BISHOP COWIE ON THE LABOUR CRISIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8355, 8 September 1890, Page 6

BISHOP COWIE ON THE LABOUR CRISIS

Yesterday evening Bishop Cowie preached at St. Matthew's Church before a large congregation on the present labour difficulty. He took his text from Galatians vi, 2—5 : —" Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." " Each man shall bear his own burden." The Bishop said :These precepts of the text-maker, Paul, at first sight seem to contradict one another ; but it is not so in fact, as we shall see. They were addressed to congregations of Christian men and women living in Asia Minor in the first years of the Gospel, but, though so old, they are nob yet out of date. We must all acknowledge that they are addressed to ourselves, if we call ourselves Christians. However the followers of Jesus Christ may differ among themselves as to Church organisation, as to particular doctrines, or as to rites and ceremonies, they are entirely at one as to their obligation to obey the law of their Master. St. Paul in this passage assumes that it is so. Our Lord's own words are, " Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do nob the things which I say?" And as to what is the law of Christ, what is the essence of His commandments, there is no room for doubt among His followers. " This is my commandment," said He, "that ye love one another." "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." " Love is the fulfilling of the law," says St. Paul. In the first days of the Gospel ib was said by the heathen among whom the small communities of believers lived, "See how these Christians love one another." All sections of the universal Church of Christ acknowledge that brotherly lovo is an essential of true Christianity ; and yet how lacking is this grace in the hearts of many of us, how altogether wanting is it in not si few. It was a chief part of the mission of Jesus Christ to form mankind into a brotherhood. A Christian is nob to lie a man distinguished from others chiefly by views and opinions, bub ono who loves God and his fellow-man. It is sad that, in this nineteenth century after Christ, it should bo necessary to dwell on this truism, but necessary it certainly is. Now, in the chapter which I have read this evening, Paul specifics two particulars of brotherly love. The first is that we should " bear one another's burdens." Every man, woman, and child among us has his or her burden, which others may help to bear. Ahe Sanskrit word to which our word "brother" is allied means originally "to bear;" A brother is one who helps to support and maintain other men. The rich have their burdens as well as the poor. So real is the burden of the rich, that our Master said of them "how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God?" Addressing the rich, St. James says, " Ye have despised the poor. Do nob rich men oppress you?" It is a truism to say that the possession of riches has a tendency to harden the heart. In all ages of the world the rich have oppressed the poor. Instead of acting as God's stewards with their possessions, they have used them to gratify their own lu.rt.s, regardless of those who have been in need. The insolence of the rich is proverbial. In our own days, and among thoso of our own race, there have happily been thousands of rich men and women whose chief happiness it has been to distribute to the necessities of others. The names of Peabody and BurdettCoutts are bub samples of the countless benefactors of the poor of England. But it has been far otherwise with the majority. When I think of the destitution and misery that I have witnessed among those with whom I have had to do in England in days gone by, I am amazed at the want of brotherliness that then existed among numbers of my fellow countrymen. It would be idle to say that the rich had generally shown sympathy for the poor in their sorrows and sufferings. They have been tried, and have been found wanting. Vet St. Paul says that the poor arc to sympathise with the rich in their errors and weaknesses, in their selfishness and forgetfulness of the needy. It is not that rich men have gone bo work deliberately to oppress the poor, bub in the natural 'selfishness of the heart they have allowed a state of things to grow up in which the many have toiled for the few; and while the few have had enough and to spare, the many have lived in destitution, tens of thousands perishing of disease and want, but " dying so slowly that none called it murder." '"The poor ye have always with you," said Jesus Christ; bub He did not say that God willed ib so to be, and still less was it His will that their fellow-men should keep them in their poor estate. In this country of our adoption, a land truly "flowing with milk and honey," it is right that we should take precautions against the ovils that have disgraced Christian communities in the nations of Europe. At the present time I do not know ono person in New Zealand possessed of wealth who would if he could deprive the poor of their rights, and scarcely one who would not give of his money to help them. The great means whereby the condition of the toiling masses has been improved in recent years, is the formation of associations and unions for common protection and advancement. No enlightened man can denounce the principle of such combinations ; bub, like everything else that is human, unionism has its attendant dangers. Of these, one of the chief is the spirit of intolerance. This has been shown again and again since history began, by the treatment of the minority by the majority in matters of religion and of politics. Three hundred years ago there was committed in Paris one of the most brutal deeds that have ever dis-

