Orange County observer., 1908-02-06


walk on the sidewalk of the street
after 3 o'clock in the afternoon be-
cause it is possible that this Pariah,
whose touch is defilement, might
brush against a Brahmin? In other
words, the Brahmin has pushed the !
theory Of the isolation of the caste to
that point where he cannot allow
one not of the same caste to walk on
the same side Of the street with him.
When was in India asked Hindu
on boat on the Hoogly River to sit
down and eat with me, and he turned
as if had struck him and said: my
caste forbids; I cannot eat with you
because you are a Christian.
Now, Jesus came and John the
Baptist sees first of all that He had |
struck at the foundation. at the sys-
tenn Of the theory Of caste. The the
ory OF caste carried with it the right |
Of certain privileged people to main |
tain a certain aut0cratic and imper-
1ous sovereignty over the lives and |
property Of others. NO." said John,
having been long enough in the pres
ence of his Master to grasp that great
central truth of the Masters teach
ing, mo, you and l., the soldier and
the tax gatherer and the men who
pay taxes, and, all the rest, are one
family in the family of God, and in
your. relations to one another you
must govern yourselves by the law of
equity and not by the power which
comes into your hands because of any
mere caste Inheritance whatever
your Office OF place may be In caste
inheritance of power over another"
The believers in the religion of
Jesus Christ were slow to grasp that
truth. John the Baptist himself be-
gan to doubt whether Christ had
come to create new system under
which men should sustain new re1a-
tions to each other. "Art Thou He
who should come? If so, why don't
you strike at the foundation of this
concrete, al-political-socia1
order OF which you and are part?.'s
Now, we come to the great truth
which Jesus strives to get to the
minds of His disciples: Go tell John
the things you have SEEN" What
was the definition of the Masters
| method? That He put into human
society an absolutely new conception
| of the relation of man to man and left
| it as a seed He did not deal with
| the miseries of society, as you and !
| are often tempted to deal with them.
He did not dismiss the blind and the
| lame and the rest out of His sight
and teaching. He dealt with them
| four-square, and relieved them. He
translated the mind and the heart of
God to the consciousness of man and
/ He made them realize at last that His
| religion was in the world to be re-
creative force. First of all, begin
! ming at the individual heart and life
and then bringing about the recon-
struction of society because OF the
different way in which men regarded
each other.
That brings me to the subject on
which I have been specially asked to
speak tonight. You and I, whether
we are disposed to like the situation
or not, and most OF us resent 1t as an
insufferab1e impertinence, are con-
fronted in this republic, and in this
twentieth century, with incompara-
bly, the most tremendous problem, in
it's relation to the right construction
of human society, with which the re-
public has vet had to deal, and that
problem is the problem of the unif1ca-
ton of the ideas and sympathies and
purposes and aims of men, and you
cannot go home tonight and lay your
head upon your pillow without being
conscious, whether you choose to ac-
knowledge it or not, that there is in
the depths of poverty and want and
shame all about you profound so.
cial discomfort, and that there are
earnest and able men (let us be just
although we don't love them), who
are deeply persuaded that there car
be no peace in human society unles:
that peace is wrought by the absolute
destruction of principles which ar,
precious and beautiful and d1gnihet
in human society. They say thu
whole social fabric must be pullet
: down and thrown to the ground ant
| the man who stands in the way
! that must be got out of the way. NOW
: the question which confronts you AM
3 me is: How are we to deal Win I'll
, state OF mind and what are we to d
? to remedy it? We know that II sue
social revolution were to come I
!; pass tomorrow it would be atteHde
= by cruel and brutal indign1ties an
. that the guardianship OF the famli
:. and the safety OF the Ssate ltsel
+, would be imperiled. Our social prof
= lem here in America, and especlaIl
those problems which involve our r s
lations to the men who work VIII
= their hands, are not to be solvea =
. revolution, but by quite anotne
q method. First of all we are to recos
l. nize the situation, the tremendot
y conyolution, the transformation
n may venture to call it, which III
lc come to pass in the workingman
/ life by the invention of machiner
II by the building up OF great centr'
n forces for the employment OF men u
r der conditions which separate nj
l. absolutely from the master whom
u serves. The workman is as aDsolut
r " unknown to the man or the co
SO poration-and It is often corpor
e. tton-who employs him as Il ne 1v'