Jto iltemortam 
 
 Ir. SUrl?ari> K. (Hotter
 
 WORKINGMEN 
 AND THE CHURCH 
 
 ROBERT F. COYLE, D. D., 
 v^ 
 
 Moderator of the General Assembly 
 Author of "Foundation Stonei of Christianity," etc. 
 
 SANTA BARBARA. CALIF, 
 
 1903 
 THE WJNONA PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS WINONA LAKE, INDIANA
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1903 
 
 BY 
 THE WINONA PUBLISHING CO.
 
 WORKINGMEN AND 
 THE CHURCH
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 HE addresses in this little volume were 
 delivered in Oakland, California, on 
 Sunday evenings seven years ago to 
 immense audiences of workingmen 
 and others interested in the social movements 
 of our times. They are now revised and given 
 to a larger public with the hope that they may 
 contribute something to a better understanding 
 between the church and the laboring masses. 
 
 THE AUTHOR.
 
 YEAST UNREST AMONG WORKING- 
 MEN. 
 
 N "NOTHING is more in evidence to-day 
 I than the unrest of the masses. Our 
 newspapers and magazines are con- 
 tinually calling our attention to it. 
 The air is full of discontent. It prevails 
 among artisans and farmers and laboring men 
 from sea to sea. I know there is an optimism 
 which would have us believe that things are 
 going on quite smoothly; that everything is 
 full of promise; that prevalent agitations and 
 dissatisfactions are greatly overdrawn; and 
 that there is no reason why existing conditions 
 should disturb our peace of mind. But that 
 kind of optimism comes from a conscience that 
 is dead and a heart that cannot feel. It belies 
 facts and throws itself stupidly and stubbornly 
 athwart the path of progress and reform. 
 
 With struggles between employers and em- 
 ployed multiplying every year; with organiza- 
 tion going on among workingmen as never be-
 
 TDdorftinsmen anb tbe (Tburcb 
 
 fore; with farmers combining until their vari- 
 ous alliances have a membership of millions; 
 with hundreds of thousands of employes in- 
 volved in strikes within the last decade; with 
 troops called out to suppress labor riots in sev- 
 eral states recently; with tidings of outbreaks 
 and growing discontent among laboring men 
 in Europe, brought to us with nearly every 
 morning paper with all these things coming 
 to our knowledge, it is folly, nay more, it is 
 an easy-going, self-complacent kind of wicked- 
 ness to say that there is no unrest worth speak- 
 ing about. It is the duty of good men every- 
 where to see these facts and consider them and 
 be profoundly concerned about them. 
 
 Sometimes, to minify these symptoms and 
 make them seem as insignificant as possible, it 
 is said that they are thrown to the surface by 
 professional agitators, by imported anarchists, 
 and by doctrinaire social economists, whose 
 stock-in-trade is the complaints and ferment of 
 the masses. Their bread and butter and the 
 gratification of their ambitions, we are told, de- 
 pend upon the discontent of the people. Muzzle 
 these agitators, they say, and all would be 
 peace. But to affirm or to imply that the great 
 mass of workingmen are so ignorant or so pli-
 
 Tidorfunamen anfc tbe Gburcb 
 
 able as to be profoundly stirred by a little hand- 
 ful of social reformers or revolutionists, is to 
 bring against them a charge which I cannot 
 for a moment endorse. Well has it been said 
 that, "To hold a few leaders responsible for 
 all this fever and tumult is like holding the pim- 
 ples on the skin responsible for the poison in 
 the blood, or the flying chimney-pots for the 
 force of the gale." Back of all this unrest 
 which is finding expression in so many ways 
 we may be assured there is an adequate cause. 
 
 A few of the manifold constituents of this 
 cause I shall now endeavor to point out. 
 
 First, there is the growing intelligence of the 
 masses. These men of the hammer and the 
 saw and the spade have learned to think. We 
 live in an age when the sun of general infor- 
 mation has risen so high that its beams no 
 longer cling about the mountain-peaks of rank 
 and nobility, but find their way down into the 
 lowly valleys of plain, homely toil as well. Our 
 public schools, our ubiquitous newspapers, and 
 our best literature of all sorts have been edu- 
 cating the people, until to-day many a man at 
 the bench or the anvil is able to think broadly 
 and profoundly upon all great questions of so- 
 cial and industrial and religious life. Now,
 
 Morfeingmen anfc tbe Cburcb 
 
 thought is always a disturbing element in the 
 best sense. It was awakening thought among 
 the nobles and gentry and clergy of 400 years 
 ago that caused the reformation, and it is 
 awakening thought among the masses that is 
 doing much to produce the unrest of the pres- 
 ent time. 
 
 Let a man learn to think and his horizon 
 enlarges. With an increase of intelligence 
 comes an increase of wants. A man who is 
 wholly ignorant lives in a very small world, 
 and very little will satisfy him; but let him 
 acquire the ability to read, let him become edu- 
 cated, and a little will not satisfy him. An 
 illiterate negro is content with a watermelon, 
 but an intelligent negro wants to go to Con- 
 gress or get into some conspicuous position or 
 other. And in this respect he is in nowise dif- 
 ferent from his white brother. The more a 
 man knows the more he craves. If, as Dr. 
 Strong says, the workingman has twice as 
 much in his home to-day as his grandfather 
 had, he knows ten times as much and there- 
 fore wants ten times as much. Broaden a 
 man's horizon, enlarge his manhood, elevate 
 his tastes, increase his desires, without at the 
 same time giving him the ability to add to his
 
 anfr tbe Cburcb 
 
 comforts, and you make him unhappy and dis- 
 contented if not rebellious. This, in consider- 
 able part, I believe, accounts for the disturbed 
 social conditions of the day. 
 
 Then there is the sharp contrast between pov- 
 erty and wealth. The masses see it everywhere. 
 It thrusts itself upon them at every turn. In 
 the city of New York there are 1,103 million- 
 aires with fortunes ranging from one to one 
 hundred and fifty millions each, while three- 
 fourths of the population of that city live in 
 tenement houses. Of these tenements Jacob 
 Riis tells us that there are 37,000, "and more 
 than 1,200,000 persons call them home." The 
 story of these tenements, as he tells it in his 
 book entitled, "How the Other Half Lives," is 
 black enough to send a chill even to the hardest 
 heart. It would seem impossible for such 
 things to be true in a civilized, much less in a 
 Christian country. But they are true, and the 
 condition of things in New York is duplicated 
 in other large cities, and more than duplicated 
 in London, the metropolis of the world, as 
 every reader of Booth's "In Darkest England" 
 knows. In these centers of population Dives 
 and Lazarus, magnificence and misery, surfeit 
 and starvation, stand over against each other
 
 CdorfUngmen anO tbe dburcb 
 
 in constant contrast. It is only a step from the 
 wretched quarters of the poor laborer in New 
 York who cannot get a day's work to the pala- 
 tial residence of the millionaire who builds a 
 stable for his horses at a cost of $700,000. Is 
 it any wonder that such a state of things pro- 
 duces bitterness and hatred and unrest? 
 
 With this sharp contrast before their eyes 
 continually the workingmen have been very 
 naturally forced to the conclusion that they do 
 not begin to receive a just proportion of the 
 product of their labor. Who will undertake to 
 say that they do, when we are reliably informed 
 that the annual average wage of the working- 
 man in this country is less than $500 a year to 
 pay for rent and fuel and food and clothing 
 and lights and medicine and amusements and 
 everything else? When the late Frances Wil- 
 lard tells us that in Chicago under the "sweat- 
 ing" system there are women forced to make 
 twelve shirts for seventy-five cents and furnish 
 their own thread, and others glad to work for 
 a cent and a half an hour ; that there are chil- 
 dren in that city working twelve hours a day 
 for a dollar a week; when the Rev. L. A. 
 Banks reveals to us what He very justly calls 
 the white slavery of Boston, women working 
 
 6
 
 tdorlunomcn an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 sixteen or seventeen hours a day in the "sweat 
 shops" for sixty cents, some of them compelled 
 to make cheap overcoats at four cents apiece 
 and knee pants for boys at the rate of sixteen 
 cents a dozen pairs when such facts as these 
 are brought to our attention it is not hard to 
 convince ourselves that it is no sin for the 
 working people to be dissatisfied. We must 
 feel that they have good reason for complaint 
 and discontent. 
 
 In the third place, not a little of the preva- 
 lent unrest of the masses is caused by Sunday 
 work. This is an evil that is growing in the 
 United States, and workingmen are crying out 
 against it everywhere. They are protesting 
 against it in their conventions, writing against 
 it in their papers, and circulating petitions in 
 many parts of the land to have it stopped ; and 
 because their efforts are allowed to pass un- 
 heeded their complaints and protests are be- 
 coming bitter. In some of the trades in our 
 great cities Sunday work "is all but universal," 
 and the men in these trades are required to do 
 seven days' work for six days' pay. An edito- 
 rial in a Chicago labor paper of 1888 says: 
 "The question of closing the factories, work- 
 shops and stores on Sunday is fast coming to
 
 Worfeingmen an& tbe Cbutcb 
 
 the front as one of the important questions of 
 the day. From thirty to forty thousand em- 
 ployes in Chicago alone are compelled to work 
 for seven days each week. How shall their 
 shackles be unloosed and the slaves set free? 
 . . . Are the people by their apathy, their 
 avarice and selfishness, willing to blight the 
 prospects of the working classes of America 
 by condemning them to a slavery that knows 
 no day of rest ?" How far Christian people are 
 responsible for Sunday work I shall not under- 
 take to say, but not a little of it, I fear, must be 
 laid at their door. 
 
 In the fourth place, some of the prevalent 
 unrest of the masses must be attributed to a 
 frequent perversion of justice in favor of the 
 rich. It is a well known fact that the friend- 
 less poor man is dealt with very summarily in 
 our courts, while the man .who has money can 
 secure delay after delay. Washington Gladden 
 puts it very pithily when he says : "The man 
 who steals a ham from a freight car goes to 
 jail; the man who steals the railroad goes to 
 the United States Senate." A great corpora- 
 tion can violate city ordinances and State laws 
 with comparative impunity, but if a poor man 
 does it he is promptly punished. Says a writer 
 
 8
 
 Worfcfnamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 in John Swinton's Paper of New York : "When 
 laboring men violate any law of the money 
 power it is anarchy, and the lawbreakers are 
 imprisoned or hanged. But when the money 
 power violates all laws, both human and divine, 
 there is neither penalty nor remedy." 
 
 Now so long as there is any color of truth 
 in such words as these it is bound to produce 
 a spirit of unrest and rebellion in the breasts 
 of the poor. 
 
 In the fifth place much of the discontent of 
 the day is caused by erroneous doctrines of 
 labor. In some of the letters which I received 
 from workingmen it is affirmed, or implied, 
 that "All wealth is produced by labor." This, 
 we are told, is the doctrine of Karl Marx, and 
 it has filtered down into the minds of the peo- 
 ple on two continents and is greatly disturb- 
 ing the masses at the present time. Now, we 
 must be just. I do not believe that labor is the 
 producer of all wealth. Take the brain power 
 that organizes labor and multiplies its capacity 
 to produce, some thirty, some sixty, some an 
 hundred fold is not it a source of value and 
 wealth? Take the brain power that invents 
 .and lays hold of the forces of nature and har- 
 nesses them to the chariot of commerce and
 
 UQorfcinomen a^ tbe Cburcb 
 
 civilization is not it a producer of wealth? 
 Take trustworthiness, a purely moral quality, 
 and has it not a distinct economic value ? Two 
 men in a shop may have the same amount of 
 ability and intelligence and be equally indus- 
 trious, but if one is more trustworthy than the 
 other he is one who is chosen for a position of 
 responsibility. The fact that he can be re- 
 lied upon is an element of value, but it was not 
 produced by labor. 
 
 Here, let us suppose, are half a dozen men. 
 They work hard and faithfully, but they do 
 not seem to get on. What they produce is not 
 marketable. Nobody cares for it. But there 
 comes along a seventh with superior intelli- 
 gence and skill. He devises plans for a higher 
 grade of work. He teaches and directs them, 
 and the result is that what they produce now is 
 worth twice as much as that which they pro- 
 duced before. People want it. It finds a ready 
 market. Now, would it be just for the six to 
 say that their labor was the cause of it all ? Did 
 not the skill of the seventh produce half of it, 
 and if he should claim as his own a part of the 
 increase caused by his intelligence would the 
 six have any reasonable ground to find 
 fault ? I believe that every school teacher that 
 
 10
 
 TKaorfcfmjmen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 awakens noble ambitions in the minds of his 
 pupils and sends them out into life with holy 
 purposes ; every author whose books make men 
 and women better ; every preacher of righteous- 
 ness who stimulates his fellowmen to strive 
 after honesty and purity and exalted character ; 
 every individual, high or low, that inculcates 
 right principles of living; every mother that 
 makes holy impressions on her child and hands 
 hirn over to society strong and true I believe 
 that every one of these is helping directly to 
 add to the world's wealth. When, therefore, 
 labor claims to be the creator of it all it is go- 
 ing too far. It is making claims that will not 
 bear the light. It is easy to see how this erro- 
 neous doctrine stirs up discontent and foments 
 trouble among the masses, and for the sake of 
 their own cause they cannot too soon eliminate 
 it from their minds. 
 
