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 tj(/ie' //tH'tv/^y» .G^^M/vY'Ui/i/ Uy/?mn/>M€ 
 
• f,;"*^ 
 
 BEFORE 
 
 THE GOUNGIL 
 
 -OR- 
 
 Social Life in Victoria 
 
 — BY 
 
 GEORGE H. TURNER 
 
 35"EBRTJ^:R-3r, 1891 
 
 /■ 
 
m^ 
 
 Entered accordiiiff to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 1891, 
 by Gkorqk H. TuaiJBR, in the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 
 hi P. 
 
N 
 
 
r f 
 
 ''He that /s irifhont mi amour/ yon, let him firnt cast 
 a .stone at her." — John viii., 7. 
 

 BEFORE THE COUNCIL; 
 
 -OR- 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE IN VICTORIA 
 
 ^ 
 
 s>i! 
 
 THE thouglits which find expression in the 
 ollowing pages were brought to the front 
 by the reading of the following article, 
 taken from the Weekly Columbian, published in 
 New Westminster City in the Province of British 
 Columbia, on the 24th of December, 1890. 
 
 The Capital City is agitated at present by a 
 movement, inaugurated by some of the most ag- 
 gressive pastors, for purging the Augean stables 
 of the city's social evil. An association called 
 the Temperance and Moral Reform Association 
 has been formed, and at the last meeting of the 
 Victoria City Council a large delegation from 
 this organization waited upon the Council and 
 were given a hearing. The leaders in the move- 
 ment are Revs. Messrs. P. McF. McLeod and D. 
 Fraser, of the First and Second Presbyterian 
 Churches, and Rev. Coverdale W^atson, of the 
 Pandora Street Methodist Church, Revs. Mc- 
 
4 — 
 
 h 
 
 Leod and WatHon were the Hpokesiiion at the 
 meeting with the Council. They hiid a rather 
 damaging accusation against the Uioral condition 
 of the Capital City, and a somewhat stormy dis- 
 cussion ensued, Mayor Grant rather resenting 
 the idea of the clergy airing the city's dirty linen, 
 while some of the aldermen admitted that things 
 were pretty bad, and demanded remedying. 
 
 Both reverend gentlemen had their address-^ 
 prepared and read them to the Council, " so that 
 any words they uttered might not be misundor- 
 stood or misapplied." Rev. Mr. McLeod intro- 
 duced the question, as follows : 
 
 Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen — We appear before 
 you as a deputation from the Temperance and 
 Moral Reform Council in no censorious spirit, 
 and with no ulterior ends in view. We have no 
 intentions of making charges against you, or of 
 attempting to instruct you in your duties. Our 
 purpose is simply to call your attention to an 
 evil in the city which has grown of late to alarm- 
 ing proportions, and which some of us have very 
 good reason to know is doing incalculable harm 
 to our youth of both sexes. We take it for 
 granted that we are all agreed that the law of 
 England is right in refusing to recognize or legal- 
 ize prostitution, and, therefore, it i'- unnecessary 
 to meet the arguments of those who would intro- 
 
5 — 
 
 
 cUice amon^ ns the continental system. * * ♦ 
 ^^ e wish to call your special attention to the 
 position some of these houses occupy in close 
 proximity to our churclv \ * * * We fur- 
 ther call your attention to the spreading of these 
 houses over the res'l mtialpattsof the city, and 
 to the boldness with which the prostitutes con- 
 duct tliemselves on the streets and in places of 
 public entertainment, as indications tliat the 
 time has come when repressive measures are be- 
 coming absolutely necessary for the protection 
 of the respectable portion of the connnunity. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Watson followed with a statement 
 of principles. He said : 
 
 We are here to ask that this social vice be 
 proceeded against by vigorous measures of re- 
 pression, and accordingly beg to submit the fol- 
 lowing postulates and statements as to the con- 
 victions t'jiat have led us to seek to lay before 
 you this matter, whose delicacy is only equalled 
 by its great and solenm importance and its most 
 serious public concern, viz : 
 
 1. We cannot doubt but that this great and 
 nameless crime is primarily and almost wholly 
 the crime of man. 
 
 2. We would have all doctrine and sentiment 
 upon the subject brought to the test of the actual 
 and practi<".al, and accordingly would submit the 
 
— 6 — 
 
 following to the uncorrupted fountain and in- 
 stincts of the human conscience ; 
 
 (1.) Whence are these poor victims of 
 male lust recruited ? Are they not somebody's 
 precious girls, daughters and sisters, whose con- 
 fiding hearts and susceptible natures have been 
 led on toward the abyss, under tlie most sacred 
 promises, and often after long and artful per- 
 suasion by men of fiendish motives, to be heart- 
 lessly abandoned in their discrowned womanhood 
 and bereft of virtue to take refuge in a life of 
 infamy, when reputation, self-respect and hope, 
 were gone, whilst the destroyer went free, and 
 " one soul suffered for the guilt of two." 
 
 (2.) Who, we ask, with an instinct of human- 
 ity, can plead for the continuance of this horrible 
 holocaust ? Who of us stands prepared to give 
 his own fair daughter or sister to this lecherous 
 debauchery ? If not our own, can we connive at 
 the sacrifice of those of others ? If we cannot 
 plead for it, if we cannot support it, if we are 
 not willing to make sacrifices for it, we must seek 
 its suppression, or sodden in the guilt of in- 
 difierentism ; we shall merit the execration of 
 posterity, and our chief accusers at the final sum- 
 ming up of things, Avill be the poor fallen ones, 
 for whom scant tenderness is felt at the bar of 
 a too partial and thoughtless public opinion. 
 
 
-i 
 
 I 
 
 3. We claim that promiscuous indulgence be- 
 tween the sexes and illicit intercourse, so far from 
 mitigating any evil, tends, on the other hand, to 
 inflame passion, debauches and bestializes its vic- 
 tims, saps the foundations of self-respect, and 
 corrupts beyond any other vice, the very foun- 
 tains of life and virtue. 
 
 4. We propose that the law of purity shall be 
 as sternly applied to man as to woman, in utter 
 abhorrence of the inhuman doctrine that says : 
 " Damn the wom.an and let the man go free." 
 
 5. That vice is never a necessity, since if it 
 were, it would cease to be vice. 
 
 6. That the only lawful treatment of this, as 
 of every other vice, is repression. 
 
 7. The social conscience must be kept up to 
 the point, where it is felt to be an actual re- 
 straint upon the passions of men, and this must 
 be done by righteous laws enacted and faithfully 
 executed. 
 
 8. We assume that every brothel is a nuisance, 
 and, as such, liable to indictment. That, more- 
 over, the illicit sale of liquor is carried on in most, 
 if not in all, of these places. 
 
 9. The ends desired can only be accomplished 
 by a combination of three elements : (1) A just 
 law, (2) municipal vigilance, and (3) private in- 
 stitutional beneficence. 
 
f 
 
 — 8 — 
 
 10. Our .appeal is all the more reasonable from 
 the fact that already private beneficence has 
 provided at lca.st two homes for the express pur- 
 pose of takirig these poor vfomen out of harm's 
 way, and preparing them for resuming a life of 
 usefulness. 
 
 Considcral)le pu])lic interest was manifested in 
 the discussion, the Council chamber Ijeing filled 
 with citizens, and according to tlic Cohmhf, Rev. 
 Mr. McLeod was repeatedly hissed wfi^-'i answer- 
 ing the charge of Mayor Grant, that the minis- 
 ters had defamed the city. At the conclusion of 
 the interview, a motion was passed to the effect 
 that the suggestions of the Temperance and Moral 
 Reform Association be received by the Council, 
 and lie strongly recommended to the incoming 
 Council. 
 
 Does it not seem i-emarkable that the older 
 city, and one whose population is supposed to be 
 more than double that of any other of tlie cities 
 of the Province, whose churches may be num- 
 bered by the dozen, where liberty of speech is 
 freely accorded to ev(3ry man without regard for 
 faith or class, where even the heathen Chinee is 
 permitted to worship his idols and do his utmost 
 to elevate a moral standard o.nd reform from the 
 error of their ways to the freedom and beauty of 
 
 A 
 

 — — 
 
 paganism his wliite brethren ^ slnnild be such a 
 cesspool of corruption that cliurch and brothel 
 stand side by side, a,n(l the palatial residence of 
 the rich, churcli-going aristocrat, and the gilded 
 saloon of the rumseller and the harlot, clustered 
 together as though the one sustained the other. 
 
 To what end is our civilization tending, and 
 what is the future in store for the world ? 
 
 We have no reason to assume that the people 
 of Victoria are either better or worse than other 
 people in the Province, but rather that they are 
 only a little further advanced. The ulcers have 
 grown riper there, and like virulent running sores, 
 refuse to be hidden by the courtplasters of pride. 
 
 But bad as they are, they are not so bad as 
 they will be. It is not the nature of a poisonous 
 sore to heal itself, and we but imitate the follv 
 of the ostrich, which hides its head in the sand, 
 while its body is exposed to the hunter, when we 
 cover up a disease. The cause must be removed; 
 it is idle to hide the consequences. 
 
 I find in another paragraph in the same paper, 
 quoted from no less eminent authority than Gen- 
 eral Booth, that there are three million people in 
 England who are worse off than the cab horses 
 of the streets of London. That twenty thousand 
 men in London daily seek for a chance to earn a 
 crust of bread. 
 
— 10 - 
 
 
 II I 
 
 ! 
 
 i 
 
 ^i 
 
 I 
 
 So you see tliat Victoria is nofc nearly so bad 
 as she will be, for it is doubtful if more than five 
 or six hundred al)le-bodied, vigorous men, willing 
 to earn an honest fiving, daily seek in vain for 
 employment in the City of Victoria. 
 
 I reraend)er looking over the Y. M. 0. A. re- 
 gister in that city not very long ago, and among 
 other things I noticed the words, " Will someone 
 give me a djiy's work for God's sake." The writ- 
 ing was ill a clear legil)le liand, indicating that 
 the unfortunate who wrote it was a man of ex- 
 perience and education. The exceeding pathos 
 of the words made me sad, for I knew well their 
 meaning, for I had myself once Ijcen one among a 
 thousand such men, who tramped the streets of 
 a great city on this coast looking in vain for 
 work. 
 
 I have known young women in the city of 
 Victoria, Christian girls, pure and honors l,.o, 
 thrown upon their own resources for a livelihood 
 seek from house to house for employment, only 
 to be refused ti^e after time — by members of 
 their own and other so-called Christian churches, 
 who did not hesitate to tell them that they would 
 prefer to employ a pagan Chinaman to manage 
 the affairs of their household and care for their 
 little children. 
 
 I have seen the deacon of a fashionable 
 
 ^ 
 
— 11 __ 
 
 church stand for a moment on tlie street corner, 
 and then quietly slide into a gin mill, and after- 
 wards filled with the spirit pray for nearly twenty 
 minutes loud and long enough to move heaven 
 and earth, for the conversion and reform of the 
 wicked. 
 
 " From the beixinning- of creation Gr)d made 
 them male and female." 
 
 It is as natural for a healthy vigorous man to 
 desire companionship and intercourse with 
 women as it is natural for him to want a good 
 square meal when he is hungry, and as most men 
 are averse to eating out of a common trough like 
 a lot of hogs, so it is natural that they should 
 have their preferences in regard to companion- 
 ship of the opposite sex ; but it is also true that 
 as most men will consent to eat from a trough 
 before they would starve, so will they violate 
 their more delicate sense of decency and yield to 
 the force of circumstances which deprive them of 
 the privilege of natural selection. 
 
 The laws of nature are the laws of God, and 
 as well might the pastors of Victoria try to 
 stay the flow of the ocean as it sweeps back and 
 forth through the Straits of Fuca in obedience to 
 the law that governs the tides, as to stop by force 
 the natural working of human nature ; at least 
 the effort, if not so utterly futile, would be only 
 
 mm 
 
i 
 
 - 12 — 
 
 more disastrous, autl so far tVoiii cleansing 
 society, would make it more corrupt and l>estial. 
 Behold tliou art called a CJhri'^fhtv, and mak- 
 est thy boast of rif/hfeonfinefi-'^, and art confident 
 that thou thyself art a guide of tlic hlind, a light 
 of them which art in darkness: an instructor of 
 the foolish: a teacher of counsellors. Thou, there- 
 fore, who teachest another, teachcst thou not thy- 
 self. Thou that pi'eachest a man should not 
 steaJ. : dost tiiou steal? Thou that saj^est a man 
 should not commit adultery : dost thou commit 
 adultery? '^Diou that ahhorest idols: dost thou 
 connnit sacrileges? Thou that makest thy boast 
 of righteousness, through unrighteousness dis- 
 honorest thou God? 
 
