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DIVINE

SOCIALISM;

OR,

"THE MAN CHRIST JESUS."

BY

NEWMAN HALL, B.A.

LONDON:

JOHN SNOW, 35, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1851.

141. d. 172.

DIVINE

SOCIALISM.

THE Universal Brotherhood of man is a theory, rather than a fact; a sublime truth, but little recognised; something which ought to be, rather than something which is. A selfish isolation destroys all generous socialism. The great human family is torn with dissensions. The precept seems reversed-"let no man seek his own but every man another's wealth." Who, with a feeling heart can contemplate the past history of the human race, who can reflect on what is each day passing in the secret breasts, in the secluded homes, and in the public life of men, and, as he mourns over the desolations which sin has caused, is not ready to exclaim with the old Patriot Poet

of the Jews-"O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people !"

What a ruin is the individual man! endowed with a lofty intellect which ranges through the universe, with a moral nature leading him upward to all that is pure and holy, with a Soul which can worship the infinite Creator-how does he violate his noble nature, and disregard the sacred voice within him, discarding the lovely for the base, the spiritual for the sensual, the generous for the selfish, becoming the slave of his own lusts, and making himself his God! In a world evidently designed for happiness what miseries he endures!-what mental woes arising immediately from this moral degradation, what conflicts, anxieties, and fears!-what unnatural and unnecessary diseases amidst numberless Providential contrivances for health-what penury in the midst of plenty-what famine with abundance of food! Capable of being united by a generous sympathy, how does a heartless

selfishness alienate mankind!-what grasping for wealth, power, fame, irrespective of the happiness of others! what multitudes are doomed to abject poverty and ceaseless toil, while a few live in indolence and superabundant wealth! What misery lurks beneath the outward garb of prosperity! Behind our splendid streets, glittering with wealth, and under the shadow of the palaces of Royalty and Commerce, what squalor, filth, and wretchedness, shrink away from observation in the back courts and crowded alleys! How does honest industry degenerate into a reckless competition under the operation of which tens of thousands never cease to toil, yet never cease to lack the necessaries of life! How does power develop itself in tyranny, by whomsoever wielded! How does might usurp the place of right! How often rulers govern as if the many existed for the few, and not the few for the many! What horrors

have been caused by war!

"To overcome in battles, and subdue

Nations, and bring home spoils with infinite

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