Page:Can a man be a Christian on a pound a week? - Hardie.djvu/12

 the Church. Needless to add, there are many individual cases of exception to this rule, but that it is true of the Church as a whole will scarcely be denied. Every occupant of a pulpit admits the truth of the accusation brought by Jesus against the clerics of His day, and is wont to hurl fiery denunciations at them for being so blinded by spiritual pride as not to see their own faults. In all charity may I point out that, to many, the modern self-satisfied parson, with his string of platitudinous phrases, the meaning of which he has lost in the mists of theology, is the exact prototype of the ancient Pharisee. Christianity to be effective must be a living vital force; not a dead, soulless creed, or a jungle of mere words. The growing despair of the Church at its inability to reach the masses is of itself sufficient proof of my contention. It is also an admission by the Church itself that it is no longer carrying forward the work of its founder, whose mission was to the poor.

The contention here seems to be that it is materialistic to say that the outcome of Christianity is the abolition of private property. A statement of this kind comes with a very bad grace from men who are defending and upholding a system of money-making frankly based on selfishness and greed, and which leads to the glorification of the strong and the unscrupulous over the pure and meek of heart.