THE CHURCHES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 206, 25 May 1908, Page 8

THE CHURCHES.

THE WORKERS AND RELIGION. | 'At tho Brooklyn Baptist Church .last night! ihqi.Rov. Arthur Dejvdney continued the. teries of "Plain Talks on-Puzzling Problems," • when tho subject of tho'talk was "Jesus and the Workers, or the Debt Working .Men owe to/Religion." : That'there was a growing hostility.... to,' the , Christian religion amongst., many .of,':tho workers lykl- to be frankly admitted,' said tho preacher. . Socialists and . social reformers!openly, assailed the Christian, faith, because they hold it to he a hindrance, . . ! to the realisation of . their aims. The churches were in : leaguewith . capi'talism'.' '. They jr. were-the-enemies of the. workersJ This was openly declared in many quarters. Was this . attitude justified ,by : the facta ?,',. Certainly I not! if the whole of the facts:were considered and known.'. Tho men who thus opposed-'t-he Jeligion of : Jesus Christ owed to Him the .■ .'jroatbr.part' of tho privileges which 'they, at .present .enjoyed. If'.there were capitalists growing , rich on the unearned increment of 'and, democracy was being enriched 'every • day by the unearned 1 increment of immeasurable. good: which" it owed to''-.the influence- .'; '' Airect and indirect of Jesus ..Christ. •' As Benjaimn Kidd declared, " Although a largo ; proportion of the .populace-were, quite unconscious of it, ;their conceptions, of their rights and duties, and ,of their relationship to: each, other,-' their ' ideas of liberty,, and ■ oven; of government, and.of the fundamental principles of society: had been largely shaped' by religion." Men were hostile, to Christ becausa_they confounded things that^differed. • They must not- confuso "churchianity" with • ■ 'Christianity. The. Church as an institution ■ . had, often obine-.short of her Lord's purpose. . That' was to be deplored. But institutionalisin had a tendency in that direction; to regard itself-as an ehdj instead of a means to ■an end." But in spito of tho Church's fre- ; quent failure, he must ho blind to the facts' of history'who. denied the incalculable debt. ' -humanity ow&l _to tho Christian faith. ' The ' fundamental; principlo of modern democracy was.born.of tho, religionof, Jesus. A man "as a man had lsis rights. Tho fact of manhood . carried with it tho rights of manhood... That ■ ' was tho message of Jesus'to the world,'first' heard from His lips Who asked, "How much is man' better than a sheep ?'' and, Who by the ;■ sacrifice of ,Himself at Calvary, revealed the. Divine idea, the .worth, of, the-.sinfiillest of - . men. ' Tho first Apostles were spoken' of as : ~ men "who turned the'world upside' down,", because of those new messages they brought. Tho. full- bearing of that great principlo was /."j. not yet realised. But through all' tho long : ' struggles on tho Continent, and in England, " of serf and froe-man against thei roppressors the inspiration came ■ from the Gospol. It was Wycliff 'and his poor preachers who gavo -, , the people of England tho Scriptures, who ' taught them to sing:' : < "When Adam delved and Eve span, ' :. Who was then tho gentleman? '

flio valuo of human life, tho dignity; of. labour, the rights of tho children, liberty of conscienco, and nil tho privileges springing therofrom wero tho direct fruit of the Christian Gospel. Tho Church was often'chargcd with intolerance ;md to science and knowledgo, and if there ; was somo truth -in tho charge, it must also-be .remembered that < in ages of barbarism, convents sheltered learning. ' The classics were revived under the shade of tho cloister. From tho first, the . Church always had its schools. In Kngiand, for example, long before the.State learned its S . duty the Churches were busy with-their national schools, and with tho schools of-tho British and 1 Foreign EJchools Society. Tho y very first steps at educating the children of tho 'peoplo wero taken by tho Church, which .had always fostered education.: In' all-the great reforms the influence of Christian men • had been foremost, and the influence of- ' Christianity, had'been tho bedrock' on which . : they have been builti -Much yet remained to bo (lone, but every attempt, to nchioyo it, .apart from Jesus Christ, would fail. Let His Spirit possess . moil, lot them all realise what 'Ho taught, ''tho < sacredncss■ •of every :: human being, however, poor, however ignorant,, however degraded, and tyranny, would be impossible, lust would be impossible," and every condition that fobbed any man of his sacredness, or belittled and degraded "the least of these" Christ's brethren, would be destroyed. .' - ;