THE AWAKENING
If you'd live a religion that's noble,
That's God-like and true,
A religion the grandest that men
Or that angels can,
Then live, live the truth
Of the brother who taught you,
It's love to God, service and love
To the fellow-man.
Social problems are to be among the greatest problems of the generation
just moving on to the stage of action. They, above all others, will
claim the attention of mankind, as they are already claiming it across
the waters even as at home. The attitude of the two classes toward each
other, or the separation of the classes, will be by far the chief
problem of them all. Already it is imperatively demanding a solution.
Gradually, as the years have passed, this separation has been going on,
but never so rapidly as of late. Each has come to regard the other as an
enemy, with no interests in common, but rather that what is for the
interests of the one must necessarily be to the detriment of the other.
The great masses of the people, the working classes, those who as much,
if not more than many others ought to be there, are not in our churches
to-day. They already feel that they are not wanted there, and that the
Church even is getting to be their enemy. There must be a reason for
this, for it is impossible to have an effect without its preceding
cause. It is indeed time to waken up to these facts and conditions; for
they must be _squarely_ met. A solution is imperatively demanded, and
the sooner it comes, the better; for, if allowed to continue thus, all
will come back to be paid for, intensified a thousand-fold,--ay, to be
paid for even by many innocent ones.
Let this great principle of service, helpfulness, love, and
self-devotion to the interests of one's fellow-men be made the
fundamental principle of all lives, and see how simplified these great
and all-important questions will become. Indeed, they will almost solve
themselves. It is the man all for self, so small and so short sighted
that he can't get beyond his own selfish interests, that has done more
to bring about this state of affairs than all other causes combined. Let
the cause be removed, and then note the results.
For many years it has been a teaching even of political economy that an
employer buys his help just as he buys his raw material or any other
commodity; and this done, he is in no way responsible for the welfare of
those he employs. In fact, the time isn't so far distant when the
employed were herded together as animals, and were treated very much as
such. But, thanks be to God, a better and a brighter day is dawning.
Even the employer is beginning to see that practical ethics, or true
Christianity, and business cannot and must not be divorced; that the man
he employs, instead of being a mere animal whose services he buys, is,
after all his fellow-man and his brother, and demands a treatment as
such, and that when he fails to recognize this truth, a righteous God
steps in, demanding a penalty for its violation.
He is recognizing the fact that whatsoever is for the well-being of the
one he employs, that whatever privileges he is enabled to enjoy that
will tend to grow and develop his physical, his mental, and his moral
life, that will give him an agreeable home and pleasant family
relations, that whatever influences tend to elevate him and to make his
life more happy, are a direct gain, even from a financial standpoint for
himself, by its increasing for him the efficiency of the man's labor.
It is already recognized as a fact that the employer who interests
himself in these things, other things being equal, is the most
successful. Thus the old and the false are breaking away before the
right and the true, as all inevitably must sooner or later; and the
divinity and the power of the workingman is being ever more fully
recognized.
In the very remote history of the race there was one who, violating a
great law, having wronged a brother, asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
Knowing that he was, he nevertheless deceitfully put the question in
this way in his desire, if possible, to avoid the responsibility. Many
employers in their selfishness and greed for gain have asked this same
question in this same way. They have thought they could thus defeat the
sure and eternal laws of a Just Ruler, but have thereby deceived
themselves the more. These more than any others have to a great degree
brought about the present state of affairs in the industrial and social
world.
Just as soon as the employer recognizes the falsity of these old
teachings and practices, and the fact that he cannot buy his employee's
services the same as he buys his raw material, with no further
responsibility, but that the two are on vastly different planes, that
his employee is his fellow-man and his brother, and that he is his
brother's keeper, and will be held responsible as such, that it is to
his own highest interests, as well as to the highest interests of those
he employs and to society in general, to recognize this; and just as
soon as he who is employed fully appreciates his opportunities and makes
the highest use of all, and in turn takes an active, personal interest
in all that pertains to his employer's welfare,--just that soon will a
solution of this great question come forth, and no sooner.