 Then on the other side is the equally erro- 
 neous doctrine that labor is simply a com- 
 modity, thus putting it upon an equality with 
 the lifeless articles of the store and shop. If 
 labor is only a commodity, only something to 
 buy and sell, a marketable thing like dry goods 
 or groceries, or iron or wheat, then of course it 
 may be subject to the fluctuations of trade and 
 
 ii
 
 TKHorfeinamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 be controlled by the principles of supply and 
 demand. But labor is more than a commodity, 
 it is more than a thing to be bought and sold. 
 It is a commodity plus a man. It is insepara- 
 bly linked to a human being and should there- 
 fore be dealt with according to that divine law 
 which relates every man to his brother man. 
 The laborer is first of all and last of all and 
 above all a man, and it is because this funda- 
 mental fact is too often lost sight of that his 
 cry of indignation gathers volume every year. 
 Having thus touched briefly upon some of 
 the things which are causing the popular un- 
 rest of the day, let me now dwell for a moment 
 or two upon the significance of it. What does 
 it mean and whither does it point? It means 
 radical changes in our social order. The 
 masses to be reckoned with now are very dif- 
 ferent from the masses of the past. They read 
 and think and philosophize, and intelligence 
 can no more be kept down and hushed into un- 
 complaining acquiescence than the river can be 
 kept from the sea. It must rise, as fire flames 
 upward toward its source in the sun. It has 
 the weapons of thought, of agitation, of educa- 
 tion, and it is learning to wield them with 
 power. It is moulding public opinion, it is 
 
 12
 
 "TOlorWnsmen an& tfee Cburcb 
 
 creating sentiment, and one of these days that 
 sentiment will crystallize into deeds. To-day 
 the masses rule. Numbers weigh as well as 
 count. The people hold the future in their 
 hands, and the people are rising. Politicians 
 are beginning to listen to them with a great 
 deal of respect. The rich, the well-to-do, the 
 men and women of leisure are of course con- 
 servative. They are well enough satisfied with 
 things as they are. They are in favor of let- 
 ting well enough alone. "Hence it is," says 
 Dr. Strong, "that new ideas, whether political 
 or religious, generally gain currency first 
 among the poor." And new ideas are working. 
 The yeast of popular discontent is fermenting. 
 What the outcome will be no one can foresee 
 in detail, but that great social changes must 
 soon appear, few, I think, will undertake to 
 question. 
 
 This unrest means progress. It means better 
 things to come. Out of this disturbed social 
 atmosphere there will emerge a clearer sky. It 
 is when some angel troubles the waters that 
 they become curative and bring healing to the 
 people. There is nothing so much to be feared 
 as stagnation. It is the breeding place of 
 death. But when old shells begin to burst, and 
 
 13
 
 TJdorMnomen an& tbe Gburcb 
 
 old theories begin to explode, and old institu- 
 tions begin to crack, it means the swelling of 
 life ; and the advent of new life always means 
 pain. See how it rends the earth to make 
 room for its expanding roots and splits the 
 bud and throws off the last year's leaf. No 
 springtime can ever come to society, or to the 
 church, or to the individual without a ruthless 
 breaking up and overturning of old arrange- 
 ments. Agitation is the sign of life, and where 
 life is there is always hope. 
 
 This unrest means the coming of Christ. The 
 Lord Jesus is struggling into his world, and 
 consequently things are being shaken. He never 
 can enter anywhere without causing a commo- 
 tion. When he came away yonder in the early 
 centuries there was trouble. Kings trembled 
 on their thrones, little innocents were massa- 
 cred, wails of anguish went up over the hills of 
 Judah, and all Jerusalem was wild with ex- 
 citement. When he came in the days of the 
 reformation there was trouble. And this I 
 verily believe is the meaning of the unrest to- 
 day. 
 
 Christ is coming, not in any literal and ma- 
 terial sense, but in the spread of his truth. His 
 spirit is getting into the people and inspiring 
 
 14 
 
 I
 
 Morftinamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 them with a mighty hope. He is moving them 
 to seek for remedies for social ills causing them 
 to think with their eyes toward the morning. 
 Through this organization and that, through 
 speech and press, they are unconsciously but 
 none the less really in quest of Christ; and 
 while they are feeling after him, stumbling 
 along toward the light, he is finding them. The 
 influences of the gospel are spreading. The 
 principles of the cross are working. Christ's 
 kingdom is coming. The age is travailing in 
 pain with the birth of a new era. But let us 
 remember that no social Olivet can ever be 
 reached but by the way of Calvary. 
 
 And not only is Christ coming in this way, 
 by the infusion of his spirit and by the growth 
 of his principles, but let me say in conclusion 
 to every man among you that it is your privi- 
 lege to have him come to you personally, as a 
 friend, a brother, a saviour. He sees you from 
 the mountain heights. He knows that the 
 winds are contrary, and that you are toiling in 
 rowing in the fourth watch of the night, but 
 the fourth watch is just on the edge of day- 
 break. He is coming over the billows. Listen, 
 and you will hear his voice breaking through 
 the storm, "Be of good cheer." Let working-
 
 Worfcfnamen anfc tbe Cburcb 
 
 men everywhere give him room on the ship. 
 Let the hand that rules the storm be on the 
 wheel, and the voyage will end in triumph. 
 There will be a great calm. 
 
 16
 
 II. 
 
 WORKINGMEN AND THE CHURCH. 
 
 IOTHING in the Gospel is plainer 
 than that Jesus wants the toiling 
 masses in the church, and nothing in 
 our day is more evident than their 
 absence from it, especially from the city 
 church. A distinguished clergyman, after 
 making a careful and extended investigation 
 among the manufacturing cities of the east, 
 gives it as his conclusion that "church neglect 
 among the poorer classes is rapidly increas- 
 ing." Canon Farrar, referring to the church 
 of England in his own country, declared sev- 
 eral years ago that "not three per cent of the 
 working classes, who represent the great mass 
 of the people, are regular or even occasional 
 communicants." 
 
 It was reading of this kind, together with 
 my own observation, that led me to prepare 
 these addresses. I wanted to learn not only 
 from writers upon social questions but from 
 workingmen themselves. Information at first 
 2 17
 
 Worfcfngmen an& tbe Cfourcb 
 
 hand from those most immediately concerned 
 was what I desired. It seemed to me it would 
 be instructive and tend to a better understand- 
 ing all round to ask them to state their side of 
 the case and to commit to writing their special 
 grievances and criticisms. 
 
 Accordingly the following letter was ad- 
 dressed to the president of each of a number 
 of labor organizations: 
 
 "My Dear Sir: Convinced that there is a 
 wide, and I fear a growing gap between work- 
 ingmen and the church, and desiring to find out 
 the cause thereof, I earnestly and very respect- 
 fully ask you to assist me. I propose to de- 
 liver a series of addresses in the near future 
 on the church in its relation to the masses, 
 and, so far as possible, I want to get at the 
 reason for the separation between them. Why 
 do they stand apart? Will you kindly help 
 me by answering the following questions: 
 
 1. What proportion of mechanics and labor- 
 ing men of all sorts, according to your ob- 
 servation, habitually stay away from church? 
 
 2. Are those who stay away hostile to the 
 church or simply indifferent ? 
 
 3. If hostile, why? If indifferent, why? 
 
 18
 
 Morfcfnomen ant> tbe (Tburcb 
 
 4. What is the chief fault which working- 
 men have to find with the church ? 
 
 To these inquiries I received a large number 
 of replies, both official and unofficial. Most of 
 the answers were respectful, all of them were 
 earnest, and in some of them I was soundly lec- 
 tured, notably so in a few anonymous com- 
 munications. My mail greatly increased. The 
 replies that came from various labor unions 
 were instructive, and some of them very 
 thoughtful. 
 
 In these letters, along certain main lines, I 
 found remarkable and very suggestive agree- 
 ment. For example, without exception, the 
 writers gave it as their opinion that from two- 
 thirds to three-fourths of the workingmen of 
 all classes habitually stay away from church. 
 From all I am able to see and learn I should 
 say that this is a very conservative estimate. 
 Now, if it is, then we have two-thirds of our 
 population furnishing only one-third of those 
 who are brought directly under church influ- 
 ence. Is not this something for Christian peo- 
 ple to consider? 
 
 In reply to the second question : "Are those 
 who stay away hostile to the church or simply
 
 Qdorfcfnamen atto tbe Cburcb 
 
 indifferent?" most of the writers agreed that 
 about "half are hostile and half are indiffer- 
 ent." 
 
 It was, however, in answering the last ques- 
 tion : "What is the chief fault which working- 
 men have to find with the church?" that they 
 were most full and explicit. To begin with 
 they found fault with the doctrines of the 
 church. Said the Federated Labor Union: 
 "The church teaches as a divine law that labor 
 is a curse; that we must be content to suffer 
 under that curse because an all-wise and loving 
 Father placed it upon us ;" and it affirmed that 
 the logical outcome of this doctrine is the deg- 
 radation of the laborer. This will be news 
 to those who may rightfully claim to have a 
 good degree of knowledge of Christian history. 
 I have been in the church all my life. I have 
 read its history, and I cannot allow such a 
 statement to pass unchallenged. The church 
 teaches nothing more clearly than that idleness 
 is the great mother of all curses, and labor one 
 of the most fruitful sources of blessing. It is 
 indeed said in the Holy Scriptures, "The 
 ground is cursed for thy sake," and, "In the 
 sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," but the 
 church is not to be judged by the letter of cer- 
 
 20
 
 TKflorfcfnsmen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 tain texts which have been greatly miscon- 
 strued. Let her be judged by her spirit and 
 her deeds. 
 
 Her great leaders in every age have come from 
 the ranks of honest toil. Jesus Christ himself 
 was a carpenter. Among the mightiest of her 
 prophets were shepherds, plowmen, and herds- 
 men; her first apostles were fishermen; Paul 
 was a tent-maker ; Luther, her great reformer, 
 was a miner's son, and William Carey, her 
 first great missionary in modern times, was a 
 cobbler. I venture to say that seventy-five per- 
 cent of her preachers and leaders to-day were 
 reared among the lowly. It would be strange 
 indeed if the church should regard as a curse 
 that which has furnished her with her best 
 blood and brains through all the centuries. 
 
 If the Hebrew Scriptures, as we are told, 
 teach that labor is a curse, why was it the in- 
 variable rule among the people trained and 
 molded by those Scriptures that every boy 
 should be required to learn a trade ? No mat- 
 ter though born in a nobleman's family, or of 
 royal descent, he had to go to the shop and 
 learn some handicraft. And if the church 
 teaches that labor is a curse, why is it that 
 wherever she goes her influence tends to dig- 
 
 21
 
 Morfcingmen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 nify and elevate labor? I am willing enough 
 to admit that the condition of labor in Christian 
 lands is far from being what it ought to be, 
 but it is high and glorious compared with what 
 it is in lands that are not Christian. So that 
 our friends of the Federated Labor Union, if 
 they care as much for truth and justice as their 
 communication would seem to indicate, ought 
 to recall their statement as to what the church 
 teaches concerning labor. 
 
 Again, the church is charged with teaching 
 that her doors are the portals of salvation. 
 Such an accusation could of course only be 
 brought maliciously or by those who are not 
 informed. Jesus Christ is the door ; by him if 
 any man enter in he shall be saved. That is 
 the doctrine of evangelical Protestantism on 
 this point. 
 
 Once more the church is condemned for 
 teaching that giving alms is charity. I incline 
 to the belief that there is some truth here, and 
 I may touch upon it again. Suffice it to say 
 now that charity is love, and that love can be 
 satisfied with nothing short of self-giving. 
 
 Second, in the letters which I received, the 
 workingmen found fault with the church for 
 withholding part of the truth. They affirmed 
 
 22
 
 THUorfcinamen anD tbe Cburcb 
 
 with a good deal of emphasis that she neglects 
 the second great law of the kingdom: "Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." In the 
 light of existing facts, I do not see how she 
 can do other than plead guilty to the charge. 
 Taking her all in all there certainly is and has 
 been too much priest and Levite and too little 
 good Samaritan in her work. 
 
