back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous one; he doth not resist you." If we faithfully expound the Scripture, we shall surely be compelled to do a good deal of preaching of a very direct and concrete sort on the labor question.

It will be admitted that the chief interest of the Church is in character. Its business in the world is primarily the production of good character, the building up of sound, clean, upright, neighborly men. In this commercial age such character is mainly made or lost in the pursuits of industry. Whether a business man becomes a good man or not depends mainly on the way in which he manages his business. He may be a good husband and father, charitable to the poor, and a devout church member, but if in his business he is greedy, hard-hearted, unjust, and tyrannical, the core of his character is bad. In the prevailing interest of his life his conduct is defective, and it makes him essentially a bad man. Now the Church has in her membership hundreds of thousands of men whose characters are being formed by their business practices. She owes to these men the instruction and the moral guidance by which they may be saved from the fatal loses of manhood to which they are exposed, and established in virtue and honor. She must not say that she has no knowledge of these questions. She has no right to be ignorant concerning practices that are blunting the consciences and destroying the souls of millions of her own members. In truth, this ignorance is largely feigned. The ethical principles involved in all these transactions are clear, and there is no more danger of error in dealing with them than is involved in any attempt to apply the principles of morality to the conduct of life. Always there is need of caution, of discretion, of just and balanced treatment of such problems, but this is not a reason why they should be ignored. Even bungling attempts to help men into the right wayif they are only honest and sincere-are far less dangerous than a cowardly avoid

ance. When the Church, in the person of the priest and the Levite, passed by the wounded man on the Jericho road, it may have pleaded that it was not expert in caring for such cases. The Church can better afford to make many mistakes in enforcing the Christian law of industrial relations than to give the impression that the Christian law has nothing to do with industrial relations. In fact, it has everything to do with them, and the Church is not dealing fairly with a great multitude of its own members when it fails to show them just how the Christian law does apply to those relations with their fellowmen in which, more than in any other portion of their lives, the great values of character are gained or lost.

Beyond all this, the Church may well recognize some responsibility for the moral condition of the millions of the working people-many of whom are outside her membership. Her Her access to them is not, unhappily, so direct as to the employing class, but she must not therefore ignore their moral need. And it is perhaps no less true of the working people than of their employers that their characters are profoundly affected by the manner in which they deal with what we call the Labor Question. I do not doubt that in the struggles and sacrifices of this conflict some precious gains of character are made; men and women learn to prefer the common good to individual gain and to bear one another's burdens. For all this we ought to be thankful. But no one can pass through a severe labor struggle without becoming painfully aware that the combatants on both sides are suffering vast moral injuries. War is hell, industrial war not less than international war; and because it is war among neighbors the enmity engendered is apt to be more fierce and violent than that which we feel toward a foreign foe. And often we find whole populations swept with hot blasts of anger, and men and women who are ordinarily kindly and humane cherishing the bitterest antipathies and pouring out the most terrible execrations against their fellow-citizens. Nothing more ominous can be conceived than such a social inflammation. Out of it naturally spring violence and lawlessness; but even if these are restrained, the seething of such

passions bodes ill to the peace and health of industrial society. Populations which have been through such an experience are seriously unfitted by it for good citizenship. It is possible that some churches may not care much about this. They may say that they do not recognize social responsibilities. Even such churches cannot, however, deny that the moral welfare of these millions of workingmen ought to be a matter of concern to them. And can it be doubted that the moral well-being of great multitudes is seriously impaired by the engendering of passions and hatreds in these labor wars? Good church members have confessed to me during the past few months that they were conscious of losing their hold on all the supports of religion; that there was so much bitterness in their hearts that they did not want to go to church, and that it was hard for them to pray. With those who owned

no allegiance to the Church the case was probably no better. Is not the Church concerned with the fact that conditions exist under which great masses of the people round about it are getting into this state of mind?

Let us admit that the main business of the Church is saving souls. I am ready to agree to this if it is understood that souls are just people, men and women. But give the phrase any meaning you will, and is it not plain that the Church will find it hard work to save souls that are inflamed and embittered by these labor contests, especially when there is among them a widespread resentment against the Church, growing out of a belief that its sympathies are with their antagonists? Is the Church likely to make much headway with its evangelistic work in populations thus affected? Is it not clear that something must be done to remove these misapprehensions and allay these resentments, before anything effectual can be done in the way of "saving souls"?

