The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-05-23
Back to Christ.

of modern society. The note OF
warning sounded by Prof. Goodwin
Smith and Judge Jameson eight or
ten years ago has penetrated the
elegant and luxurious fanes pre-
pared by generous hands, and with
the most extravagant expenditure
of the hard-earned pennies OF the
desolate poor, to shelter cardinals
from the storms that beat so pitt
lessly upon the unprotected backs
of their hocks, and he cries out,
"Back to Christ" This means OF
course back to Christianity; but it
means so much more than this that
one is surprised, immeasurably,
upon hearing such words from q
cardinal. 1t means that the Chris
tan churches have been misleading
US during all of these long years.
They have proclaimed, "This way
is Christ" when the scorning world
saw clearly that their pursuit was
Mammon and not Christ. But now
that Cardinal Gibbons has confessed
that the Christianity of the churches
is false pretence and called so
emphatic a halt in the race after
pelf and power, there seems posi-
bility that good may be done. The
churches have power and they have
but to use their power for the up
raising of humanity to "avert the
impending crisis between capital
and labor" But there is very little
in the condition of Christian states
at this time to encourage the hope
that return "to Christ, his exam
pie and teachings" will benefit the
wronged and down-trodden of the
nations. That Christ's teachings
admitting that he lived and taught
were wholly impractical is proven
by 1000 years of failure to better
the moral and economic status of
his disciples.
The Injunction delivered by him
Servants, be obedient to your mas
tiers in all things" would indeed
end all controversy between en-
ployer and employed, but it would
plunge the latter into still deeper
slavery than is now their lot, and
that we do not want. He that be-
lievetA and is baptised shall be
saved, he that believeth not shall
be DAMNED" is subject to equally
valid objections, as it deprives its
devotees of that prying desire to
know, which alone can give us men
of knowledge, capable men. To
love your neighbor as yourself"
would prove fruitless proceeding,
because your neighbor would not
reciprocate.
If civilization is not to be swept
by cataclysm of anarchy, and that
soon, we must turn our faces in the
direction Of the practical in both
morals and religion. We must have
a democratic religion and a moral
code that can be defined with prac-
teal clearness and made guide to
morality in the conduct and life of
the individual, and the state. Men
are wearying of dogmatism they
want truth. Having starved for
centuries on a diet of faith, they are
demanding more substantial food.
The doctrine that poverty, ignor-
ance and their concomitants of mis-
cry and despair, are providential
and therefore unavoidable, no longer
satisfies the quickened conscience
nor does the hope that a dark,
abandoned, slave life here shall be
rewarded by life of perfect beati-
tude in some vague, unrealizable
hereafter, longer appeal to the prac-
teal intelligence of men. The age
of reveries and dreams is fast
beng superseded by an age of
action and investigation. Prophe.
cies, revelations, vicarious atone
ments, like witchcraft, have served
their purpose and are being dis
carded for science, demonstration,
facts, law. Individualism has re-
volted against "divine right" The
dumb brutes who toiled for eighteen
centuries only to see their earnings
stolen to adorn the persons of
crowned and mitred desparadoes,
in the name of God, are being trans
formed into men who have faint
but growing conception of right
and wrong, of justice and injustice.
They are beginning to realize that
their earnings belong to them and
their families, and they are demand
ing their property. Behind this
righteous demand is the school
teacher, not the church, and the
demand will be pushed until the
school-teacher is banished, justice
done or society wrecked in a sea
of blood.
If Cardinal Gibbons really wants
to avert the catastrophe that threat
ems society he can do something
toward it by expelling extortioners,
and all who love gain better than
they do their God, from his church.
The religion fitted to the require
ments of the times would devote
it's energies, its influence and it's
example to toning down the in
equalities observed in society. 1t
wnuld roooeuro the citizen hy the