"He Stirreth Up the People"
MOST people recognize the quotation, "He stirreth up the people," as one of the charges that was made by the priests against Christ, and it seems a little strange to find this text quoted as an excuse for inflammatory agitations that are so prevalent. Most of these agitators have the earnestness of religious conviction; and unless a person is in a position where he is quite closely in touch with what is going on in the world, he little realizes the violent character and the wide-spread dissemination of the revolutionary and turbulent doctrines that are promulgated. There is no denying the fact that the agitator has a text for his discourse. He takes the facts that are so profusely presented in the world, and presents them in such a way as to inflame the people toward the point of revolution. For instance, we might cite a sample or two from a current publication that is just to hand. There is a large cartoon of a dinner participated in by a goodly company of churchmen. Upon the wall of their banquet hall is a picture of the crucified Christ, and under the cartoon we find the words: "Their Last Supper. The crowning ceremony of the Episcopal Convention at New York was a banquet tendered to the clerical deputies by the Church Club. It cost $10,680 — about $20 a plate." With such a text, it requires no stretch of the imagination to perceive the impressions that would be made upon the minds of men who, in the place of having $20 to pay for a single dinner, have nothing to eat at all, and no money with which to buy. Another double-page cartoon in this same publication represents a highly cultured and well-dressed congregation comfortably seated in the church, and the minister is addressing them in these words: "Thus, friends, we see the masses filled with a vague, unchristian spirit of discontent. They cry out upon work, bewailing their divinely appointed lot, forgetful, my brethren, of the heavenly law which ordains that only through toil and tribulation, by the narrow path of self-denial, may we enter into the higher values of spiritual blessedness. Let us pray." Another cartoon in the same publication represents two hoggishly fat men riding together in a carriage, and one of them is saying to the other: "Woman suffrage? I guess not! Women are too shifty. I'd just got my mills running to suit me, when every — woman went on strike for shorter hours!" The masses of the people are surfeited with cartoons and statements of this character, and declaiming against it does not stop it. It must be recognized that there are millions of people in this world who are in want, while there are a few who are able to spend very extravagantly. The foundations of society are being broken up by these conditions, and to fail to recognize such apparent facts is very foolish indeed. There are few but are cognizant of the existing turbulence, and there are many theories in regard to the prospective outcome; but the wise course will be to follow the light of Him who was able to predict these things in minute and accurate detail more than two thousand years ago, and to tell in advance what would be the final result.