eenth century is written," Ernest prompted. "If
the Church was not dumb, it will be found not dumb in the books."

"I am afraid the Church was dumb," the Bishop confessed.

"And the Church is dumb to-day."

"There I disagree," said the Bishop.

Ernest paused, looked at him searchingly, and accepted the challenge.

"All right," he said. "Let us see. In Chicago there are women who toil
all the week for ninety cents. Has the Church protested?"

"This is news to me," was the answer. "Ninety cents per week! It is
horrible!"

"Has the Church protested?" Ernest insisted.

"The Church does not know." The Bishop was struggling hard.

"Yet the command to the Church was, 'Feed my lambs,'" Ernest sneered.
And then, the next moment, "Pardon my sneer, Bishop. But can you
wonder that we lose patience with you? When have you protested to your
capitalistic congregations at the working of children in the Southern
cotton mills?* Children, six and seven years of age, working every night
at twelve-hour shifts? They never see the blessed sunshine. They die
like flies. The dividends are paid out of their blood. And out of the
dividends magnificent churches are builded in New England, wherein your
kind preaches pleasant platitudes to the sleek, full-bellied recipients
of those dividends."

* Everhard might have drawn a better illustration from the
Southern Church's outspoken defence of chattel slavery prior
to what is known as the "War of the Rebellion." Several
such illustrations, culled from the documents of the times,
are here appended. In 1835 A.D., the General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church resolved that: "slavery is
recognized in both the Old and the New Testaments, and is
not condemned by the authority of God." The Charleston
Baptist Association issued the following, in an address, in
1835 A.D.: "The right of masters to dispose of the time of
their slaves has been distinctly recognized by the Creator
of all things, who is surely at liberty to vest the right of
property over any object whomsoever He pleases." The Rev.
E. D. Simon, Doctor of Divinity and professor in the
Randolph-Macon Methodist College of Virginia, wrote:
"Extracts from Holy Writ unequivocally assert the right of
property in slaves, together with the usual incidents to
that right. The right to buy and sell is clearly stated.
Upon the whole, then, whether