The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1899-11-16
THE CASTE SPIRIT.
Christianity the Antfdote - The Csc
of Opportunity the Test
of Standing.

1t is impossible to be blind to the fact
of human differences. All men are not
created equal, except before the civil
law. Differences of hundred sorts are
| ingrained and vital in our lives. Chris
| tianity does not attempt to disregard
| them. To do so would be to prove its
unfitness for its work. But there is
distir ton, which is largely artificial
and more commonly mischievous, which
| men set up which Christianity refuses
| to admit-the distinction of caste. Not
that we can overlook the fact that hui
man society includes different grades
of condition, character and merit.
They are fundamental facts. But what
Christianity declares and what society
ought to assert is that no man is better
| than any other man, or is to be treated
with any more consideration, because
| he occupies a more favorable social po-
sition. He who belongs TO what some
times is known as the upper class, be-
cause its opportunities of effort, culture
and travel are the largest, possibly may
| be a better man than he who belongs
to lower social class, because the OPP
portunities which the former has en-
| loved may have been so used as to en-
rich his nature, broaden his sympathies,
| elevate his ideal of life and duty, and
| make him at once better man and q
| better Christian than he would have
been otherwise. But the fact that he
was born into the possession of this OPP
portunity is nothing 20 his credit. He
| is not a better man on that account.
If he be the better, it is for having made
| good use of his opportunity, and the
| man beneath him may rot rightly be
| looked down upon as inferior, if he be
making an equally conscientious and
energetic use of such opportunities as
| he has been granted.
There is nothing on earth meaner
! than the caste spirit as it ordinarily
displays itself. Where it exults in rich
es, finery, display and is contemptuous
| toward those of less obvious posses
sions, it is not only shameful but pit
liable. Christianity distinguishes be-
tween the right and the wrong applica-
ton of this spirit of social distinction
and says that all men before God are
t'bdI. DClOlC oOd AC VIM lidhCo tilC
best use of his opportunities stands
highest. He who starts lowest In the
social scale may receive at last the re-
ward of the very best, having risen
higher than he who started under bet
ter auspices, even though the former
never reach the level at which the lat
ter began. Christianity says to one
and all: The caste spirit, so far as it
is exclusive, narrowing, supercilious,
is an emanation from the Internal re-
gions; so far as it is an incentive to
geniality, generosity, helpfulness, low
ing kindness and cordial appreciation
of what is good in all, it is a foretaste OF
heaven.
We are not to expect social distinc-
tons to disappear, but Christian pesple
should so conduct themselves that such
distinctions may have only the signif-
canoe of invisible, even if inevitable.
lines over which congenial spirits pass
back and forth in happy intercourse un-
restrained. Like seeks like, and always
will. And like always should be able
to seek like unhindered when the like
ness is due to common and noble
moral purpose, to intellectual SYM
pathy, or to that true brotherliness
which is the characteristic of every hon
est heart. SO fast and so far as Chris
tianity prevails among men the caste
spirit in it's lower, meaner sense must
disappear and in its higher, nobler
sense of helpfulness and opportunity
it must and it ought to prevail.-Bos-
ton Congregationalist.