Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/417



I saw poisonous gases from great manufactories spreading disease and death;

I saw hideousness extending itself from coal mine and foundry over forest and river and field;

I saw money grabbed from fellow grabbers and swindlers, and underneath them the workman forever spinning it out of his vitals

I saw all this, and the plate burned my fingers so that I had to hold it first in one hand and then in the other; and I was glad when the parson in his white robes took the smoking pile from me on the chancel steps and, turning about, lifted it up and laid it on the altar.

It was an old-time altar indeed, for it bore a burnt offering of flesh and blood—a sweet savor unto the Moloch whom these people worship with their daily round of human sacrifices.

The shambles are in the temple as of yore, and the tables of the money-changers, waiting to be overturned.

(Belgian economist, 1822-1892)

If Christianity were taught and understood conformably to the spirit of its Founder, the existing social organism could not last a day.