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.
CHAPTER X.
ONLY TWO PARTIES IN THE WORLD.
Another of the few foundation truths upon which the structure of the
world's present progress is being reared, a truth that cannot be too
often told nor too continuously urged, is that THERE ARE ONLY TWO
PARTIES IN THE WORLD.
One party consists of those who, seeing wrong, try to end it;
seeing injustice, strive to abolish it; and, being told of possible
improvements, investigate and EXPERIMENT, hoping to attain them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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