The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-12
SOCIAL SOLIDARITY.

[pSSg OhA
Rev. Oscar G. McCulloch's topic last evening
at Plymouth Church was "Social Solidarity
The first selection read by him as a preface to
his discourse was from the fourth chapter of
Genesis. narrating the birth Of Cain and Abel,
their offerings unto the Lord, the murder OF
Abel, and Gains answer Am l my brothers
keeperF' His second selection was from an
English publication GOOD Words" and bore the
title the Chemistry of Character He took as
his text Romans xii: 4 aud 5. 'F0r as we have
many members in one body and all members
have not the same Office: so, we being many, are
one body in Christ, and every one members one
of another"
He said the object of the evenings talk was
three-fold. The general subject here is Chris
tianity In common life, to show the relation be-
tween Christian members and the life Wa live
to-day. We apply this to the common, daily,
everyday life we live, and that it is not merely
something to save the soul for after happiness,
but the body, life and soul for the life that now
is, believing that he who has learned to live to-
day is prepared for tomorrow and all futures.
The object is, first, to educate those who may
listen here to see the connection between the
PAAbSiPA0o AZ u0liy i2ACt tAO kACdb uAbuTdl pIluoA
pie which has blossomed out into the Christian
faith, and has come to bless the world; second,
agitation, to stir, to move you. to make you
think; third, to form, or begin to form, public
opinion, for the change we wish to initiate must
come from the people. The first step, then, is
education. next agitation, and then public opin-
ion, crystallizing the opinions thus brought to
light.
Ralph Waldo Emerson has said that the most
dangerous man that can ever come into the
world is the man that thinks. The beginning of
all revolutions is in the brain of the man who
thinks. Wendell Phillips said, where there are
twelve men, there are the beginnings of
a revolution. Trace the Mississippi to its
a little spring, but it flows on
and on, and tributary after tributary adds it's
waters until 1t swells into a mighty food. So 1t
is in the individual mind that all great changes
begin. One thinks, and then another, and an
other, until they combine, and the education of
others goes on until o whole social structure may
be undermined and it may crumble in a mo-
ment We remember how the institution of
slavery passed away.
Keep out the printer and the newspaper il you
want things kept as they are. Said Napoleon:
L am more afraid of a newspaper than / am of
a million of men," They are the dangerous ele-
ments in the community-never content to let
we'll enough alone. I used to think that the
word God" meant simply good. I have found
that it means the ~agitator, the great mover. It
means he who keeps in ceaseless agitation the
elements of things. He stirs up men to think.
My subject is "Social Solidarity" Some few
years ago my friends, President Jordan, of the
State University, and Prof. Charles Gilbert,
with a company of Indiana people, made the as
cent Of the Matterhorn. In making the ascent
they were tied one to another at intervals of a
few feet stretched along a rope. There was an
accident. A dislodged stone came rafting down
and struck Professor Gilbert. Had it not been
for the fact that they were thus fastened to-
gether there would have been a life lost. But
the fact that they were go fastened enabled them
to sustain the dreadful strain, and they held to-
gether and saved q life. Society is thus tied to-
gether. We rise or fall together. The stumbling
of one might bring all down, or the rise of one
bring all up.
Solidarity Is a French word, brought tc- us by
Kossuth. when. pleading for Hungary, he visited
the question why should we help Hungary. a
country 30 far away, the people of a different
language, there is nothing in common between
u.s." He told us that it made a great difference
to us because of the solidarity, the oneness of
humanity. The cause of all freedom is interested.
IT Hungary is borne down by the weight of en-
pires, every republic is endangered by the at
tack. Republics are q menace to kings. AS
loEg as a single republic lifts its head among the
nations kings are endangered. Therefore, he
SdlOy IL iS yOuk u W AOiP n q VIII "
sympathy, with your aid, for il she falls. one
republic after another may go down. So he
pleaded for his country, on the ground of human
solidarity-that his cause was our cause, that no
man liveth unto himself or dieth unto himself.
Individuality is opposed to solidarity. It says
every man liveth unto himself. 1t says take
care of number one; each for himself and the
devil take the hindmost. It says let each man
rise or fall by the uplift of his own powers. In
dividuality says America for Americans,
Indiana for Fndianiaua Tp1ionapol;c
for Indianapolitans. Solidarity says we
are members, one to another, members with
different functions, parts related to other parts;
we bear each others shame. bear each others
loss; we fall together or rise together; what one
suffers all suffer. That is solidarity-that the
concern of one is the concern of all. A pain in
the foot is felt in the head, hunger makes itself
known in all the members of the body So is it
in the body-politic. If a great suffering comes
to a class it comes to all; il q great JOY comes
to one class it comes to all.
From the very earliest time God has been try
ing to teach the lesson to the world that we are
each members of a great whole, and you see it in
that savage story of primitive times, Where is
thy brotherW and the answer, "Am / my broth
er's keeper!" The answer is the beginning of
the devils doctrine of individuality and in the
other of solidarity. that no man stands alone.
We are keepers of one another. We are mu-
tually responsible for each others happiness or
each others misery. Here we find the begin
ming Of the two forces that are at work in So
ciety. The whole history Of civilization is sim
ply a struggle between these two forces. ALI
government beginnings, in their ~faintest forms,
are simply an expression of this solidarity--the
union of a few to withstand dangers. All an
archy in government is simply an expression of
the other, the violent and destructive element,
each taking his life and fortune into his own
hand. Cain was the first infdel. He denied
the faith in humanity.
The goodness of the fathers reappears in MS
and the sins of the fathers. We suffer for the
sins of our ancestors. and our children shall suf-
fer for ours. AS the past and present are thus
organically related, SO is the present and the
future, each to each. Communities are related
to communities, states to states, nations to ma
tons. / cannot even now read Sydney Smiths
denunciation of Pennsylvania for repudiating
her debts without a blush of shame. It brought
shame to the United States. The reputation of
her debt by Evansville will make it harder to