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The Church and Socialism
fraction he selfishly retains or spends. Christians must be re minded that an infallible test of being a child of God is the treatment shown to one’s neighbor who is in need. There must be a similar emphasis on the Scriptural prin ciples relating to masters and servants, to employers and em ployees. If, on the one hand, there is an insistence upon justice and sympathy, so there must be on the other, upon absolute loyalty and fidelity. The conflict between capital and labor could be avoided without a reorganization of society should both parties be controlled by the plain teachings of the Gospel of Christ. There must be a new insistence upon the sacredness of the state and the truth that government is a divine institution. This means a new emphasis upon the duties of Christian citi zenship. Every expression of anarchy and lawlessness should be severely reproved and speedily repressed; and every Chris tian citizen should seek by patient endeavor to solve the com plex problems of modern social and industrial life, and to aid in the establishment of better customs and of juster laws. Social ism would lose much of its power if the Church were more careful to proclaim the explicit social doctrines which form an integral part of the Gospel of Christ. 2. This protest of Socialism demands of the Church a more consistent practice, on the part of her members, of the social teachings of Christ. It is easy to bring false charges against Christians; it is even customary today to hold the Church up to ridicule and scorn as a society of hypocrites un true to their professions and their Lord. I t is not necessary to even consider these accusations which spring from ignorance or prejudice or spite. The great masses of Christians are striving to be faithful and seeking to live well-pleasing to their Master. However, it is true that there are some in the Church who are consciously guilty of sins against society, and others who, because of the difficulty of the questions involved, excuse themselves on the ground that fheir wrong practices
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