graced humanity, known as the massacre of St. Bartholomew. For three days and three nights the members of a religious union, if we may so call it, went on murder ing in cold blood men, women, and children of those who would not join their union, that is, who would not submit to the Bishop of Rome. And so blinded by passion were the instigators of this awful crimo, that they actually had medals struck in honour of their diabolical wickedness. In this country, and wherever the English language is spoken, we have not any fear of the recurrence of such treatment of one another by the rich and the poor, the orthodox and the heterodox, the employers and the employed ; but the spirit of intolerance is still alive among us, and may be shown in other ways than by massacreing or mutilating innocent men, women, and childron. Union is strength ; but strength for evil, as well as for good. It may be well to have the strength of a giant, but it is evil to use it as a giant might. The massacre of St. Bartholomew, like other extremes of intolerance, had the very opposite effect to that which was intended. Instead of extirpating Protestanism in France, it left behind burning memories crying for vengeance, and alienated some of the noblest minds of the country from the cause that it intended to support. Let all those who are confederated against their fellow-countrymen, many or few, rich or poor, employers or employed, take warning from this memorable instance of tyranny and intolerance, disastrous to the country in which it occurred, and to those whom it was designed to benefit. The spirit of all such persecution is fratricidal, and the very opposite of that which St. Paul inculcates in the words, " Bear ye one another's burdens"; that is, let all sections of the community show sympathy one with another, try to put themselves in the position of those from whom they differ, and do to others as they would have others do to them. Besides those burdens which our brother can help us to bear, there are others which we must all

ear for ourselves. As the apostle says, 'Each man shall bear his own burden." The word here rendered "burden" is not ;he same as the word in the former sentence, to which I have been referring. Each man shall bear his own "load," as 3ach soldier on the march carries his own tit. On a campaign a soldier or sailor would not be of much use if he were too feeble to 3arry his own rifle and ammunition. In my case, every man and woman among us lias his or her own load, which cannot be transferred to another. Not even the tenderest heart, and next our own, Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh. Part of the load that each one has to bear for himself is his responsibility to God for the spirit and the effect of all that he says and does. When the laws of a country are made for the benefit of the rich and of employers mainly, those who have all they require, and disregard the destitution of others, excuse their selfishness and deceive themselves by saying that the principles of political economy must nob be infringed, the relations of capital and labour are selfadjusting, and that the masses must not be pauperised, and by other platitudes of the kind. Bub God is not mocked by such casuistry ; and, as the prophet says, he will be a witness "against those who oppress the hireling • in his wages, . the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right ?" We cannot shift our own responsibility in such matters to the Parliament of our country, bo the State, or to any political theory, while we ourselves do nothing, make no self-sacrifice, to relieve the oppressed and maintain the rights of the poor ; and in like manner, those who feel themselves aggrieved, whether they be employers or employed, cannot free themsolves from responsibility in the measures adopted by themselves and their allies for the removal of their grievances. Each one must bear his own load. If the commercial prosperity of our city is hindered, and mothers and children are caused to suffei by our action, it is no excuse for any mar to say that a great principle is at stake, and the necessary sacrifice must be made It is, no doubt, a man's duty as a Christian to sacrifice himself for the glory of God or foi the benefit of his fellow-men ; but it is no l our duty, and it is nob