The examiner., 1882-03-11
What is your Christianity in the
 World fOr.'

World for"
 Who will deny that but for the unceas- ing, untiring efforts of restless agitators this world would now be sunk in the depths of barbarism. Where was there ever any great movement eliminating in the over throw of some gigantic wrong, and con advancement of human rights, that is not directly attributable to the efforts of individuals of this class? But, few of them live to behold the fruit-time of their labors, while many, very many are called away ere the budding blossoms give token of the coming harvest; while all are doomed to suffer persecution.
 Christ died on the cross; why because 'Ci.e spake as no man ever spake before"- he pleaded for the poor and the oppressed. John Brown died on the scafold; why because he acted for the freedom of the only instance in modern times where the leading spirit of any great reform was vouchsafed the satisfaction of witnessing its successful accomplishment. And the men who afforded him the proud position of hoist1ng aloft the stars and stripes over the prostrate form. of chattel slavery, would a few years before see him dragged through the public streets with halter around his neck, and offer not the slightest remonstrance. But the cross from being an emblem of disgrace becomes and em- blem of honor and veneration, and the scaffold from which the spirit of John Brown leaped into eternity, became the triumphant arch under which passed Abraham Lincoln ascending throne.
 And so it is to-day: Those who are engaged in broadening and deepening the lines of thought that inspired those heroic reformers of the past, are exposed to the sneers, slurs and sarcasm of the selfish, the recreant and the minimizing; and suffer persecution at the hands of those who would pinion the wings of thought, and incarcerate the spirit that dares to throb for freedom. But as sure as the name of Christ is venerated. and the soul of John Brown is marching on, so sure will the spirit of righteousness yet prevail.
 
 agitation is invading the pulpit, and men who heretofore could dwell on nothing but Christ crucified, theorise on abstruse doc trines, and indulge in cold, heartless and machine-l like forms and formalities, are at last coming squarely to the front. making practical application to present conditions of such truths and axioms of the Christian doctrine as leave no doubt of their mean ing on the minds of the most unsophisti- cated'
 Among the bravest and most outspoken of the clerical gentlemen who have lately espoused the cause of the people and who seems to be thoroughly imbued with the importance of his subject, is the Rev. Dr. Rylance, rector of St. Marks (EpiscopaD church, of New York city.
 He is not one of those who feigns a holy horror at the ''wickedness" of men driven to deeds of desperation, while ignor. ing the cause that impels them onward. He looks beneath the surface for the roots of the tree bearing such unwholesome fruit.
 Hear him, especially you who profess to be earnest followers of the meek and lowly Saviour, and profit by his words oi truth and admonition :-
 They who have long sown the wind may look at length for the whirlwind. Nihilism is the legitimate offspring of a despotic rule prolonged beyond the limits of endur- ance, as the French Revolution was the natural consequence of the feudalism of the middle ages, which in 1789 had become intolerable. It may be that you deem the measures wild and wicked. But let some portion of your condemnation fall upon those who have provoked the wickedness, and reserve few drops of the pity you lavish upon ill l-treated emperors for the wretches who dare the scaffold, or who die in dungeons by the hundred, rather than live as the slaves of pampered and de- mented despotism.
 As long as the wage system endures; as long as capital remains king; as long as cold, constituencies competition decides mems allotment in life; as long as labor can be bought and sold on terms so un equal as now obtain so long will the workers lot remain poor and precarlous so long will the strife continue between capital and labor; so long will there bt bitterness between classes so long vii the weak be jostled aside or crushed il the struggle for bread. As sure as human slavery gave place to serfdom, and serfdon to individual freedom so surely will the present competitive system give place, il due time, to such an organization of indus try and commerce, as shall secure some thing like fair apportionment of the bur .dens of life. and something like a fair dis tribution of its blessings. Such hopes may be deemed chimerical by most of you yet the interval between our present sys tenn and that which some of us look for, i not greater than the interval between in dividual liberty and serfdom. l know th scorn that is felt for thoLe who dream ant talk in seemingly wild.way about ''univer sal brotherhood ;" but what is your Chris tianity in the world for, but to bring abou precisely such condition of things2
 Verify it seems as if we were entering ol the dawn of new era of genuine Chris tianity, that the second advent of the spiri of Christ was returning to reanimate ant bless his children.