THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS. I. THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH IN RELATION TO A FEW years ago Bismarck told the world that there is a Social Question, and every year since then the world has seen it rising into graver aspect among the foremost communities of Europe and America. The Social Question, as one of public well-being, demands everywhere to be heard, everywhere to be dealt with, everywhere to be solved. It is the life and death question of this and the next generation, gazing at and transfixing us, like the old Sphinx with its insoluble weird face, or ready, like anoer Frankenstein, to pursue with horrible hate and nameless ruel wrongs the very civilisation that has called it into exi. nce. All the best thought of our own and other countrie turns to this momentous subject. It is the duty of all men, and especially of large representative bodies of men, to turn their minds with what light and leading they have to an examination of Social Problems. There are four ways of dealing with them we may ignore them, only to find ourselves. playing the part of fools; or we may run away from them, only to play the part of cowards; or we may handle them rashly, only to play the part of fanatics; or we may study them thoroughly, and act the part of wise men. We cannot, and must not, ignore these great social problems. They front us, and affront us, whether we will or not. Ignor ance here is neither wise nor expedient. The world was never converted by silence, and we are at a point of social pressure where to keep silence is little less than immoral. On many of these questions light may still be wanting, but it is better found by seeking it than by sitting in a cave. The policy which does not contradict ignorance, or vex it by unwelcome enlightenment, but addresses it just as it wants to be addressed, is a blind and foolish policy. There is no pessimism so bad as the optimism which lightly trips past social misery, and thinks nothing need be done. We cannot, and ought not to, run away from these problems. No doubt, they are matters before which the strongest have trembled, and in which the wisest have erred. But their critical and difficult nature should not be an occasion for retreat or fear. The argument in terrorem is not one for manly hearts. Recommending itself as safe, it is full of risk. It never stopped inquiry, and never will: it stirs reaction in honest and honourable minds. The attempt to screw down the safety-valve must be abandoned as a fatuous policy. For this evasion of responsibility, through an abject desire to be safe, defeats itself, and brings on the coward the very evil he wants to shun. No doubt, the problems confronting us are grave-so grave that there is fear they may not be solved in time to prevent greater catastrophes. There is danger in reckless change, but there is greater danger in blind conservatism. Among those who have caught sight of the Social Question in its real magnitude, not a few are like the unbelieving spies who brought back an evil report of Canaan, making much of the giant obstacles; but the true counsel, now as of old, is what Caleb and Joshua gave, 'Let us go up at once and possess the land, for we are well able to conquer it.' There are forms of the 'inhumanity of man to man,' to grapple with which staggers the hopefullest. The boys of Verona used to whisper, as Dante passed, 'There goes the man who has seen hell.' We have looked into the Inferno of this nineteenth century's social woes-hells on earth into which no breath of heaven ever comes; and, once we have looked, we are tempted to turn away in heart-broken anguish, but the higher conscience bids us haste to the rescue, with fixed resolve that no study of ours shall make us faint, and no effort of ours shall be spared that may contribute to turn out, instead of new generations of social wreckage, new men and women worthy of the kingdom of God. We should not handle these questions rashly, unskilfully, or fanatically. The hasty adventure of unreasoned excursion into. such regions must be as carefully avoided as the timid avoidance of them. All angry statements, such as 'the war against accursed Capital,' or 'cut-throat competition,' only serve to provoke heated passion, and alienate temperate minds from taking part in needed reforms. All violent proposals to subvert the existing order, and hasten it by revolution and dynamite, only work mischief. Karl Marx declared that Bakunin, the father of modern Anarchism, was the worst enemy the working man ever had. Intolerance, fanaticism, passion and prejudice of every kind ought to be abjured; they can forward no cause, least of all, the cause of public welfare. In the great enterprise of social improvement, never should we let the spirit of party politics, or the spirit of religious rivalry intrude. When we say this, we do not mean to aver that it is wrong to belong to one or another of the great parties in the State, nor have we any sympathy with the view that religion has nothing to do with politics. We cannot isolate