Individual Character Versus Legislation
In the New York Observer's notice of the death of John Bright sometime ago there occurred a statement which is worthy of preservation and of special note in this age, when the tendency is to try to elevate people in bulk. The statement is this:— “He cared supremely for the development of individual character; he preferred the material prosperity of the people, advancing slowly by their own efforts to quicker progress by State aid.”
There is probably not a National Reformer who would not agree with Mr. Bright in this. They would agree that the idea is absurd that men can be established on a higher pecuniary basis by legislation. They know well that it is individual character and energy that determine a man's standing. The State might pass a law that every individual should have a certain amount of property, and it might even distribute property so that each should have an equality, but in less time than it would take to make the distribution, some would have a great deal more, and some would have none at all. But if this is absurd in temporal matters, how much more so in matters pertaining to morals. National Reformers would have the State pass laws to make men moral and to elevate them spiritually, when it has not power to overcome individual characteristics sufficiently to make a rich man out of a man that is poor because of a lack of energy. There is at the present day, as we have before said, a tendency to do everything in bulk. Charity is carried on by associations; and temperance work, instead of being performed by and for individuals as formerly, is now relegated almost entirely to societies and political parties. And so it is with Christian work. People are getting tired of laboring for individuals, as the Master did. To labor personally for people seems too slow, so they want to have laws passed which will gather them in by the hundreds and thousands. The natural consequence of this is to put personal labor entirely at a discount. The only kind of labor which can accomplish any real results is despised because of its humility. Let the professed Christian people of this country become infatuated with the idea of National Reform, and real Christian effort would cease at once. Fortunately there are some still who believe that the conversion of one individual is of far more value than the forced compliance of a thousand to outward forms.