 The rigliteous are they tliat do the right to 
 everyone, Init ii]Justice never can bo right be- 
 neath the sun. 
 
 I venture to say that there is not a prostitute 
 in the City of Victoria, who at some time or other 
 was not capable, under proper conditions, of be- 
 coming an honoral)le woman, and perliaps the 
 mother of a family, and who even hoped to be 
 such. That there is not a libertine, vile and de- 
 tesCible, lost to the higher and nobler instincts of 
 manhood, who would not joyfully, had he not 
 been robbed of his birthright, have taken to his 
 home some one of the opposite sex whom he could 
 
 J 
 
13 — 
 
 )estial. 
 131 ak - 
 ilident 
 a lieht 
 'tor of 
 tliere- 
 Dt t]\y- 
 1(1 not 
 a man 
 !ommit 
 t thou 
 ' boast 
 ss dis- 
 
 ght to 
 lit be- 
 
 stitute 
 ; other 
 of he- 
 lps the 
 
 to be 
 lid de- 
 ncts of 
 le not 
 
 to his 
 ! could 
 
 love before all othei's, and who would iiav(3 made 
 liim a better and more honorabh^ man. '^fhere. is 
 no reason why they might not all have been good 
 citizens and true liglits in society, or may even 
 yet become such, Tt is not for us to condemn 
 them, for God ci'eatcd them and they are His. 
 
 Bvit for t]i(5 present they are what they are — 
 the outcasts of society, fast becoming t]ie Ixxly of 
 society itself. Tliey are men and Avomen b.ecom- 
 ing heartless, vindictive and deteraiined. '^Fhey 
 know their position, and instead of dying under 
 tlie withering stare of the self-righteous, they 
 defy and despise them. They take theii* numey, 
 and get as close to tliem as they can. 
 
 No wonder the more fortunate people of Vic- 
 toria ai'e horriiied at the prospect, and at least in 
 fancy, can already see their own precious girls, 
 their daughters and sisters, being hustle<l toward 
 tlie house of infamy, the goal of civilization, but 
 when they tliink to check such tendeiicies by force, 
 they find themselves lielpless as cliildren who 
 would divert the pathway of a storm. 
 
 Something higher thin human enactments — 
 something more potent than individual sellish- 
 ness, must be the barrier that will stay the ad- 
 vancing tide, and spare even a remnant of Christ- 
 ianity to the world. 
 
 It is said that the population of the earth is 
 
ijtshsshbssh:' 
 
 !'-, 
 
 I ; 
 
 iV ! it 
 
 t i 
 
 * u 
 
 
 13 ] 
 
 _. 14 __ 
 
 1,449,000,000, out of wliich Christianity, in all its 
 forms, claims 450,000,000, or loss tlian one-third, 
 while the lime throwers and fighting priests and 
 corruptionists of Castle Comer and every other 
 place, are included in the number. 
 
 The church is cowardly and servile. They 
 dare not follow the fo(^tstops of Christ, and shrink 
 froin contact with the world of reality, while 
 they delude themselves, and lead men astray in 
 dreams, wliile they go down to hell together. 
 
 Whatever we may believe of God, or hope for 
 in the futui'e, this much we do know, that wo are 
 here now, and that our duty is with the present; 
 and the rule of Clirist, " Do unto others as ypu 
 would that they should do to you," should be our 
 rule of life. 
 
 We should be just before we are charitable. 
 
 We should follow the plain teach ing of Christ 
 ourselves, before we coerce others to do so. 
 
 Read the sixth cliaptor of Luke, and let us 
 hear from the preacher in V'ictoria or elsewhere 
 who dares to follow in tli^e way that 
 Christ himself therein preached and practised. 
 I am no friend of vice and licentiousness, but I 
 am a friend of humanity, and I do not believe 
 there is so much difference in human nature, as 
 inherent in individuals, as clothing and education 
 would sometimes indicate. 
 
 
15 
 
 in all its 
 le-third, 
 ists and 
 •y otiier 
 
 . They 
 (1 shrink 
 y, while 
 stray in 
 bher. 
 hope for 
 it wo are 
 present; 
 3 as ypu 
 Id he our 
 
 itahle. 
 ?>i Christ 
 
 d let us 
 sewhere 
 ly that 
 iractised. 
 5s, but I 
 believe 
 ature, as 
 ducation 
 
 I 
 
 Wliilo travolliDg on the C. P. R. a few days 
 ago, I hear<l it contended by an employee of the 
 railroad 0()in])any, tliat laboring men in British 
 Columl)ia, who were fortunate enough to get em- 
 ployment at all, could not average over twenty 
 dollars p(u* numth and board. I felt disposed to 
 differ froni the gentlcnnan at th(^ time, but found 
 many to support his view of ilie situation, and 
 have since conchided that it is only too true. 
 
 How long would the revei-ond divines of Vic- 
 toria continue to occupy their fasliionable pulpits'^ 
 for twenty dollars per montii,anrl whicli of them 
 who is single would undertake to marry and sup- 
 port a family on that amount ; more especially if 
 that pitiful allowance v\^as unccn'tain. 
 
 Referring to the columns of that cyclopedia 
 of useful knowledge, 'rh(3 Colaud>ian, we iind by 
 the editorial on the Chinese entitled "An Un- . 
 pleasant Prospect," that our scale of comfort and 
 civilization among all classes of industry is men- 
 aced by competition with a scale lower still. 
 Quoting the language of a San Francisco mer- 
 chant it says, " We can no more compete with the 
 the Chinese than we can overcome death and 
 fate" — and he might have added, no more can we 
 successfully compete with each other. Compe- 
 tition is destructive, and its tendency is to 
 greater and greater privation and economy on 
 
ZEs: 
 
 11 ' 
 
 I ill I 
 
 ii! 
 
 
 — 16 - . 
 
 the pai't ot* tlio iiuiKscH. " The lioiiso divided 
 against itself will fall." Why is it that our 
 learned preachers of every denomination are so 
 ready to moralize and gi'ow eloquent over the 
 sins of th(^ people wliile they refuse or neglect to 
 investigate the great questions of political 
 economy whicli account for and suggest a remedy 
 for those things ? I fear that too many of them 
 are but whited sepulchers, they contain only 
 dead men's bones, and the living spirit of Christ 
 is not in them. 
 
 CJirist has said to himself " If I be lifted up 
 I will draw all men unto me," but is it realized, 
 has Christ been truly lifted up, have men been 
 drawn to emulate the example of him, who long 
 ago suffered a felon's death on Calvary to set 
 forth to the world the perfection of love ? Not 
 so, for oui- so called Christianity is a libel on 
 Christ, a slander upon the just one. By their 
 works shall ye know them. 
 
 From the cradle to the grave the child is 
 trained, thorough home, and school, and church, 
 and business lite by every manner of worldly 
 example to lie, and cheat, and destroy. From 
 his earliest experience it is a struggle to hold his 
 own and appropriate something of someone else. 
 It has been well said that the surest indication 
 of a downward tendency in our civilization that 
 
<livi(le(l 
 liat our 
 )n arc so 
 )ver the 
 eg'lect to 
 political 
 L remedy 
 
 of thein 
 bin only 
 Qf Christ 
 
 lifted up 
 
 realized, 
 
 len been 
 
 who long 
 
 •y to set 
 
 e? Not 
 
 libel on 
 
 3y their 
 
 child is 
 church, 
 worldly 
 From 
 hold his 
 eone else, 
 ndication 
 tion that 
 
 J- 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 - 17 - 
 
 menaces to-day is not a failure in the supply of 
 food, but a failure in the crop of men. No 
 wonder that Lord Wolseley declares that the 
 Chinese will yet by force of numbers overrun 
 the world when he compares our little band with 
 their countless millions. 
 
 The children should be the wards of the 
 peoples, and no child for mere accident of birth 
 f^liould be starved and pinched hy want and pros- 
 tituted by vice. 
 
 Christ said, " Suffer little children to come 
 unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the 
 kinf^dom of heaven." He did not say bring me 
 that delicate germ of humanity, clotlied in 
 ermine and fine linen, but awa^' with the child 
 of the prostitute, the gutter snipe, and the 
 shivering waif of poverty. No ! but his invi- 
 tation was general " little cliildren," and as he 
 clasped them in love to his heart he truly real- 
 ized that upon the coming to him of the little 
 ones would depend the salvation of the world. 
 
 Men are disposed to reason, but children are 
 ready to learn. If the children o.re taught tlie 
 story of Christ, his lessons of equnlity, and the 
 love of country, we may look for a generation 
 wherein love and fellowshin will be more than a 
 name, wherein co-operation will be possible and 
 union will indeed be strength. Every woman 
 
r 
 
 f 
 
 '•; 
 
 d 
 
 
 $ 
 
 — 18 — 
 
 who gives birtli to a child should be esteemed a 
 benefactor of her race and country, for lias she 
 not added another soul to labor for the good of 
 others, has she not increased the number of 
 those who may labor to advance the cause of 
 Christ and spread abroad the Glad Tidings. 
 
 It is said that every man who comes into the 
 country, without regard to his wealth, is worth 
 at least threo tliousand dollars to the country. 
 If such be true, tlum under a national co-oper- 
 ative union, which would comprise every branch 
 of capital and industry, the value of the indi- 
 vidual would be tenfold increased, and our 
 country would grow strong, and population would 
 multiply, and wealth would overilow, and a 
 single case of poverty would be unknown. Men 
 would have time to think, they would hav v3 time 
 to cultivate the joys of home, and the marvell- 
 ous force of human intellect set free would be 
 directed in a way that would speedily redeem 
 the world to a condition that would outshine in 
 glory and peace and comfort the fairest dreams 
 of Eden. 
 
 Look around us to-day and behold the vast 
 wealth of natural resources that lie undeveloped 
 in the country, the private property of capital- 
 ists who will neither use nor permit others to 
 use, hundreds of thousands of acres of the finest 
 
 I 
 
19 - 
 
 ,eome(l a 
 • lias she 
 ! pfood ot* 
 imber of 
 cause of 
 ngs. 
 
 s into the 
 is worth 
 country. 
 : co-oper- 
 ry l)ranch 
 the indi- 
 and our 
 :ion would 
 w, and a 
 wn. Men 
 lav time 
 inarvell- 
 would be 
 I redeem 
 tshine in 
 st dreams 
 
 I the vast 
 [developed 
 f capital- 
 others to 
 the finest 
 
 agricultural land under the sun, capat)le of slip- 
 porting a population a thousand times that of 
 British Columbia at the present time, held at 
 such prices as prohibit development or enslave 
 the producers, or by our sapient government 
 absolutely witheld from settlement, valuable 
 mines locked up, and boundless areas of timber 
 land worth many millions of dollars, literally 
 stolen from tlie people and given to strangers, 
 many of whom are non-residents and aliens. 
 
 By what divine authority is this monstrous 
 outrage i^orpetrated against the people. There 
 is none. It is a base and absurd imposition. 
 But our christian ministry can see no wrong in 
 this. They are too busy building fine churches, 
 fighting among themselves, and crowding from 
 their pathway some unfortunate brother or 
 sister whom they fear may chance to touch 
 their spotless robes. 
 
 "The land shall not be sold forever ; for the 
 land is mine ; for ye are strangers and sojourners 
 with me, said the Lord." Still every title that 
 is issued by the crown conveys to the granter 
 his heii , and assigns /breiJer the lands described 
 therein. 
 
 No man has any exclusive right to the earth 
 from which the bodies of his fellows are derived 
 and stistained, and to which they must return. 
 
