Democrat; Jesus, the Socialist; 
 King Jesus; and we have called Him a Re- 
 former. In a directly political sense, how- 
 
 77 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 ever, He was none of these. His dealings 
 were and are with society rather than with 
 the nation; with the governed rather than 
 with the government. Jesus among revolu- 
 tionists is chief; yet no teachings are better 
 for the purpose of creating a spirit of non- 
 resistance to oppression than are His. When 
 we come to study Jesus in regard to politics 
 we are puzzled by irreconcilable contradic- 
 tions. We say he rendered to Israel a pa- 
 triot’s devotion, and that to Cesar He was 
 disposed to render the things which are 
 Cesar’s, yet the new wine of His principles 
 burst the old wine skins of Israelitish polity, 
 and before His onward march Cesarism fled 
 into a night as black as the deeds of Nero 
 or Caligula. He paid taxes, by which He 
 recognized the authority of human govern- 
 ments; but He did not use the occasion of 
 His doing so as an opportunity for giving 
 forth any teaching on the subject. He both 
 opposed and favored war. He opposed wars 
 which are for a nation’s selfish aggrandize- 
 ment. He favored wars when righteousness , 
 is compelled to resort to bloodshed against 
 78 
 
JESUS THE CITIZEN 
 
 evil. But this judgment concerning the atti- 
 tude of Jesus in regard to war is not derived 
 from any specific utterances, but from a con- 
 sideration of the spirit which dominates all 
 of His teachings. This paradoxical Prophet 
 not only refused to adopt the course later fol- 
 lowed by Mahomet and carve out for Himself 
 with the sword an empire of earthly power, 
 but He even refused to take up the sword in 
 self-defense against the ‘‘ Prince of this world 
 and the powers of darkness.’’ ‘‘I came not 
 to bring peace, but a sword,’’ He declared, 
 and yet to Peter He rebukingly says, ‘‘Put 
 up thy sword.’’ 
 
 Let us distinguish between the terms 
 ‘state’? and ‘‘government.’’ <A _ state is 
 composed of the whole body of people living 
 under one form of government. A govern- 
 ment is any system of control exercised over 
 a state. A man interested in government 
 may be a political economist. A man inter- 
 ested in any one particular government may 
 be a politician. A man interested in a 
 . state may be a patriot. Jesus was a pa- 
 triot without being either a political econo- 
 
 79 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 mist or a politician. A lover of a nation, 
 that is, a patriot, may be very greatly op- 
 posed to that nation’s government. It is 
 conceivable, for instance, that some demo- 
 crats, some socialists, and some prohibition- 
 ists, while opposed to our country’s present 
 government, may yet be as patriotic, as sin- 
 cere lovers of their country as some repub- 
 licans who are not opposed to the present 
 government. So Jesus might have violently 
 opposed both the Roman rule and that of 
 the Jewish priesthood, and the very violence 
 of His opposition to the government would 
 simply have attested the depths of His pa- 
 triotism. He did not, however, manifest such 
 opposition. Indeed, so persistently silent 
 was Jesus on all governmental questions that 
 it is from His silence we must judge of His 
 opinions. Were He in America to-day, and 
 walking up and down our hills and plains do- 
 ing good, He would doubtless in general 
 maintain a strict silence in regard to our cor- 
 rupt municipal governments, our political 
 bosses, our blind adherence to party, and all 
 other undesirable political practices and cus- 
 80 
 
JESUS THE CITIZEN 
 
 toms. It does not follow, however, that His 
 disciples should maintain silence in regard to 
 these things. In fact, part of the mission of 
 Jesus would be a failure if they did. He came 
 to inspire others to do good. His spirit is the 
 motive power of all good deeds. The spirit 
 which violently cleansed the temple of graft- 
 ers, operating in His followers, will cause 
 them to cleanse the courthouse, the city hall, 
 and the capitol. 
 
 In discussing this subject it is well for 
 us to again seek the center of Christ’s radi- 
 ating activities. His work of reform is from 
 within outward. A corrupt government is 
 the product of a corrupt state. A state is 
 an aggregation of individuals. Jesus will 
 eradicate the evils of government by mak- 
 ing righteousness desirable in the eyes of a 
 majority of the men composing the state. 
 He will make a new earth by making new 
 men. 
 
 The followers of the Nazarene, here in 
 America, will continue to pay taxes, both di- 
 rect and indirect, levied by a government 
 which some of them may not approve, for 
 
 6 81 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 so did their Master. Should war arise, they 
 will remember that it is not merely the gov- 
 ernment which is threatened, but the state. 
 Many of those composing the state are the 
 constituents of Christ’s kingdom also. 
 There are righteous wars, such as the war 
 this nation waged against the rebellious 
 South. The abolition of slavery was well 
 pleasing in the eyes of God. A good Chris- 
 tian, therefore, being possessed of the spirit 
 of Jesus, will contribute of his substance to 
 the support of earthly government, and will 
 take up arms in defense of such government. 
 
 Following Jesus, a man does not become 
 a lawbreaker. The Ten Commandments are 
 still in force, and being so, those who recog- 
 nize their force are thereby better citizens 
 of any state, better subjects of any govern- 
 ment. The constabulary of no country ever 
 has trouble with true Christians. As much 
 as lieth in them, they live peaceably with 
 all men. Like their Master, they have a 
 certain poise and steadfastness amid things 
 irritating and irksome, which is due to citi- 
 zenship in two worlds. Many vexatious cir- 
 
 82 
 
JESUS THE CITIZEN 
 
 cumstances become small and unworthy of 
 notice to the man who has been enlarged to 
 match eternity. Such a man can possess his 
 soul in patience amid things which are but 
 for a day. It is Christian citizens, men 
 who have in them the energies of eternity, 
 the dynamics of God, who have made Europe 
 and America. It is Buddhistic, Confucian- 
 istic, Mohammedan citizens, men whose lives 
 are circumscribed by flesh, who have made 
 Asia. As between Citizen Jesus and Citizen 
 Confucius, judge ye. Do you not think it 
 well to live the Jesus way under earthly 
 governments, and when earthly governments 
 shall have passed away, go to larger living 
 in the Larger Land? 
 
 83 
 

 
JESUS THE CONSERVATIVE 
 RADICAL 
 

 
JESUS THE CONSERVATIVE 
 RADICAL 
 
 To-pay we turn again to the Hebrew 
 prophets, that long line of heroic heretics. 
 They were men who dared to defy the con- 
 ventional and the traditional. They gave 
 heed to precedent only when precedent 
 squared with what their God-guided con- 
 sciences declared to be right. To the priests 
 of their own day the prophets were danger- 
 ously heterodox. To the practical mind of 
 their day these prophets did not appear to 
 ‘be ‘‘safe and sane.’? What limitations the 
 ‘‘practical mind’’ has! How it clings to its 
 rules of thumb! Does not such a mind have 
 a sure recipe for doing things? To the let- 
 ter of the recipe it holds unyieldingly. The 
 way it does things is ‘‘best by test.’ The 
 spirit kills such a mind by overworking it. 
 The letter keeps it alive by putting no tax 
 on its weakness. The practical mind always 
 
 87 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 belongs to the formalist. Rites and ceremo- 
 nies are its religious expression. It is easier 
 to follow a form than to follow conscience. 
 
 Religion is conservative. Its priests op- 
 pose progress. Every great advance that 
 the world has made has been marked by con- 
 troversies between the prophets and the 
 priests. The officers of the Church have 
 bound prophets to stakes or nailed them to 
 crosses, and thought they did God service 
 by destroying heretics. A century passes. 
 A new generation of prophets and priests 
 has come upon the stage of action. The new 
 generation of priests are walking in the light 
 given them by the prophets of a hundred 
 years before. These priests with one hand 
 are building monuments to the prophets of 
 yesterday, and with the other are hurling 
 stones at to-day’s prophets. Their fathers 
 persecuted the seers of their own day, and 
 now they but prove themselves, as Jesus de- 
 clared, to be children of their fathers by do- 
 ing the same kind of deeds and walking, as 
 did their fathers, in the narrow circle of light 
 given forth by a setting sun. To this let the 
 
 88 
 
JESUS, CONSERVATIVE RADICAL 
 
 Maid of Orleans, let Michael Servetus, let 
 Bishop Hooper, and many another, whose 
 names are in the books of history, attest. 
 Do not the monuments of such heretics stand 
 broad and high, and is not a departure from 
 their teachings now deemed heresy? 
 
 Jesus was of the prophets, yet above 
 them. Though we call Him a prophet, we 
 also call Him a conservative. He conserved 
 the spirit of all the prophets, that expand- 
 ing spirit of liberty. He was the destroyer 
 of traditionalism and the upbuilder of 
 thought. He put Himself alongside of Eli- 
 jah, Elisha, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Amos, 
 and all of those illustrious seers whose words 
 make Israel a potency even in this twentieth 
 century. He came, said He, not to destroy, 
 but to fulfill the prophecies. The spirit of 
 the prophets is the spirit of growth, and 
 Jesus gave rapidity to such growth. Proph- 
 ecy might be called a growing tree on which, 
 in the atmosphere of ritualism, certain suck- 
 ers of priestly tradition began to grow. 
 Jesus pruned the tree, cut away the things 
 which were sapping its strength, and even 
 
 89 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 transplanted the tree. The pruned and 
 transplanted tree, growing so near the 
 ‘‘river of the waters of life,’? may well be 
 called by the name of Him who, in preserv- 
 ing it, made such far-reaching changes in its 
 condition and environment. 
 
 There are two things which remain with- 
 out change; yea, three things which pre- 
 serve their identity: a stagnant pool, a river, 
 and a stone. The pool of formalism is in- 
 fectious. Its malarial germs produce spir- 
 itual inertia. Drain it. The stone of yes- 
 terday’s crystallized thought is without life. 
 It is a stone of stumbling and a rock of of- 
 fense while it remains in its present posi- 
 tion. Remove it to an honorable corner in 
 yonder foundation. The river of living 
 prophecy, of progressive thought, moves 
 swiftly to the irrigating of the desert, carry- 
 ing the freighted argosies of a world’s prod- 
 ucts. Flood the river and swell its tide. 
 The conservatism of Jesus was not that of 
 the stone or stagnant pool, but of the on- 
 flowing waters. He preserves with stead- 
 fastness the direction of His thought, and 
 
 90 
 
JESUS, CONSERVATIVE RADICAL 
 
 that direction is ever toward an ocean of in- 
 finite truth. 
 
 The radical is sometimes the most con- 
 servative man dealing with a question at is- 
 sue. It depends upon the motive which 
 sends a man to the root of things, whether 
 he lays the ax thereto for the sake of de- 
 stroying or for the sake of removing dis- 
 ease and defect. He who says, ‘‘Let well 
 enough alone’’ is often a dangerous man, 
 far more dangerous than the rough and 
 ready idol smasher. Jesus was a social con- 
 servator in the same sense that a tumor- 
 removing surgeon is a vital conservator. To 
 him who beholds the swift-cutting knife the 
 process looks like utter annihilation. Jesus 
 may as truthfully be called ‘‘the Destroyer’’ 
 as ‘‘the Savior.’?’ He destroys the evil in 
 order to save the good. 
 
 Says the priest: ‘‘Jehovah requires a 
 sacrifice of a lamb upon His altar. Do this, 
 and thy sin is taken away.’’ Says the 
 prophet: ‘‘What doth the Lord require of 
 thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and 
 to walk humbly with thy God?’’ This is not 
 
 91 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 to say that the priest does not properly hear 
 the Word of the Lord, but he fails to give it 
 a broad and spiritual interpretation. The 
 great High Priest of Christianity stands with 
 the prophets. No industrial system which 
 fosters injustice, cruelty, and pride can have 
 the approval of Jesus. No sums of money, 
 however large, contributed as a_ sacrifice 
 upon God’s altars, can expiate the sin of in- 
 justice. Neither a hundred dollars nor a 
 hundred thousand dollars given to carry 
 ‘‘Glad Tidings’’ across the sea can atone for 
 tidings of woe which shrewd and ruthless 
 business practice have brought to business 
 competitors. Perhaps under our present in- 
 dustrial conditions ‘‘it must needs be that 
 offenses come, but woe unto that man by 
 whom the offense cometh.’’ 
 
 Says the priest: ‘‘Thou shalt love the 
 Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou 
 serve.’’ Says the Galilean Prophet: ‘‘In- 
 asmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
 least of these, My brethren, ye have done 
 it unto Me.’’ Jesus identifies Himself with 
 the blind, the halt, the weak; with little chil- 
 
 92 
 
JESUS, CONSERVATIVE RADICAL 
 
 dren (what a tender Shepherd the lambs do 
 have!) with women, even outcast women; 
 with the poor, and with sinners. He serves 
 God best who best serves his fellow-men. 
 Yea, the tender pity of our Lord goes out 
 to all helpless creatures. 
 