How shall the Church go to work to get these people into a better temper? Surely that must be one of her urgent tasks. It will not be wise for her to begin by reproving the resentments of the working people and counseling submis-, sion. It will not do for her to assume that these uprisings on their part are mainly due to moral depravity. It will

be necessary for her to show that she is aware of the fact that underneath all these surface eruptions of selfishness and passion there are fundamental questions of social justice; and that she is able to deal with these questions intelligently and fairly. It is not of much use to preach peace to insurgent laborers so long as they are in doubt as to whether you are willing that they should have justice.

The most cheering sign that has yet appeared in our sky of an improved attitude of the Church upon this question is the "Declaration of Principles" unanimously adopted by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America— an organization representing seventeen million Protestant church members:

We deem it the duty of all Christian people to concern themselves directly with certain practical industrial problems. To us it seems that the churches must stand

For equal rights and complete justice to all men in all stations of life.

For the right of all men to the opportu nity for self-maintenance, a right ever to be strongly safeguarded against encroachments of every kind.

For the right of workers to some protection against the hardships often resulting from the swift crises of industrial change.

For the principle of conciliation and arbitration in industrial disputes.

For the protection of the worker from dangerous machinery, occupational disease, injuries, and mortality.

For the abolition of child labor.

For such regulations of the conditions of toil for women as shall safeguard the physical and moral health of the community.

For the suppression of the "sweating system."

of the hours of labor to the lowest practicaFor the gradual and reasonable reduction ble point, and for that degree of leisure for all which is a condition of the highest human life.

For the release from employment one day

in seven.

For a living wage as a minimum in every industry, and for the highest wage that each industry can afford.

For the most equitable division of the products of industry that can ultimately be devised.

For suitable provision for the old age of the workers and for those incapacitated by injury.

For the abatement of poverty.

To the toilers of America and to those who by organized effort are seeking to lift the crushing burdens of the poor, and to reduce the hardships and uphold the dignity of labor, this Council sends the greeting of human brotherhood and the pledge of sym

pathy and of help in a cause which belongs to all who follow Christ.

This is by far the most significant expression that organized religion has made in this country with respect to the labor question. It seems to answer explicitly and authoritatively all the questions which were raised at the beginning of this article. Several of the denominations in their National bodies have reaffirmed this declaration. If the churches will stand together on this platform and enforce its principles by the teaching of their pulpits, the Labor Question will soon be in a fair way of solution.

Assuming the duty of the Church to deal with this question honestly and courageously, one or two further suggestions may be ventured.

Upon one outstanding fact the Church ought to fix its attention. In this great realm of labor, the realm in which the largest part of human energy is expended, the tendency is strong to make the economic fact the paramount fact, to keep human interests subordinate. The dollar is the principal thing; the man is a secondary consideration. If a man throws himself into the stream of ordinary business, adopts its maxims, and accepts its ideals, will he not find himself unconsciously and inevitably exalting economic success above character or manhood?

If these things are so, if such is the drift of the modern industrialism, then it seems to me that the Christian Church has a very definite task upon its hands, which is nothing less than the moralization of the industrial régime. For if there is any meaning in the ethics of the Christ for which the Church is supposed to stand, the industrial order which holds the dollar higher than the man is not Christian but pagan; there is no paganism in Asia or Africa in more deadly hostility to the Kingdom of the Christ; and the first business of the Church is to storm it and subdue it and revolutionize it, in the name and by the power of the Christ. This may seem a large order, but the church which has any comprehension of its mission will not dare to attempt anything less. Certainly the Church may expect to make its members believe the truth that Mammon is not the supreme deity, and that a man's life consisteth not in the abundance

of the things which he possesses. And as soon as the Church succeeds in making its own members believe that these things are so, it will not be long before the rest of the world will begin to believe them. And when the world begins to see that the man is worth more than the dollar, the central difficulty in the labor problem will be overcome; the economic fact will take its place below the human fact; our industries will be organized primarily in the interests of men, and the long-standing quarrel between capital and labor will be at an end.

Another large obligation of the Church to the laboring class arises out of the need, to which reference was made in a preceding article, of the completion of our democracy. But what, it will be asked, has the Church to do with the fulfillment of our democracy? The Church has nearly everything to do with it.

