The herald., 1895-05-03
Christian Socialism the AntidOte
for Anarchy
LECTURE BY PROF. HEBRON
Bristling With Telling Arguments and
Convincing Logic
r1an Has Right to Do as He Pleases So Long
as He PIeases to Do
Right

in Illinois hall before an enormous audi
ence. The speaker was followed with the
closest and most absorbed attention and
interrupted by frequent bursts OF ap-
plause. His strong points. VIII ich were
many, were accentuated by a very telling
hesitation in their delivery. and the in
terest all through was sustained by his
well moduatcd voice and clear, distinct
enumeration.
Rev. d. Lloyd Jenkins, Rev. DR..
Brooks of Illinois, Rev. DR.. Bowers. Rev.
Burt Estes Howard and f. NJ. Laykin oc
cupied the platform with Mr.. Heron.
who opened his remarks by stating that
| there rs no likeness between the Christian
| ideal and that of the anarchist, as Chris
| tians sometimes foolishy and unthink
| lngly admit, and organized seltshness
! eagerly charges. The method and ideal
! OF the philosophical anarchist and the
! method and ideal of the Christian poiti-
cal philosopher are the exact antagonism
of each other. The Christian organiza-
ton of the state would be its perfection :;
the anarchist philosophy would be its de-
| struction. A Christian policy would fulfill
the institutions OF the state; the anarchist
policy would abolish them. The Chris
| tian ideal would lead the people in
political progress that would leave restric-
tive institutions with nothing to do. SO
that they would fall into the greater free
dom thus achieved and die, as the acorn
dies iii the earth when the tree comes
forth. The anarchist ideal would lead
the people i'll Il descent to the lowest
political hell. where individual self-will
would establish the throne of perfect des-
potism and the order to perfect misery.
The difference between the achievement
OF the Christian ideal and the anarchist
ideal is the difference between the coming
of the kingdom of heaven and the coming
of the kingdom of he'll on the earth. Gov
ernment is not transient or a necessary
evil but eternal in the heart of God. The
anarchist spirit that would destroy is the
witness to the divine necessity of the in
stitutions at which destruction is aimed.
Not the abolition. but the fulillment of
institutions is the way of freedom and
it will be the institutional obedience to
the law OF sacrifice by which Christ made
us free.
Present forms of institutions may pro-
gressiyely pass away. continued DR..
Heron, but the state itself will not; the
nation Is immortal, and the peoples will
never cease to have their national beings
and organs. The being and glory of the
state will not cease with its restrictive
functions. but will rather be increased
and fulfilled in functions that shall be
educational, insprational and eternal.
Political progress will not ascend by the
way of the destruction of law but its
larger and pnrer distinction between the
nature of the moral law and the nature
of the law of the state is an evil magma
! ton and political fatuity. There is
but one law and one right. of which the
state is the organ and educator. The
Christian idea of law, which no nation
has yet embodied in its constitution or
in its judicial ideals. is the evolution and
/ fulfillment of the Hebrew law. To the
Hebrew, law was an expression of the
mind of God concerning man. From the
beginning of his education, the Hebrew
child was grounded and disciplined in the
law of the nation the study OF the law
was the education of the man in the right
and saving knowledge OF the wrong.
! Law was medium of communion and
| wosrhip of obedience and cooperation,
| it's functions were educational and sub
! jectIve rather than objective i'll operation.
The protective and police functions of
the law were incidental to the education
of man in the will of God; of the nation
in the right of God. Upon the common
study of the law as the word of God.
not merely or manly upon legal execu-
| tions does the integrity of the nation de-
pend. Nowhere has the sacredness of
! human life been SO seriously emphasized
| is always laid upon the awful subjective
| effect of the sin of murder in the mur
| derer. rather tnan in its objective effect
| on the murdered.
Here Mr.. Heron introduced the story
of the first murder and stated that it was
not in the fact that Abel was killed.
put that Cain killed him. 1t was not un.
til the nation had nearly completed its
political history that the transcription of
the law was complete, that transcription
| came with national decay. The speaker
then referred at length to the Christian
doctrine OF law as propounded by Paul.
| In his letters to the early churches law
was held to be the schoolmaster whose
work was the education of man in love;
not the love of a sentimentalist or a
mystic. but as a political philosopher as
social statesman who understands and de-
fines the educational and associative
functions of law. Society is the fulfill
ment of the law. because it is the fulfill
ment of love. Law is the divine instru-
ment for the conviction OF men in the
wrong that separates them from each
other and from God. Not individual pro-
lection, but mutual association is the end
of law. said the speaker with profound
emphasis; not individual rights, but
| mutual association in righteousness.
Neither Christian apostle nor Hebrew
prophet ever thought that the law in
itself could make men righteous or that
Is incident of individual protection was
the end of law.
| The law and it's judgments are not now
| the education OF the people in right. Law
| and Justice have come to be separate
| entities, which may incidentally unite.
| The purcst representatives may be on the
| judicial bench, but the fact abides and
| nlarges that our courts of law have ceased
to be courts of justice in the public mind;
no legal sophistry can conceal that ones
| standing in the processes of legal trial
! and judgment depends in large degree
| upon the material interests he represents,
| and his ability to purchase technical
skill. Even judicial decisions that are
| strictly according to the law are often so
| notoriously ln Just as to inspire wide
| and ominous dstrust of both legislatures
| and courts. TO say that an act is legal no
! longer necessarily means that it is Just
and right.
Mr.. Heron here feelingly called the
| special attention of the audience to the
| fact that no legal method could be found
| to punish q former president of a railway
corpoi alton who had virtually stolen S6
600, 600 while the governor of another
com monwealth is petltioned TO pardon
another young man under sentence OF
fourteen years imprisonment for the
| theft OF % pair OF shoes.
Then came a concrete example CT how
law may be made the instrument of in
dustrial anarchy in the legalized plunder
of railway properties.
The receivers VINO have themselves
bankrupted the properties for persona
profit, and who are practically responsible
to the real owners or the public. Mr.. Van
Oss' book on American railroads as in
vestments was spoken of as the most
;,t Nv nh