09. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

false, the end of all these great schemes is easily foretold.

This view of the problem of humanity (and it is the prevailing view) may be thus stated: Man is the unfortunate victim of his evil environment. Hence he should devote his energies to the improvement of his environment, and, when that shall have been accomplished, the environment will, in turn, improve the man.

Thus mankind is working with all its might upon the theory that, while man cannot improve his own nature, he can improve his environment; and that the improved environment, which man is undertaking to produce, will automatically do for him what he cannot do for himself. Thus it is assumed that man, who did not make himself, and cannot change his own nature, is nevertheless able to make gods (whether they be called "environment" or "Baal" is a mere detail), which shall have both the will and the power to do for him what he is powerless to do for himself.

A further element of this popular doctrine is that the desired environment, which is to abolish the ills of humanity, is to be attained by the increase of wealth to such a point, and by its distribution in such just proportion, that everybody shall be raised and kept above the level of want and anxiety, and shall be insured the enjoyment of lifelong happiness and contentment. Thus in the last analysis of this doctrine it is found that money is to be the real agent of deliverance.

Stimulated by this faith in himself, and excited to a state of feverish activity by the marvellous achievements of "Science," man's inventive genius has brought into existence an amazing variety of products; and the natural forces, which he is now able in some degree to manage, permit the manufacture of these various products in practically unlimited quantities. Indeed, the note of warning, telling that the limit in this direction has been practically reached, comes with increasing frequency and insistence in the form of periods of "OVER-PRODUCTION." This is a very apt and significant expression, and is charged with solemn but unheeded warning. Its significance consists in the information it conveys, that production has already gone beyond the aggregate power of the community to consume what is produced, and yet the expected deliverance from evil is as remote as ever.

Man takes to himself all credit for this prodigious multiplication of products. He freely appropriates to his use what he is pleased to call the "materials and forces of nature," with no thought of Him Who endowed those materials and forces with their marvellous properties and powers. Indeed, a conspicuous feature of this delirium and intoxication of industrialism is the idea that "man" (as we are told) "is coming at last to the realization of his divinity." Mankind is "coming to feel that it does not need to be divine by proxy any longer."¹

¹ Man the Social Creator, by H. D. Lloyd.

PROBLEMS OF GOVERNMENTS

AIDS TO INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT, AND SOME OF ITS RESULTS

From every possible source man is borrowing, to aid his career of industrial development. "Science," which once concerned itself mainly with the discovery and classification of such information as could be obtained by diligent study of the accessible universe, has now become intensely "practical." Pure science is held in little estimation, and its rewards are scanty indeed. The designation "scientific man" is now applied less frequently to one who studies natural substances and operations than to the one who devises new processes and appliances. The kind of science that is in demand, and is eagerly sought after, is that which can be turned into money. It is "applied science" that is now held in high esteem; for that which does not contribute to the increase of wealth, or to the pleasure or comfort of the man of earth, receives slight consideration in this intensely practical age.

Governments, moreover, are maintained and administered mainly for the promotion and protection of business interests. The problems of government at the present time are economic problems. They have to do with revenue, taxation, the regulation of industrial operations, transportation, freight-rates, corporate powers, tariffs, commercial treaties, labour questions, foreign markets, etc. The vast armaments, which are maintained at enormous cost by the several “world-powers”—that loving “family of nations”—exist for the purpose of guarding and keeping open the sacred “channels of trade,” and of protecting and enlarging the respective national “spheres of influence.” The burden of these increasing armaments, and of the enormous national debts which they entail, together with the consequent increase of taxation, are the cause of protests which are uttered with more and more vigour by those upon whom those burdens press with the greatest severity. Every nation on earth is increasingly feeling this strain.

Thus does the organized pursuit of wealth, whose supposed mission is to abolish the poverty and distress of the great mass of humanity, actually tend to augment those very ills; and thus, among the products of industrialism, those that are the most conspicuous are the agents of its own destruction. For these great armaments will one day be put to their intended use, and these thousands of tons of “high explosives” will some day explode with a great explosion.

