Page:Can a man be a Christian on a pound a week? - Hardie.djvu/3



time ago I was invited by the Northern Press Syndicate to write an article on Can a Man be a Christian on a Pound a Week? Having complied with the request, in due time the article appeared in various papers in different parts of the country, and excited considerable interest. It led to newspaper correspondence, to personal letters to myself, to sermons from the pulpit, and to requests for its re-publication in pamphlet form. This latter request, I am glad to say, can now be acceded to, the syndicate in question having kindly given the necessary permission. At the end of the article I deal with some of the criticisms to which it gave rise, and which came under my notice. The relationship of Christianity to the Labour Problem is by no means a new subject of discussion, but its importance does not tend to grow any less with the growth of years. In what follows I do not in any way seek to assail Christianity or impugn its teachings. But I cannot accept current theology as being other than a travesty of what Christ taught. The tendency of theology is to magnify the letter of the word, forgetful of the spirit thereof—the very offence for which Jesus denounced the Pharisees so scathingly. My aim is not to denounce, but to quicken; not to lull, but to stimulate. The growing feeling that the solution of all modern problems is to be sought in the application of the principles set forth in the Sermon on the Mount is, to me, full of good promise for the future of the Labour movement, and it is in the hope that what follows may help in this direction that I give it to the public in this form.