 The third item in the indictment was that she 
 is allied with those who have money and is 
 subservient to them. The president of the 
 "Lumbermen and Longshoremen's Union" 
 wrote as follows : "The church always upholds 
 those who can give money and social power, 
 and will not tolerate its teachers when they in- 
 quire closely as to how this money and power 
 came into the hands that gave it. The church 
 winks at commercial robbery and tells the rob- 
 ber he will be all right if he gives a portion 
 of his plunder to the Lord." Perhaps there is 
 a grain of truth even there. It would be 
 strange if the church were wholly free from 
 the mammonism of the age, but I question the 
 statement that the church will not tolerate its 
 teachers for seeking and declaring the whole 
 truth. So far as my observation goes she hon- 
 ors and promotes the men who dare to speak 
 
 23
 
 Worfcfnamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 out. I have heard many of the ablest ministers 
 in the country, and I never heard plainer or 
 more pointed words than they uttered. As a 
 class the heralds of the cross are not cowards, 
 and their lips are not sealed by any amount of 
 money in the pews. 
 
 The fourth charge was social exclusiveness. 
 The writers found fault with the church for 
 upholding "caste and class." In this they were 
 all agreed. Now there certainly is ground for 
 such a charge in many churches. Dr. Strong 
 puts it forcibly when he says that there are 
 some in our churches "under the impression 
 that 'our sort of folks' would pretty nearly ex- 
 haust the list of the elect ; they are willing that 
 the masses should be saved, but not in their 
 church or by their instrumentality." We may 
 as well admit that there are those in our con- 
 gregations who have the faith of our Lord 
 Jesus with respect to persons. 
 
 The fifth charge was indifference to the 
 workingmen. This is abundantly shown, they 
 tell us, in the ways already pointed out. The 
 president of one labor union, the P. and D. of 
 A. (I do not know what these letters stand 
 for), made the astounding assertion that the 
 church proves her indifference to workingmen 
 
 24
 
 TTClorftingmen ant> tbe Cbutcb 
 
 by sending money to foreign missions. Let 
 me say to him and to all others who may be 
 like-minded that for every dollar contributed 
 to foreign missions ten dollars comes back to 
 enrich the land at home. I give you an in- 
 stance. It cost the American Board fifty years 
 of missionary work and $1,500,000 to evangel- 
 ize the Hawaiian Islands, whereas in that 
 length of time America has received from Ha- 
 waii about $6,000,000 a year in trade. Just as 
 soon as the heathen are Christianized they want 
 the products of Christian civilization, and it 
 ought not to require very much keenness to see 
 how this blesses labor. I must say, however, 
 that beyond question the charge of indifference 
 to the workingmen is in a measure sustained 
 by hard fact. 
 
 The last charge was inconsistency. I was 
 told again and again, and with a good deal of 
 bitterness in some letters, that church members 
 do not practice what they profess ; that many 
 of them are hypocrites and scoundrels. One 
 writer declared that he would rather deal with 
 a saloonkeeper than a church member. While 
 this charge of inconsistency is greatly over- 
 worked and the inferences drawn from it most- 
 ly unwarrantable, yet I shall not attempt to 
 
 25
 
 Worfcingmen anfc tbe Cburcb 
 
 deny it. In the face of what so often thrusts 
 itself upon my attention I cannot. It fills me 
 with sorrow and humiliation to look upon some 
 around me who bear the Christian name. It 
 would be a comfort not to know that they pro- 
 fess to be Christians. 
 
 But I would not dare to have my own life 
 judged by the standard of perfect consistency. 
 I am too conscious of sin and failure every day 
 of my life for that. When I think of Christ 
 and think of myself I am sometimes almost in 
 despair. The distance between us in point of 
 perfectness of character is vastly greater than 
 that between the first streak of the dawn and 
 the full splendor of noon. But I encourage my- 
 self with the thought that the dawn is on the 
 way to the meridian glory, and so, I am sure, 
 do my Christian brethren. 
 
 Yes, fellow-men, there is counterfeit coin in 
 the church. We admit it with sadness, but the 
 critics of the church ought to know that a coun- 
 terfeit is always a copy of that which is gen- 
 uine and therefore an infallible proof that the 
 genuine exists. They do not condemn all 
 money because they sometimes get a spurious 
 dollar. They are not foolish enough to form 
 their estimate of money from the bogus coin 
 
 26
 
 Worftingmen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 which some sharper palms off upon them. A 
 man would be crazy to repudiate the currency 
 of the United States because he was taken in 
 by some smart imposter. Wise men, honest 
 men, just men, form their judgments from the 
 good and not from the bad. There are pure 
 and genuine men and women in every church, 
 at the center what they are on the surface, ex- 
 emplary in life, true as steel, faithful as the 
 stars, the very salt of the earth, and their num- 
 ber is larger than we think. Look at the church 
 through them. Judge the tree, not by its rotten 
 specimens and its windfalls, but by the apples 
 that are sound. 
 
 As a matter of fact we find in the church 
 and in everything else just what we have a 
 taste for finding. On the same landscape the 
 crow finds carrion, the hog finds mire, the bee 
 finds honey, and the duck finds water. Instinct 
 leads them to that which is most in agreement 
 with their own nature. It is so among men. 
 The impure editor of an impure newspaper 
 scents most readily any trial, or scandal, or 
 town gossip that promises a large amount of 
 moral filth. He gloats over it as a vulture does 
 over a dead ass in the mountains. The first 
 thing the old sot sees when he comes to the city 
 
 27
 
 Worfeinamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 is the saloon. What we see most easily is a 
 revelation of what we are. It is a reflection of 
 what is back in the soul. The libertine sees 
 nothing but easy virtue in the world. The 
 critic sees nothing but imperfection, the rogue 
 nothing but dishonesty, the hypocrite nothing 
 but unreality, and the prejudiced man sees 
 everything twisted. Hence I am always a little 
 suspicious of the people who so readily detect 
 nothing but inconsistency in the church. Christ 
 always saw what was best in men; he saw it 
 even among Pharisees and church members, 
 and therefore proved himself to be the world's 
 great Best One. 
 
 In all the letters received from workingmen 
 it is only just to say that I found not a syllable 
 against Christ or his gospel. Their grievance 
 was against the church. They had no fault to 
 find with Christianity, so far as I could dis- 
 cover, but only with "Churchianity," as it has 
 been called. It was implied that if the church 
 was only true to Jesus and his teachings there 
 would be no separation between her and the 
 masses. They distinguished sometimes very 
 sharply between the institutionalisms that have 
 been built up around the truth and the truth 
 itself, and the church needs to make the dis- 
 
 28
 
 TKflorfeinamen anfc tbe Cburcb 
 
 tinction also. She is great enough not only to 
 bear criticism, but she should take it thank- 
 fully. For her own sake and the Master's sake 
 and humanity's sake, she should be willing to 
 learn from the humblest man that digs by the 
 wayside, and I believe she is. These strictures 
 and criticisms of the workingmen, though far 
 too sweeping in many cases and in some alto- 
 gether groundless, can only do her good. If 
 the church is truly sincere she will be grateful 
 for having her faults pointed out. 
 
 The communications referred to have con- 
 vinced me that what is needed on both sides is 
 enlargement. I have read that one day Michael 
 Angelo entered the studio of his great pupil 
 Raphael, and, seeing an unfinished sketch upon 
 the easel, he wrote across it the simple word 
 "Amplius" Larger! This was the turning 
 point in Raphael's life. He needed a larger 
 canvas and a larger ideal. His work was too 
 narrow, his vision too cramped, his field too 
 small. The time had come for enlargement. 
 And this is what is needed in the question 
 which we are considering. Workingmen need 
 a larger acquaintance with the church. She is 
 misjudged and misconstrued and sometimes 
 maligned for lack of knowledge. Many of
 
 Worfcingmen and tbe Cburcb 
 
 them never could have written me as they did 
 if they had been at all familiar with her inner 
 life. One writer, for example, found fault with 
 the church "because not more than five per cent 
 of the sermons preached have to do directly 
 with practical matters." Another complained 
 that workingmen "have listened to sermons 
 that condemn a man for being poor and praise 
 the rich." Another was grieved because "min- 
 isters preach on the story of Lazarus and the 
 rich man,' 5 and leave the impression that "all 
 that is necessary to get into heaven is to 
 be poor, and most workingmen are poor." 
 Where these writers have lived and what 
 preachers they have heard I do not know, but 
 one thing is certain, that men who can deliber- 
 ately write after this fashion are very much in 
 need of information. That the church has her 
 faults and a great many of them is a fact which 
 I shall attempt neither to palliate nor deny. He 
 is no friend of Zion who seeks to cover up her 
 sins and to conceal her shortcomings. But 
 workingmen see the worst side of her. They 
 see her through her members when they are at 
 their lowest, out in the marts of trade and in 
 the awful grind of competition. Their point 
 of contact with the church is almost entirely in 
 
 30
 
 Worfcin0men anfc tbc (Tburcb 
 
 business, when her blood is coldest and the tides 
 of her piety have receded to low-water mark. 
 They meet her members and have dealings with 
 them when engrossed in the grapple with the 
 world. No wonder their impressions are un- 
 favorable. 
 
 I am not excusing these members. No 
 doubt they ought to be better. But it is neither 
 fair nor just to draw inferences from what you 
 see of people under the most untoward circum- 
 stances. There is a vast deal of good in the 
 church, a vast deal of unselfishness, an im- 
 mense amount of genuine love, which working- 
 men do not see because they do not come in 
 contact with her at the best times and places. 
 Hence, I say, they need a larger acquaintance 
 with the church, a broader knowledge of her 
 spirit, her aims and her activities. 
 
 On the other hand the church needs a larger 
 knowledge of workingmen. She is far too ig- 
 norant of their condition and the grievances 
 under which they smart. She needs more in- 
 formation as to their hardships and sorrows, 
 and until she gets it her interest in their wel- 
 fare will be far below what is required by the 
 gospel of Christ. She needs larger aggressive- 
 ness. It is not enough for her to throw open
 
 TKHorfcfnamen anfc tbe Cburcb 
 
 her doors and say, "Come," to write, "All wel- 
 come," on the bulletin board, to scatter printed 
 invitations to attend her services, to have at- 
 tractive music and pleasant surroundings and 
 courteous ushers. These are good, but they 
 fall far short of measuring up to what is re- 
 quired. The great Saviour of men did not say 
 from the battlements of glory : "The gates are 
 open, the feast is ready, paradise awaits you, a 
 cordial invitation is extended, come if you want 
 to." Nay, he went out, out from the Father's 
 house, out through the night and the storm, 
 out through shame and sorrow and agony, out 
 over the wild mountains after the straying ones. 
 
 " None of the ransomed ever knew 
 
 How deep were the waters crossed; 
 Nor how dark was the night that the Lord 
 
 passed through, 
 
 Ere He found His sheep that was lost. 
 Out in the desert He heard its cry 
 Sick and helpless and ready to die." 
 
 It was the cry that brought him. His heart 
 was bursting with love. Its pressure was so 
 intense, its sympathy so consuming, that he 
 went out and never stopped until he laid down 
 his life for his wandering sheep. 
 
 And to-day and every day he says to his 
 
 32
 
 QDlorftfnamen aito tbe Cburcb 
 
 church, "Go out out into the highways and 
 hedges, into the streets and lanes of the city, 
 and compel them to come in, that my house 
 may be filled." He wants it filled, and he tells 
 us how to do it. "Go out" that is the simple 
 programme. Oh, if we would only go out 
 from the old grooves and the familiar stereo- 
 typed order of things and manifest a Christlike 
 aggressiveness a new day would soon dawn for 
 Israel. Out as far as the prodigal has wan- 
 dered, out with a persistency that never 
 wearies, out after the lost sheep until we find it. 
 This suggests finally that the church needs 
 a larger spirit of self-giving, which is the very 
 essence of the Gospel. Christ does not ask for 
 our money, he does not ask for our services, 
 he does not ask us to give alms or clothing, 
 but to give our very selves. This is what he 
 did, and it includes everything else. "What we 
 want," said the writer of one letter, "is that 
 Christians should come down and love us." 
 What an appeal! The whole story, the whole 
 secret, is there. These masses do not want to 
 be patronized, they want to be loved. They 
 are dying for sympathy. They want not yours, 
 but you. They want the touch of a brotherly 
 hand, and along this road stands the cross. 
 
