Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-02-21

Christ and the Poor Man-fIis Asso-
citation with and sympathy For the
ToiIers-His Teachings the Basis
of Our Social Message.
At the opening of the recent indus
trial bazaar held under the auspices of
the United Trades and Labor council
of the CASTOR division of Manchester,
England, Hall Caine, the noted author,
delivered the following address:
How can we doubt that, with its 9th
er and higher aim, the gospel is
great social message? Look ut the
plain facts. The first of them is that
1.900 years ago man of the name of
Jesus Christ. whom all Christendom
worships as God, was born poor and
humble, when he might have been rich
and powerful.
His poverty was so great that on
one occasion he said, almost with bit
terneSs. The foxes have holes and
the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man hath not where 10 lay his
head He was workingmau. and
his friends We're workingmen, and he
walked with the poor and remained
with them to the day of his death.
The next fact is that the opinions Of
Christ We're the opinions natural TO Il
worliingman. who saw the strength
that poverty gives and the burden
which wealth imposes. Need | recall
the parable of Lazarus to show YOU
that in Christ's view the possession of
riches was Il great danger to the hui
man soul?
Need | remind you that he said it
was easier for Il camel to go through
the eye of needle than for Il rich
man to enter the kingdom of heaven
10 prove that he had Il poor mans opin-
ions about rich men and that it seems
as if he could hardly be just to them?
The final fact is that the prayer
which we call the Lords prayer, the
only prayer which Christ taught his
people, the prayer into which. pre-
sumably, he gathered up, from what
ever sources. the whole sum of his
teachings, all his parallels and SER
mons, is social message of over
whelming force.
Look at it clause by clause. 1t be-
gins with the words. Our Father"
Could anything more plainly indicate
the equality of all men? If God is
our father, all men are our brothers,
and the laws which give higher power
and authority to one man than to an
other which allow one man to govern
for no better reason than that he was
born the eldest son and condemn an
other to serve because he was born
the second son are manifestly contrary
to Christs first principle of the rela-
ton of man to man and man to God.
The Lords prayer says, Give us
this day our daily bread" Could any
thing indicate more clearly the desire
for relief from economic distress or
doom to more absolute condemnation
the laws of land and capital which
permit one man to live in boundless
luxury while they require another to
linger in the misery of want?
The Lords prayer says, Forgive us
our trespasses, as we forgive them
that trespass against u.s." Could any
thing speak palmer on the true rela-
llOlt VI llldl W SOtltlt
the duty of nation to nation or con
denim more absolutely the barbarous
methods of settling international dis
putes by recourse to arms?
Above all the Lords prayer says,
"Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done
on earth as it is done in heaven" and
surely nothing could more completely
Il iS-an ht.t1 1,n Of hn
churches, which, recognizing in all
ages the frightful injusticeS of the eX-
listing order, have counSeled resigna
tion on the ground tnat the worst evils
of the world, the crying inequalities
of the classes. the awful eXtraya-
gances of the rich and the fearful pri
vations of the poor are II part of the
divine ordinance and, paradoXically
enough evils only to be remeded in
another and better sphere.
Can there be more direct message
to the living world than this message
OF the gospel? You may call it un-
practical and Utopian and out of har-
mony with the progress of civilization;
you may say that Christ is an anarch-
ist and that Christianity is useless
dream, but you cannot say that the
gospel is not profoundly concerned
with the social and economic problems
of the world in which we live.
The labor programme is profoundly
religious and Christian propaganda,
whoever and whatever its leaders may
be, and the powers that are against it
are profoundly irreligious and pagan
whosoever and whatsoever their advo-
Gates are.
What is the pagan concept of govern
ment? The pagan concept of govern
ment is authority, and that alone justi-
fies the unconstituted rights, the inc
qualities, the barbarities and the mis-
cries that civilization has for 1000
years been striving to break down.
The Christian concept of govern
ment is right, and that asserts the val
ne of the individual soul, the father
hood of God, the brotherhood of men
and all that these imply in uniting
T,at,l ind iptn npa family