THE CHURCH AS A FIELD.
Though in large cities the shelter admitted to be the most accessible
to the poor, who wish to discuss methods for improving their condition,
is the corner saloon, yet in country districts it will be found that
the churches still cling to many of their ancient virtues and will be
found open and hospitable to every traveler who has a suggestion to
make for the good of the community.
Whatever a speaker's prejudices may be against any church or against
all churches, when he consecrates his life to the cause of humanity
through the Democratic party, he must suppress such prejudices and
regard all buildings as existing for use. And a true Volunteer is
always certain that the highest use that can be made of any building in
the world is to have taught in it the truths of human brotherhood and
progress as embodied in the New Democracy.
In securing a church building for purposes of instruction, it is best
not to mention the name of our movement. The name that we have adopted
being an old name and used by various people for various purposes has
been used upon numerous occasions by bad people for bad purposes. Even
the word politics, which, in reality, means the science and art of
government, has come to mean, in the minds of many, a mere personal
contest for gain and position. The sacred banner of Democracy has
often been dragged into these degrading brawls and the principles
designated by the banner and name lost sight of. For these reasons and
on account of the limitations of the average human judgment, it is well
in dealing with church committees to discard all political names and
to ask only for permission to speak in behalf of human brotherhood,
social improvement or methods of helping the poor. The fact that human
brotherhood can only be realized by men through the establishment of
Democratic principles need not be told the committee, but had better
be reserved for the audience. The fact that justice is a mere dream,
intangible and unreal, unless, by political action on the part of the
many, the few who profit by injustice are deprived of their privileges
(or, in other words, until the Democratic program is carried out),
makes it eminently proper that church buildings be opened to our
speakers as often as possible. Of course, when the churches of a town
are controlled by scribes and Pharisees, as they were when Paul was
a volunteer speaker some centuries ago, unless some other building
can be had, we must follow Paul's example and make our rostrum in the
open street or field; but where the church buildings are controlled
by Christians instead of gold worshippers, by sincere men who desire
justice and brotherhood and to help the poor, then, however different
our prejudices, our personal likings or our superstitions may be, we
should grasp our newly acquainted brothers by the hand and arrange with
them for meetings in the church for the examination of methods whereby
religion can be made practicable and applied to human affairs.
To the charitable who are really to be found here and there in the
village and agricultural churches, we must make plain that no amount
of teaching or preaching, applied internally or externally, can ever
benefit the poor, until organized society recognizes men's rights,
women's rights and children's rights as equal to money rights.
Buildings owned by Catholics, the different Protestant denominations,
by Jews, both reform and orthodox, and by free-thinking societies,
can all be secured for the promulgation of these moral truths, if our
workers will divest themselves of prejudices and don a tactful address.
The success of this plan lies altogether in the judgment, personality
and breadth of mind of the Volunteer who attempts the task.
When you approach the trustee of a Methodist, Episcopalian, Catholic
or a Jewish church, remember that the building, the use of which you
ask, has been paid for by contributions given at a sacrifice by earnest
men and women, with minds turned towards the solemn and higher things
of life. However mixed with ignorance, superstitious fear or motives
of vanity, these buildings, in the smaller towns and agricultural
communities, are associated with thoughts above and separated from
personal controversies and material things and, if you can convince
those in control that you wish to present facts, views and ideas of a
helpful nature to the community, not incongruous with the teaching of
their faith, you will generally receive an affirmative answer.
LAY PREACHING.
It is common in country districts for laymen, persons neither ordained
nor licensed as ministers, to speak from Christian pulpits at regular
church services. This custom should be utilized. A lecture in a church
building on a week night may attract the more studious or the more
curious of the community and supply them with rich materials for right
thinking; but a lay sermon to a regular congregation, backed by the
regular services and the presence of the minister, carries with it a
force and authority possible on no other occasion. A Volunteer, by
reciting, under such auspices, a simple story of the crimes against God
and humanity perpetrated by the money power, and describing feelingly
the effect of unnecessary poverty on the souls and characters of men,
will not only stir the congregation to a new sense of patriotic duty,
but will furnish material to the country minister enabling him to add
a new flavor to the food of his flock for months to come. In those
outlying districts where God has not been entirely superseded by gold
in the church, a large part of the educational work of our movement can
be accomplished in this way.
