Birmingham age-herald., 1895-06-13

lIee I1dHklnu, dS InBe1SOil CidlDlS ne IS now doing, from what they call the cru el superstitions of Christianity; but Paynes Age of Reason" has taken it's place upon the bookshelf among the dusty volumes of forgotten literature, where Ingersolls lectures will mould, while Christianity is conquering the world.
 Some of our scientists, as Herbert Spencer and Huxley, seem to think the discovery of the evolutionary process, which has certainly played a great part
 in life, as they have shown, has de- 'stroyed all grounds of faith in the Bible: but Voltaire imagined a century and a half ago that he had beaten down Christianity. The teachings of Voltaire and of his cola borers did spread inn- delity far and wide in France, and inf delity during the French revolution did bring forth fruits. Angry mobs fought for a lif rty that knew no God. They dethroned the God of the Christians and set up Reason in His place. Their new god. Reason" tolerated no inequalities and to bring mankind to a common level the streets of Paris ran red with the blood Of the purest and best Who is there that would not shudder at the thought of a world polluted with millions upon millions of malcontents all railing at the inequalities of human conditions, and all Christless and God less?
 Evolution has done much in some 
 tianity but this is because it has here tofore confined it's researches to the dis covefy of the laws governing the phys ical world Scientific research is now be- ginning to enter upon broader field, the field of ethics, and to apply there the same rigorous methods it has pursued heretofore in the investigation of the laws governing physical life One of the cardinal rules of scientific investigation is that every result has cause; another that every development is adapted to a particular end. Apply these rules to Chritianty, consider Christian teachings and Christian institutions first as facts and ask what caused these facts; and secondly consider the results that have come from these teachings and these in- stitutiOnS. scientific analysis of the history of the past and a comparison of the relative progress hitherto made in Christian and non-Christian countries will show the tenetS of Christianity are nicely adapted and as wisely adjust ed to the welfare of man as are the veins and arteries in his body and limbs to se- cure the circulation of his blood.
 That Christ should have appeared as he did of lowly origin, without even the learning of his time teaching doctrines subverSiVe of the systems of that day; that these doctrines should have made their way through ages, civilizing and humanizing the world and everywhere elevatipg the masses; that human gov ernments should have improved and hu- man society have been perfected pre- cisely to the extent that these govern ments have been administered and that society has been based on the ethics of Christianity-these are facts for which science cannot account upon any other theory than that Christianity comes from the Creator of the universe, from the God who made both the physical and the moral man.
 
 now most difficult of solution grows out of the relations between capital and la Dor. The progress man has made under Christian civilization is marvellous. He has harnessed the elements, air, water, light, electricity. into machinery to do his will. Machinery has summoned vast numbers of men to labor together in the industries. Education and the exten- sion of suffrage has given to labor knowledge and power. Facilities for in ter-communication make it easy for labor to combine, and desire to pro- mote it's own interests renders it natu- ral that it should combine. The same causes make easy and the same motives make natural combinations of capital and so there is a struggle between combined labor and combined capital with the voting power in the hands of labor.
 What is to be the outcome of this struggle? Will it be socialism? Ed WdTQ 0elldny ufdWS OeHgnIIul DIG ture of an ideal state, in which every man recognizes the right of every other man to an equal share in all the com forts and luXuries of life-in which all men who can labor where they can la Dor most effectively; society divides the results and takes care of the helpless But can man change the laws of his na- ture? In point of fact, from the very earliest period of recorded life, compe- tition-sharp confiict-has been the one condition of all progress. Men come in- to the world unequal in mind unequal in energy, unequal in force of charac ctcr The wisest, the strongest the best equipped win the prizes in the battle of life. It is the hope of gain that is tho incentive to labor It is the desire to ex- eel that stimulates effort. Socialism by attempting to equalize conditions would abolish these springs of action It would place energy and thrift and intel lectual activity alongside of ignorance and sloth and profigacy. On that dead level society would stagnate and man would relaps into the condition of the brutes of the field. No. gentlemen, this cannot and will not be. So long as hu- man nature remains as it Is men will strive to excel, competition will go on and, judging of the future by the past it may be predicted with certainty that unless our people forget God and his teachings and go to cutting each others throats, as they did in the French rev O1ulOD, the outcome or the COQ1lct De- tween capital and labor will be the bet termeni of social conditions. Never was there a time when property was divided among men according to the ratio in which they contributed to produce it. never a moment when the inequalities in the conditions of men did not seem grossly unjust, never moment when men. if they went for each other like brutes of the field, for what was imme- diately in sight. would not tear down and destroy and kill as they did in France 100 ago, but, though exceptions can be pointed out, the rule has been in Christian countries, concession. mutual forbearance. Thus has humanity been gradually uplifted. Christian ethics have refined and softened and deepened the character of all classes of men, a feel ing that each individual should do his duty in the station of life whereunto he is called-this it is that has reconciled man to his lot, that has softened the hearts of those in pow CT, that has caused them to think justly and to feel for others-this it is that has induced the spirit of compromise, re- sulting in extension after extension of