y sticks in the stomach of the humble follower of Christ whose
self-portraiture we are now considering; for, if we confine ourselves to
the Christian element in his teaching, he proposes to alter the existing
situation only by kindling in the "trust magnates" such a fire of
Christian philanthropy that they will have given him all he wants before
he has had time to ask for it, thus exonerating him from the duty of
saying "Thank you" for what he owes to another's goodness, and enabling
him to offer to the Lord that which has cost him nothing.

And what the author of "The Gospel for To-day" urges on behalf of
himself and his clerical brethren is precisely what he urges on behalf
of the less competent majority generally. Neither on them nor on the
Christian clergy does the gospel of Christian socialism urge the duty of
making any new sacrifice, or any new exertion, moral or physical, for
themselves. Just as the clergy are to learn no more of business than
they know now, but are to be relieved of the necessity for all prudence
as to ways and means, so is the ordinary labourer to work no longer, no
harder, and no better than he does now. On the contrary, his hours of
labour are to become ever less and less, and at the same time he is to
receive ever greater and greater wages. These are to be drawn from the
products, not of himself but of his neighbour: and although he will owe
them solely to the virtue which his neighbour exercises, he is,
according to the Christian socialist programme, to demand them as though
his own incompetence gave him a sacred right to them.

Now, apart from the fact that this gospel does resemble the Christian in
declaring that, while salvation can be achieved only by sacrifice, and
that so far as the majority are concerned their sacrifice must be
strictly vicarious, we might well pause to inquire how either of its two
messages--that of economic asceticism for the few, and of economic
concupiscence for the many--has any relation to the gospel of Christ at
all. According to any reasonable interpretation of the words and spirit
of Christ, a labourer's desire to enjoy the utmost that he himself
produces is no less legitimate than natural; but it hardly ranks as one
of the highest Christian virtues. How, we might ask, is it to acquire
this latter character by being turned into a desire for what is produced
by other people? Again, on the other hand, though according to most of
the churches Christ did not co