SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 December 1922, Page 9

SUNDAY READING.

THE CREED OF CAIN. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” —Gen. iv. 9. (By Rev. A. H. Collins, New Plymouth.) The book of the Genesis, as the title suggests, is the book of beginnings. It is not history or science; it is a brief, poetic story of the world’s creation, the origin of human life, the 'beginning of the family and the communal life of men; the beginning of trade and strife; and, as this fourth chapter tells, the .beginning of selfish, lying, murderous deeds, which have turned Paradise into Pandemonium. For the first time fragrant flowers shuddered under the dews of human blood. And God said unto Cain: ’Where is thy brother?” And because the first murderer was the first liar, he answered: “I know not,” and because the first liar was the first egoist, he added: “Am 1 my brother’s keeper?’ Wickedness hunts in packs. We never sin alone. Selfishness is the mother tincture of sin. The poison is served up in diverse forms and dilutions, and you have some of them here —personal pique, green-eyed envy, shameless lying, insolent individualism, cold-blooded murder! But at the bottom of it all, there lies selfishnss. T sometimes wish we could drop the word “sin" for twelve months, and instead of sin say “selfishness.” For the rule of self-interest is the eternal falsehood that mothers all our private and social miseries.

SIN IS INDIVIDUALISM. •Sin is pure individualism, the assertion of self against God and -humanity. Cain’s murder of his brother was the first bold assertion that self interest is the law of life. To quote the words of Professor Hitchcock: “Cain was the first Godless political economist.” The words of Cain are printed as a question, tnd followed by a note of interrogation, but, as a matter of -fact, they are not a qnstion at all. Cain was not seeking light on the subject of human brotherhood. I He was disowning the claim of brother - I hood. His answer meant the scornful land haughty “How do I know?” spoken with the cold and cynical “What have I to do with him? A man has enough to do to look after his own affairs.” Douglas Jerrold says: “We are all brothers—Cains and ‘Abels,” and the facts of modern life give point, to the sarcasm. For the -Cain spirit lives today, and the cry of Abel s blood still is heard by the Lord God of Sabaoth. There is not one of us entirely free of the guilt of disowning responsibility for our fellow’s fate. Murder takes many forms. You need not use pistol or stiletto: a sneer may slay a man’s chance in life; a whispered slander may blast his reputation; a shrug of the shoulder may mean the death of hope; a look may stab a man to death; the withholding of sympathy has sent many to a premature grave. It is not our actions alone that involve us in the guilt of Cain; our inactions mdy do it. Not speech £.lone, but silence, condemns us. THE EAR OF GOD.

It is said that men who go up far enough in balloons at length reach heights where the silence is deep, im-_ pressive, profound. The tramp of the city, the roar of the sea, and the tumult of the people is hushed into silence that can ; be :felt. Yet in the awful stillness there sometimes comes, with startlnig suddenness, the cry of a child! So the formalities of our worship, the vain repetition of our empty prayers, and the voice of our pride and passion, may never reach the ear of Him who inhabiteth Eternity. But bhe cry of the slum child, unloved and unwelcome, the anguish of a girl betrayed and ruined, the moan of the underpaid and underfed—.these will be heard and avenged by the righteous Judge, when He maketh inquisition for iblood. Oh! the cry of those who must sin or starve. Oh! the anguish of a drunkard who is bound yet longing to be free. Think of fortythree thousand children in London Board schools pronounced under-fed! A million people living in one-roorp tenements; one in sixteen of the population a pauper, and one in five dying in workhouse or hospital! Think what, it means—life without sunshine, without music, without hope! What think you is God’s attitude towards all this welter of human misery and sin? Is He enthroned in royal state amid the holy angels, and accepting the lip homage of those responsible for such things; or is Hg the loving Father of us all, who feels for these outcasts from man’s pity and mercy? Ts He better pleased with those who offer Him homage in church and minster, but care nothing for social service, or with those who withhold the homage and translate piety into practical service?

THE QUESTION THAT MUST BE ANSWERED. T tell you that, behind every starved child, every wronged woman, every vicious trade, and every self-centred life, God stands with this question: “What is this that thou hast clone?” Nor do I believe it is enough to say these things happen far away, or that we did not create such things. The world is rapidly becoming one vast neighborhood, and we are responsible, if we vote Continuance, for the results that follow on Continuance. We are in a very real sense and .degree our brother’s keeper. 1 The creed of Cain consists of a few simple articles, which can b translated into modern terms. One of them is this, that “the greatest number is number ons.” I don’t want to speak fiercely or bitterly, but -the plain fact is modern life is organised on that single proposition. “Mind the main chance. “Every man for himself.” Thus the first personal pronoun dominates everything. “The crude assertion of an enlightened self-interest is the law of human activity,’ says Mulford.

