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has been suffered, and every injustice has been done. During all
these years the priests have enslaved the minds, and the kings the
bodies, of men. The priests did what they did in the name of God,
and the kings appeal to the same source of authority. Man suffered
as long as he could. Revolution, reformation, was simply a re-
action, a cry from the poor wretch that was between the upper and
the nether millstone. The liberty of man has increased just in
the proportion that the authority of the gods has decreased. In
other words, the wants of man, instead of the wishes of God, have
inaugurated what we call progress, and there is this difference:
Theology is based upon the narrowest and intensest form of selfishness.
Of course, the theologian knows, the Christian knows, that he can
do nothing for God; consequently all that he does must be and is
for himself, his object being to win the approbation of this God,
to the end that he may become a favorite. On the other side, men
touched not only by their own misfortunes, but by the misfortunes
of others, are moved not simply by selfishness, but by a splendid
sympathy with their fellow-men.

_Question_. Christianity certainly fosters charity?

_Answer_. Nothing is more cruel than orthodox theology, nothing
more heartless than a charitable institution. For instance, in
England, think for a moment of the manner in which charities are
distributed, the way in which the crust is flung at Lazarus. If
that parable could be now retold, the dogs would bite him. The
same is true in this country. The institution has nothing but
contempt for the one it relieves. The people in charge regard the
pauper as one who has wrecked himself. They feel very much as a
man would feel rescuing from the water some hare-brained wretch
who had endeavored to swim the rapids of Niagara--the moment they
reach him they begin to upbraid him for being such a fool. This
course makes charity a hypocrite, with every pauper for its enemy.

Mrs. Ward compelled Robert Elsmere to perceive, in some slight
degree, the failure of Christianity to do away with vice and
suffering, with poverty and crime. We know that the rich care but
little for the poor. No matter how religious the rich may be, the
sufferings of their fellows have but little effect upon them. We
are also beginning to see that what is called charity will never
redeem this world.

The poor man willing to work, eager to maintain his