The farmers compose a large part of our country's population and vote.
They still believe in healthful religion and its power to affect human
life. They can best be reached on Sunday and very often better through
the church than in any other way. The reason that the great cities have
not responded so quickly and so enthusiastically to our movement as the
country districts is that vice, crime and disease in the great cities
have, to a large extent, eaten away the capacity for appreciating
justice and brotherhood, and destroyed in a large class the fundamental
virtues of courage, manliness, patriotism and belief in the supremacy
of good. It is to the country, where these virtues are still fresh and
normal, that our movement must appeal principally. In the city there
are a thousand places of amusement and dissipation for every idle hour.
The boy coming from school or work, the mechanic after his day's labor
pass the open saloon, filled with music and merry-making, the theatre,
with its novelties, laughter and appeals to all the emotions, the
gambler's den, the game tables, the dives and a hundred other places,
always open, some positively and immediately hurtful to both health and
morals, others absorbing time, attention and vitality.
In the country, however, work or study done, a man or boy has not so
many places of amusement. There is much more inducement than in the
city to attend some church entertainment, some healthful neighborhood
ball, and much more time and energy left for meetings at the school or
church for the discussion of social problems and questions of national
or class well-being.
Thus the Volunteer who would teach farmers and villagers must accept
the church as one very promising field of work.
SUNDAY WORK.
No day is more appropriate for effective work in behalf of human
brotherhood than Sunday. By common consent it has been set aside by
the majority of civilized races for serious thought, meditation and
worship, and what is more befitting this day than to think out, study
out and talk out the solution to the great problem of human justice and
brotherhood. To speak for the New Democracy on Sunday is no more than
to gather in the fruit of all the great religions that have come down
to us. The New Democracy is not religion and those who proclaim its
truths are neither preachers nor priests, but it is religion's highest
product. The great religions of the world, nurtured by God's hand and
growing out of the fertile and sympathetic souls of the men and women
of all climes and all centuries, have at last produced a practical
ideal capable of being realized in actual life. This product is the New
Democracy. It is the answer to the prayers of the ages. It is God's
gift granted in answer to the cries of suffering of injustice and
poverty throughout the world. It is God's method of redeeming society,
of saving our nation, now well-nigh unto death, from greed and sin. Let
each retain his attachment to his own sect and religion, but instead of
quarreling about sectarian differences, let us unite in realizing our
common dreams of brotherhood. Instead of building new walls to separate
us, let us make one platform so large that on it all earnest sons of
God can stand erect, confident of His presence.
Centuries before Jesus Christ traversed the plains of Galilee and
bathed in the troubled waters of the Jordan, there was one Buddha who,
despising the superstitions of his time, gathered about him others
who, like him, believed that the larger part of human suffering was
unnecessary and could be extinguished by human agency. This band
traveled throughout the most populous districts of Western Asia
teaching the great truth that the object of life's endeavor should
be to lessen pain and to increase joy. Their one command was "cease
causing pain; do not kill or cause to suffer any man or animal."
And within two hundred years, from this little band and from this
one whole-hearted man, an enthusiasm for mercy and love and justice
overspread a third of the human race. Buddha's teachings were free from
the multitude of miserable superstitions that haunt the people who bear
his name to-day. His teachings, with those of Zoroaster, Confucius,
Mencius, Moses and Christ, in their purity, attempted primarily to
induce men to live as brothers, to teach men that individual good is
social good and that both duty and true happiness consist in devotion
to others--to the commonwealth.
Some preachers, however, get so in the habit of prophesying that, when
their prophecies are fulfilled, they think it wicked and heretical to
believe it. They refuse to believe their own eyes when they see the
answer to their prayers. So deep-rooted has grown their habit of prayer
that the means has become an end. They ask no longer to get what they
ask for but for the exercise of asking, which they call pious. Their
prayers answered, they are astounded. Now that their prophecies are
fulfilled, they open their unbelieving eyes in wonderment and condemn
those who stop asking for what is already given.
