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THE LABOR QUESTION:
WHAT ANSWER SHALL THE CHURCH GIVE?

BY
REV. JAMES R. DANFORTH.

THE LABOR QUESTION:

WHAT ANSWER SHALL THE CHURCH GIVE?

PREACHED AT
CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA,
March 14th, 1886.

BY
Key. JAMES E. DANFOKTH, Pastoe.

PHILADELPHIA:
Jas. B. Rodgebs Printing Company, 52 & 54 N. Sixth St.
• .1886.

THE LABOR QUESTION,

'For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." — Pom. xiv., 7.

Two reasons have induced to the selection of this verse
as the text. It teaches solidarity and accountability.
Protestantism is individualizing — it sets a man by him
self — and builds him up personally. Here is your Bible:
read it for yourself. Let no man come between you and
your God. You are responsible for your beliefs or lack of
belief. This we' offer as a fact, not as an adverse criticism.
A democratic form of Government, such as our own, is
also individualizing. It places by theory each man upon
political equality before the law. It declares him a sovereign,
and commits to his individual judgment how the sovereign
franchise of the ballot shall be exercised. Each one is pre
sumed to think, to choose, to decide, and to act for himself.
Unimpaired and unconditioned he may exercise certain rights.
The prevailing spirit or principle underlying the conduct
of business and its object, is likewise individualizing. Men
are, for the most part, in business for their personal advan
tage. Their thought of benefiting the public, or of advancing
the interests of others rarely enter into the plan for the
year. It is quite enough for them to keep their own affairs
in hand. So the element of what beneficial or injurious
effect upon the mercantile community or the mechanical
population may arise from my plan, except as to the manner
in which it will make or mar my profits, is not considered-
Thus, in what comprises the strongest thought and effort of

the vast majority of business men, and of laboring men and
mechanics as well, the ruling idea is self- advancement. Self
is the centre of the crystalizing mass. Self is the axle upon
which the year revolves. Very often this self-centering pro
cess becomes a hard, unprincipled, unfeeling, remorseless
tyranny and despotism of selfishness. When this is the case
men not only don't see, but will not see any other interest,
or respect any other person except themselves; and only as
their own selfish interests may be involved with the interests
of another do they recognize and regard them. Just as it is
for the interest of the fox's head to keep the tail out of the
trap, Against this individualizing tendency and position, degen
erating to selfishness, the text protests. As with individual
men — so with individual churches — and as well with denom
inations, the same belittling spirit is to be guarded against:
the same dwarfing of sympathy and of effort is to be
resisted. Our duty has not been discharged to humanity
when we have fed and clothed our ownselves and children,
nor have we understood our privileges nor occupied the full
field of duty to Christianity and the Christ, when doing the
much or little we have for our Baptist, or Methodist, or
Presbyterian, or Episcopal, or Congregational Church. As
a matter of fact, "no man liveth unto himself, and no man
dieth unto himself." We are either a weight upon the neck
of society to drag humanity down, or we are an inspiration
in the heart of humanity to lift it up. Society either gains
or loses — is hurt or helped — by us. This needs no proof; it
demonstrates itself, and if that was all that Paul had to
teach he might as well have held his peace. For the fact is
as plain as that snow is white or that coal is black. Paul's
statement of fact is the step to a purpose; the fact should
lead to the purpose. If our nature is such, and our sur
roundings or environment is such that none liveth nor dieth
to himself, this should be taken into account in the making
of plans — in the acceptance of purpose. As his letter is

addressed to Christians, Paul reminds them that their plan
should have regard to the Lord, and that their life and
death should be to the Lord. But we serve God and honor
him best by "loving the brotherhood" and saving the lost,
and "ministering to those in need." We can not clothe,
feed, train, educate, assist, elevate and save the Lord God
Omnipotent.- We serve Him by what we do for one of the
least of those children and creatures of his on the earth.
This brings to the front the second idea of the text — that
of responsibility. We may not be accountable for the fact
that none of us "liveth to himself — and no man dieth to
himself." No one is responsible for having been born — but
being born, having this influence, being inextricably woven
into the warp and woof of society, being a breathing, active,
living portion and member of humanity, each one is, and
must be, accountable for the use to which he puts his powers;
responsible for the purpose he forms in life.
It is not necessary for me to describe the social phenomena
that are occurring before our eyes, and that are occupying
columns of our daily papers. There is extreme unrest, and
unprecedented activity among the laboring people of our
country. They are not satisfied either with their position
or wages. In consequence, disturbances upon a scale, that
twenty years ago would have been deemed impossible, are of
daily occurrence. So intelligently have they been organized, and
with such thorough discipline, that their power is exerted, and
their influence is acknowledged across the continent. While
these organizations may not include the majority of those who
depend upon labor-wages, yet, in the selection of the kind of
labor — and in the quality of the men selected, great general
ship has been shown. The strategic points have been shrewdly
detected, and the assaults have been made for the most part
with rare insight. For a new field in a strange campaign, the
mistakes of generalship have been comparatively rare. We
had become accustomed to combinations of capital, and had
seen large interest consolidate with larger interest, or larger

