Men Were So Unselfish

Men Were Never So Unselfish

Despite All the Selfishness in the World

Rev. Sheldon's Lecture: A Plea for More Christianity in Every Day Work and Life

The Congregational church held one of its largest audiences Tuesday when the Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, of Topeka, Kansas, who is so widely known from his writings and socialistic schemes, lectured on "Christian Socialism." He was introduced by the Rev. Mr. Patton and stood before an Ann Arbor audience who were eager to see him--a rather short man, thick set, and not at all abashed. His lecture was the ideal commonwealth which Plato, Moore and Sheldon have tried to make practicable while the world says nay. It was nice to listen to, that "in this world with all its selfishness, men were never so unselfish as today." "The gospel today is interpreted in terms of the social rather than the individual," said Mr. Sheldon, "which is the best interpretation the world has ever seen." In a systematic way, he made a program or kind of platform for which Christian socialism stands, first denouncing the odious interpretation that some people put upon it, as meaning anarchy, covetousness and free love. With the ministerial "firstly," Mr. Sheldon said before anything like a moral order can be possible men must be Christians, and secondly, the making of rules and the establishing of legislative laws will not be enough to bring about an ideal social order among men. Thirdly, Christian socialism stands for definite aims and purposes. Fourthly, it demands common ownership of all the world's great, common necessities, as transportation, oil, coal, wood, food, the telephone system, the express agency. And if this be true, the fifth step follows, that Christian socialism does not believe in the general acquisition of large personal fortunes for two reasons, because it is not possible for an individual to distribute vast sums for the general good, and secondly, because the very rich are not so happy as those who have just enough. The sixth point Mr. Sheldon made was that Christian socialism holds the doctrine of the new patriotism, i. e., it believes that if the United States spends millions every year to build machines to kill men, it should appropriate a like amount in building institutions to save men, i. e., by universities, hospitals, etc. The new patriotism would place brains before battle ships and the teacher above the warrior. The seventh plank in this platform of Christian socialism was the necessity of doing everything that can be done to annihilate the liquor business in all its forms. The Christian socialism believes in the real work that Christian men and women are doing in the world today; it believes that the whole hope of of the permanent social order rests on the religious sentiment of the race; it believes in the Sunday school, in the fundamentals of the church, in a recognized day of rest; it teaches the need of missionary enterprise and the brotherhood which includes all men; and it holds a firm faith in the Christian home as the center of the real life of a happy people. Christian socialism is but the putting of Jesus' teaching into practice. It is an attempt to do all to the glory of God, in the spirit of the faith that "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."