in spite of our boasted civilization the large body of operatives in town and country are in a condition of lamentably retarded advancement, materially and morally, is a fact which at this moment is engaging the serious attention of all thinking, and even unthinking people, who follow the fashion of those who think for them. There is increasing restiveness among the masses, and increased activity among the reformers of "social maladjustments." But it is one thing to vent social grievances and to air social problems; it is another thing to discover the right remedies and methods of social readjustment. We are told that the social problem may be solved by removing the artificial hindrances which now prevent a more equitable distribution of national wealth. But beyond this there is the deeper question of removing the mental and moral disabilities which form the main obstacles of social improvement in the future, as they have proved to be the main causes of deterioration in the social condition of the labourers in times past. What they need, as was well said a few years ago at a gathering of Socialists at the grave of Karl Marx celebrating the anniversary of his death, is, "Solidarity, energy, and self-sacrifice." These imply high moral qualifications.

The Socialist demand-" From each according to his abilities; to each according to his wants "-implies, furthermore, a clear mental perception on the part of the labourers as to their rights and responsibilities such as is rarely possessed. It requires a moral and intellectual training which only a powerful religious institution in full sympathy with the masses can supply. The Christian system can do this. The New Testament is the magna charta of the rights of labour, and raises the duty of the labourer to a higher dignity. In opposition to pure Utilitarianism, which degrades labour into an

economic commodity, Christianity raises the workman into the position of an ethical person, with corresponding claims upon and duties towards the rest of the community. Professor Ingram, in his able address on work and the workman before the Trades' Union Congress in Dublin a few years ago, struck the right key-note when he said: "The real solution of this problem, as of the general social problem which includes it, can be effected only by such a reorganization of ideas and renovation of sentiments as will rise to the dimensions of an intellectual and moral reform." But the most powerful lever for this moral elevation is the spiritual force in Christianity; and the more the masses are brought under the influence of Christian culture, the nearer will be their approach to that high conception of the "workman as a social functionary," and of labour as the "combined effort of our race for the improvement of its condition and its nature," which is the moral and mental pre-requisite for effecting lasting material improvements in the labouring population.

The same religious system supplies, too, a sufficiently powerful stimulus to diligence and heightened productivity, and also that mental and moral discipline which gives greater effectiveness to such increased expenditure of energy. "To every one according to his work," is a demand of Socialism which finds its moral sanction in the Christian system, but the latter takes note likewise of the converse duty," Work from every one according to his power;" and this dutifulness of persistent labour for the common good is enforced by the highest authority, and illustrated by the exalted example of Him who says, "My Father worketh even until now, and I work." As a disciplinary force the Christian religion tends to subdue the whole category

of those "unruly wills and affections of sinful men which lead to social anarchy; for in teaching men to regard life as a provisional state in which they are being trained for a higher existence, it curbs those selfish propensities which are in their nature anti-social.

"No religion," says Raffaele Mariano, an Italian Christian Socialist, "corresponds more to humane and social ideas than the Christian the just demands of Socialism are included in the principles of Christianity. Most assuredly these principles must not be allowed to remain a dead letter or pure abstractions. In themselves they are the most powerful promoters of liberty, fraternity, and the most equitable distribution of earthly goods. In this sense, too, it is the destination of the Christian ideal to confer great services on humanity, for it supplies the most powerful stimulus in the rich to overcome egotism and epicureanism, and in the poor to conquer brutality and atheism.” *

The character of the aggregate, we know, is determined by the character of the units; but one of the obstacles in this formation of character among the people, we are told, is the habitual disregard to their just claim on the part of the ruling classes. Justice, which Lamennais calls the bread of the people, has been for a long time withheld, and is only now being dealt out in a somewhat meagre way by the people's patrons. But this "nicer sense of justice," which is essential to the success of the higher type of industrial organization, finds its full recognition in the equitable maxim of reciprocal duties contained in the words, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them." Here we have the rights of labour

* See also Roscher, "Grundlagen der National Oekonomie,” vol. i. chap. i. § 11. Le Play, "Reforme Sociale,” vol. i. chap. ix. p. 137, and

ante.

and capital alike fully recognized. If, indeed, the sacred right of property be acknowledged by securing to each the reward of his exertions, then this Christian precept vindicates the rights of labour and capital according to the motto Suum cuique, or, to use the words of M. de Laveleye

"If the doctrine of Christ has transformed the world, and if it still continue to influence it more and more as it gains greater sway, it is because it places before humanity a higher ideal of right and justice. Do you advocate a more perfect organization of property? Prove that this organization will be more favourable to the general welfare, and more in conformity with justice.'

Such is the theory of the potential influences of Christianity as a spiritual force in society. But we cannot nowadays separate it as an intangible, incommensurable force from its visible embodiment, the Christian Church (using this term in its widest extension), as the exponent of the Christian idea. The theory of Christian Socialism, therefore, proceeds in the next place to define first the functions of the Christian Church as one of the "regulating forces" in the social organism, modifying and controlling other component forces of social life under normal conditions, and also its functions under the peculiar circumstances of the present pathological condition of society. With regard to the first, it would be impossible, as it would, indeed, be superfluous, to expatiate at large on the modifying and moderating influences of the Church in our highly complex state of society. For the present purpose it is sufficient to mention its principal function in the present day, which consists in softening the selfishness and relaxing the

*Contemporary Review, November, 1882, p. 788; cf. H. George, "Social Problems," p. 276.

severity of the competition struggle by the counteracting influence of Christian sympathy, and thus supplying a bond of union strong enough to counteract the dissipating and disintegrating forces of Individualism. This truth is symbolized by the fact that Adam Smith, the supposed prophet of the selfish system, supplements in his own "Theory of the Moral Sentiments" the social theory contained in the "Wealth of Nations;" for in the former he makes sympathy the prime motor of human conduct, whilst in the latter the self-regarding motives are put forward prominently as the chief promoters of industry. The same principle has been quite recently re-stated by Charles Périn, one of the oldest as well as one of the ablest of Christian Socialist theorizers, in many eloquent passages of his numerous writings, of which the following is a specimen :

"Catholic charity," he says, "has more than once confronted the difficulties which would appear to be insurmountable regarded merely from the human point of view. Was it not Catholic charity which, in the midst of savage passions and the unpunished oppressions of the tenth century, knew how to organize the truce of God? Was it not she which prepared, in the religious associations of working men grouped round their spiritual protectors, those great corporative institutions which gave to the artisan class under the economic conditions of those times centuries of security, well-being, and ever-increasing freedom? Nowadays we are in the presence of passions and oppressions of another kind. More refined forms of covetousness peculiar to our modern civilization have succeeded the impetuous instincts of younger. and less reflecting races; but the old human nature remains the same, and the war of passions among high and low, freed from all religious restraints, is threatening a worse barbarism than that over which the Church triumphed at the commencement of our modern civilization."