the stock
misrepresentations of Socialism are perpetuated. Some of these
writings are brutal--setting forth the ethics of exploitation in the
manner of the Rev. Thomas Malthus, the English clergyman who supplied
for capitalist depredation a basis in pretended natural science. Said
this shepherd of Jesus:

A man who is born into a world already possessed, if he
cannot get subsistence from his parents, and if society does
not Want his labor, has no claim of right to the smallest
portion of food, and in fact has no business to be where he
is. At Nature's mighty feast there is no cover for him. She
tells him to be gone, and will quickly execute her own
orders.

Such was the tone of the ruling classes in the nineteenth century; but
it was found that for some reason this failed to stop the growth of
Socialism, and so in our time the clerical defenders of Privilege have
grown subtle and insinuating. They inform us now that they have a deep
sympathy with our fundamental purposes; they burn with pity for the
poor, and they would really and truly wish happiness to everyone, not
merely in Heaven, but right here and now. However, there are so many
complications--and so they proceed to set out all the anti-Socialist
bug-a-boos. Here for example, is the Rev. James Stalker, D.D.,
expounding "The Ethics of Jesus," and admonishing us extremists:

Efforts to transfer money and property from one set of hands
to another may be inspired by the same passions as have
blinded the present holders to their own highest good, and
may be accompanied with injustice as extreme as has ever
been manifested by the rich and powerful.

And again, the Rev. W. Sanday, D.D., an especially popular clerical
author, gives us this sublime utterance of religion on wage-slavery:

The world is full of mysteries, but some clear lines run
through them, of which this is one. Where God has been so
patient, it is not for us to be impatient.

And again, Professor Robert Flint, of Edinburgh University, a
clergyman, author of a big book attacking Socialism, and bringing us
back to the faith of our fathers:

The great bulk of human misery is due, not to social
arrangements, but to personal vices.

I study Professor Flint's volume in the effort to find just what, if
anything, he would have the church do about the evils of our time. I
find him praising the sermons of Dr. Westcott,