Where did we get our democracy? What is the basis of democracy? It is the fact of brotherhood. The truth of the divine Fatherhood and the human brotherhood, which are the central truths of religion as taught by Jesus Christ, are the germinal truths of democracy. Whether it could grow out of any other principle we may not know; as a matter of fact, it never has. Outside of Christendom there have been no democracies.

In the American State, as we saw in the former article, democracy lies at the foundation. Our American National life is based on brotherhood. The ethics of Christianity are incorporated into our political structure. The only part of our life in which the Christian law of brotherhood is yet in large measure repudiated is the industrial organization. This is the last of the great kingdoms of this world which does not bow the knee to Christ. It must be conquered by him and ruled by his law. That is the business which the Christian Church has now upon her hands. The Christian Church is here in the world to be the champion of brotherhood. She has no other message to speak to men concerning their relations one to another. "Sirs, ye are brethren," is her word to contending classes; and among brothers there are no masters and no slaves. That is a truth with which she has no right to palter, and the hour has

come when she must speak it with authority.

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If any one should say that the Church is not called to teach politics or sociology, the answer is that she is certainly called to teach human brotherhood, and to resist and oppose, with all the strength vouchsafed her, every institution or custom or device of men which minimizes or makes void the fact of brotherhood. She is at least entitled to offer the prayer that her Lord has taught her, and to make her teaching and her life to conform to it. When she opens her mouth to say, "Our Father who art in heaven," she must remember that that petition is for every one that is born of woman, and she must understand what it implies. When she says, "Hallowed be thy name," she must not forget that the name thus made sacred is the name of the Father. When she says, Thy kingdom come," she must remember that the kingdom for which she prays is the kingdom of the Father-the kingdom in which none are subjects but all are brothers. That is certainly her message. She has made emperors and kings and kaisers understand it; now she has a bigger task on hand, to make Mammon understand it. It will cost her something to do this; she will lose friends; but she has some friends that she can afford to lose that she may win the friendship of the poor of this world who are rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which God has prepared for them that love him. And it is time for her to face the "Dark Tower," ""blind as the fool's heart," garrisoned by greed and injustice, and to set the slug-horn to her lips and blow: "The day of the common man has come. Christ has redeemed him; the nations of the earth have enfranchised him; it is time for you, captains of industry, to make him free of your domain. All he asks is to be clothed with the rights of a man. That you dare not deny him. That, in the name of Christ our Master, we claim for him; and we will never be silent until, in

the whole kingdom of industry, that claim is conceded and that right is guaranteed."

And when she has thus delivered her soul by such fidelity to the employers, she ought to have a faithful word for the workingmen in their organizations. Would it not be something like this:

"The Church has been tardy, brother men, in her recognition of her obligation to speak the truth with respect to this great matter which so much concerns you, but she has found her voice. Listen and judge. She would be faithless if she did not claim for you the rights of freemen, and the power to maintain for yourselves these rights in the kingdom of industry; but she would be false if she did not tell you that this enfranchisement in the industrial realm carries with it heavy responsibilities. Democracy means brotherhood; and when you set up your industrial democracy you must not forget that it means that you must act brotherly, not only to the members of your union, but also and equally to your employer. He is your brother, and every loyalty that you owe to the union you owe also to him, not only as individuals but also as an organization.

"A trade union can behave greedily, treacherously, unjustly; and men in crowds are often tempted to do things that no single man of them would consent to for an instant.

You must learn, every man of you, to stand on your own feet, and stand in all your dealings with your employer for the things that are right and fair and honorable between man and man. Otherwise your industrial enfranchisement is a sham and will bring a curse. The industrial democracy holds in it the promise and potency of a prosperous and happy nation; it holds also in it the possibilities of pandemonium-confusion and strife and misery. We mean that you shall be free. We pray you, as if God were speaking by us, to use your freedom soberly and righteously--never for the profit of a class, always for the common good."

