The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-05-09
Christ and the Social Problem.

In the first place, then, we have
found in Christ the solvent of the So
cal problem. There is social prob
lem, and we want to solve it, There
can be no reformer if there is not de-
form. 1t is because we know that 80
ciety is not what it ought to be that we
are ready to listen to the voice of men
sometimes wise men, some times self
seekers, sometimes unseltish idealists,
who try to sketch out for us better flu
ture, better life. We are living in
rich country. There is no reason, in
the nature of the case, why every man
in America should not be sheltered, and
have food enough and to spare; and
yet, suddenly, great financial calamity
finds us, and the rich and the poor
alike tremble before the threatened dis
aster; and we call together our legis-
lators to meet in congress and deter
mine what shall be done. There are
strikes here and lockouts there, and la
Dor problems confronting us. What is
the law of the social order? How ought
men to be related so that these an
arches and these confusions shall take
place no more? l was told last week
/ have not examined the stateme Mt,
anu w AOG NOuIh I'LL lhC ctutioUlN
that under improved machinery one
man can weave eleven hundred times
more cloth than man used to be able
to weave in the day of hand-looms.
Eleven hundred times more cloth we
are making than we used to make.
Who shall have the benefit of that fact?
Workingmen combine together, saying,
We ought to have that profit. The
capitalists combine together, saying,
We have built the machinery; we
ought to have that profit. The captains
of industry say, No; it is our brains
that directed the organization, and it is
our brains that found the work, and we
ought to have that profit. Finally, the
women all run to the cheapest bargain
counter to contend for the cheapest
goods saying, We ought to have the
profit. This is the pagan way of solv-
ing the social problem-let every man
take care of himself, and the world will
be taken care Of. Now, over against
that, Christ offers his solvent for the
social problem. He says, My chill
dren do not you see how foolish this is:
to struggle and toll and labor each to
get all you can, regardless of the other?
Do unto others as you would have 9TH
ers do unto YOU" Seek not what is
the most you can get, but what is your
fair proportion. Workingmen, recog-
nize the fact that if you took all the
profits the goods never could be made,
for there would be no one 10 buy them.
Capitalist, recognize the fact your work.
ingman is man, not hand, and is to
be treated as a brother man; recognize
the fact that the brain, with all its
thinking, can do nothing if there be
not the hand to be directed by the
thought. And sisters, do not be con-
tent to get cheap goods out of the
sweat and the blood and the tears of
your sisters in their poverty. To APP
ply the Golden Rule to the complicated
affairs of social life is difficult indeed;
but where in the world, from what re-
ligious teacher-Buddhist and Confu-
clan and Mohammedan-brin them
all together on one platform, and ask
them to tell us, any one of them, or all
together, from what religious teacher
can you find better rule and law to
enable men to live in peace and amity
together than these two laws, that are
really one: Thou shalt love thy neigh
Dor as myself; Do unto others as you
would have others do unto you? What
response of socialist or communist or
individualist or anarchist will serve
better purpose? 1t is not by change in
form, it is by change in spirit, that the
world is to be brougl from the battle
field into peaceful harvest-6eld.--
| Human Abbott