 3 33
 
 Qdorfcfnamen att& tbe Cburcb 
 
 O men and women, to this larger self-giving 
 Christ is calling us to-day ; calling by the pres- 
 sing and mighty needs of the hour, by the 
 yawning gap that separates the masses from 
 his church and by the peril which this signifies ; 
 calling us by his own example, by his pierced 
 hands and feet, by the sorrows that broke his 
 heart, by all the pleading eloquence of his cross, 
 he is calling us to let go of self and make his 
 mission our mission. And by the same token 
 he is calling you who have never named his 
 name. Heed the call, obey the summons, ac- 
 cept his salvation. Hear the voice that breaks 
 over the tumult of time, sweet as the music of 
 heaven and tender as the heart of God : "Come 
 unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
 and I will give you rest." 
 
 34
 
 III. 
 
 WORKINGMEN AND CHRIST. 
 
 T^^ HE world owes an infinite debt to 
 I many a man who was reared in ob- 
 gpjfp|j| scurity. Giants in moral and intel- 
 JSgujggJI lectual power have come forth from 
 humble dwellings of the poor. Those who 
 have climbed Time's ladder highest began on 
 the lowest round. Renown the most fadeless 
 and enduring may rest on a very lowly pedes- 
 tal. The families from which the leaders and 
 saviours of mankind emerge do not belong 
 to society's four hundred. The mightiest 
 streams have their origin far away amid the 
 quiet loneliness of unfrequented hills. How 
 many sons of nameless sires have struggled up 
 into the sunlight of imperishable glory? Out 
 from unknown hiding places have come men 
 who have changed the courses of history. This 
 little beam of hope I would dart into the breast 
 of any young workingman who may think that 
 there is no chance for him. Men who mount 
 up do not waste time and energy in bewailing 
 
 35
 
 TKHorfcinamen ant> tbe Cburcb 
 
 the hardships of their condition. They climb 
 in all sorts of weather. Every day they put a 
 little something beneath their feet, and 
 
 " Build the ladder by which they rise 
 From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 
 And mount to the summit round by round." 
 
 Here, too, is encouragement for parents who 
 imagine that they are too obscure and insig- 
 nificant to be of any special use in the progress 
 of society. Civilization can never cancel its 
 obligation to the hands that have rocked lowly 
 cradles; and unheard-of fathers and mothers 
 hold a heavy account against the world. Well 
 has it been said that "No statesman can afford 
 to omit the common people from his calculation. 
 They are the very root and core of society. 
 Kings are only the blossomings of the national 
 tree. The roof is more dependent upon the 
 foundation than the foundation upon the roof. 
 Nearly all, if not quite all, the movements that 
 have changed the thinking and determined the 
 new courses of the world, have been upward, 
 not downward. The great revolutionists have 
 generally been cradeled in mangers, and gone 
 through rough discipline in early life." Strictly 
 in keeping with these facts, the great founder 
 
 36
 
 Worfeingmen anfc tbe Cburcb 
 
 of Christianity was born and reared in the 
 humblest conceivable way. He grew to man- 
 hood in a town so rude and obscure and dis- 
 reputable that it became a common thing to 
 ask: "Can there any good thing come out of 
 Nazareth?" 
 
 Christ was a workingman. "Is not this the 
 carpenter's son?" said his fellow-townsmen 
 one day. They were astonished that he whom 
 they had known for many years as an honest, 
 unassuming toiler in the shop of Joseph should 
 have become all at once so mighty in word and 
 deed. "Whence hath this man this wisdom and 
 these mighty deeds?" was the question that 
 sprang to their wondering lips. If he had been 
 trained in their celebrated schools and educated 
 as a rabbi he might perhaps have been ac- 
 counted for somewhat, but it was beyond belief 
 that the carpenter's son of Nazareth shouldydo 
 and say such things. So instead of admiring 
 and applauding their fellow-townsman they 
 were offended in him, so much so that Jesus, 
 quoting a familiar proverb, said : "A prophet is 
 not without honor save in his own country and 
 in his own house." But the thing to be especi- 
 ally borne in mind now is that Jesus was a 
 workingman. It is profoundly significant. I 
 37
 
 Worfcfnamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 thank God that he was not only a carpenter's 
 son, but a carpenter himself. On the lips of 
 the proud Roman and cultured Greek it was a 
 term of reproach. It called forth many a sneer 
 to be told that the Saviour of mankind toiled as 
 a poor artisan in a rude village shop. But to- 
 day the term is one of glory. We love to think 
 of him at work with plane and saw and such 
 simple tools as his poverty could afford, his 
 hands often blistered and his back often weary. 
 He learned the carpenter's trade when a boy, 
 according to the wise and invariable custom 
 of the old Hebrew people, and we may be sure 
 he was a conscientious and faithful workman. 
 See what it means. That he chose the lot of 
 honest poverty shows how he sympathized with 
 the laboring masses. He entered into the con- 
 dition of the great majority of mankind and 
 became one of them in the fellowship of com- 
 mon toil. Thus by his example he taught that 
 manhood is something to estimate in itself, 
 and not because of any adventitious circum- 
 stances of birth, or rank, or station, or wealth. 
 This thought, Robert Burns, the plowman poet 
 of Scotland, has thrown into verse, with which 
 we are all familiar:
 
 Morftinamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 " What though on homely fare we dine, 
 
 Wear hoddin gray and a' that; 
 Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, 
 
 A man's a man for a" that: 
 For a* that, and a' that, 
 
 Their tinsel show, and a* that, 
 The honest man, though e'er so poor, 
 
 Is king o* men for a* that." 
 
 Again, in choosing the lot of a workingman, 
 Jesus put the stamp of divine dignity upon 
 labor. He showed, as Canon Farrar says, that 
 "it is a pure and noble thing; it is the salt of 
 life ; it is the girdle of manliness ; it saves the 
 body from effeminate languor, and the soul 
 from polluting thoughts." I know how far we 
 have drifted away from the teachings of Jesus 
 in our social judgments and standards. It is 
 too much the fashion to look upon the white 
 and delicate hands of idleness and the speckless 
 attire of the dandy as the marks of the gentle- 
 man. A good many parents seem to think it 
 would be degrading, or at any rate hardly gen- 
 teel, to have their boys engage in some sort of 
 manual toil. They must have something more 
 high-toned and refining, and the result is that 
 the various professions and clerkships and 
 agencies are crowded. There is a foolish and 
 hurtful notion abroad that the lad who works 
 
 39
 
 anD tbe Cbutcb 
 
 on the farm or in the shop is socially inferior 
 to the youth who sits on a high stool eight or 
 ten hours a day with a pen over his ear. Per- 
 haps church people have done something to 
 foster this feeling. It is wrong. It is alto- 
 gether at variance with the example of Jesus 
 and the teachings of the New Testament ; and 
 good men and women everywhere should do 
 all in their power to bring about a change of 
 public sentiment in this respect. There is 
 nothing more unworthy, nothing more vulgar, 
 than the idea that a gentleman is one who has 
 the means to put himself beyond the necessity 
 of work. It is really coarse and low-minded. 
 A tramp called upon a kind-hearted lady one 
 day and said : "Madam, won't you please give 
 me a half dollar to save me from something 
 awful?" Her sympathies were touched by the 
 pleading look of the man and she handed him 
 the money. "Now," she said, "won't you tell 
 me what awful thing this will save you from ?" 
 And he replied very frankly: "It will save me 
 from doing an honest day's work." The answer 
 was worthy of a tramp. 
 
 I know you will sometimes pick up a low- 
 class newspaper in which toil is spoken of as 
 degrading ; and in city parks and public places 
 40
 
 Worfefnamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 you will frequently hear glib-tongued talkers 
 speak in a similar strain. But there is no such 
 thing under the sun. There are some degraded 
 men who wear fine clothes and "do nothing for 
 the world but stare at it and suck the sweetness 
 out of it." You will find them around clubs 
 and theatres and gambling halls and saloons 
 parasites feeding upon what others produce, 
 ulcers and blots and excrescences on the face of 
 society. The men who work, whether they toil 
 with hands or head or both, who do their duty 
 in the sphere in which natural fitness has 
 placed them, and do it earnestly and cheerfully 
 and devotedly these are your gentlemen, the 
 true nobility of earth. He who shrinks from 
 labor, however humble, is not fit to clasp the 
 horny, toil-worn hand of the Carpenter of 
 Nazareth. 
 
 Christ chose workingmen to be his immedi- 
 ate companions and the founders of his church. 
 James and Peter and John were fishermen, the 
 three whom he took into closest intimacy. It 
 was they who were admitted to the glories of 
 the transfiguration and the sorrows and agonies 
 of Gethsemane. He had friends also among 
 the rich and well-to-do. Zaccheus, the publi- 
 can, became his devoted follower; Mary and
 
 Worfcinamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 Martha and Lazarus of Bethany were fondly 
 attached to him, and they did not by any 
 means belong to the poorer classes. Their 
 dwelling was a home to him. But to none did 
 he seem to get so near as to the fishermen. It 
 was John, the fisherman, who leaned on his 
 breast and who spoke of himself as "that dis- 
 ciple whom Jesus loved." This man who plied 
 his trade in the waters of Galilee, and whose 
 clothing smelled of the fishing business, and 
 whose speech, like Peter's was no doubt pro- 
 vincial and uneducated this was the man who 
 was encouraged to lay his head on the throb- 
 bing breast of Jesus Christ. It ought to en- 
 dear the Lord Jesus to the hearts of working- 
 men forever. 
 
 These men of the boat and the net would not 
 have been admitted into the so-called good 
 society of their day. They did not belong to 
 the elite and were not acquainted with the 
 manners and conventionalities of fashionable 
 circles, but they were nevertheless honored 
 above all their contemporaries in that they 
 were called to the apostleship by Jesus Christ, 
 to lay the foundation of his earthly kingdom. 
 
 Moreover, Christ confined his labors mostly 
 to workingmen and those in the humbler grades 
 
 42
 
 Worfcingmen anfc tbe Cburcb 
 
 of life. He preached to them, not in a patron- 
 izing sort of a way as though it^were a con- 
 descension to stoop to their level, biitfas one of 
 themselves. He drew his illustrations from 
 fields and flocks and fishing boats, from seed- 
 growing and bread-making, and vine-dressing 
 and house-building things with which work- 
 ingmen were familiar. He thought and talked 
 a great deal about common' things, and saw in- 
 finite meanings in them. By showing working- 
 men that he was acquainted with the coast and 
 bay and all the shore line of humble and prac- 
 tical life they were the more ready to trust 
 him and follow him when he struck out upon 
 the vast ocean of truth. There is a suggestion 
 here for preachers to-day. I am very sure that, 
 if they knew more about the plain and prosy 
 matters which engross the attention and energy 
 of workingmen and used simple and homely 
 illustrations from the shop and the mill and the 
 factory to point the truth they seek to enforce, 
 they would attract more of them to their minis- 
 trations. Referring to Edward Irving, the 
 celebrated London preacher some fifty years 
 ago, a skeptical and most incorrigible tanner 
 said to a friend: "He's a great man, yon; he 
 kens about leather." Because the preacher 
 
 43
 
 an& t&e Cbutcb 
 
 could talk to him along the line of his own 
 calling he not only enlisted his attention but 
 won him to the high calling of God in Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 This was what charmed the masses in the 
 preaching of our Lord. He never soared. He 
 never flung rockets into the clouds. He never 
 strained after effect. He was never meta- 
 physical. He was deep, unfathomable some- 
 times, but so clear and so earnest that through 
 the waters of his speech men could always see 
 the solemn background of eternity. For this 
 reason the common people heard him gladly. 
 They flocked to his ministry from every part of 
 the country. Shepherds came down from the 
 hills to hear him. Farmers left their fields, 
 gardeners their fruit trees, fishermen their 
 boats and nets, tradesmen their shops, and pub- 
 licans their custom-houses, to listen to this 
 wonderful carpenter. His figures of speech 
 were so apt, his words so plain, so honest, and 
 so freighted with sympathy, that he entranced 
 common folk and sent them away with longing 
 after a noble life. I should like to have heard 
 their comments when they returned home from 
 one of his matchless talks. How they must 
 have discussed him away into the night and en- 
 
 44
 
 Worfcfngmen anfc tbe Cburcb 
 
 joyed his sharp thrusts at the Scribes and 
 Pharisees, and gone over his parables and 
 stories and great sayings until mighty hopes 
 began to burn within them. 
 
