The Advocate and news., 1898-08-03

the social or spiritual plane. 80 far as
industrial organization has gone, man
has been treated and associated as a
creature for producing wealth; upon the
new plane, the production Of wealth will
be treated and organized as means Of
assOciating men for their spiritual ed
ucation. The question of how to do this,
of whether it can be done at all, is the
social question, of which the world is
so full and the pressure and pain Of
which no conscience escapes.
Some Of us believe that the public own
ership Of the resources and means Of
production is the sole answer to the So
cial question. In order that each may
have according to his needs, and be Sc
cure in the private property wherewith
to express his individuality, the re-
sources upon which the people in COM
mon depend must by the people in COM
mon be owned and administered. The
common ownership Of the earth, with
industrial democracy in production, is
the only ground upon which personal
property and liberty can be built, the
only soil in which individuality may
take root.
In freedom alone does the soul thrive
and blossom Every sort of freedom re-
ligious and intellectual, political and So
cial, rests back upon economic freedom.
Private ownership Of public resources is
private ownership of human beings. He
who sells his labor-power under the
cOmpulsion of necessity sells his life for
the mere means Of existence. So long
as the resources of the people are pri-
vately owned, so that people are obliged
to sell their labor-power to the owners
for sustenance, they are not free mem
bers of society or the state; they are not
even free to worship God according to
their own light and intuitiOns.
Along with the elimination of the
industrial system, indeed at the very
heart Of it, is the elimination of new
common sense and a new conscience.
The race Is becoming sensible Of life
and destiny of it's own; it is a race life
and a race destiny in which all individ-
uals are to share, yet which is something
altogether more than the mere sum Of
individual lives and destinies, just as a
college is infinitely more than the fac
ulty and students and educational ma
chinery that happen to be present in any
given year. The new conscience is teach
ing the individual that his life Is func-
tiOn Of the race life, and that he can full
fill his individuality only through fulfill
ing this function. "
This conscience is the precipitation Of
the idea and initiative Of Jesus; it is the
effectual working of the leaven which
he put into mankind eighteen centuries
ago. Slowly it has been leaVening the
Greek or intellectual world; slowly the
Roman or political world slowly the
Teutonic or barbarian world. Out Of the
whole slowly issues the universal de-
mOcracy, which is to sacredly unfold
every individuality, and reverently re-
ceive its contribution, from the dog and
ape to the artist, the poet, the states
man. the saint. "a new mankind" says
Henry D. Lloyd, "has been conceived
and will be born--a winged beauty out
of the earth-measuring worm-which
will not know force and fraud and hat
red and will let love, their natural tie,
bind men and nations together"
When call this conscience Christian,
I do not use the word in any professional
or pietistic sense; do not mean that any
particular LOIu VI iSllSlOh 49, Vi uCOu
be, accepted This conscience does not
come in the names or terms of Christi
anity; it comes without observation, al
most as a new religion springing up
from the human soil. It's most manifest
activities and evolutions are unconscious
Of any relation to him we call Christ.
The truest Christian conscience Of to-
day utterly rejects that which is
preached and professed as Christianity
Many things that are done in Christ's
name are things which Christ stood
against, and the things he stood for are
done by many who call themselves ma
terialist or agnostic. The atheist or
profligate with human sympathies and
social ideals is profoundly Christian in
comparison with the professional Chris