— 20 
 
 ■."V 
 
 \m 
 
 i ■ 
 
 Were natural opportunities made available for 
 production, and labor set free by immense co- 
 operation and union, the grand hopes of the 
 redemption of the world would be quickly real- 
 ized. Then the words of Christ would be easy 
 to understand, and the wondrous story of the 
 birth and life and death and resurrection of our 
 Lord would be more than of fabulous significance 
 in the minds of men. 
 
 The righteous shall inherit the earth, said he, 
 
 To whom Heaven and Earth shall bend the knee. 
 
 How often I have paused at that wonderful text, 
 
 And left it at last with a mind perplexed, 
 
 For how, in a world like this where might is law, 
 
 Can the righteous get a foothold on earth at all ? 
 
 But at last I believe that to men is given 
 
 To reveal the mystery, a light from heaven ; 
 
 For we see in the times of to-day, 
 
 A wonderful movement on the way. 
 
 "Give a rogue rope and he will hang himself," 
 
 So it is with injustice and ill-gotten wealth. 
 
 As we hoard our treasures, and our spoils increase, 
 
 Our cares will multiply until they banish peace. 
 
 For conscience makes cowards of men, we know. 
 
 And the heart ever shrinks from an unseen foe. 
 
 The voice of justice is loud and clear. 
 
 And strikes a chord in every ear. 
 
 How can a mar have unless to him it is given, 
 
 And how can )ie sell the treasures of heaven 
 
 
21 — 
 
 able for 
 ense co- 
 s o£ the 
 dy real- 
 be easy 
 y of the 
 m of our 
 rnificance 
 
 I he, 
 
 the knee. 
 ;rful text, 
 
 1, 
 
 it is la',v, 
 
 1 at all 1 
 
 1 
 
 en; 
 
 aself," 
 th. 
 
 s increase, 
 1 peace. 
 e know, 
 3en foe. 
 
 given, 
 iven 
 
 ?.;A 
 
 A loving father has given to you and to me 
 
 The earth and the air and the boundless sea. 
 
 The blessings of earth should be as free as the air 
 
 To comfort God's creatures and banish despair, 
 
 For God never gave to his creature man 
 
 The right to buy or to sell the land. 
 
 From out of the soil our bodies have come, 
 
 And return to the dust when our race is run. 
 
 To whom God has given a deed of the soil. 
 
 He has given as well with their fruits of toil. 
 
 All creatures of earth, both man arid beast, 
 
 Whatever may journey from west to east. 
 
 God has not given; and no man may show 
 
 Such a title deed to this earth below, 
 
 For the poor have been robbed, their trust betrayed 
 
 Slaves to their brothers, the landless are made. 
 
 No wonden if men when they open their eyes. 
 
 And see the injustice wrought under the skies, 
 
 Feeling that theirs is the guilt and the shame, 
 
 Should wipe out with the sword the iniquitious stain. 
 
 " An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," 
 
 And so in this instance it will prove, I am sure ; 
 
 Let the land be restored to the public domain, 
 
 And all have the right to till it the same. 
 
 As they did in the patriarchal days of old. 
 
 Ere for a mess of pottage a birthright sold ; 
 
 For the question of right can have no place at all 
 
 When it means the monopoly of this terrestial ball. 
 
 Often man's bosom the viper has nursed 
 
 Until its poisoned fangs his life has cursed, 
 
fl 
 
 l^^l 
 
 i: 
 
 — 22 — 
 
 As slavery's delusion of the olden days, 
 
 When lit by the light of freedom's rays, 
 
 Faded with the lives of the bravest and best. 
 
 Who perished in blood ere the struggle was blessed. 
 
 That such a revolution as the restoration of lands. 
 
 Can be wrought in peace as justice demands, 
 
 Is hard to believe, but this much is known. 
 
 We will reap but the whirlwind our forefathers 
 
 have sown. 
 
 Then join in the ranks, it is justice decree, 
 
 That the use of the earth to all should be free, 
 
 Let no man think that the gifts of God 
 
 Does not include the free use of the fertile sod. 
 
 When men do right they will righteous be. 
 
 The earth, their inheritance, will then be free. 
 
 But a curse shall hover beneath the sun 
 
 Until this work of justice is fully done. 
 
 Great men have labored and given their lives 
 
 To spend on earth's altars, love's sacrifice. 
 
 Having seen in the distance the coming cloud 
 
 Their cries of warning have been long and loud. 
 
 The " Prophet of San Francisco," as some have 
 styled 
 
 That valliant hero and fair freedom's child. 
 
 Who by voice and pen has never ceased to call 
 
 The attention of his brothers to the rights of all. 
 
 When they have broken the chains the past has forged, 
 
 They will prove themselves worthy of Henry George. 
 
 God bless i he man, may his heart of love 
 
 ^hare with the faithful in heaven above. 
 
 M 
 
— ae - 
 
 best, 
 
 vas blessed, 
 n of lands, 
 ),nds, 
 wn, 
 forefathers 
 
 ee, 
 je free, 
 
 tile sod. 
 be, 
 be free. 
 
 lives 
 ce. 
 
 cloud 
 \nd loud. 
 
 some have 
 
 tiild, 
 
 i to call 
 
 hts of all, 
 
 3t has forged, 
 
 enry George. 
 
 ve 
 
 e. 
 
 May his eyes yet kindle to see the day 
 When much of earth's sorrow has passed away, 
 For Christ in his spi/it is abroad to-day. 
 Such men uplift him to guide us on the way. 
 Though gazing upward they feel the darkness g" ^her, 
 They still refl^ict the ray to some ben ghted brother 
 I Who, stumbling forward, may touch their garments 
 bright. 
 And looking upward catch the gleam of heaven's light. 
 
 As with the child, so with the sick and the 
 ^ aged. Every provision at the command of an 
 enlightened people should be made for their 
 comfort and welfare. The sick should be healed 
 in the name of Christ, the Great Physician, 
 while the last days should be made days of 
 jpeace and plenty to the aged veter ns, who have 
 so long and faithfully served in the Master's 
 vineyard, that their last sun might not fade from 
 pur view in clouds and darkness, but rather sink 
 peacefully, only to glorify some other sky. 
 
 What a sin that ai'tera life of toil the man and 
 woman who have produced enough in the world 
 to feed and clothe tliomselves for twenty lives, 
 should be forced Over the Hills to the Poor 
 House. Justice and not sacrifice is what we 
 should endeavor to accord to them, and who 
 liannot see the wisdom of exercising justice and 
 |nercy in a case like this. Two things are 
 
 JL 
 

 _ 24 — 
 
 known. We have all been young, and we shall 
 all die of disease or age. What then we grant 
 to others we shall receive in like measure, and 
 be the humble instrumeiits in the Master's hands 
 of doing good. 
 
 The infant that first breathes the air to-day, 
 Will rule the world when our locks are gray, 
 If we would rear the child in the way he should go, 
 The love of his country first teach him to know, 
 By nursing utA feeding, and clothing likewise, 
 We may fit for the future a soul that can rise, 
 For how can greed and selfishness, the lessons given, 
 Fit a man for the world, much less for hea^^en. 
 The young and the aged, the sick and the frail, 
 Ever send up to heaven their mournful wail. 
 For starving and dying, their weakness oppressed, 
 Unknown to the grave sink the purest and best. 
 Oh ! merciful grave, to shelter' at last 
 The form of God's creatures l)y men outcast. 
 But be sure, the sad deed and the horrible shame 
 Will brand men with a curse, as it branded Cain, 
 For 'tis our brothers and sisters, our kindred that sink, 
 Beyond the darkness and horror of hell's fatal brink. 
 No wonder that ))i<^tef agony his bosom swept, 
 As thinking of the future our Saviour wept. 
 That men's hardness of heart, Jind blindness, too. 
 Should ignore all works that our Master could do. 
 To warn them of d;inger, and raise them above 
 By deeds of mercy and words of love. 
 
 V i 
 
 li K'^^ 
 
^*Tn!wSS??*J^^^*«»*''*?'* , * 
 
 ^-^gEBg^a^SfcJil-^E^-?;^, 5^^ 
 
 ci:u:sT clc<:c[:;g LiTTLC ci 
 

 m 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 f '- 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 J. 
 
 f 
 
 
 'i 
 
 
 MM 
 
 1 
 i 
 
 »! 
 
 ■ 
 
 T 
 
 •J 
 
 1.1 ' 1 1 
 
 V 
 
^ 
 
 \: 
 
 — 25 — 
 
 The Lord God, which gatheroth the outcasts 
 of Israel, saith, " Yet will I gather others unto 
 Him beside those that are gathered unto him." 
 
 " His watchmen are blind, they are all ignor- 
 ant, they are all dumb dogs sleeping, lying dawn, 
 loving to slumber ; yea, they are greedy dogs 
 which can never have enough, and they are shep- 
 herds that cannot understand, they all look to 
 their own way, every one for his gain from his 
 quarter." 
 
 " My people have been lost sheep ; their 
 shepherds have caused them to go astray ; they 
 have turned them away on the mountains ; they 
 have gone from mountain to hill ; they have 
 forgotten their resting place ; all that found 
 them have devoured them ; and their adversaries 
 said. We offend not, because they have sinned 
 against the Lord." 
 
 Are not those words, in all their bitterness 
 and reproach, applicable to-day to the shepherds 
 of Victoria. Are there no duties which they 
 owe as the ministers of Christ to the harlots and 
 the unclean. Do they not also owe an equally 
 urgent duty to those who struggle on in the path 
 they deem of duty to their God, surrounded by 
 every temptation of Satan, beset by mighty odds, 
 downtrodden and oppressed by social institutions 
 so unchristianlike in their character, so fiend- 
 
— 26 — 
 
 ishly destructive of life and purity, so contrary 
 to every principle of justice and humanity, that 
 had the ministers of Christ to the people been true 
 to their Master and faithful to their trust such 
 stumbling blocks to human progress would long 
 since have been rolled from the way. You rail 
 against the libertine and despise the deflowered 
 virgin, but have not the preachers ravished the 
 bride of Christ, have they not by their pride and 
 negligence laid open and uncovered to reproach 
 the churches that should be of Christ. 
 
 Why should the preachers, the professed fol- 
 lowers of the lowly Nazarene, be the exponents 
 of pride and arrogance and inequality. Are not 
 the loving promises of Christ as true to the 
 vilest prostitute that walks the streets of Vic- 
 toria as to the blatant pulpit pounder, who, by 
 sounding words and elocutionary gynniastics, 
 entertains the dear immaculates of the capital 
 city. "For such arc false apostles, deceitful 
 workers, transforming themselves into the 
 apostles of Christ, and no marvel, for Satan him- 
 self is transformed into an angel of liglit. There- 
 fore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be 
 transformed as the ministers of righteousness." 
 If they were true ministers of Christ would they 
 not rather delight to have the whores and their 
 following come witlun the range of their voice, 
 
 'I 
 
 m 
 
I 
 
 'k»-.^- 
 
 contrary 
 lity, that 
 been true 
 •ust such 
 uld long 
 You rail 
 eflowerecl 
 shed the 
 pride and 
 reproach 
 
 essed fol- 
 xponents 
 Are not 
 Le to the 
 )s of Vic- 
 , who, hy 
 ^nmastics, 
 le capital 
 deceitful 
 into the 
 atan hini- 
 it. There- 
 's also be 
 eousness." 
 Tjuld they 
 and theii' 
 icir voice, 
 
 - 27 - 
 
 " Christ came not to save the righteous, but to 
 bring sinners to repentance." Away with the so 
 called Christianity that means nothing but vanity, 
 that does not relieve the poor, that falters and 
 fails in the path of justice. 
 
 What a pitiful spectacle is upheld to the 
 world when the Christian ministry wrap their 
 robes about them and apj^eal to civil authority 
 to do by force what they themselves, if true to 
 their profession, would accomplish by the sj^irit 
 of Christ and with much more satisfactory 
 results, for the authorities can only move the 
 objectionable parties, whereas contact with 
 Christian love and example would change them 
 into good citizens and co-laborers. Many of the 
 best soldiers of the cross havs been won from 
 the ranks of Satan. 
 
