The Labor enquirer., 1884-11-22
SOCIALISM AND THE PULPIT
lsttsr q ! presbytsfian Clergyman
to tho Editor of ! socialistic
Publication.

From the Chicago Herald
Rev. Thomas Edward Green, pastor o.
the Eighth Presbyterian Church, in
acknowledgment of the receipt Of some
copies Of the paper containing comments
and criticisms upon the sermon on the
labor question printed in The Herald
writes to the editor Of the Arbeitel
Zeitung:
. 1t Is certainly remarkable concurrence
Of circumstances from any standpoint thai
brings together the pastor Of an orthodox
church and the editor or readers Of Social.
istic journal upon any sort sf common ground
OF argument and 1t only proves, does 1t not,
that infinite and absolute truth Is above al
systems or creeds, and that they in turn only
live because they have some part Of truth In
them' But am very glad of the oppor.
tunity Of speaking in this more familiar way
than formal address to the large number
Of workingmen of all natiOn2lities who Ger
tainly are among your readers. Glad, because
in all sincerity feel the greatest interest in
this question, of the relations of labor and
capital, and glad, too, because I cannot but
feel that the great army of workingmen and
the keen, incisive men who are their leaders,
are making fatal mistake in their remorse-
less and omniy0rous destructi0nism. shall
not intrude upon your space with any matter
OF mere theory. Theories give place to-day
to facts, and only that which is practical has
value. What we need, then, in this, as in
all questions, is not theory, but somthing
that is tangible, practible, as the carpenters
say, plan that will work out. With many
theories there is the same tault as with the
much-talked-of Keely motor they are very
hne, except they won't work.
Now, this labor question is not a new one
nor modern one. The facts and the rela-
tions have always existed. The rise or fall
of Greece or Rome, or Persia, Babylon or
Egypt, have had nothing to do with the great
universal fact of history-that there have
always been laborers and those who were
labored for. The fact was the same, Rome
standing or falling. But in these older
civilizations the relations was fixed, immu-
table one of master and slave. The laborer
was owned, life and labor, by master.
Only modern nations, and mark, only Chris
tian nations, have manumitted slaves, broken
this yoke, and given the laborer any right to
have rights. But the remnants of ancient
lordships fingered long and fingers still in
the tinsel titles and ranks of Europe. But
even there custom is serfdom, and the laborer
has no recognized right to have rights.
Hence, as you raise the question of the cause
of decay in civilization, let me say this:
''The problem has no connection with labor,
for the cimple reason that In all these ancient
civilizations labor was serfdom, slavery, and
had no rights or recognition either in their
rise or fall. The relation of the lord to the
laborer was exactly the same in Rone's
palmiest days and in her ruin"
Now for my thesis: The rights of the
laboring man have received recognition and
respect only in the nations governed and
ruled by the religion of the Bible.
You will not deny that the Hebrew legis-
lation and the Mosaic statutes were the most
magnificent embodiment of the justice and
equity that are the basis of the pure Commun-
ism. The Jews to-day, men dispersed and
scattered, have not among them any such
thing as the Labor Problem" And when
the Mosaic legislation had, as all things lin
the world do, become formal and hypocrital,
the ethics and maxims of the Christ were a
vast advance even upon the statutes of Moses
And here let us understand what mean by
religion. 1 do not wonder that those who in
custom-bound, lord ridden Europe seek de-
liverance from the bondage of the laborer's
lot, or even those who in selfish, grasping
America are contending against the abuse
and injustice Of monopoly, are atheistic and
so rabidly irreligious. 1t is not crime-it is
a natural effect. The man who is the lord of
a dozen villages claims to be eminently re-
ligious, yet he exacts unjustly from his sub
jects and abuses his lawfufrights. 10 the
laborer his religion and his justice 60 to-
gether, and the one damns the other. Here
in our own city a wealthy employer unjustly
demands of his men, takes advantage of
their dependence, turns sharp corners with
them, and yet they know he is church
member and an eminent person in religious
circles. Hence they couple religion and this
mans evil and condemn both. The de-
struction of the influence of religion anon {
the laboring classes has been the direct re-
suit of the negligent, INSCRIPTIONS lives
of those who have professed its service.
Does this, then, disprove religion
Does traitor damn the virtue
of royalty? Put before the laborer
Of today, agitating in Goddess revolution, the
question, to him all important, of his defense
from injustice-put before him, say, not
the inconsistent, contradictory life of the man
whose injustice they cannot but condemn,
but the plain, kind, sympathetic maxlms Of
the Christ and you meet another power than
that which men so commonly call religion.
Among the sons of men none ever SO
plainly, justly, so indiseriminately, pro-
claimed the true practicalization of" Liberte,
Fraternite, Egalite," as did Jesus of
Nazareth. History fails to match in all its
long PHILOSOPHERS his sublime summary OF
mans relative life, "As ye would that men
should do unto you, do ye even so unto
them"
Now, this is my claim-with the failures.
the struggles, the revolutions of the worlds
history beneath me--that religion is the
lever that must move the world" Not
hypocrisy, not cant, not insincerity, but the
spread and the practice of she philosophy of
the gospel. And now 1 fault the church.
1t concerns itself so much with the niceties
of dogma and neglects the burning facts Of
daily life; it discusses theories, contends over
hair-spHts, fights for the orthodoxy of some
incomprehensible definition, and COM
plaeently passes by the earnest, practical