THE INDUSTRIAL CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The present industrial crisis is causing anxiety, suffering, and alarm throughout the country : one can think of nothing but the strike, as one wonders what will happen next. We are witnessing to-day the terrible results of a bad social order, for which all cliisses must recognize their share of the respon- sibility. No impatience with strikes will end them; we need a new system, which will inculcate the right spirit and the best motives. We have yet to conquer on all sides that sec- tional selfishness which threatens to wreck our commercial position.
It may interest your readers at this time to hear of the Industrial Christian Fellowship, which strives to unite all men and women who are prepared to work for the achievement of a just and stable settlement of industrial and social problems, in accordance with the spirit, mind, and teaching of Christ, and generally for such reconstruction of our country and the world as will advance the Kingdom of God upon earth. We have to go out boldly with an insistence, irrespective of class or creed, that Christ's ethical teaching must be taken seriously.
The Fellowship holds: That every soul is of infinite and equal value, because all are children of One Father. That the life of the community must he drawn from the self-sacrifiCe and the co-operation of all; and that, as Christians are members one of another, therefore they have mutual obliga- tions of service. That co-operation can only be effective where there is spiritual unity, and where there is wrong or friction there cannot be unity. That industry rightly conceived is a social service, not a selfish competitive 'struggle; and that in every political, economic, and social arrangement the public- interest must overrule the private. That only in a community where Christian principles of righteousness and brotherhood are applied to every department of life can men and women hope to live the abundant life which Christ came to give- " the life that is life indeed."
We are now reaching by living agents all classes of artisans in the factories, workshaps, shipyards, collieries, and public works throughout the country; and, in keeping with the spirit of the new age, our directors are taking the same appeal to the employers in the office and board room.
There is no solution save Christianity to the present unrest, and I believe that the fields are whitening unto harvest in the industrial world, and that we are now experiencing the black darkness that immediately precedes the dawn. We need breadth of vision! Before we condemn the workers we have to remember the conditions of mechanical labour in the world of commerce of the past fifty years, which have destroyed the soul and failed to recognize the sanctity of personality. And the workers must be made to understand that there can be no brotherhood of man unless it be based upon the Fatherhood of God, and that class warfare and disputes can have no place in the Kingdom that must be built.
Space is valuable, and I must be brief, but I would gladly forward literature and particulars of membership to any of your readers who care to write to me. There is a unique oppor- tunity now, and it is a challenge that should be taken up by our strongest and best, in order that we may see in our midst the fulfilment of the law of God and the hope of man: " Behold, I make all things new."—I am, Sir, &c.,
Westminster, S.W. 1.
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