The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-06-14

vlVc duu UIlc weak ulSdppcdI. Ills
is the law of social evolution also.
Hence anything which cOntradicts
this law cOntradictS the whole ten
dency of things and cannot be true"
Has this law-giver never heard of
spiritual laws which ameliorate, cor
rect, or OverpOwer the primitive
physical laws, the instincts of beast
and savage? Where is her faith in
the life and works of Christ if the
present crude ideals of selfish civiliz-
alton are never to be modified? She
looks with hostility upon Mr.. Bel
lamy's idea of so aiding and develop
ing all individuals that they may at
tain those things with which their
maker endowed them,-that are
potential within them. That is un-
christian. cit is the genius of
Christianity she says, "to redeem
the weak, not by arbitrarily placing
them on the same level with the
strong, which by the nature of
things, cannot last, but by a new
standard of values-a new test Of
weakness and strength 1t is tire
some to hear the oponents of pro-
gress talk about reforms being forced
upon us arbitrarily" 1t reminds
one Of the Whiskeyites' gibberish
about Prohibition being forced up
on us arbitrarily" No great nation
al popular change can come "arbi-
trarily." Furthermore no Natioanal-
ist has ever proposed to place the
''weak on the same level with the
strong" except as to his material
necessities and opportunities. But
property is the only strength she
would fear to lose, hence her confus-
ion as to the meaning of socialistic
theories.
"In the new world of the
Kingdom of Heaven" she says, ''the
law still holds that the strong sur
vive, but it is the morally strong, and
the fundamental question is what is
the best environment for the develop
ment of moral strength? Christian
lty seeks to create moral strength by
the improvement of moral cOndi-
tions, not material, and she does not
believe that her Great Founder ever
taught that happiness was a neces-
sary element in progress"
This is can't and hypocracy. Chris
tianity will go on long search be-
fore it makes a pious devotee out Of
a half-starved, homeless New York
gamin. We have had enough of such
moralizing on the blessed effects of
want, unhappiness and misery on
somebody else's moral nature Be-
fore this writer can becomingly re-
cord any such platitudes let her
state the amount of her bank ac-
count and annual income. Most of
her kind find it impossible to live
decently with no moral nature at
alD on less than ten thousand a year.
Nor do they put their darling
progeny out into the coal mines, the
factory, or the shelterless streets to
acquire moral strength. 1t is the old
attempt of the time-serving ecclesi-
astic and greedy 1ayman to console
the needy parishioners for their de-
privation and Indebtedness here
with the bright hopes of a better
time than their rich brethren in
world to come. But that game is
played to the end. The trick no long
er deceives. Although many, like
this writer may have been so warped
in their moral natures as to look
with complacency on the doctrine of
the elect in this world as we'll as in
that to come, such ideas, born of
selfishness, are doomed!
If to sell all you have and give to
the poor is Christianity and the same
principle when applied to the wider
field of national economy is not
Christianity, then so much the worse
for that which has been called by
that name. Right and Justice are
eternal. and, no matter by what
name they be called, will prevail.
Iona I. ROBINSON.