It is not so much a question of legislation as of education and right
doing, thus a dealing with the _individual_, and so a prevention and a
cure, not merely a suppression and a regulation, which is always sure to
fail; for, in a case of right or wrong no question is ever settled
finally until it is settled rightly.
The individual, dealing with the individual is necessarily at the bottom
of all true social progress. There can't be anything worthy the name
without it. The truth will at once be recognized by all _that the good
of the whole defends upon the good of each, and the good of each makes
the good of the whole_. Attend, then, to the individual, and the whole
will take care of itself. Let each individual work in harmony with every
other, and harmony will pervade the whole. The old theory of
competition--that in order to have great advancement, great progress, we
must have great competition to induce it--is as false as it is savage
and detrimental in its nature. We are just reaching that point where the
larger men and women are beginning to see its falsity. They are
recognizing the fact that, _not competition, but co-operation,
reciprocity, is the great, the true power_,--to climb, not by attempting
to drag, to keep down one's fellows, but by aiding them, and being in
turn aided by them, thus combining, and so multiplying the power of all
instead of wasting a large part one against the other.
And grant that a portion do succeed in rising, while the other portion
remain in the lower condition, it is of but little value so far as their
own peace and welfare are concerned; for they can never be what they
would be, were all up together. Each is but a part, a member, of the
great civil body; and no member, let alone the entire body, can be
perfectly well, perfectly at ease, when any other part is in dis-ease.
No one part of the community, no one part of the nation, can stand
alone: all are dependent, interdependent. This is the uniform teaching
of history from the remotest times in the past right through to the
present. A most admirable illustration of this fact--if indeed the word
"admirable" can be used in connection with a matter so deplorable--was
the unparalleled labor trouble we had in our great Western city but a
few summers ago. The wise man is he who learns from experiences of this
terrific nature.
No, not until this all-powerful principle is fully recognized, and is
built upon so thoroughly that the brotherhood principle, the principle
of oneness can enter in, and each one recognizes the fact that his own
interests and welfare depend upon the interests, the welfare of each,
and therefore of all, that each is but a part of the one great whole,
and each one stands shoulder to shoulder in the advance forward, can we
hope for any true solution of the great social problems before us, for
any permanent elevation of the standard in our national social life and
welfare.
This same principle is the solution, and the only true solution, of the
charities question, as indeed the whole world during the last few years
or so, and during this time only, is beginning to realize. And the
splendid and efficient work of the organized charities in all our large
cities, as of the Elberfeld system in Germany, is attesting the truth of
this. Almost numberless methods have been tried during the past, but all
have most successfully failed; and many have greatly increased the
wretched condition of matters, and of those it was designed to help.
During this length of time only have these all-important questions been
dealt with in a true, scientific, Christ-like, common-sense way. It has
been found even here that nothing can take the place of the personal and
friendly influences of a life built upon this principle of service.
The question of aiding the poor and needy has passed through three
distinct phases of development in the world's history. In early times it
was, "Each one for himself, and the devil take the hindmost." From the
time of the Christ, and up to the last few years it has been, "Help
others." Now it is, "_Help others to help themselves_." The wealthy
society lady going down Fifth Avenue in New York, or Michigan Avenue in
Chicago, or Charles Street in Baltimore, or Commonwealth Avenue in
Boston, who flings a coin to one asking alms, is _not_ the one who is
doing a true act of charity; but, on the other hand, she may be doing
the one she thus gives to and to society in general much more harm than
good, as is many times the case. It is but a cheap, a very cheap way of
buying ease for her sympathetic nature or her sense of duty. Never let
the word "charity," which always includes the elements of interested
service, true helpfulness, kindliness, and love, be debased by making it
a synonym of mere giving, which may mean the flinging of a quarter in
scorn or for show.
Recognizing the great truth that the best and only way to help another
is to help him to help himself, and that the neglected classes need not
so much alms as friends, the Organized Charities with their several
branches in different parts of the city have their staffs of "friendly
visitors," almost all voluntary, and from some of the best homes in the
land. Then when a case of need comes to the notice of the society, one
of these goes to the person or family as a _friend_ to investigate, to
find what circumstances have brought about these conditions, and, if
found worthy of aid, present needs are supplied, an effort is made to
secure work, and every effort is made to put them on their feet again,
that self-respect may be regained, that hope may enter in; for there is
scarcely anything that tends to make one lose his self-respect so
quickly and so completely as to be compelled, or of his own accord, to
ask for alms.
