INDUSTRIAL WARFARE.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16592, 4 August 1919, Page 6

INDUSTRIAL WARFARE.

MR L. M. ISITT'S WARNING.

DUTY OF CHUIICII rEOPLE.

"Wo are not back in the sheltered valley that we were in for generations past, and in all probability many of ns will never return to it," declared Mr L. M. Is;tt, ,»r.P., in the course of an address at the Durham street Methodist Church last evening, following his eulogium a.t the unveiling by him of the roll of honour of the Church. I n pic. tu-esque phrase and nu-taphor, Mr Isitt pictured the industrial strife looming vividly 011 the horizon, and he made a fervent appeal to tho members of tho Christian Church to save the world from the late to which ho declared it was rushing. The war, he said, had taught the toilers that they created the wealth of tho rich, ,-uid that they were, entitled to n share of it. "Can you blame them?" lu' asked. "Those of us who will live through this next decade arc not going to dwell in any sheltered valley. believe me. We are to dwell in the bare plain, swept by the winds of opposing interey.s, and it will depend upon you professing Christians whether the storm will swoop the miasma from tho air mid lead to better conditions, or whether its pathway will bo one of misery and desolation." The ! call to arms live years ago was, in his opinion, not more clamant than tho call to Christian men who loved their God and fellowmen to throw themselves into the crisis. Methodists, Presbyterians, and Anglicans, and men who on lied themselves followers of the Lord Jesus Christ —he cailed upon them., If they were wealthy men they might think this thing was going to hurt in.--iv, and tlu-y could seek abundant justification for refusal in tho actions of the mad extremists, tlio disloyalty, tho Bolshevism, tho impossible demands of certain Labour leaders. But they might find that these things he had mentioned wore largely the result of Society's dealing with Labour. For centuries past, the capitalist had oppressed and exploited Labour. Possibly his wealthy hearers might have forgotiton all that. They might havo forgotten that Labour had boen degraded by drink and vile conditions. They might have forgotten all that, and say that bccauso these men were Bolsheviks they: would refuso to give any consideration at all to Ahe claims of Labour. But. in •their inner consciousness they knew they would be acting the ungodly and tho unchristianliko part ot an" unconscious shirker. It vos t] 'f eternal things that mattered. The fact that ono lived in a hotter house, was more richly clothed and bettor fed tuan ono's neighbour wor© not otornal things. He felt it year by year that the Church was missing its mission, tho first and most imperative duty of th 6 Church at this time. If thoy left tho battto to commercial greed 011 the ono blind envy on the other, evil days wer before us. days of and woe. It was always sacrifice that made a heaven on oarth, and ho asked them to practise it. "Most of u« may have mora leisure and better knowledge than the avoracr© worker. Give that leisure and fenowledgo to the worker. ' It means sacrifice, not a popular _ thing., m® world will sound no eulogiums, ring no bells. And especially so far ns tnis particular work, is concerned, the via mcd'-n is always t tho via dolorosa. A person undertaking such work is rocarded with distrust by hot-h Cnpitnlists and Labour. The Capitalists ro* gard him as a Bolshevik, extreme'Litbnur regards him with distrust. There is no guerdon in store for him. "What enn yriu do? Learn 1 You enn get ripht'down to tho under-man. "kou can talk to men whose enpital has been built'up in somo business vonture and who look up to tho skies, you can get right down to the other man, tho working-man who has to keep a wife and four or five children on £3 it week." Mr Isitt, went on to. say that ono man told him that when one of hi 3 children beenmo very ill and ho was unable to buy her tho necessary nourishment, he saw another man's child hugging a £4 Teddy Bear. A man who bad a wife slipping away because ho icould not give ner a chance of a rost saw another man's wife wearing clothes the cost of which wna equal to six months' of his, the first man's, wages. They would see this m this country, though Labour conditions worn better hero than in other places. He urged them to do best, to remove every economic injustice. That was tho work, he b"liovod. that God expected evory member of His Church to bo doing at the present time.