 But after all, when we consider the vast 
 deluge that is daily carrying thousands to vice 
 instead of virtue, and how few are saved while 
 thousands and thousands more go down to des- 
 pair, need we marvel that preachers, who are 
 men, and must live as Avell as others, and some- 
 times support families, being the liired servants 
 of a wealth-accumulating religious corporation, 
 should become wearied of the strife and conclude 
 to get their salaries in the easiest way possible, 
 Qven though it be to shift their obligations on to 
 
i :lil I 
 
 ii* 
 
 
 m 1 
 
 til 
 
 H 
 
 — 28 — 
 
 the civil council, who perhaps make no profession 
 of religious faith. 
 
 But we may well wonder that men educated 
 and refined, schooled in every phase of human 
 nature, should be so blind and craven as to sell 
 their own birthright and be silent witnesses while a 
 great social evil is degrading and brutalizing 
 their brothers also. 
 
 It is a great pity about their precious daugh- 
 ters and their darling sisters if they be placed in 
 danger of misfortune, through the evil example 
 of the dissolute debauchees of vice, but they 
 would merit no more sympathy and perhaps not 
 so much as countless thousands of well meaning 
 girls, once as pure as they, who were not led 
 astray by their own vicious propensities, lured 
 on by the gaudy (and to a pure person) disgust- 
 ing example of vice, but forced toward destruc- 
 tion by continued poverty and hardship until 
 familiar with tlie face of sin and long estranged 
 through no fault of theirs from Christian influ- 
 ence, that which they once abhorred becomes 
 attractive and their fate is sealed. The next 
 thing we may expect to hear from the fashicm- 
 able preachers of Victoria will be a petition to 
 the Council to set apart some portion of the less 
 aristocratic part of the city for apartments for 
 servant girls and others who labor honestly for 
 
rofessioii 
 
 educated 
 f human 
 IS to sell 
 es while a 
 •utalizing 
 
 IS daugh- 
 placed in 
 I example 
 but they 
 rhaps not 
 meaning 
 e not led 
 }ies, lured 
 i) disgust- 
 l destruc- 
 5hip until 
 estranged 
 tian influ- 
 [ becomes 
 The next 
 3 fashion- 
 petition to 
 of the less 
 ments for 
 Qestly for 
 
 — 20 — 
 
 a living. Many even now i)refer not to eat at 
 the same table with persons however respectable 
 who are guilty of the unpardonable sin of work- 
 ing for their bread. 
 
 But we must not suppose that the Christian 
 ministers ai'e all so stupid, lazy and corrupt as 
 would sometimes appear. There are, no doubt, 
 many among them wlio earnestly desire for the 
 elevaticm of the masses, and who would willingly 
 make great personal sacritices to tliat end, but 
 the grinding slavery of their institutions make 
 them mere machines which must be wound off 
 like a hand organ when the time comes for them 
 to be heard from. Their souls are not their own ; 
 they dare not give free expression to their 
 religious views if they should differ from the 
 dogmas of their church. The reason is plain ; it 
 is the same which compels a workman on one of 
 our great railroads to toil night and day, Sunday 
 and every other day, for a mere living. It is 
 that feeling that whatever else may happen they 
 must live themselves and support their families 
 if they can, and then besides all that is the very 
 popular delusion which has been schooled into 
 them perhaps from earliest infancy, that if they 
 only suffer on in patience, however stupid and 
 brutal, their immortal souls will sometime 
 rejoice in the bliss of heaven, as though wilful 
 
I 
 
 
 £1 
 
 . I 
 
 — ;m) — 
 
 » 
 
 stupidity was an oxciise in tlui sifj^lit of God for 
 oi)iigationH unperformed ; as I liave seen old 
 sailors acting on the same principle — get beastly 
 drunk in hope of avoiding a little hard work. 
 
 In many instances the preachers themselves 
 have been deceived, and it is doubtful if any of 
 them can give a good reason for many of the 
 views they teach and the hopes they profess to 
 entertain. 
 
 What a pitiable siglit the churches present to 
 the world. First of all arrayed against each 
 other, and finally combining against the trans- 
 gressors, to save whom by the loving spirit of 
 Christ is their l)oasted mission. Where are the 
 works which of old proclaimed the disciples of 
 the Nazarene ? Some preachers tell us that the 
 Churcli has advanced a scale above that sort of 
 thin;,;. W^e are told that miracles of healing and 
 relief from the power of sin are things of the 
 past, and not to be practiced by those who 
 believe to-day. But at the same time the world 
 is not keeping pace with the church in that 
 respect, for human nature remains the same as 
 ever, and human suffering is intensified both in 
 individuals in and out of the church, and when, 
 as has occasionally happened, some one, perhaps 
 more courageous and honest than the rest of 
 them, dares to proclaim to the world that Christ 
 
- .'U 
 
 i.s still ready and willing to save the weak and 
 perishing, the pastors combine and issue a mani- 
 festo declaring against him, as in the case of the 
 Oakland pastors against Downie. 
 
 " None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth 
 for truth : they trust in vanity and speak lies. 
 I^hey conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity." 
 They seem to forget that whatever may be true 
 or false in regard to life beyond the grave, 
 there can be no mistake about the fact that we 
 are here now, and our duties abide with us. 
 Surely it is vain to shift the responsibilities of 
 this life on to eternity, hoping by reason of a 
 good store of credit laid up in Heaven to avoid 
 the duties of earth. The promises of God are 
 much easier to understand, and the duties He 
 requires of us in this life than those which per- 
 tain to a life to come. 
 
 If instead of preaching all the time about 
 something they can't eat, the preachers would 
 come down from their self exalted position as 
 oracles of heaven and talk a little common sense 
 to the people, and endeavor to solve tlie problem 
 for the rest of humanity of making a living in this 
 world, they would soon accomplish more good for 
 the cause of Christ and the redemption of the race 
 than by a thousand years of eloquence and mean- 
 ingless talk about eternity and immortality. y 
 

 - .s^ - 
 
 As I passed a place of worship this evening 
 I heard a very excellent man, a preacher of the 
 Gospel, say, speaking of the sorrows of life, 
 " There are also the sorrows of the world, which, 
 if God docs not send he at least permits, such as 
 that which is occasioned by a man of liberal 
 tastes trying to make a small income meet a 
 large expenditure." I thought, my friend, you 
 struck the nail on the head that time. How 
 true it is God does permit it for a time, but we 
 may be sure the sorrow is not nearly so great as 
 it will be if we continue to violate His sacred 
 laws. God is not mocked, and He will justify 
 Himself in men tliough it be through the gates 
 of death. 
 
 Has He ever been niggardly in his providence 
 for man ? Not so ; but men have time and time 
 again wantonly squandered his gifts, neither 
 using them themselves nor permitting others to 
 do so. Excepting a limited number, men are 
 forbidden by law to fish from the rivers of this 
 province, simply to keep up the market price of 
 fish, in other words to make fish dear to the con- 
 sumer, while at the same time the waters swarm 
 with every variety of salmon, which swim for 
 hundreds of miles up the rivers, and finally die 
 by thousands and drift ashore to rot in the sun 
 and corrupt the water and breed pestilence 
 
.^3 
 
 ; cveiiino' 
 er of the 
 ^ of life, 
 '1(1, which, 
 is, such as 
 of liberal 
 e meet a 
 iend, you 
 ne. How 
 e, but we 
 
 great as 
 [is sacred 
 ill justify 
 the ffates 
 
 n'ovidence 
 
 1 and time 
 5, neither 
 others to 
 
 men are 
 rs of this 
 b price of 
 'J the Con- 
 ors swarm 
 swim for 
 inally die 
 1 the sun 
 pestilence 
 
 ■',i 
 
 along the banks ; and this is only an instance. 
 It is so with nearly every branch of supply. 
 Great lumber mills on the coast, representing 
 many thousands of dollars, are shut down and 
 hundreds of men turned out of employment to 
 keep up the piice of lumber. Coal mines are 
 closed and ships are tied up to tlie docks to keep 
 up the price of coal, antl men willing to work 
 are evicted from their homes. 
 
 Men live in log hovels because they cannot 
 afford to buy lumber to build better homes. 
 The children of the unfortunate shiver from cold 
 and exposure because they cannot afford to pur- 
 chase clotliiiig and fuel, and the poor the world 
 over famish and starve, or are driven to vice 
 and crime for want of food. One man, by reason 
 of the monopoly of natural opportunities wMch 
 he neither helped to create nor develop, ca.n 
 dictate to tliousands of hard working British 
 subjects witli as much despotic authority as is 
 exercised in his position by the autocrat of 
 Russia. 
 
 Another, by means of a law which enables 
 him to exercise a vote for every unsold lot in a 
 town site^ may stand between five hundred or a 
 thousand men and incorporation, and is able to 
 sell water, light, and lumber at his own ternis. 
 
 The man who buys a town lot and builds a 
 

 
 ai 
 
 - - 34 - 
 
 house on it is fined for building liis liouse and 
 even for buying the lot, inasnuich as he will 
 have to pay taxes on an assessed valuation of 
 twenty times or more what the original holder is 
 assessed. Such is the encourao-ement given to 
 industry and tlie check to ;-;p ''*-u 'ion in natural 
 opportunities. Do we wonvici cixat so many 
 valuable farms and town lots are to be seen un- 
 occupied and unimproved throughout the Prov- 
 ince, but we may wonder that intelligent men 
 who are supposed to have the welfare of human- 
 ity at heart can look upon such a state of affairs 
 with indifference, while tliey tliemselves shrink 
 with loathing from public contact with its 
 natural fruits — prostitutes, and libertii.?!-., and 
 tramps. What pleasant fruits ii ac'<l our 
 boasted Christian civilization is bearin,:c i< B.itish 
 Columbia, 
 
 Do the preachers of Victoria ever read the 
 Bible ? If they do they had better read the 
 fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, and if they do not 
 it will be a g(^od place to bogin if they want to 
 get an idea of what is pleiii,xng to iUi^ God they 
 profess to worship. 
 
 Saith the Lord — " Is not this the fast that I 
 have chosen ? to V>opio v;';e bands of wickedness, 
 to undo the heavy I)urd3ii3 and to let the op- 
 pressed go free, and that ye break every yoke. 
 
— r) 
 
 use {111(1 
 
 lie will 
 
 lation of 
 
 H)ld(3r is 
 
 fiven to 
 
 natui-al 
 
 () many 
 
 een m\- 
 
 e Prov- 
 
 iit men 
 
 human- 
 
 •f affairs 
 
 shrink 
 
 ^vitli its 
 
 ler., and 
 
 rA our 
 
 • 3^ ^tish 
 
 ead the 
 ead the 
 i do not 
 want to 
 3d they 
 
 5t that I 
 kedness, 
 the op- 
 y yoke. 
 
 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and 
 that thou bring the poor that are cast out or 
 (ffflicted to thy house. When thou seest the 
 naked that tliou cover him, and that thou hide 
 not thyself from thy own flesh ? Then shall thy 
 light break forth cas the morning, and thy health 
 shall spring fc^rth speedily, and thy righteous- 
 ness shall go before thee, and the gk^ry of the 
 Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call 
 and the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry and 
 he shall say " Here I am." If thou take away 
 from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting 
 forth of the finger and speaking vanity, and if 
 thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy 
 the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in 
 obscurity and thy darkness be as the noon day." 
 
 The preachers are looked upon as a light to 
 the people, but too often that light is darkness 
 because they fail to reflect the Light of Christ. 
 
 Well may the people exclaim " We wait for 
 light, but behold obscurity for brightness, biit 
 we walk in darkness," and so long as they fail to 
 look to the source of light themselves they will 
 continue to grope as if they had no eyes, and 
 stumble at noon day, as in the night ; while they 
 follow crooked paths wherein there is no peace. 
 The kingdom of God is with men, and if they be 
 true to themselves and to the Captain of their 
 
86 
 
 M 
 
 If 
 
 salvation the day may not be i^ar distant when 
 poverty and grinding want shall be unknown, 
 and the glory of righteousness, the harvest of 
 peace, shall burst in fullness upon the woi'ld. 
 