It is thus many times that a new life is entered upon, brightness and
hope taking the place of darkness and despair. This is not the only call
the friendly visitor makes; but he or she becomes a _true friend_, and
makes regular visits as such. If by this method the one seeking charity
is found to be an impostor, as is frequently the case, proper means of
exposure are resorted to, that his or her progress in this course may be
stopped. The organizations are thus doing a most valuable work, and one
that will become more and more valuable as they are enabled to become
better organized, the greatest need to-day being more with the true
spirit to act as visiting friends.
It is this same great principle that has given birth to our college and
university settlements and our neighborhood guilds which are so rapidly
increasing, and which are destined to do a great and efficient work.
Here a small colony of young women, many from our best homes, and the
ablest graduates of our best colleges, and young men, many of them the
ablest graduates of our best universities, take up their abode in the
poorest parts of our large cities, to try by their personal influence
and personal contact to raise the surrounding life to a higher plane. It
is in these ways that the poor and the unfortunate are dealt with
directly. Thus the classes mingle. Thus that sentimentalism which may do
and which has done harm to these great problems, and by which the people
it is designed to help may be hindered rather than helped, is done away
with. Thus true aid and service are rendered, and the needy are really
helped.
The one whose life is built upon this principle will not take up work of
this kind as a "fad," or because it is "fashionable," but because it is
right, true, Christ-like. The truly great and noble never fear thus to
mingle with those poorer and less fortunate. It is only those who would
like to be counted as great, but who are too small to be so recognized,
and who, therefore, always thinking of self, put forth every effort to
appear so. There is no surer test than this.
Very truly has it been said that "the greatest thing a man can do for
God is to be kind to some of His other children." All children of the
same Father, therefore all brothers, sisters. Man is next to God. Man is
God incarnate. Humanity, therefore, cannot be very far from being next
to godliness. Many people there are who are greatly concerned about
serving God, as they term it. Their idea is to build great edifices with
costly ornaments to Him. A great deal of their time is spent in singing
songs and hallelujahs to Him, just as if _He_ needed or wanted these for
Himself, forgetting that He is far above being benefited by anything
that we can say or do, forgetting that He doesn't want these, when for
lack of them some of His children are starving for bread to eat or are
dying for the bread of life.
Can you conceive of a God who is worthy of love and service,--and I
speak most reverently,--who under such conditions would take a
satisfaction in these things? I confess I am not able to. I can conceive
of no way in which I can serve God only as I serve Him through my own
life and through the lives of my fellow-men. This, certainly, is the
only kind of service He needs or wants, or that is acceptable to Him.
At one place we read, "He that says he loves God and loves not his
fellow-men, is a liar; and the truth is not in him."
Even in religion I think we shall find that there is nothing greater or
more important than this great principle of service, helpfulness,
kindliness, and love. Is not Christianity, you ask, greater or more
important? Why, bless you, is this any other than Christianity, is
Christianity any other than this,--at least, if we take what the Master
Teacher himself has said? For what, let us ask, is a Christian,--the
real, not merely in name? A follower of Christ, one who does as he did,
one who lives as he lived. And, again, who was Christ? He that healed
the sick, clothed the naked, bound up the broken-hearted, sustained and
encouraged the weak, the faltering, befriended and aided the poor, the
needy, condemned the proud and the selfish, taught the people to live
nobly, truly, grandly, to live in their higher, diviner selves, that the
greatest among them should be their servant, and that his followers were
those who lived as he lived. He spent all his time in the service of
humanity. He gave his whole life in this way. He it was who went about
doing good.
Is it your desire then, to be numbered among his followers, to bear
that blessed name, the name "Christian"? Then sit at his feet, and learn
of him, love him, do as he did, as he taught you to do, live as he
lived, as he taught you to live, and you are a Christian, and not unless
you do. True Christianity can be found in no other way.
