Individualism and the Gospel Against Industrial Machinery
THE tendency of modern industrial conditions to eliminate the individual from business, and substitute in his place a mere part of a machine, is set forth in an able article in the August Scribner’s Magazine. The author cites the case of a friend who finds himself a victim of this tendency, and describes his situation by the statement that probably it will be fairly well with him if he dies soon enough. Then, speaking of individuals in general, he says: “The trail of organization is over all. Men are becoming not mere machines but minute parts of great machines. The inspiration of initiation is vanishing. Each human wheel must turn its given number of times on its fixed axle each day until it is thrown aside, and another is fitted in its place.” As a result of this condition he prophesies “the final decay of that free and varied intellectual energy the exercise of which is a delight in itself, and the love of which in the past made the professions what they were and are no longer.” But there is one thing in the earth that will preserve individualism in spite of everything, and that is the gospel. No matter how the business of the country may be monopolized by combines, no matter what confederacies may be formed, or how others may seek to influence him by threats or persuasions, the Christian will direct his course of action by the Word of God alone, and will think and act for himself, having ever a sense of his own individual accountability to God in all that he does, and with only the fear of God before his eyes. The blessed gospel, and that only, is the safeguard against the crushing out of individual conscience beneath the industrial juggernauts of these latter days.