 Let us all tlien lav a-side our vain strife 
 against each other, and uniting the efforts of 
 preacher and prostitute, saint and sinner, under 
 the banner of Christ, each do his best to undo 
 the evil that is done, and upon a solid rock of 
 love and fellowship rear a structure of righteous- 
 ness, tliat may claim to lay hold on the blessed 
 promises of God. 
 
 Yes, the sinner and the prostitute may help 
 to work out their own salvation, and be the 
 means in God's hands of helping to redeem 
 many of the preachers too. 
 
 Quoting from the columns of the Vancouver 
 Daily Telegram, a despatch, dated January 2nd, 
 says — " The severe weather is attended in Lon- 
 don by an unusual amount of destitution, the 
 number of persons seeking refuge nightly in 
 casual wards being greater than for several 
 winters past. Coal is reaching such prices in 
 Glasgow that the poorer quarters of the city 
 are suffering for want of it. Dealers who have 
 considerable stocks are, in some instances, hold- 
 ing back for higher prices, and appalling cases 
 of destitution and suffering are reported. The 
 
 •,l 
 
 i 
 
wmsm 
 
 when 
 known, 
 v^est of 
 Id. 
 
 strife 
 brts of 
 , under 
 o undo 
 rock of 
 hteous- 
 blessed 
 
 ay help 
 be the 
 redeem 
 
 icouver 
 ly 2nd, 
 n Lon- 
 on, the 
 itly in 
 several 
 •ices in 
 le city 
 o have 
 3, hold- 
 
 ^ cases 
 
 :i 
 
 The 
 
 — H1 - 
 
 authorities find tlieinsclves overwhelmed with 
 applications for relief, which, owing to the scar- 
 city of fuel on account of the railway strike, 
 they have been unable to adeipiatoly deal with. 
 The condition of female employment in the 
 metropolis ip attracting much needed attention. 
 Many women engaged in the match-box trade 
 are employed from seven in tlie morning until 
 ten or eleven at night, and on Fridays they often 
 work all night, providing their own paste, string 
 and fuel for drying their boxes, and all this for 
 from five shillings and sixpence to seven shill- 
 ings a week. They not only work, but they 
 almost starve, and said Mrs. Labouchere : ' To 
 starve is bad enough, but to work and starve is 
 hideously wrong.' " 
 
 Must women not live ? Is it a part of our 
 religious code, that countless thousands of hum ^n 
 l)eings, claiming fatherhood with the same merci- 
 ful God as our Christian pastors, who draAV large 
 salaries and live in comfortable homes and enter- 
 tain the elect, should be enslaved, starved, and 
 brutalized, their very prayers to God answered 
 in cwful mockery by the piteous, wailing, heart- 
 rending cries of their starving children. Think 
 you, that such wrongs shall go unavenged ? 
 Think you, righteous ones, who by reason of 
 fe.vorable fortune or sublime rascality possess 
 
-i: 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 __ 3s — 
 
 the earth and depi'ive those |)e<)ph^ the use ot 
 natural opportunities : How wouM you enjoy 
 living on twenty-two cents per day and furnish 
 your own niaterial to work witli, probably re- 
 ducing" your net receipts to ten or fifteen cents, 
 out of which you must live and support a fam- 
 ily ? How would you, sliould sickness overtake 
 you, enjo}?- the prospect of having your wives 
 and mothei's, your precious daughters and dear 
 sisters, reduced to such a strait ? How long do 
 you think that either life or virtue would exist 
 under such conditions, even in them whom you 
 delight to consider, in your vanity, as pure and 
 innocent as tlie angels of heaven. Were they 
 not born nake<l into the world as other children, 
 will they not leave it to dissolve in dust and cor- 
 ruption just as the children of others, however 
 rich or poor, however refined or degraded. 
 
 A sinner enters one of our popular churches, 
 if he is a well-dressed sinner he is politely con- 
 ducted to a front seat. The kind-hearted well- 
 dressed lady who occupies the seat near him, 
 very kindly shares her hymn book with him ; 
 if he drops a five in the plate he becomes a 
 saint ; if he is a fine singer and polished in his 
 manner, the preachers and their 'wives, and 
 mothers and precious daughters, and darling 
 sisters hasten to form his acquaintance and 
 
 
- :^9 
 
 i use ot* 
 u enjoy 
 furnish 
 il)ly re- 
 n cents, 
 a fani- 
 vertake 
 wives 
 tid clear 
 long do 
 Id exist 
 oni you 
 ure and 
 I'e they 
 hildren, 
 md cor- 
 lowever 
 [. 
 
 lurches, 
 ily con- 
 [1 well- 
 ir him, 
 [i him ; 
 3mes a 
 I in his 
 s, and 
 larling 
 5e and 
 
 wolconu^ liiiii as a godsend to tlicir sweet 
 society. And tlic dear sinner will find them 
 deliglitf'ul company too. 
 
 A sinner cntei's one of onr fashionable 
 churclies, sh(! is a ]ioor sinner and her crime 
 is poverty, l^er clotlies ii]v. thin and altliough 
 clean are long out of style. Slie also linds a 
 seat, but lier recej^tion is cold and formal. She 
 looks around hei", and tlie air of comfort and 
 independence displayed hy her neigh1)ours only 
 makes her poor heart feel more forlorn. 
 
 Slie feels that in some way slie is separated 
 from them, that her ])()verty lias placed her in 
 a different sphei'e, and as slie listens to the elo- 
 (juent words of tlu^ pi'eacliei", she feels that 
 whatever they may mean to otiiers, they have 
 no application in tliis world to lier life and she 
 wishes tlie struggle was over, leaves the church 
 door, as perhaps she has left it a thousand times 
 before, with no other ccmsolation than this, that 
 she is one day nearer home, one day nearer lier 
 final resting-place wliere there will be neither 
 rich or poor, cold or hunger, sorrow or sadness. 
 Alas J What an idle dream, what a sad and fatal 
 mirage. It may be true, that away beyond the 
 desert of thi^ life, there is a land where love and 
 peace and shelter may be found, but what folly, 
 what cruel mockery, to cast its reflection upon 
 

 ill 
 
 
 ;li;,_ 
 
 - 40 - 
 
 the horizon while the fainting traveller, robbed 
 of tliat which her Maker in kind providence 
 intended for lier use, famished and dying, falls 
 by the way. 
 
 We talk about Chinese on the Pacific coast 
 and the degra<ling effects of competition with 
 them, but on the Atlantic coast they have a 
 different race of Cliinamen, " Italian women, 
 living in filtli and vermin inconceival)le," mak- 
 ing ladies' tea gowns, except the button-holes, 
 for one dollar and fifty cents per dozen. And 
 in competiticm with them again, we find what ? 
 Charitable institutions for the refuge of the poor 
 and the reform of the wicked, as tliougli tlie 
 " Good Shepherds," as they call tliemselves, wish 
 to place their business on a permanent basis, by 
 manufacturing prostitutes and thieves and vag- 
 rants, that they may have the " Glory in Heaven " 
 of picking them up from the streets and by giving 
 them a few nights shelter, reform them some 
 more until next time. What infernal fiends we 
 might well consider them, only that we know 
 that many of them are well-meaning honest 
 men, who are led on to those very things by 
 what they deem to be the path of duty. 
 
 It is one of the mysteries hard to solve but 
 that sometime will be understood, how men who 
 mean well can be so blindly led. 
 
■^ 
 
 — i\ --^ 
 
 ■ I believe it must be because tliey fail to take 
 the true Liglit of the Woi'ld fov tlieir guide and 
 teacher. Tliey do not stop to consider the con- 
 sequences before they phinge headlong into an 
 enterprise, which, to their shortsiglited vision, 
 seems to afford a possible remedy for the cruel 
 wrongs of lUmjanity. 
 
 To compete means to strive figainst each 
 other, and as long as tlie principle of competition 
 continues either by great cond)inations of work- 
 ingmen or gigantic trusts, it will widen the 
 battlefield, and make the merciless laugliter of 
 tlie innocents more cruel and terrible, until 
 eventually tlie righteous principle of combina- 
 tion will triumph in a grand co-operative union, 
 which will comprise every branch of capital and 
 industry, and men shall unite beneath the ban- 
 ner of the Great Teacher in one common brother- 
 hood. First in individuals must this spirit be 
 born, eventually in nations, until finally nation 
 shall unite to nation, and the whole world shall 
 be reconciled under the banner of Christ. 
 
 How cruel it is, how wortliy of the prince of 
 darkness, that men who would do well should be 
 so beguiled by the evil of the times, that their 
 very works of love should be converted into 
 instruments of destruction. 
 
 For do not the so-called good shepherds of 
 

 I 
 
 
 - 42 — 
 
 New York and otiier cities by taking girls from 
 the streets, by tlieir labor in refV)rniatories, 
 merely add another factor of competition against 
 the already starving but in some instances hon 
 orable women. 
 
 Men and women pride themselves upon their 
 virtue, who have plenty to eat and plenty to 
 wear, and arc not greatly troubled about the 
 future. But surely the woman who prompted 
 by the slow torture of starvation on the one 
 hand, and the comparative ccnnfort and ease of 
 vicious example on the other, still leads an 
 honest life, is more to be honored. 
 
 4 
 
 7f^^^^ 
 
 i-^. 
 
'"% 
 
 K from 
 itories, 
 igainst 
 s lion 
 
 1 their 
 ity to 
 ut the 
 nipted 
 le one 
 sase of 
 ^ds an 
 
 PART II. 
 
 There are many so-called Cliristian denomi- 
 nations in the Avorld, and to tell wherein they 
 differ would require a volume nnich larger than 
 the Bible from which they spring, and I do not 
 think that any good result would be accomplish- 
 ed, but we may in a few words tell wherein they 
 agi*ee, and in thus upliolding a connnon standard, 
 hope to unite men and reconcile tliem on one 
 Gfreat central truth. 
 
 However the CliristiaTi ministers and their 
 followers may differ in regard to a future life 
 or the interpretation of tlie law of God, and its 
 application to this life, tl\ey are all ready to 
 acknowledge that Christ is the Light of the 
 World. No matter how bitterly they may 
 wrangle about baptism and the Lord's F.ipper, 
 whether they let the men aiivl women sit to- 
 gether or make them take opposite sides of the 
 building, whether they kneel or stand or lie 
 dowu to offer prayer, wliether they say grace 
 three times a day or never say it at all, whether 
 they meet for public worship in a building worth 
 a hundred thousand d(dlars or beneath a roof not 
 worth one hundred cents, they are all ready to 
 consent that the law which Jesus of Nazareth 
 
cloclartMl to 1)0 tlu3 greatest Jind tin; best, the one 
 on wliicli liant^s all tho law and tho prophets, 
 "Thou shalt love tlie Loi'd thy God with all 
 thy heart, and with all thy houI, and with all 
 thy mind," and another like unto it, "Thou shalt 
 love thy neighljor as thy self,' ' is the law we 
 all should keep, and recognizinf; this point of 
 union in their faith liey p.oceed to get as far 
 away from it as they can, by upholding institu- 
 tions whic'ii lead us in paths as rgent as the 
 rays of the sun, which take us away from this 
 central point where peace and warmth and light 
 and love are enthroned, away out into the cold 
 dark depths of space, where we can find no 
 resting place, no comfort from our fellows, and 
 even our central sun glows dindy like a distant 
 star. They praise the light and hasten as far 
 from it as possible. Saith Chiist, " Ye will not 
 come unto me that ye might have life." 
 
 You can scarcely pick up a newspaper of any 
 note without finding among its despatches or 
 local items, woeful tales of outrage, suicide, or 
 starvation, or an account of some great syndicate, 
 backed by millions of capital, buying up the 
 flour mills, the cotton or woollen factories, the 
 sugar refineries, the railroads, and ac(|uiring 
 title to vast tracts of fertile lands. Nearly 
 every great industry in the country is controlled 
 
— 45 — 
 
 l)y trusts, who can at any time, and clo even now, 
 place the price of everything necessary to sus- 
 tain life beyond the reach of tlie poor. Even 
 many of the newspapers, the guardians of the 
 people's liberties, are manipulated by real estate 
 boomers, and made to serve the interests of land 
 grabbers and other monopolists. 
 
 The price of labor decreases, the cost of 
 living increases. 
 
