84 W. CUNNINGHAM, D.D., ARCHDEACON OF ELY, ON 



heart, and inclined to combine Christian sentiments with socialis- 

 tic methods, may do well to bear in mind the old warning against 

 undue haste. The delays in realising the Christian aims arc 

 partly moral and due to the weakness of human will ; but 

 they have also been intellectual. Some portion of the blame 

 must rest with, those who, in one age after another, by striving, 

 to render Christianity more conformable to current habits of 

 thought, have obscured its spiritual character and lost sight of 

 its spiritual power. We shall do well to be faithful to the trust 

 w^e have received, rather than allow ourselves to attempt the 

 unworthy task of accommodating Christian aims and efforts ta 

 the spirit of the present day. 



Discussion. 



The paper being concluded, the Chairman expressed the thanks 

 of the Members and Associates and all those present to Dr. Cunning- 

 ham for his very able paper on a subject of such pressing and 

 immediate importance. 



The Kev. F. E. Spencer (vicar of Ah Saints, Haggerston) said : — 

 I propose to say a few words on this subject, and with the Chair- 

 man's favour, first, as I have to go immediately. What I have to 

 say is not based specially on books or theories, but upon intimate 

 contact with the people extending over twenty-one years in the 

 East end of London. 



The most grievous phenomenon to my mind in recent years has 

 been the rise and spread in our fatherland of atheistic and inter- 

 national Socialism. And the reason at bottom seems to me still 

 more painful. It is a reason not based in its strongest position 

 upon theories or treatises, but upon the actual condition of the 

 industrial classes in this country. It is alleged with only too much, 

 ground that Christianity has proved itself a failure to adjust and 

 ameliorate their condition, and on this account it is cast overboard 

 by the stalv/arts of a new gospel. Now, I am not a socialist, nor 

 even a Christian socialist. I do not believe in socialist principles. 

 They are largely a gospel of hate; they have no room for 

 patriotism, and they seem to me to be a short cut to tyranny. 



