Page:Can a man be a Christian on a pound a week? - Hardie.djvu/20

 ever did. His heart beat in sympathy with the great human heart of the race. His words are simple and not to be misunderstood when taken to mean what they say. His prayer—Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven—was surely meant to be taken literally. Are our opponents prepared to assert that in Heaven there will be factories working women and children for starvation wages; coal mines, and private property in land, dividing the population of Heaven into two classes, one revelling in riches and luxury, destructive of soul and body, the other grovelling in poverty, also destructive of all that is best in life? If not, how can they consistently support the system which inevitably produces that state of things upon earth?

A favourite text of the opponents of Socialism is, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” But that, strangely enough, is also a favourite text of mine. Will our opponents descend from the clouds of meaningless words with which they becloud the sense of this text and tell us what they mean by the “kingdom of God and His righteousness,” and what those “things” are which are to be added to those who become members thereof? This nation is being done to death by war-mongers and money-grabbers. A lying spirit is abroad in the land; poverty does not decrease; children are hungered; drunkenness is rampant; gambling is on the increase, and discontent is growing. Are these the fruits of the Spirit, the “things” of the kingdom of God? Unless the way of life be found, the future is black with the gloom of the pit. What is the kingdom of God? The question is put in no frivolous spirit; it is the one question which must be answered if we, as a nation, are to be