The People’s Sunday League.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 48, 22 August 1913, Page 3

The People’s Sunday League.

LECTURE BY MR MARSHALL. Under the auspices of the above league Mr Tom H. Marshall delivered a lecture on 41 Christianity and S )cialism ” in the Miners’ Hall on Sunday afternoon last, Dr. R. C. Macdiarmid presiding over an attendance that numbered close on 150. The Lecturer commenced by quoting from ” Marlowe’s” Rich Jew of Malta”: “1 count religion but a childish toy, and hold there is no sin but ignorance.” He dissented from the first sentence, and likening sin to a tree agreed that ignorance was its root. Yet in every stage of man’s evolution and among all tribes there were found traces of the fact that man is and was a God-seeker. The fact that man is in his present »ige a confused mental machine, ift:g able only to think alone, a rtain line, and n >t in cycles, was responsible lor the Various ideas of the Deity. That man thought at all proved the existence of a Soul in him, while hi> continued seeking for God proved him, a spiritual being, thus exhibiting c inclusively man’s triune nature, B >dy, Soul, and Spirit. Religion appealed primarily to the Spirit. Christianity was not a code of ethics or a species of morals, but a life founded on faith. The b dy w uld perish, the sou! be dissipated in but space, the spirit will live on and on. Jesus taught this great truth of man’s immortality and offered eternal life. As Christians they believed this and followed Christ. Some asserted there were certain moral obligations incumbent on Christians. That . was granted, but moral obligations were incumheat on all, irrespective of creed or want of creed. Sin whose root was ignorance, could be indulged by any one without harmful consequences. The Deity migh t forgive and atone for sin. Nature disregarded never forgave, and God could not avert the consequences. Hence morality should be esteemed by all. Much superstition bad gather; d around Christianity in its progress down the years, but superstition \vc t astrology was to foolish daughter i As men though and their impel becam? m >re pei daughter would the wise parent. Turning to Socialism the : lecturer dealt withe rtain current ideas, and refused t accept ” that Christianity was pure Socialism.’’ Answering a self-wnpos *d qaes- * l, “ What is S vialism? ’• He bribed it as the next great tern in the world’s evoluti m. ! icing the struggles of hunnnfrom savagery to chattel very, through serfdom to wag * very under the present j stem, he affirmed th tSoeialm nuist come next, Socialism aing the only scientific solution •f the present system’s labour iroblems. b?causn. while the present system continued, labour roblems must ensue. Socialism /as purely an earthly theory jased on scientific investigation : and calculation It stated case, a claim, a charge, and propounded a remedy, it ■; case : Labour applied to natural ts claim i til weuh i si. mid >elong tV those ‘ho labour. Its rharge: The present system, j thereby the few conserved i ;hemselves the natural resource. >f the earth, aid exploited the < nany, who must have access to chose resource- for a living a system inimical to the whole race of man, and the chief cans.* of poverty, unemployment, laziness, useless vocations, ignorance and viciousness in the world to-day. Its i nnely : .\ i 1 v<- dt' . being socially pro !u od, should be socially owned. Socialist advocates aspired to obtain control j of. Parliament to legislate for Socialism. Concluding, the speaker seried tliat Christianity \\ -s ethereal, while Socialism, as an earthly Christianity, must influence j Socialism and all other material concerns for good. Socialism pro- 1 supposed a higher life here on earth : Christianity a higher life beyond. Socialism must he advocated in season, and out, among all shades of society, but should not be organised on party lines, within any other institution, Christian or < ' here. is. Question tine- was especially interesting, tin que-tio s dealing chiefly with Christianity.