for eighteen years lived in seclusion among the Harz Mountains, and the direct results of his generous efforts were transient and meagre. He is to be remembered, however, as the first German Protestant who, in the name of the Christian religion, proposed a definite social programme. Christian philanthropy, he maintained, was not to be satisfied with almsgiving and help for the helpless, but was called to contribute to the new industrial issue the forces of organization and selfhelp. The social climate of England favored the efforts of Maurice, while that of Germany blighted the plans of von Ketteler and Huber, and the socialism of the State and of the Revolution left, between them, little room for Christian liberalism; but it is not impossible that, when the full effect of prosperity secured by legislation comes to be observed in Germany, there may be a renewal of interest in enterprises of personal and spiritual initiative; and if that time arrives, there is likely to be a renewed recognition of this early believer in the free activity of a living Church.

Much more in accord with the tumultuous and shifting character of the modern social movement is the career of a second German Protestant leader, the eloquent and masterful Pastor Stöcker.1 For twenty-five years this brilliant orator has been

1 A. Stöcker, "Christlich-soziale Reden und Aufsätze," 1885; Göhre, "Die evangelisch-soziale Bewegung," 1896, s. 41 ff.; Rae, "Contemporary Socialism," 1891, p. 234; Kaufmann, "Christian Socialism," 1888, p. 159.

His

among the most conspicuous and the most criticised of Germans. Few critics would question the motives of his intense and varied activity, but no one can recall the changeful policies of his stormy life without a pathetic impression of wasted power. As early as 1878, being then Court Preacher in Berlin, he organized his "Christian Socialist Labor Party," "on the basis of the Christian faith," to "lessen the division between rich and poor, and to bring in a greater economic security." He dismissed the Social Democracy as "impracticable, unchristian, unpatriotic," and set forth a Christian programme as its substitute. It is not, he says, "in the name of the Church that the programme is proposed"; "the Church is not called to make an economic programme." organization was not to be one of the clergy to help the working-men, but one of the working-men to help themselves. It was impossible, however, for a Court Preacher, with a mind essentially conservative and a following of the cultivated class, to command the genuine confidence of German handworkers. Stöcker's original ambition was thwarted also by legislation introduced by the government against the Socialists, an attack which only served to consolidate their forces and to shut out the labor party of Stöcker from consideration. His zeal turned, therefore, to a new and less noble crusade. The sympathy which was coldly received by the working-men found a warmer welcome in the ranks of tradespeople of the humbler type,

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whose industrial welfare was seriously threatened by an extraordinary increase in power and prosperity among the Jews. The social interest of Stöcker joined with his orthodox theology in converting his original Christian socialism into anti-Semitism, and he became much more widely known as a Jewhater than as a working-man's friend. Finally, in 1895, as if conscious that a working-class movement was impossible, Stöcker and his friends. turned to a more comprehensive but more conservative scheme. There was organized at Eisenach a "Christian Social Party," for the purpose of uniting "under the principles of Christianity and patriotism persons of all classes and occupations who are moved by the Christian social spirit." "While its special attention is to be given to the elevation of the working-class as the present problem of the time, it will with equal gladness serve the needs of all productive interests in city and country, in agriculture, factory life, and menial labor." It It opposes "all unchristian and un-German schemes of spurious liberalism, oppressive capitalism, rapacious Hebraism, and revolutionary socialism." Thus Stöcker's new platform combined in one programme all the various ends for which in turn he had already contended. It has failed, however, of wide effect through its comprehensiveness, as the first programme failed through its limitations. Supported though Stöcker has been by persons of importance, the distinction between his political ideals and those of the conservative

party has not been such as to detach votes, while he has been a special object of the attack against clerical influence in politics. The legislation of Bismarck concerning socialism cut the ground from under Stöcker's feet, and in 1890 he withdrew from his position as Court Preacher. He has since remained a striking and solitary figure in parliamentary life, regarded by many persons with hesitating admiration and by some persons with special animosity; yet he is, none the less, to be counted as the most eloquent and persistent of German Protestants in maintaining that social organization is an essential duty of the Christian Church in the modern world.

Genuine and devout, then, as the Christian socialism of German Protestants has been, it cannot be said to have produced a definite industrial programme, or to have had a profound effect. It has found itself between two fires, the distrust of the government, and the undisguised contempt of the Social Democracy. On the one hand, it is met by the emperor's dictum that the clergy should leave politics alone; on the other hand, it is confronted by the Socialist belief that religion is a superstition maintained in the interest of the confiscating class. In this state of things, the last proposition of the Protestant Socialists of Germany, while it is certainly heroic, would seem to be Quixotic, if not suicidal, in its character. The rebuke of the emperor, it is said by the eloquent preacher Naumann and his friends, is

not without justification. A clergyman in a State Church may not hope at the same time to main. tain his clerical office and to establish a friendly relation with the working-class movement. Either his freedom of speech will cost him his place, or he will address property holders alone. His only escape from such a dilemma is to abandon the ministry as a profession, and, in the name of a new parliamentary party, to throw himself into political life. Christian socialism must be regarded as a political alternative, to be presented to German hand-workers in place of the Social Democracy which now commands their votes. It accepts the economic programme of the Socialist, but interprets and maintains that programme as a witness of the Christian religion. Gallant and self-sacrificing as this programme is, it cannot be regarded as a hopeful phase of practical effort. To abandon the Church for the sake of religion; to see in politics the field for a religious revival; to ally one's self with the Socialist party for the sake of supplanting them, this will seem to most observers like the charge at Balaklava, magnificent, but not war; and the withdrawal of these Christian preachers from their prophetic office does not, at present, appear likely to carry with it the assurance of a corresponding influence and leadership in the political world.

It is not essential for our purpose to cite further instances of the Christian protest against the aliena