 “* He prayeth well who loveth well, 
 Both man and bird and beast, 
 He prayeth best who loveth best, 
 All things both great and small, 
 For the dear God who loveth us, 
 He made and loveth all.’’ 
 
 Men, I bid you come to the standard set 
 up by Jesus. Enlist under the banner of 
 the Great Prophet, and let us go with Him 
 to make a loving and a laughing world. 
 
 93 
 

 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 

 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 THE nineteenth century, with its science 
 and inventions, reduced this earth to its low- 
 est terms. Our forebears lived on a vast 
 planet; we dwell in a pent-up Utica. Steam 
 reduced the world to a small neighborhood, 
 and electricity converted the neighborhood 
 into a whispering gallery. Walls have ears, 
 and if your walls have not an ear, the tele- 
 phone solicitor will weary you with his im- 
 portunities. The past and the present with 
 one metallic voice would speak to you; does 
 not the far-flung advertisement assure us 
 that ‘‘Mr. Edison would like to szz a grapho- 
 phone in every home?’’ Well, if the manu- 
 facturers will keep up their advertising, Mr. 
 Edison will do his part by inventing an in- 
 strument by which he can see into all the 
 homes of this homogeneous planet. Then 
 woe to you, if the salesman looks into your 
 home from afar, and does not see there the 
 
 article he sells. 
 7 97 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 Mutual dependence has increased, and the 
 force of St. Paul’s declaration, that ‘‘ None 
 of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to 
 himself’’ is stronger to-day than ever before. 
 There is but little ground left on which ‘‘per- 
 sonal liberty’’ can stand. Some day there 
 may be social, political, and industrial free- 
 dom—we do not have such freedom now— 
 but Whitney and Fulton, Howe and Morse, 
 Watts and Stevenson have made it evermore 
 impossible to enjoy personal freedom. The 
 marching multitudes of our race touch el- 
 bows all along the line. 
 
 Professor Graham Taylor, of the Uni- 
 versity of Chicago, in a lecture on the Mer- 
 rick foundation at Ohio Wesleyan Univer- 
 sity, which lecture is published in a volume 
 called ‘‘The Social Application of Religion,’’ 
 referred to the development of modern in- 
 dustry as follows: ‘‘The nineteenth century 
 was ushered into history by the whir of 
 the power-loom, which had then just fairly 
 got to work. When the hand-loom ceased to 
 beat the measured tread of all the centuries 
 gone by, and the power-loom began to set 
 
 98 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 the pace of modern life, then medievalism 
 ended and times altogether new began. So 
 much more rapid and radical than any other 
 change through which civilization has ever 
 passed was the transformation wrought by 
 the introduction of machinery, the concen- 
 tration of capital, the establishment of the 
 competitive order, and the subdivision and 
 organization of labor, that the appearance 
 of these new factors among men is recog- 
 nized as ‘the industrial revolution.’ More 
 than anything else which had yet been intro- 
 duced into the world, they began to weave 
 human life itself, not only into a new pat- 
 tern but into a new texture. In less than 
 thirty years the new machinery virtually rev- 
 ‘ olutionized the world’s life and began to 
 change the very face of the earth.’’ 
 
 The familiar illustration of enumerating 
 the persons who provided the breakfast 
 which a certain man ate, serves to show the 
 complexity and interdependence of modern 
 life. The little dish of breakfast food (by 
 ‘‘Horce’’ we youngers obtain a good report) 
 was rolled, boiled, baked, sweetened, and di- 
 
 99 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 gested by say fifty different Battle Creekers. 
 Before it reached the Michigan state line it 
 had been in various hands: the Iowa farmer, 
 the Illinois freight brakeman, the Chicago 
 elevator man, and others ‘‘too numerous to 
 mention.’’ In leaving Battle Creek and ar- 
 riving on the breakfast table, that portion of 
 the repast has gone through the hands of a 
 score of other men. Thinking of the wan- 
 derings of this one article has deprived the 
 eater of his appetite, so he now proceeds to 
 read the morning paper. The cotton grew 
 in Georgia; it was made into cloth in Eng- 
 land; it was worn in Italy by a man who 
 immigrated to America; a New Jersey junk 
 man bought the ragged cotton garment; an 
 Ohio paper mill made it into a sheet of pa- 
 per which carried to a Chicago press part 
 of the world’s record. The ends of the 
 earth and its center also are brought to- 
 gether in serving both body and brain of 
 the man who eats breakfast. 
 
 The industrial world disregards national 
 boundary lines. The United States Govern- 
 ment may require that ‘‘Made in Germany,”’ 
 
 100 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 ‘‘Made in England,’’ ete., be plainly in- 
 scribed on all imported goods, but this does 
 not prevent such importation. Chicago and 
 Canton, Paris and Peking, London and Cal- 
 cutta, all seek the same world market. The 
 highly paid American workman (who pays 
 dearly for what he consumes) comes into 
 competition in the markets with the poorly 
 paid, cheaply living workman of India or 
 China. Upon the willingness of men in 
 South Carolina to work depends the chance 
 to labor of men in Massachusetts and Eng- 
 land, for spindles cease to go if cotton does 
 not grow. The Economic Empire, composed 
 of various kingdoms of industry, extends as 
 far as Morse and Field and Marconi can 
 . Carry an expression of desire. 
 
 As the world has become smaller, men 
 have grown larger. Steam and electricity 
 have made the world provincial and its 
 inhabitants cosmopolitan. With the possible 
 exception of the citizens of New York City, 
 men generally recognize that each part of 
 the earth contains charm and excellence. 
 The sentimental appeal of home is not less 
 
 101 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 to-day than it was a hundred years ago, but 
 home is a larger place than it was then. 
 Loyalty to the realms of industry and re- 
 ligion is increasing, while the old-time pa- 
 triotism is decreasing. By this is meant the 
 jingoism and spread-eagleism of the former 
 Fourth of July oration. ‘‘My country, right 
 or wrong,’’ is a sentiment which does not 
 get the applause it once did. Patriotism 
 must have a new definition to meet the ex- 
 panding requirements of this fermenting era. 
 
 There is food for reflection in the effort 
 to determine how far Christianity is respon- 
 sible for the present industrially broaden- 
 ing horizons. That the expansion occurs 
 only within the limits of Christendom with 
 the single exception of imitative Japan, is 
 certainly to be regarded as prima facie evi- 
 dence of the Christian faith having produced 
 our present economic expansion. A rebut- 
 tal might be offered to the effect that our 
 civilization is more the offspring of Greece 
 and Rome than of Judea. However, we may 
 observe that neither Greece nor Rome ever 
 saw anything like the proletarian progress 
 
 102 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 of these times. All that the proletariat rec- 
 ognizes as inimical in our industrial condi- 
 tions may be justly ascribed to Greece and 
 ‘Rome. The system of competition was the 
 spur which drove those ancient pagan civili- 
 zations to their highest attainments. Against 
 the pagan law of competition both Christian- 
 ity and enlightened social interest are set. 
 Those pagan civilizations never overthrew 
 human slavery. Even in Christian lands hu- 
 man slavery has never been overthrown on 
 moral grounds alone. But it is at least sig- 
 nificant that where Christianity is virile and 
 vigorous the economic grounds have always 
 been produced and added to the moral 
 grounds for the overthrow of slavery. Out- 
 side of Christendom, now, there is but little 
 social unrest. There was no social unrest in 
 Greece or Rome such as we know. 
 
 What fruit may be produced from such 
 great seed thoughts as are involved in Chris- 
 tian theism and anthropology we can not 
 fully determine. It may seem to some like 
 too comprehensive a generalization to make 
 human brotherhood and industrial and po- 
 
 103 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 litical freedom corollaries of the doctrine of 
 the Fatherhood of God, but it seems to me 
 that history supports the belief that not un- 
 til God’s Fatherhood was declared did men 
 come to exalt the man of low degree. Pagan 
 thought never coupled power and responsi- 
 bility. Christians ascribe all power to their 
 God and make His responsibility commen- 
 surate with His might. Great power may 
 not be used capriciously, selfishly. How be- 
 neficent such a thought is, how far-reaching 
 its applications, I have not the time or the 
 ability to show, but that it has both exalted 
 the humble and humbled the exalted there 
 can be no doubt. That thought is essentially 
 Christian. 
 
 The missionary precedes the manufac- 
 turer and the merchant. After the Christian 
 missionary has blazed the path, the indus- 
 trial hosts of Christendom have followed. 
 We gave the Fijians the gospel, and now we 
 sell them our goods. The missionary is the 
 map changer, the boundary remover, the 
 space annihilator. He makes neighbors of 
 those who were aforetime greatly removed 
 
 104 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 one from the other. It seems a pity that 
 along the highways upthrown by the path- 
 finders of religion should go the minions 
 of Christendom’s purveyors of vice, but this 
 is inevitable. Together with our material 
 good we send our material ill in the wake of 
 our spiritual best. Christianity, by the very 
 force of its own expansion, has pushed out 
 the borders of the modern Economic Empire. 
 The solidarity of the race is becoming more 
 and more manifest. Every new invention, 
 every new application of mechanical princi- 
 ples pushes men together. In these days we 
 hear more of the ‘‘ Anglo-Saxon race’’ than 
 we do of the ‘‘American’’ or ‘‘English- 
 man.’’ ‘‘Teutonic Peoples’? is more famil- 
 iar to our tongue than ‘‘German’’ or 
 ‘‘Swede.’? We say of the subjects of sev- 
 eral rulers, who speak different languages, 
 ‘‘they are Slavs.’’ Thus we are coming to 
 racial groupings rather than national, and 
 are hastening toward a full recognition of 
 St. Paul’s statement, ‘‘God hath made of 
 one blood all the nations of men.’’ That 
 which we call the ‘‘industrial revolution,’’ 
 105 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 together with the persistent and aggressive 
 Christian propaganda of these days, is bring- 
 ing about a condition of world relationship 
 that is most desirable. Political geography 
 will soon have little significance for the citi- 
 ens of the republic of tools and for the sub- 
 jects of the kingdom of God. 
 
 The industrial revolution has brought to 
 the surface of thought many new and per- 
 plexing problems. Chief among these new 
 problems is the one arising from the inalien- 
 able right to work. That every man has not 
 only the puty but the ricur to produce 
 enough to sustain himself and family, is a 
 very modern dictum. In former times it was 
 thought sufficient to speak against vagrancy 
 and shiftlessness by enforcing the purty of 
 labor. We have Biblical warrant for saying 
 with our fathers that the man who does not 
 toil is a wrongdoer. Under our present in- 
 dustrial system many a man is foreed into 
 the immoral condition of idleness. The dif- 
 ference between the slave who had to beg 
 his master to give him a day of idleness and 
 the man whom candidates for office refer to 
 
 106 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 as a ‘‘free American elector,’’ who has to 
 beg for a chance to work for a day, is all in 
 favor of the slave. The problem presented 
 by the unemployed is a serious one. The 
 problem which is stated when we use the 
 term ‘‘over-production’’ is another which 
 presses for solution. In fact, upon the set- 
 tlement of this problem depends largely the 
 solution of the problem of the unemployed. 
 Let me ask a simple question: Why should 
 a panic result from over-production? If 
 production did not equal consumption we 
 can see how the fear of impending suffering 
 and starvation might produce a panic, but 
 when production exceeds consumption, why 
 a panic? What kind of an abnormal condi- 
 tion of society is it that will cause men to 
 expect a panic as the result of industry and 
 the favor of nature? ‘‘A’’ is a producer 
 and a consumer. He produces 150 and con- 
 sumes 100; result, starvation. This is a re- 
 versal of Micawber’s familiar formula: ‘‘In- 
 come, twenty pounds; expenditures, nine- 
 teen six; result, happiness.”’ 
 
 Yet, when civilization has known seven 
 
 107 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 fat years and has been so frugal that all 
 store-rooms overflow, then must come the 
 lean years, and men and women and little 
 children lack bread while surrounded by 
 overflowing granaries. If John Doe, a 
 farmer, produces this year enough corn to do 
 him two years, it is reasonable to expect that 
 next year he will raise no corn, but not rea- 
 sonable to expect that he will consume no 
 corn. If Richard Roe and ten million other 
 Richard Roes produce this year of all con- 
 sumable articles enough to supply mankind 
 for two years, it is reasonable to suppose 
 that the ten million and one Richard Roes 
 will not produce their articles next year, but 
 it is not reasonable to suppose that they will 
 not consume any next year. Yet when the 
 workingman has produced a surplus, he is 
 stopped from working and, not having re- 
 ceived a just share of the mutual proceeds 
 of mutual toil, he suffers and lacks proper 
 sustenance until, on half rations, he reduces 
 his own over-production. Such an industrial 
 condition is an offense to both man and God. 
 
