THE MASSES AND THE CHURCHES.
Recently in the New York Voice have been many letters of our labor leaders setting forth the feeling of the laboring man toward the churches. They all express about the same sentiment, a higher regard for the teaching of Christ, and growing hostility to the churches. Here are a few extracts from some of these letters:— “The main reason why many who admire the character of Christ do not feel cordial toward the churches is because the churches support a standard of business morals which Christ condemned in severest terms.”—J. R. Sovereign, G. M. W., Knights of Labor. “Under an industrial system founded on the teachings of Christ there would be no need of a labor organization on earth.”—Idem. “A much larger per cent. of wage-earners are becoming indifferent to the churches than in former years. The defection is perhaps greater in this country than in any other civilized nation, and the difference with capital is greater. The majority of wage-earners follow the teachings of Christ much more faithfully than the richer class, whether members of the church or not. Wage-earners feel that the church is fast becoming but the paid tool of capital, especially since the active part taken by the ministers in the last campaign. Were the Golden Rule faithfully adhered to by capital, the church would soon number all workingmen and their families worthy of membership.”—F. P. Taylor, Quincy, Ill., Editor Journal of Industry. “Among the idolaters (Papists), admiration for Christ’s character is less; among the non-sectarian and freethinkers, stronger, and because he taught the basic principles of a true philosophy of brotherhood. This admiration extends to a very great degree to non-church-members. Many times when his principles are announced they are cheered, while ministers of the church are hissed. Many who admire the character of Christ do not feel cordial toward the churches, because there are none in the church who practise Christ’s teachings, nor will allow it in their business, nor can they so long as profits are taken, land sold, and usury allowed by those claiming to be Christians.”—John H. Cook, of Providence, Secretary Rhode Island Central Labor Union. “The tendency of the masses is toward agnosticism. They are growing more careless as to religious duties each year. The rapidly swelling army of non-church-going toilers in my opinion are not hostile to the teachings of Christ. The church has ever been on the side of the powerful and wealthy. This is evident to-day. Until the church honestly co-operates with the toilers to make industrial and moral worth, not wealth, the true standard of individual and moral greatness, the masses can hardly feel cordial toward that institution. If business and industrial life were regulated by the plain teaching of Christ’s Gospel, labor organizations would be unnecessary.”—J. Lynne Hastings, Washington, D. C., editor Journal of the Knights of Labor. “The advancing education of the masses increases the respect and admiration possessed by wage-workers for the Lawgiver of the mount. As superstition is supplanted by solid thought, the grandeur of Jesus’ character as a man dominates the awe with which he has been regarded as a God, and men read in the pathetic incidents of his life a multiplied counterpart of their own sufferings. . . . To love and revere Christ with sincerity is to at once despise an institution which exists under false pretenses, and clings to shadows, while the substance remains disregarded. The church of Christ’s day crucified him. The church of to-day would probably electrocute him if he reappeared. . . . The church is the home of cant, hypocrisy, and phariseeism, where much is uttered and little done, where the brotherhood is one of interest in dollars, cents, and society, and utterly at variance with the edict, ‘Love ye one another.’ The wage-worker sees the ‘pillars of the church’ praying on bended knees Sunday, and preying on their fellow-man the rest of the week. The wage-workers know that the severest taskmaster is generally the most devout pew-holder. . . . In the hands of men guided by the laws of Christ, capital would be a blessing and labor a joy. The one thing which stands in the way of such an attainment is the monster organization known as the church, with its ‘salaried soothsayers,’ and army of special pleaders whose mission on earth seems to be to construe the words of Christ into a laudation of infamy.”—William C. Pomeroy, Chicago, Ill., Organizer of American Federation of Labor. “The main reason why many who admire the character of Christ do not also feel cordial toward the churches is because laboring men as a class feel that preachers hate crime against moral law only when it is not a paying parishioner who commits it. In other words, that the average divine preaches for9money, and does not offend those who are his paymasters.”—C. H. Salmons, Cleveland, Ohio, Editor Journal of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. To the churches these expressions of opinion from the leaders among organized labor must seem indeed startling. Is it because of this antagonism that the church is demanding that religious and moral ethics shall be crystallized into law by legislation? Reform never comes that way. And, on the other hand, our brethren in labor will never find what they long for by putting the teachings of Christ into law, or basing a commonwealth upon them. As a mere form they mean just what these labor leaders say the churches are, just what England came to be under Puritan rule,—a government of hypocrites for hypocrites. The only way by which Christ’s teachings can be made a power is by receiving them into the heart by faith. This can be done only through the utter and absolute yielding up of self, and the accepting of Christ. To all such his words are spirit and life. John 6: 63. The questions that both rich and poor need to ask are, Do I represent Christ? Is he my personal Saviour? Am I using what he has intrusted to me as he would use it?