6
interest eating up the smaller one, until huge monopolies
dictated their own terms to a helpless public. Much had
been written and spoken against monopolies — their power and
greed, their disastrous effect upon private enterprise, and the
peril they threatened ; methods and measures of restraint and
of direction were considered. The only help seemed to be in
the direction of legislation — in an appeal to government, i. e.,
society in its political function must control these monetary
institutions and industrial organizations ; when a new force
is developed, almost with the rapidity and suddenness that
Minerva, is said to have sprung fully armed from the head of
Jupiter — the Knights of Labor stride upon the scene. By
a word, he strikes a paralyzing blow upon corporations that
had bribed legislatures, despised private rights, betrayed its
ten thousand dupes, and dreamed of itself as supreme in its
south-western empire. Whether that power of the Knight of
Labor was wisely and rightly employed, or the reverse, we
do not ask at this point ; we simply point to the power and
bid you look at it. Such perseverance belongs to no dwarf.
An arm having such strength, a hand possessing such a
clutch is not to be despised ; and must be henceforth reckoned
with as one of the forces that has come to stay. It means
nothing less than this, that "the fourth estate" — the working-
people — have come to the front. Labor has become so
intellectually developed that it is capable of making plans,
forming organizations, consolidating and extending interests,
as to compete in these regards with the best disciplined forces
of capital. Let us, as wise men, recognize this condition;
and as Christian men, proceed to make the most and best of
it, for God and humanity. Again, I say, we do not now raise
the question of like or dislike, of approval or of condemna
tion — this is the situation: The movement is not that of a
week or a day. Its causes lie far back in lhe past; they have
been working silently and steadily as hidden fires. They
have at length opened up a way and found expression ; you
cannot, if you would, crowd them back and put them where
they were.

How then shall we treat the labor question? and what shall
be our attitude towards the wage- worker? What should be
the feeling and position of Christians in regard to this accom
plished revolution? For this is what the movement is — a
revolution. A reform simply takes existing powers and persons
and changes, modifies and develops them, leaving them in
substantially the same relation to each other. A revolution
is radical in its changes. Brings that forward which was
behind ; lifts that up which was beneath. It involves a transfer
of power. Such, if I mistake not, is the nature of this move
ment — the great majority which in the past have been ruled,
and ordered and controlled by those above them in wealth and
intelligence, have now taken their own affairs into their own
hands. Capital and labor must henceforth treat with each other
upon equal terms. . The machinist and the manufacturer are
to look through level eyes upon each other. One is not down
and the other up. Hereafter they will be both up or both
down. This is the inevitable outcome. It is quite possible
that capital will not accept the situation without stern resist
ance. It is quite probable that labor will be elated to unjust
and impossible demands. Through the hard knocks of heavy
losses and much wretchedness and misery we may have to learn
a new political economy — but the old methods have gone or are
going — the old principles must, many of them, be transformed.
Already we have in our new text-books scarcely anything of
wealth (which was the substance of the old) and very much of
labor (which received but a glance in the old).
Amid the strifes of the present and the fears for the future,
the Christian may stand unmoved with anxiety and moved only
with the stimulus of a sublime trust in God. These things
have not occurred outside of God's plan. They are a part of
that wonderful providence through which, by ways unknown to
us, He is to bring about the redemption of mankind. Look at
the condition of the masses during the middle ages. Attached
to the soil, yet often left to starve upon it, they were the toys,
the dupes and the victims of a few titled families whose houses

