No one can pretend that it was an idle fear of death by starvation which drove this poor fellow to steal.Deaths from actual hunger an more common than is generally supposed.Last year,a man,whose name was never known,was walking through St.James's Park,when three of our Shelter men saw him suddenly stumble and fall.They thought he was drunk,but found he had fainted.They carried him to the bridge and gave him to the police.They took him to St George's Hospital,where he died.It appeared that he had,according to his own tale,walked up from Liverpool,and had been without food for five days.The doctor,however,said he had gone longer than that.The jury returned a verdict of "Death from Starvation."Without food for five days or longer!Who that has experienced the sinking sensation that is felt when even a single meal has been sacrificed may form some idea of what kind of slow torture killed that man!
In 1888the average daily number of unemployed in London was estimated by the Mansion House Committee at 20,000.This vast reservoir of unemployed labour is the bane of all efforts to raise the scale of living,to improve the condition of labour.Men hungering to death for lack of opportunity to earn a crust are the materials from which "blacklegs"are made,by whose aid the labourer is constantly defeated in his attempts to improve his condition.
This is the problem that underlies all questions of Trades Unionism and all Schemes for the Improvement of the Condition of the Industrial Army.
To rear any stable edifice that will not perish when the first storm rises and the first hurricane blows,it must be built not upon sand,but upon a rock.And the worst of all existing Schemes for social betterment by organisation of the skilled workers and the like is that they are founded,not upon "rock,"nor even upon "sand,"but upon the bottomless bog of the stratum of the Workless.It is here where we must begin.The regimentation of industrial workers who have got regular work is not so very difficult.That can be done,and is being done,by themselves.The problem that we have to face is the regimentation,the organisation,of those who have not got work,or who have only irregular work,and who from sheer pressure of absolute starvation are driven irresistibly into cut-throat competition with their better employed brothers and sisters.Skin for skin,all that a man hath,will he give for his life;much more,then,will those who experimentally know not God give all that they might hope hereafter to have--in this world or in the world to come.
There is no gainsaying the immensity of the problem.It is appalling enough to make us despair.But those who do not put their trust in man alone,but in One who is Almighty,have no right to despair.
To despair is to lose faith;to despair is to forget God Without God we can do nothing in this frightful chaos of human misery.But with God we can do all things,and in the faith that He has made in His image all the children of men we face even this hideous wreckage of humanity with a cheerful confidence that if we are but faithful to our own high calling He will not fail to open up a way of deliverance.
I have nothing to say against those who are endeavouring to open up a way of escape without any consciousness of God's help.For them I feel only sympathy and compassion.In so far as they are endeavouring to give bread to the hungry,clothing to the naked,and above all,work to the workless,they are to that extent endeavouring to do the will of our Father which is in Heaven,and woe be unto all those who say them nay!But to be orphaned of all sense of the Fatherhood of God is surely not a secret source of strength.It is in most cases--it would be in my own--the secret of paralysis.If I did not feel my Father's hand in the darkness,and hear His voice in the silence of the night watches bidding me put my hand to this thing,I would shrink back dismayed;--but as it is I dare not.
How many are there who have made similar attempts and have failed,and we have heard of them no more!Yet none of them proposed to deal with more than the mere fringe of the evil which,God helping me,I will try to face in all its immensity.Most Schemes that are put forward for the Improvement of the Circumstances of the People are either avowedly or actually limited to those whose condition least needs amelioration.
The Utopians,the economists,and most of the philanthropists propound remedies,which,if adopted to-morrow,would only affect the aristocracy of the miserable.It is the thrifty,the industrious,the sober,the thoughtful who can take advantage of these plans.
But the thrifty,the industrious,the sober,and the thoughtful are already very well able for the most part to take care of themselves.
No one will ever make even a visible dint on the Morass of Squalor who does not deal with the improvident,the lazy,the vicious,and the criminal.The Scheme of Social Salvation is not worth discussion which is not as wide as the Scheme of Eternal Salvation set forth in the Gospel.The Glad Tidings must be to every creature,not merely to an elect few who are to be saved while the mass of their fellow are predestined to a temporal damnation.We have had this doctrine of an inhuman cast-iron pseudo-political economy too long enthroned amongst us.
It is now time to fling down the false idol and proclaim a Temporal Salvation as full,free,and universal,and with no other limitations than the "Whosoever will,"of the Gospel.
To attempt to save the Lost,we must accept no Limitations to human brotherhood.If the Scheme which I set forth in these and the following pages is not applicable to the Thief,the Harlot,the Drunkard,and the Sluggard,it may as well be dismissed without ceremony.As Christ came to call not the saints but sinners to repentance,so the New Message of Temporal Salvation,of salvation from pinching poverty,from rags and misery,must be offered to all.