 It is only the shiftless, the improvident, 
 
 —:108 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 the intemperate who suffer want when out 
 of work. Who says so? Only an ignorant 
 theorizer would make that kind of an asser- 
 tion. It is true that by far the greater por- 
 tion of poverty is caused by improvidence 
 and intemperance, but many a man of pru- 
 dence and self-restraint has found himself 
 without resource when he lost his job. It is 
 true that many a man preys upon himself. 
 His own vicious habits account for much of 
 his material wretchedness, but society is so 
 organized that stronger men also prey upon 
 him. Not only should it be impossible for 
 the weak to be victimized by the strong, but 
 also it ought to be impossible for a man to 
 prey upon himself to any considerable ex- 
 tent. It should be society’s business to 
 protect the individual from dangers that 
 threaten him, (a) from his progenitors in 
 the way of transmitted weakness; (b) from 
 his contemporaries in the way of incitements 
 to a kind of life which he can not maintain 
 and from oppressive competition; and (c) 
 from himself in the way of succumbing to 
 the insatiate demands of poorly nourished 
 
 109 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 or overworked nerves. Where individual 
 strength is insufficient for life’s grim strug- 
 gle it should be supplanted by the collective 
 strength of society. This is a Christian sen- 
 timent. 
 
 ‘By way of introduction to a considera- 
 tion of certain undesirable phases of our 
 economic life, let us define the term ‘‘ Amer- 
 ica.’?’ By America, when we use the term in 
 ordinary speech, we mean the collective life 
 of some eighty-five million people, their la- 
 bors, their loves, their laughter, their tears 
 and terrors, their hopes, their ideals. We 
 mean cities and villages and rural solitudes. 
 We mean New York and Chicago, Sleepy 
 Hollow and Smith’s Cross Roads. We mean 
 mines and mills, schoolhouses and churches, 
 newspapers and theaters. In thinking of 
 America one does not often think of the Con- 
 stitution, of Congress, of the Supreme Court, 
 or of the Executive. Our government is not 
 our country. The country is greater than the 
 government, the gentleman from Danville, 
 Illinois, to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 Since the American Revolution of 1776 the 
 
 110 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 industrial revolution has changed the condi- 
 tions of society, of human intercourse. Why 
 should the grave-clothes that cover the fa- 
 thers of the republic be used to bind the 
 strong limbs of the young Western giant we 
 call America? The spirit of the fathers lives 
 and quickens; the letter of their deeds and 
 thoughts is dead and kills. That spirit which 
 caused them to struggle at Lexington and 
 Yorktown for political freedom and their 
 conviction of human equality will cause us 
 of this new age to struggle on fierce though 
 bloodless battlefields for industrial freedom 
 and our own ever-growing conviction of race 
 solidarity. We shall not be bound by the 
 letter of inapplicable laws and customs. Pa- 
 triotism is the maker, and not the follower, 
 of precedents. The iconoclastic hands of 
 Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, 
 and Hamilton gave room for growth to the 
 tree of liberty. Shall we destroy their work 
 by binding that same tree with their lim- 
 itations and confining it to the soil they 
 cleared? No; we will advance upon the new 
 territory which opens invitingly before us, 
 
 111 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 transplant the tree in larger areas, and thus 
 prove ourselves worthy sons of worthy sires. 
 The work which we must do in order to 
 accomplish industrial freedom is outlined to 
 some extent in the following quotation from 
 Robert Hunter’s ‘‘Poverty:’’ 
 
 ‘‘T have elsewhere mentioned some re- 
 forms which seem to me preventive in their 
 nature. They contemplate mainly such leg- 
 islative action as may enforce upon the en- 
 tire country certain minimum standards of 
 working and of living conditions. They 
 would make all tenements and factories san- 
 itary; they would regulate the hours of 
 work, especially for women and children; 
 they would regulate and thoroughly super- 
 vise dangerous trades; they would insti- 
 tute all necessary measures to stamp out 
 unnecessary disease and to prevent unnec- 
 essary death; they would institute all neces- 
 sary educational and recreational institu- 
 tions to replace the social and educational 
 losses of the home and the domestic work- 
 shop; they would perfect, as far as possible, 
 legislation and institutions to make industry 
 
 112 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE ~ 
 
 pay the necessary and legitimate cost of pro- 
 ducing and maintaining efficient laborers; 
 they would institute, on the lines of foreign 
 experience, measures to compensate labor for 
 enforced seasons of idleness, due to sickness, 
 old age, lack of work, or other causes be- 
 yond the control of the workman; they would 
 prevent parasitism on the part of either the 
 consumer or the producer and charge up the 
 full costs of labor in production to the bene- 
 ficiary, instead of compelling the worker at 
 certain times to enforce this demand for 
 maintenance through the tax rate and by be- 
 coming a pauper; they would restrict the 
 power of employer and of ship-owner to stim- 
 ulate for purely selfish ends an excessive im- 
 migration, and in this way to beat down 
 wages and to increase unemployment.’’ 
 
 If any may say that he who proposes such 
 changes is a violator of the letter and spirit 
 of the Constitution, let him note that this 
 spirit of democracy is already openly flouted 
 by those who exploit our public resources 
 for private gain. Class distinctions have 
 been produced in our America, now mis- 
 
 8 113 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 takenly called ‘‘The Land of the Free.’’ This 
 is no longer a land of equal privilege. What 
 chance has a man of thirty with only mental 
 and physical equipment, however great may 
 be his strength of body and brain, when pit- 
 ted in the struggle for existence with the 
 multi-millionaire controller of a portion of 
 nature’s resources? Through the ‘‘still lapse 
 of ages’’ the sun toiled to produce and 
 store within the bosom of the earth a erys- 
 tallized form of its own energy, which we 
 call coal. He who controls a portion of the 
 world’s coal deposits has made a servant of 
 that immeasurable strength which was held 
 in leash by the hand of the Almighty and 
 intended for common use. No wonder cer- 
 tain coal barons have come to look upon 
 themselves as divinely selected agents and 
 media for wielding and transmitting Divine 
 power. What chance has mere brawn and 
 brain in the struggle against the released 
 universal potencies of the Carboniferous 
 age? When the earth sweats fat from all 
 her pores for the enrichment of but a few 
 oil men, what chance has an ordinarily 
 114 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 equipped man? This is not a land of equal 
 opportunity for all. 
 
 We have turned over the exclusive right 
 to the control of certain great natural re- 
 sources and forces to a few men, and they, 
 like the camel that got his head in the tent, 
 have crowded us out altogether. These fa- 
 vored few use the resources, which they 
 wrongfully hold, to make war on weaker and 
 less favored men. They drive competitors 
 to ruin. Robin Hood robbed the rich and 
 gave to the poor. These men rob rich and 
 poor alike and keep the booty themselves. 
 ‘<The good old Rule, The simple plan, That 
 he may take who has the power, And he may 
 keep who can,’’ operates among our barons 
 as much as it did among feudal lords. Be 
 it understood in this connection that no at- 
 tack upon the character of individuals as such 
 is here intended. These men, who belong to 
 the ‘‘predatory rich,’’? may, many of them, 
 at least, be men of amiable dispositions, 
 and upright in their conduct. They are 
 the products of a wrong system. A flow- 
 ing stream carries driftwood, of which some 
 
 115 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 pieces are thrown into more favorable posi- 
 tions than others. Now, if the driftwood had 
 life and selective appetencies and wills, the 
 analogy would be perfect. Dam the stream; 
 change the current; make a lake, do some- 
 thing to more equitably distribute the oppor- 
 tunities of life. 
 
 Professor Rauschenbusch, in his ‘‘ Chris- 
 tianity and the Social Crisis,’’ clearly sets 
 forth the stake of the Church in the modern 
 business world. Hear him as he speaks of 
 ‘“‘The hostile ethics of commercialism:’’ 
 
 ‘‘Christianity bases all human relations 
 on love, which is the equalizing and society- 
 making impulse. The Golden Rule makes the 
 swift instincts of self-preservation a rule by 
 which we are to divine what we owe our 
 neighbor. Anything incompatible with love 
 would stand indicted. Christ’s way to great- 
 ness is through pre-eminent social service. 
 Self-development is desirable because it helps 
 us to serve the better. So far as the infiu- 
 ence of the Christian spirit goes, it bows the 
 egoism of the individual to the service of the 
 
 116 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 community. It bids a man live his life for 
 the kingdom of God. 
 
 ‘<The young adult in the most plastic time - 
 of his development is immersed in an indus- 
 trial life which largely tends to counteract 
 and neutralize Christian teaching and train- 
 ing. Competitive industry and commerce are 
 based on selfishness as the dominant instinct 
 and duty, just as Christianity is based on 
 love. It will outbuy and outsell its neigh- 
 bor if it can. It tries to take his trade and 
 grasp all visible sources of income in its own 
 hand. The rule of trade, to buy in the cheap- 
 est market and sell in the dearest, simply 
 ’ means that a man must give as little to the 
 other man and get as much from him as pos- 
 sible. This rule makes even honest competi- 
 tive trade—to say nothing of the immense 
 volume of more or less dishonest and rapa- 
 cious trade—antagonistic to Christian prin- 
 ciples. The law of Christ, wherever it finds 
 expression, reverses the law of trade. It bids 
 us demand little for ourselves and give much 
 service. A mother does not try to make as 
 rich a living as possible, and to give a min- 
 
 117 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 imum of service to her children. It would 
 be a sorry teacher who would lay awake 
 thinking how he could corner a market in 
 education and give his students as small a 
 chunk of information as possible from the 
 pedagogic ice wagon. The relation between 
 a minister and a Church is Christian only 
 when the Church pays him as well as it can 
 afford to do, and he gives as whole-hearted 
 and complete service as he can get out of him- 
 self. There are some professions and some 
 social relations which are in the main dom- 
 inated by the Christian conceptions of soli- 
 darity and service, and they are the only ones ~ 
 that arouse our enthusiasm or win our love. 
 Industry and commerce are not in that 
 class 7." 
 
 ‘‘Kivery human institution creates a phi- 
 losophy which hallows it to those who profit 
 by it and allays the objection of those who 
 are victimized by it. Thus M. Pobiedonest- 
 zeff, the great procurator of the Holy Synod 
 in Russia, taught the sacredness of the autoc- 
 racy and thereby strengthened the hands of 
 those who kept the people down. When al- 
 
 118 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 coholism dominates the customs of a people, 
 it weaves a halo around itself in the songs 
 and social observances of the people, till joy 
 and friendship seem to be inseparable from 
 mild narcotic paralysis of the nerve centers. 
 Similarly, the competitive industry has its 
 own philosophy to justify the ways of busi- 
 ness unto men. ‘Competition is the life of 
 trade.’ ‘If every man will do the best for 
 himself, he will thereby do the best for so- 
 ciety.’ In short, the surest way to be un- 
 selfish is to look out for Number One.”’ 
 Having been for so long a time wooed 
 by the tuneful song of the Socialist, let us 
 turn to listen to the raucous-voiced indi- 
 vidualist. It is true that he has the rough 
 manner and hoarse shoutings of the Cave 
 man, but perhaps justice is with him, and if 
 so we should heed his guttural growls. He 
 has survived for a long time and through 
 many changes. Since the stone age unnum- 
 bered centuries have fought the individual- 
 ist with merciless forces of ice and flame 
 and flood; but in the heart of the glacier he 
 slew the polar bear, over the Alps he led his 
 
 119 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 elephants, under the Alps he drove his steel 
 charger, and of great Atlantic he made a 
 highway for commerce, a fishpond for gain, 
 and a swimming-pool for pleasure. The in- 
 dividualist has subdued the earth and is at- 
 tempting to scale the heavens. The individ- 
 ualist’s persistence in the face of so great 
 opposition is an argument for his right to 
 persist. . 
 
 The son of one of the brainiest and, in 
 my humble judgment, most upright of mod- 
 ern business men, recently addressed his 
 Bible class on the survival of the fittest. He 
 declared that even as a hundred roses would 
 have to be sacrificed in order to produce a 
 perfect American Beauty rose, so a hundred 
 less fit men and concerns would have to per- 
 ish in the process of evolving the perfect 
 type of American business man and business 
 concern. In each case, he contended, the 
 product was worth the price. That, from 
 the individualist’s viewpoint, is the chief in- 
 dictment against the trust. Socialism does 
 -not oppose trusts. It looks upon these gi- 
 gantic combinations of capital with favor. 
 
