Show THE CHURCH AND THE WORK inglai GlAy IN this arf the subject of a very able and forensic article in this months forum by the 0 M morse while not ao proving all the ideas advanced in it yet we concesa that it contains some solid truths that will undoubtedly set many people thinking tho topic ia one of great interest at one we fear that will continue to loae the attention of humanity as it has been doing poverty cannot be blamed for causing the lack of interest in religion as some claim for while as bishop john F hurst said at the general christian conference in 1887 the disposition between the few vho aho are attendants at christian churches and multitudes who never cross the threshold of one is a terrible reality and the churches uro united in admitting abs tbs unwelcome fact 1 yet the main cause is attributable to other sources the conflict ions and strife the inconsistencies and illoah propositions of so called religions today to day is th main key to the present condition of tho christian world this reverend gentleman very truly says the timo was when in our land there was no recognized antagonism bs awen tho working classes and the churches it is a new problem in our civilization the cause should be easily discovered by unclouded eyes fifty years ago aristocracy pretensions were looked upon as vagaries and treated with contempt in the churches people felt nothing of the chill of caste A glance at the banters canters of population aust convince now all ia changed there is an evident rivalry in the erection of splendid edifices and in the social and oratorical qualifications of the ministry the poverty of the working mans home is by comparison with the richness of the sanctuary the chief seats are vivid with purple and fine linen outside the house of god exists a social aristocracy bulwarked bulwark ed by inferior cliques and governed by unwritten rules making distinctions between man and man we have a moneyed aristocracy a political dictatorship landed proprietors a rapidly increasing tenant population the working man and the tramp the vast augmentation of wealth in the possession of the few and the increasing of poverty of the many the time is at hand when there will exist between classes gulfs as impassible as that between dives and lazarus intensifying social struggles are working a transformation in the character of the church as is manifest from alie new terminology coming into general use such as star preachers first class churches wealthy congregation and our poor charges the obverse of this is found in the expressions of the workingmen we cant dress well enough to go to church your leading members dout notice us on the street your preachers run after the rich the ministers side against us in the matter ef strikes they are in stern reality at the mercy of employers are compelled to stand in the marketplace market place and sell their labor at a rate fixed not by the golden rule but by the ceaseless cea grinding competition of the hungry unemployed As a result of this condition their situation is becoming daily more aggravated one million of unemployed men constantly recruited by alie drift from foreign sewers compete with those who areat work content if they but receive a pittance for their toil tho iron law universally accepted that the tendency of wages is to the lowest point of subsistence is in our time absolute here ahen ia developed tho problem that confronts us andin the statement of which is presented tho relation of the church to labor the two great classes of our population capitalists and working men are separated by an k able antagonism in assault and defense of a system which in the thought of the masses is founded on injustice and denounced by gods word and while the economic law is not grasped in all its bearings by the results are felt in their unceasing toil the galli ing sense of deprivation and injustice the suffer inca of loved ones and the over shadowing presence of the almshouse r the churches slow to accept ecclesiastical and economic reforms have i reached the last stage of conservatism i they maintain at least by implication that the great fortunes of the day are the fruit of industrial enterprises and belong to their possessors as against the world men who under ancient legal provisions have monopolized the store of wealth god has placed in tho earth are upheld as possessing under divine sanction while they who undertake to show that alio masses are defrauded of their birthright are classed by many with communists whose aim is tho subversion of tho rights of property aith regard to poverty leading religious thinkers hold that it is due to laziness and inefficiency rais management injurious indulgence and absence of a definite and resolute purpose to escape verty the church appears to believe that the cure of present social ilia will result from the reform of individuals independently of any change in or by legislative enactment or industrial methods which is to aegert that the prosperity of a people will ba better conserved bv the contributions of a class than by securing equal opportunity and exact justice for all men the working man knows from experience that the position is untenable the church says to the man who is porting his family by liis wage of one dollar per day that he may become wealthy if he will it points to the millionaire who began life in humble circumstances fand tells this man who is striving to keep his dollar a job against the competti ion of a freshly im ported italian that his poverty is the result of his own faults and deficiencies that he alone is to blama it preaches to him that hia lot is providential that god gives to some men instance abraham peculiar ability to secure wealth and withholds it from others that poverty is tending to promote spiritual crowth that he must bot become discontented nor question the justice of gods dealings with mea as observed in the affairs of society and that above all things lie must not antagonize the current doctrine of vested rights the laborer is not unreasonable in his temperament he docs not dislike a wealthy man simply because of hia proa he is willing to do the heavy work if need be he rejoices in the merited advancement of his fellows and is the staunchest chest supporter of our institutions tut ions ho objects to the industrial system belic vina that producer of wealth should retain that which isaah boned by his labor and skill instead of handing it over to another man to receive in return a pittance out of that which he haa created all wealth is the result of the application of labor to natural opportunities chev who create it occupy the lowest and moat wretched level of existence the few who do not create wealth but means of indirect processes constitute the highest class in society and the church if the system which produces such insults is sanctioned by religious teachers they who buffer because of its operations ape rations will reject tho teachers and the religion they profess to champion the causo of labor would alienate at once the majority of those who possess aad of the large class who hope at some timo to IB cura riches |