The Irish standard., 1906-12-08

3.
the poor. and lowly. which, among
all our sorrows, conflicts and. difficult
ties is. the real: honor and glory; Of
our age. >, =:
I'm .1S46, when q MAJ. called himself
a socialist, we could understand what
he meant. In 1906 he may mean one
OF. ten thousand different things, for
as. the ideas of helpfulness have spread
through the, world, through Germany.
France. Russia, England and America,
schools and systems have so multi
piled, all rallying around the banner
and the name OF socialism, that we
cannot be too careful in our examina-
tion. of them before we lend ourselves
to condemnation, before, even, we seek
to- pass judgment"
Can we find a via media by which
the mighty forces of religion and the
mighty forces of this social discon-
tent. and unrest can be brought to-
gether to work for a common end
the good Of mankind Between re-
1igion and socialism in general there
is supposed to be a deadly hatred
and opposition. Nothing is further
from the truth. Rightly understood.
the Christian religion is socialism, and
rightly. understood, in it's highest
sense, socialism is religion. Rightly
understood, this truth lies at the base
of all investigation Of the subject. 1t
is the fundamental truth Of the Amer
tcan constitution which. after tho do
basing philosophy Of the seventeenth
century. proclaiming,' as it did, the
divina right OF. kings. 1narshaled in
The inalienable and indissoluble rights
of. individual man.
...It is not by fighting, by conflict,
that We can, hope to find a way out
AS, Fenelon. Archbishop of Cambria,
wrote to King James of England, NO
! human power can reach the impenet-
rahle recess OF the free will Of the
heart. Violence can never persuade
1 unen; it. serves only to make hypo-
orftes. Grant civil liberty, too, not
in approving everything as Indifferent,
but in tolerating with patience
whatever Almighty God to1erates. and
endeavoriug to convert men by mild
persuasion Tennyson's King Arthur
voices. the same spirit whom to his last
! asnigf1t he exclaims;
1.-THE old order ehangeth, giving place
49,; to. new, .:
;And God fulflls Himself in many
ways,
Lest one good. custom should corrupt
.... the world.
rs. there not some way by which
a, better understanding can be estab-
lished, he introduced into the world,
10y which these mighty forces of So
cial unrest, and the mighty forces of
religion, can be reconciled and made
allies? The principal objection made
to Christianity by the anarchistic
school Of socialism is the fact that the
church urges men to- live so that they
may prepare for the world to come.
They say, therefore, that the church
leads them to neglect the world that is.
:" You make this world a HE'LL they
SAY: while men are waiting for the
, other. What to you is progress
iiWhat to you is individual develop
nlent;: The principal aim Of man,
you teach, is not to improve this
world: but to gain the world to come.
Now we,' they say, want our heaven
here on earth And so this earth
should be first heaven for us; but
that it, can never be through unin-
tel1igent discomfort or futile raving.
The Church's ideal would be to
make it possible for every man to
live: in comfort; to have all that is
needed; to drive away all suffering,
ALL misery, all want. all poverty, all
crime; all circumstances where,
'artbbed. cabined and confined the
individual finds it impossible to reach
the: greatest and fullest development
Of the faculties of his soul and body.
when, we reach that condition, the
! millennium will have arrived; the
world be all happiness, and earth
tbeconne a, heaven.
4 ':.".E
49,. ::,.-.'' =
The. statements Of the iconoclastic
Socialist rest upon the misapprehen-
sion-.a morbid and rabid idea Of the
functions OF the Church which, in
deed, some Christian writer's may