Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/83

 Rh inspiration. Its gospel is the worldly laws of acquiring, and it consequently must be in sharp conflict with every other gospel embodying the spiritual laws of being.

As one would therefore expect, Christian ethic has frequently borne a troubled testimony against the industrial order of commercialism. The economics and politics of the Prophets, and the spirit of the Gospels are awkward inspirations in the existing order, and would be revolutionary if they were not only preached from temples but put into practice in market-places. This is seen whenever a breath of fresh wind blows over our faith and it is felt as a motive power in daily conduct; its social significance then comes to the front, the idea of human equality which is inseparable from it becomes active, and the reminiscences of the communist experiments with which its history began awake in it again and turn men to look in Socialist directions for the fulfilment of its spirit. A Christian revival as a rule strengthens the active body of social ethics. Thus the rise of Nonconformity, though apparently the result of only a fervid evangelical propaganda, proceeded apace with an increasingly emphatic assertion of human equality and social right, and in consequence the fruit of the religious agitation was political and social reform.

The first society of Christian Socialists was the product of that reinvigoration of the life of the Church and renewal of interest in religious affairs which began with the Tractarian