 Your farmers sell their oats in the fall for 
 one cent per pound, while many of tlie con- 
 sumers in this province pay as high as ten 
 cents per pound for meal, and that close to the 
 railroads. 
 
 Many thousands of men lie in wait for the 
 producers to live from their labors, while nearly 
 as many more are drawn from the ranks of pro- 
 ductive industry to maintain standing armies in 
 times of peace. 
 
 Ii'ish potatoes are shipped in the name of 
 charity to feed the starving Iiish farmers and 
 laborers, while idle, vicious and non-resident 
 landlords thi'ough an army of agents, backed by 
 the power of the so-called Chris cian people of 
 England, are turning starving, naked, and dying 
 people, old and young, sick and unfortunate, 
 from the shelter of their miserable hovels out 
 into the cold pitiless winter blast, while their 
 
 Mi 
 
46 
 
 m 
 
 H canty crop8 are tai^en from them to feed some 
 idle libertine in the salons of Paiis or elsewhere. 
 Every avenue of (escape is shut off from them, 
 they cannot walk, they cannot fly fi'om the 
 country, they can only starve and die. 
 
 But you think those horrors do not concern 
 you, they are beyond your limits, but I tell you 
 that here in your boasted British Columbia, 
 which, in your nnirdevous lust for money, you 
 permit to be advertised throughout the world as 
 a refuge for the emigrant, this same thing exists, 
 or is being rapidly brought about. Throughc at 
 this countrj'^ many of tlie producers live in mud 
 hovels, in miserable shacks, and holes in the 
 ground, and in canvass tents, while I have met 
 men on the streets of your cities starving for food, 
 willing to W(>rk but finding none to c iploy. 
 
 It is the boast of oui* church j/cople that they 
 worship in magnificent temples worth many 
 thousands of dollars, thinking not that the 
 wealth they display, is like goms, aye gre-^t 
 drops of blood drawn from tlie v^ery hearts of 
 God's own poor. One breatli of tlie life that is 
 offered upon its altar is wc^rtli more than the 
 whole completed structure. 
 
 What does a great church signify if Christ 
 be not in it, if His spnit of love and fellowship 
 tind sympathy for the poor and suffering be not 
 
 k^MJj 
 
47 - 
 
 lI some 
 wliere. 
 tlieiii, 
 )iii tlie 
 
 concern 
 ell you 
 umbia, 
 
 y> you 
 
 orld as 
 exists, 
 iigliout 
 n iiiiul 
 in the 
 ve met 
 )r food, 
 
 y- 
 
 't they 
 many 
 
 -t the 
 gre-^t 
 
 rts of 
 
 liat is 
 
 n the 
 
 Jhrist 
 vvship 
 e no{> 
 
 there. Its foundation is the bleeding hearts of 
 men, its walls are the travail of the slave, its 
 roof is the pall that covers a corpse, its pulpit is 
 the place of the deceiver, its tall spire is the sign 
 of hypocrisy, the finger that heralds the curse 
 of God. 
 
 The closer we can get to our central sun, 
 " The love of God," the closer we get to each 
 other. The secret of eternal life is " eternal 
 love," not love for self, for he that loveth his 
 oAvn life shall lose it, but that divine compassion 
 which beholds the sufferings of others, which 
 would redeem mankind, friend and foe, even as 
 Christ on Calvary died to save a race still in re- 
 bellion against him. The love that G )d demands 
 is not giving of alms, but the doing of justice. 
 
 Hate, greed, and cruelty, lying, stealing, and 
 destroying arc the outgrowth of injustice, were 
 Justice done to all, that all mankind from the 
 cradle to the grave might have e(|ual access to 
 the bounty of Providence, love would liovv like a 
 neverfailing spring througli the hearts of men. 
 Instead of the forces of nature being locked up 
 or converted into agencies of destruction, they 
 would be set free to bless mankind, and powers 
 now unknown would be revealed to aid the 
 world in its march of progress. 
 
 Many men have lost faith in God and tiU'ned 
 
— 48 — 
 
 away from Christianity, because they have felt 
 the coldness and injustice of its advocates. 
 The devil himself would be a church member 
 as a matter of policy, and many of them are as 
 a matter of fact. We sen<l missionaries to con- 
 vert the heathen, and where we remedy one evil 
 we introduce a thousand more, famine, prostitu- 
 tion and death follow in the train of your boast- 
 ed Christianity. 
 
 The Duke of Argyle in his " Unities of 
 Nature," says, — " Man is the only discordant 
 anomaly in the universe," and proceeds to 
 make them more discordant «;till by appro- 
 priating as much of the earth's surface as 
 he can, 
 
 ¥/e are told that there are about five hundred 
 and fifty million people in India and China in 
 need of the Gospel, but it is as probably true 
 that there are thirteen hundred miUion in the 
 world as badly ofi*, for although the Word is 
 abroad among them, they cainiot avail them- 
 selves of its blessings, and in many instances, 
 the very men who hold out the Bible with one 
 hand keep men from its truths with the other. 
 
 For God has declared through His prophets 
 snice the world began. The land shall not be 
 sold forever, " for the land is the Lord's, and ye 
 are but strangers and sojourners upon it," Lev, 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 ^M a] 
 
 1 i^ 
 
 1 ai 
 
 i p^ 
 
 ; p^ 
 
 if 
 
 so 
 
 ca 
 
 al 
 
 gf 
 
 li^ 
 
 nc 
 
 \ ai 
 
 ' fo 
 
 S' 
 
 w 
 
 111 
 
 v 
 
 i '' 
 
 1 » 
 
K ^<PMaHHHMP> 
 
 ve felt 
 ''ocates. 
 member 
 
 are an 
 to con- 
 )ne evil 
 •ostitu- 
 
 boast" 
 
 ties of 
 3ordant 
 eds to 
 appro - 
 ace as 
 
 lundred 
 hina in 
 )ly true 
 
 in the 
 V^ord is 
 
 them- 
 s^tances, 
 ith one 
 )ther. 
 rophets 
 not be 
 and ye 
 t," Lev, 
 
 - 49 - 
 
 25, 23. " Moreover the profit of the earth is for 
 all," Eel. 5, 9. " The earth is the Lord's and the 
 fullness thereof," Ps. 24, 1. "Men call the lands 
 after their own names," nevertheless said the 
 patriarch David, " they are like the beasts that 
 perish," Ps. 49, 11. "What doth it profit a man 
 if Jie gain the whole world and lose his own 
 soul ?" Mark 8, 32. " For when he dieth he shall 
 carry nothing away, his glory shall not descend 
 after him," Ps. 49, 17. "He sJiall go to the 
 generations of his fathers, they sliall never see 
 light, man that is in lionor and understandeth 
 not is like the bensts that perish," Ps. 49, 19 
 and 20. 
 
 There is no justiticjitioM in the Sciiplures 
 for private property in land. Tliere is no 
 good reason why the land, the eartli, from 
 which our bodies are derived and to wliich they 
 must return, should be the privaio property of 
 speculators. It is not necessary to cite indi- 
 vidual cases, where private owners! !p of land 
 has 2'>i'oven detrimental to the best interests of 
 society. You have only to open your eyes and 
 look around you, evidences of this public sin are 
 visible from every point. 
 
 Vacant lots and vacant lands, vast areas of 
 tiaiber lands held in reserve for the use and 
 benefit of a few individuals. The lakes and 
 
 .J^l 
 
-60- 
 
 streams of the country recorded, while millions 
 o£ acres of land are rendered useless for want 
 of water. 
 
 Some of the government officials, who draw 
 salaries for protecting the interests of the people, 
 have large estates and control from five to 
 twenty thousand acres of land, mo.ny estates 
 may be found in the province, held by indivi- 
 duals, that would support hundreds of families. 
 If you see a piece of vacant land and ascertain 
 who has control of it, you will find that it 
 belongs to some man doing business in our 
 cities, or to some non-resident living in England 
 or the United States. I once visited the pro- 
 vincial land office in the City of Victoria, and 
 made enquiries of the gentleman who presides 
 over that department of the government for 
 vacant lan<l. t'le only satisfaction I received Avas 
 to be assured that there was none. I pointed to 
 that portion of the map which represents that 
 part of the world which extends from. Fraser 
 River on the south to the north pole, and asked 
 him, if he thought there was any la^id to be had 
 in there. Well, several men had taken up cattle 
 ranges in there lat( iy, and he tliought they had 
 it all ; and so it is, from the Hon. Chief Com- 
 missioner of Lands and Works to the lowest 
 official in the land department, provincial or 
 
— 51 — 
 
 dominion. Although sorae of them may be 
 honest men, and neither landgrabbers them- 
 selves nor in league with them, they either 
 cannot or will not give a man any information 
 in regard to vacant land, suitable for settlement, 
 and look with as much suspicion and disrespect 
 upon a farmer or laboring man, who derires to 
 locate government land, as if he wore the 
 branded suit and shackles of the penitentiary, 
 and wanted to borrow their pocket-book. With 
 a view to pleasing the land speculatoi's, our 
 legislators have promised to encourage emigra- 
 tion into such a man-trap. God help tlie man, 
 who, with limited means and depending on 
 taking up land to farm in this country, comes 
 here with a family to support. He will have 
 reason to think that he has struck a combina- 
 tion to relieve him of his surplus cash, but he 
 will find no one to tell him where he can get a 
 piece of land from tlie government, of which to 
 make a home. 
 
 If he gets land at all, it will be far from 
 roads and every advantage of civilization, where 
 he must be alone for years, and if by chance, he 
 is someday reached by a railroad, the company 
 will want his crops for hauling tliem out. His 
 family will be deprived of schooling-, and grow 
 up in ignorance, while, at the same time, he 
 
- 52 — 
 
 will be taxed to educate the children of 
 others. 
 
 He will not need to leave the main lines of 
 railroad, or even the towns, to find plenty of 
 vacant land ; but he will also find that it is 
 private property, witlilield from productive use 
 by speculators, who do not care to use it them- 
 selves, but propose to grow rich and enjoy the 
 good things of the earth, at the expense of the 
 producer. 
 
 If the Church of Christ would be true to 
 their Lord, they could quickly, by the mighty 
 influence they could exert in the world, change 
 this state of affairs and bring about a better 
 public feeling, one which would not tolerate 
 such a usurpation of the rights of the people; 
 but they prefer to buy and speculate in land 
 themselves. 
 
 Is trade ;stimulated by permitting a few men 
 to hold in idleness, for speculative purposes, the 
 land of the country which could well afford a 
 living for tlwusands of families ? Is the cause of 
 Christ advanced by encouraging people to come 
 to this countiy, and tlien denying them the 
 opportunity to make an lionest living ? 
 
 In the path of liuman progress to-day stands 
 this giant evil of private property in land, and 
 of all the evils, it is the vilest and the worst, it 
 
53 - 
 
 reaches all from the king on liis throne to the 
 starving poor in their awful poverty, it degrades 
 the whole nation, it weakens tlie race by poison- 
 ing its fountain hea', and leaves humanity a 
 ready prey to minor evils by first robbing them 
 of their independence. Until tlie people awake 
 to a sense of the fact, and assert th'ih rifjht to 
 their own, our advancement will bo like that of 
 the frog in the well, to jump up two feet and 
 fall back three. How long will it tike us to 
 climb to the highest hope of human attainment ? 
 
 So long as private property in land continues, 
 successful co-operation will be impossible, and 
 e\ ^ new discovery and every fresh application 
 of the forces of nature to the supplying of human 
 wants, will but enslave men with more hopeless 
 bondage. 
 
 We are told tiiat vrhen tlie Republic of 
 Athens was at the height of its political free- 
 dom, there were 20,000 freemen and 400,000 
 slaves. That at Sparta there were 36,000 free 
 citizens and 364,000 slaves. When Jesus of 
 Nazareth was born, there were 650,000 slaves 
 in Rome, and the principle of equality which 
 He taught, and which is the life and soul of His 
 teachinjx, had no existence in the world. The 
 workingman in every country under heaven 
 was a slave, and as a matter of fact, not only 
 
— 54 — 
 
 the working man but many thousands, who 
 cannot get a chance to work, are still slaves 
 to-day in every part of the world, even where 
 the influence of Ctirist has in some measure 
 manifested itself. 
 
