Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-12-08

other than that which belongs to So
lcialism. In an age Of pessimism and
unfaith, Socialism is the only hope and
anchorage for millions OF souls.
! There are plentiful signs OF progress
in the world around us. Man is for
ever charging his kingdom in the uni
verse, retaining vast areas out OF the
Unknown, and adding them to his
ever-increasign empire. He has en-
Iarged his kingdom into realms far be-
yond the flight of the most fertile
tiinaginations OF. the ages. He has gone
down into the caverns of earth and torn
from the bosom of Nature gold and
gems with which to deck his queens,
land from her hot heart secrets of in
tfnity and dared to make a pathway OF
the skies. He has made angry seas his
servants, bearers of his mightiest bur
dens from shores to shores. He has
harnessed the winds to his wheels of
labor and caught and tanned the lightn-
ling's flash, making it his messenger.
Mans kingdom in the universe is a
wonderful achievement of the aeohs Of
|evolution.e
Compare this kingdom of Man in tie
twentieth century with that of mis-
primitive ances tors, the cave dWellef.
What a marvellous change there Isl
The cave man, armed only with club
or stone; compelled to compete with
the beasts of the forest; terrified by
1.-THE ligthning's flash helpless againls
fire and flood, pestilence and famine;
the ocean terror and the sky mys-
terry; was only barely removed from
the ape in power. He was only mas
ter of the apes world,
With such glorious record Of &C
lkaeHement to inspire mankind there
IouEht to be no lack of faith in the
world, no lack of joy. With such 4
kingdom Man ought to be happy. But
IalSn this is an age Of pessfmism and
luntaith. / am no alarmist and my
Ispirft Is inclined to err in the direction
lof optimism rather than in the direc-
Ition of pessimism, but / confess that
the Grass materialism of the age, with
Its absence of inspiring and uplifting
ideals, Expresses my heart Where to-
lday are the dreamers of dreams set
ting the harts of men aflame with holy
enthusiasm, setting the feet of the
young men and maidens marching to-
ward the vision? Where is there faith
lin mankind, faith in the future of the
race, in the capacity of mankind to
rise higher and higher, to completerthe
chain Of evolution from brute to
brother?
Only in the Socialist movement does
this faith abound, only in the Socialist
movement do we find the STRINGS of
the heart caused by the dream of a
revivified world. The churches have
for the most part, lost all their social
Ideals and their faith. Here sand, there
la voice is raised in affirmation-may
these few voices prove to be the leaven
of the whole movement! The Social
list dreams and believes, but Mammon
and the church mock the dream of
the faith.
There is nothing more pathetic than
the telplessness of the churches which
the spirit of Socialism has not touched
with its fire, kindling the flames of
social faith upon the affairs. They
: complain that the workers do not at
tend the services of the church and Ia
ment the fact that they have no longer
the power to win the masses. Most Ot
them seek the reason in all directions
except that of their own lack of faith.
, ~ do not realize that the average
church today is little more-than the
tomb of what once was splendid faith
and men do not seek life in the
Itombs. Instinctly, where they have not
: consciously fathomed the turth, the
masses feel that anything worthy the
name of spiritual feeling and expert
ence Is impossible in the vast majority
of the churches.
The causes of this condition of az
fairs are not difficult to discover For
: centuries Dogma held the place OF
Religion in the churches. Dogma upon
: dogma encursted the great ethical
4 ideals, the soul of religion. The simple
! ethical teachings Of Jesus we're lost
l sight Of, buried in mass of theological
,debris. In place of an ideal of social
! Justice there were speculations of no
importance in life raised far above the
| vital teachings of Jesus. How many
Angels might dance upon the point Of
needle? AS If the abstruse question
: behind that mattered to living souls
Dogma, then, usurped the place OF
Religion. More Importance was at
tached to fantastic beliefs than to right
living. A monster of iniquity who &C
! Icepted the formulas prescribed by the
tchurch was counted better Christian
THAN the just and merciful man whose
intellect could not grasp the priest
made creed. Such a monster, for ex-
ample, was Phillip II of Spain Zero
cious, blood-thirsty and inhuman vam-
pire that he was, Phillip was guilty of
everylcirme at which men shudder, all
in the name of his faith" Axe and
faggot slew more than forty thousand
persons in ten years at g his behest,
simply because they could not believe
in; the terrible monster Phillip wor-
Ishiped as God. In all his life there was
mot, single redeeming feature; not a
touch. of humanity relieves the awful
; record of his ferocious blood-lust, yet
he was honored as Saint!
The case of the bIoodthirsty monkish