 The shepherd, I imagine, would say some- 
 thing like this : "I heard the Galilean preacher 
 to-day. He talked about how the shepherd 
 does when one of his sheep goes astray and 
 gets torn and wounded by the thorns and is 
 left starving in the wilderness. He described 
 how he leaves his flock in the fold and goes out 
 after the lost one until he finds it, and how 
 glad he is when he recovers it, and how he puts 
 the poor bleeding creature upon his shoulder 
 and carries it home rejoicing. Just what I 
 have done myself. It was all so real and true 
 that I thought I saw the whole thing before my 
 eyes. Then there came a great light into his 
 face and he said something about the joy there 
 is in heaven over repenting sinners. I didn't 
 quite get that, but somehow it stirred my soul 
 to the depths, and I am going to hear him 
 again." So every workingman that came to 
 hear him got some sweet and inspiring lesson 
 couched in terms of his own special calling. 
 
 But while Christ found his companions and 
 his work mostly among the toiling masses, he 
 
 45
 
 Worfcingmen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 had no railing, bitter words to say against the 
 rich, simply for being rich. He did say, "How 
 hardly shall they that have riches enter into 
 the kingdom of heaven." He did warn men 
 against covetousness and selfish hoarding. He 
 did speak of the deceitfulness of riches, how 
 they choke out the good seed that is sown in 
 the heart. But he indulged in no tirade against 
 wealth. He did not inveigh against those who 
 had large possessions. What interested him 
 and enlisted all his powers and engaged all his 
 sympathies was man. He had followers among 
 the rich, he had more among the poor, but he 
 loved them and called them into his kingdom, 
 not because they were either rich or poor, but 
 because they were men. 
 
 I refer to this for the reason that in some of 
 the letters which I have received from working- 
 men it was implied that Jesus condemned 
 wealth and taught that it is incompatible with 
 a place in his kingdom. But let me hasten to 
 remind you that Jesus worked down on the 
 lower ranges of society rather than toward the 
 top. He went where there was the greatest 
 need, down among the wretched and helpless 
 and despairing. Hence it was that he shocked 
 the refined and high-toned circles of the day. 
 
 46
 
 Udorfcingmen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 He distinctly announced that he came not to 
 call the clean and the clever and the respectable 
 and the decent, "but sinners to repentance." 
 It was the black sheep in humanity's flock he 
 was after. It was the castaways that excited 
 his compassion. He picked for the worst cases. 
 The deeper a man was down the more interest 
 Christ took in him. He saw what was under 
 the ruins. He saw the magnificent possibilities 
 hidden away in the most shattered and de- 
 graded life. And so we find him eating with 
 publicans and sinners, sitting down at the social 
 meal and holding friendly intercourse with 
 them. People who were rejected and thrust 
 out and denied recognition by their fellow-men, 
 became his servants and his friends. Even 
 harlots and prodigals, who had wasted their 
 substance in riotous living and debauchery, 
 blasted and withered by the hot fire of unholy 
 passion, were drawn to him, and by his words 
 and looks and sympathy and love he planted 
 hope once more in their blackened hearts. 
 
 He saw the woman in the harlot, the son in 
 the prodigal, the jewel imbedded in the filth, 
 so precious, so beautiful, so divine that he ven- 
 tured to brave all sneers and all gossip and all 
 opposition to save it. Let me give you an in- 
 
 47
 
 Worfcinsmen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 stance. It is loaded with love, and crowded 
 with heaven. It is the story of the woman 
 taken in adultery, a poor, besmirched, be- 
 draggled woman of the town. The Scribes and 
 Pharisees brought her into the presence of 
 Jesus and quoted the law of Moses bearing 
 upon the case, which was that she should be 
 stoned, but "what sayest thou?" they asked. 
 He remained silent for a moment writing some- 
 thing on the ground. Then presently he 
 straightened himself up and said and I think 
 there must have been the flash of God's own 
 lightning in his eyes when he said it : "He that 
 is without sin among you let him first cast a 
 stone at her." Not a stone was cast. They 
 stole out like guilty dogs. Then said Jesus to 
 the adulteress: "Where are thine accusers? 
 Hath no man condemned thee?" "No man, 
 Lord." And Jesus said unto her : "Neither do 
 I condemn thee ; go, and sin no more." 
 
 Oh, fellow-men, it is this voice that affects 
 me and takes hold upon me. See how it goes 
 away down into the regions where no hope is 
 shining and says to the poor harlot and the 
 friendless castaway: "Look up. There is a 
 chance for you. There is salvation for you." 
 The man who is black with the stains of in- 
 48
 
 Qdorfcinamen an& tbe Gburcb 
 
 iquity, the man who camps on the edge of hell, 
 the man who slimes his way with the worm 
 even he may come to this carpenter's son and 
 be saved. 
 
 Now there are just two things which I wish 
 to emphasize before leaving the matter with 
 you. The first is the message which comes 
 from all this to the church and to Christian 
 people. If Jesus Christ worked along the 
 lower ranges of society, if he put forth his most 
 earnest and continued efforts among the lowly 
 and fallen and suffering and oppressed masses 
 of humanity, where ought we to work most 
 earnestly? Can we be following in his foot- 
 steps if we neglect or refuse to go where he 
 went? The needs are certainly as great and 
 imperative among the masses to-day as when 
 Jesus "ate with publicans and sinners." It is 
 not easy, it is not pleasant. It means sacrifice. 
 It means the cross. But if the toiling millions 
 who work in our shops and factories and on 
 our railways ; if the women who are driven to 
 vice by cruel and merciless employers; if the 
 strangers who float about our cities unanchored 
 by any ties of domestic life ; if the children on 
 back streets, ragged and pale and pinched with 
 hunger and want; if the countless victims of 
 
 4 49
 
 Worfctnamen ant> tfoe (Tburcb 
 
 the rum curse which Christian votes have 
 clothed with a sort of semi-respectability; if 
 the low-down and poverty-stricken of all sorts 
 if these are not the lost sheep that Jesus 
 wants Christians to seek and save, what are 
 they? Unless they are wilfully blind to the 
 teaching and example of Christ they must see 
 that duty, nay, that love, bids them do their 
 utmost among the neglected masses. The one 
 passion that burned in his breast until it con- 
 sumed him was his passion for humanity, and it 
 is the only passion worthy of those who bear 
 his name. 
 
 The second thing I wish to emphasize is the 
 message that comes from all this to work- 
 ingmen. Jesus was a carpenter and lived for 
 thirty years in a carpenter's home. He in- 
 augurated his kingdom by calling fishermen to 
 his aid. He gave undying dignity to labor and 
 ennobled forever the sweat of honest toil. If 
 there is any one class of persons under the sun 
 who should love Christ and rally about his 
 banner and delight to serve him more than 
 another it is workingmen. He voluntarily 
 assumed their condition and tasted their ex- 
 periences and lived their life, and no voice 
 should be more ready to speak his praises, no 
 
 50
 
 TWlorfcingmen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 hands more ready to do his will, no feet more 
 ready to run upon his errands than theirs. 
 Every condition of society, every station in 
 life was open to his choice. He might have 
 come as a scholar or as a philosopher and daz- 
 zled the world with the splendor of his attain- 
 ments. He might have appeared as a prince 
 with a bannered army in his train. He might 
 have come with a crown on his head and untold 
 wealth at his command, but he did not. He 
 came into a workingman's home and a work- 
 ingman's life. He did it too, let it be remem- 
 bered, at a time when the masses of the people 
 were prostrate in the dust. Philosophy looked 
 upon them with disdain. Justice tipped her 
 balances against them. Law had no arm of 
 protection to throw around them. Society 
 brushed by them with curling lips of scorn. 
 Kindness, if it deigned to look upon them at 
 all, looked timidly askance. Even religion 
 passed by on the other side. In every direction 
 "the multitudes who thronged the highways 
 and thoroughfares of life" were not only neg- 
 lected, but treated as the refuse and scum of 
 the earth. To Jesus belongs the distinguishing 
 glory of preaching the gospel to the poor. This 
 strange, this other-worldly fact, he adduced as 
 
 Si
 
 Worfcinamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 a proof of his Messianic character. He came 
 to rescue them from their low estate, to give 
 them dignity in the eyes of the world, to plead 
 their cause, to wipe away their tears, and to 
 make them children of the kingdom which he 
 charged the Scribes and Pharisees with shut- 
 ting against them and leaving them to perish. 
 Hence, I say, workingmen should love him 
 above all others. They should crowd his courts 
 and make them ring with hallelujahs to the Son 
 of God. They should be the foremost soldiers 
 in his army. They should sit down at his table 
 and "do this in remembrance of him." They 
 should hear and obey the voice of this divine 
 carpenter when he says, "Follow me." "Con- 
 fess me before men." If the church is cor- 
 rupt, if it is apostate, let them come in and 
 rescue it for Jesus' sake and show us how to 
 live. No matter about doctrines, no matter 
 about problems in theology, no matter about 
 doubts on certain points. Get right with him 
 and all such matters will take care of them- 
 selves. Above all these, as far as the sun is 
 above the fog of the valley, is the Carpenter ; 
 and as they think of his compassion, of his 
 sympathy with them, of his fellowship with 
 them in the toil and sweat of the shop, of the 
 
 52
 
 TKttorftfngmcn a^ tbe Cbutcb 
 
 cross on which he died for them, they should 
 say, in the spirit and temper of the poet : 
 
 " If Jesus Christ is a man, 
 And only a man, I say, 
 That of all mankind I will cleave to Him, . 
 And to Him will cleave alway. 
 
 " If Jesus Christ is a God, y 
 
 And the only God, I swear 
 I will follow Him through heaven and hell, 
 The earth, the sea and the air." 
 
 SANTA BARBARA. CALIF
 
 IV. 
 
 WORKINGMEN AND HUMAN BROTH- 
 ERHOOD. 
 
 T""^HE idea of the brotherhood of man, 
 I like all great constructive ideas, has 
 
 had a hard struggle for recognition. 
 
 Its earliest manifestation, I suppose, 
 was in the family, and yet in the first family of 
 which we have any knowledge Cain slew his 
 brother Abel. From the family it broadened 
 away until it took in the clan, or tribe, and from 
 the tribe, until it took in the nation. When 
 Moses said, "Sirs, ye are brethren," his 
 thoughts included only the descendants of 
 Abraham. It never occurred to him when he 
 slew the Egyptian that he also was brother to 
 the Hebrew. But Moses lived in the morning 
 of the world. To-day the idea of brotherhood, 
 in theory and sentiment at least, reaches be- 
 yond the tribe, beyond the province, beyond the 
 nation, and embraces the whole family of man. 
 As a doctrine it is slowly but surely finding 
 its way into the thoughts and lives of men. 
 
 54
 
 TClorfcinomen an& tbe Gburcb 
 
 We see evidence of this in the rapid multipli- 
 cation' of fraternal orders, Masons, Odd Fel- 
 lows, Knights of Pythias, Knights of Labor, 
 and chapters and lodges without end. These 
 organizations indicate a drift. They show that 
 the spirit of fraternity is coming into men more 
 and more and crystalizing. They indicate that 
 men are groping along toward the realization 
 of the second great law of the kingdom, viz. : 
 "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." It 
 is being felt that down beneath all differences 
 of creed and color and nationality there is a 
 common humanity, a common consciousness of 
 sin, and common longings and aspirations after 
 something better. We see this drift, moreover, 
 in great expositions and fairs where the pro- 
 ducts of human skill from every land and clime 
 are put on exhibition side by side. For this 
 reason alone such enterprises are worthy of 
 encouragement. They indicate a drawing to- 
 gether of the human family, a spirit that is 
 working beneath, a spirt of fraternity that is 
 gradually bringing men into more helpful re- 
 lations. 
 
 A word or two as to the origin of this idea. 
 Here we may not be agreed, but I have no 
 doubt it comes to us largely from the growing 
 
 55
 
 Morfcfnamen an& tbe Cbutcb 
 
 belief in the Fatherhood of God. We get light 
 from the sun and heat from the sun; we get 
 our time from the stars and our rain from the 
 clouds. "Every good and perfect gift cometh 
 down from above." This idea of the brother- 
 hood of man is no exception. We find it in the 
 Bible. We find it in the teachings of Jesus. 
 We find it in the epistles of Paul and Peter and 
 James and John. They got it from Christ, and 
 Christ brought it with him from the bosom of 
 the Father. The diffusion of Christianity and 
 the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures have 
 caused it to take root in every land. It has 
 found its way into literature, into art, into song, 
 into civilization. Men are taking it in uncon- 
 sciously because of their contact with Christian 
 institutions and Christian forces. Multitudes 
 who do not accept Christianity are nevertheless 
 toned up by it. Their lives strike a higher 
 moral key than they would if they lived where 
 its music did not fall upon them. Men are in- 
 debted to the Christian religion for a good 
 many ennobling beliefs, for which it never oc- 
 curs to them to give it credit. From this source 
 comes their belief in the brotherhood of man, 
 and this springs from the great fundamental 
 doctrine of the Fatherhood of God. 
 
