The Advocate and news., 1898-08-03
The Social System and the Christian
COnac1ence
Conscience.
(Cohtlnued from page ID

social equality with his employers, and
they together tried to be honest SER
wants Of their customers, with no COM
peting thought in their mind; but the
result was the bankruptcy and ruin of
several competitors, and the increase OF
sWeat-shop conditions in the goods the
merchant purchased. If / try to pay
my miners just wages" said a mining
operator to me, at the conclusion OF the
late strike, | will ruin them; for the
combination will crush me, causing my
contracts to be forfeited, an dpreventing
my coal from being shipped; / will be
bankrupted; and the men who have been
with me for fifteen years will be black
listed, wageless and homeless" What
shall | do?" he cried; II care not mo-
ment for the loss OF every cent Of my
property, if could only find some way
to do right without wrOnging others; |
am almost mad with the mental and
moral strain" These two men are not
exceptions; they are revelations Of
common tragedy of soul which the de-
nial of the right to do right is begetting
among men Of economic power.
The majority Of people are not bad at
heart, and do not want to compete with
each other. Men do not want to injure
each other in the earning of their daily
bread, nor prosper at the expense of
their brothers. But if we have only a
competitive and monoplistic system to
live in, how can we escape being com
petitors and monopolists? Whittier
shall we flee from the presence of the
system?
The world is too well on to its bios
soming to be helped by schisms or sep
aratiOns of any sort soever, social or
religious. We shall miss God and free
dom, this time, if we journey into far
countries" in search of his promises, for
the kingdom of God is within us: We
must dig up God and freedom in our
selves. There are no Canaans left to go
to-; the people must be their own Moses,
and free Egypt, or remain slave. The
Pilgrims can no more find Plymouth
Rock across the seas; it lies inward, at
the heart of the people. Let Abraham
stay in Ur of the Chaldees, and there full
fl the promises of God. Let Luther stay
in his monastery, and justify his faith
by making that shrine Of the people.
Let every man stay at his post in the
machine" as Jesus staid in the compli-
Gated religious and political machinery
of his nation, either to capture the ma
chine" by mighty love and passion, or
to be ground up in the cogs, that the
machine" may be broken, and the peO-
pies set free to build for love and free
dom. "Let us bear the burden and en-
dure the trial." says a Japanese mystic,
till the world is rectified, and home is
found for ALL" There is no other man
full and apostolic course Of discovery and
achievement left open; we have tried
everything else. We have long expert
mented with ways of saving individuals
out of the world; it is time to adopt
Jesus original idea Of bearing away the
sin of the world, so that the kingdom Of
heaven may arise in our midst. And
they who find out how to organize the
economies of the world by the principles
of that kingdom while living the life Of
love amidst the facts of force and fraud,
literally do greater work than Jesus did:
he left us the idea, the initiative, the re-
demption and the spirit; but it is ours
to build the walls of the kingdom and to
establish its works through all the earth
and among all peoples.
Surely, no one can justly accuse me
of taking away individual responsibility;
l have been heaping up responsibility
for the individual, to the honest and
manful bearing of which Christ and the
times call | have not even allowed the
negative comfort, which some take unto
their souls, of saying that if civilization
gives him only adulterated food, sweat
shop clothes, corrupt highways, p0litica
falsehood, monopolized opportunities, he
is not to blame, so he earn his keep,
and live "the life of love-" l am con
tending that he is to blame; that escape
from the communal guilt is but escape
into the supreme and deadly guilt o.
spiritual selfishness. The only possible
salvation from the common wrong is thu
nvhnnrkinr Of indiuidnnl liRn in tho 70