As long as childhood pines in City slum;
As long as Landlords steal their racking rent;
As long as Love and Faith to gold succumb;
As long as human life in war is spent;
While false religion teaches men to pray
To a false Tyrant, whom they misname God;
Whose "Holy Will" is—so they glibly say—
The poor should suffer 'neath His chast'ning rod;
As long as men do buy and sell the soil,
And thereby make their fellow men their slaves;
While selfishness exacts its cruel spoil;
While yet the poor are ground into their graves;
Until these crying wrongs are made to cease
Nowhere upon this earth can there be peace.[1007]
Although the Socialists have declared war against the Christian religion and the Christian Churches, they freely quote the Scriptures and the Fathers if it suits their purpose, and shamelessly misuse the name of Christ. In support of their maxim "Property is theft," they quote St. Jerome's saying: "Opulence is always the result of theft: if not by the actual possessor, then by his predecessors."[1008] They quote Christ in support of their demand for the abolition of private property, marriage and the family. "Christ abolished all private property, and with it the State. He abolished all distinctions of race, rank, sex, and intellect. He made the first last and the last first, acknowledging only devoted service as true greatness; the only law, the Law of Love. In His sweeping condemnation of egoism in every form it seems doubtful if He did not even lay iconoclastic hands on marriage and the family, as they existed and exist. In the resurrection they neither marry nor give in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven. Woman (to His mother), what have I to do with thee? Whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven the same is My brother, and sister, and mother."[1009] They use the name of Christ for electioneering purposes. At a West Ham election, for instance, the electors received leaflets which stated "If you vote for the Municipal Alliance you vote against God. If Christ were in Plaistow Ward, Christ would vote for Coe."[1010]
Professor Schäffle, perhaps the most fair-minded and moderate scientist who ever criticised Socialism, was perfectly right in stating: "Socialism of the present day is out-and-out irreligious, and hostile to the Church. It says that the Church is only a police institution for upholding capital, and that it deceives the common people with a 'cheque payable in heaven,' that the Church deserves to perish."[1011] The above words were written with regard to German Socialism, and British Socialism is far more irreligious, violent, and revolutionary than is the German variety.
FOOTNOTES:
[977] Rev. E.T. Russell in Forward, November 23, 1907.
[978] Rev. L. Jenkyns Jones in Forward, November 16, 1907.
[979] Rev. Frank Ballard in Socialism: A Cancerous Growth, p. 19.
[980] Macdonald, Socialism, p. 99.
[981] Blatchford, Real Socialism, p. 4.