El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-09-12

passionately with the poor and the op-
pressed. of whom they were the out
spoken champions They proclaimed a
primitive democracy based upon an ap-
proximately equal distribution Of the
land
Jesus First Real Man.
Jesus was the true successor Of these
staIwart friends Of the people He was
more than a social refOrner. out he
was that and his message breathed the
passionate sympathy ne felt Tor the
poor and the oppressed he mas been
called the first Socialist lie was more
He was the first real man, the inaug-
orator of a new humanity and as Such
he bore within him the germs OF
new social and political democracy He
was too great to be the savior OF a
factionaI part of human life His re-
demptiOn extends to all human neeus
and powers and relations
Primitive christianity, while under
the fresh impulses Of Jesus, was filled
with social forces. In its later history
it lost this impulse and became prlestly
and lacked human sympathy
The reformation Of the middle ages
was largely an effort to restore social
justice. Says Rauschenbusch- ne
prime cause Of the reformation was the
smoldering anger of the northern ma
lions at their financial exploitation by
the Italian papacy" Thus / could pro-
coed TO show that in the great crises
of history the church has been the
LElenQ OF the QElADEAa Aes VI N-AE PNbH-G
and their cause in continental Europe,
though a surface view seems to wit
ness to the contrary
Church Pioneer Institution
II YOU turn to English history, the
same thing is true In Great Britain
there was a church before there was a
state. "The church" says one, "blazed
the jungle track that led to ctviliza-
ton and became the model Of the state"
Green says THE councils gathered by
$500 were the first Of all national gath
erings for general legislation" Wake
man corroborates Green and Macauley
when he says The tree Of liberty
grows Indigenous in English soil, but
il would never have grown at all had
not the church been there to plant the
seed and protect the tender shoot and
frame its nurture and vigorous life"
II may be well for Us TO remember
also that the magma. charta, that great
guardian Of rights Of the common peo-
pie, was won for the people by stephen
Langton. the archbishop OF Canterbury,
who is described as "a sturdy English
patriot, the head Of the reforming par
~, and the winner Of the great charter
It was Simon de MOnfOrt. who had i'm
bibed the spirit of the archbishop, who
called the first parliament IN 1853, and
the majority OF those who sat IN II
were clergymen, and they were all on
the side Of the people as against the
barOns and kings"
In the long struggle against slavery
and serfdOm, again the church was
the champion OF the people 5 rights
Says MaCaulay: Slavery and the evils
by which slavery IS everywhere &C
companied were fast disappearing" and
he adds. 1t would be most unjust not
TO acknowledge that the chief agent IN
the deliverances was religion" Green
testifies that England was rescued from
feudal anarchy by the efforts Of the
church. The revolt of the Lollards, in
the 18th century, under Wyckllf was In
the main a social revolt In Scotland
the same thing is true. In the dark
days Of the 18th century, the clergy
drawn from the middle classes, cluns