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W. CUNNINGHAM, AECHDEACON OP ELY, ON 



Christianity ; whether it was not too often forgotten that the 

 central teaching of Jesus Christ was that "it was more blessed to 

 give than to receive " ; whether in talking of Christianity we were 

 sufficiently mindful of tha.t fundamental principle of self-sacrifice, which 

 its Divine Founder had written in letters of blood across the laws of 

 His Kingdom, when His intense love for His human brethren 

 led Him to pour out His life's blood to redeem men from the 

 tyranny of selfishness, and thus to show them the way. The 

 speaker was inclined to think that there were at the present time 

 hopeful signs of an increasing expansion and growth of that spirit 

 from within the Church ; that, as the meaning of the Church, as a 

 Divine Society, came to be better understood, it recognised wider 

 and deeper responsibilities towards the great human brotherhood. 

 As an example of this he referred to the great organisation known 

 as the Church of England Men's Society, founded by the new 

 Archbishop of York. He trusted that Dr. Gordon Lang would 

 carry that with him as an inspiration to the work of the Church 

 among the hard-headed hardworking people of the north; and 

 that it would do something to break down that class-feeling which 

 " Socialism " bitterly and justly resented. 



Dr. Heywood Smith said it was a great pity that learned 

 societies met to discuss important questions, and afterwards nothing 

 practical came of it. We were getting too much cramped up in 

 our tight little island, and it was because there was no room that so 

 much distress, through w^ant of employment, existed. The cry of 

 the socialists was to cheapen things for the sake of the consumer, but 

 what about the producer 1 There would always be distress through 

 lack of work as long as we al owed the foreigner to dump down his 

 goods here and undersell our own workmen. What we should do 

 was to bring pressure to bear on the Government to carry out a 

 scheme of compulsory emigration. Canada and Australia stood in 

 need of workers, both men and women. Why should we pay rates 

 to maintain a lot of loafers in our workhouses, able-bodied men and 

 women who ought to be made to work and earn their own liveli- 

 hood? He knew of cases where inmates of our workhouses were 

 willing to work if they could get work ; who did work in the work- 

 house without payment, and yet the guardians put hindrances in 

 their way, and would not let them out, unless at rare intervals, to 

 seek the work they might get. 



