be carried on under
conditions involving the misery, and still less the degradation, of
those employed in it. Nor is this a wild, revolutionary doctrine; it is
eminently conservative, in the best sense of the word; and it will have
to be admitted, and acted upon, in the interest of social order. Of
course it means an inroad on rent and speculative profit, but that is
not an immeasurable calamity.

So much, by way of introduction, on the moral and economic aspects
of the matter. Our special object is rather theological. We desire to
notice the part which religion plays in the struggle between capital
and labor; or, more properly perhaps, between the "haves" and the
"have-nots."

Everyone with an elementary knowledge of the social and political
history of the last hundred years must be aware that the working
classes, as such, have had no help whatever from Christian Churches.
Here and there an individual clergyman has spoken a word on their
behalf, but the great mass of the men of God have been on the side of
"the powers that be," and have insulted and derided the advocates
and leaders of Trade Unionism, whom they are still fond of calling
"pestilent agitators." Yet the Gospel, and especially the Sermon on the
Mount, is stuffed with platitudes about the blessings and virtues of
poverty, and the curse and wickedness of wealth. Logically, therefore,
judging by the letter of scripture, the clergy should have been on the
side of the poor, the wretched, and the oppressed. But this is a case in
which "the letter killeth," and with an eye to their own interests and
privileges, to say nothing of their ease and comfort, the clergy found
that "the spirit" of the Gospel meant the preservation of the existing
conditions of society. It would be bad for the rich, and well for the
poor, in the next life; but, in this life, they were to keep their
relative places, and remain content in the positions which Providence
had assigned them.

It is not surprising, then, that the Christian Churches--with all
their wealth, power, and at least pretended influence--should be idle or
unctuously hypocritical spectators of the struggles of labor to obtain a
fair share of the blessings of civilisation. They extend just sufficient
verbal patronage to labor to save themselves from being howled at, and
throw all their real weight in the scale against it. And it is folly to
expect any better of them. The religion and the training of the clergy
make the