The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-05
THE CURE FOR EVIL
IS RIGHTEOUSNESS
tContinued from Page 81

could achieve the impossible. We have
forgotten that self-preservation depends
on assimilation. "a mans life CONSISTENT
not in the abundance of the things which
he possesseth," but only on those which
he can take zip into himself. This is
equally true of the nation. Things may
easily founder personal life, and things
may as easily founder national existence.
The over-laden ship, running with the
waterlne out of sight, Is a deadly peril
to the master on board, though he may
own all. The abuse of the useful has been
our national curse. Wealth Is good
thing, but 1t is destruction to that peo-
pie which cannot rule over II with the
soua Immigration Is a good thing, pro-
vided the immigrant becomes a part of a
nation of men. Industrial production Is
good thing but it is not good that over
production has fostefed selfish wastetul-
ness. ChristlIke personal living which
says, not in words of cant--of which we
have more than enough-but in truth of
conduct, 1.-THE life is more than meat"
man does not live by bread alone"
which says, give ye the multitudes to
eat and yet adds gather ye up the
fragments, that nothing be lost"--such
living, we must clearly see can alone
truly discern and heroically meet the
difficulties which have come from the
blessings of prosperity. 1t alone can hope
to grapple successfully with these.
The problems with which we have to-
day to deal are, moreover In large de-
gree. those which advancing civilization
brings. They must come, in great meas
ure, in the nature of the case. They are,
of necessity involved in the progress of
the race. The deepest query Is, Does CIV
ilization destroy itself? The many prob
lens are ore at root-this one, Can man,
blest with infinite resources to this very
end, deal with himself? Can he find the
fnx. nrJ . 80 = t..
civilized being? Can he, in spite of him
self as an obstacle, go forward to that
goal? To use the good word which the
French communists have given us, there
is a solidarity about our problems They
must be taken together. 1t is impossible
to separate them Emerson said truly,
You must take the whole of society to
find the whole man." there is one man
present to all particular men only par
TALLY" So today to find the problem of
man, we must take the problems of So
ciety as a whole. We have no other re-
source. Indeed it is rapidly becoming I'M
possible for a thoughtful, d true reformer
to ride hobby. This is a great blessing.
OF course, man may hustle much about
one thing. He may do much and think
himself and his idea a great part of af-
fairs, but when the work begins, it al
ways proves Itself one. Always, end
lessly it is simply this, work for man,
work with man for man. For you find out
at once, If you try to do something, that
there is a solidarity in reform as well
as in evils to be reformed. You find also
that you are working for, and working
with, every other worker in behalf of
man; he also is working for and with
you. You begin rightly over against your
own door. 1t matters not where tnat
door may be- the rubbish you remove
and the wall you build are those of the
off Df AIn, al ,~,N.,
sibly, in the labor problem. You soon
find, as you pcnder it in practical fash
ion, that it is the temperance problem. 1t
is also the family problem, it is the social
problem, it Is the educational problem, it
is the religious problem. Or, perhaps,
you are interested in party reform, the
publication of political life. You soon
discover, If you are honest in effort, that
this is only another phase of the ques-
tion of education, of the question of the
saloon, as a social force, and this in turn
of the question of the family and of the
church. The man who says, l am inter-
ested in philanthropic and moral questions
but l want nothing to do with your re-
Egious problems, knows what he is talk
ing about equally we'll with him who is
interested in religious matters but does
not wish to begrime himself with politics.
Neither has taken the spade or the trow-
ell in hand as yet On the surface, 1t is
true the work often seems confusing
and confused. The workers often appear
divided into different camps. But there
Is free masonry among the actual toll
ers, with its signs and passwords, which
only experience gives to the initiated TO
these, man is a great common fact and
he who called himself, in both his humil-
ity and his dignity, the Son of Man, is
constantly becoming more and more the
"on man" present and powerful to give
manhood to all particular men, who pos
sess it only partially. He becomes in
creasingly common colossal fact. Christ
Ike work not only demands, but it also
begets, Christlike living, and he alone
who possesses this living knows truly the
Christ.
PLAYING WITH PROBLEMS.
But not only are the problems with
which we have to deal the outcome of
blessing, not only are they problems Of
advancing civilization not only are they
all at root problems regarding man, but
especially is this to be emphasized,
they are, after all, problems" only
because Of the application to them, if
we may be permitted so to express the
matter, of thOughtlessness. There is work
enough, and more than enough to be
done along all lines Of reform, yet, af-
ter all, there are not many problems
involved. In fact we Americans have
been playing with the great realities of
life and calling this play of ours the
considering of problems. Men are still,
as were they in the day of Jesus, like
children playing in the market place.
The great Duff charged the church with
playing at missions. 1t was true; it still
is true. But the church has also been
playing with intemperance. She has been
playing with social evils. She has been
playing with the needs, the rights, the
cravings and the sins of man. She still
continues playing with all these. This
charge Is not to brought against the
church more than against the world.
Far from it. The world is always at
play and the world has enticed the
church to engage in play with her, to
forget the work laid upon her by her
Master and talk of problems See, then,
how We confuse our work and our prob
lens. We talk of the problem of the
city as if the city in itself were
some colossal evil with which we
are to wrestle. Have we forgot
ten that the picture of the perfect
social state, which, at the consumma-
tion of progress, shall crown the tri-
umph of Christianity is the city, lying
four-square with open gates on every
side? Have we forgotten that the church
had her birthday in a city, that her
first great triumphs were in the cities?
Our word pagan" tells the story; the
pagan is the man of the country side
the Christian, in that early day, was
the man of the city. The city is not the
problem. The difficulty is that we have
such cities. because we have such men
in them. The difficulty is that Christ
like personal living is waning In the
cities, because this living is not reveal
ing and exerting itself there. The prob
lem of the city is only the problem of
work for man.
We talk also of the problem of our
foreign population, as If a foreign popu-
lation were in itself some gigantic ill.,
Do We not remember that the nations of
the earth, all kindreds, tongues, tribes