were in castles upon rocky summits. What do we know or hear
of the many, except when they were goaded by famine that
could no longer be endured, and by wrongs, indignities and
cruelties that cannot be mentioned, to engage in a revolt of
despair? Their fate, when cut down by sword and thrust
through by spear, was sometimes kinder than the life that many
had lived. But this serfdom and slavery were not always to
endure. Intelligence crept among them. They congregated in
cities — they bartered and sold. With increasing wealth and
knowledge came corresponding power. Guilds and fraternities
of master workmen and of merchants were at length able to
throw off the yoke of titled supremacy and family despotism,
and "they buried the feudal lord with his fathers, and the guild
reigned in his stead." Here the apprentice, the journeyman
and the master formed one family. They were all workmen
together. All were producers.
I quote now from so eminent an authority as President
Francis A. Walker : " But at the end of the eighteenth
" century there came a great change. New and great in-
"dustries arose; operations were multiplied; individualism
"reigned supreme. The employer needed no longer to know
"a trade; business instinct was enough. Laborers were to
"him as so much raw material. The first effects were
"hideous; children three years of age working in factories,
"hours of work from five in the morning till seven at night;
" unfenced machinery and mangled operatives. In the teeth
"of opposition, despising the economists, the elder Peel
"carried through the first factory acts, the model for the
"world. Public opinion was aroused, laws against trades-
" unions were repealed, and the laborer became self-reliant
" and more able to compete." The horrors and infamies of
the mines, known to every student of history, darker than
the pits in which they were enforced by self-interest without
soul, and competition without feeling, write with ink of hell
the godless lengths to which unrestricted greed for gain is
willing to go. The bitter cry of hard bondage that went up to

God from heathen Egypt by oppressed Israel was repeated from
Christian England in the eighteenth century. From shaft of
mine and factory window the exceeding great and bitter cry
reached the ear of God. The oppressor this time was capital,
holding the iron sceptre of supply and demand — of self-
interest — and moving upon the Juggernaut wheels of com
petition, unrestrained by legislation, uncontrolled by public
opinion. The improvement came, not from those who were
suffering, not from the oppressed. They were too weak to
resist. They were too worn to protest. They did not dare
to utter a complaint. Dwarfed, deformed, wretched, utterly
miserable, the little ones and their weazened parents could
but drag themselves from hovel to factory, and from factory
to hovel. They could but lie down and gasp in the thick
air of the mine, saving breath for the next hard pull. When
the Christian philanthropists of England — those in easy cir
cumstances, with wealth and influence, and the love of man
and the fear of God-*-claimed that the law higher than that
of trade and manufacture, the law of humanity, should
prevail. Working hours were shortened, the working age was
limited, and, though left far too long, men and women could
begin to feel that they were human.
It is well that we should again and again be reminded
of those horrible days, because they were the logical results
of those two principles of self-interest and competition, when
left to their own natural working. They are the upper and
nether millstone between which noble manhood, chaste woman
hood, and sweet childhood, would be ground to ignoble dust.
And the producer would be well nigh as helpless as the
laborer. What can the kind-hearted capitalist do in liberality
towards his laborers, when his neighbor, a mecm-spirited
competitor, through longer hours and heavier exactions upon
labor, manufactures more cheaply, and therefore undersells
him ? People will buy where they can get the most goods for
the least money. Some of the warmest advocates of the
restriction by law of hours and ages of labor and laborers,

10
were among the manufacturing, the producing, classes of
England. Now when the laborer has had time to think; when his
children have been sent to school; when he has been taught to
read and study ; when papers, pamphlets and books are within
his reach; when he has so developed in intelligence, and self-
restraint, and self-command as to be able voluntarily to combine
for the maintenance of his own rights and the vindication of
his own interests, it is in reality the removal of a heavy burden
from the moneyed class and the advent of a great social
improvement. The great question has been asked again and
again with fatiguing repetition, "How shall we elevate the
masses ?" It would seem as though, in the providence of God,
the masses are about to elevate themselves. This I believe,
while familiar with the fact that the vast majority of the wage-
workers have kept away from our churches, and are charged
with being infidels, atheists, socialists, communists, nihilists and
I know not what not. Having been at some pains to learn, by
personal interviews and frequent conversations with working
men, I simply brush aside as false the wholesale charge of
infidelity, while the charge of atheism does not deserve a
patient reply.
The wage-worker has found in the churches those better
off than himself, who were not at particular pains to under
stand and sympathize with him. He was poor and sensitive;
his expenses kept pace with his wages. He did not feel that
he could afford to hire his pew or so clothe his family that
they could appear on equal terms with the best. Perhaps
the style of service and the matter and manner of the pulpit
did not bear to him the message that he needed. The
church was to him a social club, from which ,his circum
stances excluded him. He felt that he was not wanted; and
had too much native pride to go where he was not wanted.
(I am giving you honest reasons that have been given me). The
church was composed largely of the employing class in some
instances. These, and other reasons, some true, some false,