 120 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 They are a step in the direction of Socialism. 
 The individualist’s interests are lost to the 
 sight of both the trust magnate and the So- 
 cialist. Is it not well for us to pause before 
 becoming avowed advocates of such a policy 
 of ruthless individual sacrifice? I am more 
 of a Socialist than I am an individualist, but 
 I would seek some arrangement of industry 
 whereby the interests of the individual would 
 be subserved and conserved as well as the 
 larger interests of society. This pure So- 
 cialism does not provide. I have a friend, 
 a manufacturer in a small way, with a 
 business which, if not unduly hindered, 
 will grow to large proportions. In conver- 
 sation with him, not long ago, he declared 
 his intention of resisting the interference 
 of labor unions in the conduct of his 
 business. He said: ‘‘In the beginning of 
 this business, for the first two years, we 
 ran at a loss, and the loss was not small 
 either. During those two years there was 
 not a man in our employ but what got 
 his wages promptly. They didn’t offer to 
 share any of our losses. They worked but 
 121 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 nine hours a day, when men of their craft 
 elsewhere worked ten hours. Now, we in- 
 tend to put them on a ten hours a day basis, 
 and they threaten to strike. Not a man of 
 them ever spent a sleepless night planning 
 for the business, but I have spent many of 
 them here at my desk. I have furnished em- 
 ployment and wages to these men when I 
 had to borrow the money to do it. Such 
 men as Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Rockefeller 
 have earned immensely more than any man 
 in their employ, and I, in a smaller way, 
 have done the same. This is my business, 
 product of my effort, and I ’ll run it to suit 
 myself.’’ 
 
 My friend states his position clearly, and 
 who shall say he is not justified? No one 
 doubts that such men as Mr. Carnegie and 
 Mr. Rockefeller have earned far more than 
 the ordinary man, and my friend is right 
 in his contention that he deserves much more 
 than any other man in any way connected 
 with his business. In his statement of the 
 extra time he devoted to the business is 
 found the weak spot of both Socialism and 
 
 122 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 great corporations. A merger of rights and 
 interests will always have that weak spot, 
 but Christianity’s demand of self-abnegation 
 for the glory of God does not have that 
 weakness. 
 
 The Economic Empire is an invisible em- 
 pire. The kingdom of God is not of this 
 world. But the principles of these two 
 realms operating in conjunction must make 
 sweeping changes in governments that are 
 tangible and seen and felt. National bound- 
 . ary lines must cease to be barriers before 
 the onward march of the two universal 
 forces, industry and Christianity. ‘‘The par- 
 liament of man, the federation of the world’’ 
 is not realized at The Hague, but the day 
 is not far distant when a high court of ar- 
 bitration shall sit in some great Atlantic sea- 
 board city and take cognizance of questions 
 arising from the social, industrial, and re- 
 ligious life of mankind. This international 
 court of appeals will exercise, indirectly at 
 least, legislative functions. Peace will then 
 prevail in all the realms of human activity 
 and intercourse. Before such a desirable 
 
 123 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 condition can obtain, industry and Chris- 
 tianity, seeking their own perpetuity and 
 freedom of development, will accomplish cer- 
 tain changes among the nations, which I shall 
 now briefly indicate. 
 
 1. Militarism must die. Armies and 
 navies must be disbanded. War lords must 
 retire permanently from the stage of humar 
 action. The reason why both industry and 
 religion oppose militarism is so obvious as 
 to make further comment on this topic un- 
 necessary. 
 
 2. The second change necessary, if the 
 kingdom of God and the economic empire 
 are duly recognized, is the creating of such 
 laws as shall make monopoly of products and 
 private control of public resources evermore 
 impossible. This can probably be best ac- 
 complished through a change in prevailing 
 systems of taxation. The concentration of 
 wealth among us is alarming. This concen- 
 tration is due in large part to wrong taxation 
 methods. 
 
 John Spargo, in his book entitled, ‘‘So- 
 cialism,’’? speaks of the concentration of 
 
 124 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 wealth in the United States and gives some 
 alarming statistics. He says: 
 
 ‘‘In this country the absence of income 
 tax figures makes it impossible to get direct 
 statistical evidence as to the distribution of 
 incomes. The most careful estimate of the 
 distribution of wealth in the United States 
 yet made is that made by the late Dr. Charles 
 B. Spahr. In quoting Dr. Spahr’s figures, 
 however, I do not wish to be understood as 
 accepting them as authoritative and conclu- 
 sive. They are quoted simply as the conclu- 
 - gions reached by the most patient, conscien- 
 tious, and scientific examination of the dis- 
 tribution of wealth in this country yet made. 
 Dr. Spahr’s conclusion is that less than one- 
 half of the families in the United States are 
 propertyless; but that, nevertheless, seven- 
 eighths of the families own only one-eighth 
 of the national wealth, while one per cent of 
 the families own more than the remaining 
 ninety-nine per cent. Professor Ely accepts 
 the logic of the statistical data gathered in 
 Europe and the United States, and says, 
 ‘Such statistics as we have . . . all indicate 
 
 125 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 a marked concentration of wealth, both in 
 this country and in Europe.’ 
 
 ‘«The growth of immense private fortunes 
 is an undisputable evidence of the concen- 
 tration of wealth. In 1855, according to a 
 list published in the New York Sun, there 
 were only twenty-eight millionaires in the 
 whole country, and a pamphlet, published in 
 Philadelphia ten years before that, in 1845, 
 gave only ten estates valued at a million dol- 
 lare or more. The richest of these estates 
 was that of Stephen Girard, whose fortune 
 was said to be $7,000,000. To-day it is es- 
 timated that there are more than five thou- 
 sand millionaires in the United States, New 
 York City alone claiming upward of two 
 thousand. Not only has the number of these 
 immense fortunes grown, but the size of in- 
 dividual fortunes has enormously increased. 
 Mr. John D. Rockefeller is credited by some 
 of the most conservative financial experts 
 in the country with the possession of a for- 
 tune amounting to a billion dollars, a sum 
 too vast to be comprehended. Mr. Waldron 
 estimates that one-twentieth of the families 
 
 126 
 
THE ECONOMIC EMPIRE 
 
 in the United States are receiving ‘one-third 
 of the nation’s annual income, and are able 
 to absorb nearly two-thirds of the annual 
 increase made in the wealth of the nation.’ 
 To the unbiased observer, nothing is more 
 strikingly evident than the concentration of 
 wealth in the United States during the past 
 few years.”’ 
 
 Militarism and monopoly must die. The 
 larger patriotism of the future will stamp 
 them both out of existence. In America that 
 larger patriotism has been manifested occa- 
 sionally. Our war with Spain; our dealings 
 with Cuba and China; Mr. Roosevelt’s ac- 
 tion in regard to the Russo-Japanese war; 
 Mr. Roosevelt’s and Mr. Carnegie’s atti- 
 tudes toward The Hague Tribunal; Mr. Car- 
 negie’s utterances on the question of ‘war 
 and tariffs; these and many other instances 
 might be cited to show that a cosmopolitan 
 patriotism, better called by the old name, 
 philanthropy, is coming to be general among 
 us. 
 
 This generation is listening for the sound 
 of that prophetic voice that shall address 
 
 127 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 Christianity’s aroused spirit and industry’s 
 quickened matter, and bid them to unite and 
 become one flesh in their fair offspring, a 
 gloriously free society, moving with ever-in- 
 creasing speed toward the far-off goal of 
 racial perfection. Is it Professor Rausch- 
 enbusch? or Professor Peabody? or Rev. 
 Charles Stelzle? Or shall we wait for an- 
 other? What colossal service Mr. Andrew 
 Carnegie or Mr. John D. Rockefeller could 
 render the human race! Beneficent as have 
 been their contributions to human good, their 
 previous contributions would be small in- 
 deed in comparison with the service such 
 men could render. Their money and their 
 influence could speedily bring industrial and 
 political peace. 
 
 The prophet and the man of power and 
 prestige will meet some day—perhaps soon— 
 and out of that meeting will flow streams of 
 blessing to all mankind. 
 
 128 
 
THE SOCIAL VALUE OF A 
 CHRISTIAN 
 

 
THE SOCIAL VALUE OF A 
 CHRISTIAN 
 
 CHRISTIANITY is not a solid, but a fluid. 
 It is like a river. The unity and identity 
 of the stream is preserved amid numerous 
 variations. Christianity, beginning at Jeru- 
 salem, has flowed across the centuries and 
 across the continents, varying with environ- 
 ment and adapting itself to ‘‘many men of 
 many minds,’’ but always it has been recog- 
 nizable as the same stream, and not another. 
 A man who sees the Ohio at Pittsburg, and 
 later sees it at Cincinnati, looks upon a dif- 
 ferent landscape and waterscape from that 
 _ which he saw in the first place, but he has 
 no difficulty in recognizing the stream. Like 
 the Ohio or any river, the stream which flows 
 from Calvary has the same character, fol- 
 lows the same general direction, accomplishes 
 the same purposes, and tends toward the 
 same destiny at all points in its course. 
 
 j31 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 Christianity is not bound by set forms. 
 It is not a system of law; it is life. Yester- 
 day’s creed was suited to yesterday and with 
 accuracy described the Christian vitality of 
 yesterday. The creed of to-day must pass 
 with the day. To-morrow men will have to 
 meet to-morrow’s necessities with a fresh ap- 
 plication and adaptations of the truth. 
 Christianity is not a religion of a creed nor 
 of a Book, but of a Person. It consists in 
 love and loyalty to Jesus. <A certain man is © 
 self-centered; we call him an egoist. An- 
 other man is centered in his neighbors; we 
 eall him an altruist. A third man is cen- 
 tered in society; we call him a socialist. But 
 the Christian is none of these. He is a man 
 centered in Jesus of Nazareth. In so far as 
 a man loves Jesus, is loyal to Him, partakes 
 of His nature, manifests His mind, just so 
 far is he a Christian. 
 
 The perpetuity of the ‘‘new and living 
 way’’ is not dependent primarily upon state- 
 ments of faith, nor upon the authenticity of 
 Seripture, nor upon rites. It depends pri- 
 marily and finally upon Jesus reproducing 
 
 132 
 
SOCIAL VALUE OF A CHRISTIAN 
 
 Himself in the lives and hearts of men in 
 succeeding generations. Men with the mind 
 of the Master must become sub-saviors of 
 their fellows. When Mr. Stead, the London 
 editor, told a converted harlot to return to 
 her former surroundings and associates and 
 “‘be a Christ,’’ he shocked the sensibilities 
 of many, but he gave expression to a funda- 
 mental principle of the faith. 
 
 Christianity is the religion of society. It 
 is not the religion of an individual nor of a 
 race only, but of all mankind. The work 
 which Jesus does for the individual is to fit 
 him to sustain right relations with his fellow- 
 man. Christianity adapts men to society. 
 The ultimate end of individual salvation is 
 social salvation. Concerning the relation 
 which exists between the individual and so- 
 ciety, it may be said that action and reaction 
 are equal. A man affects his associates for 
 good or ill, and his associates affect him for 
 good or ill. Take some of the commoner 
 Christian virtues for example. Who can 
 doubt that Americans are more truthful than 
 they otherwise would have been because of 
 
 133 
 
> 
 
 5 
 
 SHOP TALKS 
 
 the reputation of Washington in that re- 
 spect. Had Abraham Lincoln been born 
 among petty thieves and trained among dis- 
 honest folk, would he ever have been known 
 far and wide for his sincerity and fair, 
 square dealings? It required a widespread 
 social integrity to produce an Honest Abe. 
 On the other hand, every youthful American 
 who worships at the shrine of the hero Lin- 
 coln will come to emulate his most marked 
 virtues. Immense are the results of influ- 
 ence flowing out of one life into many. Jesus 
 likened it to the action of yeast upon the 
 particles of meal. So shall the kingdom of 
 God come, silently, without observation, by 
 the action of the spirit of a righteous man 
 upon the spirits of unrighteous men. 
 Shakespeare put a half truth and a whole 
 falsehood into the mouth of Mark Anthony 
 when he made him say over Cesar’s dead 
 body, ‘‘The evil that men do lives after 
 them; the good is oft interred with their 
 bones.’’ It is true that the evil that men 
 do lives after them, but it is not true that 
 the good is ever interred with their bones. 
 134 
 
. 
 
 SOCIAL VALUE OF A CHRISTIAN 
 
 All the good that men do lives after them as 
 well as the evil, but the good has greater vi- 
 tality than evil. God has made health more 
 catching than disease. 
 