Naught is the difference what one may call himself; for many call
themselves by this name to whom Christ says it will one day be said, "I
never knew you: depart from me, ye cursed." Naught is the difference
what creeds one may subscribe to, what rites and ceremonies he may
observe, how loud and how numerous his professions may be. All of these
are but as a vain mockery, unless he _is_ a Christian; and to be a
Christian is, as we have found, to be a follower of Christ, to do as he
did, to live as he lived. Then live the Christ life. Live so as to
become at one with God, and dwell continually in this blessed
at-one-ment. The trouble all along has been that so many have mistaken
the mere person of the Christ, the mere physical Jesus, for his life,
his spirit, his teachings, and have succeeded in getting no farther than
this as yet, except in cases here and there.
Now and then a rare soul rises up, one with great power, great
inspiration, and we wonder at his great power, his great inspiration,
why it is. When we look deeply enough, however, we will find that one
great fact will answer the question every time. It is living the life
that brings the power. He is living the Christ life, not merely standing
afar off and looking at it, admiring it, and saying, Yes, I believe, I
believe, and ending it there. In other words, he has found the kingdom
of heaven. He has found that it is not a place, but a condition; and the
song continually arising from his heart is, There is joy, only joy.
The Master, you remember, said: "Seek ye not for the kingdom of heaven
in tabernacles or in houses made with hands. Know ye not that the
kingdom of heaven is within you?" He told in plain words where and how
to find it. He then told how to find _all other_ things, when he said,
"Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things shall
be added unto you." Now, do you wonder at his power, his inspiration,
his abundance of all things? The trouble with so many is that they act
as if they do not believe what the Master said. They do not take him at
his word. They say one thing: they do another. Their acts give the lie
to their words. Instead of taking him at his word, and living as if they
had faith in him, they prefer to follow a series of old, outgrown,
man-made theories, traditions, forms, ceremonies, and seem to be
satisfied with the results. No, _to be a Christian is to live the Christ
life_, the life of him who went about doing good, the life of him who
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.
We will find that this mighty principle of love and service is the
greatest to live by in this life, and also one of the gates whereby all
who would must enter the kingdom of heaven.
Again we have the Master's words. In his own and only description of the
last judgment, after speaking of the Son of Man coming in all his glory
and all the holy angels with him, of his sitting on the throne of his
glory with all nations gathered before him, of the separation of this
gathered multitude into two parts, the one on his right, the other on
his left, he says: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand,
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me
meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took
me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in
prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him,
saying, Lord, when saw we _thee_ an hungered, and fed _thee_? or
thirsty, and gave _thee_ drink? When saw we _thee_ a stranger, and took
_thee_ in? or naked, and clothed _thee_? Or when saw we _thee_ sick, or
in prison, and came unto _thee_? And the King shall answer, and say unto
them, Verily I say unto you, _Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me_.
"Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
cursed. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty,
and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; sick,
and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they answer him,
saying, Lord, when saw we _thee_ an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger,
or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then
shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, _Inasmuch as ye did
it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me_."
After spending the greater portion of his life in many distant climes
in a fruitless endeavor to find the Cup of the Holy Grail,[C] thinking
that thereby he was doing the greatest service he could for God, Sir
Launfal at last returns an old man, gray-haired and bent. He finds that
his castle is occupied by others, and that he himself is an outcast. His
cloak is torn; and instead of the charger in gilded trappings he was
mounted upon when as a young man, he started out with great hopes and
ambitions, he is afoot and leaning on a staff. While sitting there and
meditating, he is met by the same poor and needy leper he passed the
morning he started, the one who in his need asked for aid, and to whom
he had flung a coin in scorn, as he hurried on in his eager desire to be
in the Master's service. But matters are changed now, and he is a wiser
man. Again the poor leper says:--
"'For Christ's sweet sake, I beg an alms';--
The happy camels may reach the spring,
But Sir Launfal sees only the grewsome thing,
The leper, lank as the rain-blanched bone,
That cowers beside him, a thing as lone
And white as the ice-isles of Northern seas
In the desolate horror of his disease.