11
have resulted in the estrangement between the masses and the
churches. So our churches have grown thick where wealth
resides and thin where poverty dwells. We have managed to
turn a deplorable summersault. To the rich the gospel is
preached. If the poor were to throng into our churches — the
unchurched masses — we would immediately be compelled to
build ten churches where we have one, to accommodate them
all. We have now traced, in broad outline, the march of the
working masses, from abject dependence upon the caprice of
feudal lords, through the industrial phenomenon of the guild,
the misery of the selfish and unrestricted industrialism of self-
interest and competition, and up to the huge combinations of
capital — corporations that are not dependent upon the life of an
individual, but move on with new hands to take the helm
when the present hands fall away. As over against the
corporate capital we see the corporate labor. What shall be
the position of the church ? What shall be the attitude of the
Christian ? This is a critical question, because the times are
critical. A clear eye, a balanced judgment, a firm will are
needed now. The church should, with prayer and trust, seek
guidance from God, and go forward as He directs.
We cannot, we must not permit ourselves to maintain the
indifferent attitude of the past. One second to none in the
wide and careful study given these great and new social move
ments, Prof. Eichard T. Ely, of Johns Hopkins University,
thus writes :
" Those with us who ought to have assisted the general
" labor movement, to have brought it to intelligence and
"business skill, and infused it with high Christian purpose,
" have too often stood aloof from it, even when they have
" not been positively hostile to it." He continues : " It is
" my deliberate opinion that in no country in the civilized
" world, have the laborers as such been so isolated as in the
"large industrial centres of the United States. Both in
" Germany and in England, many of the most brilliant and

12
" renowned and highest - minded men of our times have
"been heart and soul with the laborers in all their aspira-
" tions and struggles. Such has not been the case in the
"United States."
The reason for this sad absence of championship is doubt
less in part that no ancient privileges nor mouldy exemptions,
based upon unjust distinctions of caste and class, have called
out in attack the chivalric spirit of the brave. Again the
vast extent of land to be had for the settling upon it has
relieved the strain and excess of pressure and suffering
which excited the sympathy and active interest in other
countries of those more fortunate and cultivated than the
sufferers. But what may cause us regret has been of advan
tage to the labor movement. It has had no champion from
those in happier circles. That same individualism which
kept the capitalist at work for himself has been in the air
of this free land. The laborer has breathed it and being
left to act for himself, has now and thus begun to act. He
is standing upon his feet and is able to offer terms and
argue causes.
The question then returns upon us, How shall we treat
the new power? What relations shall we try to sustain
toward it? Not as a church — but as Christian men and
women ?
Still do we hesitate before answering, because wanting to
know the nature and objects of the movement before giving
or withholding our assent, sympathy and co-operation.
We may best and most clearly learn of their objects by
their complaints. These can be scarcely stated more clearly
and concisely than by Washington Gladden's remarkable
article in the Century Magazine for the current month, enti
tled, "The Strength and Weakness of Socialism." "Indeed,
"these tendencies to which they (the laborers) point, — the
"tendency of wages to sink to starvation point; the tendency
" of the workman's share of the national wealth to grow con
stantly smaller; the tendency of commercial crisis and

13
"depression to become more frequent and disastrous; the
" tendency of all business operations and enterprises to become
" concentrated in fewer hands, and the consequent tendency to
" confine the wage-laborers more and more rigidly to their
" present condition, with the steady growth of a plutocracy
" on the one side and a proletariat on the other, — all these
"are, as I believe, (the author writes) the natural issues of
"an industrial system whose motive power is self-interest,
"and whose sole regulative principle is competition."
Every fair-minded, intelligent business man must acknowl
edge the existence of these tendencies. In the matter of
tendencies a true bill of indictment has been found. Each
count will ' likewise stand. The tendency towards relatively
lower wages; the smaller share in the general wealth; the
more frequent interruption of continuous employment; the
larger enterprises with the few men who do all the thinking,
determining and accumulating; the increasing stiffening of
the lines drawn about the laborer, tying him down to his
work and lot; the few heads and pockets; the many hands
and mouths; the plutocracy; and the proletariat, this is
the tendency — we must recognize it now that it is shown
us. Those in easy conditions have not felt it because it has
not touched them. , The laborer has learned it because he
could feel its thongs tightening about hand and foot. In the
eighteenth century, when the tendency of "that industrial
" system whose sole motive power is self-interest, and whose
" sole regulative principle is competition," had reached its
logical issue in the shameful horror of the mines and the
wicked outrage of the factory, the elder Peel sprang to the
front and championed the cause of those who were ready to
perish. The same tendency exists — its only restraint has
been public opinion and the laws that this opinion makes and
enforces. But men are busy, each class is carrying its own
burden : we do not feel the pressure of anothers' burden as
we do the weight and friction of our own. Far better is it
that each class of industry should have a mind to know its,

