"christianity And Trampism."

Taking for liis text, " If any would ïot work, neithèr should he wit" (II. L'hess., iii., 10), Vvoi. Swing, of Chicajo, recently delivered a sermón from lis pulpit upon the subject of " Chrisianit-y and Tvampism," from which we nake tho following extract : The stream of bcggars arose in the )11 highlands of ignorance and stupor, and has flowod along and followed tho race. Greece has few mendicante, but ,he East at largo was full of these hunan drones - Jerusalem was ful], lïome vas full. In the last years of the enilire all the idle and poor of Rome were 'ed by the Government, and no labor vas required of tliem. It was for hunlreds of years the. chief business of Smperors to plunder foreign cities that heir subjects at homo might be kept upplied with plunder and happy with jlory. The history of the human race nvolves not only a history of art and loetry and philosopliy and religión, but dso of trampista - a quality of man that ïas never blessed the nations with even a temporary absence. It is commonly confessed that the Crusades, which lragged the Western men into a roving ife for three centuries, which made reigious gypsies of millions of the men and women highest and lowest in church ind state, left all the good ideas of labor lestroyèd or impopular for many subsoquent generations. To thïs influence ve must add the influence of the ilmrch, which for a thousand years nade identical a mendicant and a saint. Po go to heaven as a Lazarus on a record of crumb-picking was thought the jest way of reaching that land, and ïence the people were pointed to that route; but, that the othar oad of property and luxury might not be wholly abandoned and closed up, the Pojoes and Bishops and )ious Kings for the most part took that nove luxuriant way of travel. The nonks were all beggars ; the nuns beggars ; the hermits all beggars ; the spiritlally-minded were beggars. What must ïave been the effect of a religious sys;em which could take such an intellect as that of Martin Luther and make it iccept a mendicaney as an honorable career! How large has this evil become ! In England and Wales the beggars compare with the whole population as one to about seventeen. In Ireland ;he ratio is much larger, perhaps one pauper to every twelve of the popula;ion. Between the combined despotism of religión and politics that unhappy land has been enabled to support beggiirs in wonderful numbers, one estáte ilone sending 2,000 to America, one year alone shipping 4,000 poor girls to Australia. Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium and Portugal contain one pauper tor every eight of the whole population. What proportion exists between the aeggars and the whole people of our own country I have been unable to learn, but the proportion must be more favorable than that of England. In Massachusetts about one in twenty is a beggar. Erom such a basis we may infer that our land possesses fully 2,000,000 of dependents, aside from those made dependent by being deaf, or insane, or sick. And, when we remember that of these millions the cities contain the largest ratio, and the most dangerous class, the question of duty becomes important to the degree of painfulness. Tlie fact that of late years, since our last war and the last commercial crisis, the number of able-bodied beggars has increased, and that Communism has sprung ui3 to hasten on to eriminality many who were once only indolent, does not lessen the value and painfulness of our inquiry. English law had forbidden tramps - "able-bodied, sturdy and valiant beggars" - to beg out of the town where he had resided for three years. This would diminish imposture by limiting its eloquence of the tale of woe to those ears which would know how false or true it were. Henry VIII. made a severer law, whereby a second offense involved the loss of the right ear, and for a third transgression the tramp was indieted for "wandering and loitering and idleii(!ss, and was put to death as ui enemy of the country." Then, later, he was branded with the letter "V" (vagabond) for first conviction, and with "S" for second, and to be a slave for life to the highest bidder ; running away from this service, he was put to death. Herbert Spencer, thongh with ha.lf-veiled langtt'age, approVed of letting this drone of the liive die of starvation or disease. Thus the groat modern teacher of social science joins hands with the Chiuese, who kill all apparently surphis children, and with the fabled Northmeii, who put their aged parents to death. The relations of Christianity toward able-bodied beggars must be quito different from the relations of Henry VIII. or of Herbert Spencer toward that class. Under the lead of Christianity there are amiable people who do look the matter fairly in tho face, and who do not see the kind of face seen by the author of "Social Statistici." What should be our State or general or our city legislation npon this great matter? Only tho long thought of a large number of our wisest men could framo a valuable reply in detail. To one speaking hastily and bn'efly no light comes clearly except that of general principies, and some of the general principies of Christian philosophy are these: Kindness and the sacredness of' life must mark all social legislation. Philosophy may eoinmaiid the idle to die but Christianity canuot. She came to save the. idle, and is as eager to reform a valiant beggar as to reform a man who will lie or steal. She cures ignorance by teaching knowledge ; cures viee by temperance ; and henee, while Henry VIII. and Spencer would kill an ablebodied beggar, Christianity would make hira learn to work. Eeeding tlio " ablebodied and valiant beggar" at the basement door or at a cheap soup-house forras no part of tlie Christian philanthroj)y, unless a pestilence or a ñre or un earthquake lias ereated a temporary demífid ior such a simpo of benefieenoc. Work is a meted word in the Christian system, because idlenoss develops into crime and viee. Sccondly, Christianity loves tlie good and tlu! industríonn, and henee scorns the chnrity that will feed the thonsítnds of idlers who are rendering home unsafe places for Ufe and property. The home in the country is no longer the eastle where the motlicr and children feel safe, but it is rather the place where each noise terrinos, and where the Wife and children often tremble and wish morning would come. Now a Ohïixtian civilizittion will love these homes more tlian it will love the personal liberty of a tramp, and henee, out of love for tho homes of the good and out of regard to the highest welfare of the vagabond, it will termínate his free wanderings, and will conipel him to learn the pursuits and the habits of industry. Thirdly, Ohristianity is busy over the moráis of the present and future, and, on account of the vice and crime which rolls like a pestilence out of indiscriminate alms-giving, we shall not dare to consider it any part of a divine gospel. Thus the general principies of Ohristian moral philosophy point toward each " ablc-bodied and valiant beggar " as an offender, and declare his act of begging a misdemeanor involving immediato arrest. Arrest to what end? Evidently this, that in city or State - -workshops or farms - he shall labor for part of his support, and to acquire a new set of habits. A State farm of 50,000 acres, with shops also of all works, would move every conflrmed idler fronk our cities and villages, and would not only give the country qniet homes and our cities some security, but would turn vagabonds into workingmen, and tiieir children along honorable paths. There is a county in this State that is remarkable for its Court House. That palace of law cost perhaps $3,000,000. Had that money been invested in such a way that no tramp could roam in the country, each acre of land would have been bought up at large cost by men anxious to live where there was promise of peace all around the homestead. A King of Cyprus, hating the dissolute woinen of his age, made an ideal lovely form otit of pure ivory, and then so admired its beauty and truth that at last it turned into Ufe. Thus God made our world. As under ' the sunshine the seed bursts and turns into leaf and flower, so under the loving study of man the depths of nature give up their truths. These questions of science and moráis, which havo baffled hasty or careless or cruel Kiugs, may, under the deeper and kinder study of Christianity, be able, like the ivory statue, to be loved and studied into a divine life. Above and around our country there lies a better state, called the kingdom of God. It is always ready to crowd aside the false and liarmful ideas of imperfect man; but by some mysterious law of nature man must seek this higher law, or it will forever conceal itself. Philosophy and politics and religión must all seek it and invite it, or it will never enter into and take part in the affairs of man.