Swiftly and surely the belief and worship of the new god and the new gospel is spreading into all lands. Men fancy they still worship "the Trinity," "Confucius," "Zoroaster," "Mohammed," "Mumbo-jumbo." It is wholly a fancy. Men still say, "I believe in God the Father," etc. They still say, "Do to others as you would have them do to you," is the first and great commandment. But what they do do, and wish to do, and mean to do, is,
"To buy cheap and sell dear."
We need no missionaries to drive this gospel into heathen minds. It has the charming vitalizing power of going itself. The Chinese have received it, and have immediately taken the whole tea business out of the hands of Messrs. Russell & Co. and Jardine, Matheson & Co.; have quite put an extinguisher upon their money-making. Indeed, do we not know that almost every European, Chinese, and Indian merchant has failed, and the heathen Chinee sits in their seats.
How England came to invent this new gospel is known to many, though not to all. Let me briefly sketch the amazing creation:
A century ago the strength and power of England was based upon her yeomanry. They possessed much land; and upon the lovely rolling fields of that lovely country their stone farm-houses and their small farms were the homes and habitations of millions. From this strong and hardy yeomanry were drawn the bowmen and the pike-men who made the armies of the Edwards and the Henrys invincible; from them came the "jolly tars" who seized victory for Drake and Nelson.
Then Liverpool was not, and Manchester was not, and creation did not pay tribute to England's god.
But a century ago Watt, the keen, canny Scotsman, discovered that steam was a giant, and could he but capture him and harness him into his machine, what work might he not do? He did capture him, and he did harness him to his machine; and now he works on, on, up, down, here, there, not ceasing by night and day, by summer and winter; he tires not, he rests not; for ever and for ever he toils on. He saws, he grinds, he spins, he weaves, he ploughs, he thrashes, he drags, he lifts. Such a giant he is!
One man with the steam machine now does the work which once was done by ten, twenty, fifty! He files, he cuts, he sews, he polishes, he brews, he bakes, he washes, he irons. Is all this nothing?
It is vast—it is a revolution! And no man yet sees the end.
Trade now was exaggerated beyond all former measure, and henceforth was to be the god of England and of the world. "Let us produce, let us buy cheap and sell dear, and so we shall be blessed." England had coal deep down in her bowels. Let her send her sons by thousands into the slime and darkness to dig it out. Let her make steam, and cheap cotton, and infinite iron, and let her make all mankind buy of her. "Let us," she cried, "demand free trade! for we can make cheap and sell dear, and none can rival us."