 George Eliot’s prayer will be realized by 
 all the good, for after this life is ended they 
 shall 
 
 *‘Join the choir invisible 
 Of those immortal dead who live again 
 In minds made better by their presence; live 
 In pulses stirred to generosity, 
 In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn 
 For miserable aims that end in self, 
 In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, 
 And with their mild persistence urge man’s search 
 to vaster issues. 
 * * * * * * * * * 
 Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, 
 And in diffusion ever more intense, 
 So shall (they) join the choir invisible 
 Whose music is the gladness of the world.’’ 
 
 A being so constituted that his slightest 
 word or action must make its impress upon 
 outlying social consciousness is of vast im- 
 portance to society at large. It therefore 
 seems proper that after eight addresses de- 
 voted to a consideration of Jesus in His di- 
 
 135 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 rect relations with human society, we should 
 turn to note how Jesus indirectly impresses 
 social conditions through the effect He has 
 upon individuals. 
 
 In the five addresses which follow this 
 we shall see in two of them how Jesus failed 
 to transform an individual, and in three ad- 
 dresses we shall study His success with three 
 different men. Jesus did not seek to per- 
 petuate His teachings directly, but He sought 
 to perpetuate Himself by reproducing Him- 
 self in the characters and careers of others. 
 We have no record of any committal to writ- 
 ing of any of His teachings by the hand of 
 Jesus. Once He wrote, but it was in the 
 sand, and seems to have been an effort to 
 cover a sinful woman’s shame. Jesus relied 
 on making others like Himself. Of His suc- 
 cess we shall judge by a study of Simon 
 Peter, Thomas, and Nicodemus. Of the dis- 
 astrous result of His failure we shall judge 
 by a study of Judas Iscariot. May such 
 studies afford us admonition and encourage- 
 ment. 
 
 136 
 
 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT 
 
 A Stupy IN SPIRITUAL GRAVITATION 
 

 
JUDAS ISCARIOT 
 A Srupy In SprrituaL GRAVITATION 
 
 ‘“Awnp none of them is lost except the son 
 of perdition.’’ 
 
 Why is Judas Iscariot lost? Because he 
 was and is the chief of sinners, for if he is 
 still in hell it is evident that he is still an 
 unforgiven sinner. But a man does not have 
 to be the chief of sinners in order to go to 
 hell; any unpardoned sinner will drift to 
 torment. Besides, the question with which 
 we began was designed to raise an inquiry 
 into the cause of his superlative sinning. 
 Judas is not in perdition because he betrayed 
 his Friend and Benefactor into murderous 
 hands. That was not an unpardonable of- 
 fense. Judas did not repent of his wicked- 
 ness. His disposition forbade repentance. 
 He experienced remorse; doubtless even yet 
 he knows remorse. Judas is in hell because 
 
 139 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 he desired to go there and desires to remain. 
 Were his desires different his condition 
 would be different. God did not put Judas 
 in hell; he put himself there. God did His 
 best to keep Judas out of torment. Judas 
 is now in the place best suited to him. 
 There must be adequate preparation for 
 a supreme act, whether that act be good or 
 bad. A man does not become either a great 
 saint or a great sinner at a single bound. 
 Character is the sum of many habits. A 
 habit is the result of many acts. A man acts 
 according to his disposition, and disposition 
 itself is an effect as well as a cause. Dis- 
 position is the product of forces converging 
 from various directions. The force of he- 
 redity operates. We are chips off the old 
 block. The force of association helps to pro- 
 duce disposition. Birds of a feather flock to- 
 gether, and a dove among vultures will soon 
 become like a vulture. Environment has its 
 effect in forming disposition. ‘‘Mountain- 
 eers are always freemen.’’ That proverb 
 has only enough exceptions to prove it a rule. 
 Squalor generates vice. Unfavorable out- 
 
 140 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT 
 
 ward circumstances and surroundings, when 
 not too severe, have a good effect in devel- 
 oping strength. The University of Hard 
 Knocks produces well-trained scholars. 
 
 A myriad small things form the great 
 compound which we call good or bad charac- 
 ter. No supremely good or supremely bad 
 act was ever done except by a supremely 
 good or supremely bad character. The evo- 
 lution of either a saint or a demon is a slow 
 process. There is a story I have heard of 
 a painter who wanted to contrast Jesus and 
 Judas by placing them side by side on the 
 same canvas. For several weeks he sought 
 a model who could pose for the picture of 
 Jesus. One day on the streets of his native 
 Florence he met a young man of perfect form 
 and feature, whose appearance was so gen- 
 tle and guileless that he at once asked him 
 to be his model for the picture of Jesus. The 
 young man consented. Day after day the 
 sittings continued until the picture assumed 
 definite outline and form on the canvas. 
 Then began a long search for some one who 
 could serve as a model for Judas. The artist 
 
 141 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 was exacting. The model must be a man 
 upon whom unmastered avarice, lust, ambi- 
 tion, hate, and anger had stamped indelibly 
 their black markings. He sought one upon 
 whom sin had done all it could before bring- 
 ing forth death. After twenty-five years his 
 quest ended, as fomerly, in his native Flor- 
 ence. It was behind the iron bars of a prison 
 that he beheld a face so repulsive, so seamed 
 and scarred by sin as to be frightful in- 
 deed. Approaching the monster of ‘‘hide- 
 ous mien,’’ the painter secured his surly 
 consent to sit for a picture. The days 
 passed in silence, the scowl on the model’s 
 truculent countenance forbidding conversa- 
 tion. It was during the last sitting, and the 
 painting was nearly done, when the artist, 
 wondering whether any other painter had 
 ever noted the possibilities in such a model, 
 inquired, ‘‘Did you ever sit for a picture be- 
 fore?’’ The model laughed harshly. ‘‘Yes,’’ 
 he growled, ‘‘about twenty-five years ago, 
 when I was just a boy, I sat for a portrait 
 of Jesus Christ.’’ In twenty-five years sin 
 had changed him from a resemblance to 
 
 142 
 
 F 
 _* 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT 
 
 Jesus to a likeness of Judas. The evolution 
 of a demon may be a slow process, but if un- 
 checked it is sure. 
 
 Judas was the product of his early train- 
 ing. It was not possible for Jesus to over- 
 come the effects of the life preceding their 
 acquaintance. Judas was a Pharisee. No 
 Sadducee and no Essene ever followed Jesus. 
 The “difference between the Sadducees and 
 Jesus and the Essenes and Jesus was wide 
 and radical. Judas, being a Pharisee, might 
 reasonably be expected to share their pride 
 and narrowness. He may have been a pa- 
 triot—such a lover of his nation as those 
 who, more than a century before his day, 
 had followed the Maccabees to glory and 
 death. Doubtless he desired to bring on a 
 civil war, in which Jesus would fulfill the 
 prevailing Pharasaic impression of the Mes- 
 siah and, greater than Moses, lead His peo- 
 ple out of a worse than Egyptian bondage. 
 Perhaps his betrayal of Jesus into the hands 
 of the enemy may have been an effort to 
 compel his Master to resort to arms in self- 
 defense. It may be that, like Virgil, Judas 
 
 143 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 could sing of no greater than arms and the 
 hero. Ambition for power, fostered by con- 
 stant reflection upon the Force that wrought 
 miracles and grown to masterful hugeness, 
 may have caused his act of treachery. But 
 it is not ambition which St. John mentions 
 as the ruling passion in the life of the traitor. 
 Avarice is the moving force in Judas which 
 is noted by the beloved disciple. In child- 
 hood he may have been trained to frugality. 
 The virtue of frugality may easily be exag- 
 gerated into the vice of parsimony. A miser 
 is covertly a thief; he may not steal in act, 
 but he has the desire to do so. Recognizing 
 the natural and acquired qualities in Judas 
 which would make him careful of money, the 
 disciples elected him treasurer of their lit- 
 tle band. Did he ever dream of being min- 
 ister of the treasury of a great kingdom? 
 Being treasurer would nourish his love of 
 money. When Mary broke the alabaster box 
 of costly ointment in token of her love for 
 Jesus, it angered Judas. ‘‘Why was not 
 this ointment sold for three hundred pence 
 and given to the poor?”’’ he churlishly asks. 
 
 144 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT 
 
 Says St. John: ‘‘This he said not that he 
 eared for the poor, but because he was a 
 thief and had the bag, and bare what was 
 put therein.’? He was what we to-day would 
 eall a grafter, taking portions of the com- 
 mon fund for his private use. The sordid- 
 ness of the controlling motives in his career 
 is shown by the fact that he required thirty 
 pieces of silver for the betrayal of his Chief. 
 The climax of wickedness in his case, as in 
 every other, was reached step by step. Judas 
 might have repented of his sin and have 
 turned from it with loathing and horror, but 
 the act of repentance would not immediately 
 have made him a saint nor have fitted him 
 for the society of the good. Growth in grace 
 must follow conversion. Judas, however, did 
 not repent. He experienced remorse, the 
 gnawing of the worm we call conscience, but 
 he could have found no place for repentance, 
 even had he sought it with tears. Such a 
 sin slays the soul. A corpse does not feel 
 sorry because of the thing which made it 
 a corpse. Yet, when emotion is dead, con- 
 sciousness may survive. For a clod to know 
 
 10 145 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 that once it was a rose, and that it became 
 a clod through its own willful and deliberate 
 choice, may not be an occasion of pain to the 
 clod; but for a rose to realize that by its 
 own willful and deliberate choice it may be- 
 come a clod might be an occasion of horror 
 to the rose. Could a serpent as it crawls on 
 the ground know that once it was an angel, a 
 rebellious and from heaven exiled angel, it 
 might mean nothing to the serpent. But for 
 an angel, as he flies from throne to throne, 
 to realize that he may by sin fall to the 
 groveling level of a serpent, that would be 
 a frightful thing. 
 
 In the next discourse we shall see that 
 God had no part in the doom of Judas, ex- 
 cept the ineffectual one of trying to prevent 
 it. Till then let our reflections upon this 
 character be mixed with thoughts of our own 
 frailty. 
 
 146 
 
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JUDAS ISCARIOT—ConTINvED 
 
 Gop did not foredoom Judas. ‘‘It must 
 needs be that offenses come, but woe unto 
 that man by whom the offense cometh.’’ 
 God did not predetermine the character and 
 conduct of Judas. To say that shifts the re- 
 sponsibility for Judas’ sin from Judas to 
 God, and God becomes the sinner. Offenses 
 come by men, not by God. No man ever 
 went to hell by the will of God. He sends 
 no man to perdition. A man, however, may 
 send himself there. ‘‘Judas, by transgres- 
 sion, fell, that he might go to his own place.’’ 
 He is in the place of his own choosing. God 
 ean not take a soul to heaven in spite of it- 
 self. Suppose He destroyed the sinner’s 
 will and delivered Him thus from the pains 
 and penalties of an outraged law. He would 
 not have delivered a man, for with his will 
 gone he is no longer a man. He has become 
 a mere automaton, a machine. That would 
 
 149 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 not be the work of a Savior, but of a de- 
 stroyer. 
 
 Let us consider the law of the survival 
 of the fittest. A plant or an animal sur- 
 vives by virtue of its adaptability to its sur- 
 roundings. Neither a man nor a mouse can 
 adapt himself to the conditions of the bed 
 of the ocean a hundred fathoms deep. The 
 oyster, which thrives on the ocean’s bed, per- 
 ishes on dry land. Polar bears, mosses, and 
 lichens are suited to the far and frozen 
 north. Oranges, orangoutangs, and palms 
 flourish amid the summer shine of the trop- 
 ics. A traveling menagerie in Southern Ohio 
 ran out of ice and the Polar bear died of 
 heat with the thermometer at 74 degrees 
 Fahrenheit. Of all the preglacial animals, 
 man is about the only survivor of that dread- 
 ful influx of ice. His superior adaptability 
 saved him. A man may adapt himself spir- 
 itually to conditions which are found only in 
 heaven. Accordingly to heaven he goes and 
 there he survives. A man may adapt him- 
 self spiritually to conditions which exist only 
 in hell. To hell, therefore, in the merey of 
 
 150 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT 
 
 God, not in His wrath, such a soul goes. As 
 the men of the stone age made the condi- 
 tions by which their survival was possible 
 during the period of the glaciers, so a good 
 man or a bad man creates his own neces- 
 sary environment. Milton makes Satan say, 
 ““Myself am hell.’’ Had there been no hell 
 until the night when Judas kissed Jesus, 
 there had been one thereafter, or Judas 
 would have ceased to be. There can be no 
 immortality of evil men without a continu- 
 ance of evil environment which they them- 
 selves make. Judas went to his own place. 
 In the long run of Providence there are no 
 round pegs in square holes. 
 
