CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM
About thirty years ago a little band of ardent and earnest men joined themselves together as Christian Socialists, under the guidance of the Rev. F. Maurice, Rev. Chas. Kingsley, and other able and hopeful leaders. They shared in a high degree that ardent desire after ‘Practical Christianity’—that embodiment in every act of daily life of the spirit of our Master’s teachings—which has always existed in the Christian Church, and which can only cease with the disappearance of the Christian faith.
The grand idea of human brotherhood is a vital principle of our Lord’s teaching. It is the foundation on which He builds His Church. But practical Christianity cannot exist unless political and social economy are founded upon this principle of brotherhood. Trade and manufactures, agriculture and education, national government and the individual home, are not Christian unless they are inspired by this central principle, laid down by our Divine Master, and reiterated in every page of His wonderful life—viz., that we must live as brethren under the inspiration of a wise and loving Father.
Attempts to realize more fully this fundamental portion of the Christian faith, by special associated efforts, have always been observed in every age. From those early times when the disciples laid their offerings at the Apostles’ feet, and strove to ‘have all things in common,’ to the present day, the attempt to secure higher ends by the power of combination—a combination inspired by the highest idea of right—is always going on.
Christian Socialism, therefore, is no new idea. It is as old as our faith. It is the shaping of actual daily life on the principle of Christian brotherhood. It enters in some degree into every association—church, chapel, or society of any kind whatsoever—which seeks to embody an unselfish or a higher spiritual idea; but the Christian Socialist believes that the structure of society in every part should be moulded by the idea of united interests.
The very gradual acquisition of wisdom by our race, however (a slowness which seems to be the necessary condition for securing both freedom and strength), leads to the frequent exercise of zeal without knowledge. Direct attempts to join people together under better conditions than the haphazard methods by which villages swell into towns have frequently ended in failure.
But each successive generation enters upon active life with increased intellectual development and with increased command over material forces. If equal enlargement of the moral nature accompanies the growth of intelligence, then the generation has made a solid advance in wisdom, and the practical Christianity of true brotherhood is nearer at hand. The Christian Socialist believes that many principles on which a better society must be founded have come into clearer light during the past thirty years, and have been, and are being, tested by varied and valuable experiment.
The term Christian is here used in a legitimate practical sense. Reverently and heartily a Christian must accept the rule and guide of life so emphatically laid down by our Master—viz., that in eating and drinking, in buying and selling, at home and abroad, we are to act for our brethren, not for ourselves alone. We are to seek, first of all, righteousness.
The problem we have to face is the ever-increasing amount and variety of evils which we see around us, and to ascertain how far this is caused by the present selfish structure of society, by the false individualism which hypocritically asks, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ Evils now increase upon us more rapidly than we can remove them. Pauperism and vice, drunkenness and crime, mammon worship and frivolity, dishonesty and corruption, are all bred by ourselves. They are largely produced by the conditions of the society into which children are born, and by which they are moulded. Ten years of squalor or degrading conditions may deteriorate or ruin the nature of the child. My attention was once called to a bright and charming little girl, brought to a public institution by a poor mother fallen into sickness and poverty. One year was given to the mother to reclaim her child. On a subsequent visit, after eighteen months’ interval, I failed to recognise that child; her brightness was gone, her movements had grown listless and awkward, her intelligence was dulled, her expression vacant, she was sinking with frightful rapidity into the hopeless pauper.