 Men boast of libertj^ and at the same time, 
 through brutal-selfish motives, uphold institu- 
 tions, which, so long as they exist, make libGrty 
 impossible. They profess Christ in vN'o^'d and 
 deny him in practise. 
 
 A system of slavery is incompatible with 
 freedom. Society cannot consist of men part 
 slaves and part free, we must be either slaves 
 or freemen, but We cannot be both. Wherein 
 do we differ in practice from the heathen. 
 Thucydides, the great ancient historian, de- 
 clared that man's mission was to subjugate 
 his fellow men to prevent them from sub- 
 jugating him. 
 
 Are not the teachings of this heathen philo- 
 sopher practised among us to-day, rather than 
 the teaching of Christ, who bade us love our 
 enemies. Socrates, declared by some to be the 
 noblest of the Greeks, is said to have thanked 
 the gods every day that he was a man and not a 
 beast, a male and not a female, a Greek and 
 not a barbarian. Do not men think those same 
 thoufifhts to-day, do they not give thanks like 
 
55 
 
 tlie Pharisee, that tliey are nut as other men. 
 Does not the man from liis earliest chikUv^od, 
 rejoice that he was not born a girl, still, we are 
 told that Mary was the mother of Christ, thus 
 conferring upon woman, in the Christian world, 
 the highest honor and tlie most exalted place. 
 
 In every gi-eat city in the Christian world, 
 the weak are oppressed, the poor are despised, 
 and the sick, the aged, and the unfortunate are 
 cast out to die, as if they, who profess Christ, 
 ratlier followed in the footsteps of the heathen 
 Talk al)out advancement in Christian civiliza- 
 tion, when women and children walk barefooted, 
 and in unseemly rags, the frozen streets of our 
 northern cities. When women who bear the 
 image of the mother of our Lord, freeze to death 
 in the streets of London, beneath the very shadow 
 of a church, that cost the people of England 
 millions of pounds. Aristotle and Plato both 
 advised the destruction of infants and counselled 
 physicians to let sick workingmen die, while the 
 Emperor Trajan compelled ten thousand slaves 
 to kill each other for his amusement. Have we 
 not to-day men who even advocate the destruc- 
 tion of infants, and the horrors of war, thinking 
 to destroy life to make room for more. Christ 
 C/xme not to destroy life but to save it. 
 
 Ever since the beginning of the human race 
 
- 56 — 
 
 or at least so far as we can trace its history, the 
 strong have always subdued tlie weak, the rich 
 have oppressed the poor, and the cunning have 
 cheated the simple. 
 
 It was left for Christ to uplift the standard 
 of love, the true principle of equality before God, 
 and to teach men the beauty of brotherhood. 
 We have many grand associations in the world, 
 that teach the same thing, but they are com- 
 pelled to acknowledge their weakness and their 
 failure to accomplish their desire. Witli all due 
 respect to the institutions of men, grand in their 
 growth and glorious in their acliievements, we 
 are bound to admit that in their failure to reach 
 the masses, who most need assistance, the poor, 
 the sick, and the aged, they prove their own 
 weakness. To become a member of such or- 
 ganizations, a man must prove to the society 
 that his membership would be to it a safe, or 
 at least, a desirable financial risk. He must be 
 blessed with considerable resources of his own, 
 before he can hope to maintain his standing in 
 the brotherhood. 
 
 They are conservative brotlierhoods, and 
 their advantages are derived mostly b}^ men 
 who could do very well without them, while, 
 by their co-operation, they make it even harder 
 for the great mass of the young, the poor, the 
 
- 57 - 
 
 sick, and tlio aged to live nt nil, ior denied their 
 protection, they are compelled uniniited to com- 
 pete with strorfT men, nnii/mg in powerful or- 
 gnnizations. Those organ\:;;ations are n?\tural, 
 they are founded on the Liav of Kelf-preservation, 
 which is a law common to all creatures, but the 
 law of Christ — " Tliou shalt love thy neij;^hbor 
 as thyself " — is more comprehensive, it is as far 
 in advance of the brutal law of self, as the 
 heavens are al)ove tlie cartli. 
 
 The law of Christ would embiace the world, 
 it would expand our horizon, it would fold 
 within its beneficent influence, evny creature 
 of God. No matter how sick or poor, young 
 or aged, or incapable, tliey should never suffer 
 with cold and hunger, they should never perish 
 for want of the kind attentions of friends. 
 
 The more I read of the stoiy of Christ, the 
 more firmly I am convinced, that the spirit that 
 moved Him was indeed divine. When He saw 
 the multitude " He was moved witli compassion 
 on tliem, because they fainted, and were scattered 
 abroad, as sheep having no shepherd." It was 
 not fashionable in Christ's time for the learned 
 and the rich, to express sympathy for the un- 
 fortunate. It was considered a matter of honor 
 among Roman gentlemen to despise and reject 
 the poor. 
 
- 68 - 
 
 Until Christ came it was consi<loi*cd a con- 
 temptible thino" to l)e a working man. All of 
 liberty that the man who labors for his bread 
 enjoys to-day he owes to the influence of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. Mo/U never yet trusted in Him to 
 keep His commandments l)ut He has proven 
 true, and tliougli hcvaven and earth may pass 
 away His words shall not pass awny. Tf we 
 would but trust Him fully we would find in Him 
 the perfection of liberty, universal equality and 
 love and justice. To trust Christ does not mean 
 as many who profess to be His disciples would 
 teach you to join some church society and make 
 a public profession of faith, but it means tlie 
 dixiiy living in accord witli tiie law " Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbor as thyself." 
 
 It does not mean the monopoly of natural 
 opportunities, it does not mean stone walls 
 around the beautiful and pure to keep the vulgar 
 gaze from beholding the grace and love of God. 
 It does not mean a brotherhood among men who 
 do not need help to the exclusion of those who 
 do, but it means universal co-operation. There 
 are but two factors in production, Land and 
 Industry, and those two factors belong as the 
 gift of God to the whole people, and not to any 
 individual or company of men who may choose 
 to appropriate them. 
 
~ 69 - 
 
 If two m(m were cast ashore on an island 
 where everytliing necessary to sustain life and 
 furnish comfort to the hody could be found or 
 acquired hy laV»or ; if one of the men was strong 
 and vigorous, having the full use of all his facul- 
 ties unimpaired, while the other, by reason of the 
 accident which placed him on the island, or by 
 some misfortune wlvich befell him later on, was 
 sick and weak and unable to help liimself or 
 keep from peris! ung from exposure to the elem- 
 ents, or lack of food, would you not consider his 
 conu'ade a veritable brute if he would not exert 
 himself to gather food for both ; if he would not 
 with liis strong hands erect a shelter to protect 
 his brother from the storm as well as himself ; if 
 he would not nurse him like a brother, and clothe 
 him if he was naked, though he must share 
 with him his own scanty raiment. Would 
 he not be unworthy of life and the blessings 
 of liealth and strength if, when the waves 
 of the sea cast his fellow-creature upon the 
 shore weak and bruised and ready to perish, 
 he wouhl leave him to die in the storm. If 
 under any circumstances his fellow exile should 
 die, would he not be lacking in the higher 
 qualities of human nature if he would not 
 cover his body from the reach of beasts of 
 prey, and place, perhaps, some memorial above 
 
- 60 - 
 
 his grave to let the future know that a marl 
 had perished there. 
 
 I do net believe that in all the wide world to- 
 day there is a man, not mentally deranged, who 
 would not, under the circumstances I have en- 
 deavored to picture in your minds, do all that 
 was in his power to lift ap his brother man and 
 minister to his wants. But this is no idle picture, 
 for ever since men multiplied on tlie earth, man- 
 kind has b-^en ushered into the world like waifs 
 from the sea of time. Providence has merciful!).' 
 implanted in every creature under the sun, a 
 certain amount of parental affection Every 
 oeast of the earth, every fowl of the air and 
 every fish of the sea has this same gift. It 
 seema to be a sympathy born of the pains of 
 iLiirth. The mother suffers with the child and it 
 seems to take her a long time to realize tliat her 
 offspring is not still a par; of lier own body. 
 
 But the time will come when the natural 
 mother will forsfilce her child, when it must shift 
 for itself, wlien it mny even sufier pain and death 
 without arousing in her any evidence of sym- 
 pathy or interest beyond idle curiosity, and men 
 are like the beasts in this respect, for they feel 
 only for their own, while the children of others 
 may suTer all the pains of hell without their 
 making an effort to relieve. Not so with Christ, 
 
_- CI - 
 
 for He took upon Himself tlie sufferings of the 
 world, His great heart of love went out to 
 all the children of men, and so it must be witli 
 all His disciph^s. 
 
 Heathenism admired itself, sympathized with 
 itself, loved itself only, and worshipped gof^s of 
 its own creation. But Christianity worships the 
 eternal God, it admires and loves the Saviour 
 and obeys tlie commandment " Lovo tliy neigh- 
 bour as thyself." To fulfil tliat law and to l)ring 
 about universal co-operation and union tlirough 
 the nationalization of land and industry, is tlie 
 grand work of love and duty wliich presents 
 itself to such as would follow Christ to-day, to 
 every man wlio would take part in the redemp- 
 tion of his race and the true advancement of 
 civilization. Who would lift up Christ let liirn 
 declare himself a citizen of tlie whole world. 
 
 I would say this to the Christian ministers. 
 Many a time have you appealed to others to stand 
 up for Christ; if you were sincere, if you have ever 
 felt the spirit of His love,will you now, in the name 
 of Him you profess to adore, make this solemn 
 resolve in your heart before God, that henceforth 
 and forever you will labor for the rights of the 
 weak and the oppressed. Christ came not to 
 save the righteous, but to bring sinners to repciit- 
 ance. They that are whole need not a physician 
 
- 6'2 - 
 
 1biit they tliat are sick. They that are weak and 
 ready to pei'ish need the strong arm. of* God's 
 people. Tliey that are mighty can paddle their 
 own canoe. 
 
 Christ said of himself " The spirit of the Lord 
 is upon Me because he liath anointed Me to 
 preach the Gospel to the poor, He liath sent Me 
 to heal the brokonliearttxl to preach deliverance 
 to the captive-5 and I'ecovering of sight to the 
 blind, to set ;vt liberty them that sa'q bruise;!, to 
 preach tiie aecerstable year of the Lord." And 
 said Jesu!^, " This day is this scripture fulfilled in 
 your ears." 
 
 To this day the v,^>rld looks to you, the weak 
 and the faltering would lean upon 3 ou. Will 
 you be strong for trut^i and lea;l them in triumph 
 throuf'"!! fche storm, or will vou be blinded bv tlie 
 deccltfuniess of rielies, and lo.ive tl^em to faint 
 and die by the wayside, while you yourselves 
 turn away from your guiding star and follow the 
 pathway that leads to destruction. 
 
 To you my friends and brothers who struggle 
 against the tide, wlio feel the pressure of cruel 
 injustice, I WT)uld spea.k a word of encourage- 
 ment. Be brave, let not your hearts fail within 
 you, but know your rights and dare to assert 
 them. One is your captain, even Christ, and in 
 Hiti name you shall conquer. Let not the enemy 
 
id 
 
 Is 
 
 ir 
 
 — 63 — 
 
 steal your banner and betray your cause as they 
 have done in the past, and may still endeavour 
 to do, but be men and women, strong in vour 
 sense of justice and your knowledge of the i ^]\t, 
 forgetting your own troubles and ^^our own 
 weakness, be strong in Christ to lielp others ; 
 know that there are weaker ones than vou, 
 there are many whose sorrows are greater than 
 yours, and in lending a hand lo secure justice to 
 them, to you yQurselves sliall be revealed tlio 
 glorious light of liberty. 
 
 This struggle is not to save you and yo\n's 
 only, but the destiny of a world shall tremble in 
 the balance. 
 