 56
 
 TKttorfcinsmen anfc tbe Cbutcb 
 
 According to this doctrine all mankind are 
 one family, whether they belong to China or 
 California, to Africa or Sweden. It teaches us 
 that every man, however low, or vile, or de- 
 graded, is our brother. No matter who he 
 may be or where he may come from, whether a 
 pauper at the gate, or a thief in the prison, or 
 a tramp on the highway, or a tradesman at the 
 bench, or a ruler of a kingdom, he is our 
 brother. This is the theory. This is what we 
 sing about and lecture about with much display 
 of rhetorical fireworks. But it is more than a 
 theory ; it is a mighty truth that has come forth 
 from the heart of God and will yet reign among 
 all the sons of men. 
 
 But in the second place, it is in the highest 
 degree important that men should have right 
 ideas as to what brotherhood means. What 
 does it involve ? We must be careful not to go 
 to extremes. Things must be held in their 
 right balance. 
 
 Negatively, then, let me say that brotherhood 
 does not. mean equality. There is no such thing 
 in God's universe, so far as we know. There 
 is an inherent inequality in things. There is 
 an inborn inequality in men. They are 
 launched into being with varying capacities and 
 
 57
 
 Morfeingmen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 possibilities. Every man for example, has a 
 capacity for happiness, a capacity for knowl- 
 edge, but you cannot put as much in a pint 
 measure as you can in a gallon. Both may be 
 full. They may have all they can hold, but they 
 are not equal. It is simply impossible to put a 
 large thinker on an equality with a small 
 thinker. The big brain must stand in the front 
 in this and in every other world. The ablest 
 workman must take precedence. The man 
 with the best head will be the head man. The 
 man who can becomes king. There will always 
 be captains and privates, superiors and sub- 
 ordinates, leaders and followers. There are 
 gradations in heaven. "One star differeth from 
 another star in glory." 
 
 God has made it so and we cannot change his 
 decree. Inequality, however, is in every way 
 consistent with the most perfect brotherliness. 
 In volume of being and manhood, in spiritual 
 and intellectual power, Jesus stood immeasur- 
 ably above his fishermen disciples, and yet he 
 was one of them in fraternal love and helpful- 
 ness. You know how all the strength of the 
 household bows down to the aged, worn-out 
 father and mother, or to the little babe in the 
 cradle. The greatest of all is servant of all. So 
 
 58
 
 Worfcinamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 Jesus Christ, the Prince of the Highest, became 
 our Elder Brother, the Great Servant of the 
 erring, sinning sons of men. But while brother- 
 hood does not mean equality, it does mean sym- 
 pathy a great word to which we are in the 
 habit of giving a very narrow significance. A 
 friendly wish is not sympathy. A vague inter- 
 est in another's welfare is not sympathy. To 
 exhaust one's effort for the distressed in fram- 
 ing resolutions and in beautiful talk is not sym- 
 pathy. To see some poor fellow on the Jericho 
 road, robbed and beaten and half dead, and to 
 say, "I am really sorry for him, I pity him," 
 and then hurry on to Jerusalem, is not sym- 
 pathy. To pray for the needy and unemployed, 
 and then never think of them again after the 
 "Amen" is said, is not sympathy. A good 
 many actions which we perform and which we 
 feel very proud of, can be called sympathetic 
 only by courtesy. 
 
 Sympathy means to share with, to suffer 
 with, to make the pain of my neighbor's life 
 the anguish of my own, to weep with those 
 who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice. 
 It means to drink the same cup and walk the 
 same road and climb the same hill. It means 
 to put ourselves in the same place with our 
 
 59
 
 WorfcittQtnen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 burdened and weary and heart-broken brother 
 man, and feel what he feels. This is what 
 Jesus did. He took our sorrows. He carried 
 our burdens. He felt the sting of our griefs 
 and disappointments. He was touched with a 
 feeling of our infirmities. How often is it said 
 of him, "He had compassion." This is the one 
 word that gathers into itself his entire history. 
 Go into a piano-house, strike a certain key, 
 and every string of the same pitch of every 
 instrument will catch it up and repeat it. That 
 is sympathy; that is brotherhood. It means 
 that if one portion of the family of man suf- 
 fers, the whole family suffers. It means that 
 if a wrong is done to the workingman, or if 
 workingmen wrong one another, an injury is 
 inflicted on the whole social body. Brotherhood 
 means a common sympathy between all the 
 parts of society, and that each shall interest it- 
 self in the welfare of the other. And brother- 
 hood means that I shall have an interest not 
 only in the mass, but especially in the man. It is 
 personal and individual. I must help him. 
 I must give him a hand if he is down. If he 
 has fallen into sin I must not only rescue him, 
 if I can, but do all in my power to remove the 
 cause of his downfall. Brotherhood makes 
 60
 
 Morfcinamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 it imperative for me to strike at the saloon, at 
 gambling, at pernicious literature, and at every- 
 thing that tends to injure or destroy my fellow- 
 man. It means social recognition, friendly 
 helpfulness, the destruction of all exclusive- 
 ness. Anyone whose delicacy is so refined and 
 kid-gloved as to fear pollution by coming into 
 sympathetic touch with ordinary humanity; 
 anyone who cannot stand on the same level and 
 hold friendly intercourse with horny-handed 
 toil ; any woman who dare not speak to her 
 fallen sister who has sinned against society; 
 anyone who cannot give a real, genuine, whole- 
 hearted welcome to the home-coming prodigal ; 
 anyone of this temper and spirit commits 
 sacrilege when he undertakes to pray the 
 Lord's prayer. So long as the expression, 
 "Our Father," stands at the threshold of that 
 prayer no one can use it honestly without 
 recognizing the brotherhood of man, and if he 
 recognizes the brotherhood of man he must 
 recognize the lowest as well as the highest, the 
 poorest as well as the richest. We must be 
 brotherly or we cannot use this prayer of Jesus 
 or any other if we care to have it get beyond 
 the reach of our own ears. 
 
 But we must go farther. The idea of broth- 
 61
 
 TPQlorfcfngmen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 erhood is one that applies to nations as well as 
 individuals. The commonwealth has no more 
 right before God to be selfish than the citizen 
 has. Nations are just as much bound to study 
 and promote one another's interest as indi- 
 viduals are, and they will by and by, but not 
 to-morrow. This, then, is what I may call 
 brotherhood in theory. It is beautiful, it is 
 heavenly, it is just what we should see among 
 men if they were everywhere actuated by the 
 spirit of the gospel. 
 
 Now, however, let us descend from the 
 region of theory to the region of practice and 
 look at things as they are. Begin, if you 
 please, with the relations of employers and em- 
 ployed. I am glad to know that there are 
 bright spots here and there where co-operation 
 has been inaugurated and mill-owners and fac- 
 tory-owners make the interests of their work- 
 ing-men and working women identical with 
 their own. They are treated not as hands but as 
 men and women, and are made sharers in the 
 profits of their labor. It is brotherly. It is a 
 hint of what one day will be universal. 
 
 But for the most part, as things are at pres- 
 ent, the relations betwen capital and labor sug- 
 gest anything but brotherhood. It is stated 
 62
 
 Morfcfngmen ant> tbe Gburcb 
 
 that there are in America to-day 3,145,000 
 employes at work every Sunday, one out of 
 every ten of our wage-earners, a representa- 
 tive from every sixth family in the land. Some 
 of the work done by them is no doubt neces- 
 sary, but everybody knows that two-thirds of 
 it might be dispensed with. Greed, avarice, 
 the determination to have money at any cost, 
 keep the workers on the weary treadmill of 
 service seven days out of the week. Thus they 
 are deprived of their necessary rest, deprived 
 of the elevating influences of Sabbath worship 
 and of the opportunity of thinking along higher 
 lines than those of week-day toil. In thou- 
 sands of instances their noses are kept on the 
 grindstone to increase the wealth of fine people 
 who go to church. It is painful to have to 
 make such a statement, but it is the simple 
 truth. Is such cold-heartedness brotherly? 
 When we read Jacob Riis' description of tene- 
 ment life in New York city, how parents and 
 children, old and young, sometimes to the num- 
 ber of thirty or forty, are crowded into a single 
 room, utterly without ventilation, living to- 
 gether promiscuously like beasts, ragged and 
 filthy and starving ; when we read of the hor- 
 rors and depravities and streams of crime and 
 
 63
 
 TKHorfcin0men anfc tbe Cburcb 
 
 disease that flow from these awful fountains 
 of vice, and are told that many of these places 
 are owned by men who bear the name of Jesus 
 of Nazareth; when we read that during the 
 winter months of a recent year, 21,000 men, 
 women, and children in the city of New York 
 were turned out into the cold because they 
 could not pay their rent ; when we read that in 
 the same metropolis sometime ago a great ball 
 was given at Delmonico's costing $50,000, 
 while out on the curbstone there shivered a 
 poor woman with a dead babe in her arms; 
 when we read of the thousands who are com- 
 pelled to live on starvation wages and are 
 driven to vice and crime to keep them from 
 absolute want; when we read that appalling 
 story of General Booth, "In Darkest England," 
 in which he shows that in multitudes of cases in 
 the great city of London it is better to be a cab 
 horse than a man ; when we read about these 
 things and then recall the fact that they are 
 taking place not only in Christian lands, but 
 under the very shadow of our churches, we 
 can see what a long, long distance there is yet 
 between brotherhood in theory and brotherhood 
 in practice. Take it among workingmen them- 
 selves, many of whom complain so bitterly of 
 
 64
 
 Morfcfngmen an& t&e Cburcb 
 
 the church, and how much of fraternity do you 
 see there? I have seen the walking delegate 
 on his beat watching to see if any man was 
 working in opposition to the will of his union, 
 or for less wages than it demanded. No matter 
 though his wife was sick and his children cry- 
 ing for bread, no matter though his rent was 
 coming due and must be paid under penalty of 
 eviction, no matter though the strongest and 
 tenderest and holiest ties of life called upon him 
 to go to the shop and earn a little something to 
 keep want from the door and his dear ones 
 from the potter's field, he was compelled, forci- 
 bly and violently, to quit and leave his family 
 to starve and die. Was it brotherly ? And yet 
 something of that kind you may see in con- 
 nection with almost every strike or lockout 
 amongst workingmen. Is it brotherly love to 
 fix a scale of wages and then fling epithets at 
 a man and denounce him as a "scab," or per- 
 haps lay cruel hands upon him, if, under the 
 pinch of dire necessity, he ventures to work 
 for less? 
 
 Look at the bearing of this matter in another 
 direction. We all believe in brotherhood, 
 every man of us. It sounds well. Our con- 
 science says it is right. In our innermost souls 
 
 65
 
 Worfctnsmen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 we are sure it is in accord with the will of God. 
 But now listen to me kindly ; what do you think 
 of the Chinese Exclusion Act? Put aside prej- 
 udice, put aside all race antipathy, put aside all 
 selfish considerations, lift the question up into 
 the pure, broad, atmosphere of human brother- 
 hood, take it up into the region where Christ 
 lives and rules, where his spirit is regnant, and 
 then make answer to your conscience before 
 Almighty God what do you think of Chinese 
 Exclusion? How does it fit this great and 
 divine principle which we are talking about? 
 While you are thinking over that, let me ask 
 my brethren in the gospel to reflect upon it in 
 another direction. 
 
 Brotherhood means co-operation; it means 
 mutual helpfulness. Now, in the light of this 
 principle look at the various religious denomi- 
 nations. Is it not very largely true that "if 
 they should make their creeds correspond with 
 their deeds they would profess their faith, not 
 in the communion of saints, but in the compe- 
 tition of saints ?" To co-operate in the mill and 
 in the factory may be all well enough ; it may be 
 just the thing, a most beautiful illustration of 
 the principle of brotherhood ; but many of our 
 ecclesiastical leaders are slow to accept the idea 
 
 66
 
 Qdorftingmen an& tbe Cbnrcb 
 
 in its application to churches ; they tell us it is 
 visionary and impracticable, and so our little 
 sectarian rivalries and jealousies and money- 
 wasting schemes go on. If the Christian de- 
 nominations are so slow, so reluctant to apply 
 the great law of brotherhood in prosecuting 
 the Master's work, need we wonder that it gets 
 such scant recognition in the industrial world ? 
 Oh, when will we learn that the way of rivalry 
 is the way to failure and defeat, and that the 
 way of co-operation is the way to victory? 
 