It is a strange thing indeed, and a forcible illustration of the futility of all human enterprises, that, in our existing scientific civilization, which has united widely separated communities in a complicated economic system whose existence depends on the maintainance of peace, the arts and engines of war have progressed farther than all other arts and industries. Manifestly, if peace is to come to earth through change

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR in man's environment, instead of through change in man himself, it will never come. Even while man speaks most loudly of peace he prepares most actively for war. The very first use of the latest of man's achievements, the air-ship, is a military use. As an agent of destruction it will undoubtedly make a notable contribution to the perils of these "perilous times."¹

One other conspicuous mark of the era of industrialism has already been referred to incidentally, and will call for more extended consideration hereafter. We have in mind those industrial convulsions or "panics," marked by a sudden and mysterious arrest of the machinery of production, followed by a protracted period of "business depression." These phenomena, which recur with increasing frequency and violence, and which are a new thing (the earliest occurrence being less than a century ago), are apparently an inseparable incident of the existing economic system. The wise men who advocate and defend that system

¹ In a notable address delivered June 5, 1909, before the Press Conference, Lord Rosebery spoke of the hush prevalent in Europe. "a hush in which you might almost hear a leaf fall to the ground," and of the entire absence from the atmosphere of international politics of any of the questions which ordinarily lead to war. "Yet," said this prominent statesman, "combined with this total absence of all questions of friction, there never was in the history of the world so threatening and so overpowering a preparation for war."

are utterly unable to offer any explanation, or any preventive, of their occurrence. These periods of business depression, or "hard times" as they are expressively called, produce fear and anxiety among all classes of society, and spread unspeakable misery, suffering, and destitution among the toiling masses. Owing to these and other incidents the pressure of business life has become so great, and the strain of its increasing complexities and surprises so enormous, that few men can long endure it.

Here again is a conspicuous product of industrialism that menaces the present career of humanity, and that serves further to exhibit the great instability of the present social order, and which, in the opinion of many judicious observers, must inevitably, and at no distant day, bring about a catastrophe such as humanity has never yet experienced.

In view of all these things, it is very pertinent indeed to inquire as to the direction which the great industrial movement of our day is taking, and to ask what will be its final outcome. Many are asking that question, and it is well worth while to seek an answer to it.

tion our wide economic

RELIGIOUS FIELD, GREAT CHANGES

NOW IN PROGRESS maintains been remarked that man is by nature a progress animal, and this is a truthful characterization; Manifest

RELIGION NOT CHRISTIANITY that is to say, man as a rule believes in the existence of unseen powers greater than his own, and in the existence of some relation between those powers and himself.

Let it be clearly understood that by "religion" we do not mean Christianity, and that by a "religious man" we do not mean a Christian. The difference between a religious man and a Christian is, that the religious man is such by his natural birth, whereas the Christian becomes such by new birth, or re-generation. There are many religious systems and religious movements at the present day which have the name and form of Christianity, but which nevertheless deny every essential item of "the doctrine of Christ" (2 John 9). With these we have mainly to do in the present inquiry, since they are properly religious "movements." On the other hand, "the doctrine of Christ," that is to say, the body of doctrine given to the world by Christ and His apostles, and "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3), has not undergone any change during the eighteen centuries since the last of the apostles passed away. Therefore Christianity could not be a "movement" in the sense here used.

In the sphere of religion there are mighty movements in progress at the present time,—movements which are drawing with them, or are influencing in some degree, great multitudes of men and women. In all parts of the world, and among all the great historic and ethnic religions, there is, at the present day, unusual activity and change; and the changes affect, not merely the surface forms and theological details, but the very foundations themselves.

Dr. Rodolphe Broda, after a very complete survey of the entire religious field, published in the International for March 1908, an article entitled "A Review of the World's Progress," of which the following is the opening paragraph:—

"If we compare the successive periods of human civilization with a view to discussing the distinguishing characteristics of each, we shall find that one of the most significant features of our own times is the religious crisis through which all the civilized races are now simultaneously passing."

This conclusion is based upon reports, published in the same periodical, from correspondents in every part of the civilized world, and also from Japan, China, India, Turkey, and elsewhere. These reports show astonishing religious changes, even in countries where religious conditions have remained practically unchanged for many centuries. These changes affect not only Christendom, but also Islamism, Buddhism, Brahminism, Judaism, and even Agnosticism. "Never before in the history of mankind," says Dr. Broda, "have the forces of religion suffered so great a convulsion"; and, descending to particulars, he declares that "the great world-crisis is reproduced in many individual souls, and