14
own wants : and a voice to speak them : and a power to
have what is right respected.
One of the plain lessons of history is that of the inevitable
tendency of all arbitrary and irresponsible power to deteriorate
into a degrading and grinding despotism. You may not have
felt this tendency because you were not under the chill of its
shadow ; but the wage-laborer, whether* receiving his stipend
in a monthly salary or a week's wages, has felt it. The condi
tions of starting for oneself are harder : with the vast corpor
ations and immense establishments monopolizing production
and distribution — quick of eye to see every advantage, strong
of hand to seize and hold it — the few managers and proprietors
are asking and demanding now, men who will do not self-
thinking and self-working, but thinking and working for them.
Machinery enters in, ploughs the field, sows the grain, reaps
the harvest ; spins the cloth and sews the garment. While it
increases the mass of manufactured goods, it is a partial substi
tute for the laborer. Machines can be multiplied indefinitely,
so that we may have at a month's notice either over-production
or under-consumption, whichever the economists are pleased to
term it — we will not quarrel with words. It is against these
tendencies that the wage -workers complain, and justly complain.
Their object is to so combine as to be able to resist the tend
ency — to stand upon their feet and to treat upon equal and
equitable terms with capital. " We have the labor ; you have
" the capital. Your capital is worth nothing without our labor.
" Our labor is idle without your capital. With you the rich
"have been growing richer; with us there has been little
" advance — in many cases the poor have been growing poorer.
" Let labor have a larger per cent, of the profits of its own
" industries. Let us be not merely operatives, but co-operatives.
" You want to conduct the business, and direct the industries,
"and move the activities of the world alone. But we are
" directly and deeply interested. Our food, ourselves, our fam-
" lies are involved. None liveth to himself, and no man dieth
" unto himself. We do not and cannot stand apart. Being

15
" thus bound together, as link is forged to link in the strong
" chain of humanity, we, the labor-link, must have our share
" of metal if we are to do our share of lifting; and must hence-
" forth have voice and vote in the world's doings." The justice
of this, as an abstract position, is self-apparent. It is conceded.
But the grave mistakes that organized labor has made have
no defense. Its revolting arrogance and disgusting dictation
we condemn. Its injustices and outrages upon those workers
weaker than itself, to the extent even of violence and murder,
deserve the prison cell and the hangman's noose. For nihilists
and anarchists in rampant action, civilized and Christian society
has but few words and a short shrift. "They that take the
sword shall perish by the sword." Men, mad with bad hearts,
cannot run a muck through our streets. We don't fear them,
and we will not endure them. In spite of dynamitic swagger,
they have sensitive necks.
But these few anarchists do not represent the laboring
masses. They are its enemies, not its friends. I do not expect
navigation is to be smooth and clear. The labor organizations
must learn that might does not make right; but that right
makes might. What in right reason and just cause they can
demand must ultimately be granted. For such the "stars in
their courses are fighting." " Thrice-is he armed who hath his
quarrel just"; and he's but poorly armed, though clad in steel.
Vain will be the compacted strength and the wide extent of
labor organization, unless justice to all is the presiding motive.
Torn with internal dissension, pressed by external opposition,
they will cause disaster to capital and misery to labor, until
another organization, more wisely administered, arises. Re
garding organization itself, we have ground for rejoicing.
Growth in intelligence, power of self-repression and of patience,
strength of purpose, sacrifice of the immediate good for security
of the larger remote benefit, the outlook that is wide enough
to take in the fellow-worker's concern, comprehension of a
community of interest that is trans - continental, ability to
organize and maintain vast numbers with diverse occupations,