DON'T ASK FOR WHAT YOU HAVE.
Christ many times used the relation of a child to its father to
represent the relation of man to God. When a boy begs his father
for a sleigh and pony, and, after much pleading, the father grants
his request, the boy stops asking, accepts the gift with thanks and
proceeds to take a ride. If he were to continue on his knees pleading
for them after being told they were in the back yard subject to his
orders, we should call him a simpleton. What is the use of his saying,
"Oh, papa, please, dear papa, give me a pony and sleigh," when papa has
already given it and is anxious to see it driven past the house. If the
boy has any sense at all, upon first seeing his father drive his new
pony toward home, he will stop praying, take off his hat, throw it up
in the air, and hallo a "Hurrah for pop." He will jump into the sleigh,
go for his best girl, and not show up again till two o'clock in the
morning.
For centuries the human race has longed and prayed and hoped for a time
when justice would be possible on earth, when the reign of brutality
would be superceded by the triumph of justice and brotherly love.
This desire, this deep yearning, has taken definite expression in the
ceremonials and prayers of all religions, and in the grand prayer given
us by Jesus Christ:
"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."
The soul of the universe has found expression in the Divine Hand that
guides the course of nations, and has answered the prayers of the
churches and the heroes and the saints. And that justice, which for
centuries has been an object of prayer, has become, for the first time
in history, a tangible, definite thing, capable of realization. What
we have asked for, God has made possible. Why now crawl longer in the
dust like worms beneath the feet of tyrants, when God bids us rise and
stand erect? Why continue to pray and plead for what God has already
placed within our reach? Tell the preachers to stop praying for this
gift, already ours, and accept it as God gave it. THIS SIMPLE ACT OF
ACCEPTING GOD'S ANSWER TO THE PRAYERS OF THE GOOD AND THE TRUE OF ALL
PAST CENTURIES, IS THE PROGRAM OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY.
I ask father for a horse and sleigh. Now that he brings it to me, I
stop asking for it, and take a ride. We have prayed during centuries
for an era of justice. The New Democracy is the fulfillment of God's
prophecy. It is the greatest moral tidal wave that ever thrilled with
new life this old world of ours. It embodies the practical program by
means of which the Infinite Intelligence is leading humanity to its
inheritance.
HUMANITY'S SCOUTS HAVE FOUND THE WAY.
A body of pioneers lose their way in the wilderness. After days of
weary trudging and hunger, they kneel and pray to God for guidance to
food and shelter. In the midst of their devotions, a scout returns and
rudely interrupts them, crying, "Get up, boys, stop your prayers; I
have found the main road, and we are only ten miles from town." What
should our pious travelers do? If they have an ounce of common sense,
they will jump to their feet, brush the dust from their trousers, and
follow their deliverer. Should we not call them insane, on the other
hand, if, accustomed to hunger and thirst, they had come to believe
prayer and privation the ends of life, and, if instead of rising up
and accepting God's answer to their prayers, they should continue to
grovel and pray on?
After eighteen centuries of prayer and privation, of hunger and thirst,
the couriers and scouts of the human race have returned, and to their
kneeling, miserable brothers they cry aloud, "Arise, cease your prayers
for already they have been answered. We have found the road and the
promised land is near. Hunger and thirst are no longer necessary. Let
thanksgiving and praise to God now take the place of begging petitions
for that which He hath already granted us."
As true religionists, is it our duty to say to these scouts, "Stop, you
infidels, you interfere with our devotion?" Such a policy is insanity.
These teachers are not infidels. They are not enemies of religion.
Otherwise God would not have revealed to them His plan for answering
the prayers of the millions and fulfilling the prophecies of past ages.
We have been praying: "Lead us aright. Show us the way to realize
Heaven in this world." Humanity will now stop asking and accept, as
a child from its father, God's last and greatest gift. The weary
travelers of earth will see that the privations of centuries are no
longer necessary. They will stop pleading with Heaven for the manna to
be had by simply putting forth their palms.
