260 MON-KY AND THE KINGDOM. 



ance on the part of Christian men of a thoroughly- 

 righteous plan of co-operation between capital and labor 

 would eventually compel its general acceptance. Let 

 Christian men gain a correct conception of their rela- 

 tions to their possessions, let them accept the duty of 

 Christian stewardship, and it Avould command their 

 getting as well as their spending. There would be no 

 motive to drive a sharp bargain. It would purify 

 trade. It would mediate between capital and labor. It 

 would destroy the foundation on which the rising struc- 

 ture of socialism rests. It would cut one of the principal 

 roots of popular unbelief ; for extended inquiry in Cincin- 

 nati elicited the almost unanimous response that the rea- 

 son workingmen neglect the churches is that there are oh 

 the church rolls the names of employers who wrong 

 their employees. 



The acceptance of the true principle of Christian giv- 

 ing is urged upon us by the fact that money is power, 

 which is needed everywhere for elevating and saving 

 men. It is further urged upon us by the fact that only 

 such a view of possessions will save us from the great 

 and imminent perils of wealth. God might have sent 

 his angels to sing his gospel through the world, or he 

 might have written it on the sky, and made the clouds 

 liis messengers; but we need to bear the responsibility of 

 publishing that gospel. He might make the safe of 

 every benevolent society a gold mine as unfailing as 

 the widow's cruse of oil; but we need to give that gold. 

 The tendency of human nature, intensified by our com- 

 mercial activity, is to make the life a whirlpool— a great 

 maelstrom which draws everything into itself. What is 

 needed to-day is a grand reversal of the movement, a 

 transformation of the life into a fountain. And in an 

 exceptional degree is this the need of Anglo-Saxons. 

 Their strong love of liberty, and their acquisitiveness, 

 afford a powerful temptation to offer some substitute for 

 self-abnegation. We would call no man master; we 

 must take Christ as master. We would possess all 

 things ; we must surrender all things. 



