Christianity and Socialism.

Yale university under the Dwight regime proposes to keep abreast of current industrial problems. Dr. Washington Gladden's course of nine lectures on the relation of the ministry and the church to social problems has been successfully inaugurated here this week. Dr. Gladden is a prominent representative of the increasing number of younger clergymen in the Congregational body who are not afraid to grapple with socialism and in the light of the gospel they preach, to unmask its errors and acknowledge its elements of strength. The present course of lectures is the outcome of a year's close study and Dr. Gladden comes to his audience with new material, carefully matured suggestions for action and that vigor of treatment with which your own citizens are familiar. The three lectures delivered this week are briefly outlined below:

Christianity aims at two things, to perfect man, and to perfect society. Society progresses through the harmonious working of two factors, the individual and the community. The low estimate put upon the individual was one of the causes of the fall of the Greek republics. One danger lies in the tendency to subordinate the state to the individual. Passing to the christian conception of the world, the speaker emphasized the idea that when we speak of the kingdoms of this world as destined to become the kingdoms of our Lord, we mean not merely China and Japan, but the kingdoms of trade, art, learning, science, government. The institutions, customs, opinions, feelings of society must become Christian.

Dr. Gladden dealt sturdy blows at the religious pessimism current in certain sections of the church to-day which teaches that Christ's work for humanity is practically a failure, and that the world is constantly growing worse. He repudiated the theory that the world is a wreck and that the utmost the church can do is to rescue a few here and there. The kingdoms of the world are yielding to the advance of Christ. In the industrial field he meets the most stubborn opposition, even here some of the most ominous signs tell of the presence of him who said, "I came not to bring peace on the earth, but a sword." Thursday's lecture was devoted to the discussion of the question whether economic theory can be Christianizad. After reference to the formidable foe which the Christian sociologist finds in the realms of trade, where the desire for property has become the overmastering passion, and the enormous inequality in possessions has created envy and social discontent, the lecturer set forth the difficulty in the way of convincing the American laborer that these social differences are created by nature. Our society is built on the doctrine that all men are created equal, and the spelling-book and the ballot are theoretically in the hands of every man.

"Love thy neighbor as thyself" is not a ruling maxim in the kingdom of exchange. Men say, indeed, that self-interest is king in this domain of business and the Christian law does not apply to the factory and the counting-room. Business is business. This common sentiment of the street takes its rise from Adam Smith and his school, whose false a priori assumption that self-interest is supreme over benevolence dominated economic theories for 100 years and whose bitter fruits we are still reaping, since such doctrine finds congenial soil in the natural heart. Smith and his contemporaries were optimists, but his modern disciples are materialists, and would apply the cold, inexorable laws of supply and demand to all industrial relations, excluding entire considerations of ethics and sentiment. This, too, discredits Christianity. It would bar Christ out from the kingdom of business and hand religion over to women and children. We are encouraged by the fact that the best political economists to-day reject this materialistic theory and teach a doctrine in closest harmony with Christian ethics. The lecturer proceeded to state some principles of action which may assist the advance among the common people of a Christian theory of economics. The efficiency of labor increases as hopefulness, ambition and self-respect are created among the laboring class.

This regime of individualistic ownership under which we are living was preceded by a community of ownership where even food was apportioned out per capita. This system was finally broken up through the working of forces which led to the exaltation of individuals through military precedence, and out of this grew the fendal system of land ownership with the subletting of land to retainers. Then came the centralization of property in the hands of the king - the syllogism being adopted "The land is the state's - the king is the state - hence the land is the king's."

At last the communistic ownership of property gave way owing to the vigor of enterprise which characterizes modern life. Men saw that the problems of the race could never be worked out or worthy attainments in art an the sciences be reached under that regime. Personal ownership of land and the right to its yieldings became an immense stimulus to effort.

Dr. Gladden took the middle ground between an extreme theory of individualistic ownership and that of communism. The community still retains its right to the land it occupies and when private ownership injures the general welfare the state should recall its lands.

Christian morality protests against such a distribution of land as is permitted in England, where millions of acres are shut up in parks, while hundreds of her poor are hungry and homeless.

In closing, the lecturer laid down four propositions: The land belongs to the people; communal ownership has never proved economical; private ownership under national control seems the best thing for us; if the state ever recalls its lands it must compensate the individual owners. We may learn so to co-ordinate private enterprise and social co-operation as to realize the divine order. - Extracts from Springfield Republican.