n. Government
oppressed the body of the wage-slave, but Religion oppressed his mind,
and poisoned the stream of progress at its source. The working-man was
to fix his hopes upon a future life, while his pockets were picked in
this one; he was brought up to frugality, humility, obedience--in short
to all the pseudo-virtues of capitalism. The destiny of civilization
would be decided in one final death struggle between the Red
International and the Black, between Socialism and the Roman Catholic
Church; while here at home, "the stygian midnight of American
evangelicalism--"

And here the ex-preacher entered the field, and there was a lively
tussle. "Comrade" Lucas was not what is called an educated man; he knew
only the Bible, but it was the Bible interpreted by real experience. And
what was the use, he asked, of confusing Religion with men's perversions
of it? That the church was in the hands of the merchants at the moment
was obvious enough; but already there were signs of rebellion, and if
Comrade Schliemann could come back a few years from now--

"Ah, yes," said the other, "of course, I have no doubt that in a hundred
years the Vatican will be denying that it ever opposed Socialism, just
as at present it denies that it ever tortured Galileo."

"I am not defending the Vatican," exclaimed Lucas, vehemently. "I am
defending the word of God--which is one long cry of the human spirit for
deliverance from the sway of oppression. Take the twenty-fourth chapter
of the Book of Job, which I am accustomed to quote in my addresses as
'the Bible upon the Beef Trust'; or take the words of Isaiah--or of the
Master himself! Not the elegant prince of our debauched and vicious art,
not the jeweled idol of our society churches--but the Jesus of the awful
reality, the man of sorrow and pain, the outcast, despised of the world,
who had nowhere to lay his head--"

"I will grant you Jesus," interrupted the other.

"Well, then," cried Lucas, "and why should Jesus have nothing to do with
his church--why should his words and his life be of no authority among
those who profess to adore him? Here is a man who was the world's first
revolutionist, the true founder of the Socialist movement; a man whose
whole being was one flame of hatred for wealth, and all that wealth
stands for,--for the pride of wealth, and the luxury of wealth, and the
tyranny of wealth; who was himself a beggar and a tramp, a man of the
people, an associate of saloon-keep