 Some men are found night after night 
 amid the smoke and profanity of the bar- 
 room. They are happier there than they 
 would be in the atmosphere of a refined and 
 cultured home. Take such a man out of 
 such surroundings and put him in surround- 
 ings calculated to appeal to his love of the 
 beautiful, the pure and the true, and he 
 would be ill at ease, unhappy. Some men 
 prefer a concert, a lecture, an evening with 
 
 151 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 a great writer, or a service of prayer. Such 
 men arbitrarily placed in the company of 
 brawlers and hoodlums, amid conditions 
 usually found where such vile persons gather, 
 would be in torment. Men do not put pigs 
 in parlors, nor plant orchids in barnyards. 
 
 God did as much to accomplish the salva- 
 tion of Judas as He did to save John. God 
 did as much for Judas as He did for any 
 man. The love of God goes out toward the 
 betrayer in as boundless a fashion as it does 
 toward any one who ever had being on this 
 earth. Judas hurt God’s heart. Every sin- 
 ner is a grief to the Sinless One. Wherever 
 any child of God may be, absence from Him 
 is an occasion of sorrow to the Father. 
 Whittier greatly expressed a great truth 
 when he wrote the lines which grow dearer 
 as they grow more familiar: 
 
 “I know not where His islands lift 
 Their fronded palms in air ; 
 I only know I can not drift 
 Beyond His love and care.’’ 
 
 Judas was not amenable to any of the 
 
 sweet and strong influences of God’s grace. 
 
 152 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT 
 
 To reach perdition he had to climb over 
 mountainous obstacles which Jehovah up- 
 piled in his course. The force of heredity 
 would drive him toward righteousness. The 
 power of his home-training was calculated, 
 in the main, to make him a good man. The 
 influence of association was against the deeds 
 he did. During the last three years of his 
 life he kept company with eleven men who 
 became great saints. All that Jesus could 
 do for his betterment was done. But he tore 
 himself loose from the restraining arms of 
 Divine love, walked over every obstacle, and 
 waded through the blood of God incarnate 
 into hell. 
 
 Sad is the scene and horrifying, when 
 into the presence of the guilty Sanhedrin 
 strode the guiltier Judas. St. John observes 
 that, when Judas went out to betray Jesus, 
 “it was night.’? But blacker far than the 
 natural darkness of the preceding night is 
 the gloom that now enswathes the soul of 
 the arch traitor. Down he throws the thirty 
 pieces of silver: ‘‘I have sinned in that I 
 have betrayed innocent blood.’? And the 
 
 153 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 Sanhedrin scorned him: ‘‘What is that to 
 us? See thou to it.’’ Yes, the Sanhedrin 
 scorned him. The disciples scorned him. 
 The powers of darkness closed round him. 
 Only God pitied him. He was afraid of 
 himself; ashamed of himself; weary of him- 
 self. He sought the cliff side. The dogwood 
 tree bears now the ignominy of his name. 
 Around a limb of the tree and around his 
 neck the rope was tied. The rope broke. 
 Upon the rocks beneath lay his gushed-out 
 bowels. Concerning a redemption in which 
 he could have no part, One was even then 
 erying, ‘‘It is finished.’’ O, thou son of 
 perdition, truly, it had been better for thee 
 hadst thou never been born! 
 Well does one in a certain place say, 
 
 *“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, 
 The saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’ ”’ 
 
 The punishment of Judas consists mostly 
 
 in what he missed. He might have been 
 
 numbered with the eleven. A man whom 
 
 I knew well, when a boy was urged by his 
 
 father to attend old Ewington Academy. 
 154 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT 
 
 He steadfastly refused. The Civil War 
 broke out, and the boy enlisted. For brav- 
 ery on the field of battle he was offered a 
 captain’s commission. Later he was offered 
 the command of a colored regiment. In each 
 instance he had to refuse promotion be- 
 cause of his lack of intellectual equipment. 
 O, the tragedy of the unprepared! On the 
 battlefield of Saratoga Springs a monument 
 great and tall stands to commemorate Bur- 
 goyne’s Surrender. At each of the four 
 corners of the base is a niche. In one niche 
 stands a statue of General Schuyler; in an- 
 other the statue of General Green; in a 
 third the statue of General Gates. The 
 fourth niche is empty. Noting this, one 
 would probably conclude that the monument 
 is unfinished. But not so. The fourth niche 
 is empty by design. That is the place Bene- 
 dict Arnold might have occupied.. So Judas 
 might have been one of that 
 
 “Glorious band, the chosen few 
 On whom the Spirit came.’’ 
 Who 
 ““Climbed the steep ascent of heaven, 
 Through peril, toil, and pain.’’ 
 155 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 Imagination can paint a fair contrast to 
 that scene on the rocks at the foot of the 
 precipice. It is a picture of Judas given to 
 repentance instead of remorse. He lingers 
 around the rendezvous of the disciples, but 
 ashamed and afraid to mingle with them. 
 Early in the morning of the third day he 
 is seen by the women who rush wildly from 
 the empty tomb. In horror they turn aside 
 at sight of the betrayer. ‘‘Thou Judas! 
 darest thou come here?’’ And then Mary 
 Magdalene makes the great announcement, 
 ‘‘Our Master lives.’? As three walk the 
 highway to Emmaus, a man suddenly runs 
 from a nearby rock and throws himself, 
 groveling, at Jesus’ feet. O, matchless com- 
 passion! O, conquering love of the Great 
 Galilean! hear Him now as to the arch- 
 traitor He says: ‘‘Rise, Judas, My brother; 
 freely do I forgive thee.’’ . . . But faney 
 paints a mirage in the desert of eternal in- 
 famy. The son of perdition went to his 
 own place. 
 
 156 
 
SIMON PETER 
 

 
SIMON PETER 
 
 A Man is judged by the company he keeps. 
 What shall we say of the Great Galilean’s 
 companions? They were men of vast and 
 tempestuous passions; men of iron; men of 
 elemental energies. The milksop or the 
 ‘‘mollycoddle’’ found no place among these 
 men, who formed the inner circle of the Mas- 
 ter’s friends. They were men capable of do- 
 ing what the Titans failed to do, scaling the 
 heavens of righteousness. They were also 
 capable of such stupendous wickedness as, 
 like the Titans, to lay waste the world. Con- 
 cerning eleven of them it may be said that 
 each was 
 
 ‘*A man that matched the mountains 
 And compelled the stars to look our 
 way and honor us.’’ 
 Concerning one of them, what shall we say 
 but that he gloomed the bottomless pit and 
 sounded the abysmal depths reached by none 
 other except rebellious Lucifer. 
 159 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 But these men of such Hereulean capaci- 
 ties were poor and obscure. If any man 
 possessing wealth or prestige became a fol- 
 lower of Jesus, it was by forsaking his wealth 
 and destroying his prestige. Were you or 
 I to seek to start a new movement for the 
 world’s betterment, we would try to enlist 
 the favor of the rich and powerful. Not so 
 Jesus. From the proletariat He chose mas- 
 ter spirits, who were to subdue kingdoms, and 
 work righteousness. A rich nobleman could 
 not follow Him. An aristocratic ruler of the 
 Jews had to be born again, and become a 
 common man, before he could be a disciple. 
 
 Jesus chose weak men of the earth, so 
 far as temporal advantage goes, to confound 
 . the mighty. But their weakness was only 
 in temporal advantages. Judging Him by 
 the associates He sought, we declare that 
 Jesus must have been conscious of infinite 
 resources within Himself to risk eclipse by 
 contact with men of such vast force, and 
 that He must have had great confidence in 
 common men. 
 
 Among the followers of the Prophet 
 
 160 
 
SIMON PETER 
 
 whom Nazareth drove from her borders, none 
 were greater than Simon, son of Jona. He 
 combined within himself to a very marked 
 degree the qualities of courage, initiative, 
 quickness of perception, readiness of sym- 
 pathy, and decisiveness of action. Such qual- 
 ities make a great leader of men. There was 
 m Simon Peter all of the vigor and dash of 
 a victorious cavalry general. He had but lit- 
 tle of the poise and patience of a judge. 
 When the battle raged Peter was indeed a 
 ‘‘rock’? of defense. Without an instant’s 
 pause, he was ready to spring to any breach. 
 Impetuous, like a mountain torrent, he car- 
 ried all before him. That master of logic, 
 Paul, thought it a matter of which he could 
 well boast that he had withstood Peter to 
 his face. 
 
 Sometimes an inconspicuous servant of 
 God performs a conspicuous service and 
 knows it not. Many a man has brought to 
 Jesus a greater than himself and, in the act 
 of bringing the greater one into contact with 
 the Greatest of all, has blessed the whole 
 human race. Andrew, the comparatively ob- 
 
 11 161 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 scure disciple, found his own brother, Peter, 
 and brought him to Jesus. Andrew began 
 his efforts to do good in the place and with 
 the man most accessible to his influence. 
 How far that act of Andrew’s will reach, 
 how great its possibilities of blessing, pos- 
 sibly not even eternity can tell. 
 
 Among the earlier incidents of Simon 
 Peter’s life with Jesus is that of the return 
 from the Capernaum synagogue on the Sab- 
 bath to Peter’s house and the healing of 
 Simon’s wife’s mother, who lay sick with the 
 fever. This is followed the next day by the 
 Carpenter taking possession of Captain Si- 
 mon’s boat, using it for a pulpit and exer- 
 cising authority which ordinarily belonged 
 only to the skipper. From this boat to the 
 people thronging the shore, Jesus preached 
 till nearly noon. At the conclusion of His 
 discourse he ordered Peter to ‘‘launch out 
 into the deep for a draught.’’ Peter informs 
 Jesus that during the whole night when, be- 
 cause of the coolness, fish would be near the 
 surface of the sea, they had toiled and caught 
 nothing. Still, despite the fact that now 
 
 162 
 
SIMON PETER 
 
 from out the Syrian sky ‘‘those sunbeams 
 like swords’’ were piercing fathoms deep 
 into the water and driving the fish beyond 
 the reach of their nets, Simon obeyed Jesus 
 and cast the nets. With an amazingly large 
 catch of fish, the wonder-working Prophet 
 paid for the use of Peter’s boat. Jesus al- 
 ways pays big wages for any service we ren- 
 der Him. He pays far beyond the union 
 scale. 
 
 This incident shows how far Peter was 
 under the control of Him, whom already he 
 _was beginning to call Master. Here we catch 
 also a glimpse of a quality in this great disci- 
 ple, which seems at first glance to be hardly 
 compatible with his very masculine courage, 
 initiative and impetuosity. We here see 
 Simon as a humble man. Humble he is 
 throughout the incident, and at the close the 
 narrative shows him on his knees in self- 
 abandonment and self-surrender. Jesus 
 reached Simon through his heart rather than 
 through his head. He fell in love with Jesus. 
 Love begat loyalty. All he did for Jesus 
 was a labor of love. The Rev. John Robin- 
 
 163 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 son, D. D., a Scotch clergyman, in a sermon 
 delivered in Columbus, O., a few years ago, 
 related an incident of the battle of Cullo- 
 den. Prince ‘‘Chairlie,’’ as the Scotch people 
 called the bonny, winsome, and debonair 
 claimant of the English crown, landed on 
 the west coast of Scotland and dwelt in a 
 Seagirt cave. Thither the clans gathered. 
 Scottish chiefs from far and near came to 
 the cave, swore fealty to Charles and de- 
 parted to arm their hosts for war. But 
 Lochiel, stout chieftain and stubborn, re- 
 fused to enlist under the banner of the exiled 
 prince. ‘‘Na, na,’’ said he, ‘‘I wilna fight 
 for Chairlie. The bluid 0’ my men shall 
 never run on English soil for the likes o’ 
 him.’? And he steadfastly refused to con- 
 sider the matter. Much depended on Lochiel. 
 The friends of the prince urged him to visit 
 the prince’s cave. This, after much coaxing, 
 he consented to do. For three hours Lochiel 
 was in close conversation with Charles. 
 When he quit the presence of the prince, it 
 was to return home and arm his followers 
 for battle. Said the people, ‘‘He tint his 
 164 
 
SIMON PETER 
 
 hairt to Chairlie;’’ that is, he fell in love 
 with the winsome prince. On the way south, 
 a seer came out of a rocky crevice and 
 warned Lochiel of personal danger in the 
 forthcoming battle of Culloden: 
 
 “‘Lochiel, Lochiel, beware of the day 
 When the Lowlands shall meet thee in 
 battle array,’’ etc. 
 
 But he refused to heed the prophetic voice, 
 and when Culloden’s conflict was at its 
 height he fell, mortally wounded by spears 
 that were aimed at the heart of Charles, 
 and which Lochiel seeing, intercepted with 
 his own body. He had fallen in love with 
 ‘‘Chairlie.’? So Peter fell in love with Jesus. 
 
