The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-04-12
Denver's Leading Preacher De-
Iivers Remarkable Sermon.
Says This Is Not a Comfortable
World
TO LIVEIN ATPRESENT
Has Attended Funerals of EIeV-
en- Suicides In a Year.
MyrOn Reed Gives His Views on
RemOdeling Society.

held a large audience to listen to Rev.
Myron W. Reed. His subject was so
cialism," and in a short hour he ex-
planned what he believes to be a
healthy socialism for this country to
adopt. He suggests some local reforms
in the same line. He said:
I have lived to see socialism re-
spectacle word and a socialist re-
spectacle man. 1t is well to get to-
gether as to definitions. According to
Webster's dictionary it is theory OF
society which advocates more pre-
else, orderly and harmonious arrange
ment of the social relations of mankind
than that which has hitherto prevailed
Worcester's dictionary: The science
of reconStructing society on entirely
new bases by substituting the princi-
pie of association Tor that OF competl-
tfon in every branch of human indus
try
Standard dictionary: A theory of
civil policy that aims to secure the re-
construction of society, increase OF
wealth and a more equal distribution
of the products of labor through public
collective ownership of land and capital
Gas distinguished from property and
the public collective management of all
industries It's motto is: Everyone
according to his deeds"
Century dictionary: ANY theory or
system of social organization which
would abolish entirely, or in part, the
individual effort and competition on
which modern society rests, and sub
more perfect and equal distribution of
the products of labor, and would make
land and capital as the instruments of
production, the joint possession of the
community.
James Russell LowelIs definition is
this: Socialism means, or wishes to
mean, cooperation and community of
interests, sympathy; the giving TO the
hands not so large a share as to the
brain, but larger share than hitherto,
in the wealth they must combine to
application of Christianity to life, and
has in the secret of an orderly be-
nign construction. -
My text: Revelation xxi, tAnd saw
a new heaven and new EARTH"
All the prophets and poets have seen
the same thing. Isaiah looked forward
to an utter change of the face of the
earth and of the hearts of the people of
the earth. Robert Burns saw a new
earth and so did Alfred Tennyson when
he was young. Plato looked away from
the decaying world around him and
saw Atlantis. Sir Thomas More. about
to suffer death, was writing Utopia"
There ought to be a new earth, and
what ought to be will be. No one will
assert that this is the ideal social sys-
ten-this one that we are living in.
Isaiah would not be satisfied with it,
nor Plato. We are not satisfied with it.
1t Is a makeshift. We have sent money
and sympathy to Ireland, and that was
right and effective. But in 1895 there
were more than q, 900 evictions in New
600 people turned out of doors. That is
to say, in one American city the eVic-
lions as compared with Ireland, were
more than four to one.
More than 100000 people exist in one
square mile of the city of New York.
When you have seen that the east end
of London looks thinly inhabited.
The question of wOman's wages is a
moral one. Wellington reproved a SOL
der for some fault. and the soldier re-
minced the great captain. that you
cannot hire all the cardinal virtues for
81 4 month.
Poverty and ignorance get together
and crime is born. But I need not tell
you that this social order is not to be
admired. A socialist desires something
better He may think that a new earth
will come in by persuasion. He thinks
it will come in.
Surely this state of things we are
familiar with is not permanent. There
IS much righteous discomfort. It makes
itself felt by speeches and newspapers
and books. There is a literature of dis
content If you read Hamlin Garlands
stories of the west you realize their alb
solute Photographic truth. One rises
up saying they are too true.
Caesars Column" is a powerful book.
Men have learned by Uncle Toms
Cabin. that there is nothing so persua-
Sive as a story, and modern novels are
full of the sOcvial questions of the day.
They are sold by the ton.
The Arena Magazine has gone quick
ly almost to the front because it reCOg-
nizes the signs of the times. The word
socialist does not scare anybody now.
We find that he is amiable gen
tleman who would like to hear of less
extortion, less eviction, less greed. less
suicide. He lifts up his eyes and sees a
new earth. mo News From Nowhere
by William Morris, is q statement of
how the new earth looks. When you
are weary of this earth read this book
More than half the literary men of our
day are socialists. I find much social
ism in HOwells and George Meredith.
1t has even crept into that excellent
newspaper, the Outlook.
think perhaps one in a hundred of
the preachers of the country have quit
their ignorant noise about the red flag
of socialism" There is less worship of
the god of things as they are than
formerly.
The parish priest of austerity
To be nearer God. so that he might hand
His word down to the people
And in sermon script he daily wrote
What he thought was sent from heaven
And he dropped it down on the peoples
Two times one day in seven.
In his age. God said. Come down and
Ana he cried out from the steeple,
''Where art thou, Lord?' and the Lord
Down here among my people"
Tt is high time to have less steeple
and more bread If the people knew
W14dL the D1lSln OF SlGGplES was what
they signified, they would not build any
more.
The cry of the people is not for stee-
pies. Perhaps We are milder in our
talk about the dark ages
There is no murder that goes on in
Cuba and Turkey and South Africa
and Egypt but is a money question
There are bonds involved To stop the
murder would impern the value of
bonds. I can remember when Christian
gentlemen did not wish anything said
F1rer q q int
trade. Theodore Parker said in 1850
Of the baptism Of a negro: Thy name