"And Sir Launfal said: 'I behold in thee
An image of Him who died on the tree;
Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns,--
Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns,--
And to thy life were not denied
The wounds in the hands and feet and side:
Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me;
Behold, _through him_, I give to thee!'
"Then the soul of the leper stood up in his eyes
And looked at Sir Launfal, and straightway be
Remembered in what a haughtier guise
He had flung an alms to leprosie,
When he girt his young life up in gilded mail
And set forth in search of the Holy Grail.
The heart within him was ashes and dust;
He parted in twain his single crust,
He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink,
And gave the leper to eat and drink,
'Twas a mouldy crust of coarse brown bread,
'Twas water out of a wooden bowl,--
Yet with fine wheaten bread was the leper fed,
And 'twas red wine he drank with his thirsty soul.
"As Sir Launfal mused with a downcast face,
A light shone round about the place;
The leper no longer crouched at his side,
But stood before him glorified,
Shining and tall and fair and straight
As the pillar that stood by the Beautiful Gate,--
Himself the Gate whereby men can
Enter the temple of God in Man.
"And the voice that was calmer than silence said,
'Lo, it is I, be not afraid!
In many climes, without avail,
Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail;
Behold, it is here,--this cup which thou
Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now;
This crust is my body broken for thee,
This water His blood that died on the tree;
The Holy Supper is kept, indeed,
In whatso we share with another's need;
Not what we give, but what we _share_,--
For the gift without the giver is bare;
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,--
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.'"
The fear is sometimes entertained, and the question is sometimes asked,
May not adherence to this principle of helpfulness and service become
mere sentimentalism? or still more, may it not be the means of lessening
another's sense of self-dependence, and thus may it not at times do more
harm than good? In reply let it be said: If the love which impels it be
a selfish love, or a weak sentimental ism, or an effort at show, or
devoid of good common sense, yes, many times. But if it be a strong,
genuine, unselfish love, then no, never. For, if my love for my
fellow-man be the true love, I can never do anything that will be to his
or any one's else detriment,--nothing that will not redound to his
highest ultimate welfare. Should he, for example come and ask of me a
particular favor, and were it clear to me that granting it would not be
for his highest good ultimately, then love at once resolves itself into
duty, and compels me to forbear. A true, genuine, unselfish love for
one's fellow-man will never prompt, and much less permit, anything that
will not result in his highest ultimate good. Adherence, therefore, to
this great principle in its truest sense, instead of being a weak
sentimentalism, is, we shall find, of all practical things the _most
intensely practical_.
And a word here in regard to the test of true love and service, in
distinction from its semblance for show or for vain glory. The test of
the true is this: that it goes about and does its good work, it never
says anything about it, but lets others do the saying. It not only says
nothing about it, but more, it has no desire to have it known; and, the
truer it is, the greater the desire to have it unknown save to God and
its own true self. In other words, it is not sicklied o'er with a
semi-insane desire for notoriety or vainglory, and hence never weakens
itself nor harasses any one else by lengthy recitals of its good deeds.
It is not the _professional_ good-doing. It is simply living its natural
life, open-minded, open-hearted, doing each day what its hands find to
do, and in this finding its own true life and joy. And in this way it
unintentionally but irresistibly draws to itself a praise the rarest and
divinest I know of,--the praise I heard given but a day or two ago to
one who is living simply his own natural life without any conscious
effort at anything else, the praise contained in the words: And, oh, it
is beautiful, the great amount of good he does and of which the world
never hears.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote C: "According to the mythology of the Romancers, the Sangreal,
or Holy Grail, was the cup out of which Jesus partook of the Last Supper
with his disciples. It was brought into England by Joseph of Arimathea,
and remained there, an object of pilgrimage and adoration, for many
years in the keeping of his lineal descendants. It was incumbent upon
those who had charge of it to be chaste in thought, word, and deed; but,
one of the keepers having broken this condition, the Holy Grail
disappeared. From that time it was a favorite enterprise of the Knights
of Sir Arthur's court to go in search of it."--_James Russell Lowell_.]