 Love for Jesus made Simon a large and 
 liberal man. He was by nature and previous 
 training a narrow formalist. Loving the 
 largest and broadest and most tolerant and 
 most open-minded among the sons of men, 
 fitted him for leadership among both Gen- 
 tiles and Jews. Like his Master and like 
 his fellow-laborer, Saul of Tarsus, though in 
 a less degree, Simon became ‘‘all things to 
 
 165 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 all men.’’? What an expansive power has af- 
 fection worthily bestowed! 
 
 Jesus must have had a serene confidence 
 in the power of His own teachings, in the 
 power of the truth, else He could not have 
 trusted Simon. It is Professor Peabody, I 
 believe, who remarks upon the delicate irony 
 used by Jesus when He first called the son 
 of Jona, ‘‘Peter’’—‘‘a rock.’’ At that time 
 Simon was mere shifting sand, but associa- 
 tion with Jesus changed him into ‘‘sand 
 rock.’’ 
 
 Peter was with the Master in all the 
 great events of His life—the transfiguration, 
 the Gethsemane agony, and other times. His 
 connection with Jesus was of the most in- 
 timate character. With his characteristic 
 impetuosity he was ever ready to rush in 
 where others feared to tread. He was in- 
 clined to rudely rush into the holy of ho- 
 lies of personal privacy. He was as impetu- 
 ous in speech as he was in action. This im- 
 petuosity was the occasion of frequent re- 
 bukes on the part of Jesus. Yet Jesus rec- 
 ognized in him one who in the main was 
 
 166 
 
SIMON PETER 
 
 trustworthy. Jesus does not seem to con- 
 sider Peter’s denial as a matter of much 
 consequence. He doubtless regarded his de- 
 nial as but an eddy in the great stream of 
 Simon’s life. 
 
 Peter’s denial of Jesus, however, may not 
 be dismissed with the scant consideration of 
 a sentence or two. There are, in that act of 
 perfidy, too many lessons for us to be jus- 
 tified in giving it but superficial treatment. 
 We shall, therefore, spend the time of our 
 next meeting together mainly in a study of 
 Peter’s backsliding. For this present talk, 
 may we not offer a summary in conclusion 
 to this effect: It is a great thing to have 
 faith in God; it is a greater thing for God 
 to have faith in a man? Despite his mani- 
 fest and manifold weaknesses God had faith 
 in Simon. So may we trust God, and may 
 God trust us! 
 
 167 
 

 
SIMON PETER—ContTINvED 
 

 
SIMON PETER—ContTInvED 
 
 WE now approach with reverent step and 
 solemn hush the scene of blood-sweating 
 suffering which has made it evermore im- 
 possible to think of an olive garden without 
 thinking of tragic heartbreak. The supper 
 was ended. The devil had put it into the 
 heart of Judas to betray Jesus. With Peter, 
 James and John, Jesus retires across the 
 brook Kidron to a place called Gethsemane, 
 a garden on the slopes of Olivet, where 
 Jesus had probably often prayed. He leaves 
 the three disciples and goes beyond them a 
 little way to pray. Returning after some 
 time spent in prayer, He finds the disciples 
 asleep. Rebuking them, He again seeks re- 
 tirement for prayer, for His ‘‘soul was ex- 
 ceeding sorrowful even unto death.’’ After 
 a third season of most earnest—‘‘agoniz- 
 ing’’—prayer He gains the victory over in- 
 ward perturbations, and returning to Peter, 
 
 171. 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 James and John, bids them arise, for they 
 who sought His life were at hand. Then 
 come five hundred of the thieves and thugs, 
 the riff-raff of old Jerusalem, led by Judas 
 and certain scribes and some Roman sol- 
 diers. In the midst of the excitement and 
 confusion incident to the arrest of Jesus, 
 Simon Peter draws a sword and cuts off 
 the ear of Malchus, a servant of the high 
 priest. Ah, Simon, now you remember your 
 oath of allegiance to Him whom you hailed 
 as King of the Jews, taken not four hours 
 previously. ‘‘Though all others forsake 
 Thee, yet will not I forsake Thee.’’ Your 
 spirit was willing, but your flesh was weak. 
 “Then took they Jesus and brought Him to 
 the high priest’s house, and Peter followed 
 afar off.’? Arrived at the house, Peter 
 stands among the vilest and most sinful un- 
 til a fire had been kindled in the midst of 
 the hall. Then Peter sits down among them. 
 A friend of Jesus warms himself by the en- 
 emies’ fire. He sees how utterly helpless 
 he is, surrounded by such a hostile host. His 
 courage begins to seep away. Soon comes 
 172 
 
SIMON PETER 
 
 one who accuses Simon of following Jesus. 
 Then come the words by which Simon Peter 
 passes sentence upon himself—a sentence, 
 the execution of which has placed the unfaith- 
 ful denier upon a pillory of shame before the 
 eyes of all the ages. 
 
 The thrice repeated denial of Jesus on 
 the part of Peter seems almost what science 
 would call a reversion to type. Was there 
 some strain of vicious blood which became 
 for the time dominant? From what ances- 
 tral pit was such an act digged? This de- 
 nial was a contradiction of Simon’s real self. 
 We have called him a courageous man. This 
 was the act of a coward. We have noted 
 his candor, his sincerity. In this act he 
 lied. We have referred to him as a rock 
 of defense in times of stress and strife 
 when his principles were being warred upon. 
 This was the act of a traitor. We have com- 
 mented upon his love for Jesus. Love be- 
 gets gratitude. This was the act of an in- 
 grate. Coward, ingrate, liar, traitor, - all 
 “this Simon became in one short hour. Yet 
 all his sin and shame arose from that most 
 
 173 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 shameful condition known to men—coward- 
 ice. Simon became panic-stricken. Then he 
 was ready for any deed, however contempt- 
 ible. It may be laid down as a general prin- 
 ciple that when any follower of Jesus for- 
 sakes Him, the first step is one of coward- 
 ice. A coward can not be a good man. 
 
 “Sure I must fight, if I would reign; 
 Increase my courage, Lord. 
 
 I ’ll bear the toil, endure the pain, 
 Supported by Thy Word.’’ 
 
 Courage is the first requisite of a good 
 character. Simon, the courageous, who cut 
 off the ear of Malchus, now trembles in 
 craven cowardice. It is almost incompre- 
 hensible. 
 
 After the third denial and the cock had 
 crowed, Jesus turned and looked upon Peter. 
 The reproof of that look was sufficient. 
 There was doubtless only sorrow and infinite 
 yearning and compassion in that look; cer- 
 tainly there could have been naught of an- 
 ger or resentment in it. ‘‘And Peter went 
 out and wept bitterly.”’ That was what 
 
 174 - 
 
SIMON PETER 
 
 saved him. Not his weeping, to be sure. We 
 sing truth when we sing, 
 
 ‘*But drops of grief can ne’er repay 
 The debt of love I owe. 
 Here, Lord, I give myself to Thee ; 
 ’T is all that I can do.”’ 
 
 Not his weeping, but the contrition which 
 caused the tears saved Simon. 
 
 Comes the cruel tragedy. Jesus, amid 
 thorns and jeers, blows and spittal, and con- 
 tumely beyond description, is led to the place 
 of a skull. There they crucify not Jesus 
 only, but themselves also. There a nation 
 commits suicide. There in the name of re- 
 ligion, incited by religious votaries, a race 
 smears itself with innocent blood and plunges 
 into everlasting obloquy. For the Victim 
 an earth-rending resurrection; for the mob 
 a worse than Sadducean death. Not only, 
 as the Sadducees believed, is their death an 
 endless one, but their disgrace is unmiti- 
 gated. 
 
 Follows a Sabbath of sorrow. A signifi- 
 cant phrase of one of the evangelists refers 
 
 175 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 to the disciples and other followers of Jesus 
 and describes their grief, ‘‘As they mourned 
 and wept.’? But that phrase prefaces the 
 announcement that their Master was Death’s 
 Master also. The Sabbath which came be- 
 tween crucifixion Friday and resurrection 
 Sunday offers opportunity for the imagina- 
 tion to paint pictures of woe. Call you to 
 mind that time when you turned away from 
 the graveyard in which you had left the body 
 of one whom you loved. You entered the 
 home which your beloved had made a place 
 of song and laughter. The very walls 
 seemed resonant with echoes of her words. 
 You opened a closet, and there were the gar- 
 ments she used to wear. The wound of your 
 grief was opened afresh at every turn you 
 made. You sat with other friends and gave 
 vent to your sorrow. Perhaps to your grief 
 was added the poignant reflections upon un- 
 kind words which you had spoken to the one 
 who was gone beyond the possibility of hear- 
 ing you sob out your request for pardon. 
 Your woe was increased by thoughts of the 
 neglect of kindly and courteous deeds to the 
 
 176 
 
SIMON PETER 
 
 departed. Pitiable, indeed, is the grief of a 
 love that realizes too late that it has failed 
 to properly express itself. Some of the dis- 
 ciples had the grief of knowing that they 
 had wronged one who had loaded them with 
 blessings. Chief and most hopeless of 
 mourners, doubtless, must have been Simon 
 Peter. The sadness of your parting from 
 your loved one was tempered by thoughts of 
 a joyful reunion. Hopefully your eyes 
 turned from God’s acre here on earth to 
 God’s infinite acres on the green hillsides of 
 the Promised Land. Simon had no such com- 
 fort. Even had the Sadducees been wrong 
 before, they were right now, for the Lord 
 of Life was dead. He in whom Peter had 
 trusted was dead. If perchance there came 
 to Pharisee-trained Peter the thought that 
 Israel’s Jehovah would receive the soul of 
 the departed Prophet, there could not pos- 
 sibly come to him the hope that he himself 
 would ever in the dim land of spirits behold 
 the face of Jesus again. Had he not for- 
 feited his claims to immortality? And the 
 One whom his soul loved, the One who was 
 
 2. 177 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 to him the ‘‘Rose of Sharon,’’ the ‘‘Lily of 
 the Valley,’’ the ‘‘Fairest among ten thou- 
 sand, and the One altogether lovely,’’ had 
 never heard his words of penitence. With 
 what insane grief Simon must have writhed 
 and twisted through that awful Sabbath! 
 O, unmanly coward! now you know that it 
 were better a thousand-fold to have suffered 
 with Jesus than to suffer without Him. So 
 the leaden-footed hours dragged by. 
 
 ‘* And when the Sabbath was past’? Mary 
 Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, 
 and Salome, having gone very early in the 
 morning to the sepulcher to anoint the dead 
 body of their Master, are sent rushing jubi- 
 lantly through Jerusalem’s streets with such 
 a message as never before was delivered by 
 any messenger. ‘‘He is risen.’’ ‘‘Go, tell 
 His disciples—anp Prrer—that He goeth be- 
 fore you into Galilee.’’ In the room of 
 mourning, who is this that sits apart from 
 the others, his face gray, seamed, and drawn? 
 Who is this with his cape drawn over his 
 head, a prey to stony grief? Simon hears 
 the woman’s words, even though vibrant joy 
 
 178 
 
SIMON PETER 
 
 trips her tongue almost to incoherence. 
 Well the faithful disciples may dash from 
 the room in exultant haste. It is not for the 
 likes of him to seek a risen Master. But 
 does Mary notice his hesitancy? ‘‘Yes,’’ 
 He said, ‘‘and Peter, too.’’ Thou art in- 
 cluded, also, Simon. Hard behind the 
 younger and swift-footed John runs now the 
 man of action, his courage restored. First 
 inside the sepulcher is Simon. 
 
 When Jesus and Simon met, what then? 
 O, Simon, how happy art thou, for into ears 
 that hear and are made glad thereby thou 
 canst pour a penitent’s prayers! Thou art 
 not only forgiven, but hailed as a friend, a 
 brother beloved! 
 
 Fifty days thereafter, who but Peter can 
 serve as the rock of Christian defense, as 
 he stands and boldly charges the rulers of 
 Israel with the murder of Jesus. Pentecost 
 robbed of Peter would perhaps have been 
 a smaller day. 
 
 The years pass; toilsome years, fruitful 
 years; and Simon, son of Jonas, faithful 
 under-shepherd, feeds the lambs and the 
 
 179 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 sheep for the Great Shepherd of the Fold. 
 Whether it were in the house of Simon, the 
 tanner, or that of Cornelius, the centurion; 
 whether it were in Samaria or Rome, he is 
 as faithful as when in Capernaum or Jeru- 
 salem. Persecution but hardens his resist- 
 ing qualities. He knows it is better to obey 
 God than to obey man. Threats are of no 
 avail to turn him from his straight course 
 of service. Nero’s reign and Nero’s rage 
 have reached their bloody height. Saul of 
 Tarsus now wears the myrtle crown. The 
 Christians of Rome, according to a legend 
 which some believe to be fact, and all 
 recognize as true—true to the characters 
 involved—beseech Peter to flee for his life. 
 The specious argument is offered that his 
 life is of vast importance to the Church. 
 According to the legend, Bishop Peter con- 
 sents to leave. With a servant he de- 
 parts. A few miles beyond Rome the 
 aged apostle perceives a great brilliance 
 approaching him on the highway. The 
 light draws nearer. The servant is star- 
 tled at beholding his master on his knees. 
 