BUSINESS IS SELFISH. 1 “Of course business is selfish,” said a Melbourne merchant. Professor Sumner, speaking from the chair of a great Christian University, said: “Social classes owe each other nothing! Benei volence is simply barter. The yearning 1 after equality is the offspring of envy , and covetousness.” The supremacy of the law of self-interest is the conclusion of Herbert Spencer’s materialistic philosophy. It is the root of the pessimism of Hartmann and Schopenhauer. It is the principle on which capital acts,, when it treats Labor as a commodity, subject to the .law of supply and <leimand; and Labor acts when it strikes. 1 against free labor. Yet this is a doc*

trine that would have astounded Moses, and would have been pronounced outworn and barbarous by Abraham. If it had been preached in the streets of Athens in the day of Pericles, the preacher would have been mobbed. It is clean contrary to the teaching of Christ, as anyone knows who has seriously grappled with New Testament principles. The plain fact is we are responsible for nor brother’s state. We make or mar his comfort, his happiness, his life. We lighten or increase his load. We help to smooth his path, or .plant thorns for his feet. We lengthen or shorten his days on the earth. MIGHT, NOT RIGHT. A second article in the creed of Cain is that “Might is right.” Cain had the power to execute his own will, and that was all he cared. Abel was the weaker, so he went to the wall! It is the principle on which legalised crimes are committed every day. A man must have a roof over his head, but houses are scarce, therefore raise the rent! A man must have bread, -but if a few rich men combine the price goes up! Men are coming home from the war and will want land, so there is a land boom! Depraved men crave liquor—sell it them and make a fortune! In each case it is legal and in each case it is immoral. The power to do does not mean the right to do, and I say again , the Elder Brother of the race stands beside every wronged and injured being, and says to the guilty: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” James Russell Lowell has a poem called “The Parable,” which states this truth with dramatic power:

“Said Christ our Lord, il will go and see How the men my brethren believe in me.” WHAT HE FOUND. ; So He came So He came to earth, and this is what 'He found: He was welcomed by kings and princes and priests with pomp of State and ceremonial worship: “Great organs surged thro arches dim, Their jubilant floods in praise of Him? And in church, and palace, and judgment hall, He saw His image high o’er all. But still, wherever -His steps they led, The Lord in sorrow bent down His head; And from under the heavy foundation stones The Son of Mary heard heavy groans.” Then Christ asked in amaze: “Have ye founded your thrones and altars, then. On the bodies and souls of living men ? -•ind think ye that buildings shall endure Which shelter the noble and crush the poor ?”. The kings and priests plead their ancient customs, and their services, and their religiosity, and this is the answer : “’Then Christ sought out an artizan, A low-browed, stunted, haggard man, And a motherless girl, whose fingers thin Pushed from her faintly want and sin. These led He in the midst of them. And as they drew back their garments’ hem, For fear of defilement, ‘Lo, here,’ said He, ‘The images ye have made of me.’ ” •It is a dreadful story, but the truth behind it is more dreadful still. MISCONCEPTION OF RELIGION.

But the article in the creed of Cain which calls for closest scrutiny is its misconception of religion. Cain’s conduct is the more startling when you remember that it followed on a religious offering. I don’t say that he was consciously hypocritical any more than I suggest the, modern churchman is. But Cain separated religion from social duty. A man said io me that “working for the social betterment is useless and mistaken. We are not here to make the world better, but to get ready for another world.’’ He was not a hypocrite. I believe him to be as sincere as I am, but I hold him mistaken. Y'et that is the position held by some Christian people, and their absence from the poll sacrificed prohibiiton three years ago. They regard religion too personally. They think of the Church as a field rather than a force. They are zealously engaged in seeking to lift individual souls out of the gutter an (J setting them on their feet, and fail to see that, as fast as they fish one man out, two more are pushed down. They are busy baling out a foul tank, but do not stop the tap that fills the tank. They arc concerned to heal the man who “fell amongst robbers” on the road to Jericho, instead of policing the highway and arresting the banditti. Prevention is better than cure. A fence at the top of the precipice is better than an ambulance at the bottom.

WHAT WE NEED. It all comes back to this. Instead of the creed .of Cain we need the creed of Christ as it is expressed in the Cross of Sacrifice. We could solve all our social and industrial problems by the frank adoption of Christ's rule of life. As the Father sent- His Son into the world to sacrifice Himself in the service of men, so does Christ send the grocer, the baker, the builder and the merchant to serve. Jesus Christ was no more under obligation to devote His life to the saving of men than yon are. The Lord did not die to give us opportunity for self-seeking. We are not here on vacation, but on service. A 'business man has no more right to make personal profit the supreme purpose of his factory or shop, than Christ had right to work miracles for personal gain. We have no more right to unconsecrated houses and land than Christ had right to an unconsecrated Cross. Nothing short of the unreserved surrender of personal interests to the inteests of God and humanity is moral and Christian. Nothing has any right to be on this green earth on any other terms than service and salvation of mankind. Religion has no right save that, polities have no right save that, and our social orders are atheistic, not Christian, in so far as they are founded on the creed of Cain and not the Spirit of Christ, and, as Benjamin Franklin said, “Whover introduces into public affairs the principles of Christianity will change the face of the world.”