THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 57 



THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL PERIL. 



READ BEFORE THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 



BY J, T. BARNARD. 



In this paper I purpose dealing with one cause of uneasiness 

 and apprehension as to our social future. Thoughtful men every- 

 where discern a dark shadow keeping pace with all productive and 

 moral advance ; a shadow that deepens by contrast with the lustre of 

 our industrial development. The Rev. Dr. John Hall recently 

 startled his fashionable Fifth Avenue congregation by saying : " The 

 war cloud hanging over America is discontent and despair among its 

 citizens." 



Three elements or symptoms are discoverable in our social 



disorder : — 



Disappointment. 



Dissatisfaction. 



Distress. 



If Bishop Ridley, lying in the Tower, before his condemnation, 

 had been vouchsafed a vision of nineteenth Jin de siecle advance ; 

 if he had seen clearly, though afar off, the harnessing of steam and 

 electricity; if he had seen man's needs and comforts being produced 

 a hundred-fold faster than in his day ; the spinning jenny, the power 

 loom, the knitter, the sewing machine, the reaper, the thresher, the 

 power planer and all the other myriad appliances for lightening toil 

 and increasing human enjoyment ; if he had seen time out-stripped 

 by the telegraph ; men conversing audibly a thousand miles apart ; 

 the hurricane distanced by the locomotive ; the steamship reducing 

 the time of voyages from weeks to days ; if he had seen the printing 

 press daily turning out miles in length and tons in weight of litera- 

 ture ; if he had seen his beloved Bible published in hundreds of 

 dialects and yearly distributed in millions ; if he had seen the awaken- 

 ing of the Christian heart to the needs of the heathen and mission- 

 aries by the thousand penetrating to every pagan land ; if he had 

 seen over a hundred millions speaking the English tongue ; British 

 navies dotting the oceans everywhere, their ships bearing Christi- 

 anity and civilization to earth's remotest ports ; if he had seen Britain 