PRISONERS OF THE BASTILE.
For an explanation of the action of those poor, irrational creatures
who are so accustomed to privation and prayer that when relief comes
they only continue to pray, failing to recognize that their prayers
are answered, we can only point to the last poor inmates of the French
bastile. The most prominent and intellectual citizens of France, they
had been torn from their homes without a trial, thrown into dungeons
containing not a single ray of light, fed there on bread and water from
year to year until lonely and in torture their hair turned prematurely
white and their bodies withered. When, at the first stroke of that
most glorious of revolutions, the bastile doors were opened, and the
soldiers of the people broke down the huge iron gates and doors, crying
aloud in the name of liberty, "You are free, you are free, come out
long imprisoned brothers," the populace were astounded to find that
many of the poor, white-haired, white-bearded, pale-faced prisoners,
instead of walking out into the long-wished for sunlight, clutched the
walls of their cells, clung to their prison floors and cried in fear.
They had to be torn from their gloomy haunts by main force by their
rescuers. Their years of trouble, of darkness and gloom had destroyed
their power to enjoy the light of freedom. Many of the brightest
intellects of France had thus been dimmed. Their souls, once afire for
freedom, had burned out in despair. They had become maniacs.
So now there are devotees of religion, so inured to the gloomy slavery
of poverty and injustice, so in the habit of praying for relief, that
when the bold servants of God strike down with their ready hammers
the prison walls, and freedom's air and sunlight stream in, these
poor souls are horrified, paralyzed by the very light and atmosphere
for which they have been praying. "Go away," they say, and, crying,
they clutch their cell walls refusing to be free. They, too, have
become maniacs. But the majority of the human race will not refuse
freedom's balmy breeze or the sunshine of liberty. At the call of the
New Democracy they will throw down their broken chains of poverty, leap
through their open prison doors, and cheer with might and main as the
majority of the prisoners of the bastile cheered a century ago when
they were given freedom's light.
THE COMMANDMENTS GROWN WITH THE WORLD.
If men claim that we are to be forever satisfied with the commands,
"Thou shalt not steal," and "Thou shalt not kill," we will answer
that these commands have grown, and that under the banner of the New
Democracy we shall declare in thunder tones to all the world, "thou
shalt not be killed," "thou shalt not be robbed," and not only this
but also, "thou shalt not allow thy brethren to be killed," and,
"thou shalt not allow thy brethren to be robbed." These commands have
developed still further, so that the cry shall go up from sea to sea
that our present and past systems of thievery, robbery and murder shall
be swept away, that the teaching of the churches against thievery,
robbery and murder, through all the centuries, has borne fruit, and
that now, not only shall the poor, dependent teachers of abstract truth
proclaim between hymns and prayers, "thou shalt not steal," and "thou
shalt not kill," but that the whole people shall Join in one mighty
chorus, and declare that public thievery, robbery and murder must cease
from off the earth and that our social and political systems shall be
made to conform to the teachings of our religion.
To those who oppose us in the name of religion, let our answer be,
"We do not fight the church; without the church and its teachings for
nineteen centuries, the New Democracy would have been impossible." The
New Democracy is an outgrowth of all religions. Religion has protected
and kept alive, through the barbarous past, the great moral truths that
we are now applying to actual life. Even if the church or any part of
the church or priesthood or ministry attempts to oppose us, we will
simply laugh with God at every futile effort to stem the flood, the
source of which is their own teaching through nineteen centuries. For
the church, or any part of it, to oppose or belittle or criticise the
New Democracy, is for the tree to disclaim its own fruit, for the
rivers to disown the sea, for the fountain to dry up its stream, for
the mother to cast aside her child.
The founders and prophets of all the great religions taught the
principles of justice and brotherly love. The New Democracy makes
possible their realization.
What nobler work can any man engage in on Sunday than the proclaiming
in open air or behind closed doors these eternal truths, or tell of the
new impulse that is fast taking hold of men to weave these truths into
the texture of our social institutions.