 180 
 
SIMON PETER 
 
 Then Peter speaks, ‘‘Whither goest Thou, 
 Master?’’ The voice of Jesus replies, ‘‘To 
 the city, to be crucified afresh.’’ The denier 
 returns to Rome. Whether this legend be 
 true or not, it is fairly well authenticated that 
 Peter did die at Rome during Nero’s great 
 persecution. Crucified with his head down- 
 ward, not deeming himself worthy to die in 
 the same posture as did his Master, he ‘‘ren- 
 dered up the last full measure of devotion”’ 
 to the cause and the Christ he had loved so 
 long and so well. 
 
 May this study of his character and ca- 
 reer be to us an inspiration to live at our 
 best and die at our highest! 
 
 181 
 

 
JESUS AND DOUBTERS 
 

 
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 Amone many there is a misapprehension 
 of the attitude of Jesus toward the intel- 
 lectual faculties of man. Faith is by them 
 understood as the antithesis of science. The 
 truth is that faith is the forerunner of any 
 systematized knowledge. Faith leads to 
 discoveries. It causes the explorers in all 
 realms to begin a search for those paths 
 which lead to the flowering and fruitful fields 
 of knowledge. Some one, remarking upon 
 the vital connection between the spiritual 
 and the material, has declared that before a 
 bushel of corn became a bushel of corn and 
 before a house became a house they were 
 ideas. It is true that before the tangible 
 realization there was in the mind of some 
 man the notion of the thing to be realized. 
 The purpose to realize the notion was a 
 faith-inspired purpose. Without faith there 
 ean be no works of any kind, and all works, 
 
 185 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 whether in the material or in the spiritual 
 realm, are an evidence of faith. 
 
 It is commonly supposed that Jesus de- 
 mands an unreasoned and unreasoning be- 
 lief in Himself. An unreasoned belief in 
 Jesus would be an unreasonable require- 
 ment. Jesus appeals to man’s judgment as 
 well as to his affections. His statement of 
 truth is dogmatic, but He dogmatizes only 
 in the way the mathematician dogmatizes 
 when he declares that a straight line is the 
 shortest distance between two points. Jesus 
 puts His statement of truth in the form of 
 axioms. If His dogmas do not find accept- 
 ance in the mind of any given man, that man 
 is not expected to have faith in the teach- 
 ings of Jesus. But that man is expected to 
 approach the teachings of Jesus with his 
 mind open. He does himself a serious in- 
 jury who closes his mind at any time against 
 the entrance of new truth. I affirm it as 
 my conviction that an honest doubter, a sin- 
 cere heretic, pleases Jesus better than one 
 who without thought claims to have ac- 
 cepted the doctrines of Christianity. The 
 
 186 
 
JESUS AND DOUBTERS 
 
 man who can not give a reason for the faith 
 that is in him does not reflect credit upon 
 himself and but poorly serves the cause of 
 Jesus. 
 
 Not all the bigots are found among the 
 followers of the Nazarene. His opponents 
 usually betray great passion and narrow- 
 ness. The honest doubter is not an opponent 
 of Jesus. He is as far from being an op- 
 ponent as he is from being an advocate. 
 Most skeptics, in these days, are infidels. 
 Their intellectual attitude is one of pride. 
 It was this intellectual pride, as manifested 
 by the Pharisees, which called forth the most 
 severe denunciations from Jesus. He was 
 impressed with the woefulness of the condi- 
 tion of the man who had closed his mind 
 against the entrance of new truth. It is not 
 better nor worse with the soul of the bigot 
 who is for Jesus than with the soul of the 
 one who is against Him. In each case such 
 a soul has ceased to grow. 
 
 With two conspicuous doubters Jesus 
 dealt while here in the flesh. Both were 
 open-minded searchers for the truth. One 
 
 187 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 was a man trained in the philosophy and 
 logic of his day. We may perhaps hesitate 
 to call him a scholar, but we shall at least 
 admit that he was an educated man. I re- 
 fer to Nicodemus. The other was a natural 
 skeptic. So far as we know he did not 
 have the advantages of the schools. Of 
 course, his mind was trained by the in- 
 cidents and accidents of life, but such 
 training is seldom well directed. He came 
 under the training of the world’s greatest 
 Teacher at a time when he was not as 
 susceptible to truth as he had been in the 
 more plastic period of youth. I refer to 
 Thomas. The development of these two men 
 forms an interesting study as showing the 
 method of Jesus with candid doubt. 
 
 Thomas, the open follower, was the more 
 skeptical of the two. Nicodemus came to 
 Jesus questioningly, but his questions were 
 those of a candid inquirer. Thomas ex- 
 pressed his doubt most emphatically. But 
 he was never a willful and hostile doubter. 
 There are two classes of credulous men, and 
 but one class of incredulous. The very 
 
 188 
 
JESUS AND DOUBTERS 
 
 learned and the very ignorant are both cred- 
 ulous. The half-educated man is almost al- 
 ways skeptical. ‘‘A little learning is a dan- 
 gerous thing.’’ Such a man makes unwar- 
 ranted generalizations; he argues from false 
 premises. He has learned to despise the 
 terror by night and proceeds from that to 
 be incredulous of the pestilence that wasteth 
 at noon-day. The pestilence destroys him. 
 Of the two extremes who are inclined to be 
 credulous, the ignorant and the learned, one 
 walks amid a thick fog, the other stands on 
 a great altitude and views a wide horizon. 
 The fog-bound man so frequently stumbles 
 over unexpected things, is so frequently as- 
 tonished by surprising occurrences and acci- 
 dents that his world becomes to him a won- 
 derland. His credulity is born of supersti- 
 tion. The man of learning, from his altitude 
 and far-stretching view, has learned his own 
 limitations and the limitations of the world 
 of things. There are so many things in the 
 distance which he sees but dimly that he 
 is credulous of any shape for them. To him 
 the reach and scope of the natural are so 
 
 189 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 great that he is made credulous of the super- 
 natural. His credulity is the result of rea- 
 soning from the vastly known to the related 
 unknown. Thomas was the more skeptical 
 of the two because he was the more ignorant. 
 
 But these two characters are useful, not 
 merely as a foil in displaying the superior 
 excellence of Jesus, but as examples to us 
 also, for they had their own excellences. Not 
 the least among their desirable characteris- 
 tics is their openness of mind. The mind of 
 Thomas was opened by love for Jesus. It 
 was his friendship for the Man of Galilee 
 that finally induced acceptance of statements 
 to which his mind was naturally opposed. 
 And yet, despite the love leadings to which 
 he was subject, it required cold, substantial 
 material fact to convince him of the reality 
 of the startling and stupendous declarations 
 the other disciples were making concerning 
 an empty tomb and a risen Lord. He re- 
 quired the evidence of two senses, sight and 
 touch, and Jesus met the requirement, though 
 saying that the more spiritual-minded men, 
 who should spiritually discern Him, were 
 
 190 
 
JESUS AND DOUBTERS 
 
 the more blessed. And by so much as Spirit 
 transcends matter, by so much as the burn- 
 ing heart of the singer transcends the mat- 
 ter-of-fact brain of the practical man, by that 
 much they who see Jesus by the inward light 
 of the soul are greater, and more blessed 
 because greater, than was Thomas. But 
 within the natural limitations of the prac- 
 tical mind Thomas preserved his own integ- 
 rity, and, being true to himself, was not false 
 to Jesus or any man. 
 
 Though Thomas was ‘‘slow’’ of heart to 
 believe,’’ he was not, like some of the other 
 more mercurial and volatile disciples, swift 
 of foot to run away. When Jesus, against 
 the protests of His followers, ‘‘set Himself 
 steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem’’ on that 
 last and doom-dreadful Passover occasion, 
 Thomas said, ‘‘Let us also go, that we may 
 die with Him.’’ The motives which inspired 
 this utterance of the doubting disciple are 
 mixed of many ingredients, but even if we 
 do detect despondency therein, I think we 
 must agree that the words sprang principally 
 from love and devotion to the Master. Ay, 
 
 191 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 Thomas, thine was not the utterance of a 
 coward’s despair, but the courageous deter- 
 mination of a lover of the Lord. And we, 
 who love the Lord also, hail thee as one of 
 the choice spirits in that ‘‘goodly company 
 of Heaven.’’ For thy love ennobles thee. 
 When the stigmata had been shown him 
 by Jesus, and Thomas had seen the nail 
 prints and to him other indisputable proof, 
 there was drawn from the lips of the doubter 
 the joy-vibrant cry of worship and adora- 
 tion which has rung down the centuries and 
 has struck responsive chords in the hearts 
 of men of all generations. ‘‘My Lord and 
 my God.’’ Dispelled are all the doubts of 
 Thomas. In the joy of a profound convic- 
 tion he fulfills a glorious apostolate. 
 Professor Peabody, in his lectures on 
 ‘The Religion of an Educated Man,’’ so dis- 
 criminatingly discusses the evolution of Nic- 
 odemus that I would do you an injustice if 
 I gave you only my own words. Hear, there- 
 fore, Professor Peabody on Nicodemus: 
 ‘‘In three widely-scattered passages of 
 the Fourth Gospel there are written the three 
 
 192 
 
JESUS AND DOUBTERS 
 
 successive chapters of this evolution of a 
 scholar’s faith. It is the case of a man 
 named Nicodemus; and the story of his life 
 is a summary of all that we have said. He 
 was not, like most of those who came to 
 Jesus, a fisherman or peasant; he was a cul- 
 tivated gentleman, bred in the schools of 
 learning; and the message which he could 
 receive must be a message to the scholar. 
 He came to Jesus, first of all, not with the 
 noisy crowd, but in a quiet hour, when he 
 could calmly study truth. It was a prudent 
 plan. On that uninterrupted evening Jesus 
 made His great demand of the scholar, that 
 he should become a child again if he would 
 receive perfect truth. ‘Except a man be 
 born again he can not see the kingdom of 
 God.’ The scholar goes out into the night, 
 unconvinced and unconverted, saying, ‘How 
 can these things be?’ and for two years we 
 do not hear of him again. But what a 
 change has come over his mind when once 
 more Nicodemus steps out of the shadowy 
 background of the gospel. He has proceeded 
 from childlikeness to candid sympathy, from 
 
 13 193 
 
SHOP TALKS 
 
 obedience to fidelity. The message of Jesus, 
 he now says, shall have its hearing. ‘Doth 
 our law judge any man before it hear him?’ 
 The truth has now approached the scholar, 
 as the scholar at first approached the truth. 
 Nicodemus is no longer a critic; he has be- 
 come the brave and patient student, the can- 
 did judge of truth. Then once more this 
 cultivated gentleman disappears from the 
 record until the life of Jesus ends. The 
 truth seems nailed upon the cross and bur- 
 ied in the grave. Pilate has said to Jesus, 
 ‘What is truth?’ and then has added, ‘Take 
 Him away and crucify Him.’ It is the mo- 
 ment when all who believed in Him have fled. 
 At that moment comes once more the scholar 
 —he who had once wanted to debate and 
 judge. He comes no longer to criticise or 
 to defend, but silently and loyally to serve. 
 He brings his myrrh and aloes for the body 
 of Jesus—nay, he brings his own life as an 
 offering for the truth which he has learned 
 to love. At the moment when the truth 
 seems defeated the evolution of the scholar’s 
 religion is fulfilled. Step by step the mind 
 
 194 
 
 
 
JESUS AND DOUBTERS 
 
 of the educated man has moved, from criti- 
 cism to sympathy, from sympathy to sacrifice, 
 until at last, precisely when many an un- 
 trained mind takes flight, it is the scholar 
 who brings the rational offering of service 
 as his answer to the message of the Christ.’’ 
 I trust that this discourse on ‘‘ Jesus and 
 Doubters’’ may have fruit in making us 
 more broadly tolerant even as was the Great 
 Teacher. May we henceforth realize, also, 
 that Jesus invites honest and sincere study 
 of Himself. Jesus would convince the reason 
 and capture the heart. He would have faith 
 lead to knowledge, and knowledge to in- 
 erease faith. He would have a thought-be- 
 gotten, love-inspired loyalty. May we, like 
 Thomas and Nicodemus, render great serv- 
 ice to the Master, in whom, because of in- 
 vestigation, we have been led to believe. 
 
 195 
 

 

 

 

 
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