The Socialist and labor star. [volume] (Huntington, W. Va.) 1911-1915, 1914-03-20

| Centuries later Karl Marx en-
bodies the appeal in his famous mani
Icsto and today it baZcs forth in let
lcrs Of fire us the watchWord Of the
Worldwide revolution: "NOrkers of
all countries unite; you have nothing
to lose but your chains. You have a
world to gain
During the brief span of three
years, embracing the whole period of
his active lie, from the time he began
to stir up the people until "the scar
let robe and crown Of thorns were put
on him and he was crucified between
two thieves" Jesus devoted all his
/ time and all his matchess ability and
energies to the suffering poor, and it
would have been passing strange if
they had not "heard him gladly"
He himself has no fixed abode and
like the wrctched, motely throng to
whom he preached and poured out his
great and loving heart, he was 4 poor
wanderer on the face Of the earth and
"had not where to lay his head"
| Pure communism was the economic
and social gospel preached by Jesus
Christ, and every act and every utter
ance which may properly be ascribed
to him conclusively aftirms it. Pri-
vate property was to his elevated
mind and exalted soul a sacrilege and
a horror; an insult to God and a crime
against man.
The economic basis of his doctrine
of brotherhood and love is clearly de-
monstrated in the fact that under his
leadership and teaching all his dici-
Piles sold their possessions and goods
and parted them to all men,as every
man had need" and that they had all
things in common"
And they, continuing daily with
one accord in the temple, and break
ing bread from house to house, did
eat their meat with gladncss and sin
gleness Of heart
This was the beginning of the
mighty movement Jesus had launch
ed for the overthrow Of the empire Of
the Caesars and the emancipation Of
the crushed and miserable masses
from the bestia misrulc Of the Ro-
man tyrants.
1t was above all working class
movement and was conceived and
brought forth for no other purpose
| than to destroy class rule and set up
| the common people as the sole and
rightful inheritors of the earth.
Happy are the lowly for they shall
inherit the earth
Three short years Of agitation by
the Incompatible Jesus was sufficient
to stamp the proletarian movement
he had inaugurated as the most for
midablc and portentious revolution in
the annals of time. The Inflated
author could not long survive his
stupendous mischief. The aim and
inevitable outcome of this madman's
teaching and agitation was too clear
~ manifest to longer admit of doubt.
The sodden lords of misrule trem-
bled in their stolen tnery, and then
the word went forththat they must
get" the vagabond who had stirred
up the people against them. The
prototypes of Peabody, Mcfarland,
Harry Orchard, ct. al, were all ready
| for their base and treacherous perfor
nance and their thirty pieces Of
blood-stained silver The priest Of
the mammon worshippers gave it out
that the Nazarenc was spreading a
false religion and that his pernicious
teachings would corrupt the people,
destroy the church, uproot the old
faith, disrupt the family, break up the
home and overthrow society.
The lineal defendants of Caiaphas
and Judas and the pharisees and
money-changers of old are still par
roting the same miserable falsehoods
to serve the same miserable ends the
only difference being that the brood
OF piOuS perverts now practice their
hegeneracy in the name of Jesus they
betrayed and sold into crucifiXion
| twenty centuries ago.
Jesus, after the most farcical trial
and the most shocking traveSty upon
justice, was spiked TO the cross at the
gates Of Jerusalem and his followers
subjected to the most cruel prosecu
ton. torture, exile and death. The
movement he had inaugurated, fired
| by his uncOnquerable revolutionary
spirit, persisted, however, through
| fire and slaughter for three centuries
and until the master class, realizing
the futility of their efforts TO stamp
it out, basely betrayed it by pretend
| ing conversion to its teachings and
reverence for its murdered founder,
and from that time forth Christianity
| became the religion. so-callcd, of the
| pagan ruling class and the dead
Christ was metamorphosed from the
master reTolutionist who was ignom-
iniouSly slain. a martyr to his class,
into the pious abstraction, the harm
less theological divinity who died that
John Pierpont Morgan could be
washed in the blood Of the lamb"
and countless generations of betray
ed and deiudcd slaves kept blinded by
superstituti0n and content in their
| poverty and degradation.
Jesus was the grandest and loftiest
Of human Souls-sun-cro and
God-inspired; 4 full-statured man,