White Slaves
L >>
Louis A Banks >> White Slaves
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 | 11
Shame on the owner of mines whose cruel
And selfish measures have brought him wealth!
While the ragged wretches who dig his fuel
Are robbed of comfort, and hope, and health.
Shame on the ruler who rides in his carriage,
Bought by the labor of half-paid men--
Men who are shut out of home and marriage,
And are herded like sheep in a hovel pen."
There must be no doubt about the attitude of the church in a time like
this. Against the gold god and all his oppressions the Christian Church
must stand with an unflinching front. Our God is the same who spoke
through the voice of Amos of old, saying, "Hear this, oh ye that
swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? And the
sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the
shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy
the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell
the refuse of the wheat?" Ah! how much that sounds like the things that
are going on at the present time! Yet listen to the oath of the
Almighty as He looks on such things: "The Lord hath sworn by the
excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth
therein?... And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God,
that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the
earth in a clear day: and I will turn your feasts into mourning, and
all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sack-cloth upon
all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the
mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day."
It is the mission of our blessed Christianity to save the world from
that bitter day by so changing and transforming it that it will no
longer deserve bitterness, but peace, at the hand of God. Although I
have felt compelled, in this series of discourses, to uncover many dark
and loathsome places in our social system, yet I am no pessimist, and I
do not despair. Jesus Christ, our Captain, saw "Satan fallen as
lightning from heaven;" and when we are as devoted to God, and as
thoroughly consecrated to our mission of curing the world's heartache
as was He, we, too, shall live in sight of the same glorious triumph.
When we are imbued with this faith, and exalted into fellowship with
Him, we will not dare to say that the sweatshop, or the neglected
tenement house, or the noisome liquor saloon, is a necessary contingent
of human life. And we will know that whatever is good enough to be
true, may be and shall be true to the sons and daughters of God. In
that faith we shall be able to sing with the poet:--
"'Tis coming up the steeps of time,
And this old world is growing brighter;
We may not see its dawn sublime,
Yet high hopes make the heart throb lighter!
We may be sleeping in the ground,
When it awakes the peoples' wonder;
But we have felt it gathering round,
And heard its voice of living thunder;
Christ's reign, ah, yes, 'tis coming!
Aye, it _must_ come! the Tyrant's throne
Is crumbling, with men's hot tears rusted;
The sword earth's mighty have leant upon
Is cankered, with men's hearts' blood crusted!
Room! for the man of love make way!
Ye selfish great ones, pause no longer;
Ye cannot stay the opening day,
The world rolls on, the light grows stronger--
The Master's advent's coming!"
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 | 11