CHAPTER XVII.

RELIGION IN THE ALLIANCE.

BY REV. ISOM P. LANGLEY, Ex-LECTURER OF THE AGRICULTURAL WHEEL.

WHAT influence will the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial ) Union have upon the religious institutions of our country? is becoming a question of about as much magnitude to the leaders of religious thought as the question of its political action is to the two great parties. The farmers are thinking and acting more independently than ever before. For some time the political and religious ties of the people have been growing less binding, and men and women have become more exacting as to the conduct of the leaders in both Church and State.

Politics being the science of government, we have the right to know the reasons for the conduct of our public servants. Science is what we know, and not what we may suppose. Supposition is the mother of all our mistakes. Knowing the principles upon which our government is founded, we have the right to call in question the authority of any one who may attempt to change the basis upon which our fathers established our institutions. Our government is intended to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people; and the people should be consulted on all questions involving their rights to life and property, it being the object of all just governments to secure the greatest good to the greatest number.

To secure these ends, the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union has been putting forth all its energy in educating the wealthproducers of the country in the science of economical government. The prediction has been made that this grand order would go to pieces and fail to accomplish any good; yet it continues to grow, and its principles, as they are better understood by the masses, become more popular.

The religious sentiments contained in the basic principles of the Alliance are giving it its wonderful power with the people. True religion, not sectarianism, is its crowning glory. This organization makes war upon vicious principles, and not upon men, and it will not permit any man or set of men to get in its way. Good government for the

people is its object. To form and perpetuate a good system of government, the people must be just and good.

No one can truly honor God,
God, our common Father,
Why, then, should human

This brings us to the question: What is religion? The true meaning of religion is, a high sense of moral obligation, and a spirit of reverence or worship toward God, with the desire that all mankind may be happy in this life, as well as in the life to come. who does not desire the happiness of all. makes no distinction between his children. governments make such shameful distinctions among men? Jesus Christ fed the hungry thousands, that he might more deeply impress upon the minds of those who gathered to hear him, his great doctrine : "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them." Any one may know whether he is a Christian by this great rule. Whenever any individual reaches the point where he is willing for others to do to him as he does to others, he can be sure that he has passed from death unto life. One of the main reasons why we have so many empty seats in our churches is the abundance of empty stomachs and unclad limbs. How to reach the people is the question that is being discussed by our ministry all over our country. There is only one solution. See to it that the people who produce the wealth of the nation get a fair share of the profits of their labor. You cannot reach a man's higher sentiments as long as he has an empty stomach, or is in need of decent clothing. Let our pastors and priests study the physical needs of their people more, and give them less theology, if they desire to Christianize the world. Religion is a principle that grows in a man. It remains with him seven days in the week. The true Christian is just as good on Monday as he is on Sunday.

Theologians boast of the Christian government of the United States; but where is the spirit of Christ in our national and State governments? Is that government Christian which creates millionnaires and palaces on the one hand, and paupers and miserable homes on the other? Is that government Christian which licenses the liquor traffic? It is the duty of all governments to eradicate the evils of extreme poverty and vice, restrain the strong and vicious, and strengthen the weak and helpless. What are we doing, as a nation, on the line of equal rights for all, and special privileges for none? Name a government that permits the masses to be robbed more systematically than ours does.

Among the reasons we have given, in the past, for the superiority of our form of government, none had more weight with the public than the claim that here the few could not prey upon the many; yet, for the last twenty-five years, no people on earth have been more successfully

deprived of their honest earnings than the citizens of the United States. Competition is no longer the life of trade. It has grown into a system of combinations and trusts. Shylock rules the commercial world. The worst feature of the whole matter is, that the names of these modern pirates often can be found upon the records of some religious organization, and they are known as liberal contributors to our benevolent and religious institutions.

There was a time when you might make the masses believe that it was a part of the divine plan that some should be very rich and many very poor; but you cannot deceive all the people any longer on that line.

The members of our labor organizations know that it is God's plan that men and women who are able to work must live by their industry, and they are not the poor that "we have with us always," who are spoken of by Christ. He meant that those who were disabled so as to be unable to work should be cared for by alms or charity, and not those who were able to work.