 To look once more at this matter of brother- 
 hood in practice, let me say that nothing so 
 much surprises me as to hear people, even 
 Christian people, go into the economics of for- 
 eign missions. They tell us that it costs so 
 much to convert the heathen, and if the money 
 were kept at home great things might be done 
 with it. I remember a man who talked in this 
 strain 1900 years ago. When a certain woman, 
 whose heart was bursting with gratitude and 
 love, brought an alabaster box and broke it 
 and poured the ointment on the Saviour's head, 
 until the house was filled with the sweet fra- 
 grance, there was a critic looking on who said, 
 "To what purpose is this waste ? The ointment 
 might have been sold for three hundred pence 
 
 67
 
 Worfcin0men an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 and given to the poor." An overflowing love 
 was nothing to him. This beautiful expression 
 of the heart's gratitude had no charm for Judas 
 Iscariot. When men and women stand and say 
 in effect, "You have love, you have sympathy, 
 you have helpfulness, you have a blessed 
 gospel, but do not break the alabaster box ; save 
 it, keep it at home, it will cost too much to 
 send it abroad" they are imitating a most un- 
 holy example. I hold that no sublimer notion 
 ever entered into the hearts of men than that 
 of foreign missions. Its fundamental, its con- 
 structive, its inspiring idea is that all men are 
 brethren, and that its field is the world. Let 
 us get away from the spirit of Judas to that of 
 Jesus. 
 
 Such, then, in a few of its phases, is how the 
 matter stands to-day. The principle of human 
 brotherhood is still very far from being applied. 
 We like it as a doctrine. We talk and write 
 and sing about it, but to take it down to the 
 plane of practical life and "perform the doing 
 of it," is quite another thing. It cuts too close. 
 It topples over too many of our idols. It strikes 
 too hard at our natural selfishness. It is all right 
 enough to call the beggar across the street, or 
 the heathen across the sea my brother; it 
 68
 
 Morfeingmen anfc tbe (Tburcb 
 
 sounds well in public speech and reads well on 
 the printed page; but to actually treat him as 
 my brother ah! there's the rub. We are all 
 very good in our theories, but most of us break 
 down at the point of application. Theory is 
 fleet-footed and soon reaches the goal, and if 
 we kept up with it most of us would have been 
 ready for heaven long ago. But practice is like 
 a pack mule on a steep and rough mountain 
 road. It is slow and stubborn, and will not bear 
 too much urging. It must have time and plenty 
 oi encouragement, and it will get there after a 
 while. 
 
 But notwithstanding the fact that there is 
 such a vast distance between the theory and 
 practice of brotherhood, the outlook is full of 
 hope. There are shadows enough, God knows, 
 but still the light is breaking and spreading. If 
 human life is still cheap, it is worth immensely 
 more than it was two or three generations ago. 
 When we look ahead the distance to the goal 
 seems yet very long; when we look back we 
 wonder that we have come so far. At the be- 
 ginning of this century in England if a man 
 attempted to kill a rabbit he could be put to 
 death according to the law of the land. Eighty 
 years ago a man sold his wife at public auction 
 
 69
 
 Worfeingmen and tbe Cburcb 
 
 in a certain English town for two and sixpence. 
 At the beginning of this century the law recog- 
 nized, we are told, two hundred and twenty- 
 three offenses, for which death was the punish- 
 ment. Within the memory of many still living 
 slavery was prevalent in every civilized land. 
 When we recall these facts we can see that 
 the world is improving, things are getting bet- 
 ter, the spirit of brotherhood is working. It is 
 coming down out of the region of theory and 
 sentiment and slowly crystallizing; too slowly, 
 some of us think, and we are inclined to cry, 
 "Oh, Lord, how long, how long !" But let us 
 cheer ourselves with the thought that the drift 
 is upward, and instead of murmuring and re- 
 pining and complaining, do what we can to 
 make it more rapid. If we really believe that 
 a pure, true-hearted shop girl, who takes care 
 of herself and the old mother at home, is more 
 respectable and worthy of our friendship and 
 admiration than the frivolous, flippant, giggling 
 flirt who does nothing for herself or anybody 
 else, unless it be the dressmaker and milliner, 
 let us show it in both word and act. If we be- 
 lieve that an honest carpenter is better than a 
 dishonest bank president, or a faithful and con- 
 scientious blacksmith better than a smooth, 
 
 70
 
 Qdorfcingmen a^ tbe Cburcb 
 
 slick, swindling stock-gambler, let us speak it 
 out. Let us begin the practice of brotherhood 
 in our own neighborhood and set things right 
 as far as we can under our own little patch of 
 sky. In the meantime, whether we do our duty 
 or not, the idea of brotherhood is gathering 
 volume and force with the years. The wise 
 men of the world are talking about it with con- 
 stantly increasing seriousness. They have seen 
 its star and are looking forward with bright 
 anticipations. It has inspired some of the best 
 productions of literature. Latter-day poets 
 have sung about it in numbers that thrill and 
 inspire. Robert Burns cast his eye forward and 
 sang: 
 
 " For a' that and a' that, 
 It s coming yet for a' that, 
 That man to man the world o'er. 
 Shall brothers be for a' that." 
 
 And Tennyson, looking into the future, 
 swept his lyre as follows : 
 
 " For I dipt into the future far as human eye could 
 
 see, 
 
 Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that 
 should be:
 
 Worfctnamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 Till the war drum throbbed no longer and the battle 
 
 flags were furled, 
 In the Parliament of men, the Federation of the 
 
 world." 
 
 This good time will come, but only by the 
 preaching and practice of our Saviour's words : 
 "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
 thy mind, and with all thy strength, and thy 
 neighbor as thyself." Everything else will fail. 
 Everything lacks leverage enough to lift men 
 up to the plane of brotherhood ; but love never 
 faileth. I thank God that in spite of the 
 shadows that still hang over the earth, in spite 
 of wrongs and cruelties and oppressions, 
 
 " The days are hastening on, 
 By prophet bards foretold, 
 When with the ever circling years 
 Comes round the age of gold, 
 When peace shall over all the earth 
 Its ancient splendors fling, 
 And the whole world give back the song 
 Which now the angels sing."
 
 V. 
 
 WORKINGMEN AND PERSONAL CON- 
 TACT. 
 
 w 
 
 E ought to know each other better. 
 Ignorance is the mother of a vast deal 
 of prejudice and jealousy. Church 
 people form wrong impressions of 
 those who do not go to church, and those who 
 do not go to church form wrong impressions of 
 church people, because they are strangers to 
 each other. What we need is a better and 
 broader mutual acquaintance. 
 
 There is an old legend of a general who one 
 time found his troops disheartened. He be- 
 lieved it was owing to the fact that they did 
 not realize how close they were to other di- 
 visions of the same army on account of a dense 
 growth of small trees and shrubbery. Orders, 
 therefore, were given to "burn the brushwood." 
 It was done, and they saw that they were not 
 isolated, as they had supposed, but were part 
 of one great company. The result was that 
 their courage revived and they went forward 
 
 73
 
 TKHorfcin$men anfc tbe Cburcb 
 
 in triumph. So nothing is more needed to-day 
 than to burn the brushwood between the work- 
 ingmen and the church the brushwood of 
 prejudice and mistrust and separation. They 
 have far more in common than they think. 
 Vast multitudes of them belong to the same 
 army and are under the same great captain. But 
 they stand apart because of the brushwood of 
 caste and class and social distinctions, on one 
 side, and jealousy and over-sensitiveness, on 
 the other. Let it be burned away in the glow 
 of united song and in the enthusiasm of com- 
 mon worship, and new hope and courage will 
 come into the hearts of all concerned. 
 
 "But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted 
 him up, and he arose." The great problem of 
 problems is evermore the saving of men, how 
 to deliver them from sin, from the bondage of 
 the flesh, and bring them into right relations 
 with themselves and with God. To know the 
 how I believe we must go back to Jesus of 
 Nazareth. 
 
 How did Christ save men? "He took him 
 by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose." 
 One day there came a leper, a poor miserable 
 wreck and outcast, and said, "Lord, if thou 
 wilt thou canst make me clean." And Jesus 
 
 74
 
 TKIlorftfnomen anfc tbe Cburcb 
 
 put forth his hand and touched him, saying, 
 "I will ; be thou clean." When he came 
 into Peter's house and found his mother- 
 in-law sick with a fever, "he touched her hand, 
 and the fever left her." In answer to the 
 prayer of the blind men who cried, "Thou son 
 of David, have mercy on us," he "touched their 
 eyes, saying, according to your faith be it unto 
 you." Meeting a funeral procession one day he 
 touched the bier and gave a mother back her 
 son. 
 
 He healed and saved by personal contact, 
 not by proxy. He did not stay in heaven and 
 send a committee to attend to the work of re- 
 demption. It does not require a very large 
 stretch of fancy, as Dr. Parkhurst suggests, to 
 imagine some of the angels who were not in 
 the salvation business venturing to remonstrate 
 with him for resolving to bring himself into 
 contact with a world over which the serpent 
 had so long dragged his slimy way, and sug- 
 gesting that he send a deputation down to see 
 what could be done and report progress. But 
 he didn't do it. He came himself and brought 
 his holy nature into the closest possible touch 
 with a sin-reeking humanity. 
 
 He reached after individuals. The story of 
 
 75
 
 TKttorfcinamen anD tbe Cburcb 
 
 his life is full of this fact. Some of his most 
 fruitful and wonderful talks were made to an 
 audience of one. Recall the case of the woman 
 at the well, and of Nicodemus by night. So 
 the early disciples copied him very closely. It 
 was man to man with them, individual going 
 after individual. Hence their remarkable suc- 
 cess. They used the buttonhole power, and 
 nothing wins like that in any campaign, 
 whether political or religious. 
 
 If a man wanted to fill a thousand bottles 
 with water he would hardly stand off at a long 
 distance with the hose and sprinkle it over 
 them. He would take one bottle at a time by 
 the neck and fill it, and then the next, and so 
 on till the work was done. The great difficulty 
 with us in our church work is that we are play- 
 ing the hose upon the bottles from afar. The 
 space between them and us is so great that we 
 cannot even see whether the stoppers are out. 
 It is a great waste of water and force. 
 
 The church must imitate the Lord's example 
 or fail. We may hold conventions and talk 
 and theorize about how to reach the masses 
 and save them just as long and learnedly as we 
 please, but until we adopt the simple, sensible,
 
 Morfcinamen anJ> tbe Cburcb 
 
 plan of Him of Galilee it will all end in speech- 
 making and religious smoke. 
 
 There must, of course, be organization. A 
 certain amount of machinery is indispensable. 
 All life, of whatever sort, manifests itself 
 through some kind of organism. Only dead 
 things stand apart without organic structure. 
 But organization, nevertheless, becomes a curse 
 when it is allowed to take the place of personal 
 sympathy and direct contact, as it often does. 
 The temptation here is strong and subtle. 
 
 It is so much easier to manifest a little con- 
 cern through the machine than to go yourself. 
 Hence we touch the masses somewhat gingerly 
 through the machine. We do salvation by com- 
 mittees. There is very little hand-to-hand, 
 face-to-face, personal work. The unit is lost 
 sight of. We think of the city, but not of a 
 single household. We think of the multitude, 
 but not of the individual man. Some blunt- 
 spoken infidel charges us with indifference to 
 souls, and we point him to our fine churches 
 and our splendid organizations and movements. 
 But we need to be careful. There is no better 
 place in all the world to shelve responsibility 
 and hoodwink conscience and freeze up the 
 
 77
 
 TKttorfefnamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 streams of spiritual lift than to bury ourselves 
 in some church society. Interest in an institu- 
 tion, though it were the best the sun ever 
 shone upon, cannot absolve us from the sin 
 of neglecting the individual. There are hun- 
 dreds of thousands of church members who 
 have never made any direct, personal effort to 
 lead a soul to Christ. They have buttonholed 
 men and asked them to vote this or that ticket. 
 They have buttonholed them in the interests 
 of some entertainment or building enterprise, 
 but never with a view of bringing them into the 
 kingdom. When it comes to the supremely im- 
 portant matter of reaching men for God they 
 are willing to work through the contribution 
 box, or through some agent or society, but not 
 to personally take men by the hand and lift 
 them up. What they give or do through the 
 machine is made a substitute for individual 
 service. There runs a story to the effect that 
 Pope Innocent IV was one time counting over 
 a large sum of money which had come to him 
 in coin. While thus ingaged St. Thomas 
 Aquinas was ushered in. "You see," said the 
 Pope, "that the church can no longer say with 
 St. Peter, 'Silver and gold have I none.' " To 
 which the other replied : "Neither can she any 
 
 78
 
 TWlorfeinomen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 longer say with him, 'In the name of Jesus 
 Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.' " It is 
 the personal touch that lays hold of men and 
 lifts them up, and this power the church is los- 
 ing by too much reliance upon organization. 
 