Mrs. Humphry Ward has attained the dignity of a definitive edition of her books, charmingly illustrated, in fifteen volumes. The publishers promise to add to this Westmoreland Edition such other stories as Mrs. Ward may write hereafter. The making of the books is eminently satisfactory. The page is attractive, the type large, and the photogravure illustrations, which are largely of localities mentioned in the stories, unusu ally successful in refinement of printing and of atmosphere. There are also a number of portraits of Mrs. Ward, and a few illustrations by well-known artists. A valuable feature of this series consists of the introductions with which Mrs. Ward prefaces the stories. These are both comprehensive and autobiographical, recalling the conditions under which the stories were written. To "Robert Elsmere," which first established Mrs. Ward in the interest of the English-speaking world, both a preface and an introduction are furnished, describing at length the sources of the story, with notes of a conversation with Mr. Gladstone regarding it. It will be remembered that a comment by Mr. Gladstone in one of the English reviews had much to do with attracting public attention to "Robert Elsmere shortly after its appearance. This volume also contains a translation of Taine's criticism of the story, and an article in the form of a dialogue which Mrs. Ward published in the "Fortnightly Review," in which she answers at some length criticisms both of Mr. Gladstone and the present Bishop of Canterbury. Mrs. Ward has hardly justified the hope of those who expected to find in her work those basal qualities which give fiction lasting vitality: energy of style, a sense of the tragedy of things, deep sympathy with life, humor, and variety. But she is one of the most thoroughly equipped writers of her time. She has everything except the final touch of genius; whatever may be her ultimate position as an English novelist, her earnestness, ability, integrity, and many-sided interests, to say nothing of the good English she writes, entitle her to a high place in the regard of contemporary readers. (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. Per vol., $1.75.)

Mr. Maurice Hewlett is always at his best when he is dealing in a free way with impos sible characters or is recalling the atmos phere and manners of the Renaissance, in which he is quite at home. His " The Fool Errant" is one of the very best descriptions of the later Renaissance in literature; while his volumes of semi-artistic, semi-human descriptions of Italian life must take their place, for those who have imagination, among the best interpreters of the conditions out of which the art of the Renaissance rose. In "Brazenhead the Great," the latest of his stories, Mr. Hewlett describes a character and a career in which Munchausen and Fal

staff are adroitly combined. Readers of Hewlett have known " Brazenhead" for some time, and have found joy in him as a perfectly unscrupulous braggart, a soldier of fortune, and a maker of mighty tales. In this volume he is at his worst-that is to say, at his best. His adventures pass belief, but they are told with a smoothness of manner and a simplicity of belief which make them quite credible. Brazenhead fights his way from cover to cover, always in love, after the Falstaffian manner, always beguiling, and sometimes imposing upon his listeners with tales of astounding valor and audacity. This story will not add to Mr. Hewlett's reputation as a writer of serious fiction; but it will add to his reputation as a man who can create a tour de force with almost unrivaled cleverness and brilliancy. (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.50.)

We like Anna Fuller's "Later Pratt Portraits." The author is not a great dramatist. She solves no great problems and presents none that are insoluble. She creates no extraordinary situations, invents no thrilling adventures, weaves no complicated plots, portrays neither villains nor heroes. You do not meet in her " portraits " an Iago, a Quilp, or a Becky Sharp, nor a Colonel Newcome or a Sir Gibbie. But she introduces you to people who are both lovable and interesting; the kind of people one likes to meet and may meet if he has the insight to look for them beneath their disguises; commonplace people, with commonplace virtues and commonplace faults, experiencing commonplace adventures, if anything so unadventurous can be so entitled. But, having once met them, and, as it were, exchanged salutations, you want to meet them again. You are, as it were, invited to an afternoon tea, and, having spent an agreeable half-hour with half a dozen people of a wholly genial and not too faultless kind, you are glad to have an invitation to come again-and you go. (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. $1.50.)

Among recent stories no one combines more strikingly excellence of form and repulsiveness of substance than Mrs. Belloc Lowndes's "Jane Oglander," a story conspicuously well written and dealing with a conspicuously vile woman. The plot ought to have been stated in plain English on the title-page; if it had been, the accomplished writer would probably have stayed her hand. It is not an immoral, but a fundamentally unwholesome and repulsive, story. It is the study of a modern Circe who has the gift of turning men into animals; who betrays her husband, seduces his best friend, makes the lover of her closest friend forget his honor, accomplishes the breaking of his engagement, evokes from him with devilish ingenuity a plan to marry her after she has secured her own freedom, and then, by a