CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIALISM.
• I To THE EDITOII OW TUE "SPECTATOR...1
SIR, In the modern Socialist propaganda Christianity and Socialism are so frequently associated as correlative terms that I think it should be more definitely stated that the two words really represent• two directly opposite principles of action. The active principle of Christianity is "give"; whereas the active principle of Socialism is " take." Christianity says : " Thou shalt lore thy neighbour as thyself,"—ergo = " Thou shalt share with him that which thine industry and intelligence have won." Socialism says : " Thou shalt force thy neighbour to share with thee his earnings." Christianity makes for peace ; Socialism inevitably leads to war and ends in military despotism, because the armed man can always be bought, at a price, to protect those that have against those that have not. This has been the story of mankind from before the dawn of history to the present moment; we find it in the histories of Persia, Greece, Rome, and mediaeval and modern Europe, repeated over and over again in almost the same terms. The earliest tribal demand was almost identical with the latest .modern Socialism,—viz., community of goods and of women. The strong man armed interposed to preserve personal property and the integrity of the family ; hence the armed chief, the King, and the Emperor, ending in corruption, ruin, and savage reconstruction. All this might have gone on for ever but for the advent of Christianity, the great antidote for both Socialism and tyranny, which, though slow in progress, has given us all that is best in modern life.—I am, Sir, &c.,
CLARENCE M. DOBELL.
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