Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-19
rMRITEN FoR THE pIsPATCH.l

| enough, and good deal OF an Improvement
upon the United States of America in this
year Of grace, 1891. But
The Way Over to It
is not so plain. We will somehow get there,
the prophets tell US; there will be social
revolution, there will be conquest of the
classes by the masses, there will be this and
that and the other crisis, catastrophe, bloom
ing out of the new lite from the old; and
then we will all love one another, and the
brotherhood of man will be blessed uni
versal reality. The truth is that while we
all want the millennium badly enough,
nobody is quite sure of the way to it. The
blind are leading the blind, and the end of
such leading is pretty certain to be q sud-
den fall into an unexpected ditch.
l have no faith in any dramatic beginning
| of the millennium. do not believe that
the curtain of cloud will roll up at the
tinkle Of any reformer's bell, and behold, q
new heaven and a new earth. The millen-
| mum is coming, but it is coming slowly,
| gradually. That is how God works. The
| millennium is coming, but it is coming in
| very homely, simple ways; not by any ora
torial revolution passed in the parliament
of man, not by any vaccination of the human
| heart with the bacillus of brotherly love,
not by might of mobs nor strength Of arms.
Story of the Syrian Nobleman.
Christ tells US how the millennium will
begin. But we listen to him as the Syrian
nobleman listened to the Hebrew prophet.
The nobleman, you remember, wanted to be
cured Of his leprosy, and he came with his
| retlnue OF servants, gorgeous procession,
with trumpets and banners, he himself rid
ing in the midst in his golden chariot; and
| they stopped before the plain house where
the prophet lived, and the prophet sent out
word that the best way to get rid of that
leprosy was to go down and take a good
bath in the river Jordan, and the nobleman
| was grieyously offended.
He had expected that Elisha would come
| out.and bow down before him, and pray to
heaven, and strike his hand over the place
| and make him whole. Instead of that, he
was just to wash himself in muddy little
river. And then his servants came to him
| and said, master, if the prophet had COM
manded thee to do some great thing,
wouldest thou not have done it? How
much more then when he bids thee wash and
be clean!" And SO the nobleman came to
his right mind, and obeyed and was
| cleansed.
The Millennium Begins at Home,
How true that is to human natureI Here
we are, praying that the Kin gdom of God
may come, and laying plans to convert all
men to brotherly love, and wondering what
| is just the best way to do that, and studying
political economy to find out, and imagin-
| ing soma wonderful new legislation, or some
fine new method of taxation, or some SUBJ
lime revolution, and not listening to what
Christ says at all.
Christ says that if we want to put stop
to unkind and unjust judging we must
simply stop that sort of judging our own
selves. Ii we would not have others con-
demn US, we must not condemn them. If
we want to bring in revival of the spirit
OF forgiveness, we must ourselves be for
giving. And if we desire better distribu-
tion of the good things of life, and want
other people to give us better measure, we
must begin that our own selves we must
ourselves set the standard of good mer 80.
That is, as we do, 80 will others do to us. If
we do well, others will do well. The whole
world will become Christian, If we are
Christians. The millennium begins at home.
Laws VIII Not Make RrotherIy Love.
That is very plain and slow and homely.
It is not taken account of in 'Looking
Backward" or in 'News from Nowhere
or in any other of the popular prophecies of
the millennium that have read. But it is
the simple truth about the matter 1t is
the narrow way and the Christian way, and
the divine way, and the only way into the
promised land. There can be no regenera-
tion of society without first regeneration
Of the individual There can be no human
brotherhood except among company of
brothers. And you cannot get brotherly
love by passing laws.
Already there ia beginning . reaction
against socialism. The labor unions are
making enemies. Plain thinking and clear
headed men are doubling whether the
ia o. U rr1nr 1 al 70 al
the path of the tyranny Of labor than along
the path OF the tyranny of capital 1t was
found, good while ago, when experiments
were being tried in ecclesiastical govern
ment, that "my lords, the brethren" were
even harder masters than my lords, the
bishops. And it is being found to-day, to
the workingman's sorrow, that recent ex-
periments in the regulation of labor are re-
sulting in that same sort of discovery.
Liberty of the Laboring Men.
The laborer has lost his liberty. How
long or how short shall be his day, how
much or how little shall be his wages,
whether he shall work at all or not, is being
absolutely decided for him as if he were a
child. And if he attempts to assert his
independence, and to follow his own honest
will make life miserable for him, they will
hoot at him in the street and stone him.
1t is not that socialism is at fault, for
socialism is simply applied Christianity. 1t
is On endeavor to set the condition of human
life upon distinctly Christian basis. 1t is
an attempt to bring in the millennium
believe most thoroughly that when Christ
preached the "Kindom of God" He was
thinking not for a moment of the church as
an ecclesiastical organization, but of the So
cialistic state, of the establishment of So
ciety upon the sure foundations of brotherly
love. But believe with equal emphasis
that there is only one way to bring in the
socialistic state, and that is not the way of
tyranny, but the way which Christ taught.
You can't whip men into brotherhood
can't stone men into fraternal love.
Brotherhood, yes; all good men standing
together for the best interests of all, YES;
but manhood first. Personal liberty, first.
The ideal brotherhood is not labor union
of machines, but labor union OF independ-
ent men.
What True Socialism Is.
If socialism means tyranny, then let all
lovers of liberty fight it. If the union of
labor means the stealing of the rights of
man, then let all friends of humanity do
their best to break it. No; true socialism
means honest and genuine and loving
brotherhood, and has no use for brickbats.
And the union of labor, if it is to go on, as