Part 37 (1/2)
”For a long period the truth lay buried beneath ignorance and superst.i.tion. Then came an awakening, and men, with their minds more enlightened and their consciences quickened, began to catch something of the true spirit of the gospel. Christianity now became a dominant power.
Under its benign sway civilization advanced, intelligence spread, and Christian nations outstripped all others and extended their power to every part of the globe.
”Soon the ameliorating influences of the gospel were felt on every hand.
Government began to be administered with more regard for the interest of the governed, and men came to receive consideration simply because they were men. All the aggravated forms of oppression ceased under the newborn spirit of human brotherhood, a sentiment brought into the world by the founder of Christianity.
”This brings us, my friends, up to that intense age of which I have spoken before, and which you say you recognize as that corresponding with the time in which you are living on the earth. Let me state briefly the condition of some of our affairs of that period.
”The industrial world was in a ferment, as we have seen, and it was only in a general and impersonal way that the Christian religion shed its influence on the majority of the actors in that drama. Individuals, among both employers and workmen, had good impulses and indulged them as much as they could, and I am inclined to think this cla.s.s was larger than most of our writers admit. But we read that the greater part were moved chiefly by motives of self-interest. Still, Christianity was a growing force among them, and they could not entirely escape its influence. They were born under its elevating power, and, even if they did not acknowledge its sway, they were quite different men from those who lived before Jesus began to preach the law of love. This remark will apply to all the people of that day who were born under Christian skies, and yet acknowledged no personal allegiance to the Savior. They were the unconscious heirs of a priceless inheritance.”
”I just want to say, Thorwald,” the doctor interrupted, ”that I can accept that idea fully now, with respect to the people of the earth, though at one time I should not have been willing to do so.”
Thorwald smiled his answer, and without further reply continued:
”Let us look at the business situation. National and local governments had begun to extend their powers beyond what had before been considered legitimate. With one excuse or another they had taken out of private hands many branches of business, and there was a strong tendency toward a continuance of the policy. There was no difference in principle between carrying the mails and carrying freight and pa.s.sengers, or between giving the people cheap water in their houses and furnis.h.i.+ng them with cheap coal.
”It was acknowledged that there were certain things which the city or state could do better than private enterprise, and the difficulty was to decide where to draw the line. While this uncertainty existed in the minds of most people, there was a small but aggressive party who were in favor of not drawing the line at all, but of putting everything into the hands of the government. They would have had the people, in their corporate capacity as a nation, raise and distribute the products of the soil, do all the manufacturing and dispose of the goods to consumers, conduct all the trades and professions, and, in fact, carry on every kind of business necessary to the well-being of society.”
Of course, this woke up the doctor, whose practical mind could see nothing attractive in such an arrangement as that, and he was moved to say:
”I trust, Thorwald, that your ancestors did not adopt that crazy scheme as an experimental step in their development. But I beg your pardon for using such vigorous language without knowing whether they did or not.”
Thorwald smiled, as he answered:
”You are safe, Doctor. From actual experience we cannot tell what the result of such a trial would be, for the vast majority of the writers, and the people too, of the period were opposed to the plan, and no doubt with good reason.
”But I do not wonder that this idea had a fascination for some right-minded people, in the promise it gave of doing away with the evils arising from compet.i.tion, to which I have before referred.”
Thorwald paused here, as if to invite one of us to speak, if he wanted to do so. I accepted, by saying:
”I wish you would tell us a little more on that subject. Compet.i.tion is said to be the life of trade with us, an accepted principle of honest business. And yet you speak of it as something that should be done away with.”
”If you could know,” answered Thorwald, ”how repugnant the idea is to us of the present day, you would understand how truly you have voiced my feelings.”
”I have no doubt,” I said, ”that your experience has taught you much on the subject that we do not know, but this is the way it looks from our standpoint: There is born in us a pa.s.sion for getting that which belongs to others, or that which others are trying to get. In some of us this instinct is developed more than in others, and some are unprincipled enough to indulge it unjustly; but let me ask you if it is wrong to follow the leadings of such a desire if we are strictly honest in all our dealings.”
”We might differ over the meaning of the phrase 'strictly honest,' but I will answer your question by saying it is certainly wrong.”
”But it seems to be a part of our very nature.”
”Do you offer that as a reason for its being right? I never heard you claim that human nature was perfect,” said Thorwald.
”Then,” I returned, ”in our present state, with which you are now pretty well acquainted, is it not possible to carry the principles of Christianity into business?”
”To answer that as I should be obliged to do would make me appear to you too arbitrary, and so perhaps I had better let you find your own answer in the questions which I will ask you. Is not unselfishness one of the first principles of Christianity? Now, the very essence of compet.i.tion is a regard for self-interest, with no room for thought about the interests of others. In an ideal state of society the rules of life given by Jesus are fully obeyed. In such a state, would a transaction be right where each person was trying to do what was best for himself, although it might be to the damage or loss of another? It might be called honest to own slaves, and probably in the history of the earth a great many sincere Christian people have owned them, but you have now reached that condition, I think, where you can see it is wrong. So your way of doing business may be honest, but in our more ideal state we see that it is not right. Our remote ancestors, through the various stages of our development, did a thousand things with clear consciences which we could not do now. I understand your situation perfectly, and am sure your race will outgrow its imperfections.”
I thanked Thorwald for his faith in us, and he resumed his narrative.
”In the age of which I am speaking,” he said, ”the church was taking a prominent place in the world, but had not a.s.sumed the leading position which it afterward reached. Many nations were still without the light of the gospel, and even in nominal Christian lands the actual supporters of the church were in the minority. In the midst of much evil and many discouragements the church was trying to regenerate society, but it had a difficult task, partly on account of the great perversity of the human heart, and partly because the church itself was not free from the imperfections of the age. Its members represented all shades of spirituality, the great majority of them having but a faint appreciation of the glorious cause in which they had enlisted. They called themselves soldiers of the cross, but were so burdened with the ordinary but more pressing duties and occupations of life that they never dreamed of the grandeur of the service, nor of the brilliant deeds of which the church was soon to show itself capable.