manly, to sacrific< our wives and children and the many others who may have bo suffer on account of our self willed action. None of us have a right bo do a definite wrong to others in the hop< of deriving eventually an indefinite good And let no man, be he employer or em ployed, think to excuse himself before Got for such conduct, by saying that he if obeying the rules of some association There is no crime that has nob been com mitted or attempted, by men who have made secret societies the keepers of theii conscience. Wo are told that " each one o us shall give account of himself to God.' Unquestioning obedience is our only wise attitude towards the commands of God With soldiers and sailors in action, abso lute obedience to the commanding officer is necessary. We have recently beeii re minded of the 600 horsemen who sacri (iced themselves at Balaclava, in tlx charge of the Light Brigade. Theii obedience was magnificent, as the Frencl general who witnessed ib, exclaimed, but as he added, ib was not warfare. Tin self-devotion of our gallant soldiers was in one sense thrown away, for "Someone had blundered." lb was one of the defects ol the system of the English army of those days that incompetent men were entrusted with authority to order their fellow-men tc rush to ruin and to death. In civil life, ii: these days, and in a country like New Zea land, no man need ruin himself at the command of .another. This is a land of liberty if ever there was one in the world. Here we have no privileged class or profession. Every man is as good as another before the law. If, then, we are in bondage to any man, must bo by our own deliberate choice. There is in this province land for all ami to spare, and employment and good wage; for all healthy men and women who wil work. Like the Balaclava charge, the obedience of hundreds of our people during the last fortnight to orders re ceived from the headquarters of societies may be described as magnificent. But, alas ! in this great movement also has not somebody blundered ? I cannot but thin! that this is the case. Happily not even tin unknown autocrat of an association of capitalists or of workers is infallible, and there fore he is not incorrigible. Let those who have made mistakes, and have misled others, who were too confiding, have the courage to confess their error, and at once retract their steps. I have great faith in the good sense and integrity of my r.'.low countrymen ; and as the chief officer in this part of the colony, of a large section of the Christian community, I appeal to the employers and the em ployed to put a speedy end to the presenl estrangement. Let delegates from botl sides meet in council in the spirit of con ciliation. Where two or three are met to gether in this spirit, the Prince of Peace will be present, and where there is a will £ way will be found to heal the presenl breach. Let the spirit of St. Paul's pre cept prevail. Let 110 word of contempt 01 defiance bo spoken, but mutual sympathy be shown by the contending parties, ant let every man concerned in bhe dispute maintain a good conscience before God ir what, he says and what he does at the pre sent crisis. Let us all open our hearts tc the influence of God's Holy Spirit, bj whom, as the Apostlo says, " Love, peace gentlent- 1, and temperance will be causec to increase within us'." " Hatred, variance, wrath, strife, envyings" are, he says, the fruit of the flesh, and shall not inherit the kingdom of God. There is not £ more mischievous or more despicable crea tare on the face of the earth than the mar who, in his brutal selfishness, for his owi vile purposes of pelf or conceit, foments di visions among us, and sets class against class in the community ; having nothing tc lose, and everything to gain, by the mutua misunderstandings, suspicions, and jealou sies of his fellow-citizens. Such a 0110 i: the common enemy of the whole colony He may be sure that his sin will find hin out ; though ib may not be until, as the psalmist says, he " getteth the poor intc his net," and " the helpless fall by his strong ones." Ib is true of nations as o individuals, that " whatsoever a mar soweth, that shall lie also reap." I: we, in our folly, sow the wind, our children will assuredly have to reap the whirl wind. "If ye bite and devour one another," says St. Paul, "take heed thai ye be not consumed one of another." Let each of us set our face, as a flint, against al class legislation, against all injustice oppression, and intolerance in any sectioi of the population. Let us stand fast in the liberty that we have inherited, and hand il on to our children undiminished in every respect, determined, by God's help, that nc man, and 110 confederation of men, shal hinder others in their free choice of employment, or of fellow-workers, in all things lawful and honest. As Mr. Gladstone once said—" God has made man free, yet doubtless in foresight of the mischiefs that would result from the abuse of freedom. The abuse of ib is fault and guilt, but the loss o it is mutilation."