ern life. But the difficulties were enormous. The Liberal party
still clung to its miserable old mumpsimus of _Laissez-faire_, and
steadily refused to learn the new and nobler language of Social Service.
Alone among our leading men, Mr. Chamberlain seemed to apprehend the
truth that political reform is related to social reform as the means to
the end, and that Politics, in its widest sense, is the science of human
happiness.

But, in spite of all discouragements, we clung to "a Social Philosophy
which, however materialistic some of its tendencies might have become,
had been allied with the spiritual Hegelianism with which we had been
touched. It took its scientific shape in the hands of Karl Marx, but it
also floated to us, in dreams and visions, using our own Christian
language, and invoking the unity of the Social Body, as the Law of
Love, and the Solidarity of Humanity."[59]

At the sound of these voices the old idols fell--_Laissez-faire_ and
_Laissez-aller_, Individualism and Self-content, Unrestricted
Competition and the Survival of the Fittest. They all went down with a
crash, like so many dishonoured Dagons; and, before their startled
worshippers had time to reinstate them, yet another voice of warning
broke upon our ears. _The Bitter Cry of Outcast London_, describing the
enormous amount of preventable misery caused by over-crowding, startled
men into recognizing the duty of the State to cope with the evil. Then
came Henry George with his _Progress and Poverty_, and, as Dr. Holland
says, he "forced us on to new thinking." That "new thinking" took
something of this form--"Here are the urgent and grinding facts of human
misery. The Political Economy of such blind guides as Ricardo and
Bastiat and Fawcett has signally failed to cure or even mitigate them.
Now comes a new prophet with his gospel of the Single Tax. He may, or
may not, have found the remedy, but at any rate he has shown us more
clearly than ever the immensity of the evil, and our responsibility for
suffering it to continue. We profess and call ourselves Christians. Is
it not about time that, casting aside all human teachings, whether
Economic or Socialistic, we tried to see what the Gospel says about the
subject, and about our duty in regard to it?"

Out of this stress of mind and heart arose "The Christian Social Union."
It was founded in Lent, 1889, and it set forth its objects in the
following statement--

"This Union consists of Church