16
the discussion of wages, and labor and capital in their relations ;
these are all broadening and deepening in their effect upon
thought and conduct. Labor will produce stronger, manlier
men in consequence of it. This I am confident is and must be
the case after large discount has been made for the chicanery
of the merely unprincipled demagogue, who, through greed of
gain, deceives in order to betray. It is a hopeful movement,
giving promise of a general elevation of those who are first to
suffer and last to be relieved. The earliest suggestion of
retrenchment usually is not followed by a closer economy for
self; but a dismission of the idle hands and a cut-down of
the wage3. Capital lets labor do the economizing. In store
and factory and railroad this is the usual course. We know
considerate and Christian employers (some are before me) who
have carried their help at heavy cost to themselves. These are
cases in which other motives than self-interest prevail, and
another principle than competition rules, viz: humanity and
Christianity. What is the great object for which society should exist?
What is the grand goal toward which all its efforts should
press ? What is the noblest product that mankind can achieve?
There can be but one answer — man. The life is more than
meat ; the body is more than raiment ; the man is of greater
worth than the mill or the manufactory; the book-keeper is
worth more than the books. Bonds or stocks accumulated at
the expense of mankind, houses or factories erected at the
cost of degrading humanity, roads constructed and routes
opened at the expense of wrong done to labor, are instances of
destructive energy tending to social disaster.
The employer and capitalist need to have intelligent organ
ized labor to rescue him from the helpless position of one who
would be either driven out of occupation or compelled to screw
down labor to the bare necessities of famine rations.
While not endorsing all the methods, while rejecting most'
of the philosophy and wild doctrine and still wilder expectations
of the visionary enthusiasts among those engaged in this great

17
revolutionary labor movement, of which the Knights of Labor
is but a symptom and indication, still the movement is towards
a larger manhood. It is in the direction of a larger know
ledge, an increasing capability, a better condition, and a
stronger manhood. As such it should be welcomed and
assisted by all lovers of their kind, who care more for the
image and superscription of God upon the human soul, than
for the image and superscription of Caesar upon the coin. The
common sense and moral sentiment of the country will assist
and approve of all acts that within the bounds of law and
justice, compel proper hours and suitable wages for honorable
work. And while the churches of our holy religion may not in
their corporate and organic capacity take action, yet their
members, as guided by high motives, influenced by lofty princi
ples and possessed of the spirit of Him who came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom
for many, should do all in their power to give tone, character,
direction and success in all right ways. These are our brethren.
It is the province of the church to build the image of
Christ in the soul of man. We are to know no man as
capitalist or laborer. Capitalists are to be worked for by us
and to be received into our membership because they are
men, converted men, saved by Jesus Christ, and dedicated
to Him. The wage-laborer is to be worked -for by us with
equal assiduity and devotion, and to be received into our
membership, not because he is a laborer, but because he is a
man, a converted man, saved by Jesus Christ, and dedicated
to Him. We are to know neither Jew nor Greek, neither
bond nor free, neither rich nor poor; — the distinctions of
time, and accidents of birth, are no part of the Christian
faith. They sink into deserved insignificance before the
majestic presence of the human soul, informed by the Spirit
and redeemed by the Christ of God. Not as patron does
the real church of Christ receive the capitalist within her
doors; not as beneficiary does the real church of Christ
receive the laborer within her doors; but as men who have

18
the same great needs, the same great perils, the same great
possibilities; as men over whom the same Great Father
bends in love and solicitude, for whom the same great salvation
has been provided, and before whom the same Christ the
Lord stands, mighty to save and almighty to redeem. Because
of these large interests, mighty motives and sublime destiny,
the chuech of Christ welcomes both. In the courts of
the Lord's house the rich and the poor meet together upon
equal terms — "the Lord is the maker of them all."
You may depend upon it, that this great social upheaval
is caused by some great necessity. The effect proves the
cause. Acquaint yourself with the cause, and give it such
guidance, sympathy and support as shall improve the character
and condition of man, and enlarge the kingdom of God.
To sympathize with men and help them we must know
them. Visit the wage-laborer at his work and in his home.
Learn his thoughts and feelings; his opinions and prejudices;
his aims and hopes. Understand him. Have we a right to
live in such ignorance and indifference of each other as many
seem to have done? The path of the Christian is clear. He
. is to do good unto all men as he finds opportunity. Let
each study his opportunity and improve it for good of man
and glory of God. ^

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