 Never before were such mighty forces mar- 
 shalled to crush humanity ; the very fr!;'i)ds of 
 Christ have been blind e<l and led astray by tiie 
 love of money and the pride tliat begets destruc- 
 tion. Let them take their money. None of 
 them can redeem his brother or gi\^e to Ciod a 
 ransom for him, but let Socialists rather in tlie 
 name of Christ and for the sake of humanity, 
 hiy hold upon the gifts of God. If we can 
 throughout this continent of America accomplish 
 the nationalization of land and industry, we can 
 well afford to let them take the mone}^ and go to 
 Europe with it if they like. With free access to 
 land and labor organized for production, wq can 
 
.- 64 — 
 
 get along very pleasantly indeed without private 
 capital or capitalists. Wliat good are they to 
 society ? They neither toil nor spin. Can we 
 conceive of any use under heaven that a man is 
 who will not work. He is like a drone in a bee- 
 hive, and he ought to be made to ta,ke his money 
 and live by himself until he discovers how useless 
 he is and how dependent upon industry. 
 
 Whether men have innnort:il souls or not, 
 money certainly has none. Wliy should it be 
 allowed to figure as a partner in the distribution 
 of the proceeds of labor. There is no reason why 
 this silent irresponsible apparition, tliis soulless 
 nonentity, like an Iri:di landlord, tlirough non-pro- 
 ducing agents should be permitted to step between 
 the laboring man and the reward of his toil. There 
 are but two factors in production — Land and 
 Labor, both are the gift of God. Your strength 
 and ability to work are as much a gift to you 
 as the land to work with, as anyone who 
 has been deprived of those blessings can readily 
 testify ; and both should be applied not to 
 destroy your brother, but to promote the wel- 
 fare of the whole family of man. But this 
 cannot be done so long as private property in 
 land continues, or men compete with each other. 
 
 To perpetuate the institution of private 
 property in land, is to realize the old fable of the 
 
— 65 — 
 
 woman who killed tlie goose that layed the golden 
 (^gg^, while to continue and encourage a system 
 of competition that ever tends to place the heel 
 of the strong u]).m the neck of the weak, is to 
 establish outrageous revolting cruelty. It means 
 not ten thousand slaves arrayed against each 
 other to strive like wild beasts to destroy each 
 otliers lives for the amusement and gratification 
 of the vanity of one man, but it means a vast 
 army of many millions,fighting among themselves, 
 armed with every weapon of cruel and desperate 
 warfare. Brother contending v^dth brother, 
 father asrainst son. It means a slauo'hter of 
 innocents that spares neitlier age or sex or con^ 
 dition, a holocaust of deu A\, the vortex of hell. 
 
 It is from this terrible calamity already 
 turned loose upon tlie world, that is sweeping 
 down upon us with all the force and momentum 
 of a might}^ avalanche, that all true Socialists 
 would rescue humanity. No human arm can 
 stay this march of death, but in the name of 
 Christ, with the cooperation of such a,s would 
 follow Him, we may overcome all to the glory of 
 God. 
 
 We would levy a war, and we trust a blood- 
 less war, not agfainst men, but amxinst institutions 
 which have usurped the rights of men. We 
 would strike the shackles from our brothers. 
 
— ()G — 
 
 We would raise up tlio fallen ami make it pos- 
 sible for them t(^ stay up. 
 
 We invoke the aid and co-operation of all 
 true followers of Christ, because our cause is 
 riijhteous. We would uro-e tlie down-trodden 
 and oppressed to join their elforts to ours, for our 
 success is their salvation. 
 
 What a sad sio-lit in a world like this, where 
 brave hearts strupfirle asffiinst misfortune, Avliere 
 the wail of despair echoes on our ears as many a 
 brave swimmer sinks beneath the waves, that 
 the life-boat of Cin-ist siiould be stranded on the 
 shore, tiiat instead of savin<if tlie drowinng its 
 stronof-armed rowers sl^.ould be in lea;i'ue with 
 the destroyer to starve the tillers of the soil and 
 crowd the blhid the weak and the mistaken out 
 of the v/orld. 
 
 To men who trust in riches, who spend their 
 time and their talents wiiich Uod has oiven them 
 in laying up treasures on eartli, I would say this 
 on the authority of God's own word, that no 
 matter to wliat churcli society you belong to, no 
 matter what profession of faith you make, 
 whether you shout your prayer and praise in trie 
 congregation, or your place 1 3 never found, or 
 your voice be never heard i i places of worship, 
 that the time will speedily come when the earth, 
 the mother of all living creatures, shall fold you 
 
d?- 
 
 is 
 lien 
 pur 
 
 again to her bosom, when your ej^es sliall close 
 and your hearts slitill cease to beat, and all that 
 you labored for in this life shall become loath- 
 some to those who loved you and you shall be 
 turned away to corruption. 
 
 You think you are laying up provision for 
 your families, and so you are, but you are dig- 
 ging the graves of your children. You arc stor- 
 ing up sorrow and pain and degredation for your 
 own and for future generations. How long do 
 you think this state of affairs will continue ? 
 How long do you think that men born with the 
 blood of a conquering race in' their veins, men 
 who have ever tasted the sweets of liberty, who 
 have ever read in the light of reason the story of 
 Jesus of Nazareth, and in His name dare to 
 worship God, will, when once their eyes are 
 opened, consent to be robbed of their birthright. 
 You are trifling with a Sampson, you may betray 
 Him in His hour of weakness, you may shear 
 Him of His strength, you may put out His eyes 
 and consign Him to slavery, but His locks shall 
 grow, and in the name of the Covenant of God 
 His strength will come again, and in a time that 
 you think not of, when goaded by blindness and 
 despair, fired by the mem<:>ry of the past, you 
 think to sport with Him, He will suddenly des- 
 troy you though He perish in the deed. 
 
— 68 
 
 Saith the Psalmist, " They that trust in their 
 wealth and boast tliemselves in the multitude of 
 their riches, none of tliem can by any means 
 redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for 
 him." How vain is your riches after all, for you 
 are only rich in comparison, and your proudest 
 boast of riches is like a fiend rejoicing* over the 
 misfortujfte of another ; for were justice done to 
 all and society run on economic principles, the 
 poorest man in the world willing to work and do 
 right, might ea.sily enjoy all the comforts of life. 
 Instead of tlie young and the aged being hustled 
 out of the world, instead of the poor tlie weak 
 and the unfortunate being driven to the wall or 
 forced to sin, the incentive to wrong would be, 
 in a great measure removed, and men could unite 
 in tlie effort t' elevate humanity to a higher and 
 nobler plain of civilization. 
 
 Every man, woman and child who is born 
 into the world is made ample provision for by 
 the Creator, and far more than enough for all is 
 spread within the reach of men ; but men who 
 claim kinship with the divine, wlio disdain to 
 be ranked with beasts, crowd and jostle each 
 other, and by force and fraud lay claim to more 
 than they can use themselves, while like incarn- 
 ate fiends they, with even less feeling than the 
 beast for its kind, see their fellows starve and die. 
 
 5 
 
— 69 — 
 
 ) 
 1 
 
 A duty awaits every man and woman, what- 
 ever their condition, however rich or poor. All 
 history teaches us that so far as men have united 
 on the principle of love, so far have they made 
 true advancement, and upon that principle have 
 they found a firm foundation. It is the " Rock 
 of Ages." It is the law which our Creator, who 
 knew us better than we can know durselves, 
 gave us for our guiding star, — " That ye love one 
 another." No man or woman ever yet advanced 
 a pure thought or raised a worthy standa,rd but 
 with the multitudes who flock around it are 
 found many who will scoif at purit}'-, who are 
 such grovelling slaves as to despise liberty, who 
 love the darkness and would see the " Sun of 
 Righteousness" go down for ever, that they might 
 in peaceful seclusion enjoy their ill-gotten gains. 
 
 " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," 
 is the law of liberty. They who strive against 
 each other are perhaps more to be pitied than 
 blamed. They have been trained in a hard 
 school, not calculated to develop their better 
 natures. But to such as would lift up Christ in 
 the world, a great opportunity is offered. Christ 
 was a Socialist. The eternal God established the 
 earth on socialistic principles. The world, 
 through ignorance and selfishness has violated 
 his law, and until men return with all tlitiir h^art 
 
 \ 
 
< 
 
 -70- 
 
 and soul and strength to the great command, 
 which like the sun, outshines all other lights, 
 and when once its powerful rays glorify the 
 horizon all lesser lights fade and disappear, they 
 will be scattered abroad, and each will seek his 
 own course and in the feeble borrowed light of 
 his own struggling conscience will cross and re- 
 cross his%rother's path, throwing only a dark 
 s]lado^\' upon his life ; but when the " Light of 
 the Worl<l " shall be recognized, men may march 
 shou]<ler to shoulder, their feet shall keep time 
 and their hearts shall boat to the inspiring 
 measures of the " Song of Life." 
 
 In every city, town and village throughout 
 this grand continent of America, which God 
 manifestly designed to be one great nati(m, every 
 man and woman, young or old, should endeavour 
 to solve this question. You have read the Scrip- 
 tures many times. Read them again, for great 
 secrets are hidden witiiin its pages. The secrets 
 of life and peace are there. 
 
 Monarchy, is idolatry. Read the eighth chap- 
 ter of the first book of Samuel, where the people 
 clamored for a King that they might be like the 
 heathen nations. Did not God declare that they 
 rejected not the Judges but Him ? Did He not 
 by the voice of Samuel warn the people of what 
 that King should do 
 
 
 f 
 
 A 
 
 L*., 
 
- 71 - 
 
 
 
 " This will he tho manner of the Kinor that 
 shall reij^n over you : He will t^ke your sons and 
 appoint them for him'^rlf iov hw cliai'iots and to 
 be his horsemen, and some shall run before his 
 cliariots. And lie will appoint captains over 
 thousands, and captains over iifties and will set 
 tliem to ear his ground, and to reap his harv(3st, 
 pjid to ni ike /m instruments ot war ancl instru- 
 ments of his chariots. And he will take your 
 (hnigJitars to be confectioners and to be cooks 
 and to be bakers. And lie will trJ^e yoior fidcls 
 and your vineydvch and your oliveynrds, even 
 the best of them and g;ive them to his servants. 
 And he will take the tentli of your seed and of 
 your vineyard and give to his ofUcers and to his 
 servants. And he will take your menservants 
 an'l your maidservduts and your goodliest young 
 men and your asses, and p*ut them to his work. 
 He will take the tenth of your sheep and you 
 shall be his servants. And ye sl\a!l cry out in 
 that day because of your King which ye shall 
 have chosen you, and the Lord will not hear you 
 in that day. Nevertheless the people refused to 
 hear the voice of Samuel, and they said, 'Nay, 
 but we will have a King over us.' " 
 
 Has not that prophecy been literally fulfilled. 
 Still men struggle on and refuse to see trie 
 truth ; they hate liberty in every one but them- 
 
-72- 
 
 selves, and their very envy makes them slaves, 
 To-day in tlie city of Vancouver two men who 
 profess to be teachers of Christ are having a 
 time of it about attendin<i^ theatres and other 
 phices of amusement sucli as our civilization 
 attbrds. One preaclier wants to go and advises 
 otiiers to go if they like, while another thinks it 
 nauglityj*and would neither go himself or let 
 anyone else. 
 
 How much better it would be if such able 
 men would unite their forces to scatter the sun- 
 shine of Ufe abroad, tliat, to those, whose melan- 
 choly lives seem always to be under a cloud, 
 might come some warmth of love and joy of 
 fellowship. Surely there is a time to be merry. 
 
 We have all much to learn atid if we would 
 raise the fallen, we must stoop ourselves, and we 
 may afterwards both stand erect. 
 
 To deny ourselves does not mean that we 
 should deprive ourselves of the innocent pleas- 
 ures of life, but rather that we should find our 
 highest joy in ministering to the joy of others. 
 
 G. H. Turner. 
 
 H^ 
 
 msmmamM 
 
n slaves, 
 lion wl»o 
 lavin^f a 
 tid otlier 
 
 ilization 
 advises 
 
 liinks it 
 If or let 
 
 ucli a1)le 
 the sun- 
 ie inelan- 
 a cloud, 
 -1 joy of 
 3 merry, 
 v^e would 
 1, and we 
 
 that we 
 it pleas- 
 iind our 
 )thers. 
 
 8 a 5 <^ 
 
 RNEU.