Christianity's Solution of the Problem of Capital and Labor
By C. M. S.
IN the great Los Angeles Auditorium, on July 11, at one of the meetings of the Christian Endeavor Convention, Hon. J. A. McDonald, LL. D., of Toronto, Canada, editor of the Globe, spoke on the theme which the heading of this article represents. In that address two points were made specially prominent. One was the leadership of America in the affairs and progress of the world, and the other was the mistake of the church776in effecting an alliance with the state. The following excerpt from his address will be of interest to the readers of the REVIEW AND HERALD:— Upon the two nations of this continent (the United States and Canada), more than upon any other nations of the world, lies the responsibility of facing the problems of this time, the serious, menacing problems of living together peaceably and working together helpfully. Christianity does not settle dogmatically any of the great problems of life. It lays down fundamental principles which are to be applied by the intelligence of the people. The motive of great service is not self-interest but love. Because the church lost that vision splendid; because it lost that simple brotherhood manifested in the first centuries; because of the church's social apostasy; because it allied itself with the worldly institutions of its day,—it lost its evangelical fervor, and the world lost the Christian solution of the problems of life. Because the church came to be a department of the state, and because the hierarchy of the church came to rank with the great officers of the state, these two things happened: the bishops of the church became absorbed in the mere machinery of the organized church and lost their evangelical fervor; and the church lost its primary social impetus. The church allied itself with the state, and its eyes were blinded to the things that ought to be. It was the tragedy of history. But what about our day, with our problems of work and wages, our problems of capital and labor? The modern situation is simply a repetition of history. The experiences of the early church were repeated in the days of the church after the Reformation. The Reformation came with new fervor in the emphasis of the old idea; but what happened? In Germany and in Britain the church again allied itself with the state as a department of state. In England the bishops of the national church were called upon to defend the divine right of kings, and to stand for the Stuarts or the Tudors against the rights of all the people. And what did Scotland do? Scotland denied the divine right of prelacy to defend the divine right of presbytery. So Germany lost, and England lost, and Scotland lost, because the churches repeated the social apostasy. But what about America? We have no national church. But all over America there has grown up an industrial absolutism more baneful, more arrogant, than any Stuart queen; and the call is loud for a John Knox or a church of John Knox to stand for the truth of God and the rights of common man against the arrogance and tyranny of protected monopoly on the one hand, and against the equal tyranny and arrogance of organized labor on the other hand. If the church in America allies herself with either capital or organized labor, how can she view with level eyes the problems of work and wages? It is our business in our own lives and ideals to make quite sure that we are on Christian ground. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another.” There is no other solution of the social problem because the deepest sin is selfishness. Let love come into your board of trade, your bank, your corporation, your labor-union, into your heart and my heart and the hearts of all the social order, and the problems of capital and labor, and all other social problems, will have been solved. These are true words. In a Christian community, every member of which is completely governed and thoroughly actuated by the principles enunciated and lived by Jesus Christ, there will be no social problem to be solved. A heart thoroughly converted to God and completely consecrated to his service will seek always the interests of others before its own; and with that spirit ruling absolutely every member of a community, there would be no difficulties to be settled. Whenever and wherever self is thrust into society, trouble begins, and there are at once problems to be solved. But we have no such community, and never shall have in this present world. Self is everywhere in evidence, and therefore there are problems everywhere. Socialism professes to be able to solve those problems by mechanical adjustments of conditions; but its weapons are wholly inadequate to the task. Its weapons or tools are law and compulsion. But the disease is in the hearts of men, and cannot be reached by any such mode of treatment. Dr. McDonald sees the conditions, and the failure of a united church and state to relieve them; but it is evident from his remarks that even he is looking for a time in this present age when men are going to be ruled by love, are going to approach these problems in the spirit of love instead of selfishness, and are going to solve them, and replace the present distressing conditions with a condition of love and joy and peace, domestic tranquillity, international good will, and fair dealing everywhere between man and man. That is the dream of the Socialist, and it is equally the Utopian hope and ambition of the National Reform Association and the Christian Citizenship movement in the various organizations that are working for what is designated by that term. They look for no such consummation of this world's history as the Bible plainly foretells. Says that Word: “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” But each and all of these great organizations have set themselves the task of proving that declaration of God untrue. They will bring in righteousness through the operation of the ballot-box and the legislature, and will then crown Christ as king of the world they have thus recreated and transformed. This warning of the Word, “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries which shall come upon you,” receives no consideration by those who are determined to bring in Christ's kingdom by legislation and by the defeat of certain men and the election of other men. The coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven to destroy the workers of iniquity and to reward the true children of the kingdom is completely lost sight of by those who are bent upon setting up the kingdom of Christ in their own way. It is one of the wonders of this age that Christian bodies numbering far into the millions can be so deceived, and that, too, when the Bible is being distributed as never before. It is one of the evidences of the marvelous working of Satan in our day; and as we witness that, we may understand in a measure that other anomaly which we are yet to see when united Christendom, professing allegiance to Jesus Christ, will turn with murderous wrath against the little company that persist in worshiping God according to the dictates of conscience and keeping his law as it reads. The statements which Mr. McDonald makes in reference to the union of the religious and civil forces in the early centuries of the Christian era and again in Reformation times are both a warning against the present Christian Citizenship movement and a denunciation of the attitude of the religious bodies that are seeking to bring it about, whether he meant it so or not. What the church did in those days was to use the state to further her own aims. The result in both periods which he mentioned was disastrous, “the tragedy of history.” But that is exactly what is proposed in the present movement, to accomplish the church's purposes through the instrumentality of the state. If that was the tragedy of history in earlier centuries, it will be doubly so in our day when the consequences of those early mistakes and tragedies are written for our admonition. Will the church make the same mistake for the third time? She is doing everything she can possibly do to accomplish that very thing. All the forces of federated churches, of National Reformers, Lord's Day Alliances, and Christian Endeavor unions are concentrating their energies upon the task of making this present world the kingdom of Christ through the instrumentality of the state. That will be spiritual Babylon over again, and spiritual Babylon over again closes up the story of sin in the world when God metes out to her the reward of her doings. There is a terrible surprise in store for federated religious tyranny when it sees the result of its operations, and the frown of divine displeasure resting upon its consummated work. It is a fearful thing to pursue in God's name a course which God has never authorized, and attempt to force upon him a kingship which he disowns. Into that inconsistent course great leaders of religious organizations are today leading777the rank and file of the professed followers of Christ. It is another of the unmistakable signs of the hastening end of the age.