The Advocate and news., 1899-01-18

without giving an equivalent IN LlelG
own labor. Il is q ceaseless wonder I'd
me that those who are living this sort
Of a life, processing the spirit Of altru-
ism one day in the week and dominated
by the spirit OF greed the other six, DON'T
see the inconsistency Of the thing. II Is
because the church is 80 largely I'm
Christian and pagan that 1t doesn't have
more power In the world. That IL has
such power and influence as It enjoys,
Is because there Is something OF the
spirit OF the Master among some Of It's
members. People who see clearly enough
to be honest with themselves cannot Join
the churches and declare that they know
"they have passed from death to life
because they love their brethren" and
still go on sCheming and planning for
profit at the expense Of those brethren,
And they know, too, that under the in
dustriaI system we now have, no man
can live the Christ life without making
himself pauper aud his children beg
gars. It Is we'll to speak plainly and not
to mince words. What Is called Chris
tianity to-day is very largely cold and
selfish f0rmalism--a body without the
soul. In the soil of a system which
makes success consist in the aCCumula-
ton OF wealth and tells every man to
"buy and sell and get gain" the SUI
preme Christian virtue, the love that
thinketh no evil, that is kind and long
suffering and seeketh not ITS own, can
never flourish. "A homely illustration
by one Of the best men ! know may we'll
close this expression Of my ideas. He
asked me II man could be Christian
under present conditions. And then he
went on to say that the railroad ran
through his farm, cutting OK a little
threelcOrRered piece. IA poor man
comes along" he continued, "and asks
me to let him raise some potatoes there
to feed his wife and babies; and l tell
him No, I want that for q hog lot. "
Not one OF us is willing to give UP his
hog lot; not one OF us can, without fall
ing and being rin'over In the race.
-
'''The truth shall make you free, says
the Apostle John. The world has been in
bondage TO superstition; 1t has been sub
ject to fear; IT, has been ruled by kings;
1t has shed Its blood at the behest OF
military captains; 1t still trembles at the
storm and the pestllence and suffers the
pangs of poverty and privation in the
midst Of abundance all because 1t
has not known and does not know the
truth. There Is no real freedom except
in knowing the truth; neither indeed can
there be. Ignorance means slavery, not
only In the physical life, but even more
In the mental and moral realms. TO
search for the truth is the one task set
for us here In this world; and SO far as
we fulfill that duty we are emancipating
ourselves. Freedom from doubt and
freedom from uncertainty are among the
most obvious results Of knowing the
truth. Every discovery is the starting
point for new ConQuests. The more light
we get the more we can see. When men
learned the truth Of the expansive power
Of steam and found out how to utilize it,
from how much druggery they were
freed. When men learned the truth that
no man has divine right TO rule an
other, from how much oppression they
were relieved. When men shall learn
how infinitely the force latent in ether
waves transcends the power OF steam,
and see how to make that force available,
they will look back on the present age
as we do upon those in which men
chipped fiints for arrow heads or plowed
with sticks. When people come to ap-
prehend the economic truth that no man
can have any right to the services of
another unless he render full eQuiva-
lent in the labor he himself performs, the
present economic system will seem to
them az bafbarous as Russian serfdom
or African slavery does to us. The truths
that shall increase our freedom lie all
about us undiscovered because our Wis
ion is as yet to weak to perceive them.