The Freethought Review. WANGANUI, N.Z., FEBRUARY 1, 1884. CHRISTIANITY AND THE ABJECT POOR.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 5, 1 February 1884, Page 8

The Freethought Review. WANGANUI, N.Z., FEBRUARY 1, 1884. CHRISTIANITY AND THE ABJECT POOR.

A recent article of Lord Salisbury’s in one of the ‘ Reviews,’ and a pamphlet headed “ The Bitter Cry of Outcast London,” published under the auspices of the London Congregational Union, have directed more than usual attention to one of the most difficult social problems ever presented for solution —how to prevent that extreme poverty which is both cause and consequence of a state of physical and moral degradation shocking to contemplate, and rendered all the more horrible by contrast with the wealth, luxury, and refinement existing by its side. “ The churches,” says the pamphlet referred to above, “ are making the “ discovery that seething in the very centre of our “ great cities, concealed by the thinnest crust of “ civilisation and decency, is a vast mass of moral “ corruption, of heart-breaking misery and absolute “ godlessness, and that scarcely anything has been “ done to take into this awful slough the only influences “ that can purify or remove it.” These “ influences ” are, of course, in the opinion of the Congregational Union, more gospel preaching and evangelistic work, an increase, in short, of “ that noble army of men and “ women who penetrate the vilest haunts, carrying “with them the blessings of the gospel.” Now lam far from denying that much good has been effected by what is called Christian effort among a class of persons who at present can only be moved by appeals to their superstitious fears and hopes, or at best to moral sentiments which have become so associated with Christian dogmas as to seem identical with them ; but this principle applies to any religion, however false, so long as it is believed to be true, and military and moral conquests are equally possible under Cross or Crescent, while the indirect effects of an erroneous opinion may be extremely mischievous. Now, if Christianity is a delusion, and if the world, instead of being under a supernatural, paternal government, is simply under “ the reign of law,” it is clear that all adlion motived by “other worldliness” in its countless forms, can only lead to good results by accident. Hence if the purely Positive view of nature and humanity is accepted, Christian teaching does at least this negative harmit leads men to look into the clouds for means to remedy admitted evils, when the}' should look for them on earth. “ Whilst,” to quote from ‘ The Bitter Cry,’ “we have been building our churches and solacing “ ourselves with our religion, and dreaming that the “ millemum was coming, the poor have been growing

“ poorer, the wretched more miserable, and the immoral “ more corrupt.” Could there be a more complete confession of failure ? Can we ask for a better indication that the means used are not likely to attain the end "desired ? Looking at the question from the standpoint of scientific sociology, it is clear that this abjeCt poverty, and this more than savagery in the midst of the grandest civilisation yet known, is no isolated phenomenon, but the necessary result of antecedent and co-existing conditions. Prominent among these is the utter disregard shown by large masses of English people to the Malthusian law of population, and its consequent increasing pressure upon the means of subsistence. For this Christianity is largely responsible, with its reliance upon the providential government of mankind and its tendency to put sentiment in the place of reason. Indeed public opinion, moulded by Christian supernaturalism, forbids the discussion of the population question in any effective way, and regards with indignant horror any suggestion of artificial limitation, as witness the prosecution of Mr. Bradlaugh and Mrs. Besant, while Mill has not escaped the denunciations of the orthodox. Hence the essential conditions for the solution of the problem, free and full discussion, are wanting, and so the * Saturday Review merely alludes to the enormous “ families of these people on the verge of pauperism,” as constituting a difficulty in the matter of lodging them, just as the author of ‘ The Bitter Cry speaks of overcrowding as the cause of vice and crime and scenes of “ heart-breaking misery.” This is as if a New Zealand runholder were to express a sentimental regret for his starving and dying sheep and cattle, which he had allowed to breed far beyond the carrying capacity of his land, and yet to go on calmly ignoring the origin of the evil. But apart from this primary consideration, which if ignored must render all other remedies for the evils of poverty at least, merely palliatives, it is evident that as Mill has demonstrated, the future well-being of the laboring classes, and indirectly of all classes, depends principally on their own mental cultivation. Now, if this is so, how is gospel teaching likely to conduce to progress in this direction ? By their fruits ye shall know them. In no respeCt has Christianity, with its jarring seCts and its absurd pretensions, been more injurious than in preventing the education of the people. Theology instinctively perceives that ignorance is the mother of devotion, and even where she has been shamed into teaching anything but dogma, she has taught with eyes half shut to the reality of things, and only open to the dreams of the imagination. No doubt social evolution is a slow process, and there is a strong temptation to apply quack remedies and to deal with the symptoms, rather than the causes, of morbid growths of the social tissue ; but even these are efforts in the right direction, and if found injurious can be abandoned or modified as experience dictates. As Mr, Goschen has lately said, that while accepting the doCtrine that laisserfairc should be the rule, and State interference the exception, “ the “ argument was almost irresistible that it was as just to prevent, and if necessary to punish, house-owners “ who let out rooms unfit for human occupation as “ tradesmen who offered putrid food for sale,” nor need too much tenderness be shown to those capitalists who make 60 per cent, out of such places as “ Collier’s “ Rents,” or to those ground landlords who receive a large proportion of such ill-gotten gains. State socialism must indeed be narrowly watched, not so much, as Mr. Fawcett has shown, because it is dangerous to the rich, as because it is destructive to the poor, as tending to sap the foundations of that energy, self-reliance, and thrift on which all progress depends. Human sympathy combined with the dogma of justification by faith has done good service, but would it not do more if combined with the doCtrine of justification by faCt ? The drunkard might after all pay greater regard to the teachings of physiology than of theology, and the thief, respectable or otherwise, might be brought to feel that his anti-social proclivities did not benefit even himself in the long run, when he no longer thought that faith might avert the inevitable penalty. R.P,