religion and make it a kingdom in the air; for it has relations and affinities with every phase of life, whether it be personal, economical, social, or national. The 'water-tight compartment' idea of Christianity does not harmonise with Christ's parable that the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal. The kingdom of Christ reaches to where no state can go-to the heart and conscience, and then out over all. Politics in the future will have to deal with social questions more than at present, and party spirit will therefore become more acrimonious and prejudiced in this direction. It is desirable that outside the arena of rival parties we should have generated ideals that may be despised quixotisms to the partisan politician, but become progressive and elevating forces in the future; and it is still more so, that outside there should be the momentum, or driving force, of a slow, sure, and enlightened public opinion to promote all good efforts in behalf of the condition of the people. We ought to consider these questions calmly, to study them carefully, and act towards them the part of wise men. They need sober and sagacious treatment, for they are often profoundly intricate, and difficult to unravel in their causes and effects. For a clear understanding of the subjects before us, it is of the utmost importance to have rigid accuracy in the statement of facts pertaining to social conditions, and to bring wisdom, insight, discrimination, and infinite patience to the study of remedies. It is the duty of all men to study the Social Question-of the statesman from a political standpoint, of the reformer from a humanitarian standpoint, and of the Christian from the standpoint of the spiritual mind. The Social Question, being the greatest national question of our time, is at bottom a religious question, affecting the whole status, spirit, and health of modern society; and no power on earth is better fitted to deal with it than the Church, in the light of Christ and His kingdom. The evils to be coped with under this Question are to be found everywhere, and constitute the chief hindrances to the Church's life and work. Millions of friendless and godless people inhabit the land, and their lot, both as to habitation, food, and employment, is a living reproach to our opulent civilisation, and an open scandal to our comfortable Christianity. It is true that individual regeneration and sanctification is the vital solution; it is true that we need an intensification of faith in the supernatural; it is true that the power to change the heart and set the life right must come from Christ. Development is not wholly determined by environment, and never was. Better surroundings help, but the real inspiration must come from within, or, as I prefer to state it, from above. All this evangelic truth we hold and emphasise ; but have not many who hold and emphasise it forgotten some thing? When Lazarus was to be raised from the dead, only Christ's life-giving word could do it; but before it could find access to the tomb, the stone had to be taken away. Ignorance, facilities to intemperance, unwholesome dwellings, inadequate wages, want of leisure,—such are the stones lying on the graves of the spiritually dead: and a voice from heaven asks, in many a bitter cry to-day, 'Have ye taken away the stones?' Have not those who work on more spiritual levels forgotten the toils that are needed to prepare the moral or material environments, without which their higher labours are all in vain? But the Church's duty is not only to spread a knowledge of the menacing conditions which lie at the base of the social fabric; it has likewise a positive and constructive work to discharge. It is the proper function of the Church to think out and formulate the moral law of Christ as applicable to modern conditions, in order that a truer public sentiment may be cultivated, and prevail among us, as theological opinion has prevailed; and that the Church itself may stand out again in the public eye as a body which has a clearly understood moral code for politics and industry and property, and especially for the social inequalities and miseries of our age. If we would be servants of Jesus Christ at whatever cost, we must place ourselves again at His feet, as He sits upon the Mount and opens His mouth to teach us the laws of His kingdom, and shows us their bearing on matters that concern the life of commerce, or the relations between Capital and Labour, or the administration of justice, or the tone of public morals, or the mutual obligations of classes to one another. The best men in all the religious communities of our land have been constrained to face social grievances and bestir themselves to a consideration of the means of help. A distinguished German, speaking of his own country, says: 'The decision as to which Church will gain the greatest influence over the life of the people will not be on the field of learned deductions, nor in the domain of dogmatic polemic, but the Social Question is the field on which the decisive battle must be fought.' The Pope, |