ading of the New Testament, the
messengers of religion had no message of corporate responsibility for
nation or class. There was no one to lift aloft the torch of human
brotherhood over the dark and gloomy landscape of English life. So far
from that, the people who figured large in religion were convinced quite
honestly that the division of classes was a heaven sent order, with
which it would be impious to interfere, and further that the main
message of religion to the people at large was an authoritative
injunction to good behaviour, and patient resignation to the
circumstances in which Providence had placed them. The notion that the
organisation of Society, particularly on its industrial side, was wholly
inconsistent with the ideals of the New Testament never so much as
entered their heads, and any suggestion to this effect would have been
regarded not merely as revolutionary but sacrilegious.

I have ventured on this very rough description of class distinctions,
before our modern days, because it is through the study of our
forefathers' mistakes and a truer understanding of our forefathers'
inspirations that we may hope to create a better world in the days that
are coming.

II

ATTEMPTS AT SOCIAL UNITY

Let me ask your attention now to a few of the attempts which have been
made to create a deeper social unity.

Some of these were naturally and inevitably developed in primitive days
by the simple fact that "birds of a feather flock together."

Men engaged in pastoral pursuits gathered themselves into the tribe with
its strong blood bond. The tillage of the fields led to the existence of
the clan, with its family system and its elaborate organisation of the
land. In the same way industrial activity produced the Guild, that is
the grouping of men by crafts, a grouping which might well be revived
and encouraged on a larger scale in the rearrangements of the future.

I need not remind you how large a place was occupied by the Guilds in
English life. They were not Trade Unions in the modern sense, for they
included both masters and men in one organisation. Nor must we attribute
a modern meaning to those two phrases, masters and men, when we speak of
the ancient Guild. For in a large measure every man was his own
employer. He was a member of the league; he kept the rules; but he was
his own master. The master did not mean the manager of the workmen, but
the expert in the work. He was the master of the art in quest