The old rule was that those who could work and would not, should not be allowed to eat. But this ancient rule has been changed, and they who do the least now, get the most. Organized labor proposes to correct these abuses. The revellings of these modern Belshazzars and their thousand lords have been heard, and the expense thereof has been borne too long for the good of the whole. "Weighed and found wanting," is the writing on the wall; and the hand which writes is the hand of the Alliance, and the sentence is against our political and religious leaders. Let the religious organizations of this country practise what they preach before they dare to throw a stone at organized labor. Let all men who claim to be Christians vote as Christ would have them vote, and see how soon all wrongs would be corrected.

Labor is the creator of all wealth. What can capital do without labor? What was this country before the hand of labor seized hold of it? The Grand Master Workman of the universe has arranged matters as well as they could be, so far as natural advantages are concerned. Our country is a world within itself. Everything needful for man's happiness, in this life, is or can be produced within the limits of our country. But what was this country before the "keel of discovery" touched its shores? With all its natural beauty, it was a waste, howling wilderness, inhabited by wild men, ferocious beasts, and venomous reptiles. What power wrought these mighty changes? Instead of the lonely wigwam of the aborigines, we have innumerable beautiful cottage homes, inhabited by millions of farmers and mechanics, the bone and sinew of the grandest government, ancient or modern. Instead of the mud village of some

war chief, we have magnificent cities and towns, scattered all over this vast territory, the centres of commerce, wealth, and refinement. Instead of the lonely pathway of the untutored savages, we have the highway of quick transportation, with its tracks of steel. Instead of the frail canoe of the red man, we have great floating palaces propelled by steam, links in our system of commerce and travel. Instead of the few small patches of half-cultivated maize of the poor Indian, we have thousands of well-tilled farms, the products of which are anxiously sought for the world over. Instead of a few crude shops where the red men manufactured their bows and arrows, we hear the hum of thousands of spindles, the ring of thousands of anvils, and the whir of a million saws.

The contrast is indeed great. What brought about this mighty revolution? Labor. Labor, directed by the spirit of right, has banished the war songs of the savage, and on thousands of hills has erected altars where millions of voices can be heard singing, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." It has erected school-houses all over the land, where the humblest child may obtain a liberal education free. It has demonstrated the fact that the best form of government is where the majority rules, and the rights of the minority are respected. Without labor the iron horse would stand still on the track; the hum of every mill would be hushed; the plow on every farm would stand idle; our churches and school-houses would be closed; and all our boasted glory as a nation would fade away like the flowers before the rays of the scorching midsummer sun. The time has come for the religious world to put itself in line with the great principles of humanity, advocated by organized labor. If the Christian ministers of the United States had the moral courage to preach the religion of Jesus Christ instead of yielding to the influence of Mammon-worshippers, our political organizations would not dare to neglect the demands of the people. If all men who claim to be members of religious institutions would vote as their respective articles of faith indicate, the wrongs of which organized labor complains would be righted at once.

While the very spirit of true religion is found in all Alliance meetings, yet no sectarianism is manifested, or political preferment known. Its motto is, "In things essential, unity; in all things, charity." The question of "Solid North," or "Solid South," is never heard in any wellregulated lodge or local union. The one great question is: How can we better the condition of those who earn their bread by the sweat of their faces? "An injury to one farmer, or laborer of any trade, is the concern of all farmers, laborers, or mechanics," say our labor advocates. It is a true statement; for if a system will take something for nothing

from one toiler, it will reach them all, sooner or later, unless the system is corrected. The industrial reform does not contemplate the destruction of the rights of any one, but it seeks to deprive a few individuals of the special privilege of robbing the many.

What a shame it is that the churches of the country do not lead in these great reforms. But it is now as it has been in all ages, - reform does not begin in churches or parties. It originates in the mind of some one who will not be fettered by the dogmas of ecclesiastical organizations, and who is brave enough to bear the stripes of the old party lash. The leaders of our present reforms are men and women who would not submit to the dictations of either sectarianism or partisanism. They love humanity better than they love sect or party. It is the spirit of Christ that is arousing the people.

No organization, religious or political, need be alarmed at the action. of a body which is constantly striving to secure entire harmony and good will to all mankind, and brotherly love among its own members, laboring to suppress personal, local, sectional, and national prejudices, and all selfish ambition among its members and the people. The Alliance stands by the doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. It is ready to co-operate with all institutions that have for their object the betterment of humanity.