The Common Sense of Socialism: A Series of Letters Addressed to Jonathan Edwards, of PittsburgSpargo, John
General
The Common Sense of Socialism: A Series of Letters Addressed to Jonathan Edwards, of Pittsburg
Spargo, John
Socialism
But first of all I want you to read a passage from the writings of a
very great man, who was not a "wicked Socialist agitator" like your
humble servant. Archdeacon Paley, the great English theologian, was
not like many of our modern clergymen, afraid to tell the truth about
social conditions; he was not forgetful of the social aspects of
Christ's teaching. Among many profoundly wise utterances about social
conditions which that great and good teacher made more than a century
ago was the passage I now want you to read and ponder over. You might
do much worse than to commit the whole passage to memory. It reads:
"If you should see a flock of pigeons in a field of corn, and
if (instead of each picking where and what it liked, taking
just as much as it wanted, and no more) you should see
ninety-nine of them gathering all they got into a heap,
reserving nothing for themselves but the chaff and the refuse,
keeping this heap for one, and that the weakest, perhaps
worst, pigeon of the flock, sitting round and looking on, all
the winter, whilst this one was devouring, throwing about and
wasting it; and if a pigeon, more hardy or hungry than the
rest, touched a grain of the hoard, all the others instantly
flying upon it, and tearing it to pieces; if you should see
this, you would see nothing more than what is every day
practised and established among men.
"Among men you see the ninety-and-nine toiling and scraping
together a heap of superfluities for one (and this one, too,
oftentimes the feeblest and worst of the set, a child, a
woman, a madman or a fool), getting nothing for themselves,
all the while, but a little of the coarsest of the provision
which their own industry produces; looking quietly on, while
they see the fruits of all their labor spent or spoiled; and
if one of their number take or touch a particle of the hoard,
the others joining against him, and hanging him for theft."
If there were many men like Dr. Paley in our American churches to-day,
preaching the truth in that fearless fashion, there would be something
like a revolution, Jonathan. The churches would no longer be empty
almost; preachers would not be wondering why workingmen don't go to
church. There would probably be less show and pride in the churches;
less preachers paid big salaries, less fashionable choirs. But the
churches would be much nearer to the spirit and standard of Jesus than
most of them are to-day. There is nothing in connection with modern
religious life quite so glaring as the infidelity of the Christian
ministry to the teachings of Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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