 Hence she needs to imitate the Lord's exam- 
 ple for her own sake. If many of her members 
 are weak, if their faith has no roots, if the 
 Bible is a dull book to them, if they walk so 
 far over on the world's territory that they have 
 become thoroughly acclimated, if they tone 
 down the gospel and take all the meaning out 
 of the precepts of Jesus to suit their own liv- 
 ing, it is just because they are personally in- 
 active in Christian work. All their concern for 
 the progress of Christ's kingdom, if they hap- 
 pen to have any, is manifested vicariously 
 through some hired servant or some society, 
 and so they pine away in spiritual poverty and 
 invalidism. If I am suffering with indigestion 
 and dyspepsia and dropping into a premature 
 grave for lack of physical exercise it will do 
 me no good to hire an athlete to do it for me. 
 He may be very clever, but I must exercise for 
 myself or pay the penalty. It is not otherwise 
 in the Christian church. I cannot live as a 
 Christian without spiritual activity, and no one 
 
 79
 
 TKRorfctttfltnen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 can perform my spiritual activities for me. 
 Hence, I say, the church must take men by the 
 hand, through her membership, and lift them 
 up to save herself. I 
 
 We talk about reaching the people and in- 
 dulge in much speechmaking over the problems 
 involved. But there really is no problem about 
 it. It is the simplest thing in the world. Make 
 our churches warm, make them sunny with 
 brotherliness, and good-will, fill them with the 
 tender and loving compassionate spirit of 
 Jesus of Nazareth from pulpit to vestibule, ban- 
 ish all stiffness and iciness from them, let wel- 
 come to the stranger, to the poor and weary 
 and burdened, be written in every face and 
 shine in every eye, and the masses will come. 
 Men who are shivering in the north wind do 
 not need to be coaxed to a fire, and I hold that 
 a truly warm-hearted, big-souled church will 
 never lack all the people its four walls will ac- 
 commodate. Only let the warmth be genuine, 
 let it be honest, and not put on for the occasion, 
 as we put on our Sunday clothes, and they will 
 come and go away with new hope stirring in 
 their breasts and new music singing in their 
 souls. 
 
 You have read, I suppose, about the man 
 
 80
 
 Worfefnamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 who was robbed one day on the Jericho road 
 and beaten and left to die by the way side, and 
 how he was rescued by a good Samaritan. Let 
 us follow him in imagination up to Jerusalem. 
 Arriving there he tells his family about it. He 
 tells them about the cold and cruel neglect of 
 the priest and Levite who passed by on the 
 other side, and about the big-hearted man who 
 finally came along and picked him up and took 
 him to an inn and paid his bills and did every- 
 thing to help him. The Sabbath comes and they 
 get ready for church. They enter the temple 
 and see a man in splendid robes and jewels 
 who is evidently going to officiate. The man 
 who was robbed says to his family, "That is the 
 priest who saw me bleeding and dying and 
 passed by on the other side. I cannot worship 
 here, let us go." They pass out into the outer 
 court and see another dressed in temple robes. 
 Drawing near the father remarks, "That is the 
 Levite who saw me suffering on the Jericho 
 road and never raised a hand to help me. We 
 can't stay here." Then his wife and children 
 say, "Come, let us find the Good Samaritan's 
 church. Where does he worship?" And the 
 father answers, "Very likely he worships in 
 some cave, or dark and dismal place where the 
 6 81
 
 Worfcingmen anO tbe Cburcb 
 
 seats are hard and everything unattractive. 
 The Samaritans, you know, are low-down peo- 
 ple. The Jews have no dealings with the Sa- 
 maritans." They reply, "No matter, no mat- 
 ter, that man has a heart. He took you by the 
 hand and lifted you up. Let us find the Good 
 Samaritan's church." 
 
 Fellow-men, that is the church the people 
 will find. That is the church whose courts will 
 be thronged, and that is the church that is go- 
 ing to live and grow and triumph. If our 
 churches are to stand and reach the people and 
 commend themselves to God, their members 
 must be good Samaritans and put forth their 
 hands to rescue men and women and save the 
 lost, not by doing away with committees and so- 
 cieties, but by more personal contact. 
 
 It is the church that goes down among the 
 people that finds Christ. In this connection 
 there come to me the. following lines, which 
 express a thought that will bear pondering : 
 
 " The parish priest of Austerity 
 Climbed up in a high church steeple 
 
 To be nearer God, 
 
 So that he might hand his word down 
 To his people: 
 
 82
 
 Morfeingmen an& tbe Clnircb 
 
 And in sermon script 
 He daily wrote 
 What he thought was sent from heaven. 
 
 And he dropt this down 
 On his people's heads 
 Two times one day in seven. 
 In his age God said, 
 ' Come down and die.' 
 And he called from out the steeple, 
 
 ' Where art thou, Lord? ' 
 And the Lord replied, 
 ' Down here among my people.' " 
 
 And surely if the church needs to imitate 
 the Lord's example to preserve her own life 
 and power she needs to do it for the world's 
 sake. She can save men in no other way. She 
 must do as Jesus did. It never can be done at 
 arm's length. 
 
 A story is told of a man who went into the 
 mountains to organize a Sunday school. Going 
 through a clearing he met a rough-looking lad, 
 and, asking him to sit with him on a log, gave 
 the boy a picture and said, "We are going to 
 have a nice Sunday school, and we want all the 
 boys to be in it; you'll come and join us to- 
 night, won't you?" 
 
 "No," said the boy. Then the missionary 
 took out a picture paper, and putting his arm 
 
 83
 
 tenderly around the boy and telling him about 
 the picture papers and books which were to s be 
 had at the Sunday school, said confidingly: 
 "You'll come and get some of these papers and 
 books, won't you ?" "No," blurted out the boy. 
 But the missionary could sing sweetly; he 
 would try music. So he sang some verses of a 
 beautiful hymn, and then said: "We are go- 
 ing to have such singing as that in the Sunday 
 school; won't you come and hear it and learn 
 to sing for yourself?" "No, I will not," said 
 the boy. The man thought he was beaten. He 
 arose to go. "Say," called out the boy, "are 
 you going to be there?" "Yes, I'll be there," 
 said the missionary. "Then I'll come," re- 
 sponded the boy. It was not the pictures, it 
 was not the books, it was not the music, it was 
 the man who did it. By taking the boy by the 
 hand and throwing an arm around him he won 
 his heart and started him on a better life. 
 
 And "men are only boys grown tall.'' They 
 cannot be reached by church services and insti- 
 tutionalisms. These are helps, and oftentimes 
 efficient helps, but unless they are followed up 
 by the touch of personal love and brotherliness 
 they will fail. "Pure religion and undefiled^' 
 before God and the Father is something more 
 
 84
 
 'Qdorftingmen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 than going to church and paying pew rents and 
 supporting societies ; it is to visit the fatherless 
 and the widow in their affliction and to keep 
 ourselves unspotted from the world. Go among 
 them. The struggling, suffering sons and 
 daughters of men do not want ours, but us. A 
 broken heart cannot be healed with a check- 
 book. A soup ticket will not take the place of 
 sympathy. Alms are no substitute for a friend. 
 A board of charity or a benevolent association 
 cannot stand in lieu of personal compassion. 
 Those who are down want to see and feel the 
 hand of charity. A little love, a little brother- 
 ly, sisterly interest, a little actual contact, that 
 is what the people want. Nothing else can win 
 them to the church and keep them there. 
 
 There is not very much uplifting power, not 
 very much that will commend religion, in that 
 kind of charity that never comes within touch- 
 ing distance. Men may be fed and their bodies 
 clothed by proxy ; they may be kept from phys- 
 ical destitution by proxy; but proxy cannot 
 sweep the shadows from the soul, or soothe its 
 anguish, or bind up a broken spirit. The poor 
 children of misfortune, the wronged, the op- 
 pressed, multitudes of whom are crowded to the 
 wall by cruel and merciless social conditions, 
 
 85
 
 Worfcfnsmen a^ tbe Cburcb 
 
 want the magic of a living presence ; they want 
 to hear a pitying word, they want to see the 
 tear of companionship on the cheek, they want 
 someone to take them by the hand. This is the 
 way to be Christs to the people. So our Sav- 
 iour did. "Jesus took him by the hand and 
 lifted him up, and he arose." The tides of in- 
 finite love poured through our Lord's hand into 
 the poor man's breast and thrilled him with the 
 rapture of a liberated life, "and he arose." 
 
 All around the masses are saying : "Give us 
 your hand. Let us feel the pulse and throb of 
 Christian love." And if we did but do it how 
 many would be saved. Many a young man 
 comes into the city and is ruined because there 
 is no one to take him by the hand. Many a 
 workingman drifts away on the current of sin, 
 many a perplexed soul plunges into the gulf 
 of despair and is lost, because there is no one 
 to take him by. the hand. May God make us 
 all more tender, more helpful and sympathetic. 
 Far away yonder by the Nile, when the trav- 
 eler wants to climb the pyramids, there are 
 Arabs to help him up step by step till he reaches 
 the top and breathes the pure air and has the 
 grand outlook. He never could get up himself. 
 His strength would fail before he got half way 
 
 86
 
 TOlorftfn0men a^ tbe Cburcb 
 
 to the top, and he would be in danger of falling 
 back to destruction. But the Arabs take him 
 by the hand and lift him up, and soon he stands 
 in triumph on the summit. So on every side 
 there are those who are struggling up. They 
 need help, or they will never make it. There 
 they are, poor afflicted ones, not able to get up 
 another step, discouraged, despondent, almost 
 despairing. As we have opportunity let us 
 give them a hand. 
 
 I am very far from being in the dark in 
 talking on these subjects. If to toil as a car- 
 penter, to hammer at the anvil, to follow the 
 plow, to delve in the mine, to chop wood by the 
 cord, to drive team, to work in the lumber 
 woods, to do all sorts of manual labor if to 
 toil for years along these lines can teach a man 
 anything, then I know what it is to be a work- 
 ingman, for I have done all these things. I 
 know the workingman's hardships and strug- 
 gles and privations. I know that he often has 
 to revolve in a very small world and carry 
 burdens that are crushing. I have come along 
 that road, and know how rough and steep it is 
 sometimes. And when I was in it nothing 
 ever helped me so much as a little sympathy, 
 a little brotherly love. From my own expe- 
 87
 
 Worfctnamen an& tbe Cburcb 
 
 rience I know that this is what we all want, 
 and especially those of you who are working- 
 men. Some of you are out of employment and 
 cannot get it. Some of you are fighting hard 
 to keep the wolf from the door. Some of you 
 are perplexed and worn-out. Some of you see 
 no hope in the future, no prospect of bettering 
 your condition, and are discouraged. Some of 
 you are in sorrow over a dear one that has 
 fallen. Some of you are reaping the bitter 
 fruit of your own misdoing. 
 
 But whatever may be your trouble, you want 
 sympathy. You thirst for it as the heart pant- 
 eth after the water-brooks. Even human sym- 
 pathy is good. It has helped us up many a 
 steep hill, and we thank God for every remem- 
 brance of it. But it is not enough. It cannot 
 reach the root of our complaint. What we 
 want what we must have is a perfect sym- 
 pathy, a sympathy that will encompass our 
 whole nature, a sympathy that will pour its 
 balm into every wound of our souls, a sympa- 
 thy that will go right down into the solitudes 
 of our being, where no footfall of man can ever 
 be heard, and breathe life and hope and sweet- 
 ness there. We want to be loved by some heart 
 great enough to forgive our sins, touched by 
 8S
 
 Worfcinamen anfc tbe (Tburcb 
 
 some hand strong enough to lift us up, and en- 
 circled by some arm that is tender and mighty. 
 We want some one who will not chide us when 
 we fall, some one who knows the road we have 
 to travel, because he has gone over it himself, 
 some one who has been wounded and has felt 
 the sting of pain and drained the bitter cup. 
 Let us bless God that we have such a one, bone 
 of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, our friend, 
 our brother, our Saviour. To this Jesus I in- 
 vite you everyone. Think of the hands that 
 were blistered, think of the back that ached, 
 think of the side that was opened, think of the 
 brow that wore the thorns think of the Work- 
 ingman of Galilee, of his identity with all who 
 toil and suffer, of his sympathy, which can be 
 measured only by the Cross, of his forgiving 
 love, and resolve here and now to let him take 
 you by the hand and lift you up.

 
 
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